We've covered quite a varied selection of new Nordic music today, from the debut EP by the rather unusual Finnish trio 'Ocelot' to the new album by Swedish band 'Insaunas', but I have no idea how, because all day we've had this huge distraction weighing on our shoulders - no, not the lunacy of Brexit for once, but simply the release of the new single by Bergen quartet 'Moron Police' - it's entitled 'The Phantom Below' and quite simply, it's utterly marvellous.
I'm not sure that many UK readers will have come across 'Moron Police' before, but they are well established in particular as a live outfit back in Norway, having played at festivals as Fjellparkfestivalen, the Norway Rock Festival, and 'Music and Media' in Tampere - the Finnish equivalent to by:Larm, supporting the likes of Honningbarna, Black Debbath and even Major Parkinson along the way - a band that they are fortunate / unfortunate enough (delete as appropriate) to 'share' two members with.
Anyway it's been so long since 'Moron Police' released anything in physical form that we weren't actually around to write about it, but since the release of their 2014 album 'Defenders of the Small Yard' they apparently seem to have gone through some type of transformation, because the hard rocking of their formative years has been replaced by a highly entertaining Progressive Power Pop style brand of music, which I can't entirely define, but still brings a huge smile to my face.
'The Phantom Below' is the first single from their new album charmingly entitled 'A Boat on the Sea', and it has just so much entertainment packed into the 4 minutes 12 seconds. Firstly there's the most extraordinary 1 minute 'overture' ('intro' doesn't do it justice') which opens as if it might be a way out hard rocking track, cuts to a hyped up 80's quiz show theme played at speed (or is it a 90's video game?), introduces a dance beat faded out and back, and which with the introduction of drums will have you dancing around the house to the joyous concoction of melodies and rhythms. Vocally there is more of a conventional rock sound, but then it keeps heading leftfield with a series of unexpected twists such as a saxophone solo, and I just love the quirky deviation after vocalist Sondre belts out 'I Am Lost Without You'.
'The Phantom Below' is simply great fun, as well as being an absolute musical delight.
Anyway we haven't even really written about the lyrical thoughts behind 'The Phantom Below', which quite rightly suggests that our anger towards modernization of our society (such as social media platforms) should be 'directed at the humans misusing it, not the technology itself'.
The good news is that we won't have to wait long for the new 'Moron Police' album, as that's due in June, and before that we might even be treated to another single. You can find them on Instagram and Facebook, and maybe even on Twitter too if they can remember their password...