When it comes to new music, Denmark is one of the most exciting places in Europe right now. The number of great bands coming out of this tiny part of Scandinavia has risen sharply in recent years. Think of Mew’s enigmatic quirkiness, Efterklang’s complex art-pop textures, Raveonettes’ glorious noisepop and Trentemøller’s imposing glacial beats. And yet Denmark – unlike its Nordic neighbours – hasn’t got any massive names to offer, like Björk or The Cardigans, not yet at least. On the other hand, there is a tremendous wealth of bands largely unknown outside their national borders that are begging to be discovered. As Efteterklang’s Rasmus Stolberg puts it: “feels like we have been going through a very creative and blossoming time. Five years ago I often had troubles naming Danish bands I liked. These days its like a new great Danish band pops up every month or so.” So things might be about to change for the scene. TLOBF travelled to the land of delicious pastries and beautiful people and spoke to a handful of its most important music representatives and local industry gurus in order to find out how the scene has been evolving over the years and what the future might hold for it.

It’s sticking that all the people I spoke to agreed that a turning point for the scene was when local bands realised they should stop copying what was going on elsewhere. Mew frontman Jonas Bjerre remembers: “When we started out the Danish scene was pretty bleak. The major labels had made fortunes in the ‘80s with local pop bands singing in Danish, and they had set up a formula for promoting bands that had completely stagnated. They put their money into boring bands that were completely derivative of what was going on in the UK, only 4 years later. So we endured a lot of Blur, Oasis and Radiohead copyists. It’s not that there weren’t any interesting bands – there was a ton of good bands – but they were just so underground that they never got any airplay and had a very hard time booking gigs. Most of them gave up their dreams and after a while, dedicated themselves to school, work, and family.” International dancefloor specialist Anders Trentemøller agrees: “Local bands wanted to sound like the ones from the US and DJs like someone from Berlin. But now Danish artists concentrate more on finding their own sound and doing something unique that often has this northern melancholic vibe, which you can also find in old Nordic folk music from 300 years ago. Now bands trust their own sound.”

Watch // Trentemøller: ’Even Though You’re With Another Girl’

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fallulah

Charming 25-year-old songstress Fallulah (born Maria Apetri) is one of the most interesting representatives of a new breed of Danish sound. She also confirms the trend: “People are getting braver. When I made my album, I really didn’t want to have any influences on it, I just wanted it to be really original. I asked myself what I really wanted to say with my music. More people are doing this nowadays. Therefore I think it’s becoming more real. My music is all about being comfortable with being yourself.” Jonas Bjerre continues: “The Danish scene is thriving, bands have the courage and imagination to be unique, to be themselves. The majors are not doing well, but then this is a worldwide issue. Lots of smaller labels are doing good things with the small means they have.”

Watch // Fallulah: ‘Use It For Good’

Click here to view the embedded video.

A brilliant example of one of these labels is Good Tape Records – home to acts such as Murder and Bodebrixen. On the reasons why she started the label, Good Tape Records co-founder Kamilla Hannibal enthuses: “Our motive is to purely be just good people helping and inspiring other talented good people to do good stuff, and also to maintain an unpretentious way of thinking about music. Music is for sharing, both the sound and the experience. Artistic freedom and playfulness is what we stand for, and we always want to try out something new.”

TLOBF Exclusive // Murder: ‘Picker Of Cotton’

Is it hard for Danish musicians to survive these days? Jonas Bjerre thinks so. “Surviving on making music is harder than ever. The record sales dropping at an exponential rate, newer generations just don’t spend their money on compact discs, the vast majority opt for downloading illegally. Thankfully, the live scene is doing well, and there’s still some revenue in merchandise and touring. But the prospect of signing big deals with advances and great studio budgets is almost non-existent at this point, at least if you’re a relatively new band with a small audience.” Fallulah observes: “It’s not very acceptable here to want to make a living out of creativity. People are very focused on getting an education and making money. It is not very socially acceptable. We don’t have that much creative stuff. In Sweden for instance you can take dance classes in high school. I’m self-taught.”

Bodebrixen

When asked about any movers and shakers in the current scene Kamilla Hannibal comes up with a whole list of names: “A lot is happening right now. One of the big ones is the excellent DJ and booker at Bakken, Djuna Barnes. The label Tigerspring is doing amazing management. The guys behind Svedehytten and Ratpack are developing great concepts and are so positively unpredictable in their DJ bookings. Smash Bang Pow! Booking agency have got such good ears.” Fallulah adds: “Copenhagen is very good for musicians. You get to know people really fast, because it’s such a small community.” Anders Trentemøller agrees: “One of the great things about Copenhagen is that it is such a small city.  Sometimes things happen just like that. You get a text message, and all of a sudden you are at an underground party.” He continues: “Bakken is my favourite place. It’s got a great vibe and a low-key feeling. Also V1 Gallery is great – they’ve even won an award for the best underground gallery in Europe. And Trailerpark Festival – because it’s so small and you can listen to many upcoming bands.”

TLOBF Exclusive // Chimes & Bells: ‘Reasons’

But what are the challenges for such a vibrant scene for the coming years? Anders Trentemøller believes that “it’s very important to continue being so open-minded, like in the last three years. A decade ago electronic and rock musicians were sort of antagonising. People are now much more working across genres. People are not afraid of mixing different styles anymore. I really hope that we will dare to have this open-mindedness in the future too. That’s the unique thing about the Danish scene right now. People have trust in their own sound.” Efterklang’s Rasmus Stolberg adds: “The challenge is to maintain the positiveness and the willingness to collaborate and help each other! This will make the scene stronger.” Jonas Bjerre highlights another issue: “Traditionally, the labels have had a steady flow of revenue from album sales. The biggest challenge now is to find ways of establishing new setups that can function in a world in which people can just take the music they want without paying, and in which there will still be a financial motivation to carry on having a music business. “

Watch // Ghost Society: ‘Under The Sun’

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chimes & Bells

Kamilla Hannibal thinks that a priority should be to keep up internationally: “Denmark is a small country and if we want to get out there in the world, music needs to be played insanely well and bands need to work hard. And most of them do.” Rasmus Stolberg agrees: “We need more Danish bands to establish themselves internationally. More bands with successful international careers will turn more eyes and ears towards Denmark.” There has been a strong industry export push in recent years. Christian Buhl, strategy manager at joint venture between the SPOT Festival (main industry hub in Denmark), Music Export Denmark and the Danish Rock Council explains: “The Danish music industry has gone from being a very strong domestic market in the glory days of CD sales, where the love of local music made it a great business to release Danish CDs in Denmark, to the digital era that has necessitated international touring and activities. Exports and international activities have thus increased in kind. 2009 for example boasted circa 6000 Danish concerts abroad.” There have been many more collaborations with the Danes’ Nordic neighbours: There is a common Nordic music export office in the making (Nomex) and Ja Ja Ja, a monthly Nordic music clubnight was launched for the first time ever in the UK. Kamilla Hannibal underlines the importance of such joint efforts: “It’s great. We had Bodebrixen playing there.  It was so much fun and I think it is a super initiative. That kind of showcase opens up for collaborations that otherwise wouldn’t happen.”

Watch // Giana Factory: ‘Heart Thief’

Click here to view the embedded video.

But the UK still remains a difficult market. Kamilla Hannibal admits: “Of course it is hard to break in to UK – if you aren’t Swedish at least. The rest of Europe is easier.” Christian Buhl confirms:“Danish music has been extremely successful in Germany, but in the UK, where the domestic market is so healthy, it’s been obviously much more difficult to break in, but the UK music press has embraced Danish music.” Anders Trentemøller is hoping that: “more new Danish artists break outside of Denmark because they have something unique to express.” Fallulah sums up: “It’s our own responsibility to get it out there. We need to push harder. People need to believe more in themselves.”

Watch // Mimas: ‘Cats on Fire’

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Line Of Best Fit also recommends:

Our Broken Garden: ‘Garden Grows’

Sleep Party People: ‘10 Feet Up’

Alcoholic Faith Mission: ‘Sobriety Up And Left’

In indie music’s continually and rapidly evolving relationship with dance and pop music, artists who would have been ignored ten years ago are embraced by hipsters. While, of course, plenty (Katy Perry) are still ignored, those who make the leap to indie popularity have done it on the basis of over-the-top theatricality (Lady Gaga), strange idiosyncrasies (R. Kelly) and pure, bad-ass virtuosity (Beyoncé). Robyn is one of the fore-bearers to this phenomenon, but she doesn’t fit neatly into any of those boxes. After a decade of European pop stardom, Robyn has made in-roads onto the iPods of indie music America (where her fan base is more likely to be listening to Washed Out than Black Eyed Peas) by combining pretty, danceable pop songs with a vulnerability that feels refreshing and disarming for a pop star. Robyn’s new album, Body Talk, continues this trend and may be her best to date.

Two songs, ‘Dancing on My Own’ and ‘Cry When You Get Older’, form the emotional heart of the album and, as the third and fourth tracks, pack an incredible one-two punch. Lead single ‘Dancing on My Own’ is both a great dance song and a movingly realistic portrayal of jealousy (something Robyn does well; see ‘Be Mine!’ from 2005′s Robyn), in which Robyn absolutely nails the feelings of indignant anger and desperation of being left by a lover. The anger comes in the verses, where Robyn seethes over an unrelenting stuttering synth line and the desperation comes in the choruses, where she opens up and, singing in a higher register, wonders “why can’t you see me”.  If ‘Dancing on My Own’ is the perfect encapsulation of Robyn’s humanizing take on pop, ‘Cry When You Get Older’ is a sort of philosophical explication of that worldview over bright and pleasantly distorted synths. In words of advice to teenagers, Robyn sings, “Love hurts when you do it right” and that kind of good-with-the-bad approach to love goes a long way to explaining why she sounds so much more real than other pop stars.

Nothing the rest of the way quite lives up to those two songs, but it all feels fresh and original, especially coming at this point in Robyn’s nearly twenty year career.  ‘Hang with Me’, a ballad that invites a boy to be friends while warning him that if he falls in love with her it will only lead to his heartbreak, sounds wonderfully intimate and grand at the same time. The song in its verses is simply Robyn’s voice and a spare piano accompaniment before it builds to a huge chorus that swoons with strings. ‘Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa’ sounds like a lullaby sung in Swedish and, on ‘None of Dem’ (a collaboration with Royksopp), ‘Fembot,’ the dub-tinged ‘Dancehall Queen’ and ‘Don’t Fucking Tell Me What to Do,’ Robyn continues to be as adventurous, original and personal as anyone working in pop music today.  Body Talk pairs those winning qualities with an album’s worth of pretty melodies. In this singles-dominated era more than ever, that makes it an album worth owning.

Anyone who grew attached to Shallow Grave, the gorgeous debut record from The Tallest Man On Earth (aka Kristian Matsson), has been waiting patiently for a new full length from the supremely talented Swedish singer-songwriter. And with the release of his follow-up, The Wild Hunt, scheduled for April 12th, the three year wait is nearly over. The new record finds Matsson growing bolder and more expressive, both lyrically and musically. But when you have such an impeccable combination of insightful words and penetrating music as Matsson does, there is really no need to reinvent the wheel at this point. Fans of his first album will most assuredly take great pleasure in The Wild Hunt, an album that will not only galvanize his dedicated supporters, but should appeal to a whole new audience drawn to the purity and honesty of his music.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to be able to ask Kristian some questions about how the recording process for the new album was affected by his changing record labels, how recording in the countryside influences his writing, and he shockingly reveals, once and for all, that Bob Dylan is actually his dad. He shares just enough to give his fans a glimpse into what inspires him, while still maintaining the mystique that has intrigued us all from the beginning. But in the end, it’s his splendid music that ultimately speaks to us, so look out for The Wild Hunt on April 12th.

