Wednesday 21 March 2012

Frak - Muzika Electronic (2012)


Killer album of screwed techno, noise pulses, Drexciyan deconstructions and bizarro pop from Sweden's Jan Svensson and Johan Sturesson. These guys have been around for 25 years but this is their first full length in quite some time after a slew of self released cassettes via their own Börft Records imprint.

The album opens with 'Voyage No. 1's' slow-moving rhythms providing the backbone whilst looping, crusty synths spin around, spiked with dizzying, high-pitched melodies. The opening track flows into the deceptively catchy 'Tristesse Dance' and onwards to the fizzing, droning Katamorph. This is pretty experimental stuff so far, taking in such sources as Delia Derbyshire's BBC radiophonics, Daphne Oram's exercises in early electronics and some 70's public information film soundtracks. Even the cover has a lost library album look to it. But it's not all experiments and sound-scapes. Frak's pop sensibilities come to the fore with the New Order-tinged 'Pulse-Crack'. Wide-eyed leads mesh into the pulsating bass undercurrents, riding a blissed-out electronic wave. The robotic vocals and arpeggiated bounce of tracks like 'Varje Dag' and 'In Order To Create' also swim in a warm, sci-fi glow.

Recommended for fans of Oneohtrix point Never, Panabrite and other more experimental synth bands out there.


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