Image
Bands

Post-Punk Stalwarts Permafrost Debut Icy New Single “Femme Fatale”

Norwegian post-punk outfit Permafrost are back in the game. Today they released a new single, Femme Fatale, a track self-produced, mixed by Paul Corkett (The Cure, Placebo), mastered at Abbey Road, and released on the band’s own Fear of Music label, through TBC Records/Secretly Noord distribution.

School friends Frode Heggdal Larsen & Kåre Steinsbu formed Permafrost in the town of Molde, on the west coast of Norway in 1982.

“Famous for, among other things, its ‘Atlantic Road’, huge jazz and literary festivals, its football team, and breathtaking scenery, Molde was a little sleepier in the immediate post-punk era,” the band reflects. “There were a couple of bars putting on rock bands but nothing exciting.” Avid record collectors, the friends shared copies of NME and asked older friends to pick up the more unorthodox records for them on trips to Oslo.

Taking their name from a Magazine song, Permafrost found their sound influence in bands like Joy Division, Pere Ubu, Yello, Fad Gadget, The Cure, Talking Heads, The Residents, Wire, and Wolfgang Press.

Permafrost began as a lo-fi affair, but their songs were intricate and uniquely structured, and heavily influenced by Norwegian authors Knut Hamsun and Jens Bjørneboe. This precocious, cultured sound earned respect from older peers playing in punk bands. Despite only being able to play private shows due to their age, the band’s audience grew. But after several line-up changes, expanding to being at one point a six-piece, Permafrost decided to deactivate for a while by the mid-eighties.

After a brief revival in 1992, the band went into cold storage once again until 2001. Robert Heggdal, an old friend of Frode and Kåre, joined the band. Another Moldenser expat called Trond Tornes joined the crew, bringing a rich history of musical influences, and Permafrost was reborn again, solidifying the lineup in 2016 with the addition of Englishman Daryl Bamonte on synths.

To date, Permafrost’s former incarnation has only released two albums: the Godtment EP (on a limited edition of 50 numbered cassettes) in 1983, and the Permafrost EP (on vinyl only) in 2019. After mostly working remotely from Oslo, Trondheim, and London, the band are putting the finishing touches on their debut album, out sometime this year on Fear of Music. Femme Fatale will be complemented by the band’s own Dark North Remix.

Listen to “Femme Fatale” below:

Follow Permafrost:

Alice Teeple

Alice Teeple is a photographer, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. She is not in Tin Machine.

Recent Posts

  • Bands

Toronto Shoegazers Rituals Debut Hazy Post-Punk Single “Illusions”

Toronto shoegaze outfit Rituals first stirred to life in 2009, a quiet experiment in Adam Seward’s small, dim room, where…

20 hours ago
  • Bands

Filled with Fire — Swiss Cold Wavers Future Faces Unveil Video for “Neon Outlines”

Filled with fire Come to me Suspended with so much pleasure No matter how scared we may be To live…

21 hours ago
  • Bands

Starlight Star Bright — Icelandic Trio Kælan Mikla Pull Down the Veil of Night in Their Video for “Stjörnuljós”

Be a starlight once more that guides me in the dead of night and when your fire weakens I shall…

2 days ago
  • Bands

Qual Unleashes Sci-Fi Apocalyptic Video for Primal EBM Jam “Funeral Fashion”

Sarcophagus golden carcass Sarcophagus rigor mortis Drenched in cataclysm and curled in dystopian dread, Qual—William Maybelline’s fierce alter ego—seizes the…

3 days ago
  • Bands

Los Angeles Duo Faith In Flesh Inject Chilling EBM and Darkwave into Their Unsettling Video for “Psychodermatology”

Skin sloughed off Exposed rot Sickness spied Wet, weak eyes Lacerated soul Psychodermatology is a medical field that studies the…

4 days ago
  • Bands

Philadelphia’s Cigarettes for Breakfast Prescribe Heartrending Shoegaze Panacea “Numb the Pain”

Loving something you shouldn’t is like clutching a live wire—painful, charged, and impossible to release. You know it’s wrong, yet…

4 days ago
Sticky Footer Banner with Close Button