Erik Lindgren — Yin Yang A-Go-Go
This staggeringly diverse-yet-highly consistent two disc CD compilation charts the numerous projects & releases that Mr Lindgren has been involved with between 1972 & 2005. And I must say it’s one of the most head spinning, surprising, yet almost always worthy compilations I’ve heard in a long, long time.
Each of the two discs here has a playing time of seventy nine minutes, and in all the set features 50 tracks.These taking in a selection of work from the various projects Mr Lindgren has been connected with for the last 40 years. And really I’d say the whole collection is like a musical chocolate box, with-out the menu. You’ll move from rising & dramatic blends piano led prog/ jazz rock blends, that have a sight eastern flavour. Onto zany mixes of sped-up vocals & stabbing keyboards. Onto doo-wop meets buoyant electro reggae grooves. Through to handclapping blends of throbbing synth & snapping beats. Onto off-angle singer songwriter pop/ rock ballads . Through to bright & shinny easy-listening work-outs, that sound like they could be from a US 80’s sitcom soundtrack. Onto Beach- Boy pastiches. Though to chugging ‘n’ churning B52 like work-outs, with twists of dada. Onto sweeping & searing modern classical string compositions . Onto to synth & beat bound 1980’s male pop song-writing, with soaring sax & guitar leads. And beyond
But above & beyond the amount of genres Lindgren covers - it’s his ability to capture each & every one perfectly, which really shines though here. And of course the way he adds his own quirky & off-kilter identity to proceedings- this is far from just bland genre recreating for the hell of it. Certainly those who enjoy the likes of Zappa, The Residents, Zorn, Mr Bungle and Pumpkin Buzzard will have a hell of a time here
One of the most rewarding & satisfying things about reviewing music/sound/ film/whatever for M[m] is that ever so often you will come across a artists whose create a huge body of high quality work you’ve not been aware of before. And that’s exactly what happened with this truly excellent, varied, & often brilliantly odd compilation. If you enjoy any form of genre shifting & blending that’s well conceived, yet often memorable & quirkily edged Yin Yang A-Go-Go is a total must!.