The Wild Huntis a really beautiful, quietly assertive album. I’m wondering if changing record labels or the critical success of Shallow Grave affected your approach to the new album at all?
No, I guess it’s just about trying to make another album that hopefully could be of use for someone. Of course you have your lows when you get confused over what is happening, and think about what people expect in an album from you. But those kind of thoughts needs to be chased away. They will surely mess up your songs. I was glad to find I could get rid of them and get ten songs recorded that just felt like the right ones to do. The only thing that was really different this time was the fact that I had to write and record the album while being in a turmoil of touring all over and taking care of private life in between tours. It’s written in many different places and states of mind, and I can definitely hear that in the finished recordings.

Is the “Boots of Spanish leather” line in ‘King Of Spain’ you having a bit of a laugh at all of the Dylan comparisons cast upon you? How do those lofty comparisons affect you, if at all?
You got me! And Bob Dylan is actually my dad, did you know that?

They don’t affect me much, I’m not trying to hide his influence on me and how it’s given me energy and inspiration to try write good songs and do good live
shows since I’ve was 15 years old.

Your delicate guitar playing has always impressed me, and it’s even more pronounced on The Wild Hunt. Do you start with the melodies and work your lyrics in wherever they fit? Or, do you craft your lyrics like poetry and try to build songs around them?
Thank you. It’s really hard to describe that process. I’m sorry. Sometimes it’s the first way around, sometimes the second. And sometimes you just don’t
know what the hell just happened!

How much kinship did you share with Justin Vernon when you opened for him in the States, since he also retreated to a secluded house in the country to record his debut album? What is the draw and influence of that isolation and solitude on you, and how does that impact your songwriting?
Maybe I shouldn’t speak for Justin, but maybe there’s a more simple answer to this than you’d think. I don’t think it’s so much about some special
isolation, hiding in the the woods, Walden pond or whatever. I guess we’re both from the same kind of countryside, and for me it’s a lot about getting away from unnecessary disturbance and heavy traffic to get more stuff done. Growing up around here makes nature a part of your element, and that helps me to gain power to create. Someone from the city might instead be bored or freaked out about it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you draw inspiration from film, literature, fine arts or even other music while you are writing or recording an album? If so, who are some of your favorites, and how does their work cause you to rethink or modify your creative process?
I listen to tons music all the time, and that inspires me a lot. stuff sneaks into your songwriting without you even knowing it until after. Books, articles, conversations, it all melts together and there you are, with some new songs. Most often you find traces of inspiration in your songs that you never could have planned. Like the fact that it was playing around with an old Sade song that somehow fooled to me write ‘You’re Going Back’.

How has touring the world and playing shows in places you’ve perhaps never dreamed of performing influenced your approach to songwriting?
Its hard for me to talk about any certain approach because I’ve always just tried to do it. To write a song. After that, tried to make another one, even better. I guess what this touring thing does to me, is the fact that you get a lot more input to build on.

There isn’t a whole lot written about you, personally, on the internet. Most of what is out there is about your music. Is that an intentional endeavor on your behalf? How important is it for you to be judged by your songs alone, as opposed to your style or any scene that you’re associated with?
Of course I think that it’s the songs and the performances that should be “out there” to be judged. I don’t want to think about styles or scenes someone might want to associate me to, I find it kind of draining actually when I hear about it.

It seems that the typical music fan isn’t nearly as loyal as they once were, moving on to the next thing while discarding an artist they once loved. Are you worried about longevity in an industry that seems to be constantly searching for the ‘next big thing’ as opposed to being faithful to an artist from one album to the next?
I’m not too worried. I don’t know if it’s the typical music fan you’re talking about. Maybe it’s just the loudest. I’ve met a lot of great people out there and can only hope they’ll give the new record a couple of spins before they decide if it’s better to move on or not.

A lot of the appeal that your music has, for me, is it’s simplicity – just one man, one guitar, one voice. Do you ever wish that you were playing in a different era where those type of talents were held in higher regard, both commercially and critically? Or do you think the people that connect with your music are so tired of the auto-tuned, fabricated style of music that they are searching for something simpler, something honest?
No, I don’t wish I was playing in some different era. Of course there’s a lot of music being made for mainly commercial interests, but I consider myself real lucky to be living right now when you can actually turn that off, and that there are so many ways to find new, great music instead. There are so many awesome records being released every month.

The Wild Hunt will be released on April 12th via Dead Oceans. The Tallest Man On Earth will perform at Bush Hall, London on Monday 15th March.

mp3:> The Tallest Man On Earth: “King Of Spain”

When it comes to pumping out great electronica, Iceland have pretty much got it covered. Yet whilst the majority of artists to emerge from the world’s electronic capital are somewhat weird and wonderful experimentalists (think Sigur Ros and Bjork), FM Belfast have gone more mainstream and acknowledged the dirty western influence in their infectiously synth-ridden music.

It seems they have finally realised their selfish ways and decided to release their album in the UK as well as Iceland, and boy am I glad they have. How To Make Friends is 36 minutes of original, down-tempo electro that proves you don’t have to record a disgruntled goat playing the keyboard to make original electro.

Each song seems to resemble a myriad of bands past and present, combining genres and influences in an innovative tribute to electro. It takes you on a journey of electronic music through the ages, from the rude synths of Black Devil Disco Club through the tropical sounds of The Knife to the intricate melodies of MSTRKRFT, taking elements of each band and mashing them together to create one eclectic mix.

There are a couple of covers on the album, (‘Lotus’ and ‘PUMP’), which seems to fit the band’s ethos rather nicely. Much like a playdough fun factory, they take something recognisable, fiddle a few knobs and press a few buttons and squeeze out a masterpiece (and yes, I may have doctored my childhood memories a little here…). In this way, they create unpretentious, accessible electro. ‘Lotus’ is a brave cover of ‘Killing In The Name Of’, and works by removing Rage’s venom and injecting a lethargy into the vocals. They’ve also turned scantily clad ravers fave ‘Pump’, into a low key classic, sounding much like the automated voicemail lady having some dirty-assed phone sex.

Through the songs they have written themselves you can see that these kids are a little adverse to the mundane daily toils of life in Iceland. ‘Underwear’ shows the band’s playful side, as they strive to make their own entertainment in a country that doesn’t understand their desire to play.

‘Tropical’ blends together Knife-esque vocals with classic computer game synths, creating a nostalgia that is echoed in Synthia, which sounds like it belongs on a ‘Best of the 80’s’ CD. Its tropical melody, delayed echoing vocals and biting synths make it a definite dancefloor filler. As is ‘Par Avion’, which sounds like the offspring spawned from a passionate night of indie-electro love between Cold Cave and Bloc Party.

It seems there is nothing these bow-tie sporting guys can’t do, as they record, master and mix all their music themselves, and even create their own album artwork. Their uplifting, cheery music is extended to their personalities, and there are a fair few interesting tour stories being bandied around at the moment. Catch them if you can, for an appearance in the UK is a rare thing for these guys.

By the time Christabelle’s velvety voice emerges from the cacophony at the beginning of Lindstrøm & Christabelle’s Real Life Is No Cool with the question “What should we do?” you really are prepared to hear anything in response. And, over the course of this sprawling, imaginative album, what Hans-Peter Lindstrøm gives us is a fresh sonic collage of styles and sounds that serves as both a nod to his influences and his pioneering past, as well as a complete change in direction for the Norwegian producer.

Gone are the dense, arduous 20+ minute tracks of his recent releases, replaced here with clean, compact dance numbers that still maintain the soulful inventiveness that Lindstrøm is known for. It helps that he sounds invigorated by working with longtime collaborator, and fellow Norwegian, Christabelle, whose vocal range and simmering passion shines through on every track. Their inherent comfort level allows them both to feel free to experiment with futuristic ideas, but also to be secure enough to rework and cultivate a classic, vintage sound (including two songs, ‘Music in My Mind’ and ‘Let’s Practice,’ that were initially released in the middle of the last decade, when Christabelle was known as Solale). As a result, Real Life Is No Cool has a thoroughly modern spirit while still managing to coalesce decades of dance music into one fluid statement.

After the penetrating bass line and questioning vocals of ‘Looking For What’ establishes the glassy ambiance of the album, the piano-laden funk of ‘Lovesick’ really kicks the record into gear. While the predominance of vocals threaded throughout these songs might shock longtime fans of Lindstrøm’s work, Christabelle’s sultry crooning never sounds obtrusive or superfluous, often enlivening and personalizing the tracks, giving them an organic, homespun feel despite their sonic sophistication. The album flows seamlessly, progressing effortlessly through many different eras of music from track to track, with echoes of early 80′s-era Prince in ‘Let It Happen’ to a more discernible homage to Michael Jackson’s ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ on ‘Baby Can’t Stop.’

The scattershot lyrics were supposedly crafted on the spot by Christabelle in the studio, and were subsequently truncated by Lindstrøm and layered through the songs liberally. While they are occasionally head-scratching in their simplicity, they never aim to offer anything other than release, which goes hand in hand with the uplifting air of the album. This is most assuredly a buoyant work that is more interested in helping the listener cast-off their concerns and dance than it is in making any real cerebral connection. Lindstrøm shows off his deft virtuosity throughout the proceedings, but reigns his vision in enough to keep these songs taut and lively, which results in a very smooth, stylish record. So now that the duo has emphatically answered the question of “What should we do?” we have to wonder just what they’ll do next.

Buy the album from Real Life Is No Cool | [itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/high-low/id343054578?uo=4" title="Lindstr%c3%b8m_Christabelle-Real_Life_Is_No_Cool_(Album)" text="iTunes"]

An album with 12 songs, each lasting under four minutes. That’s what a decent Swedish pop album is made of. But even if the music of Kommun is pop, the band doesn’t seem to be that popular yet. 100 friends on Myspace and 73 fans in Facebook reveal that we aren’t talking about stadium sized band here. The members of Kommun seem to be better known from their other projects Siberia, Hospitalet and Vapnet, still after giving out their debut album in the end of the last year in Sweden.

There’s nothing wrong with the music of Kommun, but right now it just feels like the Swedish indie market is almost over crowded with bands who play happy pop with naive lyrics about love & and life. Or maybe it’s just me, being a Finnish person with huge envy to the Swedes who seem to be able to make songs out of nothing and make gold out of everything they touch.

Fooling around with the lyrics is the path band has chosen and Kommun tries hard to use the same ironic, black humour as their fellow citizen Jens Lekman does. But the expressions are stumbling, mostly because being a bit lost in translation.

Kommun have fantastic moments and at their best, their catchy melodies remind me of Teenage Fanclub. The highlights of the album turn out to be the first single ‘Death Of An C.E.O’ and ‘Let Me Go’, both backed up by female vocalists. After listening to the record multiple times, I can’t help giving up on my envy and thinking how the band would sound like if they were using their native language.

Buy/preview the album from Klicktrack

A couple of months back, at a seemingly ordinary night at The Social (TLOBF’s official drinking den), I was struck by one of the most almighty sounds I’d heard all year. The sheer power and intensity of the music flooding out of the bulging PA was literally doubling me over. So much so, that even now – I hanker after the feeling that seeing Joensuu 1685 in the flesh gave me. The song in question, which gave me such gratifying chills was their 10 minute psychedelic workout of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire”. Motorik bass, relentless drumming and swathes of feedback – it was hypnotic and so intense that re-living it now through these words makes me a little short of breath.

