Send "Serena Maneesh " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Drownedinsound |
 Serena Maneesh's second album has the word 'abyss' in its title because it was recorded in a cave.... Wait for it.... ... How very underground. While this is just the sort of thing you'd expect from a posse of imposing Scandinavian shoegazers, you can't really stop the 'redundant, much?' thought from flitting across your brain. Surely the attraction that lies at the core of every Serena Maneesh song we've heard so far is how effectively it manages to replicate the soothing ambience of a chilly grotto without having to resort to actually being in such a grotto. So... why? 'Because we're Serena Maneesh and we can do whatever the fuck we want' ... would be a totally acceptable response. S-M never said that, but it'd be understandable if they did. However, our frontman Emile Nikolaisen's reasoning is: “Studio environments often get on my nerves, and I love the underworld.” Fair enough, Mr. Nikolaisen, fair enough. While comparisons to My Bloody Valentine are, in S-M's case, completely justified, this album carries with it an aesthetic much more overpoweringly reminiscent of MBV's American cousins Medicine. Take 'Just Want To See Your Face' and stuff it in Shot Forth Self Living and you will see it blend in seamlessly with the rest of the album, as the hyperventilating eardrum-piercing squeal that opens it eventually calms down and sews itself securely into the border of a fuzzy sonic cushion littered with vocal hairballs - this elaborate haberdashery being exactly what went down in 1992's ‘Aruca’. Similarly, the hazily delicate voice on 'Reprobate!' finds itself engaging in some uncharacteristically forceful behaviour as it pushes its way through a wall of screaming distortion that threatens to crush it....full text |
| Nme |
| Under the cloud of impending Conservative rule, a shitted economy and a BBC that’s frankly gone mad, you need a soundtrack that catches the mood of a nation. Step forward shoegaze miserablists Serena Maneesh. Recorded in a cave near Oslo, natch, this gloriously dark second album begins with the dystopia of ‘Ayisha Abyss’ – relentless drums and discordant keyboards with all the beauty of being trapped in an abandoned Siberian power station. My Bloody Valentine would be proud, as would Asobi Seksu for the odd girl-vocal whimsy. There are lighter moments, like the urgent rock wig-out of ‘Blow Yr Brains In The Mourning Rain’. What?! These are dark times, you know…...full text |
| Pitchfork |
| When Sufjan Stevens turned up in the credits to the self-titled 2006 debut from Norwegian fuzz-rockers Serena-Maneesh, it seemed pretty random-- his fresh-faced orch-pop being about a million vibe-levels removed from their nodded-out lurch. But now, four years later, S-M have finally gotten around to dropping a follow up, and hey, Sufjan's back again, adding barely perceptible instrumental flourishes (vibraphone, flute, piano) to the general maelstrom. Here Sufjan's presence makes a little bit more sense. Like his Scandinavian co-conspirators, Sufjan likes his jams elaborate. And though the absurdly titled S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor might not bring the layered twee overkill of, say, Illinois, it's still busy as all hell. This time around, Serena-Maneesh face down the Loveless challenge more directly and bravely than any of their neo-shoegaze peers. While most effects-pedal new jacks are content to let their guitar whoosh enhance their diffuse hooks, Serena-Maneesh use noise and pop against each other, staging an internal war in every single track. The band does write hooks, but those hooks have to claw their way through layers of wriggling noise to reach sunlight. To get to track two, album-highlight and single "I Just Want to See Your Face", you have to make it through "Ayisha Abyss", a seven-minute instrumental motorik dirge caked in crackly, inscrutable shards of walkie-talkie chatter. And you'd think "Face", a three-minute love song, would prove a lot friendlier, but no, not really. Even there, everything seems to be fighting everything else, as staticy half-formed guitar riffs push against each other, and the melody, while pretty, never quite resolves. Serena-Maneesh make your ears work....full text |
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