Todd Terje
It's Album Time
Olsen Records
When Todd Terje announces new material, adherents vary as to whether awaiting big room viking disco, synth heavy cosmodysseys or dubby edits of otherwise un-remixable hits. Thankfully for all those anticipating, Terje Olsen, known now to punters worldwide as Todd, has decided ‘It’s Album Time’. A nebulous adventure through new and previously released material, prepare for an ensemble of thick melodies, nimble keyboard explorations and Terje’s unmistakably glossy mosaic of sound.
Statement piece that it is, ‘It’s Album Time’ begins with an intro then an introductory interlude, ‘Leisure Suit Preben,’ though whom Preben is, and at whom Terje aims his double-entendre, it’s difficult to say. It is, however, a gossamer cushion into the debut long-player of an artist known primarily for producing ball-tearers. It swings its relaxed pimp-stick into a hot spring of strings, sighs and schaffel, before ‘Preben Goes to Acapulco’ pirouettes into a sauna of funk – a room Terje visits continually as the album heats up. Next up, ‘Svensk Saas’ sounds like Richard D James choosing ingredients for salsa, injecting lithe kazoos across a scatty vocal spread.
It’s not until ‘Strandbar’ surfaces, with its big splashy kit and analogue rump that a dance floor emerges from the Nordic fog. Block and shaker tangoing through the entirety, it dodges the hype podium that ‘Inspector Norse’ climbed last year by way of a dog leg key change, sounding like what Thor may dance to on his day off. The cliff dive resolution to this, the album mix shows a keen eye for the album audience, and its touches down into the engine-room arpeggio of 'Delorean Dynamite' keeps the steam billowing away. For disco that wears its Italo-heart on its sleeve like cufflinks nicked from a Milano runway, this is versatile stuff. It’s not so much suited for the dance floor, nor even the interstate highway; this one has wings, just like the car it’s named after.
Hearing Terje produce ennobled pop star Bryan Ferry is something else. Of all the tracks presented, ‘Johnny and Mary’ is the only that does not sound principally Todd. This should delight those desperate to see the Olsen boards host some more serious microphone personality. It’s wistful and delicate, but amongst all the energy of ‘It’s Album Time’, is perhaps a stall into nostalgia that may prove over-saturating on an album already nodding repeatedly at the 80s. Bring on more collaborations, Terje, clearly!
‘Alfonso Muskedunder’ rouses things, like Siriusmo necromancing Burt Bacharach from wherever he now reclines (yes that’s a flute, and played, pitched drum skins). ‘Muskedunder’ is Scandinavian for a thunderous, bell-ended shotgun, the Blunderbuss. Terje is adequately blunt and scatterbrained here, but like any Nordic punster, he sprays nice and tight.
Hearing teams of familiar tracks nestled together can ring uncomfortably for fans keen for fresh material. ‘Swing Star’ - which landed with a second fiddle twinkle on the flip side of the aforementioned monster ‘Inspector Norse’ - is framed all the more aptly here, following the octopus circus of ‘Alfonso Muskedunder’. When it materialised, ‘Swing Star Pt. I’ progressed the Norweigan’s sound towards a kraut-trance position so space-aged it forgot that people ever danced outside of their tangerine dreams. Having personally experienced the reaction of a club full of confused Parisians yupping at Mr. Olsen playing ‘Spiral’ (a notable but thankful omission here), it’s great to hear both parts of ‘Swing Stars’ make so much sense on this roundup, shoulder to shoulder with thick Italo disco and oddball inclusions alike.
Like a nuclear habanero exploding upwards from the desert, closing track ‘Oh Joy’ is the nebulous rolling synth work that Todd Terje always rejoiced in. It’s a great coming home track, and a perfect garage clicker for ‘Inspector Norse’ to park itself after. It is that much more refreshing to hear a tune that has soundtracked so many moments of jubilance after such a well curated selection of delights; one forgets how long 'Inspector Norse' has been doing the rounds. One also forgets the passage of 'It’s Album Time,' as it progresses. Many artists would dread this. But as James Holden said quite a few years ago, “disco is very much the same as trance.” Floating along with Todd Terje’s first trip, at times it’s easy to forget how many bold releases he has guided into the collective ear with both cheer and compliance. What a joy that he’s chosen now to issue one so rounded, nuanced and unmistakably Terje.
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