Thank fuck then, that cooler-than-thou London independent Fitzrovian Phonographic are releasing a version of  ”I’m On Fire” (albeit a watered down but still essential 5 minute edit) on limited edition 7″ white vinyl on Monday. For those unfamiliar with Joensuu 1685, the band is formed of two brothers Mikko and Markus Joensuu and (of same name but not a relative) Risto Joensuu. If you love A Place To Bury Strangers, Spiritualized, My Bloody Valentine and XTMTR-era Primal Scream then I urge you to investigate further. There’s some fine bands drawing on similar influences of course, but rarely will you hear it crafted with such precision.

The 7” release will be available from Rough Trade & Piccadilly from Monday 18th January and will come with a download code for the two vinyl tracks (‘I’m On Fire’ and b-side ‘Perfect Grace’) plus an extra 3rd track ‘Nothingness’ to complete the EP. The vinyl is extremely limited at 333 copies, make sure you pick one up!

Joensuu 1685 will be over to play a handful of shows in London, Manchester & Glasgow. The great news is that they’ll be back at The Social on the release date with support from Chapter Sweetheart & Oh Ruin. Essential – DO NOT MISS!

January
18 – The Social, London
20 – The Ruby Lounge, Manchester
21 – The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow

mp3:> Joensuu 1685: “I’m On Fire”

Buy the 7″ from Rough Trade

The Swede shall inherit the Earth. Seemingly on a mission to make the rest of the world kneel before their musical prowess, Sweden is home to many of TLOBF’s favourite recording artists. Concieved as an album of “small islands in different shapes and forms where every song is like a record of it’s very own”, Islands is the second full-length to be released by Jönköping based The Mary Onettes.

Set for release via the self-proclaimed “world’s finest purveyor of pop music” Labrador on February 1st, the album is grandiose and dreamy. I fired off some questions about it and the rest of the bands endeavours to frontman Philip Ekström.

Happy New Year! There’s a line in “Puzzles”, the first track from your newest album that goes “I know it hasn’t been the best year”. Looking back, how was 2009 for The Mary Onettes?
2009 was a good year. I’m very glad we were able to finish the album. I was worried there for a while. The release was great and Labrador have done a great job. And we did some really good live shows as well. Especially in the US, Spain and Sweden. I feel that we developed as a group of people as well. We became a better live band also I think.

The songs for Islands were lost, forcing you to re-record the album – what happened exactly? How did you all cope with it?
I had a burglary in my car the same day we came home from our US tour. They stole my bag with my disc which contained the songs. Also, my back-up disc crashed because of a power failure in my apartment – I guess it was meant to be! It was uphill for quite a while after that. I had a period when I didn’t want to make that second album at all. But after some time off I started to pick the songs up again and realized that I liked them too much to let them go. The other guys were really eager to make this album. They did support me a lot.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How difficult was it to go through the process of having to re-record Islands?
In the beginning it was really difficult. We didn’t have a producer that could give us guidelines and such. I worked a lot alone in the studio and it was hard to recreate a sound that I had once already done. But Johan (Angergård) at Labrador was a big help when I was insecure about the direction of the sound.

How do you feel about the album now?
I think the album is great! I always feel that I could’ve done things better. But this time i feel that the album has great importance in other perspectives. The whole period when i was working on album was turbulent, so the album was a great help. To me it is a very personal album.

We at TLOBF know that Sweden is a big centre for great music, but specifically there seem to be lots of other successful bands from Jönköping – yourselves, The Cardigans, I’m From Barcelona, Loney Dear…. how do you think this has come about? Is there something in the water?
I really can’t say why! Maybe it goes way back with a whole lot of understanding parents and things like that… the city of Jönköping is quite boring so there was not much of a choice.

It’s often said that you’re influenced by Echo & The Bunnymen. How true is that? What are your other influences?
I like Echo & The Bunnymen. But I’ve never been a huge fan. I’m more of a Cure guy. Been listening to them since forever. But I like a lot of other artists. My absolute favorites are Kate Bush, Prefab Sprout, Beach Boys, John Lennon, The Band, The Sound, New Order, Magnetic Fields and on and on…

What is your proudest musical achievement so far?
One song I’ve done that is an instrumental song, and yet unreleased. I’m very proud of that one. Because it’s a feeling translated into music, like an experiment for me actually. But I’m very proud of the two albums we’ve done! Really proud!

What’s next for the band?
I’m writing new music at the moment. I didn’t think I was going to be able to do that so early after the latest release. But It’s been an easy process so I just have to do it. And it’s fun again! But we are gonna tour soon again also. We’re going to the States and France in March and April.

What are your personal and musical ambitions for 2010?
Finish the new album and hopefully record it. And I will try to be more of a nice person. And kind to my band.

Finally, is there any great music you’ve heard recently that you could recommend to TLOBF’s readers?
Hmm… Radio Dept will be a very great release, I can tell.

The Mary Onettes on MySpace

Self proclaimed as “the world’s finest purveyor of indie pop” Labrador Records rarely take a step wrong in their releases. Sambassadeur, one of their most loved acts (along with Suburban Kids With Biblical Names and The Mary Onettes) are back with their first single since 2007′s ‘Final Say’, which just so happens to be one of the greatest pop songs of the 21st Century (my words not theirs. If you don’t believe me, download the mp3 at the bottom of this post!).

‘Days’ does not disappoint one iota. Admittedly, there’s no real progression sound -wise from their last album Migration – the band opting to use the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” approach. Which is no bad thing, because if Sambassadeur know one thing it’s how to write a bloody great big pop hook. Download ‘Days’ and the aforementioned ‘Final Say’ below. Investigate the rest of the bands generous back catalogue here.

If you like what you hear of Sambassadeur, you’ll more than likely revel in the rest of Labrador’s stunning roster of acts. Head over here to download a whole bunch of free mp3′s.

Labrador Records are set for a very busy start to 2010 with highly anticipated releases from Suburban Kids With Biblical Names (May), The Radio Dept. (February) and Club 8 (April 2010).

mp3:> Sambassadeur: ‘Final Say’
mp3:> Sambassadeur: ‘Days’

Since The Line Of Best Fit first launched as a tiny blogspot site back in 2006, we’ve always been great supporters of up and coming Nordic music. Not a week goes by without us harping on about a new emerging talent from the Scandinavian regions. Which is why we’re absolutely thrilled to announce that we’ve been picked as an official partner in the brand new London Club Night “Ja Ja Ja”. A monthly event held at The Lexington which will showcase some of the finest talent Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland has to offer. The Line Of Best Fit will be the nights official online partner, whilst Clash Magazine has been chosen as print partner.

The launch night (curated by Radio 1′s Huw Stephens) will take place on Thursday November 19th at The Lexington, Kings Cross and feature sets from TV Off (Finland), I Was A King (Norway), Kira Kira (Iceland) and Francis (Sweden). Here’s the back story surrounding the club night, told by the creators themselves.

The night aims to provide a strong independent platform where new ‘export ready’ artists across multiple genres are able to showcase their music to key British music industry professionals, media, tastemakers and punters alike.

The Nordic region has a long tradition of punching way above its weight on the international music scene. While the Nordic scene has certainly made its mark on the international commercial world (think acts like Abba, A-ha, Aqua, The Rasmus, Bjork and Sigur Ros) the Nordic countries have fostered a wealth of innovative music talent to great international recognition and acclaim.

In recent years the Nordic scene has come into its own as act after act have broken through from all the separate countries: The Hives, Jens Lekman, The Cardigans, Jose Gonzales, The Knife and Fever Ray from Sweden; Röyksopp, Kings of Convenience and Datarock from Norway; Jori Hulkkonen, Jimi Tenor and Pan Sonic from Finland; Mew, The Ravonettes and Trentemøller from Denmark; and Björk, Sigur rós, múm and Emiliana Torrini from Iceland.

JA JA JA aims to draw attention to this hotbed of talent on a monthly basis. The high concentration of industry professionals and international media in London makes it an ideal location.

The central London venue will be The Lexington, with a launch party spread across both floors on November 19th featuring live performances from Kira Kira,  Francis, I Was A King and TV Off. The bands for this show were selected from a shortlist by Huw Stephens of BBC Radio 1 Introducing, and more information on each act will follow soon.

Each night will feature specially invited British curators who will program the final line-up. Artist submissions from the various Nordic countries will be reviewed by the respective export offices, who will produce a shortlist based on ‘export readiness’. The guest curator will then select his favourite 3 artists for the night.

JA JA JA is an initiative supported by the Nordic Export Offices (NOMEX) represented by; Export Music Sweden, Music Export Denmark, Music Export Finland, Icelandic Music Export and Music Export Norway.

Sounds great, huh? Over the coming weeks we’ll be featuring exclusive content from all four of the bands; including competitions, interviews, free downloads etc. For all Ja Ja Ja related goodness, bookmark this ‘tag’ so you’ll never miss out on a TLOBF post: http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/tag/ja-ja-ja/

For more info, make sure you follow Ja Ja Ja over on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jajajanordic and of course, the official website which will contain all up to date info: http://www.jajajamusic.com

Tickets for the launch party are on sale now and priced at £5. Grab yours here.

I’ve already curated a Ja Ja Ja night in my head. I’m just waiting for the phone call *hint hint*.

Kudos to Chris from Gorilla vs. Bear for introducing me to these guys. A bunch of seven friends from Dalarnas län, Sweden who met at a summer camp when they were 14 (that might/might not be them above). Taking their moniker from the place they first hooked up where “the nights went on forever and we thought we would never get old” Summer Camp make music that perfectly captures that simple memory. Lo-fi, hazy dream pop that is utterly beguilling. Swear to God, I’ve just played their Heathers sampling ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ ten times straight and as soon as I finish writing this, I’ll probably go back for another sitting. Hopelessly romantic and full of wide eyed wonder – this is SUMMER CAMP folks. Remember their name.

Oh, and according to Transparent Blog, the guys are now living over here in London. I’m-a-gonna hunt them down and give them all a big hug.

Check out two more songs, ‘Why Don’t You Stay’ and ‘Ghost Train’ over on their MySpace page whilst downloading ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ below.

mp3:> Summer Camp: ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’

Few things in this world are sure, but when it comes to Danish duo Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo you can guarantee an album that offers up the kind of distorted and fuzzy retro bubblegum pop that is best appreciated at full volume.

In and Out of Control is The Raveonettes fourth studio album and second after leaving the confines of major label for Fierce Panda/Vice and is quite possibly their poppiest effort to date although there is still an element of previous effort Lust Lust Lust’s aural assault. True to their style it is a mish mash of 50s and 60s psychedelic pop rock that unabashedly channels favourites The Velvet Underground. Never scared of bluntly referencing their influence, album opener ‘Bang’ is highly reminiscent of the Warhol born phenomenon. Foo’s pixie-like vocals exude Nico’s coolness as the bubblegum songstress distorted vocals when coupled with the hard-edged electric guitar and doses of pure noise capture a retro vibe unlike any other. Of course, using buzzwords like ‘bop’ certainly do help. So yes, it’s a somewhat clichéd obvious, throw-away melody but its optimistic rhythm is absurdly catchy.

Concept wise and lyrically In and Out of Control is quite dark: with songs like ‘Oh, I Buried You Today’, ‘Suicide’, ‘Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)’ and ‘D.R.U.G.S’. Yet despite these macabre pretensions the album on a whole offers up a fairly predictable range of tunes, which can be affixed with fairly predicable signifiers of ‘pop’ ‘retro’ and ‘shoe gaze’.

