''Holidays in Europe (The Naughty Nought)'', was the third and last album released by the
Icelandic Goth Rock group
KUKL in
January 24 ,
1986 . This album was more complex in comparison to the ''
The Eye '', with the folksy and pseudo-oriental flutes, bells and pipes of that previous album abandoned on favour of keyboards and samples. The music on this record contains scrawny guitars, electronic noise, and distorted samples and keyboards.
''Holidays in Europe (The Naughty Nought)'' opens with “Outward Flight” (”Psalm 323)” a track which begins with a sample of a flight attendant welcoming to flight on board
Icelandair . The drums accompanied by synthesizers and keyboard parts help sound like tuned percussion.
“A Mutual Thrill” commences with heavily-echoed sounds, and digitally altered chamber music until there is room for scratchy guitars and distorted keyboards that contrive to create a chaotic rhythm.
Einar Örn screams “Through the window!!!” along the track while
Björk sings in Icelandic.
"Just by the Book" is widely thought of by fans as one of the best songs on this album. The guitars played by and the Bible.
The topic of the art cover is the “naughty nought”, that is, zero in power of itself equals unity (0
0=1). So, the meaning of this is that nothing in its own power can create something.
KUKL were:
Recording and mix: Southern Studios ,
London , between October, 1984 and October, 1985.
Engineering: Mel Jefferson
Production: Penny Lapsang Rimbaud
Collaborators:
Reissue: Smekkleysa/Bad Taste in 2002.
