Kronstad 23 
Never ones to miss, El Paraiso brings another excellent new band into the fold. The label’s often a bit cross-pollinated, swapping members of one band to another, usually revolving around the core Causa Sui lineup. For their latest, they burst out of their Danish bubble to nab a new name from Norway. Kronstad 23 have made plenty of headway in their first few years, but on their latest, the band embraces just the sort of mix that exemplifies the El Paraiso stable. A potent alchemy of psych, prog, jazz, and post-rock, the record thrums with rhythm, roiled riffs, and brass stabs. The band burrows deep from the first moments of their new album, Sommermørket, sinking their teeth slowly into the listener with tactile skill.
The band lets atmosphere wrap around the listener like smoke, a slow moving feeling that ripples through the bass on the title track, and runs along the strings of the album as it opens up. The album is immersive, surrounding the listener on all sides. An essential headphone record, though, it’s big enough to fill the room from the speakers just as well. The first half is crouched, curled, testing the listener’s resolve and reflexes. The jazz instincts lap at the early tracks, a nimble opening that dazzles like a rattlesnake’s tail. As the album slinks towards “Trosten” it pounces, a dizzying array of muscular motion that knocks the unsuspecting listener into guarded motions. The shift towards the burn of post-rock happens without warning, shedding it’s airiness to let something with a deeper itch settle below the skin. The burn settles in, seemingly to stay, but just as they heel turn before, the last track finds them returning to the atmospheric air, cooling down the tension for something more meditative by the time “Sjelefred” settles into the dust. The band doesn’t waste time climbing the label’s ranks, a first outing with El Paraiso that begs for more.