And whilst I think this is a great record, The Raveonettes effort to produce a distinct sound gets lost amongst all the influences they so openly wear on their sleeves. I have a feeling that rather than listen to the record whole way through it is going to be a case of dipping into it for the few great tracks that don’t get lost in a sea of whispers sultry vocals and Buddy-Holly’s esque guitar twangs. That may not be saying much in today’s world of flicking through I-pods playlists but I think the point I’m getting at is that with each listen you really have to pay attention for it not to end up sounding like just one really long song.

The Raveonettes on MySpace

A quick heads up about a rather wonderful new Danish band about to make their debut UK appearance next week. The band in question are called Bodebrixen and make the kind of irresistible saccharine twee-pop that can only ever be associated with the Scandinavia. To be fair, they sound Swedish. I generally find Danish pop music to be a smidgen darker and more self aware than their neighboring nation Sweden, but this is just balls out good fun and is more than worthy of your attention. Fans of I’m From Barcelona, Sound Of Arrows, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Tupelo Honeys then you might have just found your new favourite band.

Bodebrixen will be playing Old Blue Last in London’s East End on 22nd September. Go and catch them if you can.

mp3:> Bodebrixen: ‘Deadman’

It’s just struck me that First Aid Kit will be the first musical act I’ve reviewed the members of which are all younger than me. From just outside of Stockholm, sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg (born in 1990 and 1993, respectively) comprise a folk-pop duo of quite significant youth. How often is it that we feel compelled to mention a performer’s age, after all?

Originally released in Sweden in early 2008, this debut EP Drunken Trees is one of the band’s two main claims to fame, the other being their cover of Fleet Foxes’ ‘Tiger Mountain Peasant Song’ which, personally, I can’t help but think has a success far out of scale with its rather meagre quality. As evidenced by this re-release, though, we can happily say that Drunken Trees itself, a fairly-generous-for-an-EP collection of seven songs comprising 25 minutes, is far superior to that ambitious cover.

Whilst it shares Fleet Foxes’ warmth and earnestness, First Aid Kit’s own material doesn’t attempt to emulate the American band’s grandiosity or oldy-worldy flavour. This is intimate, subtle folk, as you might expect from a small and inexperienced duo. ‘Jagadamba, You Might’ is particularly sparse, comprising only acoustic guitar and a haunting, lilting vocal. It still proves to be the exception rather the rule, however, as the remainder of the EP is comparitively bouyant. Opener ‘Little Moon’ begins with a slightly jarring, cutesy spoken word section but quickly coalesces into something more typical of the rest of the material – simple and a little ramshackle, but enthusiastic and undeniably appealing nonetheless. ‘Cross Oceans’ is arguably the most interesting thing on here, ending the EP on something with a little more pace and drive, added to by organ and handclaps.

The nagging feeling here though, is simply one of knowing on each listen that there are many superior bands operating in First Aid Kit’s niche, whose music is typically more ambitious and more absorbingly realised. It’s entirely likely that this EP will be looked back on as the release which turned these able girls from musical nobodies into somebodies, the release which allowed them to embark on a subsequent career which allowed them to grow and develop on to greater things. What Drunken Trees is not, however, is a vector by which a fully-formed folk revelation is delivered to us. Far from relying wholly on youthful exuberance, this EP displays more than enough maturity to convince me that First Aid Kit know this is just an intriguing beginning, and that the best is yet to come.
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First Aid Kit on MySpace

Icelandic singer Hafdis Huld is quite taken with the plush environs of Farringdon’s Slaughtered Lamb pub. “Yeah, I played here once before, it’s cosy. It’s not every venue you get to lie on a… what do you call them, like a half-sofa?” She screws up her face in anticipation of the phrase, blue eyes twinkling. A chaise lounge? “Yes! Most places don’t have one, but here if you wanna lie on a Shwais Lonnj, you can do so.” She chews the words up as they come out, delighting in the sounds.

Hafdis is an expert at small talk. She could talk the hind legs off an elephant, and makes no bones about it. “Yeah when I was young I didn’t talk at all, and then one day I did, and my mum and dad were so happy, but they didn’t realise that from then on I’d never stop.”

Our conversation is riddled with references to childhood. Hafdis is somewhat infamous for being an enthusiastic exponent of Iceland’s “Krútt” generation – that is, seeing the world through a childlike filter. Literally translated, Krutt means “cute”, although in this sense any naiveté comes with a knowing gleam in the eye. But Hafdis has her doubts. “I don’t know if I fit with Krútt,” she says, “it’s all big jumpers and flat shoes, and I like my heels and glitter and dresses too much. And I have no bearded men in my band, they are all very clean shaven. I mean, we do experiment with sounds and have lots of interesting instruments and toys, but it also very pop. Maybe treading that line is good.”

Hafdis has long been based in England, although she speaks with a noticeably thick Icelandic accent. “I came here to study music, and met my band here, they are English – my boyfriend is English, my management is English, my label is English, so there are a lot of reasons for me to be in England. But I can’t stay away from Iceland for that long, it’s such a big part of who I am, I have friends there and family. When I’ve been touring here or in Europe after a while I get a very strong need to go back home.”

Talking about Iceland in general, Hafdis shares the sadness of most Icelanders about how the banking crisis has affected perception of Icelanders worldwide. “It’s sad that a few businessmen got us into this mess,” she explains. “The Icelandic public have nothing to do with that. It affected us too, a lot of people I know lost their savings.”

But of her individual image, she deflects questions about any duality between the ‘real’ Hafdis and the performer, roping in her boyfriend Alistair as a witness that her unrelentingly breezy personality isn’t crafted for the stage. “I guess there are two version of Hafdis,” he says, smiling, “one is 100% and the other is maybe 98%.”

So does she bounce out of bed every morning in full Hafids Huld chatter mode? “Of course it takes me half an hour to wake up, until I’ve had chocolate and all that, and I am very animated,” she says. “I do believe things are magical and beautiful and I go out of my way to make them like that. A lot of my friends do comment on it being a bit like a cartoon character, but I think if that’s the way I wanna see the world, it’s good.”

Later, she’ll play her light hearted pop ditties with theatrical gusto, taking simple pleasure in the attention and in brightening up the room. It’s throwaway and breezy, and it’s a full-on charm offensive. But Hafdis’ music is a fair representation of her particularly glitter-doused way of looking at life.

Hafdis Huld on MySpace

Bands stealing older bands styles doesn’t matter when the stealing is done so well. Poseurs copy, the real deal steals. Sad Day For Puppets blah blah blah. Blah. Which is to say they steal a bunch of older styles mash ‘em together and come up with Unknown Colors, except, as I’ve just been saying, these colours are known. They are catchy pop couched in distorted guitar and thick bass, Dinosaur Jr., The Posies, bands that the Labrador label’s bands love, dream pop, C86. They juggle all those balls, and then let them drop. Because, look there, they make pretty patterns and colours when they are all bouncing together in a group like that. This 5 piece are from Sweden. Sweden. Sweden. Sweden. I mean, where else? Sweden.

Anna Ekland manages to sing with both dusky seductiveness and childish happiness. I’m not quite sure how that’s possible, and to be honest it makes me feel a little uncomfortable when I think about it too hard. But anyway, her and the rest of the band (guitarists Martin Källholm and Marcus Sandgren, bassist Alex Svenson-Metes and drummer Micael Back) imbue this bag of swag with their own distinct mark. There’s an roominess to the way Ekland’s vocals are recorded, there’s a white-hot searing when a guitar is let loose for a solo (check out ‘Marble Gods’), and a giddiness to the way the bass is played (‘Little Light’ sounds like some baggy-era thing, Mock Turtles like). So, there’s a bunch of stolen styles, an edge of their own identity too, and the last thing to note is the high quality of the songs. Sweden.

‘Little Light’ is a good example as any of the coherent melodies to be found here. After a brief bit of twinkly guitar it kicks off with a tasty drum fill and the bass and guitars come in with a happy-time kick to the groin. There’s a swing and surprising languor in the melody and Ekland’s vocal, but always propelled by an awesomely simple riff and bouncy bassline. Touches like chimes and keyboard around the edges only serve to make that grin plastered to your face ache all the harder. This form of song can be slightly rockier (‘Marble Gods’), or slightly poppier (‘Shiny Teeth And Sharpened Claws’), but always at the same level of quality. Sweden.

And Odin it’s not the only type of song on the album, because as good and great as those songs are, if you wang ‘em in next to similar ones then it can drag an album down. ‘Blue Skies’, ‘Mother’s Tears’ and ‘My Twin Star’ are atmospheric and melancholy, ‘Lay Your Burden On Me’, ‘All The Songs’ and ‘When The Morning Comes’ are slower sentimental songs. These six serve to keep your interest, offering up pleasing variations and detours, while there’s always ‘Last Night’ and ‘Romans’ to shivvy it along. Then one final change with ‘Withering Petals And Dust’, which is what I imagine The Cowboy Junkies sound like, though I might be way off there. Sweden.

It’s a fun album, I mean what do you want from me here? I’ve explained how it sounds. Weak points? Hmmm… if you’re not actively listening to it, it can be easy to think there are some duds in there, the slower songs might feel like they are in the way if you’re just looking for some power pop. But that’s not the album’s fault, that’s yours you arsehole. Sweden.
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Sad Day For Puppets on MySpace

To call an album Crossing the Rubicon seems like a very deliberate move by The Sounds. In retrospect though, it’s a fitting one for this third album by Swedish pop rock band The Sounds – this is an album which often seems to be themed around making bold steps, about overcoming the past and defiantly moving forward. It has a strident, confident feel to it, demonstrated by the sound and especially title of the opening track ‘No One Sleeps While I’m Awake’. Largely, this is pounding but accessible rock, with fairly heavy doses of synthesiser bathing Maja Ivarsson’s vocals. She is always the dominating force here – the songs are often built around her slightly odd but satisfying voice, and aside from her no other components ever really stand out. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the actual instrumentation on the album as such, it’s just that it’s rarely, if ever, inspiring.

This is a very solid rather than stellar effort, then. The band genuinely stumble rarely – ‘Beatbox’ is admittedly something of a disaster though. Sounding a bit like the kind of song a band explicitly writes to get crowds warmed up in a live setting, it comes off sounding overwhelmingly contrived, sounds disturbingly appropriate as a soundtrack to the video for Billie Piper’s ‘Because We Want To’, and goes some way to quashing the momentum that the first four songs had managed to build up, most recently the oddly-worded ‘Dorchester Hotel’. The Sounds do seem to one of those Swedish bands whose grasp of English in their lyrics is a tad lacking, and whilst there aren’t any out-and-out howlers of lines on here, it is a little disconcerting at times.

But when the band launch into one of their choruses, it’s very hard to dislike them. The simple sentiment of ‘Midnight Sun’ represents a good example, a song which seems to sum up much of the album in the lyrics “still so young and anxious to be free / but now I’m trapped inside / all these memories“. That tug of war between the past and the future is familiar to all of us, and so too is the music that The Sounds make. This is the kind of album you could put on in almost any context and be sure that you wouldn’t offend or alienate anyone, but there’s nothing wrong with that. This is a thoroughly competent and immediate rock album.
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The Sounds on MySpace

We don’t know too much about these guys to be fair. Apart from the fact that they’re called No and The Maybes, they hail from Copenhagen in Denmark, they write skewed, quirky pop songs reminiscent of Shout Out Louds and are really rather bloody good.

Yes, yes – by now I know what you’re thinking – if they’re Scandinavian then Rich MUST thing they’re good. Well that’s kind of true – but trust me, check these guys out. The perfect soundtrack to a breezy Summers evening.

Their debut album was released at the tail end of 2008 in their native Denmark and the single ‘Petra Petfrified’ is due for release over here on June 18th. The video hasn’t been finished for it yet, so for now check out the short for their recent Danish release ‘Monday’. It’s probably worth pointing out that the band are currently unsigned in the UK – so any label types reading this take note, yeah?

