Even though—or maybe because—summer only lasts for a couple weeks in Copenhagen, it’s a recurring theme for the Danish post-punk quartet Communions. While September’s “So Long Sun” mourned summer’s end, the melodrama of their latest single, “Summer’s Oath”, recalls a Hollywood beach party.
Communions share a practice space with former posh isolation labelmates Iceage and Lower, but though their riffs are equally cold, their message is brighter. When frontman Martin Rehof sings of a summer’s oath, “On my mind tonight / on her mind tonight,” above gauzy guitars and driving, hissing percussion, Communions evoke the best rock band from your high school. They’re talking about heartache with all the insistence of a teen who knows that theirs is the most important thing in the world. Surf rock would have sounded like “Summer’s Oath” were Los Angeles’ endless summers as short and cool as Copenhagen’s. As it stands, the boys of Communions make the most of a shortened carefree season. Their translation of saccharine, direct Californian guitar pop into fuzzy post-punk is an exercise in Danish efficiency.
“Summer’s Oath” appears on Communions’ eponymous EP, out now on Tough Love Records. You can stream it below.
