Norwegian band Takomaha offer up a delicious slab of Nordic Noir in an infectiously heavy and frantic brand of noise rock. The band proudly proclaims its sound to be “absorbed of any mainstream appeal” and describes it as “relentless droney rock.”
All of the band members have links to the Oslo underground music scene. But Takomaha started with guitarist Helge and bassist Espen, who first met at a Solstorm concert in 2012 then put together the first jam in Oslo at Christmas 2013. Espen worked with Joakim (synth and guitars) for a while and met Kim Alexander (drums0 when he played with another band called Tremoro Tarantura.
And on the sound they’ve honed since, Helge tells us: “Spiky, crisp, energetic, frantic. Some hooks but never a chorus. It’s regressive rock, in a good way. If it’s been done before, we try to avoid it. Often leading to a progressive feel that kind of regresses to the mean of what rock is. Spiky guitars and angry vocals.”
Our first taste of this is their eponymous six-track debut album, which was released in September and the band introduced to us with the hook “Guess what! Someone used the pandemic to write and produce an album.”
The album opens up with a lively guitar riff in the intro to Lonestar, which continues under big cried vocals. The pace drops a little with lighter guitars midway through, but it bursts back into life with intense vocals, driving guitars and powerful drums bringing it to a heavy conclusion.
Next up is An Introvert’s Guide To Success, which dives straight into chunky guitars supporting wild vocals. The guitars slow down as the intense vocals take centre stage but it explodes into life with a burst of heavy guitars then high notes followed by stabbing retorts. It continues in a mesmeric fashion with a stabbing riff, electronic noises and driving drums.
Hatechants starts out with similarly mesmeric stabbing high-pitched guitars, which continue under distant vocals. It builds up to a big cry that gives way to a meandering guitar lick then heavy vocals and a pretty intense saxophone solo. Obviously. Give it a listen here:
The short and sweet Thrash Hands launches straight into heavy vocals and more sax and the album concludes with the wild Anchorage. But the highlight may well be the unusual and intriguing Nimmer, which is by far the longest track on the album. It starts out with slow rolling electronic noises that drop into an ambient section then distant echoey vocals take over and chunky guitars return us to the mellow instrumentals supporting the vocals.
The heavy guitars return as the vocals intensify in a huge atmospheric section. That ends with repeating guitars and electronic noises, before a sudden electronic twist as cool stabbing synths take over to bring the track to a close. Check it out here:
On the album, Espen told us: “It’s been great so far! Seems to be hitting the right people while also reaching broader than we initially thought it would.”
And Helge added: “We’ve gotten a pretty good reception, especially on the newer material which kind of paves the way for our sound forward. Combining huge guitars with electronic elements.”
Takomaha draw influence from the likes of At The Drive-In, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and Darkside. As Helge says: “My background in noise rock is more from a metal mindset, so sunn o))) really showed how far you can take droning on a theme. If you ever feel you’re taking it too far, others have taken it further. Right now I’m on a British alt-rock binge, not for song structure inspiration but there’s a lot of great tones to listen to, such as Sea Power and Brakes.”
And on what inspires them to write music, Espen tells us: “Everyday boredom horror combined with the state of the world. The world feels so unfamiliar these days.”
And Helge added: “I’m a gear head, so the best way for me to get inspired is to have an exciting piece of hardware or software to poke the brains of.”
There’s plenty more to come from Takomaha, who started recording new music last month and have started planning for gigs through 2023.
You can follow Takomaha on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Soundcloud and YouTube.
Listen to Takomaha on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Nordic and GigRadar Rock
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