Lindstrom

They’ve been putting something funny in the water over Oslo way. Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of energy and, more importantly, music coming out of Norway, a country more used to producing cattle-worrying death metal groups rather than slinky Balearic mavens. There’s a good reason for this astonishing burst of creativity according to Prins Thomas, fellow Viking, DJ and collaborator: it’s so dull there, there’s nothing better to do than spend all day in the studio. Hurray, we say, for boring old Norway!

Born on the west coast of Norway and raised by elks and small furry woodland creatures on a strict diet of country and western, Hanspeter Lindstrom is a multi-instrumentalist who played in a variety of dodgy rock bands during the 1990s, before being turned on to electronic music after buying himself a sampler. Prior to his present self-named project he has recorded under a variety of guises, including excellent house recordings as Slow Supreme (Green Tea is veritable a melancholy classic) as well as leftfield electronic musings as Six Cups of Rebel. There’s also the small matter of Lindstrom’s live performances – full of kinetic energy and chutzpah – which are about as much fun as you could possibly expect from one big fella hammering a laptop like it’s an Arctic husky who’s late for his tea.

Late Night Tales, however, is a chance for Lindstrom to put down the Mac, take off his dancing shoes and get positively freaky. And this he does, you’ll have to admit, with some aplomb. There’s the acappella-only Born To Synthesise from Todd Rundgren’s Initiation album, while on the same channel of lateral music comes George Duke’s synth-wobbling North Beach, while Dominique Leone’s evocative Conversations takes us yet further into the heart of Zen melancholia.

Despite these horizontal leanings we are also not bereft of some serious chugging. A chug, for those of you unsure, is somewhere south of a truck and north of a boogie and we can thoroughly recommend it as a certain cure for chilblains, gout and Sunday blues. Try Fern Kinney’s slow electro-disco Baby Let Me Kiss You or Gina X’s Teutonic dancefloor dalliance, Kaddish, or even Farah’s Mogadisco Law Of Life for size. As always, because this is a Late Night Tales rule and because we like to spoil you, Lindstrom has done an exclusive cover version, the sublime Let It Happen, a Balearic classic in its Vangelis original form and perfectly modernised by lanky chap with the ten-day growth.

Tracklist

1. Alf Emil Eik - To You
2. Fern Kinney - Baby Let Me Kiss You
3. Gina X Performance - Kaddish
4. Sly And The Family Stone - In Time
5. Carly Simon - Why
6. Todd Rundgren - Born To Synthesize
7. George Duke - North Beach
8. Dominique Leone - Conversational
9. Anja Garbarek - I Wont Hurt You
10. Rainer Bloss - Pan Americana
11. Todd Terje And Prins Thomas - Reinbagan
12. Jean-Philippe Goude - Energie
13. Smash Band - Grand Drums
14. Farah - Law Of Life
15. Lindstrom And Solale - Let It Happen
16. Dusty Springfield - Baby Blue
17. Pekka Pohjola - Pressure
18. The Lovin Spoonful - Coconut Grove
19. Rob Hindle - Buenos Aires 2AM