Cute animation and tweeness follows.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The situation regarding this re-release is a little confusing, as I alluded to in my review of Kleerup’s new EP Hello Holla not long ago – but suffice it to saythat if you’re interested in getting hold of Kleerup’s stuff, this is the release to be getting your hands on. In fact, this release is quite substantially different in tracklisting to the previous version of the album, so even if you have the old one you might want to consider rebuying, even in these cash-strapped times in which we live.

Because at the end of the day, even Andreas Kleerup’s lesser work is always entertaining. Here is an electronica/pop icon and producer who by now sounds as though he can pull pop gems almost effortlessly out of some creative orifice the rest of us just don’t possess, and the man’s capable of pleasing just about anyone whose musical affections lie in that territory. As evidence for his mainstream appeal and talent for crafting glassy pop gems we (still) have “With Every Heartbeat”, which may by now be getting overfamiliar, but still remains superbly shiny.

Most of the other accomplished works from the original version of the album are still present and correct here, from the midtempo,  darkly digital Lykke Li outing “Until We Bleed” to the rather more heavenly-sounding pop of “Longing For Lullabies”, featuring a vocal contribution from Swedish pop singer Titiyo. The songs featuring these guest vocalists may unsurprisingly garner more immediate attention and evoke more immediate appeal, but the songs without them are often every bit as strong. New to this version of the album are tracks like “Ain’t No Stopping”, which makes hefty use of arpeggio, echo, and heavy vocoding, as well as the rather plodding “Iris”. Whether Kleerup fans will want to buy this version of the album to acquire these new tracks is going to be a question of how completist they are.

There’s no doubting Kleerup’s talents and at 14 tracks and 55 minutes, this extended edition of  Kleerup is the best single document of that talent that has so far been released – ultimately it’s a great electronica record, despite its familiarity, and almost up with Röyksopp’s Junior among the best electronica albums of 2009 so far.
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Kleerup on MySpace

Aloha from a sunny Gothenburg. Usually, a lot of good music gets released this time of year and ’09 is no exception.

Not too long ago, Sincerely Yours (SY – home of acts such as Air France, Jonas Game etc) presented a new act called JJ. Not much is known about them but their first release, ‘JJ No°1′, consists of two great tracks to get spring started with beautiful vocals and a Saint Etienne kind of feel.

About a week ago, not long after releasing ‘JJ N°’ 1, SY surprised us by introducing another new artist, Avner. This time with Swedish lyrics. Avner is really something else – a truly interesting man. The first single is called ‘Bed För Mig’ (Pray For Me), a stunning track to say the least. I remember reading about him some months ago while he was still unsigned, and thinking to myself: “I hope someone understands this guy and sign him real quick”. And someone did, thank god.

A label not as well known, and certainly smaller than, SY is Mad For It. Having released a lot of great stuff such as Parker Lewis and Hammarin & Robin they are one of the most interesting new labels in Sweden.

They recently released two great tracks by the somewhat mysterious Xplo-Sean called ‘Believe Me’ and ‘Outbreak’. Two nice instrumental tracks. It’s dark, it’s breezy, it’s great.  I also recommend Xplo-Seans first single, ‘Lambada’, which is a massive hit, and not to be missed.

And oh, check out Parker Lewis as well. He will soon release a single called ‘Bash The Cynicals’ with a brand new song as B-side. It’s too good not to look up. Listen to ‘Hjältar’ (Heroes), a track available in both Swedish and English.

OK, moving on…

Nottee is a ridiculously talented lass from Stockholm. She’s got some hype in Sweden that’ll hopefully catch on everywhere else soon enough. The two tracks on her Myspace, ‘Control’ and ‘Young Modern Life’, are incredible. If The Embassy and Stevie Nicks would ever have a child, it’d probably sound something like this.

Stockholm is also home of The Morning Paper, the world’s most modern shoegaze band. Just listen to their latest track ‘What We Wish’ and you’ll quickly understand. So beautiful, it’s haunting. Do me, and yourself, a favor and look them up.

Another kind of shoegazy band is Sail A Whale, who sound really promising but their Myspace is frustratingly empty. There is a video though. A lovely piece by the ever-so-talented Sebastian Rozenberg, who has made a lot of great vids. If we all group together and write some emails to Sail A Whale, we should be able to force them to put up some songs on their page.

An artist that has worked with Rozenberg is Jenny Westerlund, also known as Patience Worth. They make dreamy electronic music, that’s melancholic and mesmerizing in its simplicity. Visit her myspace and listen to ‘Fierce Announcements’. The other track, ‘Wentworth’, is a cover of a song with the same name by Stockholm indie band Twig. The singer in Twig sounds an awful lot like Edwyn Collins, which is no bad thing of course.

All these bands are part of a new, quite refreshing, indie scene in Stockholm. Come to think of it, all the best new Swedish music is from Stockholm. It hasn’t been like that in a long time.

Ok, I’d love to stay and chat but the spring is calling my name and the cheap Swedish beer is not going to drink itself.  Ciao!

Swedish indie-pop purists Sad Day For Puppets release their eagerly-awaited debut album Unknown Colors on June 1 via the marvellous Sonic Cathedral.

The album includes the new download-only single, ‘Cherry Blossom’ (released on May 18), as well as the universally acclaimed ‘Marble Gods’, which was named Single Of The Week on Steve Lamacq’s BBC 6Music show dont’cha know.

These guys have the official TLOBF seal-of-approval. Just check out the Dinosaur Jr. apeing guitar on ‘Marble Gods’ via their MySpace player for proof. Utterly splendiferous.

To coincide with the release, the band play the following UK dates – taking in three London shows and even stopping off to play a show at the home of rock n roll. Crewe.

May
16 – Brighton – The Parlure Spiegeltent @ The Great Escape
17 – London – Windmill (with Vivian Girls)
18 – London – Rough Trade East (instore)
19 – London – Bardens Boudoir
20 – Manchester – Irish Centre
21 – Liverpool – Sound City
22 – Crewe – Volume Festival

When I read that five-piece rocktronica band VETO were “the biggest thing to come out of Denmark since Hans Christian Andersen”, I immediatelyd dropped the great man’s complete works and hastily shoved Crushing Digits into my PC’s disc drive. Given that the last piece of Danish music I heard was the excellent triple-EP set by Tina Dico, the prospect of hearing something new from that part of the world – even something so clearly different – was enticing.

Opener “Blackout” quickly dispelled any hope of finding any evidence for the album supposedly being influenced by progressive rock, instead displaying a penchant for pulsing synthesizers, mid-tempo beats and mildly melodramatic, slightly echoed vocals. The album continues more or less in this vein, but it doesn’t get as old as quickly as you might assume. Instead, VETO display quite a knack for starting with a basic template for their songs and gradually bulding on it with additional background percussion, increasingly frantic vocals and the odd digital beeps and blips to furnish the sound. Also, rather than just letting this cycle go on and on, they are willing to slow things down and mix things up before returning to a song’s main theme. This is brash, propulsive electronica built sturdily upon tried-and-tested rock songwriting templates.

The lyrics are never hugely inspiring but “You Say Yes, I Say Yes” contains some interesting lines (“what’s the point of a soul / when all I am being is / a faulty copy of myself”) and the closer, “Duck Hush and Be Still” seems to be a commentary of sorts on the “surveillance state” we – and presumably the Danes – seem to be living in. The standout song is possibly “Unite” which really nails the sound VETO seem to be aiming for and has a nice “power to the people” sort of faux-political vibe going on as well.

For those who find comparisons appealing, VETO could be said to be a little like Bloc Party in their more electronic moments, but you know, without the stinging slap in the face of a rock band who bizarrely decided to turn into some odd bastardised electronica outfit. No, VETO are somehow more logical in their direction, and their music consistently enjoyable if never spectacular or inspiring. Crushing Digits is a solid, engaging album which will definitely have something to offer for anyone interested in the rock/electronica axis.
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VETO on MySpace

Trust this reviewer when you’re told that coming from Oxford makes you more aware of post-rock than an average citizen. Technically challenging, prone to self-indulgence and a certain po-faced following the best examples of the genre always manage to throw aside such tags – think Radiohead or Sigur Ros, even Elbow have their roots in the moody ambience and complex rhythms that are to be found on the second full length release by Jeniferever – Spring Tides. However unlike their fellow Scandinavians who find themselves packing out vast spaces such as Alexandra Palace, the Swedish quartet find themselves still very much a cult concern although this record certainly shows signs that they’re more than capable of shrugging off the negative connotations and reaching a wider audience.

The recent reappraisal of shoe-gaze should also do Jeniferever no harm as the whole of Spring Tides is dominated by echoing layers of introspective guitar, one moment spartan, the next toppling over Kristofer Jönson’s voice like icy waves.

This is obviously music that takes itself very seriously and has every right to, but things thankfully never get too “mathy” – here guitars are used to twist, turn and delight rather than to impress or baffle. There is only the odd slip into slightly dodgy terrain; the vocals on the opening ‘Green Meadow Island’ (wasn’t that a level in some Mega Drive game?) toe a thin line between emotive and over-wrought but there is an empathy in the strings that close the track that re-affirm the passion of the vocals and bookend the track perfectly.

‘Concrete and Glass’ is another rhythmically awkward number but the semi-militaristic snare work is eased by an astonishingly pretty sweep of strings and rousing chorus that manage to rise out of the swamp of guitar noise to a rousing group sing-along of “Can’t go back/take a different turn”. Despite every new band since Arcade Fire feeling obliged to all join in vocally at some point in their live show when it’s done well there’s something about hearing large numbers of people singing together than still manages to resonate and really hit a place that not much else can. The half spoken vocals of ‘Ox-Eye’ are also in danger of drifting into the realms of cheese but are again rescued by the power of the music.

Much better is ‘St.Gallen’ but then again it’s much better than most songs. After a mournful piano intro a recurring guitar motif is introduced, dropped and then slotted back in like the final revelatory piece of a jigsaw. As if on cue Jönson’ raises his game accordingly, there is simultaneous menace and resignation in the delivery of simple lines such as “if you bring words/ I’ll bring pen and paper” and the resultant mood is reminiscent of ‘Rainbow’ from Talk Talk’s outstanding Spirit Of Eden.

It may be called Spring Tides but this is epic, widescreen and wintery music that is not to be dipped in and out of, there are some fantastic moments; ‘Nanjigala’ is a nine minutes and fully warrants it, but the overriding feeling is that after a slight dip in quality in the latter half of the album the best is yet to come.
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Jeniferever on MySpace

Redlinespotting is the debut album from Örnsberg (named after a Stockholm metro stop), aka Swedish musician Johan Ragnarsson.  With self-professed influences such as Pet Shop Boys, Oasis, Beach Boys and Glasvegas, this debut certainly has some intrigue hanging about.  As much as I wanted to like this album, it being Swedish pop and all, sadly it falls short of expectations.

The wordless ‘Intro’ sets the mood for the album, shoe-gazy rhythms backed by the sound of a train on its track.  What follows are ten songs about the city, about love, about work, about.. well, about life.  It’s no doubt difficult to be a one-man band without over-utilizing the synthesizer, and unfortunately this overuse is prevalent on Redlinespotting, resulting in track after track melting into one another and sounding very samey.  Tempos don’t change much and although Johan has a nice enough voice, his range is limited.

The album’s highlights come around the midway point, in the upbeat ‘Away Away’ with its bouncy rhythm and jazzy saxophones and the minimalist ‘Every City’ (its lyrics loosely translated from Swedish singer Håkan Hailstorm’s ‘Jag Har Varit I Alla Städer’).  Outside of these highlights, though, the melodies and hooks are rare and the album seems to struggle to find its footing most of the time.

