Datarock

Scorpio

Many moons ago, atop one of seven mountains surrounding a picturesque Norwegian countryside, two scruffy-faced individuals-Fredrik Saroea and the man known simply as Ket-Ill-made a pact to alter the face of contemporary music as we know it by single-handedly transforming themselves into what they called the peak of pop evolution.

A big undertaking, but somebody had to do it.

Already home to indie-pop luminaries like the Kings of Convenience, Röyksopp, Annie, Ralph Myerz, and Even Johansen of Magnet, Bergen's southwest coast would be a fertile proving ground for their exploits, but far be it from Fredrik and Ket-Ill to sit back and let the buzz come to them.* DIY punk rockers by nature, but heavily influenced by the distinctive style and stage presence of groups like Talking Heads and Devo, the boys decided to ditch the thrash guitars in favor of the simple yet versatile Casio MT-64 keyboard and a Roland Groovebox. Toss in matching red track suits, a penchant for Transformers and John Hughes flicks, and two pairs of vintage Porsche wraparound sunglasses and you've got a little something called DATAROCK.

"In Norwegian, you would call a computer a 'data machine,'" Saroea explains. "So in the beginning, Datarock was making fun of all the rock people that thought electronic music was simply computer-generated music. But in English, 'data' means information, which is even more appropriate because Datarock is essentially the product of 30 years of the information society. But for some reason, we're constantly going back to the years between 1977 and 1982."

In December of 2000, Fredrik and Ket-Ill made their debut performance at Annie's monthly club night, "Pop Till You Drop," setting off a high-energy disco inferno fuelled by sparse electro-rock rhythms and infectious pop guitar hooks.