Bjørn Torske pushing wrong-right buttons.
The release of disco sage Bjørn Torske’s new record is imminent. “Feil Knapp” (wrong button) hits the streets on Monday June 11th, and expectations are higher than ever, for Torske is no less than the weird chieftain of his musical clan.
Or funny uncle perhaps, that’s the denotation from the press release for the upcoming release party in London, which will take place on June 23rd as part of Nodisko’s mid-summer Love-in: “The funny uncle of Norway’s electronic music scene ( ) he’s been a figurehead in Scandinavian dance music since the mid-nineties. ( ) He’s back with a brilliant new album, Feil Knapp ( ) and it’s as strange and beautiful a record as you’re likely to hear all year.”
As stated Torske has been a looming character in Norwegian electronica since its inception. Hailing from its wellspring polar city of Tromsø he has collaborated, and is friends with, well neigh all the names that have put the Norwegian take on this genre on the international map. Suffice it to mention Biosphere and Röyksopp.
Yet despite Torske’s Norwegian milieu and his insistence on Norwegian titles for everything he does it is his impact on the connoisseur club scenes in the metropolises of the wider world that have secured him his status as the weird and brilliantly dance-inducing one. Across Europe and in America he has had many club hits and has been enjoying ever-increasing insider acclaim.
Eventually such music and musicians will become the attention also of more mainstream attention, and currently Torske is at the apex, enjoying international credibility in the wider circles of the dancing west. This is evidenced by the many great reviews that Feil Knapp has already received:
DJ magazine gives him 4/5 and writes: “The title translates as wrong button in Norwegian, but Bjorn Torske is actually right on it. For although you can readily identify some of the influences he pours in –Metro Area-style disco, dub and lounge jazz- after being pickled away in Torske’s head they emerge as something bewitchingly unique.”
A brand new BBC review also gives the album 4/5 and writes: “Feil Knapp dances between genres so brilliantly that by the time you get to Kapteinens skjegg, a mix of dark, digital dub and Viking horns, you won’t know if you’re in Babylon or Valhalla. But you’ll like it.”
Pitchfork recently posted a track called Møljekalas: “Something about this track from the Norwegian house producer's forthcoming album Feil Knapp reminds me of "Stop 4 Love" by Basement Jaxx. Part of it's the efficiency of the thing, the way Torske, like the Jaxx before him, milks a startling amount of poignancy from just a couple chords. But it's also the way the track provides bright space for relaxed contemplation in the middle of a dance-oriented record. Everything here is so simple and clean and bright-- the pitter-patter bongos, couple notes on guitar, and bass that lingers a half-step behind the beat, like, hey, what's the hurry? And then it's back to those two chords, as they continue to nudge all negative energy upward, pointing toward what you know is a clear blue sky.”
On June 11th the wrong button that is so correctly wired can be pushed to play.
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