Strangefruit’s legacy runs perpendicular with electronic music in Norway. One of the first bonafide DJs on the scene Strangefruit was instrumental in bringing the sound of New York to the Oslo fjord as a teen. “The electronic music from New York felt like a spaceship” at the time he told us in an interview back in 2016 and Pål “Strangefruit” Nyhus must of appeared like an alien out of the fog playing this kind of music to a new malleable generation. Prins Thomas and Øyvind Morken lists as some of Strangefruit’s students and his impact on the Oslo DJ community is unquantifiable today as DJs from all generations continue to call on Strangefruit as an immoveable influence on their own career.
Whether he is DJing or in the production chair as one half of the Disco-Dub-Psyc group Mungolian Jetset, Strangefruit’s presence in the Oslo music scene is tantamount to its vitality. Introducing new audiences to buried treasures and always on the cusp of new music himself, Strangefruit’s music and sets are eccentric, playful and informative all at the same time. He is a chameleon behind the decks and is able to move from bargain bin Boogie to ostentatious Techno in the space of an evening, keeping his audience on a razor edge of expectation as he traverses the musical cosmos. Strangefruit is an experienced hand at this, and expertly plays between context and music as he pounces on that ever-ephemeral sweet spot of an evening.
For this edition of the Jæger mix he puts this into practise yet again, but opts for an organic sound that saunters around the lower tempos and calls in all manner of alien soundscapes. Drawing the attention away from his own innate ability, Strangefruit puts the music front and centre for this mix and digs to realms whose existence radio telescopes are still oblivious to. Electronic soundscapes interpose acoustic instruments in texturally magnificent arrangements that seem to originate from a parallel dimension. From Funk to Reggae to Psychedelic, Strangefruit looks to the most obscure corners of his musical universe in this mix, which comes together as enigmatic “blend of early Sunday night tunes” and… a Mungolian Jetset exclusive.
* Strangefruit plays RETRO with DJ Nuhhh Thursday 21/12.
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