In the film, though surprisingly not the original book, of High Fidelity, our hero Rob explains that making a mixtape is a tricky business: “You’re using someone else’s poetry to say what you feel”. Danish DJ Anders Trentemø ller is trying just the same thing with Harbour Boat Trips - 01: Copenhagen. And he’s doing a fairly good job. This is, apparently, “music to boat to”.

Now That’s What I Call The Best of Banging Anthems in the World Volume IX this is not. Each track has been specially chosen to reflect a certain mood - a snap shot of Trentemø leer’s current musical landscape. If he’d compiled this collection a week later, or a week before, the end result would have been entirely different.

As such, this is a very personal sounding CD, rather like your best mate inviting you back to listen to some records.The records in question revolve loosely around a Post Punk/Eighties Alternative vibe featuring Suicide’s “Cheree” and the DJ’s fellow Danes’ relatively faithful retelling of Joy Divisions’ “She’s Lost Control”. There is also a guest appearance of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” mixed seamlessly with a lesser known track, “Copenhagen” by the Copenhagen Collective. Occasionally, a diversion from the underbelly of 80s miserablism can be found, such as the gloriously chilled psychedelia of Brian Jonestown Massacre and their song “Anenome”.

The joy of any good compilation is the opportunity it provides the listener to make discoveries amidst the safety of more familiar songs. And so it is with Harbour Boat Trips. Three tracks in particular leap out; Graven Hurst’s “I Turn My Face to the Forest Floor”, Emiliana Torrini’s “Lifesaver” and I Got You on Tape’s “Somersault”. Happily, these songs sit side by side on Trentemø ller’s play list so you don’t have to skip too far to find them.

“I Turn my Face to the Forest Floor” is a song filled with a brooding intensity to set the mood for what is to come. For all the fast flowing guitar lines, delivered with the lightest of touches, there is much darkness here: “You’re only a stone’s throw from all the violence you buried years ago”. It’s a grim, grim song filled with foreboding complete with tolling bells and thudding drums.

“Lifesaver” is, by contrast, a gentle song with the most delicate of vocals quivering over a simple rippling guitar and a hypnotic creaking sound, evoking the mesmeric movement of a ship upon water. For an album dedicated to the notion of harbours, boats and all things nautical, this is the song that most conjures up a life on the ocean wave.

“Somersault” meanwhile replaces the solo female vocal with a chorus of male voices but retains the same chilled tone reserved for much of the album. It’s a song tinged with regret and sadness for things left undone and for absent friends, but remains utterly gorgeous.

Where Harbour Boat Trips falls slightly is in its repeated use of a couple of the artists. While there is nothing particularly wrong with the music of The Raveonettes or Suicide, the logic of a compilation is slightly confused by the reoccurring presence of some artists.

Nevertheless, for all this reviewer’s nitpickings, Anders Trentemø ller has produced an excellent collection of songs. The albums strikes a good balance between old favourites and new discoveries. This is music, if not to boat to, then certainly to chill out and generally relax to.

Rating: 8/10

Format: Album

Release date: 01/06/09

Record Label: HFN

15/06/09 - First published on noizemakesenemies.co.uk on this link