If the music blog ecosystem hadn’t been decimated by DMCA takedowns, streaming services, and the broad centralization of the internet, Forever, by the Danish producer Hekt featuring Smerz, might be ruling the Hype Machine’s charts right now. The mp3 blog aggregator was, theoretically, taste-agnostic, but there was a general vibe to the music that flourished in the site’s heyday: songs that were both pretty and edgy, tapping into the primal pleasures of radiant pop melodies atop bassy, club-ready production.

That sound thrived in the early 2010s, when the brittle hedonism of EDM offered a respite for millennials facing swelling debt and joblessness. The underground was not immune to these influences, responding with the work of producers like SOPHIE, Hudson Mohawke, and Rustie, whose polymerized bass music defined the pop landscape for years to come.

A Bespoke Take on EDM Nostalgia

Were he to fill out a survey on his influences, I assume Jesper Nørbæk would tick “all of the above.” Forever, his debut album as Hekt, is rich with the nauseous excitement of a kid trying to square a sugar rush with the inevitable comedown. His embrace of the tacky, neon-hued squelch of the early 2010s suits an era marked by wild excess and extreme lack, but these bright, booming pop-techno tracks are far from shallow. Nørbæk seems to remember those songs for what they represented in the moment: freedom, movement, and gritted-teeth optimism.

On his best tracks, Nørbæk hews to a typical EDM structure—verse, build, drop, repeat—but everything on Forever feels bespoke. From the vulcanized bounce of the bass on the fizzy opener “Someday” to the thin, diffused kick on the shuddering closer “Just Like You Said,” his pop melodies are uncommonly sturdy. He lets them breathe, whether it is the emphatic, sad-anthemic hook of “Someday” or the generalized melancholy of “Without You,” which captures the peak-era spirit of Calvin Harris tracks.

Grounding Nostalgia in the Present

Pure nostalgia isn’t Nørbæk’s only goal. While tracks like “But I Can’t Really Show You”—a trance banger with a comically outré brostep drop—might suggest otherwise, he chooses to nod to the contemporary landscape in leftfield ways. “Promise,” an IDM tone poem, feels like an allusion to his peers in the Danish underground pop scene, while the hook of “Big Things” plays as a brutally effective commentary on the constant social media teasing of “Next Big Projects.” These moments ground the album in the present, adding texture to what could have exclusively been a joyride through Spring Breakers-era sounds.

Ten of Forever’s 13 songs incorporate Smerz in some way, shape, or form. On tracks like “Beautiful,” a churning, acidic song that might pay homage to A. G. Cook, or “Anytime Anywhere,” a blown-out trap beat, the duo provides a welcome splash of cold water to the face. The title track, “Forever,” is one of those golden pop-dance tracks that you can imagine playing on repeat at heaven’s most exclusive day party. It sells you the same promise as the best EDM songs: Summer is here—play your cards right, and things might never feel bad again.