What is going on?

What is going on? In the middle of last year we were led to believe that Royksopp's new album "Senior" would be the stunning but quiet and introspective counterpoint to the dance pop of "Junior" only to find it was a distinctly underwhelming experience.

Now another major mover in the world of electronic music has fallen from my grace in a more spectacular fashion. With the release of "Delicacies" Simian Mobile Disco seem to have circumvented any quality control and just released their demo's and called it a new album. As one of my friends said of the album recently: "Where are the tunes?"

"Delicacies" seems to have followed "Temporary Pleasure" after an indecently short period of time and alarm bells began to ring when the release schedule included a mixed version of the album as if it was easily reduced to a DJ set; not exactly a marker of quality in my book. Whilst Royksopp's "Senior" was at least well produced and original, "Delicacies" sounds like a flick through the demo's of any other Sounclick bound bedroom failure (this includes myself you understand).

I think my reason for disliking this album are more intense as I loved "Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release" and "Temporary Pleasure" showed some promise for the future. We all knew this new album was going to be "techno based" but hell, we didn't realise there were to be no tunes. Writing songs with a good groove is one thing, but writing them with a good tune has always been quite another.

"Delicacies" is one of those albums that is produced by a band who have lost direction. Self indulgent, uninteresting and repetitive; "Delicacies" is one dish I can happily refuse.

Royksopp Live: Everything is beautiful

Seeing bands live is often an underwhelming experience. What annoys me especially about electronic musicians playing live is their use of acoustic drums or guitars that don’t feature on the recordings. Not so with Norwegian band Royksopp. As the duo walked on stage it was clear that only one cymbal and an inaudible bass guitar would sully an evening of electronic entertainment. And boy did they entertain.

The rather lacklustre intro of “Royksopp Forever” with its unintentionally distorted bass and plodding rhythm was soon banished by “Happy Up Here” (once someone remembered to turn Karin’s microphone on) and a string of high energy tracks built the crowd into the frenzy that was “Poor Leno”. My clothes shook with the bass, my face had a big grin and I remembered how good electronic dance music can make you feel.

Rather than just play the majority of their tracks in their album form they chose to play remixed and altered versions which were, in the main, far superior in the live context. Despite the inaudible bass guitarist (who couldn’t help himself and proceeded to prance around the stage in typical rock n’ roll fashion) they were the personification of cool stood behind their synths and decks with broad smiles that said they were as happy to be there as we were.

My happiness was further enhanced by the fact that Royksopp have by far the most beautiful female fans of any band I have ever been to see.  A beautiful evening indeed.