Ten Questions to ... Karl Morten Dahl (Antipole)

Wonderful “wave” project Antipole, based in the lovely city of Trondheim in Western Norway, has just released its second remix compilation, Perspectives II. I must at the outset confess that remix albums are not exactly my favourite genre, ranking alongside live albums as exercises in often needlessly ruining perfectly good original songs. If the original artists had wanted to add cowbells or muffle a great guitar riff, they would have done so, and remix albums have always struck me as being the musical equivalent of a well-meaning friend taking over and finishing off a favourite anecdote for you.

The sheer genius of the late Andrew Weatherall has a lot to do with this, I reckon. His inspired reworking of an old Primal Scream song, I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have, to create the seminal Loaded on 1991’s Screamadelica meant that suddenly everyone thought they were a remixer. My personal nadir arrived in 1994 with the purchase – for fifteen pounds, a lot of money to me at the time – of Two Fingers, My Friends, a double remix CD of Pop Will Eat Itself’s finest album, Dos Dedros, Mi Amigos. I could hardly wait to load it into the CD tray, packed as it was with the handiwork of some of that generation’s most talented and innovative artists, from Youth and Jah Wobble to J.G. Thirlwell and Aki Nawaz. My excitement quickly turned to horror and dismay as PWEI’s snarling, knowing, self-deprecating industrial grebo dancecore was replaced by dismal extended sequences of loops and bleeps, dub passages and the occasional vaguely recognisable fragment of vocal. The next weekend I took it to the local reliable 2nd hand record store, who refused to buy it off me on the grounds that they had already had plenty of stock as other people had done the same thing.

However, the remix album seems to be making something of a comeback these days, with a She Past Away set out this month, and it seems that pretty much everyone in the darkwave community is at present remixing each other’s work, strengthening the links between artists and inspiring them to try out new sounds.  One act which has embraced this way of working is Antipole, with Karl Morten Dahl putting out an album consisting mainly of remixed versions of songs from the debut album Northern Flux under the title Perspectives in 2018, and this year he has repeated the trick with Perspectives II, which is primarily reworkings of tracks of one of my favourite albums of 2019, Radial Glare.

Approaching the album with low expectations, I was pleased to find that all of the songs were still clearly recognisable from the original, and that most of the remixers had added some of their own signature elements to the sound. Although having chosen a completely different set of artists to do the remixing this time around, Karl Morten Dahl opted primarily for synthwave artists, meaning that (to summarise the overall effect) most tracks end up as more dancefloor-oriented than the originals, with a stronger backbeat and with additional synth hooks, potentially opening up a new audience for Antipole.

For me, however, the appeal of the band has always been the relatively low-fi appeal of the sound, with plenty of “space” between the different musical elements and the dominance of Dahl’s heavily-reverbed staccato guitar riffs, which are mixed significantly lower or even removed at times (sacrilege!) on some of these reworked versions. The ethereal vocals of Paris Alexander, Marc Lewis and Eirene are also inevitably tinkered with on most tracks, meaning that on occasions their essential vulnerability is lost, although certain lyrics are enhanced by the process.

Nevertheless, there are some very interesting new takes on familiar songs here, with established goth act European Ghost appropriately adding a spookier atmosphere to Here I Am but with a surprisingly light touch, whilst Ill Humans achieve the near impossible by making Antipole sound like Soft Cell on their remix of Everything. Not every track from Radial Glare appears here – my personal favourite Part Deux has mercifully escaped the remixer’s virtual scalpel on this occasion – with the welcome bonus of a couple of older tracks in the mix, and for me the album highlight is Costa Rican remixer Caidas Libres' Coral Joy, a reworking of a track from Antipole’s debut EP, enhanced here with a scuzzy bass riff and a perfect way to round off the album.

Whilst not as exciting a release as a brand new original Antipole album, Perspectives II is a welcome addition to the band’s canon and as its title suggests, gives a new slant on some well-loved songs. Those involved in attempting the remixes deserve praise for attempting to improve on songs which in my view were already pretty much perfect.

This new release gave me the perfect opportunity to pester the genial Karl Morten Dahl, who also supplied the distinctive guitar riff on Kill Shelter’s seminal track In Decay, with a request for an interview, and he immediately got back to me with these fascinating responses.

Perspectives II and other Antipole releases are available from their Bandcamp store.


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1.       Your second remix album which came out last month, Perspectives II, has a completely set of remixers to its predecessor. Why did you decide to go down that route?

Karl Morten Dahl: There are so many amazing contemporary artists within the genre of postpunk/darkwave/coldwave these days so I decided I wanted to have a whole new set of remixers for this edition. Another factor was that I assume most artists don't fancy doing multiple remixes of the same artists.

