Röyksopp
True Electric
DOG TRIUMPH
The once and future kings of Bergen Wave amniotic electro chill-pop, Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland—Röyksopp—made their bones by steering ravers and sleepy club kids alike to bed, bath, and beyond ever since their Melody A.M. debut was released in 2001. With their newest album, True Electric, the duo’s usual downbeat dramas and warm-blanketing tones have only gotten more frenzied and fuzzier with knobby balls of analog tech stuck to their digital wash of sequencers. The main point of True Electric is to show off just what Berge and Brundtland can do when turned out onto the dancefloor or live forum with studio versions of the tracks they jammed during Röyksopp’s 2023 tour of the same name. A studio album based on live vibes? Yes. And that’s terrific.
To that smolder, guest vocalists occasionally light the Norwegian pair’s bedclothes on fire: Euro-disco diva Robyn, for one, who immediately makes her reimagining of their track “Do It Again” into something ferocious and head-charging; “What Else Is There?,” for another, with guest star Fever Ray pushing that track into something, well, fever-pitched. Beyond these two highlights (Robyn also appears on several additional songs within True Electric, including the ricochet electro of “The Girl and the Robot”), other guests such as Alison Goldfrapp and featured friends such as Susanne Sundfør and Man Without Country push Röyksopp further into the flame.
Quite frankly, though, Berge and Brundtland don’t need the help, as boinging instrumentals such as “The Ladder” (a perfect introductory track for this party) and “The ‘R’” are incendiary and inventive all on their own, without a voice to spark Röyksopp’s bonfire.
