Jeniferever: Nangijala EP OUT NOW

Toxic Pete .co.uk Review

www.toxicpete.co.uk

"Jeniferever have been compared with Sigur Ros because of their natural leaning towards post-rock; Jeniferever are definitely over in that alternative-land somewhere but, Jeniferever, on what I heard here, are a much more accessible outfit!

Swedish four-piece Jeniferever offer you three of their latest, lengthy works here; 'Nagijala', 'When Our Hands Clasped' and 'Openings To Stories' - just over twenty-two minutes of contemporary musical finesse and adventure. Jeniferever's songs gradually build, blossom and mature before gently ebbing down into that two-second void of nothingness, where you wait for the next 'overture' to commence! Their music is beautifully poised and exceptionally well assembled; from sparse, ethereal backdrops to kerranging electric crescendos they tease and taunt the aural senses as emotions are conjured up only to be replaced by new feelings and fresh experiences.

Jeniferever make 'big' music; their way is one that consists of building blocks that gradually form the completed musical architecture, robust yet pleasing, out of this world but somehow secular, demonic yet welcoming. Jeniferever make alternative music something that's heady but tangible as they lay down theme after theme of modernistic electric 'noise' that's understandable and irritatingly compelling.

Generally Jeniferever dole out low-tempo, melodic wares that have elegance and destination; beautifully enveloping but transcending, slowly meandering yet wholly targeted. Jeniferever's wonderfully evocative songs are spiritual and kinda healing; post-rock-ish maybe but not to the detriment of accessibility or acceptability. Where Sigur Ros venture into mind-blowing experimentation and dynamic juxtaposition, Jeniferever seem to remain unerringly on the side of 'orchestral' normality and are mind-numbing rather than blowing.

This great value EP, 'Nangijala' by Jeniferever is right 'up there' in every department; it's a smooth trip rather than a jarring experience and now that 'post-rock' seems able to command at least a small potion of radio air-time, Jeniferever have every chance of getting their music out there to the public via the 'Nagijala' EP. Scintillating stuff from a fantastic sounding band - 'Nangijala' by the excellent Jeniferever is experimental electric music for the discerning ear, not too way-out, not too specialised, just right there 'on the button' - 'Nagijala' is a must-have work if you're at all interested in pushing the boundaries of modern rock music."

I like it. On order. The female voice reminds me of Tanita Tikaram.

John.

quote:

Originally posted by J.N.:
I like it. On order. The female voice reminds me of Tanita Tikaram.

John.

Actually its a male voice

www.organart.com Review

SINGLE OF THE WEEK JENIFEREVER - Nanguala EP (Naim) – The three track CD version of the Nanguala EP is officially slated for an April release here in the UK, the label tell us you can buy it from them right now, so no need for us to wait really. Three more delicate tracks ahead of their Spring Tides album and the Swedish band are sounding very mellow, very much as ease. Fragile and epic, restrained and reflective, warm alternatives. The vinyl version has been available for some time now if you know where to look, their releases always do seem to drift out like this don’t they – one of those word of mouth bands who jump from one small label to another. The three tracks here are rather beautifully restrained and refined, atmospheric drifting, alive with warm considered carefully placed whispered emotion, their finest, fullest moments yet. More details from www.jeniferever.com or www.thenaimlabel.co.uk

Thanks for that information Simon. It sounds even more interesting now. Androgynous voices often have a great quality. I'm never sure about the singer in Turin Brakes.

John.

I thought the chap from turin brakes was a lady at first too. didn't we all?

Sin Radio Review
By Mike Paine

Because this quartet are Swedish and have a name like Jeniferever then surely they should be making nice acoustic, folk rock type music..right?

Right. This 3 tracker entitled Nangiljala is just that. Slow, dreamy lullabies with the odd intense electronic guitar riff thrown in (See When our hands
clasped) are what this release is all about. I wasn’t expecting the male vocals. Not when they call themselves jenny forever. But they do an excellent job.

Sometimes when listening to a track I really enjoy, I just don’t want it to end. If you feel that way about the Nangiljala EP? then you’ll be pleased
about the lengths of the songs. The first track weighs in at an impressive 9:38 while the other two are both in and around the 6 minute mark. Not
something you normally get with this type of music but hey what’s normal anyway?

