Tribeca

The Swedish electronic indie pop duo Tribeca consists of melancholy folk-pop songwriter Lasse Lindh and producer Claes Björklund, united in the worthy if ambitious mission "to make music [they] loved but never heard anywhere." The results may not be mind-blowingly unique, but they do stand out as more sonically adventurous than most of their compatriots in the Labrador records stable, while just as melodically winning. The first Tribeca release, 2002's Kate-97, was in some ways a continuation of Lindh's second album (and English-language debut), You Wake Up at Sea Tac, which Björklund had produced — albeit with a more upbeat approach and fresh, meticulous, yet endearingly lo-fi production style that combined programmed beats and analog synthesizers with crunchy guitars and hushed backing vocals. Singles included the bouncy, danceable "Teenage" and a cover of a-ha's "The Sun Always Shines on TV." When Lindh and Björklund returned to the studio that summer, it was to work on a guitar-based third Lasse Lindh album — but somehow the pair wound up creating another album of electronic pop music that was released under the Tribeca moniker instead, as Dragon Down, in 2003 . ~ K. Ross Hoffman, Rovi