Lindstrøm: "Closing Shot"
Hans Peter Lindstrøm in anthem mode is truly something to behold. Just think of 2005′s soaring “I Feel Space,” its synthesizers trembling and surging like green vines caught in a time-lapse video. Or recall 2013′s blushing “Lanzarote,” with Todd Terje, a cheekily triumphant ode to summer that climaxes in a riot of rolled congas and rolled “r”s. It’s been a while since Lindstrøm has allowed himself to be quite so carefree; last we heard from him, he was tangling himself up in knots alongside Todd Rundgren and Emil Nikolaisen, spinning prog-rock disco into something dissonant and diffuse. But “Closing Shot,” which will appear on a new four-track EP in July, is a full-on crowd-pleaser, plain and simple.
You can tell from the restless opening claps that he’s itching to get back to the dancefloor, but “Closing Shot” is never hasty. He spends a couple of minutes simply laying the foundations and luxuriating in the materials—teasing filters, testing harmonies, and savoring the glide on a particularly animated bassline. It’s a simple song; you know immediately what it does, how it works, and where it’s going. Yet, unfurling brightly colored chords like a magician pulling knotted handkerchiefs from a hat, it still manages to surprise. Toward the climax, a sprightly arpeggio explodes into fireworks; the conga-line syncopations make an unexpected callback to Terje’s equally crowd-pleasing “Eurodans.” It ends in the best way possible: not with a bang but with a drizzle of handclaps and synth bleeps, dissolving into a fine mist that’s charged with energy. He knows what he’s doing, giving it a title like “Closing Shot”: you can bet your ears that this radiant, gently yearning anthem will be closing out a lot of DJ sets this summer.
Recent Comments