A very lovely record is this EP - If you really don’t mind the lengths of the songs. Superb. (7/10)

Die Shellsuit Die Review
By Will Slater

Sigur Ros get a lot of press, and rightly so - they’re an amazing band, producing some beautiful music. Every now and then though, I hear something that makes me thing “Hey! Maybe there’s more to Scandinavian post-Mogwai space rock than just Sigur Ros!”

This EP is one of those times. Sure, it’s nothing hugely new or groundbreaking, and it treads much the same ground as the aforementioned Icelandic wonders or the Appleseed Cast, for example. It’s that blend of sedately paced melody building to a crescendo that we all know and love. But Jeniferever pull it off with much more style than most, making this a must listen if you’re an ambient post-rock fan, and easily worth a go if you’re no

(9/10)

http://www.dieshellsuit.co.uk/article_detail.asp?rID=3368

God Is In The TV Review
By Craig Broad

Jeniferever have been a band building up steam since their formation in 1996 and their first EP release in 2002. With their first full length release <>i'Choose a Bright Morning' on Big Scary Monsters record label, they found themselves gaining an underground following that they had worked extremely hard to deserve.

Fast forward to the present, 2009 and wel find Jeniferever with an even bigger amount of shows and tours from all over Europe under their belt of experience but alas, no new release and a seemingly broken relationship with Big Scary Monsters which made any future release look even more unlikely.

With this however, comes the release of a new three track EP entitled 'Nangijala', seemingly named after a pre-technology, medieval realm in the book, The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgrin. While the thought of an EP rather than a full length release on their latest label, Naim, seems to hint towards: testing of the waters scenario rather than an all out attack, gone now is the beautiful landscape artwork of their previous releases that they would perhaps be admired for, this an abstract but minimalist new approach that doesn't quite seem to fit within the mood of the band or their music.

So, does this change in label, artwork and perhaps attitude have a reaction whether positive or negative within the songs on 'Nangijala'?

The answer is no. Whilst everything around them seems to have changed, including the music scene and trends, on 'Nangijala' you will find exactly what anyone who has heard Jeniferever has come to expect within one of their releases which is a slow, emotional and beautiful sound that is akin to albums by Sigur Rós and bands of the like. While perhaps this isn't a bad thing to anyone who is already a fan of Jeniferever or indeed a fan of bands that they sound like and while it won't be a bad thing to the small niché of music lovers who enjoy slow building ambient and/or post-rock music, 'Nangijala' certainly won't be a record to bring them mainstream success.

It is something to admire within Jeniferever that they do not change to fit in with the current trend and that they continue to do things their own way, but with such a gap between 'Choose a Bright Morning' and 'Nangijala' it is easy to wonder why they haven't the time more wisely? Growing as much as they possibly can and should and while 'Nangijala' contains everything good about Jeniferever, it also contains all the negative parts that will keep Jeniferever Sweden's best kept secret for a little while longer.

3/5

http://godisinthetvzine.co.uk/content/content_detail.php?id=3102&type=Singles

Unpeeled Single Review

Epic, slow burn, shoe-pop-gaze-unmistakeably-scandinavian-epics. Right, we've now run out of these - - - so the rest'll be in plain speak. Jeniferever are pleasantly accomplished pop dramatists and very nearly half as important as everyone thinks that they are.

www.unpeeled.net/singles.html

Whisperin and Hollerin Review
By Christopher Nosnibor

I happened to catch Jeniferever performing live in the latter half of 2008 on one of my frequent trips to the Brudenell in Leeds. They appeared to have drawn a fairly substantial crowd, and I wondered what I’d been missing. I left very little the wiser, unable to quite fathom what the fuss was about. They looked like a band in the middle of an identity crisis: the singer looks like a stereotypical US college emo kid, while one of the guitarists looked like he’d have been more at home in a Megadeth tribute act. And while many of the songs sounded promising at the outset and clearly owed much to Disintegration-era Cure, overall, they seemed a little lacking and largely dull. But what of the studio sound?

