This is going to sound like a slight, but it isn’t. Bjorn Torke’s latest album Kokning sounds pretty much like what you’d expect out of the long-percolating “Scandinavian” pop scene. Well, the top-shelf deconstructivist disco, anyway. If you pull apart all the stylistic references on the 12-minute closer “Furu” alone you could teach a course on 21st Century Astro Funk. It doesn’t mean you’d come up with a good album. Torske may not be as high profile as Lindstrom or Prins Thomas, or well, take your pick. But, he’s a veteran (this is his fourth LP) and his experience keeps his eclectic impulses in (almost perfect) check. “Bergensere” is the obvious money shot, all whopping bass, ticklish laser synths and spankin’ syncopation; it flaunts Bjorn’s love for Larry Levan like a glitter-spangled tambourine. Or a spilled a bottle of poppers on the dancefloor. Or something. That’s in case the high-brow jungle boogie of the lead-in “Langt Fra Afrika” leaves any doubt. “Versjon Wolfenstein” is an quirky mashup of dub and sci-fi. The ambient title track makes a good opener or closer, depending on your psychtropic state. Slower jams like “Bryggesjau” have an unplugged pagan vibe that mines the overlap between folk and soul. From start to finish, Kokning is the latest marker in a long-running string of sophisticated electropop for Bjorn Torske, the tiny but mighty Smalltown Supersound label and indie pop in Norway and beyond.

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