Let’s be frank: I’m a Prins Thomas fan boy. It is not a secret and therefore there is no reason to hide it awkwardly. So, when he asked me to write something about his second solo album (unmistakably called “Prins Thomas 2″), the smart Norwegian knew that I wouldn’t come up with any cruel things to say. The good thing is: even if you are not a fan boy or girl, you won’t find any of those here. “Prins Thomas 2″ is stunning from start to finish. While its predecessor and his album works with Lindstrom took care of the krauty, rocky, brainy and “real musician” side of things, the man from Oslo goes back to the starting point of his recording career: one man and his idiosyncratic way of making people dance. The seven tracks on this LP or the eight on the mixed CD (including two bonus tracks) owe as much to the traditional methods of house or techno and extraterrestrial disco (I shipped around the “S”-word here) as they disregard it and they are as characteristic to Thomas’ studio space (I used the “S”-word here) and his sound aesthetics as they are to his infinite will to surprise. Directly from the guts of the man behind Full Pupp, Internasjonal and a gazillion of tailor-made remixes, you get to hear joyful reminiscences of the late and great Arthur Russell in “Tjukkas Pa Karussel”, nasty drum jams like “Flau Pappadans 1″, “Bom Bom” or the Perkmiks of “Bobletekno” next to the sheer and untainted beauty that is “Symfonisk Utviklingshemming”. The spirits of these recordings are light-hearted, sincere, a joy to listen and dance to and cumulate in an album that deserves the name. Whatever the train is called that has Prins Thomas at his helm, you better get a ticket.

- Gerd Janson