The Legends

Swedish producer and multi-instrumentalist Johan Angergård oversees several indie pop endeavors, among them the Legends, alongside Acid House Kings, Eternal Death, Djustin and Club 8. Conceived at first as a fuzzy, gutsy indie pop outfit—roughly a coarser and more fiery counterpart to the Acid House Kings—the Legends played their initial concert in 2003, supporting the Radio Dept. Labrador issued their debut EP, There and Back Again, the following year, after which the full-length Up Against the Legends appeared in short order. For the second album, Angergård steered the Legends toward a reverb-laden aesthetic modeled on post-punk groups such as the Cure and New Order, resulting in 2005’s Public Radio. Their third album, Facts and Figures, took another turn, embracing a sleek and dance-oriented style that drew from Kraftwerk and Daft Punk while retaining the airy indie pop traits typical of Angergård’s other work. Over and Over, released in 2009, ranged across numerous influences, encompassing everything from ’60s girl groups to angular noise rock. Thereafter Angergård concentrated on Club 8, the Acid House Kings and Eternal Death, each of which issued material during the early 2010s. Although he viewed Over and Over as the Legends’ final statement, he later composed new material suited only to the project. Prompted by a difficult breakup, the modern synth pop and R&B-inflected It’s Love came out on Cascine in June 2015. In 2016 Angergård joined American vocalist Rose Suau to launch the polished synth pop duo Djustin, which delivered an EP that same year and prepared a full-length for 2017. The next Legends album arrived soon after, with Angergård pushing further into electronic territory. Recorded rapidly, Nightshift adopts an unabashed Moroder approach: every vocal passes through a vocoder, the synth lines are expansive, and the rhythms remain mechanized. Guest appearances come from Eternal Death’s Elin Berlin, Red Sleeping Beauty’s Kristina Borg and Maria Usbeck; Labrador released the album in early 2017.