Kaptein Kaliber

If there was a form of music called über-cheerful whimsical synthesised pop, that’s most likely what this disc would be branded as. The first track, "Mikkel Angelo Bruno’s Sang,” is more rooted in early computer game music (think back to the Commodore 64 days) and dissidence than pop, rock or even instrumental fare. From there, we drift to the aforementioned but less mind boggling terribly whimsical pop offerings — perhaps best described as happy little upbeat, lyric-less tunes. The Norwegian duo (who appear to harbour a strange obsession with penguins) employ organs and drum machines, sometimes adding truckloads of effects to their musical cause. The cuts are painfully cute and tremendously quirky to be sure, but quite honestly, the repeat listenability seems limited, unless one has a particular penchant for light and fluffy background soundtracks to everyday life. The highlights of the 11 songs on this CD are, hands down, "There’s Beauty Up Above (Especially For You),” a gorgeous, and well-formed ambient imagining (mildly reminiscent of ’90s world flavour B-Tribe) and "Sjiraff,” an alt-rock swagger with early country-style instrumentation and the only song out of the lot with lyrics.