Jul/090
FAVOURITES: Lindstrom – Where You Go I Go Too (2008)
The blurb:
Lindstrøm pulls together previously disparate styles of classic disco, funk, house and minimalism into just over 55 minutes of reverential but entirely fresh electronica.
Sounds like:
Herbie Hancock playing to a nightclub chill-out room.
Thoughts:
Looks happy, doesn’t he? As well he might. Lindstrøm really pulls off a fine balancing act on this record. Where You Go I Go Too is influenced by so many classic sounds, yet avoids pastiche through forging them into something seamlessly and convincingly original. This is a dense, swirling record; the unsubtle mid-pace 4-beat that drives so much of it is massively compelling by virtue of the subtleties that surround it.
The record opens with a series of slow-burn synth swells, accompanied by ever-so-light percussion and cymbal splashes, all before that 4-beat fades in and the record starts confidently striding off. It soon strikes you just how meticulously crafted this is; every synth part knowingly toes that line between electronic and acoustic sound, and it really doesn’t matter which side of the line they actually are. Even the instruments that sound like they have been lifted straight out of Jeff Wayne’s The War of The Worlds don’t offend; if you can just throw yourself into this futurist epic they actually make so much sense.
Indeed, epic is the word to describe Where You Go I Go Too; this is not a standard dancefloor record. Consisting of only 3 tracks (although I certainly think of it as a single piece), Lindstrøm has loads of space to play with texture and there is no pressure to suddenly “drop a bombshell” like a normal DJ. There is always something being built into the mix and that keeps that sense of forward progress going which is so central to the feeling of this record. In that way, it is a bit like some kind of extensive Trance mix, except the vocabulary and dynamics are entirely different.
Verdict:
Witty, sincere and very funky. This one gets played a lot.
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