2.       How do you go about selecting the artists to remix your tracks. Do they get in touch with you or vice vera (or a bit of both). Do you sometimes receive unsolicited remixes which people have done?

Karl Morten Dahl: I've mostly been asking them, but a few also asked me if they could do a remix and I've suggested 1-2 track(s) for them to choose from. I want to make sure that the right artist remix the right song. Based on the original works of the artist or previous remixes they've done, I try to imagine what song could fit that soundscape/mood/production. I try to control it a bit, but luck by accident comes in handy sometimes too! And, no, not really, I don't receive unsollicited remixes and I'm thankful for that. I want to be involved and most importantly them to have the original stems/tracks of the song so it gets as good as possible.

3.       How do you decide which artists remixes which track?

Karl Morten Dahl: Even though I'm trying to make each original track as excellent as possible with Paris Alexander and Eirene, you have to decide what angle or approach you want to choose for the track. What you want to emphasize or how electronic or dark you decide it should be. So there are always other interesting ways to attack the song. I try to ask artists that I think could do something interesting with the track. With the original tracks I want to emphasize the dark, melancholic, coldwave/postpunk side of the tracks. Many of the remixes turn out more fit for the dancefloor.

4.       Do you give remixers a brief? What happens if you don’t like what they’ve done to your “baby”?

Karl Morten Dahl: No, I trust the artists and bands. It's in their hands being remixed and hopefully they work hard enough to get under the skin of the song and it can become a bit of their “baby” too. Since I don't want to direct anything other than choosing the ones to ask or to say “yes” to, I can't expect to love all remixes. But I love most of them and they all have something to them which I like and find interesting.

5.       Your trademark guitar is inevitably less prominent on the remixes. Does this help you to envisage different directions for the future Antipole sound?

Karl Morten Dahl: I can definitely imagine my songs having an even more electronic and less guitar-oriented production. I want to explore more in that direction, but I can only play the guitar and bass and I'm no producer, so I guess it depends on who I am working with. I have a KORG minilogue and me and my girlfriend Anne-Christel are trying to learn how to use it, but I feel more confident and at home with my guitar. Working with Paris Alexander and Eirene I aim for the combination of my guitars and postpunk-ish bass and cold electronic synths and beats. Working with more goth-oriented producers it could go in a different direction. I want to do more songs with Paris Alexander and Eirene (hopefully they do too!), but I don't want to limit myself to that. I don't necessarily want to “Northern Flux/Radial Glare part 3".

6.       On Perspectives II, there is no remix of Part Deux. Why was this omitted?

Karl Morten Dahl: There is a remix of Part Deux by Paris Alexander on the Perspectives vol 1 remix album released late 2018. So it didn't feel right to do another remix of it.

7.       A couple of older songs were also included on the new remix album. How did they get selected?

Karl Morten Dahl: I choose the older tracks I like best and I feel have more potential to them than revealed on my original instrumental recording. Not sure if there are more older tracks to be remixed now…

8.       When asked to describe the Antipole sound in interviews, you’ve said that it’s an “uplifting darkness”. Which aspects of the band are enhanced by the remix process, do you think?

Karl Morten Dahl: I would say the uplifting side of the songs. Most of them are more danceable and uplifting, but on the other side the Undertheskin and European Ghost remixes are even darker than the originals so there is a bit of both. I get that feeling when I listen to Disintegration by The Cure. It's melancholic and sad, but there's a beautiful uplifting, calming side to it too.

9.       You’ve remixed the track Sonbahar for the new She Past Away remix album. What were you aiming to achieve with the remix?

Karl Morten Dahl: Sonbahar is one of my favourites from their latest album. We wanted to make it more upbeat than the original. Keeping the key elements of the original while as always doing remixes trying to add Antipole-ish guitars and synths. Honoured doing it and I was a bit anxious doing the She Past Away remix, but Doruk really liked it so I'm happy and excited about it whatever the She Past Away fans will say. I hope they'll like it! Eirene added some really beautiful and haunting backing vocals which fit the track perfect.

10.   Which artist(s) would you most like to get the chance to do an official remix for in the future?

Karl Morten Dahl: I was asked this question two years ago and I think my answer was “Clan of Xymox and She Past Away”. Now me and Paris Alexander have done official remixes of both so I don't know if I dare to wish for more. We'll do fewer remixes going forward. We don't want people to get bored and think "yet another remix", but Boy Harsher would be amazing to do. I love Boy Harsher and it would really interesting to add guitars to their songs. But maybe they hate guitars. I don't have a clue.

My grateful thanks to Karl Morten Dahl for providing such clear and insightful answers to my questions. Any "elder goths" who were fans of The Cure or the 4AD label are strongly recommended to check out Antipole, one of the very few artists I can listen to without headphones when the resolutely non-goth Mrs L is in the vicinity!