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| Pitchfork |
 The breezy yet meticulous music of Norway's Casiokids sneaks up on you. It radiates earnestness and simplicity, which can obscure the fine inner workings. Watery vocal hooks and refrains tug at your ear first, but it's the tiny moving parts and lathed instrumental motifs that really get lodged there. This works out to either a kind of failure for a persona-seeking indie-pop band or a kind of success for an atmospheric dance band, two spheres Casiokids have always seemed slightly adrift between, to intriguing but muddying effect. After a scrappy debut and a singles collection disguised as a sophomore album, you might consider this their first shot at a "mature" record-- meaning more lavishly recorded, majestically played, and ambitious in scope. Maturity can be tricky to navigate for bands that have established themselves in the symbolic context of childhood.At this point, Casiokids are a synth-pop band only in the same, broad sense that the Flaming Lips (whose multimedia extravaganzas must have been an influence on their celebratory live show) are a psych-pop band. Big sing-alongs, Western house and disco beats, and squiggly analog synths are important elements of their sound, but no more so than Afro-Caribbean percussion, beatific 1960s pop, swarming funk guitars, and (especially as of Aabenbaeringen Over Aaskammen) gnarled psychedelia that drives the Flaming Lips comparison more firmly home. After about seven years in the game, they're no longer a motley crew of promising upstarts-- they're actually kind of a big deal. Their records are distributed all over the world (Universal in Norway, Polyvinyl in the U.S.) and they were one of four recipients of a million-kroner grant from Norwegian pop gods A-Ha. If they still seem fringe-y here in the States, it may be because the communal pageantry of their live show is an indispensible aspect of their music. Somehow, their loopy mishmash of styles just makes more sense when you're dancing with giant puppets under seizure-inducing lights....full text |
| Consequenceofsound |
| With Casiokids‘ third album, Aabenbaringen over aaskammen, the band promised to explore the possibilities afforded to them through numerous production techniques while still retaining “the rawness of the first two records.” With such a precarious balancing act ahead of these talented Norwegians, the question begs: Did they actually achieve their goal? Yes and no. Throughout the album’s 10 tracks, fans will surely hear bits and pieces of varying sizes from records No. 1 and 2. “Golden Years” is one such offering, a track that represents the band’s infectious, dance-inspired synthpop to a tee. Tracks like “London Zoo” and “Kaskaden”, through differing tempos, offer up more of the same warm, bubbly sounds the band has crafted with lethal efficiency since their debut. Without regurgitating concepts, they’ve built on each energetic bit of noise they’ve ever released in an undeniably incremental fashion. The second, and arguably more important, element of this album is their dedication to sonic experimentation and exploration. With much of the album sounding like the rest of their catalog, there isn’t enough innovation within the entire affair. The title track is grand and sweeping, a truly organic construct from a band that leans heavily on electronics, but it’s far too simple to sustain anything of real substance. “Det haster!” adds a new layer of grimy toughness to the group’s sound, but it just feels halfhearted and lacks the oomph necessary to really soar. What should be an effort full of daring risks and/or the band stretching their already vast skill set in the studio simply comes off as an LP full of incomplete bits lopped on top of old standby techniques. Promises aside, the album isn’t a failure by any stretch of the imagination. The end result is enjoyable synthpop with a few flourishes of genuinely inspired moments. As far as any awe-inspiring aabenbaringens go, we may have to wait till album No. 4....full text |
| Slantmagazine |
| Buy at:Amazon | iTunes Casiokids Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen ***½ by Matthew Cole on October 9, 2011 Jump to Comments (0) or Add Your Own Scandinavia is a land of nearly mythical stature among globally minded pop connoisseurs. Music critics talk about the region's producers and songwriters less as artists or businessmen than as scientists attuned to the physics of pop in a way that makes their counterparts in L.A., London, and Tokyo look amateurish by comparison. From ABBA to Ace of Base to Robyn, it's Stockholm in particular that appears to have undertaken pop's answer to the Manhattan Project, unveiling a new, chart-busting weapon of mass infectiousness at least once a decade. But after 10 years of strong Norwegian exports, we may be witnessing a shift in Euro-pop's balance of power. Bergen's Casiokids would be an exciting act in any context, but their sophomore album, Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen, is especially worth hearing for how effectively it blends the most winning strands of recent Norwegian pop into a forward-looking, satisfying whole. You can hear electro-pop a la Annie and Röyksopp on "Det haster!" and "Kaskaden," Sondre Lerche-style guitar pop on "Selskapets triste avslutning," and prog-pop in the vein of Shining or Jagga Jazzist on experimental numbers like "Dresinen"—disparate styles united by little more than the band's conviction that they should all be fun to listen to. Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen's most vital resource is Casiokids' boundless sense of playfulness, which enables them to effortlessly blend the familiar with the transgressive. As much as the album's well-calibrated synthesis suggests that the band has internalized the global pop scene's rule of success, there's enough offbeat moments to guarantee that any future breakthrough will be on the band's own terms. Its all-Norwegian libretto is the first sign (nearly all acts eyeing a global crossover perform in English), though it's certainly not the most substantial. When the album opens with an instrumental composed of flutes, horns, and accordion only to seamlessly transition into disco on "Det haster!," or when "London Zoo" gives vocalist Ketil Endresen a chance to do his best Thom Yorke impersonation, you're left with the impression of a talented young group that's mastered the pop rulebook only to rewrite it....full text |
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