Whimsical and wonderful, Klunserbeats
Live is a difficult album to pin down. Culling influence from
jazz, hip-hop, and World music ("World" intended in as
broad a sense as possible), Danish electronic quartet
Analogik has put together a consistently amazing kaleidoscope of
tracks here. Merging the organic with the
electronic, they've produced a record that whirs by in a haze of
horns, guitar, beats, and samples.
But the key to
Klunserbeats is ultmately how
damn fun it is. Cross-breeding the sheer accessibility of acts
such as Royksopp and Lemon Jelly with a Messer Chups-esque
level of generic impulsivity, these folks treat
the audience to a blazing good time.
Tangible examples? St. Germain influenced, zippy jazzer "Gypsie
Doodle." Imaginary secret agent film theme song "Das Agentos."
Accordion-adorned Parisian waltz "Visen." And that's
just the tip of the iceberg. Before the record is over, you'll
have waded your way through wired-up Indian tunage ("Røg"), Olde
European balladeering ("Fransk And"), and 8-bit dinkiness. Remarkably,
despite the veritable pot pourri of influences, the record retains an
inexplicable cohesion, never losing the listener in its bevy of
disparate sounds. Instead, these tracks
manage to effortlessly traverse temporal and spatial boundaries,
maintaining melody and rhythm throughout. It's superb.
Taken together, this
might be the best release so far from the impressive Jenka
Music label. I would and will recommend this to all music lovers.