Album Review: The Understanding by Röyksopp

Nick Hornby included Röyksopp's Night Out in his book 31 Songs alongside choices by Dylan and Springsteen, though for the Norwegians the compliment was backhanded. Their song, once a furtive delight for Hornby, had become so omnipresent that it now reeked of "vacuous monied hip". Hipsters themselves, Torbjörn Brundtland and Svein Berge may have empathised, having evolved from a dance scene where cool is currency, but thankfully they haven't taken a blind bit of notice.

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When the Norwegian production duo Röyksopp dropped their first album, Melody A.M., it sounded as though they were on a stopover from another planet. Otherworldly samples and a crisp production sense combined to make the singles "Eple" and "Sparks" perfect examples of the downbeat form and near-ubiquitous inclusions on chillout compilations. As electronica artists from Biosphere to Boards of Canada had proved before them, a life away from the mainstream -- say, in the extreme northern climes of Europe -- was easily capable of freeing an artist from the demands of trendiness.

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