Merilahti cities Iceland's Björk as one of her influences and it is very evident with their music. At the same time, I detect a bit of Marina And The Diamonds as well as The Cardigans' Nina Presson. The first song we have is "Slippery Slope," a track with a haunting drum beat and I love the touch near the end of the song where the lyrics, "Guide has died" is sung backwards.
The band cites the Japanese horror classic "Onibaba" as influence for the imagery, though anyone familiar with Japanese cinema during the 60s and 70s will know the vivid color changes across a white backdrop to invoke emotion was a common theme.Come to think of it, when it comes to conveying emotion in a minimalism manner, has there been an influential and oft-used storytelling technique since that? Alas, that's a different conversation at a different time. The clip below is another song by The Dø, "Too Insistent," a bittersweet melody about a relationship that should not be.
Fun fact, the dancing that the elder couple do in the video was not choreographed in any way. It was all done on the fly as the cameras were rolling.
It is in these two songs you see just how wide of a range Merilahti and Levy have. You listen to their songs on their website and no two songs sound the same because of Levy's jack of all trades talent with various instruments (I think the better question to ask is what instruments does Levy not play) and Merilahti's inspiration in so many diverse singers and songwriters. Because of this, it is almost impossible to put The Dø in just one genre. The Dø are just (no pun intended) doing what they do and that's make some good music.
The Dø (official website)
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