Alog - Catch That Totem!

We are very pleased to present to you the newest album from one of our definitive favorites from the Norwegian music scene: Alog! Ever since Alog's debut album "Red shift swing" on Rune Grammofon, we have been admiring this enigmatic act for their true artfulness, daring inpredictability and quirky sense of humour.

Tracks:

01. Just recording
02. Soung sung inwardly
03. Catch that totem!
04. Theme from toads
05. Something like islands of memory
06. The method
07. Dog dive
08. Travel lighter
09. Sunrise tattoo
10. Beklager, Nicholas
11. Hej, vart blev det av dat'en, Kim?
12. Walk the earth
13. Tromsø

Reviews:

Alog - Catch That Totem!

Rummaging through the truckloads of year-end and best-of-2005 lists, one would come to the conclusion that electronic music consists largely of dance. Call the trend overcompensation for the slights on dance music dished out by IDM-craving critics circa 1999. Unfortunately, in the rush to champion house (in all its guises), the critical community has left earlier darlings behind. “Abstract” or “experimental” electronic music—a blanket term denoting anything without beats that doesn’t lapse into ambient—has suffered from populist backlash. Dance music is for your ass, and everyone can dig that, but groups on the Autechre-Fennesz axis seem suspiciously academic and exclusive. In 2005’s climate, even an album as stellar as Alog’s Miniatures slipped under the radar.

For those who decry the lack of playfulness and humanity in electronic music, Catch that Totem! will delight. The duo of Espen Sommer Heide and Dag-Are Heiden practically frolic through this odds and ends collection, leaping over genre fences in their joy. The eclecticism of their music does not stem from head-scratching, overcooked concepts, but from a hyperactive hatred of confinement.

Since the shredded vocal confetti and stiffly earnest guitar of “Just Recording,”—the duo’s first track—Alog have carved a career path full of hairpin turns, leaf-covered spike pits, and gravity-defying loops. “Song Sung Inward” dredges the same soulful noise murk that produced the Minatures’ standout “Severe Punishment and Lasting Bliss.” But bounce ahead a track and the duo has scrubbed off the static, opting instead for spic-n-spac jittery beats and mewing vocals. No sooner has this faded than the gawky, instrumental hip-hop number “Theme from Toads” shudders and shakes. The album then stumbles into “Something Like the Islands of Memory” a track that in title and sound mimics Mum so well that one suspects a parody.

Such a farce would not be beyond Alog. Consider “Hej, vart blev det av DAT’en, Kim?” The track opens with a phone message from Kim Hiorthøy, whose DAT tape containing a track from his album Hei—destined for remix—has gone missing in the mail. Rather than request another, Alog simply fast forwards through the whole album with the record button down and slapped on the answering machine vocals. The result is a mess, albeit an unpredictable one studded with surprising highs.

“Hej” is an anomaly for the group. The remaining of the album displays a careful and loving—if somewhat unsteady—hand, faltering only when the group falls too in love with looped beats and monotone drones. However every track on Catch That Totem! is an anomaly, as is every album in the Alog catalog. Should the critical pendulum swing back in Alog’s direction, look for them to be named Crown Princes of the Internet.

Bryan Berge/stylusmagazine.com

Alog - Catch That Totem!

I’ll admit it: I’m a late convert to Alog. The Norwegian duo of multi-instrumentalists Espen Sommer Heide and Dag-Are Heiden has put out a bunch of releases on Rune Grammofon in recent years that have been acclaimed by both friends and critics, but I have only caught the Alog-bug with this collection of the duo’s sonic scraps, remixes and hard-to-find tracks on Melektronikk. In their liner notes, Espen and Dag-Ore describe the thirteen tracks collected here as a kind of Alog memory bank and it does have the hazy, non-linear quality of memory, with light thematic threads running loosely through this beguiling mix of odds ‘n’ ends. Whereas Alog’s most recent “proper” album Miniatures is a fluid and pristine blend of electronic and traditional instrumentation, Hide that Totem! is a more ragged and playful beast. At times, the music wriggles and grooves like mid-period Mouse on Mars, as krautrock and hip-hop influences rear up and butt heads. At others, half-sung, half-spoken/chanted vocals mix with delicate guitar and keyboards. It’s an unpredictable, occasionally cheeky (see the “Hej, Vart Blev Det Av Dat’en, Kim?” remix of Kim Hiorthøy), exceedingly enjoyable record. I’m convinced.

rarefrequency.com