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Rating:
Of the two "Kings of Convenience," the Norwegian duo from Bergen that gave us two wonderful folk masterpieces (or new acoustic, if you prefer), Erlend Øye (pronounced E, I believe), is the more musically eclectic and the less physically attractive. With that geeky look (a very "cool" term), he almost seems to come out of the movie Napoleon Dynamite due to his quirkiness, and the name of this project probably takes inspiration from his not exactly Caribbean complexion.
"Dreams," from 2006, is the first album under the name WBA, which intrigued me a lot, mainly because of how he managed to "mess things up," in the company of Berlin DJ Marcin Oez who plays the bass here.
Oye took songs in the style of Kings Of Convenience and, with his unmistakable voice and insatiable desire to experiment, decontextualized them by rearranging them Funk, despite their melancholic feel, with bass front and center and a pulsating drum; but hold on, it's not an "UNZ UNZ" album, to be clear, nor "BEIBE BEIBE" or "beibobeibo" (the great Elio ELST!).
There are some nice bass riffs, one in particular on the verge of plagiarism of a not at all famous song by the Police, and the guitar becomes vaguely post-punk at times, but always tiptoeing, almost unplugged.
Thus, the musical label to stick to it is minimalist Funk, but it's impossible (and thankfully so) to provide a genre indication. Let's rather say it's an album of smart pop that makes you tap your foot on various occasions, with (deconstructed) Dance songs that are the simplest ever heard. Brilliant! Great job pale Erlend!...
...but spend fifteen minutes on the terrace every now and then...!
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