The Foreign Resort

“These Danish post-punk specialists transform their voluminous influences into an EP that possesses a singular fault: It is not long enough.” - SLUG MAGAZINE

“captivating post punk passion & 80s inspired new wave romanticism – fully charged with radiant guitars and intense vocals” - 50THIRDAND3RD

“New Frontiers leaves no room for harsh critique for it is, in a word, flawless. Simultaneously current, fresh and vibrant while wrapping the listener in a fine mist of yesteryear” - Gothic Beauty Magazine

The Foreign Resort, Copenhagen’s finest exponents of what really shouldn’t be called New Wave Goth-tinged Post Punk, have just completed a highly successful tour of the US in support of 3rd album New Frontiers which, although released in Europe earlier this year, is only seeing a physical release on the west side of the North Atlantic this week.

Ploughing the same dark sonic furrow as the earliest incarnations of Interpol and Editors, it is very refreshing to hear a band, unlike those two, sticking with well-placed confidence to a formula and sound that they believe in. In fact, New Frontiers exudes the kind of energy and pace that ‘El Pintor’ really could have benefited from, in my humble opinion. Sorry Mr Banks.

Opening up with a bubbling synth motif that would not be out of place on Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration album, ‘Dead End Roads’ soon explodes with a Sisters of Mercy style riff and what could be one of Doktor Avalanche’s programmed beats, underpinned by that wonderfully familiar, low-slung bass, so beloved by Mr Hook and Mr Gallup, and Mikkel B. Jakobsen’s entirely appropriate, soulful vocal delivery. ‘Breaking Apart’, which follows, is spikier, with the driving, upfront guitar sound bringing to mind that Mancunian lot of Unknown Pleasures. And then we have ‘Alone’, understated, elegiac and beautifully crafted, and very reminiscent of ‘Disintegration’ era Cure, a very fine thing indeed to achieve.

Reading that paragraph might suggest that The Foreign Resort is simply a pastiche of all that was frilly, gaunt, possibly slightly unhinged and leather trousered in the 80s. Not so. Fundamentally an alternative rock band with more than a passing interest in electronics, this Danish trio are more than capable of also delivering fizzing Post Punk (‘New Frontiers’), feedback drenched noise pop (the well named ‘Dark White’) and some dreamy, melancholic semi-ballads ( ‘Dead Leaves’, ‘Quiet Again’). All of these different elements combine together to give The Foreign Resort a contemporary identity all of their own, and an album in New Frontiers that is chock full of searing guitars, soaring melodies and a liberal sprinkling of gothic melodrama. Perversely drowning in a shallow sea of grey indie mediocrity, I for one welcome the depth. - Echoes and Dust

“…it is “Flushed”, which for me is the album’s clear highlight. It simply has everything: The good, recognizable, yet surprisingly structure (both in relation to melody and structure), evil synth bass, tearing guitars and epic ups and downs.” - Undertoner (Denmark)

"...it's Swervedriving shoegazed Britpop with a nice Goth edge. This band is epic!"
- The Big Takeover, Print issue (May 01, 2012) - The Big Takeover

Following the success of their self titled EP in November 2011, Denmark’s “The Foreign Resort” have released their new album “Scattered and Buried”. Comprised of Mikkel B. Jakobsen on vocals/guitars, Morten Hansen on drums/vocals, Henrik Fischlein on guitar and Patrick Ryming on bass, “The Foreign Resort” do not disappoint with this labyrinthine album. Continuing with their signature guitar shoegazing infused electro riffs, this really stretches the boundaries of new wave music. With its explosive, dark multi-faceted, edgy and atmospheric songs, “Scattered and Buried” excels at intense, mutating songs, whose darkness manifests through the fuzzy riffs and weighty bass.

It’s also an album which showcases the theatrical and versatile vocals of Jakobsen and immaculate drum craftsmanship of Hansem. It’s also without doubt an album which alters the senses through the mesmerising riffs of Jakobsen, Fischlein and Ryming. Lyrically, the album is emotionally singed and secretly prolific. With remixes of “Heart Breaks Down”, “Take a Walk” and “Orange Glow”, “Scattererd and Buried” is a polarised electro-guitar infused album, which convolutes with an assault of textured riffs and elates with its euphoric synths. It’s also an album which sees “The Foreign Resort” dabble with more dancey vibes, reminiscent of early New Order-esque sonic beats and likened to the early 90s club scene.

