Just in...Röyksopp: Senior

    You have probably heard Röyksopp before. You just don't know it. But, remember that Geico ad on TV with the caveman riding on the moving sidewalk in an airport and he starts walking backwards because he sees a picture of a Geico poster on the wall? Well, the music in the background is Röyksopp. Check it out here if you need to jog your memory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H02iwWCrXew.
    Röyksopp is actually a duo, Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland, Norwegian house group formed in 1998. The name Röyksopp is a stylized version of the Norwegian word for the puffball mushroom, or in the band's own words it could elude to a nuclear mushroom cloud as well. They came out of the Tromsø Techno Scene and the Bergen Wave. A little explanation: Tromsø is the "techno capital of Norway" and has been the origin city for many electronic bands in Norway; Bergen Wave is a term used by the Norwegian Press to describe Norwegian bands that made it big, event internationally, during the 90's and 2000's, two other examples being the Kings of Convenience and Sondre Lerche (coincidentally). Röyksopp originally was on a small Norwegian label in Bergen, Tellé, but are now on the Wall of Sound, a British label known for producing electronic music, and Astralwerks in the U.S. out of NYC.
    Röyksopp's music genre most closely fits into the term downtempo, a style of electronica that evokes elevator music, but with a dance beat, no soprano saxophone and less ambient at times. But, this group also includes synthpop and trip hop. Listening to Senior, just released today, (which can be heard in its entirety completely endorsed by the band here: http://hypem.com/artist/royksopp EDIT: does not exist anymore?) is much slower and of possibly back ground music capacity than their previous albums, especially Junior (2009), which I like quite a bit.
    The track listing is: (1) ...And the Forest Began to Sing (2) Tricky Two (3) The Alcoholic (4) Senior Living (5) The Drug (6) Forsaken Cowboy (7) The Fear (8) Coming Home (9) A Long, Long Way (hidden track) Final Day. From the titles, you can see that this album involves themes of senior citizenship, or at least it could be perceived as such. Some are unrelated, however, like "Tricky Two", which is a remix of sorts of "Tricky Tricky" from Junior (I recognized the similarity immediately). The title "Forsaken Cowboy" makes me think of Cowboy Bebop, but the music is quite different than anything the anime show's soundtrack offered. In all, as advertised, Senior is a much slower pace than Junior and, let's say, won't be played on my iTunes as much. I've uploaded "The Fear", which has more trip hop quality and I chose it over "Tricky Two", perhaps the best track on the album, because you need to listen to "Tricky Tricky" first.