Royksopp
The Understanding

So, where to begin...

Let's say it like this. This album already has a review on DeB, and I don't usually do duplicates, but my heart ached seeing this record reviewed in this manner: click here. So, I decided to make one with my own holy hands... yes, I am the one from Maiden and Tori Amos, and you might wonder what I have to do with electronic music. Well, I have two answers:

A) In general, I don't close myself off from wonderful worlds due to preconceived notions.

B) In reality, electronic music covers almost 50% of my musical world, and so I always live in any genre with the (mental) status of an infiltrator, and I like that!

Anyway, here's the Review:

This is the second album by Norwegian duo Royksopp, who navigate the pop-electronic universe with many nods to British-style drum & bass and some winks at German-style trance.

The first "Melody A.M." was a phenomenon at the time; in fact, it managed to find some success with the public despite being dominated by Ambient atmospheres (which, to be fair, were less evident in the singles). In contrast, this album sees the Berge-Brundtland duo tackling much less conventional themes for their Nordic character, offering extensive forays into far more mainstream electronic music but without losing the elegance typical of their latitude.

It's worth noting that after the rise of Air (especially their first album, which is still very beautiful), this commercialization of electronic music has led subsequent synthetic experiences to somewhat resemble each other. However, our duo crams so much into this album, playing on the fragile balance of staying true to typically Nordic and thus minimalistic sounds (a sort of North Sea style House) while also indulging in more "French sophistications" as in the beautiful "Circuit Breaker" and the unusual "Someone like Me" or with Kraut-style evolutions as in the opener "Triumphant". Then they allow themselves to indulge in a truly pleasing Pop flair that dominates in the two singles, the dreamy "Only this Moment" and the emotive "What else is There?" sung by a very cool Karin Dreijer (listen to believe: it's the classic warm chill...).

Electro-Pop with extensive references to Dance, without ever exceeding with the clichés typical of this latter genre, instead possibly finding new experimental paths like in the pseudo-banal "Alpha-Male", which, while it may initially cause a frown, eventually compels anyone (and I mean anyone!) into a wild head-banging spree...

In short, gusts of Nordic cold that have never felt warmer accompany the listener throughout the album, and once again my advice is "Listen without Prejudices..."