Had Silver Firs entered the world twenty years ago, they would’ve been a mystery. In “Danse Macabre,” whose video we’re happy to be premiering today, Raphael Elmiger (who records Silver Firs’ material on his own and is joined on stage by a quintet) drapes live wires of guitar across a circular bassline and a set of hand drums. It’s a sound that initially seems to have more in common with the dusky Tuareg blues of Tinariwen than it does the snowy European pop of Elmiger’s Swiss home, but such cross-cultural influencing is nothing new in the Internet age.
What’s distinctive here is how casually “Danse Macabre” evolves from gentle Malian rhythms into breezy indie pop jam that wouldn’t sound out of place behind Natalie Prass. Calling what Elmiger does a hybridization or pastiche would be unfair; he’s not pointing at different sounds to demonstrate his own acumen or to make some kind of point so much as he is playing from a (world-historically appropriate, of course) neutral setting.
The “Danse Macabre” video represents a victory lap of sorts for Elmiger, who over the past few years has released a trio of EPs and is now compiling them into a single album, which is out now on Oh, Sister. Check it out below.
