norway

Item: the essence of norway
Author: Sucré Musique

the essence of norway

(1999)

Reviewed by Sucré Musique

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Label Plastiq MusiqBandoppler1999

electronic synth pop

The synth on this album is like a delicious pastry. Any synth-head will want to take a bite and taste all the layers of it. Clearly, there are influences by the Renaissance Men - bands like Pet Shop Boys, most notably, but also with traces of Joy Electric and New Order. These kids have got a good grasp of their keyboards, and they're not letting go anytime in the near future. Oh, and they don't use computers to sequence their sounds.

As is common with the plastiq musiq releases, Joy Electric frontman Ronnie Martin lent his Midas Touch to "essence." Norway fuses club beats to infectious major pop-keys, bubblegum chords, and electronic breakdowns. If you're looking for a funeral dirge, this isn't the album for you.

Vocally, the album could use some different approaches. While Doug Huibregtse has a fairly pleasant voice, it seems to be floating on top of the instrumental tracks. Unfortunately, the mix makes it feel like it was more of an afterthought to add vocals instead of making it part of the music. It has to be taken into account that these guys are novices, and maybe some live performances, and perhaps some voice lessons would help him loosen up. The most flavorful songs on this album are "Everytime," "With All My Heart," "Confused," and the only song on here that is slightly eerie, "norwaygirl." On these tracks the vocals, melodies and synth really merge together the best. It would seem that norway can only get better, as long as they find new and innovative ways to create their synthesized music.