reviews / 2010

LINDSTRØM & CHRISTABELLE - Real Life Is No Cool

Name: LINDSTRØM & CHRISTABELLE – Real Life Is No Cool
Item: Real Life Is No Cool
Rating: 8
Author: Mattia Braida

2010 (Smalltown Supersound)

house-pop

by Mattia Braida

Hans-Peter Lindström confirms himself as one of the most chameleonic artists on the electronic scene. His debut full-length ("Where You Go I Go Too") found him grappling with sprawling, progressive running times (three suites of almost unmanageable length) and a blend of house, kraut-tinged electronics and Italo disco. Alongside Prins Thomas, meanwhile, we've seen him slicked back and dressed in lounge attire. Now he's back with another full-length, and he's in excellent company.

Christabelle Solale (real name: Isabelle Haarseth Sandoo) has a voice that seems tailor-made for Lindström's chameleonic style: powerful and gritty like a soul singer, imperfect and flirtatious like a house vocalist, white and sharp-edged like the Norwegian fjords. The pair's collaboration dates back a full 7 years, to when they released the 12" "Music (in My Mind)": powerful synths, atmospheric horns and Christabelle's voice dominating the scene. The two reunited in 2007 with "Let's Practice", another striking 12": a nocturnal mood and house through and through, with flashes of disco underpinning the Norwegian singer's half-spoken delivery.

"Real Life Is No Cool" is the first full-length album born from the pair's collaboration. The coordinates are unstable: electro-pop, house, disco music and funk collide continuously. The common denominator is Lindstrøm's style, which harnesses the coldness of electronics to produce warm, enveloping songs. Like "Lovesick", which kicks off straight away with imperious, old-fashioned strings, making room for a electro-pop that can't help but leave you stunned.

The album flows by, and it's a pleasure, thanks to the variety of genres touched on by the duo: "Keep It Up" comes straight out of the 80s with an almost AOR drive; "So Much Fun" is italo-disco for nights on the beach; "Baby Can't Stop" nods to the sci-fi of the Daft Punk sound and to late-70s funk, the kind that's most disco-oriented. I could talk about "Real Life Is No Cool" for hours, pointing out the fantastic way it's arranged (vintage, yet damn contemporary), or describing the sheer number of references it contains; the best way to grasp just how many genuine gems of pop music this record hides is to listen to it, playing a game of who can spot the most references.

On this new work, Lindstrøm reinvents himself as a historian of the last 20 years of dance music, exploring every possible declination of his house Gospel, leaving the listener slack-jawed and their head on dancefloor. And despite the explosive mix of genres it touches on, "Real Life Is No Cool" remains cohesive and coherent throughout; the glue? Christabelle's stunning voice, part Diana Ross of the new millennium, part Cat Power version dance; and, of course, the magic touch of the Norwegian DJ.

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20/01/2010

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Mattia Braida, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition