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  • Studio Barnhus
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Via SoundCloud

In six years of listening to their records, I have yet to figure out what Studio Barnhus' logo is supposed to represent. A cartoon rendering of a shingled tower with a bulbous top, looking a little like a Russian onion dome, it might be something out of a storybook, which is to say that it's strange and familiar all at once. And “strange and familiar” is also a pretty apt summation of the sound of the Stockholm label, which is run by Kornél Kovács, Axel Boman, and Petter Nordkvist. Channeling the disco antics of their Norwegian neighbors and the absurdist quirk of DJ Koze, the Barnhus crew has come up with a take on house music that amounts to a cheerful and wide-eyed kind of déjà vu, twisting classic sounds into funhouse-mirror shapes.

“BB,” the lead single from Kovács' forthcoming debut album, The Bells, is a case in point. It's built out of a sprightly disco break that's been run through filters and distortion until it crunches like breakfast cereal peppered with Swarovski crystals. But beneath the giddy surface runs a more sorrowful undercurrent. The track doesn't behave as you might expect. Starting off on a high note, it teases toward a climax—but instead of climbing further, it darkens and deepens, with new wave guitars and ambient synths building toward a total eclipse of the mirror ball. When the beat kicks back in, it's like being bathed in light—cheeks flushed, sweat flowing, emotions rubbed raw.

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