This is the most difficult kind of review to write, when the artist is earnest and truly believes in their work but is just unable to pull off something closer to spectacular.  Redlinespotting is a pleasant enough album to listen to, but in the end, nothing really stands out and nothing sticks.  While showing some promise, the lack of musical variety and the somewhat banal quality of the lyrics make this one a rather tepid debut.
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Örnsberg on MySpace

Don’t let the soft, scented domesticity of Anja Plaschg’s stage moniker or album title fool you; Lovetune for Vacuum is a mournful Frankenstein of a record – a young woman attempting to come to terms with the often twisted depths of her own feelings by imprisoning them within a fortress of ticking shutter sounds and mandrake violins. With a beguiling voice pitched somewhere between Antony Hegarty and Karin Dreijer Andersson (Fever Ray/The Knife), 18 year old Plaschg (who grew up on a rural pig farm in her native Austria) cuts an emotionally bruised, shadowy figure on her extraordinarily precocious debut.

At the heart of the record is a shy, elegantly mechanical android, that ticks and whirrs with the sounds of typewriters, camera clicks and children’s toys, gradually expanding and dominating with each song. On the childlike ‘Cry Wolf’, it cowers reticently behind a background of Múm style vocals and a naïve flute, but gathers strength by ‘Turbine Womb’ (the lyrics can be a little sci-fi Sylvia Plath, but impressive for a second language) to sound like Optimus Prime doing the ballet; indeed, Plaschg’s strengths reach far beyond the stereotype of the quirky musical ingénue to join Peter Broderick, Hauschka and Max Richter as part of the exciting European scene of young classical protégés, such is her impressive piano work. Come the penultimate track, ‘DDMMYYYY’, the machine is fully-fledged, as industrial and aggressive as Leila or any of Richard D James’ Warp brethren as it drowns out a woman’s crazed histrionics – it’s no surprise that both Fenessz and DJ Koze have remixed her.

In parts, this is a terrifying record, and you can only imagine what it’s like to be her parents – an unpredictable raven haired pearl looming from the shadows of farmhouses in her press photos, even crouched naked amongst the pigs; with tortured scientific lyrics about the Greek daemon of death (‘Thanatos’, not dissimilar to the rousing layered vocals of Electrelane’s ‘The Valleys’) through to the slightly sixth form poetry words of ‘Extinguish Me’ (“I search in snow, in vain / For your footsteps’ trail / I have to kiss them / With my scalding tears”) and childhood pain (‘Spiracle’). It’s not always a pleasure to listen to, particularly as the tangle of piano and icy church intonations of ‘Fall Foliage’ rumble into that familiar elegant clunk of clockwork and whirrs, but it’s to her credit that she rides the motif through to the end of the record, and proves its worth – her bleak electronic dystopia could easily soundtrack Watchmen or similar. If this is how she sings Lovetunes…, heaven help us when she turns her pen to less starry-eyed subject matter.
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Soap&Skin on MySpace

It is only once you hear Love Is Not Pop that you realise how ominous and significant its title is. El Perro del Mar, AKA Sarah Assbring, is known for her sunny pop confections and this new mini-album is largely a dramatic about-turn. Upon realising that, the title takes it on momentous importance – after all the all the bouncy accessibility of songs like “God Knows (You’ve Got to Give to Get)” from the self-titled album, it’s as if Assbring is now saying “Love is not pop, this is the real thing now.”

Accordingly, Love Is Not Pop is a consistently subdued record. Recorded with Rasmus Hagg, one half of Swedish cult heroes Studio, the sound has taken on a minimalist, less-is-more, and slightly electro-tinged texture. Some has remained from past El Perro del Mar exploits, like the repetitive lyrics, for example – but with the melodies and instrumentation being so much less bouncy and catchy here, that repetition becomes a chore as Assbring repeats the same lines over and over again over smatterings of sometimes retro-sounding synths, bass and occasionally drums. Everything is extremely hushed, giving us an intimate, sensual, reflective set of songs far removed from much of the music which has brought El Perro del Mar to this point. At their best, these songs can alternately make the most of that subdued atmosphere, as on “Change of Heart” or “Heavenly Arms”, but frequently overriding that is a feeling of half-heartedness and soulessness to this new direction. “Let Me In” in particular sounds like a discarded Stevie Nicks 80s B-side, a nothingy number which unfortunately shows that with this new, more “adult” style, El Perro del Mar has largely ended up creating less, rather than more affecting music.

It’s easy to imagine that a lot of people will see Love Is Not Pop as a rather pretentious, patronising successor to earlier Assbring efforts, but I’m not sure that’s really true. It’s a record which has made an earnest attempt to bring the sound forward, but it’s quite an extreme attempt which is likely to alienate some of those who had been enthusiastically following up to now. Upbeat pop is not inherently better than worldly, slow introspection. But when the former was done so well, and the latter sparkles only partly, it leaves Love Is Not Pop less than entirely recommendable.
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El Perro del Mar on MySpace

Man, what is wrong with bands these days? They’re shedding instruments like…well – like a snake sheds its skin. Maybe that’s why the awkwardly named Wildbirds and Peacedrums (WaP) have insisted on dropping everything save for the vocals and percussion. I mean, even the White Stripes had the dignity to preserve the guitar (though it’s perfectly possible to understand why a guitarist wouldn’t want a bass player in the band: they’re a lazy breed who can only manage a paltry four strings. Losers!)

Anyway, this second release by Swedens “Jazz Act Of The Year 2007″ sounds spacious and captivating, which is very much what I imagine that northern European region to be like. Starting with the haunting acapella of ‘Island‘ (which sounds like it was played at King Lear’s funeral and sung by Kate Bush), the album moves like a Shaman onto the tribal ‘There Is No Light‘ where singer Mariam Wallentin raises the undead spirit of Marlena Shaw with her epileptic vocal spasms.

‘Chain of Steel’s’ marimba riff echoes that of The Four Tops’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself’, but the similarity ends there as the song builds to an impassioned, broken vocal mantra. After ‘So Soft, So Pink’ continues WaP’s affair with the spiritual, it’s great to hear ‘Places’ take a more traditional approach with Andreas Werliin’s steady, funky drumming driving his wife’s syncopated and, frankly, slightly nutty vocal catterwauling to climax. Naturally, an album filled with drums and vocals lends itself to the primitive, and credit must been given to its capture which is consistently warm and lacking the dangerously compressed spikes that plague albums today as engineers vie for a place in the volume wars. The ennervating ‘Great Lines’ and ‘Today / Tomorrow’ announce the arrival of ‘Liar Lion’ which is the most ‘complete’ song here, comprised as it is of the most instruments played on a single track. It’s difficult enough for traditional bands to maintain consistency across 10 tracks, never mind being limited to only a few instruments.

The liberating and upifting ‘My heart’ is a wonderful paean to love: the likes of which we don’t hear often. The Snake is a deeply feminine album; and by that I mean exactly that. There are no twitching, distorted priapic guitars manically jerked around here; this is a soft, vulva of an album giving birth to a cathartic foetus in a forest at night – all captured on tape and narrated by David Attenborough’s warm, silent breaths.
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Wildbirds & Peacedrums on MySpace

El Perro Del Mar, by Johanna Hedborg

Pop music is a strange little thing, isn’t it?

Swedish music is really popular these days; American magazines write articles about Gothenburg, Air France get to tour in Russia, English kids write about The Tough Alliance in their blogs, journalists write about the Swedish renaissance in pop.

Where do you think acts like The Embassy, The Tough Alliance and Studio got their inspiration from? That’s right. England. Madchester, Post punk, indie pop, acid house – all British influences.

So, it’s kind of strange that Swedish bands listened to English music originally, tried to sound like them, and then some years later the English found Swedish pop music and fell in love with it.

That’s the really simplified version. It’s not quite that straight forward, though. The interesting part is that Swedish pop music doesn’t sound that British at all. And perhaps that’s the attraction.

It’s like when the old explorers saw an unknown animal, like a seal or a whale, they told their families and friends about it when they got home and for every person that re-told the story, it got worse. Years later, the description that started off as a seal, turned into some kind of hideous beast with ten heads and wing… or somthing. You catch my drift.

The bored Swedish kids, that later became pop bands, listened to New Order and Happy Mondays and tried to sound like them, but they couldn’t. Instead, it became something else. It evolved and got mixed with a tradition of Swedish music and that’s where I’ll begin today.

One of the most criticly acclaimed new acts from Sweden is Dan Lissvik and Rasmus Hägg, also known as Studio. They’re a great example of the above theory.

Studio is by far one of the most interesting bands ever to come out of Sweden. They build their world of pop just the way it’s supposed to be done. If you listen carefully, you can hear echoes of their old record collections, but it’s the context that’s changed, and has become extremly contemporary – aware of the past but gazing at the future.

Dan Lissvik of Studio released his first solo album not too long ago, called 7 trx + Intermission. It’s an amazing album. Rasmus Hägg and El Perro Del Mar have just released an album called Love Is Not Pop (out now on Licking Fingers), and for those who haven’t yet heard it, it’s just beautiful. Also, Dan just gave away a previously unreleased song for free called ‘Practise’, and as if that wasn’t enough, he also just remixed Fever Ray’s fabulous ‘When I Grow Up’. Look ‘em up.

Martin Hwasser is a young man who last year released a single called ‘About That Promise’. A fifteen minute long adventure that takes us above the mountains, down the hills and through the jungle. Driven by a slamming piano, ‘About That Promise’ is an impressive piece of soundtrack-like pop. Martin is also a member of the more indie pop oriented band Most Valuable Players. Having only released this one song, Hwasser definitely sets a high standard for his coming releases. Although I have no doubt that he will deliver songs even better in the future.

Sebastian Hedberg and Victor Nilsson, both members of MFMB, (who I wrote about last time), have a project called Private Stash that takes off where Hwasser left us, but with a slighly different angle. Less mountains and more Hacienda. Some time after ‘About That Promise’, Private Stash released their first piece called ‘When My Condition Is Alright’. They too have only released one official song, which is as frustating as it is exciting. Hopefully Private Stash will release more material this summer.

Sometimes, Private Stash remind me of my old favourites Tangerine Dream. Which brings us round nicely to one of the most exciting new labels in Sweden who just happen share their name with one of Tangerine Dreams best albums – Force Majeure.

Force Majeure have currently three acts signed; Bandjo, Nhessingtons and Museum Of Bella Artes. Bandjo just released a new 12” called ‘Fátima’. A record that, honestly, has some of the most impressive and ambitious work I’ve heard in a long time. The title track, ‘Fátima’, starts off in a post-punk fashion before moving on to a cosmic disco vibe, over to a 70’s kind of feel and then back again. This record is a must have. It’s a stunning piece of work. Remember their name, because these guys will be big. In the meantime, I’m waiting for new releases by the mysterious Nhessingtons and Museum Of Bella Artes.

And, finally, a quick recommendation for those who enjoy Studio. I highly recommend ROOS. One of the members from electro pop duo Cat5, Christina Roos, solo porject. Definitly worth checking out.

There you are. Now, I leave you with a quote until next time: “Try making a ring-tone out of this you bastards”.

Second album syndrome can be harsher on those acts that made their name with music that at it’s core is based on a furious kind of energy, not just a bit of a Skittles-based sugar rush but a full-on, “flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs with a Saxophone” sound. Bands like Love Is All. What to do next? A move to more introspective terrain would be denying what you really are, and stripping away the heavier moments will in all likelihood disenfranchise early followers. The answer: pretty much more of the same.

