The DØ “Shake, Shook, Shaken” Album Review

By Ian Ramos
KTSW Music

Artist: The DØ
Album: Shake, Shook Shaken

French/Finnish duo The DØ creeps into one’s psyche. With liquid vocals and lucid bass, The DØ posess lyrical wisdom on 2015’s Shake, Shook, Shaken.

The first tracks are personal. The listener floats through plush vibratory streams, creating the subtle nuance of an impactful record. Organs clashing atmospherically, they coalesce with synthetic techno. Drums drip with trap beats and dub harmonies. Layered and escapist, by track #5, “Going Through Walls”, they are chopping grunge up and digging rhythmic sutures.

The highlight of the record is Track #6, Despair, Hangover, and Ecstasy. The DØ transform sensitive melodies into a guttural howls of Dionysian revelry.

The latter half of the record descends into personal and metaphysical exploration.  The tracks slow down but their drive doesn’t relent. Multi-instrumentalist Dan Levy and vocalist Olivia Merilahti produce sensual portraits of their psychological states. They interact on high frequencies exposing their own vulnerability. Track #9, “Lick My Wounds,” is tinged with tragedy. It flows effervescently and flutters around us. It engages the listener by pulling empathy out of drum machines and synthesizers.

By the end of the record, The DØ is on a lyrical and vocal trip floating high above the atmosphere. They come down from their cloud to warm us with cadence and assuage us with a melancholic lyricism, “Out of joy, no stories can be told.” This is a defining line for the record; it is sung by a voice whole and round that wants us to dance and to reflect.