Such eloquence yet verbosity...

Here Swedish dance-pop sensation, September, presents an award to Fever Ray, a woman who both defies description and warms the cockles. Didn't her speech bring a tear to your eye?

Fever Ray: does 'a Beyoncé'!

Fever Ray (yes, yes her out of The Knife) is only on album number 1, but already she's released 5 super-terrifying and spectacular videos:

• "If I Had a Heart" in which frightened children take a night-time boat journey and a mansion is strewn with dead bodies.
• "When I Grow Up" in which a homeless hipster girl wobbles precariously on a diving board - it also features a horrifying introduction in which the camera advances creeping around a corner in the slow-reveal sort of way that just horrifies this writer.
• "Triangle Walks" a spooky laser show.
• "Seven" - a video where a shamanistically-dressed old lady dances in a barn with cows (!)
• "Stranger Than Kindness", set in a field at night and a room filled with lamps.

and now:

• "Keep the Streets Empty for Me" in which, in the words of Pitchfork (!), "a fashionable homeless girl meander[s] through a barren cityscape".

Whether she's going for one of those DVD releases that seem to be so popular these days, or making music videos gives her that tingly feeling: we'll never know. But it's refreshing to see an artist take such care over making such handsome, brilliant and well-crafted videos even when they're not necessarily required. We like artists that go the extra mile.

More proof the world's gone 'Deluxe' mad...

Following the earth-shattering news that Bat For Lashes will be going down the route of almost everybody else in the entire music industry and rereleasing her second album, Two Suns, in a deluxe package, comes the startling news that: so will Fever Ray. Her newly packaged album will include 2 new covers and a DVD of her fabulous and horrifying music videos.

Accompanying this will be the release of a new single for "Seven" along with a video directed by Johan Renck who is responsible for "Hung Up" and "Nothing Really Matters" by Madonna, Kylie's "Love At First Sight", Beyoncé's "Me, Myself & I" and Bat For Lashes' "Daniel". So it'll be ridiculously good. Here endeth the coherent prose.

The Latitude Report #5: Fever Ray

We could write you a lengthy and in-depth analysis of Fever Ray's performance at Latitude festival, but it wouldn't do it justice. It wouldn't convey, the sheer terror she struck into our hearts. No words could describe how those icy synth snaps and deep, undulating vocoder bore straight through us, and how her shaggy, African cloak revealed a painted face of horror that had us shivering where we stood. The spectacular laser and smoke show topped the whole thing off. Spooky stuff.

(As if that's not spooky enough in and of itself, this very post is the 666th post on Shiny & New! SIX SIX SIX! Clearly Karin Andersson Dreijer is in league with the devil, ALLEGEDLY).

A spooky Fever Ray video...

It's rather static, but really horrifying. A bit like Inland Empire by David Lynch, which incidentally it reminds us of.

A thing about Fever Ray...

Karin Dreijer Andersson (a.k.a Fever Ray a.k.a her-out-of-the-Knife) is a startling and unique talent, but then you probably already knew that. Her debut solo album, the eponymously titled Fever Ray, was released digitally earlier this year and due to some heinous blip in our judgement we forgot to write about it, but let us correct that now. Although her solo effort still greatly resembles her work with The Knife, when it's of this high quality, you can't complain.

And what high quality! Terrifying and ominous synth drones announce the opening of the album on "If I Had A Heart", pulsating and vibrating against Dreijer Andersson's digitally altered vocals. On "Now's The Only Time I know", tuned percussion echos rhythmically throughout. Lyrically themes of motherhood and birth pervade:

"In my arms she was so warm
Eyes are open the mouth cries
Haven't slept since summer"

she moans on "Concrete Walls". Here she sounds wise, ancient, transgender, and then suddenly young and whining. This is the stuff of nightmares and it is brilliant.

There have been two singles from the album already, each with their own uniquely petrifying music videos, and now there is a third: "Triangle Walks". If you want and are so inclined, you may download a remix for free here, although we fully encourage you to buy also. We also promise that from now on, the second Ms. Fever Ray does anything we will inform you of it immediately. We can but apologise for our previous mistakes.

Recommendations
"Triangle Walks" - Fever Ray
"When I Grow Up" - Fever Ray
"If I Had A Heart" - Fever Ray