Borko - Celebrating Life

1. Continental Love
2. Spoon stabber
3. Shoobaba
4. Sushi Stakeout
5. Dingdong Kingdom
6. Summer Logic
7. Doo Doo Doo
8. Hondo & Borko

Maintaining Morr Music's strong relationship with Iceland's musical exports is this new album by Borko, an artist who first made waves amongst fans of melodic electronic music with 2001's Trees & Limbo. Pretty much ever since, Bjorn Kristiansson has been piecing together this album (the oldest song on here is a full six years old), re-establishing those early connections to homespun warmth whilst adding an expansive range of organic instruments as well as the odd vocal element here and there. A cursory flick through the album and you'll find yourself listening to the record you expected Mùm to come out with last year, littered as it is with expansive post-rock elements and homely electroacoustics all sewn together in a fashion reminiscent of 'Finally We Are No One'. This is especially true of the effervescent opening piece 'Continental Love', which builds to a frenzied, ecstatic wail, propped up by boisterous guitars, boxy old drumkits and all manner of lo-fi wheezing. A little more organised, 'Spoonstabber' fires up with an offbeat, funereal horn accompaniment before 'Shoobaba' resounds with a slow and stately melodic integrity, a bit like Air's 'Run' from Talkie Walkie. One of the least electronic cuts on the album, 'Summer Logic' proves to be one of the highlights: it's a five-minute instrumental based around fanfare-like brass figures and simple harmonica melodies, making Borko sound far bigger than a mere one-man-band. 'Celebrating Life' has certainly clocked-up a longer-than-average period of gestation, but it seems like time very well spent indeed. Gorgeous stuff - Essential Purchase...www.boomkat.com