From the western coast of Norway comes Scandinavia’s latest gift to underground electronic music, Fenomenon. Band members Kjetil Ingebretsen and Havard Rosenberg released two EPs during the early part of this decade on the now defunct Nuphonic label. After the EP releases, they focused on production work, remixing an assortment of artists. Fast forward to Summer 2004, the band has signed to the Beatservice record label to release their first full-length debut, “Hourglass”.
“Hourglass” is quite an apt title, as the musical style takes you through a bit of a time-warp. While mercifully not electro clash, “Hourglass” sports an unabashedly 80s sound, and Fenomenon liberally employ classic 80s happy-synth sonics. Imagine Erasure, OMD, Scritti Politti and Jazzanova making and album together, difficult I know, but that’s where “Hourglass” takes you. There’s a polished smoothness to the sound, but it dances a tight line around cheesiness. That line gets crossed with the remake of the Tears for Fears mega-hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”.
Overall “Hourglass” is a pretty solid effort. Though, the retro-80s sound played out long ago with me (sometime around 1987 I reckon), Fenomenon does a good job of melding elements of the old with the “nujazz” and “broken” sounds of the present. “Hourglass” is an easy pleasant listen, not overwhelming enough to command full attention, but interesting enough to catch your ear and make you bob your head at times.
