Axel Boman is from Stockholm, co-founded Studio Barnhus, broke out with ‘Holy Love’ on Pampa in 2010 and records as Talaboman with John Talabot.
Superpitcher is Aksel Schaufler, twenty years and more deep at Kompakt, half of Pachanga Boys with Rebolledo and co-founder of Hippie Dance in 2011.
The album is the first on Blurry, the label Boman launched in 2026 with Laurenz Brunner handling art direction and !K7 on distribution. We covered the first single, ‘True Crime’, in August 2026.
The pair wrote it after three days hiking to the Helags glacier in northern Sweden. Ten tracks, out on digital and on a pair of twelve inches. And, really, it is quite the rewarding long player. Listen patiently and enjoy the full journey as the artists intended.
The album really hooked our ear when we were diving through our promo pool. It represents a departure from the usual “proper techno” we elect to predominantly fill our ears with here at Waveform Towers. The album is beautiful, in general, which comes as no surprise considering the pedigree at the helm.
Album opener ‘Birdwatchers’ is the perfect segue into the world Axel and Aksel build for us here, which at times can suddenly veer off into psychedelic territory at the drop of a hat. ‘Birdwatchers’ manages to be both airy and aqueous at the same time, with an almost dubby feel to it. Great start.
Next up we have ‘Helags’, which builds on the opener’s psychedelic bent with the introduction of dreamy crowd chatter and a low-slung house beat. This soon gives way to equally dreamy disco strings and bell synth which injects an Italo vibe into the production.
‘True Crime’ actually has a bit of a Boards of Canada feel to it initially, thanks to the reversed samples that launch the track. However, once the housey beat kicks in we are propelled towards some very nice 303 squiggles and hissing cymbals that takes it more towards Roy of the Ravers or Luke Vibert territory.
The energy notches up a touch with the BPM increase that ‘Latin Sherpa’ brings. There is something deeply familiar about that haunting little synth that floats around the back of the mix before it makes its presence known around the mid-point. Not knowing the origin of this familiarity is going to cause us consternation for quite some time, we will freely admit.
We’re back on a psychedelic tip again now as the woozy synths of ‘Karlav’ take hold, ushering in with them some really quite delightful acid once again. The beat stays at a snail-house BPM, but that 303 gives the track bags of trippy energy.
We’re on a ‘Side Quest feat. Konrad Agnas’ now, and we’ve upped the tempo a bit, too. Skittering upper register percs give the track an organic feel, while twinkling synths scatter around the soundstage.
Referencing the influence for the whole album, ‘Hiking (The Glacier)’ opens with a breathy synth alongside icy synth rings, glittering, frosty string plucks, and dubby vocal samples. Again, this could be likened to BOC in terms of how the track feels.
The title track is up now, a track that builds upon an insistent acid line and percussion that conveys a real sense of increasing majesty; that majesty being the mountain of course. The primal scream marks the point where we asks the mountain to listen, and it responds with layers of effervescing acid to wash our senses and souls clean.
Penultimate track ‘Trouble at the Top’ combines lilting guitar plucks with equally melancholic synth stabs and key patterns. Granular synths grow in intensity like swirling, glacial winds, freezing your eardrums.
We finish on ‘Hey It’s Me, I Love You’, an energetic number, presumably one to represent the elation of reaching the summit and finally contacting loved ones with reports of success and safety. Very much a euphoria driven closing to a superb album, and one that sets the bar high for all the subsequent releases on this fledgling imprint.
Get your copy over on Bandcamp.