Frisvold & Lindbæk – Diskoism (Beatservice Records)

Remix albums are a funny thing; some artists like to use them to promote their own material (for example Linkin Park’s ‘Reanimation’ or Bloc Party’s ‘Silent Alarm Remixed’), whereas others like to use them to promote their own remixing skills (this isn’t so common if I’m honest, and no obvious names come to mind right away). Frisvold & Lindbæk fall into this second category with their album ‘Diskoism’. 

In my personal opinion, I don’t think it’s worth doing a remix album if either the artist remixing or the artist being remixed is unknown, which is unfortunately the case with this CD. It is ten songs by relatively unknown artists, remixed by a couple of guys from Norway that I have never heard of, so I feel like the point of the record is a little lost on me. This isn’t to say that what is on the CD is all bad, because it’s not. There are some well produced dance tracks on there; admittedly none that are mind blowing enough to get the dance floor buzzing, but at the same time I’m sure people would keep dancing while waiting for the next tune to start. 

However as you listen more carefully to ‘Diskoism’, you realize that there are a couple of very interesting songs. Most notably there are two or three tracks with vocals attached, such at their remix of The Phenomenal Handclap Band’s ‘All Of The Above’, that demonstrates a classic New York disco feel (like Radio 4 if they were to lose their guitars), and their mix of Holly Heckler’s ‘I Wish For You’ which has a great deep house sound with some strong female vocals over the top. But it is the original songs that make these tracks good; the remixing skills shown on the album as a whole come across as very average. Maybe if they could have got some bigger name artists to work with then Frisvold & Lindbæk’s abilities would be there to see more clearly, but as it is ‘Diskoism’ is just another dance remix album that will blend in with all the other hopefuls. 2/10 

www.myspace.com/frisvoldlindbaek