For some bands repeating yourself would be a sign to stop right there but as the band launch into the clattering spazzed out ‘New Beginnings’ it just feels right. All the elements that made the band an attractive proposition in the first place are still there; squalling demented blasts of Sax, frantic drumming and of course Josephine Olausson’s reverb drenched screeches.

‘Give It Back’ has more than a hint of Madness about it and is reminiscent of fantastic early single ‘Spinning and Scratching’. The real joy of Love Is All is that everything is so frenetic and full of energy that it just carries you along with it. While travelling across London with this on it was almost impossible not to start marching down corridors a pace quicker, running up stairs and drumming on handrails like, well like someone you wouldn’t really want to stand next to on the tube.

Olausson also has a nice line in dry wit and there is a kind of resigned wisdom and engaging self deprecation in the likes of ‘Last Choice’ (“I’m not your kind, And you’re not mine but for tonight you’ll have to do”). ‘Sea Sick’ also manages such ridiculous lyrical gems as; “the breakfast was an impressive spread/but not enough to get me out of bed!” which somehow works. Admittedly such simplicity doesn’t always succeed, the chorus of ‘Movie Romance’ being a case in point (“I laugh in the face of movie romance/cos’ against this they don’t stand a chance). Only ‘Wishing Well’ strays just over the line marked “definitely too twee” with it’s irksome keyboard riff and ‘When Giants Fall’ slows the pace and comes over all J&MC but features some nifty “ba ba” backing vocals.

A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night is an enjoyable throwaway listen that doesn’t ever seek to promise more than it delivers. Fans of Screaming Tea Party or indeed fans of Love Is All are unlikely to be disappointed but whether the band can manage to keep this level of energy up or get away with keeping the same template for another record remains to be seen.
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Free Ride is a bit of an odd debut album for Swedish singer Micadelia, as with the exception of one song, it’s a covers album. That means we only have one  song – “Sadness” – on which to judge her songwriting ability, but that isn’t the point: this is an album of performances, of re-interpretations. Despite the fact that there’s no common theme to the song or artist choice (featuring two Led Zeppelin selections, two from Neil Young, and others from Nirvana, Robyn/Kleerup, The Beatles, and so on) the album largely works because of its conciseness and quite a breezy, laid-back feel. None of the songs here  are hugely challenging nor bleak, and as such they suit Mika Sundkvist’s soft voice.

The song choices are quite unusual, but wise given the kind of singer Micadelia is, and the kind of musicians she has to back her up. “Polly” might be a bit of an oddity in the Nirvana catalogue, but it’s ideal for Micadelia, who makes it a little shorter and more upbeat. Backed by woozy minimoog, the song yoyos comfortably between its choruses. Choruses, in fact, lead to a minor criticism of the album – at least three of the songs, “Polly”, Nick Drake’s “Free Ride”, and Jack Lee-penned “Hanging on the Telephone”, rely very heavily on a very basic verse-chorus structure that gets a little tiresome. Luckily, the other songs are a tad more bold so the album doesn’t fall into this trap as a whole. “Long, Long, Long” isn’t an obvious Beatles song to choose, and not a song I’d personally rank among Harrison’s best, but it works here, interestingly seeming to play down the often remarked-upon religious tones Harrison wrote into the song.

Similarly, the Led Zeppelin covers are quite effective too. Not too surprisingly, Micadelia chooses two softer songs from the catalogue of the 60s/70s rock gods – “Bron-Y Aur Stomp” and “Going to California”. The effects put on the vocals during the former are a bit curious but not offensive, and generally the two work well. There’s an affinity for Neil Young too, especially in the context of “Cinnamon Girl” which closes the album with a restatement of the laid-back atmosphere that has dominated many of the album’s preceding tracks. The only real problem is the really disastrous effort at Robyn’s “With Every Heartbeat”, which loses the pace and compulsiveness of the original, instead coming across as turgid and tiresome. 

Free Ride is quite a restrained debut, almost like an extended demo or trial run. Apparently Micadelia is thinking of releasing more self-penned material in future, which is an interesting prospect given that “Sadness”, her only writing contribution here, is as quietly, unassumingly impressive as the album as a whole.
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Micadelia on MySpace

When I first started to plan ‘Svenskt’, a compilation of Swedish music we released via Big Scary Monsters Records in October 2007, I must admit my knowledge of the country was fairly lacking. We’d previously put out a couple of Jeniferever CDs and through them I’d discovered a small number of other incredible Scandinavian bands, but as it turned out, the surface had barely been scratched.

By the start of October I’d assembled a cast of 18 varied and wonderful bands, discovered that Sweden is 53% covered in forests and that King Carl Gustaf XVI ruled it all. Oh and the equivelant of 577 football pitches would fill the worldwide area covered by IKEA stores. That’s a lot of cheap furniture. Just before the release of the CD I travelled to Stockholm to deliver copies to some of the bands, attend four gigs including one in a mental hospital, meet many amazing people and eventually end up being interviewed on national televesion, much to my dismay when I noticed they’d misspelt and mis-pronounced my name!

No, that wasn’t a sketch from The Fast Show.

Yes, I really was very hungover.

Following on from my previous column about five of my favourite current iPod monopolisers, I thought I’d take a bit of a trip down memory lane and tell you about five of my favourite Swedish bands. Enjoy.

Jeniferever
The obvious first port of call, the instigator of this obsession and the producers of some of the finest, most beautiful post-rock I’ve ever heard. Jeniferever have since gone on to release one incredible album, with a second just around the corner, and raise an army of fans spread across the world. They have the ability to charm the birds from the trees one minute and chop their wings off the next. Not literally, obviously. They’re not animals.
www.myspace.com/jeniferever

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Audrey
A girl band but not in the crappy pop sense, not only are Audrey a collection of the sweetest, most stunning women you’ve ever seen, but you get the feeling that they’d destroy you in a pop quiz, too. They’re probably all Bond girls in real life. ‘Views’, with all of its lucious vocals and dramatic strings sits well within my all-time top 40 songs, if such a list really existed. www.myspace.com/audreyswe

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Aerial
One of my favourite new discoveries during the Svenskt campaign. Aerial sound like The Appleseed Cast experimenting with their angry side, but with a typically brilliant Scandinavian edge. Highly recommended to anyone with ears.
www.myspace.com/aerialmusic

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The Sound OE
Our gracious hosts during the Stockholm trip, The Sound OE show how brilliantly post-punk and pop can be merged to create thrilling, catchy songs which will get your booty shaking and your head spinning. Their self-titled album was one of my favourite of ’07.
www.myspace.com/thesoundoe

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Rednex
If it hadn’t been for Cotton Eye Joe, I’d been married a long time ago, where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from Cotton Eye Joe?
www.myspace.com/therednex

If you’re interested in checking out more of Sweden’s finest, all of the bands Myspace links can be found here, where, delightfully, you can also buy the Svenskt CD.

In these hyper-connected times we’re living in, it’s rare for a band to emerge from seemingly nowhere, with no biographical baggage, no superficial hype and no expectation – and yet utterly astound you with their music. This much I know about Chimes & Bells: they’re a Danish quartet, and their debut EP Into Pieces of Wood marks them out as the best new band I’ve heard this year.

It may be that Scandinavians are more adept at sidestepping the public parade of the music business, or it may just be that Chimes & Bells are still undiscovered. At the time of writing they had a mere ten listeners on Last.FM, there were only a few, non-descript photos on their MySpace, and on Google the band itself is buried beneath an impenetrable layer of tacky e-commerce sites for wind chimes and door bells.

So that leaves the music and the music alone. Not to discourage anyone from the start, but it’s unremittingly slow, brooding and bleak; the four tracks that constitute this EP all last more than five minutes, and are all dirge-like in quality. But there’s an allure to Chimes & Bells; a ghostly glint that illuminates the darkness of their sound world, best captured in a line they borrow from Leonard Cohen on opener ‘Stand Still’: “There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”

They follow this with the title track ‘Into Pieces of Wood’, and with its dragging, clanging, adagio-paced guitar track, it’s what Mogwai and Death in Vegas would sound like if they had ever collaborated. ‘Golden Sweater’ meanwhile is a haunting amalgam of lazy cello, Velvet Underground drone, and the keynote feature of their sound: vocal harmonies that don’t quite square up, leaving a phantom echo hanging in the air. The tone changes on ‘You Shall Not Pass’, with its line “I will plaster you to the floor.” Thus it could quite conceivably be the tale of a brutish doorman’s aggression, were it not for the song itself, which is like an especially downbeat Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

Despite everything I’ve said, this isn’t a depressing record. Instead it possesses the kind of grim beauty and far-flung ambition that surpasses all the half-baked hype in the world. For now, Chimes & Bells are a mirage, both in reputation and style. Enjoy the mystique while you can.
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mp3:> Chimes & Bells: ‘Stand Still’

Chimes & Bells on MySpace

Given that she appears on the cover of Hardships! wearing a flat cap and wielding an old shotgun, you might reasonably expect that Jenny Wilson’s sound is a bit idiosyncratic, odd even. This, combined with her Swedishness, might mean you’d also file her alongside figures like Frida Hyvönen, and to an extent that’d be fair. But if Hardships! is compared to Hyvönen’s recent release Silence Is Wild (reviewed here), we’ll find that Wilson is a lot more consistent in style and tone than her fellow Swede, even if there are some similarities in their off-kilter vocal and lyrical styles. Often ominous and piano-dominated, Hardships! is a a sophisticated and frequently nervy pop record. 

It’s sophisticated in that Wilson is interested in pushing a few pop boundaries. We’re used to hearing up-market pop with plentiful string accompaniment and so on so she’s not hugely innovative instrumentally speaking, but these songs frequently push towards (and beyond) the five minute mark, which reflects the kind of wordy, elegant narratives Wilson is trying to craft. Opener ‘The Path’ is played out like a slightly bizarre life story, for example, but its ambition and sheer length make it a slightly daft choice for an opener – often, the album’s shorter and/or more upbeat tracks prove more engaging and effective.

‘The Wooden Chair’, for example (available on the current TLOBF Playlist), immediately piques your interest with its startling bassy-ness, and then grabs it fully with its swollen, omimous chorus. It’s an example of Wilson at her best, and it demands attention in the way that her weaker moments here fail to emulate. The better moments remain in the majority though  - there’s the energetic title track, which interestingly acts as the album’s narrative lynchpin, referencing some of the other songs. It has its own prequel track of sorts, the 70-second “Motherhood” which is almost a capella and is characterised by a fade-in which takes up a hefty chunk of its brief length. Elsewhere there’s the lush baroque pop of “Porcelain Castle” and the lengthy, poignant piano ballad “We Had Everything”, which is the album’s most successful long-form effort, remaining engaging throughout its length as eventually backing vocals, gentle clicks as percussion, and serene strings embellish the sound.

Hardships! is not exactly a direct album. It takes a few listens to prise its outer layers of idiosyncrasy off to examine the juicy songfulness within. For those with the patience to undergo this process though, there are ample rewards to be had. 
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Jenny Wilson on MySpace

MFMB / Photograph by Emma Hartvig

The first in our new series all about the burgeoning Swedish music scene; Nya Vågen (or The New Wave) sees Victor Svedberg disect what is happening right now in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmö.

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What’s that noise? It’s the sound of young Sweden. A Sweden more creative and alive than it’s been for a long time.

Ok, really. What IS that noise? Well, it’s Pistol Disco, of course. A duo consisting of Alexander Palmestål and Mikael Enqvist. Their kraut-rock influenced music is a facinating experience. Listening to them is a journey through history, passing acts like Neu!, Spacemen 3, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Silver Apples but it all leads to something truly unique and beautiful. A dreamy world of noise and rhythm.

