Having been highly impressed by Joachim Dyrdahl’s Staying In album a little over two years ago, I was expecting big things from this follow up.

A nine track album, with most songs eclipsing the 6-minute mark, En Fin Tid is another prog disco attempt. Apparently, the intention was to create a more coherent and immersive experience this time, unlike Staying In, which was merely a collection of (very good) songs.

Unfortunately, Dyrdahl makes the mistake of sampling Kraftwerk on the opening bars of Reset And Begin, immediately relegating the track to novelty status. Can’t pinpoint the actual track as I write, but Dyrdahl surrounds it with speckled, spacey auras and shuffling beats; listenable, if not slightly hamfisted.

Elsewhere, En Fin Tid treads the dance floor with swaying disco workouts that chug in motoric fashion to the occasional sidewinding synth pattern, memorable melody or pulsing bass tone. The loose, simplistic percussion offers a limp framework for Dyrdahls’ “epic” disco adventures, leaving you to focus on melody and rhythm which, problematically, are too stark and lacking in toxicity.

From that perspective, En Fin Tid struggles to overcome its limitations and soon becomes bogged down in bubbling bass lines, 303s and diffident beats; it simply doesn’t have the range or quirkiness of its predecessor. A stuttering album that never fulfils its potential, En Fin Tid occasionally consumes and carries some heady atmospheres, but is somewhat a step backwards for Diskjokke.