Get Physical Presents Body Language 17: WhoMadeWho

A dancefloor experience that's intriguing in its awkwardness...

Danish trio WhoMadeWho – Tomas Barfod, Tomas Hoffding, Jeppe Kjellberg – follow Matthew Dear, Azari & III, Modeselektor and Catz n Dogz onto the Body Language turntables with a session that’s rather more po-faced than their six albums and a decade-plus worth of DIY disco and indie electro pop. They cue a mixture of electro-scented house and synth pop that smoothes over the angles and edges, and also leaves the juts in for you to bump into.

It creates a dancefloor experience that's intriguing in its awkwardness, criss-crossing without ever really settling into the journey-making mix template. After starting by blowing the fringe from out of its eyes, it makes a point of stubbornly telling you to relax, sometimes when the reclining speaks and shines for itself. Cubicolor’s coasting ‘Down the Wall’ is like a light bike taking on winding country lanes, and Nick Galemore’s ‘All Goes Wrong’ is turned into an arid, outback houser by the mix’s sometime folky Scandinavians.

So it may not go from A to B easily, but it does come with something lurking or bounding round every corner, qualm-less about handing over the groove it may have just found. The blank stares of passive aggressive vocalists with spirit level haircuts and loops from Weval that have come off the first spaceship, revisit the Moog retro-futuristic that never goes out of style – remember, they’re more scared of you than you should be of them.

Applescal’s rainbow skipper ‘Onetasker’ outwardly embraces our ‘80s synth replenishers, and George FitzGerald, Fort Romeau and Nosaj Thing join in on a selection that’s not without its striking moments. Overall, though, WhoMadeWho make the club a reclusive attraction, working an undefined area between mystery and genuine shyness never attempting to reach a high.

7/10

Words: Matt Oliver

– – –

– – –

Buy Clash Magazine

-
Join the Clash mailing list for up to the minute music, fashion and film news.