Snoleoparden is Danish multi-instrumentalist wunderkind Jonas Stampe, who has a fascination for ethnic music and ethnological forgeries (to borrow Can’s term). He’s travelled a lot, including trips to Pakistan and Morocco. He’s even spent a year in India as a student of Ravi Shankar (although sitar is about the one instrument he doesn’t play on this album, oddly enough). His debut CD is a bizarre collection of psych folk, skewed instrumental soundscapes and outsider weirdness. It’s also the most fun album I’ve heard in a long time. ‘Hodja Fra Pjort’s sees Stampe on acoustic guitar leading a group of kindergarten children in a joyous, ramshackle singalong. The theme of childish ingenuousness permeates the disc. Stampe approaches music like a kid in a junk shop full of discarded instruments. ‘Dreng’ features an amazing field recording of a 6-year-old Pakistani busking boy singing. ‘Trance’ with it’s booming toms, percussion, flute and electronic duck quacks wouldn’t sound out of place on a Nurse With Wound record. ‘UFO’ features beautiful rippling electric guitar arpeggios overlaid with weird electronic boings. This record will not appeal to everyone, but those of you who appreciate unusual music, that’s off the beaten track, should make a beeline for this.
For MP3 previews check their MySpace.
Ewan Burke
