Todd Terje & the Olsens
The Big Cover-Up
By: Julia Cirignano
The Big Cover-Up consists of disco covers songs written by Yellow Magic Orchestra/Martin Denny, Martin Circus, Boney M., and Vangelis. The album also consists of remixes of Daniel Maloso, Dan Tyler, Prins Thomas, Øyvind Morken and Boney M.
The Big Cover-Up is Todd Terje’s first album with a live band. Before this, he released a solo album in 2014 called It’s Album Time. Terje is originally from Norway and creates music as a DJ, producer, and songwriter. It is clear that Terje’s music has matured since his first release, and these new songs sound much fuller. Although all of the songs are either covers or remixes, Todd Terje does a great job making this his own without losing their original flare.
Some of the songs on this album have an a capella quality, such as in the first version of “Disco Circus” within the album (the album includes three different versions on this song). Terje also uses voices as instruments to keep a beat. “Firecracker (Dan Tyler Remix)” is one of my favorites. It incorporates dream like sounds that seem almost nostalgic. This song sounds like the noise made by a children’s toy, which sounds very interesting in contrast with the other musical elements. This type of sound is also heard in “Disco Circus (Øyvind Morken Remix). I believe that one of the strongest tracks is “La Fete Sauvage” because of the use of a variety of different instruments and sounds.
The sounds on this album are interesting, yet the songs themselves tend to be a bit repetitive. Although this is the nature of dance music, I would love to see each song have more of a rise and fall action. I would love to hear some of the tracks have more variety which is needed to keep listeners attention. Terje has created an interesting collection of songs, yet I would love to see him work on his own songwriting. He does a great job utilizing songs that have already proven to be successful, and I’m interested to see what type of music he could create from nothing.
Rating: Listenable
