- "Staying in" was maybe an all too apt title for Diskjokke's debut album. The record seemed to effectively perpetuate the cosmic-disco genre without necessarily adding very much. It felt as if Diskjokke was living inside the house that Smalltown built, uninterested in exploring the world outside. As a result, Dislocated maybe then doesn't refer to the tunes Diskjokke has overhauled in this collection of remixes, but Diskjokke himself, as he's nudged out of his comfort zone and forced to weave his own cosmic palette through other people's compositions.
The results gathered here are largely promising, and some of the standout moments are when Diskjokke explicitly flips the cosmic disco script, like the abrupt feint in the midst of "Attic" by Harry's Gym. It starts trippily enough, but just as the pressure starts to build and you get prepared for a jolt into the psychedelic stratosphere, the swirling clouds dissipate and a nicely dry, uptempo shimmy emerges instead, just to keep you on your toes.
Equally unexpected is Diskjokke's take on Lykke Li's "Everybody But Me"—no starry synths on this one, just slow-mo tribal toms that neatly match Lykke's breathy wallflower pining. The bulk of the remixes here stitch more conventional cosmic tropes onto indie songs, and tend to sink or swim depending on the quality of the tune. The rework of "Heartbreaker" by Metronomy works quite nicely despite an inane vocal couplet, "I heard she broke your heart again...she's a heartbreaker!" Then Diskjokke's mix of "Boston Food Strangler" by Ost & Jex perfectly executes a long-form cosmic rollercoaster ride. The vocals by this duo, also responsible for the Princeisms of Jamie Jones' "Summertime," are a bit hard to swallow here, all warbly and flush with Sparks-style histrionics, so wisely Diskjokke lets them manifest for a brief refrain before drowning them, like a wrathful Neptune, in a percussive tide.
Whether surprising or not, it's on his remix of cosmic disco overlord Lindstrom's "Breakfast in Heaven" that Diskjokke falters, producing a near-stylistic self-parody: the mix is very much the trippy juggernaut you might expect, but with its extra dollops of glistening synths, it sounds like it should accompany a scene of Falcor, the luck dragon from The Neverending Story, in whimsical, triumphant flight. Given that we're already talking about a style prone to exaggeration and excess, this ends up feeling like an overdose. Cosmic disco on steroids. It's further evidence that Diskjokke is at his best not when he's goofing indoors with his fellow cosmic Norwegian brethren, but when he's forced to go outside and play with the neighbors.
Tracklist 01. Metronomy - Heartbreaker (Diskjokke remix)
02. Harry's Gym - Attic (Diskjokke remix)
03. Bloc Party - Sunday (Diskjokke remix)
04. Lykke Li - Everybody But Me (Diskjokke remix)
05. The National Bank - Home (Diskjokke remix)
06. Foals - Olympic Airways (Diskjokke remix)
07. Spektrum - Moody Feels Good (Diskjokke remix)
08. Ost & Kjex - Boston Food Strangler (Diskjokke remix)
09. Lindstrom - Breakfast In Heaven (Diskjokke remix)