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Rating: Oook. Take a look at the cover of this album right away to understand what we're talking about. Here we have that old bastard Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) from John Carpenter's film 'Big Trouble In Little China' running away from a whole series of Chinese demons and monsters, and then there are ninjas shooting at him with guns, and there's a dragon, and he's carrying a girl on his shoulders, 'La femme chinoise' with green eyes, who has probably been the inspiration for a song by the Yellow Magic Orchestra in their album released way back in November 1978 and...
So, you know what old Jack Burton says on dark and stormy nights. When lightning flashes, thunder rumbles, and the rain falls in heavy lead-like drops. Just remember what old Jack Burton does. When arrows come from the sky in the form of rain and the thunder shakes the pillars of the sky. In situations like these, old Jack Burton looks right into the eye of the raging cyclone and says something like, 'Give it your best shot, pal. You don't scare me.'
Again. There's a moment at the end of the film when our heroes have finally won their battle against Lo-Pan and defeated the demonic forces of darkness, where Jack Burton asks the old Egg-Shen if it's time to take a vacation after all this, and then he says, 'Why not in China? You could go back home...' And he replies, looking sideways as usual with that gaze both stupidly and infinitely wise, 'Go back to China, you say? No. There's no need. I've already been there and I carry it with me wherever I go.'
Here we are. What do you know about the Far East. I mean, what do you really know about the Far East. Have you ever been to China? Have you ever been to Japan, India, Afghanistan, or one of the two Koreas? Probably not. I haven’t been there, and who knows if I ever will. But surely most of us have formed an idea of these places, each different from the others and boasting various internal differences and cultural traditions, from an early age, mainly through the most significant expressions of the cinema and music world. If not through comics, but these likely apply more to the generation after mine, even though in the end, for example, big robots like Mazinger and the like existed even before I was born, so... Anyway, we know something about ancient Chinese demons and their cultural and religious traditions, and we especially know all about kung-fu thanks to Bruce Lee and action cinema, and honestly, we don't really give a damn if in the end there are differences between one country and another. The truth is that we don't care whether there are differences between, say, a Chinese and a Japanese, keeping in mind that these two nations hate each other, probably much more than, say, you could dislike the French or the Germans. Let's say the Germans because, after all, I actually like the French. But of course, this is not a serious discussion and has no cultural foundation whatsoever. The truth is I simply want to talk about kung-fu and karate, and I'm only interested in Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Lo-Pan, and the cursed three storms.
We’re talking about something that, in the end, has no actual cultural relevance if we want to consider the real cultural traditions of these countries. We’re talking about an ideal cultural imagery, an imaginary world where Todd Terje’s latest album would ideally be set. 'The Big Cover-Up EP' (Olsen Records), recorded by Todd with his live band, The Olsens, is practically a tribute to this kind of naive popular subculture that has no real cultural relevance except for being something fictional, much like the Wild West could be.
If you already know Todd Terje, you obviously won't find anything strange about all this. You know you don't have to expect anything serious from this man. The Norwegian musician and DJ, who released that great album simply titled 'It's Album Time' a couple of years ago (listen to it if you haven't already), is far from being a genius or having any pretense to be compared to anything of the kind. His music is characterized not only by a certain vintage flair balanced between kitsch and catchy disco revival sounds but also by a typically ironic approach that here involves him covering artists like Yellow Magic Orchestra, Martin Circus, Boney M., and Vangelis. The album also includes remixes of tracks by Dan Taylor, Prins Thomas, and Oyving Morken, enriching the content, but basically, the main concept of the whole work is entirely dedicated to that fantastic imaginary world. The entire EP is a tribute to the Far East and how it might be seen, how it is viewed through the eyes of a Norwegian DJ who is as ironic as he is passionate about electronic music and action films. While it’s not exactly a cultural documentary, it can certainly be considered as something suitable for entertainment and a good deal of poolside lounging with sunglasses.
What can I say, folks, green explosions, people flying in and out... It's China, friends. And China is here. Now.
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