We can’t quite decide what our favourite dansband single of 2011 so far is. It’s a very close call between ‘Jag Klarar Mig’ by Barbados, and ‘Vi Lyfter Igen’ from Zekes. But when the songs are as excellent as they both so clearly are, it’s not exactly a predicament we don’t like to find ourselves in. ‘Win, win’, and all that. But while the Barbados album this year didn’t quite live up to the single’s promise, the Zekes have transcended the battle to win this imaginary war that we’ve just invented between the two bands. For their album, also titled ‘Vi Lyfter Igen’, is sodding great! And they’ve even managed to better the singe, on one particular track.
Released on August 24th in Sweden, it was sent to us last week to have an advance listen. There we were plodding our way through an above average dansband album with a few thrills and not a spill in sight nor sound. And IT hit us. Like a tonne of bricks to the head. Specifically the ear area. IT is one of the most incredible examples of dansband music, or in fact ANY music, we’ve ever heard. And we think anyone would agree. Even if you don’t think it’s incredibly good, you’ll think it’s incredibly something. For it just can’t be ignored. It won’t be!
The song is called ‘Bullfest’. And to be honest, we’re at a loss as to how to describe it, or how to do its brilliance justice with our feeble words! It’s not a new track. It’s a cover of this old song by Sigge Fürst. It’s also not the first time it’s been given the dansband treatment, as the band with our favourite band name EVER – Schytts – have also done their own version. But the Zekes cover really is something else. Recorded with all the spunk that a song like this deserves, Zekes elevate ‘Bullfest’ into a league of dansband schlager that it seems to excel in. Finally given the chance to spread its majestic wings, shine its glittering sheen, and reveling in a 2011 coated glory that it never deemed imaginable back in its Sigge Fürst days, the Zekes recording of ‘Bullfest’ is the audio equivalent of a pig blissfully rolling around in its own shit, while a particularly raucous barn dance goes on afterhours in the next field!
It really is!
We HAD to share this with everyone, so we got in touch with Lionheart who are kindly letting us upload a generously lengthy 90 second clip.
And here we are;
[audio:http://lowculture.co.uk/scandi/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ZEKES-Bullfest-CLIP.mp3|titles=ZEKES – Bullfest CLIP]ANYWAY!….
Elsewhere on the album there are a few more highlights nestled in there. The Thomas G:son composed ‘Samma Sak’ is like a more countrified, less clubbified update of ‘Kom Hem’ by Barbados. Its key change is a little magical too. ‘Om Ditt Hjärta Sa Boom’ is an up-tempo schlager delight, that sounds tailor made for Melodifestivalen – and is co-composed by Figge Böstrom who has worked with a cacophony of MF artists in the past. And there’s also a fab dansband arrangement of Sweden’s amazing 1995 Eurovision entry, ’Se På Mig’.
We’ve said before that for us, dansband music usually falls into one of two categories – the stuff that sounds like schlager music (yay!) or the stuff that sounds like country music (nej!). The rest of the Zekes album actually manages to find a happy medium between the two. Aside from the aforementioned exceptions, it’s not the kind of dansband that makes us go WOW, but neither is it the sort that repels us. It’s an easy, enjoyable listen. In a lot of ways, it’s like the male brother to the Elisa’s album that came out earlier this year. Some amazing tracks, the rest of it being a pleasant record. In fact, Elisa’s own Elisa Lindström even gets in on the act here, joining Zekes on an up-tempo duet, ‘Ett Steg I Taget’.
The boys have made a ridiculously cheap video to accompany the ‘Vi Lyfter Igen’ single, and whacked it on to You Tube. Bless them. It is however, all the excuse we need to post that perfect piece of dansband music on here again. So away we go;
