Track Review: ceo – “Wonderland”

New York – If you can forgive a fair share of lewdness, ceo’s outlandish work will light up your life like surprise fireworks. Keeping in mind freedom of expression and sonic exploration, approaching this music with an open mind is essential. If you’re game, the payoff here is huge. Wonderland is ceo’s forthcoming album, and the title track is available now for your streaming pleasure.Peculiar, energetic, often unruly but incessantly catchy, this sound is quite unlike anything out there.

Ceo is Swedish producer Erik Berglund, and his music is off the wall. Formally one half of The Tough Alliance, ceo is Berglund’s continued musical career. Coming through with undeniable force as a solo act since 2010, Berglund debuted his first album as ceo, White Magic, via Modular Records. Berglund seems to be in good company at Modular, the record label that is also home to other hyperactive-but-beloved acts like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bag Raiders, Tame Impala and Young Dreams.

The first single, “Whorehouse,” from the forthcoming album debuted in December. A second jam was posted for public consumption on January 8th, and what a wonder “Wonderland” is proving to be. At six and a half minutes long, this track could compliment a sweaty night at the club as easily as your morning commute. Packed with swirling melodies and stacked on an energetic tempo, it feels like a remastered prance down a neon yellow brick road.

A little after three minutes in, the track breaks down into vocal stylings that somehow recall Missy Elliot-esque samples. How Berglund achieved this successfully is anyone’s guess. What’s more, the mélange of club vibes, heavy pop and undertones of R&B seems like an impossible cocktail. An improbable feat, Berglund pulls it off seamlessly. Risky, unlikely and ultimately amazing, ceo steps way out of the box on this one. In so doing, he has created a sound all his own.

Like “Wonderland,” the first single from ceo’s forthcoming was a technicolored, melodic disco of the mind. A video via Sincerely Yours accompanied the first cut from Wonderland, “Whorehouse.” An effervescently bizarre and intoxicating montage of Berglund dancing by himself in a series of headdresses, the video is performance art at its oddest and finest. Complete with face paint, strobe magic, an aggressive smoke machine and sparkly lip-gloss, it also falls somewhere between club music and pop. It is, above all, a creative exercise in catharsis.

Without a doubt, both singles from ceo’s forthcoming album will test your flex level of comfortability. However, they will also convert you. If you give these tracks some time, they will unfold majestically and have you amped for whatever awaits us from the album at large. Wonderland is scheduled for release February 3^rd in the UK and Europe via Modular. For those of us in the Contiguous, the album will be available February 4^th. Get psyched and check out the track list for Wonderland in full below.

Tracklisting:

WHOREHOUSE
HARAKIRI
MIRAGE
IN A BUBBLE ON A STREAM
WONDERLAND
JUJU
ULTRAKAOS
OMG

About
Latest Posts

Liz Rowley

Born in Mexico and raised in Toronto, Jerusalem and Chicago by a pair of journalists, Liz comes to BestNewBands.com with an inherited love of writing. After discovering a niche for herself in music journalism and radio while at Bates College in Maine, she always keeps a running playlist of new music to soundtrack her place in the world. Liz is passionate about helping dedicated, talented musicians gain the exposure they deserve. A recent transplant to Brooklyn from Hawaii, she is plagued by an incurable case of wanderlust and cursed with an affinity for old maps and old things like typewriters and vintage books. She adores photography and running and is very good with plants. Having come of age in Chicago, Wilco speaks to her soul. If she could be anything, she would be a cat in a Murakami novel.