Having released two records, Pistol Disco are have just finished working on their third album Evergreen wich will be available on vinyl and as a free download in early March.

Alexander wrote the following in a text message to a friend in Stockholm:
“The record is more or less done, its amazing. A modern day fusion of good and bad. Its my baby. I’ll defend it like Kevin Rowland, its not a record, its personal.”

In the wait for Evergreen, listen to their remix of ‘Guns’ a minimalistic rock track by Ikons, a band that not too long ago signed to the highly influential swedish label Service. Ikons are a great new act, currently working on their debut album. If I am to guess what the album will sound like, I’d say a cross breed of the krautrock grandfathers in Hawkwind and early Manchester post punk.

Ikons take the most basic things of rock music and repeat it over and over again. In a way like The Field, acclaimed techno artist from Stockholm, who use layers of cut up samples to create very interesting electronica. Ikons seem to work in the same way, only its rock music. Ola Borström, label boss of Service, describes Ikons as ”The sound of atom fusion” wich is a brilliant description. Ikons were the opening act for Spiritualized when they did three shows in Sweden, wich of course was totally appropriate.

A band that recently played with Ikons is MFMB, a new band with members in Stockolm and Malmö. MFMB released their first EP The Fine Detail for free on their website. However, their new song ‘Heat Like This’ is something else, it’s an amazingly catchy post punkish conga track that give us all a reason to wait for more new material. MFMB recorded the EP in Studio Möllan, the same place where Malmös finest, This Is Head, record their songs.

If MFMB draw influence from early post punk and shoegaze, This Is Head take theirs from funk and monotone rock. The result is nothing but groovy. This Is Head haven’t released any records (yet) but apparently they are an amazing experience live.

Another act, a slightly newer one, is PWR or Rasmus Svensson. Friend of Pistol Disco and the man behieind their stunning artwork. Rasmus is, truly, an artist. Believe me on this one.

Having released music behind various alter egos such as Chaos Trough Programming, Smycken (feauturing the equally as talanted girlfriend Hanna) and Full På Folköl his latest two projects are him flying solo as PWR. He is also working on another project with Hanna Nilsson called Night Piano.

Rasmus is the kind of person who seems to have an endless amount of creativity. Apart from making music he produces various zines, posters, prints and runs his own recordlabel Push The Button Multimedia. PWR is psychedelic dance music, not too far away from some of Animal Collectives work, only it sound younger and a lot more exciting, to say the least.

So, we have covered Gothenburg and Malmö, finally we have Stockholm left.

Gothenburg gives us both the dreamy, the intelligent and the experimental new kraut music. Malmö the funky and the dancable, while Stockholm gives us the more new wave and punk influenced new kraut rock.

I think of two bands in particular, Audionom and Paper.

Audionom have been around for some years but they haven’t released an album for four years, that’s why I’m glad to announce that ther new album Superior is to be released in the end of February. Audionom is a classic band to me, just as 1999, another variation of the band that sounds a little less kraut and a lot more post punk. Audionom have an energy and power that is truly rare. The new single, ‘Inside’, is a new waveish pop punk anthem, desperate and mad.

Members from Audionom can also be found in Paper, a band that draw more against a more punk take of kraut. It’s repetitive, it’s loud and it’s addictive. Calle Olsson of Paper also makes music solo under the name Paddington DC, and has also appeared in The Bear Quartet, a classic swedish indie pop band.

So there you have it. A small scene. The scene doesn’t have a name yet. What should we call it? Nu Kraut? Noise Pop? Whatever. No time to waste. Let’s just listen, shall we?

The Field, live at ATP 2008. Photograph by Shannon McClean.

Stockholm, Sweden’s The Field, aka Axel Willner, conjured up a modern day classic back in with 2007 with debut album From Here We Go Sublime. Two years on and Willner is ready to release his follow-up; Yesterday & Today, out  May 25th in Europe and May 26th in the USA via Kompakt.

There isn’t much more info out there at the moment, the label states that the record is “more organic than its predecessor” and it also features Battles’ John Stanier on drums. We can only dream of what that collaboration is going to sound like. That’s literally all we have. Hopefully there will be more info available soon. Watch this space.

You can tell Ida Maria is aiming big on this album with sharp production and the huge chorus on opener ‘Oh My God’ reeks of “look at me – I want to be a popular worldwide smash hit artist”. Nothing wrong with trying to be popular of course, but the majority of the record buying public aren’t exactly known for liking groundbreaking innovative music. So to reach the heady of heights of similar artists like Pink, more than a degree of commercial mediocrity is needed and unfortunately that is exactly what Ida Maria delivers.

If she isn’t going for a big chorus then a gimmicky lyric will always get some airplay. ‘I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked’ caused a minor stir when it was released as a single last year, as our heroine explains that she feels rather quite jolly when a male friend puts on his birthday suit. I’m reliably informed by Wikipedia that this got to number 13 in the UK charts and is her biggest seller by far. Sex sells people. Sex sells.

To say that ‘Fortress Round My Heart’ substitutes all quality for dumbed down crowd pleasing fayre would be a tad unfair, as I was taken in by the odd tune and fun catchy riffs. Although, it is the slower/quieter numbers that reveal a fragile quality to Ida in contrast to the often brash immature persona in other tracks. ‘Keep Me Warm’ provides some welcome respite in the middle of the album and ‘See Me Through’ closes proceedings with some elegance.

For the most part her voice is quite spiky in a watered down punk way but sometimes sounds like she’s being tortured by Johnny Borrell, with the end of ‘Stella’ being a choice example. To be fair to her though she is getting a major push from her label as this album was released first time around as recently as July. With a reworked tracklisting and a few new songs, whether that justifies a re-release is doubtful and only serves as a smack in the face for all those who parted with their hard earned last year.

43% (Marks off for a pointless re-release)

For some, the voice of Teitur Lassen is a grandiose pleasure that hypnotises the eardrums. Yet, for others, his lavender scented tones are as grating as a hangnail on a blackboard. And once the Faeroese singer-songwriter opens up his well-oiled throat you’ll know exactly why:  there’s truly no middle ground when it comes to this man’s piercing pipes. But his music? Well, that’s an entirely different matter.

Rich with tenderised symphonies and dashing yarns, his fourth studio LP The Singer is an angelic, prose-heavy effort that can catch the breath with whispered brilliance, yet readily strikes out with stolid flutters of languid, directionless toils. It’s not a torturous affair; merely a frustrating one, destined to gnaw away at the frayed strands of the patience. If ever a record was made for casting a browsing thumb over the ‘Next’ button this is it.

The title-track’s introductory welcome bear testament to such laboured listening. An operatic plead of fine-tuned a cappella, it’s the type of elitist melodrama Freddie Mercury treadmilled at the bookend of his recording career. Narrated by narcissistic chords and self-aggrandising flashes of brass, there’s simply no give to vicariously whined couplets like “I sing about my loneliness and in return they thank me/ I had never meant to be a singer.”

This penchant for self-indulgence shepherds the record into a cluster of nadirs; be it the spiritless fan-boy reminiscing of ‘The Legendary Afterparty’, ‘Guilt By Association”s laboured Bright Eyes-aping or the monochromatic dripping of ‘Letter From Alex’. Sure, each is a chest-puffing composition bulging with atmosphere, but these quarrelsome tribulations could only resonate with a hermetic teenager’s persecuted mindset.

Fortunately, Lassen encounters greater success when the tempo turns brisk; infusing a positivist feel through his bleak lyrical undercurrent.  The Mexicana parps and deep dwelling bass of ‘Girl I Don’t Know’ carry his inclining crow skyward on a canvas of affective melody, while ‘Catherine The Waitress” boisterous rhythm is supplemented by the sort of jangle-happy toe-tapping Stuart Murdoch regularly dusts down his tweeds for.

A hybrid of Lassen’s dual musical predilections, ‘Start Wasting My Time’ juxtaposes tepid verses with a buoyant chorus section that saunters to the rhythmic sway of cocksure percussion and prickling guitar. It’s an extravagant  swoosh that perches above much of the record’s all-consuming dreariness, proving this softly worded balladeer has the dexterity to fabricate something more gratifying than a sprawl of diluted arrangements.

While such sporadic flashes veer brilliantly off-kilter, The Singer’s one-geared nature is the making of a man who’s more than happy to play it safe. His voice may fissure opinion, but when it comes to the music Teitur Lassen takes it straight down the middle of the road.
60%

Teitur on MySpace

Wow, this was totally unexpected but highly pleasant announcement! The amazingly talented Swedish songstress Sarah Asbring (or El Perro del Mar as she’s more commonly known) is releasing a brand new record on April 1st. That news in itself is exciting enough, but add to the equation that El Perro has teamed up with Rasmus Hägg (one half of of TLOBF faves Studio) to make Love Is Not Pop, the anticipation levels literally go through the roof (in fact, I very nearly fell of my chair with glee on reading the news).

A track off the album (released via Swedish label Licking Fingers) is streaming on MySpace right now. ‘Change Of Heart’ is still very much an El Perro song – her soft croon wooing you in a single heartbeat, but the production moves away from the familiar retro sounding doo-wop of her previous two albums and instead flirts with slow, sensual grooves – reminiscent of Air. It really is a stunning introduction of what could be one of the collaborations of the year.

Listen here.

Originally released almost a year ago, Ane Brun‘s fourth album Changing of the Seasons is only now recieving a UK release. To sweeten the belated deal, we’re given two bonus tracks, one of which is an excellent cover of Cyndi Lauper’s 1986 hit ‘True Colors’. A lengthy, expansive album of acoustic, string-laden pop, this has already been successful on Sweden’s album chart, so it remains to be seen this oddly-voiced Norwegian will fare with fickle tastes over here.

We expect curious voices from Scandinavian singers, and we usually attribute it to their unsteady grasp on the English language – but as soon as opener ‘The Treehouse Song’ starts, it’s clear that Brun’s is a particularly choice example. She seems to skip across the lyrics in a weird, unpredictable way, as if she considers some words barely deserving of being uttered whilst others are of vital importance. It’s never distracting or frustrating, though – arguably, it’s one of the album’s central appeals. She seems able to hold notes forever – we’re often turned a moth for her voice’s irresistable light.

Acoustic guitar work is another of those appeals. It’s by far the dominant instrument here, the main brush with which these deeply personal thematic paintings are put together. The stripped-down, delicate sound reminds me of Tina Dico’s triple EP set reviewed here a while back – the two are almost strikingly similar at times, but Brun’s introspective murk is more persistent than Dico’s, shying away from any bulky arrangements and keeping string sections modest and compact. Some of the arrangements here are absolutely exquisite, though – especially on ‘The Puzzle’, a fantastic and haunting little gem of a song, and on ‘Ten Seconds’ the bouzouki and backing vocals are just magic. It’s a devastating cocktail.

My criticisms are few, but it’s far to say that Changing of the Seasons is at times dangerously samey, but of course this won’t be a problem if you find yourself really enjoying the theme. Some of the more Dylan-esque songs like the title track also outstay their welcome a little, bogging the album down slightly. Nevertheless, this is an accomplished album which should fascinate any fans of frail baroque pop. It’s a little inconsistent, but at its best, Changing of the Seasons is superb.
82%

Ane Brun on MySpace

Photographs by Anika Mottershaw

It must be something in the water. Sweden seems to produce charming purveyors of joyous melodies and swoonsome harmonies by the dozen, and Frida Hyvönen is yet another fine addition to the country’s impeccable musical tradition. I wasn’t entirely won over by her latest release, