"How Scandinavian of me!"

Ok ... there must be something about all that ice and the snow but these scandy's really know their way around the cold tectonic plates of electronic music. They understand the pulses and the bleeps and the blops better than anyone else ... and they certainly have a vast tradition to draw on ... all that genetic musical memory must divulge itself in new and interesting ways as the decades roll on ... I'm hoping I'm not jinxing this but here are 2 alpine examples that point to a revitalisation of the genre ...

(i) Fever Ray - Self Titled

The side project of Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife. Abba this is not, and it could very well be contender for Album of the year for me. This is how I prefer my electronic music - dark and brooding. With Karin's strident overdubbed vocals like banshees for BVs barely contained or vocodered into mannish almost lycanthropic proportions ... this is not something you want to be putting on late at night when you're all alone in the dark ... In conjunction with the release of the album, here are 2 accompanying vids to whet your appetite ... inscrutable and creepy!!

 



(ii) Royskopp - Junior

Flipside of the coin .. this is bouncy, happy charm dance music ... with a hot list of scandinavian electro goddesses on guest vocals including Karrin, Robyn and Lykke Li ... you may disdain of Royskopp's borderline commerciality, but you certainly couldn't resist some if not all of its charms, at least until the next car/drink/electronic product ad or the ad nauseuam radio airplay sets in ... so get in quick and enjoy it now before the nuff nuffs get their tacky hands in.



Review here.

Oh and both of these CDs are currently priced at $19.99 each over at JBs ... c'mon ... there's a fraction of the stimulus package!!

And just for shits and giggles ... another fun mash-up ... remember them ("thats when we used to vote for him").