My own prejudices about live albums tell me that studio magicians who build electronic ice castles like Royksopp probably don’t have a live facet that could easily be recorded and captured. And those instincts are unfortunately dead on. Though tracks like “Go Away,� with the roaring crowd and constant, kicked-up pace, have a certain carefree propulsiveness, they still pale in comparison to the immediacy and intricacy of the band’s studio versions. I have no doubt that these shows have a palpably electric level of excitement when you’re actually there amidst the densely packed and sweating bodies, but the live recording of the audio pushes the tracks into bland recession and the extensive beat tangents sound tinkling in their smallness. There may be all kinds of background contractual reasons to produce such a record, but the artistic ones remain mysterious.
