Papir III

Papir's majestic third album back in print on vinyl for the first time in eight years!

On this album, produced by Causa Sui's Jonas Munk, the band really found their sound, blending powerful semi-improvised psychedelia with jazz and atmospheric post-rock. At this point the Copenhagen trio had become masters of their craft, mixing together new and old, heaviness and ambience. Now, ten years after its original release, it stands as one of the highlights of post-millennial psychedelia.

When Mojo writer Kieron Tyler visited Denmark's renowned SPOT Festival in the summer of 2012 he was blown away by Papir's performance as an experience that clearly stood out compared to the rest of the bill: It takes a lot to stand out at SPOT...but Copenhagen's Papir are arresting. Their guitar, bass and drums mesh powerfully in an intense, jazz-inflected instrumental rock. Voyaging through post-rock Tortoise terrain, it nods towards Hawkwind's freak outs and employs liberal dollops of wah-wah pedal. The pieces - not songs - twist and turn like Dark Star Grateful Dead.

From these jumping off points, Papir scurry off on their own path. These guys are certainly on their own path and Papir III is one of their most fully realised albums to date. It encompasses everything the band represents in a single piece of heavy vinyl – from explosive, guitar-solo driven peaks through motorick-krautrock grooves to peaceful and atmospheric soundscapes. Like its predecessor the album was recorded during a single intense week in a small house in the Danish countryside, masterfully engineered and produced by Jonas Munk (Causa Sui), capturing the band in the midst of their creative prime.