With the release of their recent album Big city life, the Copenhagen/Oslo duo Smerz jumped right to the top of a recent class of sharp, exploratory Scandinavian underground pop scientists. Copenhagen in particular has been a hotbed of that stuff lately, and Big city life fits right in alongside recent records from peers like Erika de Casier and ML Buch. But Smerz's reach extends far beyond Denmark. They've attracted the attention of plenty of other artists, including the elusive Sky Ferreira, who recently joined them onstage in LA. Now, Smarz have a new Big city life companion-piece record that doubles as a summit meeting of the duo's peers.
Smerz's new collection Big city life EDITS isn't quite a remix album, and it isn't quite an album of covers, either. Instead, the group brings in a number of likeminded artists to reinterpret the tracks from the LP in their own ways. The record includes most of the big-name acts from the present-day Copenhagen scene, including Erika de Casier, ML Buch, and Astrid Sonne. I especially like the spell that Fine weaves with Smerz's song "A thousand lies."
But the acts who contribute to Big city life EDITS don't just come from Copenhagen. Sky Ferreira is sadly not involved, but we do get They Are Gutting A Body Of Water making shoegaze magic with the title track and a very cool version of "You got time and I got money" from Clairo and VVTZJ. There's also a take on the same track that brings together Elias Rønnenfelt, Fousheé, MIKE, and Tinashe/Vince Staples collaborator Zack Sekoff. Stream Big city life EDITS below.
Big city life EDITS is out now on escho.
