In the late 1980s, "balearic" was conceived as a catch-all term for the music that emerged from Ibiza that didn't thump like house music and featured a mix of strange bedfellows, such as a Spanish guitar flourishing over a stark Italo disco beat. The term befits the broad strokes of Norwegians Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, who marry synth-rich pulsing space disco and bass-propelled post-punk with the introspection of psychedelia.
The production is luxurious and sounds effortless despite the painstaking detail and myriad ideas. An urgent bass underpins Forelopig Bit as a gorgeous melody twinkles atop it; Boney M Down recalls Giorgio Moroder's Scarface soundtrack; and the languid AOR of Naa Er Druen Paa Sitt Beste proves that Lindstrom and Thomas can easily out-swoon fellow Norsemen Röyksopp.