diskJokke

One might think that Norway’s crowded roster of disco renovators such as Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, Prins Thomas and Todd Terje has already reached its tipping point. After all, the style doesn’t surprise like it once did: The glittering Scandi take on neodisco has been percolating for a half decade now, and isn’t really so neo anymore. And besides, the aforementioned artists have their shiny and slightly wonky version of glitterball music down cold; what new can a tenderfoot offer when he’s spinning a wheel that’s already been reinvented?

In the case of Staying In, the debut album from Joachim “diskJokke” Dyrdahl, not all that much—but what he does, he does extremely well. Like Lindstrøm and Thomas, Dyrdahl employs loping house rhythms and an exaggerated melodic sense (“almost like Liberace,” is how Prins Thomas once describe the sound to TONY) not so much to copy disco, but to use disco’s signifiers to create a fresh, near-celestial genre.

Staying In’s shimmering glissandos, heavenly synth washes and overall lightness are certainly appealing, but as often happens with an album’s worth of highly stylized music, the LP is at its best when it strays a bit from the template. The short, discordant breakdown of “The Dinner That Never Happened,” for instance, is almost shocking when it intrudes upon the track’s otherwise angelic vibe, while “I Was Go to Marrocco and I Don’t See You” adds a touch of techy toughness to the proceedings. And did we mention the songs have odd names?

—Bruce Tantum

DiskJokke spins at the Wurst Monthly Thu 6.