Member Since: 3/14/2006
Band Website: differnet.tk
Band Members: Anna-Karin Brus - Vocals and Visuals
Magnus Gyllenswärd - Bass and Ableton
Tomas Bodén - Sound, Digital Signal Processing and Electronics
Peter Jackson - Guitar, Melodica, Harmonium, Harmonica, Trumpet, Cubase
Influences: Throbbing Gristle, Franz Schubert, Cocteau Twins, Oval, Pet Shop Boys, Bernard Parmegiani, Einstuerzende Neubauten, New Order, Wire, Pierre Henry, Propaganda, Durutti Column
Sounds Like: some reviews:
fluxblog.org:
"Differnet (featuring Action Biker) "Albuquerque" - It wasn't so long ago that these sort of distorted electronic tones simply did not exist in music. There's something so wonderful about having these synthetic tones that don't quite resemble anything in the natural world, and are generally still too new to be tied in with the sort of cultural expectations that we have for guitars, pianos, horns, and strings. This track is a thing of ethereal beauty, floating along with a gorgeous vocal melody while the performers wring quite a bit of emotion out of abstracted sound waves. It feels so frigid and fragile, like a frozen lake surrounded by trees with icicles dangling from the branches like gaudy jewelry. Of course, that's a very strange thing to say about a song named after a city in New Mexico."
[Matthew Perpetua, 2/10/2006]
pitchforkmedia:
"Differnet: "Conflictionary (Barricade Builders of the World Unite and Take Cover)"
Straight outta Sweden, and from a 2003 album (originally subtitled Selections 2001-2003) which has only recently become available with (mailorder) ease in the United Hates, this gorgeous song can finally reap some hype. Differnet is a trio led by the programming of one Tomas Boden, and their best work deserves a plaque beside such IDM-pop darlings (the "I" still stands for "imploding"?) as Erlend Øye and Dntel. This song's stuttering metamorphosis from its birthy first minute to its rallying, asexual-siren finale leaves me agog at what computer-musicianship-epiphanies this band's tour dates with Four Tet must have fostered. Half of the lyrics threaten a revolution, an ambitious poststructuralist smashing of a mass-assumption vanity mirror. Anna-Karin Brus warns of bloody boulevards and demands that her enemies disappear, and then she becomes exhausted, realizing the battle won't end, and then a proto-Huckabees counter-chorus of "I'm not myself" softens, or maybe humanizes, the dissent. All this down-with-badness hellabaloo transcends Adbusters-caliber crackpotism via the almost religiously pretty bells and blips supporting it-- think of Schneider TM's famous Smiths cover, since Differnet's loops tiptoe through the same symmetry gates, suggesting both calm and desperation. Hosanna: a breathy sax solo reminiscent of when Tuxedomoon stopped being no-wave and went fey. Hosanna: this band is a digital Microphones, or whatever Elvrum and Company are calling themselves today. Hosanna: the chant at the end asks us to not tolerate in our actual lives what we accept in our entertainment: "Read it in a book. Watch it on the screen. Fight it on the streets." Good luck fighting the urge to run out in those streets and make a Zapruder-grain film to accompany this one.
graded 4.5/5 [William Bowers; November 24th, 2004]
Soundvenue (In Norwegian):
Differnet - elektronisk evolution. Tro blot på det: Der er evolution indenfor musik. Den svenske elektroniske gruppe Differnet har - skabt omkring et tyk elektronisk skelet og holdt sammen af luftig alternativ pop - udviklet en art musik, der er mange, mange studier værd. Skåret ind til rygmarven beviser dette, gruppens andet album, at dykker man blot ned i sin helt egen verden af idéer, opstår der måske noget anderledes, noget unikt. Om end ikke revolutionerende inden for elektronikkens eller poppens enkeltvise sfærer, så er Differnet i hvert fald et af de eleganteste spring hen imod noget tiltrængt nyt. Skelettet er bygget af både industrial- og house-pulserende beats og klange, foruden dette årtis bud på en musikalsk vitaminpille, den eksperimenterende electronica, hvor sprød elektronisk musik forener sig med indadvendt pop. Men Differnet gør det igen helt anderledes og helt efter egen lyst. I hver enkelt nummer mærkes en dyb alvor, der har en ubestridt formåen at lægge sig op ad. Svenskerne vil simpelthen noget nyt med deres musik, og de behersker midlerne til at nå dertil. Det er et studie værd, som under hver tur rundt i ørerne beriger med nye smukke og grimme, men altid lokkende, detaljer og sammenhænge.
