The prospect of a Norwegian singing a Smiths song a capella over European electro does not, initially, fill the heart with hope. But this Norwegian is Erlend Àye, the brilliantly mournful voice that fronts nu-folkers Kings Of Convenience. We're used to the bootleg mash-ups that combine, say, Bananarama with cool electronica, but Àye turns it on its head - he is the one singing the snippets of Venus, Fine Night and Always On My Mind, turning them into chillingly sparse songs all of their own. Wisely, he uses this technique sparingly, but it all comes to a head with a quite superb marriage of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out and a Rˆyksopp remix. Àye has re-invented a mix album medium that had got incredibly tired.
