The Norse Code

British Sea Power have made their most gloriously epic album yet. Daniel Ross enters the Valhalla Dancehall to find all is odd as usual with the six-piece…

The last time we heard anything on record from British Sea Power, it was a soundtrack accompanying a 1934 documentary about spearing sharks on the Isle of Aran. Before that, on 2008’s ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’, the surmounting sextet blustered their way through one of that year’s finest rock records. Today, they are at The Fly HQ to record a Courtyard session featuring new material from their fourth album proper, ‘Valhalla Dancehall’, an album plump with enriching guitar noise and typically off-piste lyrical constructs. Even in this acoustic setting, drums are slapped with barehanded abandon, throats crackle under the strain of impassioned yelling and, surreally, a musical saw wails over the top of everything. The noise is cacophonous, elastic and ecstatic. Conversely, when we sit down to talk about ‘Valhalla Dancehall’ with Yan (vocals, guitar) and Noble (guitar), they are considered, lightly humorous and rather quiet. Not in a detached or disinterested sense (you get the impression that all they need is a starting point and the ensuing tangent could last for days), but their manner is certainly gracefully subdued. They’re clearly excited about their new album, having spent eighteen months recording it in-between jaunts to the Arctic Circle and the Isle of Eigg and various other far-flung locales for what they call ‘special’ live shows. Even the album’s title screams surreal excitement. A curious hybrid of Wagnerian drama, Norse mythology (Valhalla is the grand hall where those slain in battle end up) and Jamaican party music, the inspiration is much simpler than it might seem. “It wasn’t just Valhalla, it was the cross between that and the Dancehall element that appealed,” explains Noble. “It’s a big space… where things happen,” adds Yan, helpfully. “It’s the party at the end of the world.”

Maybe a more detailed explanation would ruin it. Parties, though, seem to be something that BSP do exceptionally well. Yan tells us of a New Year’s Eve Party thrown by Noble: “There was another party downstairs, so I went there for a bit. I came back upstairs after about an hour and it was like walking into a room of zombies. About 50% of the people were rolling on the floor… it reminded me a bit of that Charles Bronson film where he gets put in a mental hospital.” The record’s sense of abandon is larger than ever before, which seems fitting for one that could potentially soundtrack the party at the end of the world. Coming after recording the ‘Man Of Aran’ soundtrack where the source material was a constant reference, there was evidently much freedom with the album’s recording according to Yan. “We got into our farmhouse where we decided to do it, but we didn’t have any songs at all. Anything could’ve happened, really. After about six months we didn’t really have any idea what the record was going to sound like, it was just getting bigger and going in different directions.” “We were there for eighteen months,” continues Noble, “and we’ve still got stuff left over from that.”

“This could be our last chance,” says Yan, ominously. To make a record? To make a living out of BSP? “I don’t know. 2012, innit? End of the world… everything’s gone a bit biblical.” Speaking of unrest, the album’s first track, ‘Who’s In Control”, is unashamedly revolutionary in sentiment, possessing a gleeful lack of order, mass yelping and lyrics that wish “protesting was sexy on a Saturday night.” It’s all dashed off with a honed sense of controlled destruction, and it’s impossible not to think of the recent student riots and the undeniable kudos of being in a modern-day revolt. “At least they’re having a go for once,” says Yan of the protestors. “I’m quite surprised by that really, because for a long time students have been a bit soft, haven’t they? We wrote that song long before that seemed an obvious thing. It came from J.G. Ballard novels, where people end up in these luxury lifestyles and get a taste for danger just because it’s fun. It could be sexy, naughty danger, or it could be actual physical danger.” So, next time you’re planning on clambering up the Cenotaph, make sure you listen to BSP first. The partying on the record is duly balanced by one of the band’s most interesting recordings to date, the queasy and rather intimidating ‘Mongk II ’, wherein we are shown the darker side of the dancehall. Claustrophobically large and heavy guitars accompany a distorted Yan vocal that speaks of losing oneself in rhythm and personal imbalance. The song began life on the band’s ‘Zeus’ EP that arrived in mid-2010, this time simply titled ‘Mongk’, and it deals with similar themes albeit with far more chanting about calling an ambulance. So what’s the worst party they’ve ever been to? For Noble, it was “probably when I was a kid and I probably pissed myself. Actually, there was one in St. Petersburg. It was a Time Out awards party and a bed shop party. So there were beds everywhere, and we did this gig and no-one was interested at all…”