graded 5/6 [Michael Ulfus Kjærgaard 2/6 2005]
Indiepop.it (in Italian)
"Torna Differnet, ensemble svedese che esordì nel 2003 con l'acclamato "Come On And Bring Back The Brjokén Sounds Of Yore!". Questo interessante secondo The Title of the Record Is the Text Printed on the Cover, or Nothing at All non cambia la musica e tantomeno la curiosa boutade del titolo torrenziale. Definiremmo Differnet, involando e arrischiandoci un poco, un ambient-bit melodico, sorta di compromesso elettroacustico pop "ecologico", foriero di suoni sommersi e pressati, voci lontane aleggianti come riverberi, vaghi e dreamy ("Edison", "Caligula"), spirituali disseminate emulsioni ("A Fable"), nascoste in qualche angolo di fitta brughiera.A volte in questa guida sintetica di effetti e rifrazioni si schiude una quiete, un senso d'immobilità eterna, di permanenza, a sfiorare i più recenti e aurorali colori musicali degli Hood, digitali venati di psichedelia ("Crash Reconstruction"). Un sentimento intensamente, naturalmente bucolico, un'anima rustica ove proiettare e dipanare fast-forward mnemoniche, calde trasfigurazioni, sintesi di forme e colori ("On a Trail", "Albuquerque"…). Un ascolto, ribadiamo, piacevole, che plausibilmente lieviterebbe in prossimità di siffatti ambienti agresti, così vagheggiati e desiderati dalle musiche per quel palesare comunioni possibili.Efficace in questo senso, quando appare e si definisce, una voce femminile, come cuore pulsante che avanza e penetra la macchina, gli electronics; barlume di lucciola ("Searching for Mr Right") che con le sue piccole fragili mani è capace di sollevarci da terra e orbitare sfidando la gravità .
Altrove, rallentando, corpi di tastiera paiono diluirsi, coagulare assieme e trasfondersi in infinite, chimeriche parvenze ("Analfabetism")." [F, may 2005]
DE:BUG Magazine (in German):
Eine sehr schöne schwedische Platte mit Tracks dieser Band, die mal einfach Piano mit Spoken Words macht, mal endlos deepe knisternde Dubtracks mit Gesang, mal verträumte Tracks mit Gitarre, aber immer so unglaublich nett und ruhig dabei klingt, dass man bei aller Melancholie, die das hat, dennoch nie vor sich hintristet, sondern das Ganze irgendwie upliftend empfindet. "Welcome To The Glitch World Of Pop" steht mit Ausrufezeichen auf dem Info, und irgendwie stimmt das. Denn das sind definitiv alles Popsongs, aber dennoch technisch so gut gemacht, dass man, auch wenn man sonst eher auf Elektronika mit Gesang nicht steht, diese Platte einfach lieb haben muss. Die Schweden! Eine der schönsten Clickpopplatten des Jahres."
"records of the month" Rating: 5/5 [BLEED - November 2003]
Eldorado (in Swedish):
Här är äntligen svensk popmusik helt ute ur fållorna. Differnets musik knastrar och brusar vackert som urskogens rötter mot urberget. Detta är årets skiva. Tveklöst. Särskilt stor respekt förtjänar deras djärvhet och fräckhet. Dom uppfinner just nu en ny musikalisk dialekt. Svävande i en egen klangvärld. Den gott och väl tolv minuter långa slutlåten är en tunneltripp genom skruvade undergångshimlar. Befriande innovativt. Så har du aldrig hört en popgrupp bete sig. Profetiskt mumlande som nyckelpigor i neon. Eldorado kommer att hastigt spela dom. Upptäck. Äntligen glädje, gospel och virvelrytmer som inte har sneglat i målgruppsmanualen. Hypnotiskt är ett nyckelpigeord i Differnets insektvärld. Humlastormande frenetiskt. [KJELL ALINGE, ELDORADO, March 2005]
Record Label: www.friendlynoise.se
Type of Label: Indie