Olof Dreijer & Mt. Sims – “Hybrid Fruit”

Earlier this year, we got a kind of unofficial reunion of the Knife. The game-changing Swedish duo broke up in 2014, and Karin Dreijer focused on their solo project Fever Ray. Earlier this year, Fever Ray released the Radical Romantics album, and Karin’s brother and Knife bandmate Olof Dreijer served as co-producer. Now, Olof is teaming up with one of the Knife’s old collaborators for a new LP.

The Milwaukee-born and Berlin-based producer Matthew Sims used to be the frontman of the late-’90s band Citizen King. Remember that band? “Better Days (And The Bottom Drops Out)”? I liked that song. Sims, now known as Mt. Sims, collaborated with the Knife and Planningtorock on the 2010 opera Tomorrow, In A Year. Now, Olof Dreijer and Mt. Sims are announcing the collaborative LP Souvenir, which they’ve apparently made after spending 10 years researching the colonial history of the steel drum.

The first single from the five-track Souvenir is called “Hybrid Fruit,” and it’s a hypnotic, meditative eight-minute instrumental built around layered steel drum sounds. In a press release, Dreijer says, “We tried to find our own thing. That’s usually our way around using an instrument that has been heavily exoticized and appropriated.” Below, listen to “Hybrid Fruit” and check out the Souvenir tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Liten Karin”
02 “Hybrid Fruit”
03 “A Vessel Of Clay”
04 “Breaths Of Clay”
05 “Across This Mud”

Souvenir is out 6/9 on Rabid Records.