- A star-studded album of dreamy rap and pop that sometimes obscures the Swedish producer's signature touch.
- It seems like an eternity ago that Jonas Rönnberg's persona actually contrasted with his music. The Swedish producer, who now records as Varg²™, is prone to popping bottles and posing with cigarettes in press photos, looking more like a hip-hop mogul or a streetwear influencer than a master of pointillist techno and dark ambient. It seemed strange when Drake affiliate Partynextdoor sampled one of Rönnberg's most despairing ambient tracks on his "High Hopes," but Rönnberg is the kind of figure who would thrive in the OVO universe: a savvy curator of guests and au courant aesthetics. His new album, Nordic Flora Series Pt. 6: Outlaw Music is his debut full-length on the web-literate Swedish rap label YEAR0001. It's a triumph of A&R in the service of the Nordic e-despair the label has made its métier, even if his own idiosyncrasies sometimes take a back seat.
Volume six is light-years removed from the first Nordic Flora release, Heroine, which may have cribbed its song titles from Drake's "Controlla" but whose straight-faced ambient techno tracks sounded like trains distantly rumbling across Arctic expanses. By Nordic Flora Series, Pt. 3: Gore-Tex City, faces like Yung Lean started to show up in his universe even as the music was still recognisably techno. Now he's given himself up completely to YEAR0001's web-savvy emo-rap sound, with appropriately morose features from Lean, Bladee, Ecco2K and Thaiboy Digital—and that's just a few of the collaborators here. Skrillex contributes a spectacular drop to "Is there a place in heaven for boys like me?," while an unknown singer named Joon Gloom sings solemnly on a few tracks. The whole endeavour was co-produced with Los Angeles's Yves Rothman, who has worked with left-of-centre luminaries like Amaarae and Yves Tumor.
The record sounds every bit as busy as its list of credits, squeezing 14 collaborators into 44 minutes. (The invitation of the great Pacific Northwest doom band Earth into the studio hasn't inspired Rönnberg to let his music breathe or stretch out at all.) The guest verses lean towards the ridiculous, from Rochester rapper Rx Papi rattling off a litany of outrageous one-liners—"I do my opps like Hannibal Lecter"—to Thaiboy Digital screaming "I do it for my family" like a supremely bummed-out DJ Khaled. Huge rave synths scream over everything. The tracks that allow him to flex his production chops last no more than two or three minutes, and he relies on breakbeats and bitcrushed gabber kicks more than the echoing drums found on earlier instalments. It plays as if anticipating a listener with a short attention span and a deep emotional investment in rave music and '90s cyber-aesthetics.
Rönnberg's personal touch tends to disappear amid all this clamour. It can take a minute to notice the impressive synth zaps and irregular kicks on "Heaven Blue Magic" given all the absurd shit Rx Papi says. His producer tags are often the only indication you're listening to a Varg release, especially with his distinctive drum programming taking a backseat. Yet the sense of airless, sweaty claustrophobia is just as strong as the feeling of limitless vastness on Heroine or Gore-Tex City. Outlaw Music is an effective curatorial work in the service of a grimy, nocturnal and potentially alienating vision: a flower watered with vodka, Red Bull and ecstasy.
Tracklist01. Venom of Ages / (愛は死よりも冷たい) feat. Golin
02. Heaven Bound Blue Magic feat. Rx Papi
03. Hitty feat. Thaiboy Digital
04. Shatter / Outlaw Music
05. Star feat. Joon Gloom
06. Lucky feat. Earth & Eartheater
07. llusions 1996
08. Pose1don feat. Joon Gloom, Woesum , Yung Sherman
09. My Childhood Trees (Star 2) feat. LEYA
10. F Flow LMKNOW
11. Is there a place in heaven for boys like me? feat. Bladee & Skrillex
12. Under No God feat. Soho Rezanejad & Spöke
13. H2D feat. Bladee & Ecco2k
14. Skenet feat. Ecco2k