Hope I Die Virgin

Hope I Die Virgin have - with their chaste and low key mix of rainy british indie and Dischord sound - been a cult band reserved a few seeking souls. Two self released EP's, the most recent produced by fellow norwegian Emil Nikolaisen of Serena Maneesh, recieved nods of approval from besserwissers. Still the band with the strange name have been walking by themselves in the murky mud on the banks of Oslo's underground, barely visible for the past two years.

Hope I Die Virgin let the world be and created an alternate reality in Harrys Gym studio through innumerable sessions in 2009 and 2010. Is Forever No Way was from the beginning a megalomaniac project - a fantasy of a record so extensive, so deep and discomposing that the world had never heard anything like it. The more time the band spent in the studio, the more self-exhausting theirambitions became. Every bass note, every last beating of the cymbals have been subjected to infinite interpretation and assosiation processes. Every chord shift has been analysed with astrological and scientifical intent. The texts, on the other hand, are earthy, yet spiritual, and range from a homage to a norwegian journalists masculine beauty to unbridled drug fantasies from the perspective of a drug virgin.

All these corridors of musical excess were finally fed to Christian Engfelts mixing table. There they were carefully combed and cut to generally understandable song structures, melodies and rhythms. Bob Weston (Shellac, Mission of Burma) sealed the madness with his mastering. He assures that the album now is ready to be set onto the public world and can be used on internet and radio, as well as analogue home systems. All the audience has to do is chose a format of choice; vinyl, cd or one of the modern digital solutions.

Now everyday people with everyday chores can live their everyday lives and consume Hope I Die Virgin's debut without having to face the qualms, mental as well as aesthetic, that lie behind. On the surface it seems like Is Forever No Way is a perfectly ordinary record.

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