Scandinavian funktronica at its finest
Who He?
Joar Renolen from Lillehammer is the brains behind your new favourite Norwegian electronic outfit. His latest release, six-tracker ‘All Peak Run’, is jam-packed with super squelchy sounds, feel-good beats, funk-fuelled rhythms and a smattering of bleepiness – what’s not to love?
Why Foreground Set?
Because in less than a minute, ‘All Peak Run’ EP will have you tapping your toes at the very least, if not up and on your feet and dancing like no one’s watching. The title track is a tour de force, with a backbone of relentless, driving bass and shuffling drums, coming up clean as a freshly bought whistle. ‘Mega Trees’ feels like the theme tune to a futuristic ‘X-Files’ (think robotic Mulders and Scullys), while ‘Quickfix’ features vocals from Fieh, another emerging Norwegian artist whose voice lends an eerie air to what is otherwise a beautifully chilled slow-jam.
Tell Us More
Norway has form with this kind of ice-cool funk, take the genre-morphing Röyksopp or ethereal dreampopsters Bel Canto for starters. Big boots to fill but Renolen is rising to the challenge and has been pretty busy over the past few years, starting back in 2010 when he was featured as “Ukas Urørt” (unsigned band of the month) by P3, Norway’s hippest radio station. Since then he’s released three EPs on Slekta Grammofon – ‘Good Luck’, ’Nullpunkt’ (‘Zero’) and ‘Høy På Pære’ (‘Keeping Up Appearances’) – as well as having strong affiliations with the Diskorama Records gang.
The ‘All Peak Run’ EP is out on Balsa Wood/Slekta Grammofon