The opener and title track for this three-track EP, the cover of which features geometrical doodlings that render it not a million miles away from that of School of Seven Bells’ Alpinisms, clocks in at over 9 minutes. It’s a brave thing, and implicit of a statement of intent. But the opening bars don’t auger well: sloppy acoustic guitar and floppy generic indie vocals.... it really isn’t cool. Ah, no, wait. Very soon this gives way to sweeping Cure-esque synths and it begins to soar dreamily, even boasting a vocal delivery that Robert Smith would be proud of. While moments ago I was fearful that this would be a very long nine minutes indeed, I find myself drifting along and carried to the end all too swiftly. A couple of extra minutes wouldn’t have hurt a bit.

‘When Our Hands Clasped’ is a more guitar-driven affair, and it’s got a robustness that’s rather surprising given my first impressions of the band. Solid, insistent drumming in combination with a dense, crunchy bass push it along with an urgency, and Kristofer Jönson’s vocals don’t detract either. As much Placebo as Cure, it’s emotive without being emo.

Closer ‘Openings to Stories’ takes Jeniferever back into familiar territory. Again, Cure-style guitars, phased and drenched in reverb chime with synths to form a meandering dreamscape, but builds toward the end to form a sound that’s rich and fills the space between the speakers with sound on sound, smooth and spacious enough to get lost in. Jeniferever might not present anything new for the older crowd, but when it’s as well written and as well-executed as this, does it really matter? These guys might even be the catalyst for a Cure revival – and I’d certainly not grumble about that.

http://www.whisperinandhollerin.com/reviews/review.asp?id=6058

Subba Cultcha Review
Chris Merriman

Dark brooding Americana laced Swedish pop. Sitting somewhere between Sigur Ros, Magnet and Mercury Rev. Beautiful, epic, yet intrinsically fragile – an accomplished ep that manages to avoid many of the clichés associated with their name-checked contemporaries. Lovely.

http://www.subba-cultcha.com/singles.php?id=28

Penny Black Music Review
By Anthony Strutt

Jeniferever are a four piece band from Sweden, which recently supported I Like Trains on a British tour.

The title track is over nine minutes long. It starts off having an element of Americana, like something in the vein of Mark Mulcahy or even Jeff Buckley, but as it slowly builds up Jeniferever show their true colours. They love the Cure. It is like one long Cure album track. It takes time to grow but by the end one has become totally lost in the music. A trumpet towards the end adds a sudden different rhythm, and the whole track works wonders.

'When Our Hands Clasped Starts Off' has a haunting, but poppy shoegazing sound which again is like the Cure, while. singer Kristofer Jönson's vocals recall Paddy McAloon and Prefab Sprout during their 'Swoon' era.

'A Tale Set Off Of Brick Lane' has a summery cinemascopic sound and ends up again in very loud Cure fashion. It finishes with 'Openings to Stories' which has trancey guitars and strings.

A very fine band.

http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Review.aspx?id=6399

The 405 Review
By Oliver Primus

As far as hit and miss bands go, Jeniferever certainly hold the crown. Formed in Sweden in 1996, the band have shown a lot of promise through their mixed bag of EP’s/Splits and a full length record but they just never seemed to convert the talent they quite obviously have, into limelight boosting songs. Instead their music, much like the exposure they garnered, sat neatly on the shelf withougt a consumer in sight.

Their latest release, the Nangijala EP, could easily change all of that.

Billed as an Appleseed Cast type of band, Jeniferever share the same delicacy and ambience you would expect from an indie/post rock band. Singer Kristofer Jonson’s vocals swirl around EP opener, ‘Nangijala’, like a leaf caught in an upstream, whilst the track steadily grows and grows to the point of explosion. The second track, ‘When Our Heads Clasped’, is the type of song that requires the use of headphones to really get the full picture. The drums pound away relentlessly in the background to form the heartbeat of the song, while the band dips in and out of the frame until all hell breaks loose. The word ‘epic’ just doensn’t seem enough here.

The band leaves us with the dream like ‘Openings To Stories’ which, even at it’s most ferocious, still never crosses the fine line between a dream and a nightmare. It’s fuzzy and brilliant.

Whether this EP will shower the band with fame and fortune is quite debatable, I still feel they’ll get screwed in terms of promotion, but they’ve certainly won me over…finally.

