Having featured Iceage, Lower and Vår on our blog already, the time feels right to extend our remit out even further into Copenhagen's fertile underground punk scene. Branching upwards and outwards from the (relatively) straighter punk centre-pieces of the close-knit circle of bands, scene representatives Escho Records recently released Thulebasen's fantastic Gate 5 album.
Thulebasen are unlike Iceage and Lower in many respects. The latter's brittle punk rock references Joy Division, Birthday Party: dark, sneering influences who even underwrite major chords when they infrequently appear. Thulebasen, as an antidote, are neither saccharine nor summery; not a diet interpretation of their harsher siblings, but a freakier, more psychedelic foil. The foundation on punk is still there, of course, but theirs has been cross-bred with the acidity of Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane and the reverb-heavy spaciousness of Young Marble Giants.