Kim Hiorthøy: Hopeness
Smalltown Supersound

Hiorthøy is highly regarded for his Rune Grammofon design work but his 2000 debut album Hei and the 2002 odds'n'sodds collection Melke showed him to be a credible musical force too. His latest, the half-hour EP Hopeness, features five hi-fi/lo-fi excursions whose innocence and charm recall Múm (sans vocals) and Lullatone. Hiorthøy wisely offsets his songs' sunny melodic glimmerings with punchy drum patterns that are by turns funk-inflected (“Mandarinerna”), fulminating (“Soliga Dagens Släppiga Trosor”), and, on the eleven-minute “You Know The Score,” almost belligerent. Here and elsewhere the pitter-patter of burbling keyboards weaves in and around the beats, supplemented by the exotic flavouring of an occasional Scandinavian voice sample.

November 2004