Kim Hiorthoy

My Last Day

Smalltown Supersound

This latest album from this Norwegian polymath (electronic musician, graphic designer best known for his Rune Grammofon album covers, writer and filmmaker) plays to his dual musical personality as a contemplative tunesmith and a populist, dance-floor slayer. The latter is on display right from the opener. “I Thought We Could Eat Friends” is an electro-pop confection that, with its driving beat and distorted and sweet synth counterpoints, should have ’80s fetishists reaching for their angular-haircut wigs and balloon pants. However, this bouncy track gives a false impression of what follows, as the rest of My Last Day is more melancholic, no doubt reflecting the dire and dour sentiments of the album title. The only track that comes close to the sheen of “I Thought” is “At Gar Sa Langsomt.” Although it trades in a jaunty, 4/4 groove for heavier break beats, it is, nonetheless, suffused with the same love of creamy synths.

However, the rest of My Last Day is more piano-centered IDM, whether it’s counterpointed by a lonely organ on the two-step “Beats Mistake,” which breaks out with a hooky, whimsical synth figure; accented with pots and pans on the down-tempo “Den Langa Berattelsen Om Stov Och Vatten”; teamed with a distorted banjo (or is that a thumb piano?) on the title track; paired with a clarinet on the hiss-immersed “Same Old Shit”; joined by a trumpet on the Satie-like waltz, “Skuggan”; or meshed with a thumb piano on “Wind Of Failure.” Much of this piano is in a ruminative, halting style that borders on the naive, but that is at once chamber-like and endearing without being cloying.

Regardless of whether this clumsiness is an affectation or not—some of the songs literally stop in the middle while Hiorthoy figures out where to go next—there is an expressive depth and sincerity to it. On top of that, he also has a incredible knacks for hooks. Indeed, despite the prevailing glum mood, Hiorthoy isn’t above injecting some wry humor, particularly in the song titles, which livens the mood. The string-augmented “Goodbye Song,” for instance, is not the final track, and “Beats Mistake” is rhythmically error-free. Additionally, Hiorthoy drops in cheeky, silly audio snippets of women, children, and even the occasional tap dancer, ensuring My Last Day doesn’t become too blue or miserable. Appropriately, it’s the final track that not only sums up the disc’s sonic duality, but Hiorthoy’s aesthetic as well: “I’m This, I’m That.”

Richard Moule