The fruitful duo of Alexander Johansson and Mattias Fridell once again team up to find new ways to express creative directions within Techno with their release “Smygtittaren” on their home label, Lømsk
Smygtittaren, for those of us outside the Swedish language, translates to ‘the sneak peeker’ as one who has an advanced look at something. In our case, it could be Techno as a whole. As a professional mastering engineer, Mattias Fridell is often looking at tracks months or even 3/4 of a year in advance. This gives him as well as Alexander an advanced look at where the scene is going and helps them both make informed decisions on where to look to push their music in new directions. Some people would use this information and see where to put their music to stay on trend, but it seems like Alexander Johansson and Mattias Fridell use this information to say things that haven’t been said and do so in an original way.
In other ways you can see this album title as a reference to voyeurism by the public and how an artist relates to it. Or it’s a tip of the hand to let the audience see what’s in the cards for these artists in the near future since there are a lot of directions on the release that explore different ideas.
“Batteriorsk” uses text-to-speech voice synthesis under some light vocoding or pitch correction in long portamento slides to mimic battery ‘sag’ from lack of a charge, while the arpeggiation of the rhythm synth is brilliantly matched to this line. The overall effect has the listener feeling a little woozy and out of sorts. It is remarkable that music can make you feel this way and also the speech references this as if you’re that particular robot, losing battery life.
“Bedragaren” also focuses on this glide concept previously laid down, but takes a sampled vocal cycle or wavetable voice sample and sweetens up an otherwise writhing and sinister groove. One that has all the synth elements rubbing past each other in time shifts. Again, the effect of listening to the song results in some body euphoria, since there’s so much tension built up inside every element no release whatsoever. This is the kind of tension Maurice Ravel wishes he could get away with in his time but only alluded to in “Bolero.” Similar musical tension has been explored in Wagner’s “Tristan Und Isolde” where ‘the other shoe never drops’ and the only resolve is in an untimely end.
“Obehaget” initially has a lot of traditionally satisfying techno elements but eventually leads to a sampled synth loop that is slightly unhinged and demented, leaving us unsettled. The balance of the track is nearly thrown off, and then it fades slightly to reset our ears. The more you focus on it, the more it sticks with you and it’s this curious sonic object that draws you in as it is almost rotating in space as these drum elements frame it and pass in and out of the stereo field. The ability of this track to pull you deep within the presence of all the elements and the ease with which you’re able to explore these sounds is very psychedelic. As a theme on the EP, it does this entirely without any pharmaceutical assistance, which is really cool.
Last up is “Dykaren” translated as “The Diver.” Immediately we encounter smudgy filtered chords that have a very mid-90s feel akin to Jeff Mills’ “Changes of Life” where the rounded piano stabs sound very circular as they are filtered in and out of the track. The real surprise in the track seems to be a jazzy keyboard improv woven in that doesn’t immediately take you out of the sweet spot or the hypnotic groove of the track that also follows the thematic woozy characteristics within the EP.
If you listen to a lot of Techno, you get drawn in by the very impressive sounds and the ravey energetic tracks, but for some of us, an EP like this is definitely for the real heads. The ones that can appreciate the sonic nuances presented and do so from a historical perspective, and knowing things like this have never existed in the music or even music in general. This is why we listen to Techno—to gain new experiences, and to listen to music we’ve never heard before. This EP does that and doubly so makes you literally feel an expression from music you’ve probably never found anywhere else. The creative freedom afforded to Alexander Johansson and Mattias Fridell by releasing on their own Lømsk has been noted by Blueprint and Truncate, but you get the feeling they are holding back on their most original and greatest musical ideas for their own imprint. If this is a sneak peek at things to come, it’s going to come on strong and heavy. We can’t wait.
-Sean Ocean
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