Where N-Collective family members Ultralyd’s Conditions for a Piece of Music luxuriates in its epic languor, Moha’s Norwegianism acts up like a particularly hyperactive and itchy child playing two shoot-em-up arcade games simultaneously whilst texting their mates about how they got thrown off the bus for shouting and throwing chips at their fellow passengers. 

On a typical (well, typical for them) piece like “Daily Three”, Anders Hana’s distorted guitars and electronics howl whilst Morten J. Olsen’s drums tumble thrilling all around a core of spasmodic Lightning Bolt twitch.  Tracks are generally fleeting (and ludicrously misnomered – nothing could accurately be described as “Jolly” or “Gay” here, unless they mean those words in their lesser-used senses of  “face-melting” or “laced with explosives”); just enough time to rip into your brain and mischievously swap a few connections around. One a couple of occasions, such as on “Ibiza One” towards the end, a hole is briefly smashed in the sky through which Ultralyd’s monstrous groan emerges, and as undeniably exciting as Norwegianism is, it may be to the Ultralyd album I think I’ll find myself returning more rather than this; Norwegianism leaves my synapses sparking and burnt out.

Norwegianism is available from Rune Grammofon.  Listen to more at their myspace.