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Jonas Lonna and Rikard Gensollen are from Sweden and are the duo behind Gen;Lon (do these linked names ever work?). The debut album is not what you’d have expected from a Jazzland Record signing of a few years ago. Back then it was the Future Jazz From Norway stars Beady Belle, Sidsel Endresen, Wibutee and Bugge Wesseltoft’s New Conception of Jazz. They had a Jazzland Records day at the North Sea Jazz Festival and I was so sold on the concept.

After what seems like a long break to me, this new album comes as a little of a surprise as it’s electro house throughout. While that’s no bad thing, I must say I was a little disappointed to start with. Having said that, this is intelligent collection of eight tracks which are almost cinematic at times and have already caught the ear of Laurent Garnier.

The opening track ‘Tic Tac’ features Mr. Wesseltoft on keyboards and it is one of the more immediate tracks. This track has already been released on a 12” backed with the deep synth throbbing of ‘Badadah’.

Jonas is the DJ / programming wiz and clearly likes a sample, ‘Tic Tac’ sounds like they’ve distorted a match being lit up. ‘Noskapin’ is particularly annoying as it starts with a irritable cough noise which is not at all appealing even if the main theme is uptempo and bouncy. ‘Le’ has a similarly uptempo 4/4 dream-like-synth which benefits from Rikard’s percussion.

The best two tracks for me are the last two, the wobbly engine room of ‘Sunday’ (a good counter point to Tunng’s ‘Engine Room’?) that builds all Henrik Schwartz like. ‘Boil’ is more bubbling techno synths.

From a jazzhead point of view, you’d be happier if Bugge had stayed on for the whole album but even then, this is more than just a one track CD. Apparently Rikard an been performing percussion to Jonas’ DJ sets since 2000 and they must be great live which you can get a flavour of from this CD. Last year they did some remixes for the Flowriders (Starcraft ) and Swedish hip hop/electro funk project SLS (who were ‘warped’ by MOD X on ‘It Becomes Infectious No. 1’).

Hectic Mix Nomination: ‘Sunday’

Gen;Lon — Dong Dong Gaaf (Jazzland Records) Cat. No 0602498720417 Release date: 2006
Tracklisting:
1. Tic Tac (8:24)
2. Badadah (7:02)
3. See (7:46) feat.Moa Lonna
4. Awake (7:24)
5. Noskapin (5:58)
6. Le (7:17)
7. Sunday (7:08)
8. Boil (6:49)

Link:
www.jazzlandrec.com