Five Records From Baklengs
Since 2016, tucked away on the corner of a sometimes sleepy and sometimes stirring street of central Oslo, you’ll find Baklengs. It’s a small but tightly packed and extremely well curated record store with a real community feel surrounding it. They regularly host nice stuff there. Things like album launches or the occasional street BBQ, along with semi-regular DJ sets and shows from Norwegian artists all crammed into their modest but well designed space. They also brew a mean cup of coffee.
The sounds of Baklengs sways from seminal and experimental jazz and electronic cuts from the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, to the satisfactory deep dug tunes of obscure 80s sounds, to the very contemporary, the harder, the darker and to the very laid back. Their sound is one of overriding quality through eclecticism and so, if there was a Scandinavian version of the “Balearic” sound, it could be called “Baklengs”. They, of course, stock a healthy portion of Scandi-sounds from the likes of home-grown labels like Smalltown Supersound, Internasjonal and Full Pupp.
So, let’s let the store do some defining of their own. We asked them to pick out five records from their Oslo store that they have on sale right now, that in some way or another represents the record shop itself. A mightily tricky task for any purveyor of fine musical goods, no doubt, so lets see what they chose...
Vangelis Katsoulis “If Not Now When” (2017)
Ah, it’s bloody good stuff. A mighty release from experimental artist Vangelis Katsoulis on Alex Bradley’s hugely underrated and hugely excellent Utopia Records. A delicate and wondrous journey into some sort of fun yet wholly mellow world; the whole album keeps you on your toes with a broad range of sounds, flavours and percussion. One for the come down. Check out a choice track below, and listen to the whole lot or indeed purchase via Bandcamp, if you fancy.
Smerz “Believer” (2021)
This is XL Recordings at their best. Trance, opera, rap, shoe-gaze, dare we say it “electronica”, ambient and sheer experimentalism. There are few genres out of Norwegian duo Smerz’s reach, and it makes for a hell of a ride. But it’s not just an old load of irony piled together, it’s a sincere and emotive sketchbook packed full of inventive ideas that comprise one very interesting and wholly melodic album. Fun.
Yeah, of course they have a wood fire in their record store, this is Norway we’re talking about. Check out some pics of the cute Baklengs shop below and go visit them! Pics below by Einar Mølmann Fuglem.
Yu Su “Yellow River Blue” (2021)
Now here is a monster. Dropping in January 2021, Yu Su’s debut album always promised to be a strong offering and Yellow River Blue does certainly not disappoint. Veering through more left-hand turns and aural surprises than you can shake a Pølse at, the album dances through heavy hitting mid-noughties-flavoured dub, effortlessly catchy synth pop, and left-field wonky house (kind of) things. One track below is chosen at random because picking one through merit was just too darned hard. Buy the lot at Bandcamp.
Bjørn Torske “Nedi Myra” (1998)
There we go. They had to pick one, didn’t they. And they did. And it’s a classic. Together with the late Tore “Erot” Kroknes, Bjørn laid the foundation for the disco scene in Norway, and this is his recently reissued early album, Nedi Myra. It’s only right, we suppose, that Baklengs include him here. It’s the quintessential dubbed out, trippy cosmic slice of Nordic house and disco. It’s pretty much the blueprint for things. Sweet.
Mohammad Reza Mortazavi & Burnt Friedman “YEK 2” (2020)
Total mindfuck trippy fire here. German dub jazz experimentalist person Burnt Friedman and Iranian tombak prodigy Mohammad Reza Mortazavi have combined to ruthless effect on two percussive and frantic releases in the last year, and the latest effort here “YAK 2” on excellent German label Nonplace is a juicy collaboration, indeed. Relentless percussion to hammer away at the subconscious. Give the opening track a whirl below and listen / buy the rest via Bandcamp.