smalltown supersound

It’s a cliché to even mention it these days, but what’s up with Scandinavia and music-making? Today’s arrival of the Smalltown Supersound and Smalltown SuperJazz labels throws that question into relief – almost everything that has arrived is top-notch in one way or another. Since I’m a bit familiar with the Supersound label, here’s a quick primer:

Various Artists – Sunkissed

If you’re wondering where to start with the label, it might just be best to cherrypick from this recently released mix. It’s a sort of a who’s who of modern Norwegian electronic music – there are remixes by Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, a track by psychedelic adventurers 120 Days and Serena Maneesh (retooled here by Metal Overdrive and Kosmische, respectively) and much much more.

If you gotta do only one…I can’t recommend Lsb’s “Original Highway Delight (Mungolian Jet Set’s Miami Camp Mix)” enough: it sounds like a masterclass in cosmic disco or, as “Carl Jung” puts it on their MySpace page: “When I heard the Mungolian Jet Set, I felt like a psychotic love-banana in a sexy washing machine.”

Bjørn Torske - Feil Knapp

If you trust Lindstrom’s taste, you’d do well to check out Bjørn Torske. He’s one of the cosmic disco king’s favorite artists, apparently. You can hear why on the deep and dubby “Hatten Passer,” which gets its hook from Torske’s whistling. “Spelunker” is just as quirky: it lays the melody from an Atari game easily into a smooth reggae beat. It’s kind of kitschy, but it’s low-key enough that it doesn’t sound too much like a novelty tune to these ears.

Tussle – Telescope Mind

Ever wonder what the Rapture might sound like without the yelping? Download “Warning” from Telescope Mind immediately. It’s basically the best no-frills dance-punk song ever recorded. To me, Tussle sounds like a few guys going into a room and playing as funky and as hard as they can for about 12 hours and then taking the results and editing them into clean and direct songs. The tempo is almost always the same and the songs are relatively unadorned aside from the flourishes of triangle, synth and cowbell that you might expect — which makes an entire album a bit of a slog — but as you’re listening to it I imagine you’ll be hard-pressed to think of anything you’d rather be hearing. Or at least that’s what I felt like while listening to “Flicker” as I hit repeat time and time again.

T.O.Y. - The Thing

Neon and playful electronic music. For fans of Dan Deacon and Jason Forrest perhaps? Try “Don’t Be” and go from there, but I’d tread lightly. I also hate fun, so take that into account.

Jaga Jazzist – Magazine

One of the first EPs released from this avant jazz group, made famous by their releases on the Ninja Tune label.

Kim Hiorthøy

I’m actually not familiar with this guy’s stuff, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that he is responsible for the graphic identity of the Rune Grammofon label, another amazing Norwegian imprint. I’ll be checking into his music over the next few days, but here are some of his album covers.