- An adventurous house double album that highlights all of the Swedish producer's wonderful quirks.
- Since impressing DJ Koze with his woozy Holy Love EP (including the immortal "Purple Drank") and proceeding to puke out of the window of the hotel they were in, Axel Boman has become an important presence in the house scene. Speaking on the jump-start his mentor DJ Koze gave his career, Boman told DJ Mag that he owes Koze his "strange life." Still, you get the sense that someone as eccentric as Boman would've made waves without the helping hand. A friend of his described his celebrated debut album, 2013's Family Vacation, as "weird Jamaican space disco." Nearly a decade later, his new double-LP LUZ/Quest For Fire is even spacier, a tongue-in-cheek, unplaceable ambience that embodies the quirks of its creator.
Over the course of a decade, Boman and his Studio Barnhus haven't lost the childlike charm that separates them from the pack. Together, LUZ and Quest For Fire boast 18 tracks of impish disco and freewheeling deep house. Wordless vocals float by like passing, overheard conversations as orchestral flourishes and acidic grooves stir and stutter. It's a chaotic yet comforting listen, like a time-lapse of a day spent observing city life. With tracks named after places like "Edgware Road" (the Middle Eastern capital of London) and "Gröna Dalen" (a diner in Stockholm), it's as if Boman is trying to recreate his environs with the dulled, rose-tinted palette of memory.
The album comes bundled with short story by Swedish artist Erik Lavesson that ends in bankruptcy, madness and stateless elephants roaming Iceland's volcanic plains. Both the story and second part of the double album are based on the 1981 fantasy film Quest For Fire. These tracks are structured erratically (in a good way), taking sudden detours just when an idea takes shape. On the glitzy "Stone Age Jazz," where shuddering congas and woodblocks lead the fray, a fluorescent climax cools into a sizzling breakdown. Sultry chord progressions loom low like gray rain clouds on "Cacti Is Plural," and "Ostende," with its serene yet combative edge, almost sounds like menu music from an early '00s fighting game. It brims with a compressed energy you can't help but move to, though it's never an all out dance—more of a rapid foot tap or a stiff head nod.
Luz is more buoyant, even optimistic, with muted tension that jolts from meditative to scintillating in a heartbeat. At times Boman will open up the filter at the tail-end of a track like on "Acid Distortion," giving you a glimpse into its raw, digital innards. The skittering percussion on "Nowhere Good" sounds like crickets chirping at night, while stirring vocal refrains add a dash of soul to the mix. The techno of "Gröna Dalen" starts with a chunky low-end and hazy distortion, and you hardly expect it to unravel into cascading synth ribbons or gorgeous woodwinds—these are busy arrangements that move with a sense of tranquility. The way Boman jumps between ideas that could carry entire songs after a few seconds shows just how dense and vibrant his music is as a whole.
During that same interview with DJ Mag, Boman gestured to a peculiar picture on his wall and said, "This guy is wanking and drinking beer, naked in the DJ booth. I wish I had that carefree attitude to life." It's a head-scratching comment considering he's the type of guy to get the name of his record label (Studio Barnhus, he co-runs with Kornél Kovács and Pedrodollar) tattooed on his left bum cheek and, in the same breath, collaborate with nuclear physicists to musically represent how radiation is emitted from different isotopes.
You never quite know what to expect from Axel Boman. Sometimes his tracks are tantalizingly aloof, other times they're heartstring-tuggingly sentimental. "Roman Plumbing"—the wistful core of Quest For Fire—is a brass-led, stretched-out moment of serenity that solidifies into razor sharp breakbeat. Boman's carefree and rule-breaking approach to sound design ultimately comes from whatever sound or idea he's tapping into during specific moment. Both albums never convey one particular mood, and there are undertones from all over the emotional spectrum. Each brushstroke forms an engaging, multidimensional double album that feels like some significant yet impossible to decipher dream.
TracklistLUZ
01. Acid Distortion
02. BHUKA feat. Kamohelo
03. Nowhere Good feat. Bella Boo
04. Gröna Dalen
05. Edgeware Rd
06. 'Atra feat. Kristian Harborg
07. Out Sailing feat. Man Tear & Inre Frid
08. Grape
09. Hold On
Quest For Fire
01. Sottopassaggio feat. Miljon
02. One Two
03. Stone Age Jazz
04. Cacti Is Plural
05. Roman Plumbing feat. Kristian Harborg
06. Ostende
07. Regret Lasagna
08. Jeremy Irons
09. Les Lèvres Rouges