Hekt - Forever

Hekt is someone who knows that the very best dance music is music that moves you in both body and soul. The Copenhagen based producer’s love of jumped up club beats and dancefloor euphoria is combined with a gorgeous, yearning winsome desire on ‘Forever’ his debut album on acclaimed Scottish electronic label Numbers. 

‘Forever’ is something of a celebration for a coterie of Copenhagen based electronic musicians who have been making some of the most moving and inventive alt pop of the decade. Fine, Valeria Litvakov and, most notably, Smerz all feature on the record and give it a Scandi alt pop sheen that lifts Hekts EDM infused beats to an altogether exalted emotional plain. 

The album has a crystalline sheen that gives its poppiest moments like ‘Up In The Air’s’ ecstatic cloud busting ebullience a gloriously infectious innocence, Catharina Stoltenberg of Smerz provides the vocals and her insouciant cool allows her voice to float blissfully over the beats. A glorious pop moment among many. 

It’s not all breathless, fevered rushes and exuberant hyperpop though. Hekt can also go deep and go hard and he brings an industrial serrated crunch to ‘Anytime Anywhere’ again incorporating the vocals of Smerz but this time distorted and mangled in grotesque macabre fashion. The potential to take a mildly sinister detour gives the album a thrilling sense of propulsive motion. 

‘Forever’ is an album that works on multiple levels. The beat hungry club monsters will gorge on its ravey poppers o'clock euphoria while the more sedate and introspective will luxuriate in the blissed out open hearted love songs. There’s a purity and lucidity to Hekt’s work here alongside some super smart production and real dance chops as he seamlessly weaves the best of Copenhagen alt pop cool into his EDM dancefloor vision.