Best known for his swirling space-disco tracks, produced both as a solo artist and with frequent collaborator
Lindstrøm,
Prins Thomas explored more of his ambient, Krautrock, and downtempo influences with his third solo album, issued in 2014. Following the 2015 release of an ambitious three-CD mix titled Paradise Goulash, which incorporated everything from avant jazz and industrial to minimal techno and indie rock,
Thomas went further out of orbit with his next proper full-length, the 96-minute opus
Principe del Norte. The album's extended, side-long tracks are a direct homage to the heyday of gatefold vinyl and prog rock, particularly of the hypnotic, synthesizer-driven variety. Much of the album de-emphasizes beats, instead concentrating on percolating arpeggios and slowly developing minimalist textures. Crystalline guitar tones help shape the cloudlike sonic constructions, but the electronic treatments and softly clicking beats owe equally to '90s ambient techno artists like
Pete Namlook as well as to the '70s and '80s cosmic explorations of
Manuel Göttsching and
Steve Hillage. The album's second CD (or final two LPs) brings the beats back to the forefront, retaining the bubbling, circular atmospheres but adding propulsive (yet not intrusive) disco rhythms. Tracks like "G" perfectly strike a balance between ethereal elements and grooves, with a meaty bass guitar line and handclaps, along with shimmering synths and lightly distorted guitars smoldering beneath everything. The effect is relaxing and meditative as well as energizing, with neither the dance or space-out sides of the equation feeling out of place. Even with the album's epic length, it never feels meandering or indulgent, as
Prins Thomas remains supremely focused throughout the entire journey, finding the duality between the different types of "cosmic" music. ~ Paul Simpson