“I didn’t think it was that bad,” argues Yan. “I ended up with (guitarist and brother) Neil and these two 7ft-tall fl ag-waving Russian models, and this fella who was a writer who just lived in the hills on his own. The flipside of that was we walked along the beach for hours afterwards drinking, and the next day I had about 50 mosquito bites on my face.” ‘Valhalla Dancehall’ sits comfortably in the BSP catalogue, the perfect conflation of confusion and power, neither too many steps forward nor too many in retreat. In many ways it’s the perfect extension of the sound explored on ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’, definitely as bold and as beautiful when it’s required. But this is perhaps the record to truly distance them from their peers, and let them leave traditional indie behind for good. Yan thinks it’s their best album yet. “It’s the one I’m most happy with. We took all the responsibility on ourselves. We were on our own in that place, and no-one was giving us any hassle.” It’s not just a musical satisfaction that Yan’s taken from the album either. Lyrically, the goalposts have been moved slightly. “I decided to ditch a lot of things and stay away from them, even if I thought they were decent ideas. I didn’t want anything that looked backwards, really. Didn’t want any history. It’s a valid thing, but I think we’ve done it.” “You don’t want to become caricatures of yourselves,” agrees Noble in the spirit of looking forwards. “We wanted to create something new on all fronts, musically try and explore different things, tape loops and warped sounds. The way we approached everything was different, with Phil (cornet, keyboards) and Abby (viola, musical saw) we had a lot more stuff. We were creating the mythical place of Valhalla Dancehall for it all to go in.”

The concepts that crop up not only in ‘Valhalla Dancehall’ but also in BSP’s other records are amongst the loftiest and most ambitious ever attempted by a rock band. Spearing sharks, rock music and Greek Gods have all formed backbones for songs and albums, but at what point do these concepts become ridiculous or overblown? “If Queen can do ‘Flash Gordon…” offers Noble, and he’s not even joking. “As long as you stay away from world peace,” Yan agrees. “A lot of the songs haven’t got a moral viewpoint, really.” This plaintive approach to concepts of weight and importance has confused some critics. When ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ was reviewed by US tastemaker Pitchfork Media, they controversially awarded the album ‘U2/10’ rather than a traditional mark. It seems incredible that anyone could confuse a simply massive sound with the self-aggrandising politicking of Bono & co., and it’s something that clearly has fl ummoxed and irked BSP. Noble insists, “I cannot think of a single song on ‘Do You Like Rock Music’ that sounds like U2. It’s ridiculous. Ridiculous.” With epic sounds, though, come epic live shows, and the band’s forthcoming UK tour looks to be one of the most memorable of the coming year. Despite playing larger shows of late (Yan charmingly describes the recent NME Weekender in Camber Sands as being “like walking into a room full of people on drugs who had all seen ‘Skins’,”) the BSP experience is having an overhaul. What have they got in store for audiences as they traverse the country? Yan has got only one grand plan, but it sounds like a doozy: “For the tour, I’m trying to construct an electronic/ papier-mache giant owl with laser eyes. I’ve only got as far as a sketch. 6-10 feet with massive glowing red eyes that project lasers. I’m also trying to get a flapping mechanism. Above that will be a 360-degree rotation, because that’s what owls do. It’s a cross between a giant owl and a lighthouse.” It’s wonderful statements like this that make you wonder how anyone could ever accuse the band of being in any way like U2. And if the avian destroyer comes to pass, 2011 could be a classic year for British Sea Power. Make sure you join them at the Valhalla Dancehall: owl costume optional.

‘Valhalla Dancehall’ is released on Rough Trade on January 10th.