Subtitled "Future Sounds From The Scandinavian Underground", Scando-Nova is compiled by DJs Bjorn Torske and Zak Frost. Torske hails from Bergen in Norway, where he shares a studio with Royksopp, while the half-Swedish Frost lives in Copenhagen, running his deepblueDK club night. Actually, rather than being strictly futuristic, there's a great deal of nostalgia on show here, whether for kinky-booted organ churns from the 60s or the plastic jump-suited monophonic synthing of the early 80s. Ephemera's "Last Thing" doesn't take long to assert its catchiness, flushed with fairground organ and cute harmony choruses. Ben Horn's "Stripped Down" sets tight horns jetting across its rolling bassline, while Olav Brekke Mathisen's "Take To The Sky" has gold medallion soul vocals competing with a butterfly flute. When Royksopp's remix of Anneli Drecker's "Sexy Love" hits, it underlines just how smooth all of the preceding tracks have been. This is easily the best tune here, its pounding beats scrunched up by splatter-sonics, gaspy vocals drooling lasciviously, incorporating the sound of sawing wood, plus various squelchy noises given rhythmic regularity. "Kinky People" closes up in spangled style, with Malin's extended house floater establishing a return to some kind of sanity. --Martin Longley
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