Switched on by the sublime “Delayed”, here is a track which tunes you in with its radio-antennae riffs. It’s an impressive opener, which captivates you with its cacophony of sinking bass and wayward riffs. With his sullen vocals, Jakobsen really captures the dark melancholy of the song, which delves deep into the mesh of fuzzy and descending drones. What’s distinguished about “The Foreign Resort” is the significance of the bass throughout all their tracks. It’s not often you hear a band which makes the bass as prominent as the lead guitars. In particular in “Delayed” you hear how Ryming’s under chamber of drones, skilfully hammer and pound against the skydiving, rotating and nimble-fingered riffs. With lyrics such as “Afraid of now, if my heart will ever mend”, you hear the torture emitted which is wrapped up and smothered by the shoegazing assault.

“Buried”, on the other hand, is an example of how the legacy of influences can be incorporated and stand the test of time. With its Joy Division-esqe intro, “Buried” then accelerates with more post-punk, jittery riffs that consolidate with shades of early U2. With exact precision “Buried” slides, staggers and penetrates the vocals with its wave of reverberating, shoegazing riffs. Along with its New Order-esque drum infested out-tro, “Buried” exudes an unhinged edginess, defining “The Foreign Resort” very much as a genre-bending band.

Again it’s the New-Order-esque sonic beats that kick starts “Rocky Mountains” into a chaotic clatter of shoegazing haze. With it’s telescopic vocals, “Rocky Mountains” synchronises with the eerie sonic synths that reverberate against The Jesus and Mary Chain-esque riffs.

“Lost My Way (2012)” once more illustrates how the distorted vocals integrate with the wonky, wavering bass, creating the backdrop for this oblique track. Along with its nagging, muffled riffs and elongated drones, “Lost My Way” is progressive new wave music personified. It’s a track whose ascending riffs and synths synchronise in juxtaposition against the blackened bass splodges.

“Tide” is one of the albums most sonic infused songs, whose drugged up and choppy synths resonate against the emotive vocals. Lyrically minimal “Tide” skilfully evokes emotional discord which drifts aside the Industrial and tinny riffs. - The Manc Review

Everything works completely flawless for The Foreign Resort who, despite the cool and melancholy based in British late-80s rock, carries you to warmer climes. A tropical storm is underway at the resort, but the foundation is rock solid so you can enjoy the show without anything collapsing - GF Rock

The Foreign Resort aren’t likely to be a featured hotel destination on Expedia any time soon, but if you’re into the heavily distorted and tortured howls of Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine, you may want to book a date with this Danish four-piece’s self-titled EP. They were also among the latest bands announced for South by Southwest in March, so you could always go see them in Austin. (Good luck finding accommodations for that week though.)
As for the five tracks that make up this EP, “Colleen” is a love cry about a broken heart “never healing quite like it used to/and never feeling quite like before.” It has a relentless, almost archetypical post-punk pace to it that you could probably pass off as a U2 song castoff from the very early 80s. “Orange Glow” is where things start to get murky. The opening sounds like a synthesized “Iron Man”, but then breaks out of its shell after about a minute. Electronica meets shoegazing head on in this song, with neither side emerging victorious, and everyone’s ears are bleeding a little by the end.

All throughout the EP, singer Mikkel Jakobsen’s voice is clear, crisp, and remarkably calm. He’s no Ian Curtis imitator, that’s for sure, even when the tempo shifts somewhat on “Heart Breaks Down”, which is slower to the point of being trancelike, and definitely eerie. There is also a much better balance than the previous song in terms of instruments competing against one another– putting up a “wall of sound” as it were. “Take a Walk” is about as cheery as these melancholic Danes get: it even has a good dance beat to it, but Jakobsen has to remind us that his band is moody and angry when he curses, “It was all too fucking good”.

Finally, the seven-minute-plus “Torch It” flickers out more than burn brightly, but just because it’s a tad meandering shouldn’t take away from the fact there’s some really good, loud stuff here that nu gaze fans of M83 and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart should enjoy.

Essential Tracks: “Colleen”, “Take a Walk - Consequence of Sound

The Foreign Resort is a startling experience. A Danish debut band entering the Danish rock scene with a power that blows your mind. The genre is British new wave - somewhere between The Cure and British Sea Power - and surrounded by the many bands who inspired and have been inspired by the above-mentioned.

The threads to The Cure are at times so obvious that some might crinkle their nose. The brass infected "Towards the Dusk" is one of these but the song simply works so good that I - despite the reservation of comparison - cannot help but becoming carried along.

The room has a high ceiling. The production and the arrangements are gigantic in their massive and airy rock sound and at the same time the singer Mikkel Borbjerg Jakobsen has adequate strength, fragility, grandiosity and fervour in his vocal, and this makes the expression utterly strong.

