Peter Kernel White Death, Black Heart

Before this disc landed in my mailbox I d been under the impression for pretty much the entire time prior that Peter Kernel was some sort of solo project from a male singer/songwriter type. I thought it was a little strange that this would be sent to me if so and furthermore that it would be released on a label like Africantape. I was surprised and honestly a bit relieved to know that it was actually a Swiss-Canadian three piece. Things made a bit more sense from that point on, albeit not without some difficulty. Peter Kernel, much like their name, are not a group that can be quite figured out by simple early assumptions as I learned. With White Death Black Heart, it marks the bands second full-length album and one that doesn t hide its arty intentions. I can see where it would be easy to get the wrong idea here and believe that Peter Kernel are merely throwing themselves into a rapidly growing pile of overly pretentious indie/art-rock bands and hoping for the sort of crowd that eats that up to do so, however the subject matter is most certainly not one that screams look and listen to me and that itself is refreshing to hear. Their approach has an inherent post-punk or throw back indie-rock vibe to it and they have enough sense to keep things in balance here. Both bassist Barbara Lehnoff and guitarist Aris Bassetti share vocal duties on White Death Black Heart, putting together an interesting clashing of moods with Lehnoff s more confident proclamation like delivery shoved against Bassetti s noticeably awkward shakiness at times. I can get behind what they are doing, although I feel it s going to be an album that will either find an audience in large or will be sadly lost in the shuffle. Time will tell. Built On A Weakspot