Studio, the Swedish balearic electro tandem, is releasing their next disc June 23rd. The album is entitled Yearbook 2 and is intended as a follow-up to their album Yearbook 1 that was released last year. This disc is interesting, because it is a remix collection and displays a new side to the jammed out style of music that their material of last year displayed. I loved their disc “West Side” from last year, and arguably it was one of the best if not most unique new works to hit my ears. Studio represents the best combination of electrically produced sounds and instrumentation that come together in ridiculous jam fashion. Their sound is almost jam band, yet also could easily go head to head with much of the music you might hear in the club. Yearbook 2 contains the following remixes:

01 A Mountain of One: “Brown Piano (Version by Studio)”
02 Shout Out Louds: “Impossible (Version by Studio)”
03 Love Is All: “Turn the Radio Off (Version by Studio)”
04 Rubies: “Room Without a Key (Version by Studio)”
05 Brennan Green: “Escape From Chinatown (Version by Studio)”
06 Kylie Minogue: “2 Hearts (Version by Studio)”
07 Williams: “Love on a Real Train (Version by Studio)”

If you are looking for something to get your mind lost in when you get back from a night out, Studio is one of the best choices. They will gradually bring you down from being out. Their beats are solid enough to keep the party going, yet the style is more of a nice compromise between the party and home.

Now for the review…

The “Brown Piano” cover starts the disc off in a very ambient and tranced place, yet also represents the least treated of the songs on this album. If you have never listened to A Mountain Of One they were definitely a highlight of last year. I would call them a group that combines balearic styles with the psychedelia of a Pink Floyd and with some almost Led Zeppelin sounds at times. This cover is good but definitely not as hard charging or as interesting to me as the next two tracks. The Shout Out Louds cover is impeccable and the Love is All cover combines a Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” baseline initially with some wonderful percussion effects and sparse mysterious vocals. “Turn The Radio Off” then develops into a ridiculous jam session. This track will take you some places. Studio then brings the listener back down from this absurdly good jam to a nice laid back almost tropical sounding song with their treatment of California band Rubies’ track entitled “Room Without A Key.” This track is very calming compared to the start and this album really starts to feel like a cohesive disk at this point. Studio’s treatments of each of these songs are significant and they all together function to make this work seem less like a remix work and almost like it is entirely original. Studio picks up from “Room Without A Key” and brings us back up to a fury. The “Escape From Chinatown” track almost seems like it is lifted out of some sort of Jan Hammer mix for Miami Vice and is simply mind blowing. The Kylie Minogue cover is very playful and sexy. Studio then brings us to a close with a track “Love On A Real Train” that almost brings bits of every song from the album together and leaves us with a reminder of the journey that we just traveled.

This Album is a must buy when it comes out on Monday… Enjoy a track off the album and one of Studio’s originals from last year’s “West Side” album. I apologize for the extensive review, but works like this require it…

Impossible (Shout Out Louds) – Studio – Yearbook 2

West Side – Studio – Yearbook 1