Rating: 8/10

Review: http://thefourohfive.com/2009/03/16/jeniferever-nangijala/#more-7237

Manchester Music Review
By Peter Knoll

Four years ago, Jeniferever popped up on Cath A’s radar during a visit to the sometime, minute venue, The Phoenix. The outfit from Uppsala, Sweden specialise in elements of Icelandic favoured prog and orchestral climaxes, that seem written for the cinema. Nangijala begins much like this, quietly, paced, sung with drawn out, leisurely, but determined vocals, as the volume slowly but noticeable gets wound up during a sub-10 minute epic. There are three tracks here, but they stack up at almost 22 minutes in total. It’d be worth seeing them live just to hear this EP, but they do already have a good
set of four previously releases to travel through, which by my reckoning gives them a whole half day long set list. Given the regular success of the
intelligent, ambient, prog genre, Jeniferever are well placed to get the following they deserve from this magnanimous addition to their catalogue.

3.5/5 STARS

http://www.manchestermusic.co.uk/

Bearded Magazine Review
By Suzi Ireland

Swedish exports Jeniferever have been around for a while. The post rock musings on their latest EP Nangijala show their strengths to good effect. Brooding and melancholic, the title track builds steadily to a powerful crescendo of controlled emotion. Softly softly, the vocal grows and then leaves the music to take you over. It’s impossible not be moved by swell of noise, and then bought back to earth by the track’s beautiful ending. At almost ten minutes long, it really doesn’t feel like it if you let yourself be swallowed up. A nice start to calm record. Very slightly more uptempo, ‘When Our Hands Clasped’ floats along, leaving you hanging, telling a story of love lost and the dark thoughts that follow. The final minutes are crushing and powerful, just like most of their songs. Last track ‘Openings to Stories’ is much the same again but is quicker to get going. The sense of suspense this type of music generates is one of it’s most appealing elements, with masters Sigur Ros clearly still at the top of the pile. Jeniferever have all the elements to go and join them up there, and warrant a good look in the live sector too.

Review: http://beardedmagazine.co.uk/wp/?p=769

UK Music Review
By Mike Bond

One of those bands that manage to impress from the very start and then somehow manage to get better and better with each and every passing passing moment, Swedish indie rockers Jeniferever have the ability to get under your skin from the off and slowly but steadily become an obsession.

Their latest slice of brilliance, NANGIJALA is a twenty two minute EP of sheer bliss, the title track itself a nine minute plus epic that twists and turns its way to your heart taking in such luminaries as Sigur Ros, Radiohead and Deus as its most obvious influences. Subtly shifting from heart broken indie rock to orchestral exuberance to crashing crescendo, Jeniferever pull out all the musical stops here, delivering something truly majestic and sublime. WHEN OUR HANDS CLASPED adopts train track drum patterns as its gently propulsive rhythmic central point, vocalist Kristofer Jonson crooning elegantly over warm guitar tones with echoes of Death Cab For Cutie.

Closing number, OPENINGS TO STORIES rounds things off in similarly intoxicating fashion, Jeniferever again pulling you into their gloriously sublime world, gently twisting and turning you into a state of satisfied bliss.

As a mere taster of things to come, NANGIJALA is an impossibly glorious sounding aperitif to the forthcoming album, Jeniferever delivering an EP here that satisfies and delights on just about every level.

Review: http://www.ukmusicreview.com/r...ferever-nangijala-ep

Rockmidgets.com Review
By Mick Bain

Why break the habits of a lifetime? Ever since their debut EP in 2001, Swedish outfit Jeniferever have knowingly shunned the conventional in favour of drawn out, slow-paced dirges that take all their time in reaching their climaxes. Of course, none of this really matters, considering the Nangijala EP is one of the more varied and ambitious post-rock releases you're likely to hear this year.

The title track is ultimately the pick of the bunch, sticking rigidly to one pace for all ten minutes while never lapsing into self-indulgence. It's a stunningly focused effort that goes supernova at the halfway point, the breathy vocals drifting stylishly through a haze of soaring strings and distortion-drenched guitars. With 'When Our Hands Clasped' throwing some electro meanderings into the mix, Jeniferever come off both as original and versatile, and with 'Openings To Stories' proving an intriguing – if more subdued – last roll of the dice, it's an exciting collection. You won't hear anything from Nangijala on drivetime radio, but it's this willful dodging of normality that makes them so damn interesting

Review: http://www.rockmidgets.com/releases.php?id=3382