Tennishero, "Alone" (2006)

Since a rule of business is that small companies need to specialize to survive, I've decided that Tremble Clef, fighting for life in a crowded blog market, will now only post tracks by male Swedish duos.

Mmmm. Not really. But for today, we have Tennishero, made up of Jens Andersson and Alex Berg from Gothenberg. Their similarity to the Le Sports and Lo-Fi-Fnks of the world, however, begins and ends with their nationality, the band composition, and the need of today's entry to begin with an untrue gag. For sonically Tennishero belongs more in a category with Röyksopp or Bent or Air, being more electronica than electropop.

Of course, this is based on my hearing just one of their songs. "Alone" is quite a corker, though: a dreamy and swooping track that's mostly made up of a gliding keyboard riff that rises and falls. The riff sounds a bit like the lovechild of Xploding Plastix's "Sunset Spirals," perhaps with a dash of The Radio Dept's "We Climb The Wired Fences" tossed in (and if you know those tracks and references, then we should join forces and conquer the world). There's a bit of a bounce to "Alone," one that Morgan Geist or Alan Braxe might be proud of. And the track also has a wisp of a vocal -- though that mainly consists of a line about, wahey, feeling all alone -- provided by Chelonis R. Jones, the Get Physical singer who's guested on Röyksopp records. Well done, everyone concerned.

I heard this track on the current Hedkandi compilation Serve Chilled, which collects music for those lazy beach days. Which will hopefully describe the rest of my week, as I head off for some sun, surf, sand. Be back Thursday or Friday (probably).