Even those who are not in command of the Danish language might guess what Sn?leoparden means. Danish multi-instrumentalist Joans Stampe took the white cat?s name as the alter ego for his musical excursions which he now presents on his self-titled debut album.

"Sn?leoparden? is an altogether and entirely friendly affair that?s a good soundtrack for the spring, summer and well into the fall of 2008. Don?t know if it?s early enough to call it a trend, but for about a year or so, "world? music seems to have its second spring. You had Un Caddie Renvers? Dans l?Herbe around three years ago who already had some strong African, South American and Asian influences on his albums. Also FS Blumm and Alejandro Franov were using lots of African, East Asian and other instruments in their music and combined them with Western European composition and production techniques. Now with bands like Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer or Foals, the kind of Eastern/Western mix heralded by Paul Simon, David Byrne and the Talking Heads in the 1980s slowly enters into the indie mainstream.

But despite his percussive style and his use of African instruments, to call "Sn?leorparden? world music would be the wrong label. Obviously, there are entirely percussive tunes like "Nr. 1? or "Xylofon? which have a strong non-western vibe to them. But then again, other ones like "Water Puppet Theater? or also the noisy "Shalel E? defy all categorisations. There?s definitely light and shadow on "Sn?leoparden?. While it?s generally a good thing that Jonas Stampe tries to stay as free as possible on many tunes, his music also often sounds a bit directionless. For example, "Lillecykel? has some nice sound effects and it probably took Stampe quite some time to manipulate found sound or recorded instruments to get at the rattling sound used on there. Also, the percussion bit following the introductory minute is well played, but there?s not really any movement and no evolution whatsoever. Such tunes tend to get boring rather quickly.

The best songs are the child-sung ones. On "Hodja Fra Pjort?, Stampe is joined by "the kids from the Bornehave? and the tune is simply beautiful. The same goes for "Dreng?, a Pakistani traditional song which is sung by the "Pakistani Busker Boy? whoever that might be. Those two songs are incredibly innocent and playful. Another good example what Stampe is capable of is "Trance? which has the kind of development lacking on some other tunes. It begins only with an electronic drum machine beat and oriental flute playing. Just when it starts to get a little monotonous, Stampe enriches the basics of the song by some electronic effects and a tambourine which gives the tune way more strength and richness than before. If only the mostly percussive tunes were a little more richly instrumented, "Sn?leoparden? would have been an outright excellent album from front to end. The way it sounds now, it?s definitely a good album, but with a lot more room for improvement than on an already great album. 6/10 -- Stephan Bauer (13 May, 2008)