The Persuader - Skargard

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  • Best known for portraying James Bond as an oily playboy with a permanently arched eyebrow, Roger Moore isn't a man you'd typically associate with techno. Yet the Swedish producer Jesper Dahlbäck clearly regards the English actor as some kind of icon. His alias, The Persuader, is taken from a '70s TV drama starring Moore and Tony Curtis as the world's smuggest crimefighting duo, and the name of his label, Templar, is presumably a nod to Simon Templar, the dapper vigilante Moore played in The Saint. The title of Dahlbäck's first record in 16 years is a somewhat clearer reference— Skärgård is an archipelago off the coast of his native Sweden, which he evokes with the sound of waves that bookend the LP. Skärgård has a chillier feel than 1999's Stockholm. Its tracks seem to have very little happening on the surface, but sound absolutely massive when you're immersed in them. "Inre Stenen" and "Ägglösen" are great fuel for dance floors where everyone's locked into their own heads, and can feel as lonely as a swimmer splashing across a sea at midnight. Dahlbäck has a talent for keeping his tracks afloat with subtle but effective basslines, such as on "Kampen" and "Dymlingharan." On "Sugsankan," what sound like compressed vocal snippets percolate upwards as the bassline dives deeper down. At other times it sounds like Dahlbäck's treading water a bit—his rhythms are rather workmanlike—but the productions are impressively polished. Even the Tresor-style stomp of "Uppvackningsgrundet" still sounds immaculately turned-out. Skargard might be too well-mannered for some, but these are qualities of which Mr. Moore himself would undoubtedly approve.
  • Tracklist
      01. Vatten 02. Kampen 03. Sugsankan 04. Inre Stenen 05. Fjortonkasten 06. Pinnharan 07. Ägglösen 08. Kläpparna 09. Vattungarna 10. Trutklubben 11. Dymlingharan 12. Självilan 13. Uppväckningsgrundet 14. Skärgård
RA