The album cooperation has snuck past everything in the established Danish business and Offshore is released on vinyl in cooperation with the vinyl store Smukstoj. A somehow a distinctive character of no importance to a band that has everything it takes to let the music speak. But let's leave that be - the most important thing in this connection is that it has been made possible for The Foreign Resort to make their music available to the surrounding world.

"Lost My Way" and "Relax (It's Only Love)" are two of my favorites but if one has a preference for British rock music, one should not miss this awesome debut. It is expressively, well done, meaningful and spell-binding. I am full of admiration. And puzzled that the Danish music press has not hyped this band intensely. An absolute candidate for Debut of the Year.

-Morten Wamsle, diskant.dk

Translated from Danish. - diskant.dk

A distorted guitar swept in hypnotic reverb strikes the tone. A dark vocal enters the soundscape to the beat of a hi-hat that strangely almost runs in offbeat. But The Foreign Resort does not play for fun. The opening song The Starlit Sea is a dark, grandiose song, sounding as if one’s life is at stake. Offshore is something as rare as a Danish debut only released on vinyl and conceived in collaboration with the Copenhagen vinyl store Smukstoj. On Into the Sunshine there is still no light in sight. The excellent singer Mikkel Borbjerg Jakobsen’s desperate vocal is swept in enveloped in a monotonous keyboard surface and a hard galloping bass line sending your thoughts towards Joy Division. The Foreign Resort has with great international sound carefully measured the balance between the high waving and the fragile. In spite of the inspiration from Afghan Whigs and Interpol the band manages to challenge the listener with sharp guitar contrasts and demonstrative tempo changes. The Foreign Resort go the distance on Offshore, which is a fantastic challenge to these mp3-times.

Finn P. Madsen/Gaffa Magazine

Translated from Danish. - Gaffa.dk

Exerpt:

“An EP can hardly get more whole than this. It has taken The Foreign Resort very long to get such a refined sound. But it has been worth the wait.”

Rated 92 of 100 - Underlyd.dk

Having read that The Foreign Resort had "Tears For Fears-ish melodies" on the PR blurb that came with the EP, I was not expecting this self-titled EP to be anything special. How wrong could you get, quite simply it is 5 tracks of pure bliss.

Don't worry, we are not about to start championing pop bands from the 80's, "The Foreign Resort" is shoegaze with a hint of post rock thrown in for good measure. It certainly should appeal to fans of A Place To Bury Strangers, Sonic Youth and fellow Scandinavians, The Megaphonic Thrift.

All five tracks are vibrant and each with their own feel but one thing they all have in common is that they grab you by the proverbials right from the opening bars of 'Colleen' and don't let go all the way to the end of 'Torch It'. 'Orange Glow' deserves a special mention for its dark hard hitting atmospheric edginess.

It is a shame that for a band that comes from just over the North Sea, it appears they have yet to play on these shores, yet have made it across the Atlantic on a few occasions. Let's hope that soon changes as their sound is one that will be adored right here. - Room Thirteen

Exerpt:

“a cold-blooded, solid and brutal crowbar of an ep that really should pan doors for The Foreign Resort. They will surely grow big and black.”

Rated 5 of 6 - Soundvenue

“Dark moods with details lurking in the shadows and an undeniable international touch”.
The song ’The Starlit Sea’ was described as
”...ready for the big venues with the effective stabbing guitars and the slowly, but intense development towards a roaring mix of noise and unique melodies.” - Soundvenue Magazine

"The Cure embedded in noise with Tears For Fears-ish melodies and the energy burst of Joy Division. And that is as close as it gets because The Foreign Resort sounded like themselves."

"...the fantastic energy of the band driven forth by an animal of a drummer, a pumping bass and echoing, distorted and noisy feedback guitars...".

"...The Foreign Resort (had) atypical song structures that time and time again went contrary to expectations and made one smile."
- GAFFA Magazine

We got some good reviews in Italian magazines.
Unfortunately I can only guess what has been written as my Italian is as good as non-existent. Silvia from our Italian label Black Nutria informed about the reviews.
Thanks goes out to her.

To read the reviews, follow the links:

Beat Bop a Lula - http://www.beatbopalula.it/musica-underground-emergenti-band/articolo.asp?articolo=108

The Ship Magazine - http://www.theshipmagazine.com/the-foreign-resort---offshore.htm

Rockon.it - http://www.rockon.it/recensioni/indie-rock/3308-the-foreign-resort-offshore/ - Italian magazines - see links