Röyksopp

After four years away from Italian stages, Norway's Röyksopp made a comeback appearance in the country. The occasion was Disco_nnect, a festival of electronic music and visual arts held at Forte Bazzera, in the province of Venice, between September 4th and 5th. The event set out to bring together the best that the world of electronic music has to offer. The bill accordingly featured Lcd Soundsystem, Fujiya & Miyagi, Ebony Bones, GlimmersDiscoDrunks, Mickey Moonlight, A Certain Ratio (a bit out of place given the genres on offer) and several others.

Alongside the international names, there was also a deliberate effort to showcase emerging Italian bands and the country's most acclaimed artists. Taking the stage as well were Bugo, Fare Soldi, Scuola Furano, Thank You For The Drum Machine, Le Rose and many others.

Before getting to the Röyksopp live set, though, it's worth calling out just how inept the organization was. Between shuttle buses that were supposedly free but never actually materialized, absurdly overpriced food and drinks, and gate opening times running more than two hours behind schedule, the whole thing amounted to something of a minor Caporetto. It's not hard, then, to see why Italy struggles to host major international-caliber music events.

With that necessary caveat out of the way, let's get to the story of the evening. Preceded by sets from Fujiya & Miyagi, Little Dragons and Ebony Bones (absolutely phantasmagoric), the Norwegian duo took the stage at eleven at night, greeted with an ovation from the (sparse) crowd. What followed was a relentless parade of the songs that made them famous, alongside others drawn from their latest album.

The opening "Royksopp Forever" might have suggested a fairly laid-back set, but instead the atmosphere turned red-hot with "Eple" and "Remind Me". The sound was absolutely full, the bassist floored the accelerator, and the rhythm section was pushed to the max. "The Girl And The Robot", "Only This Moment" and "Alpha Male" followed, delivering a jolt of pure gaseous energy.

Across the duo's seventy amused and amusing minutes, "Poor Leno" and "Happy Up Here" shone with pure brilliance, before the set wound down into a vaguely trance-flavored close.

Overall, the boys from Tromsø didn't disappoint at all, delivering a tight, high-energy set built on pure sweat, dancing and fun. We could use more shows like this…

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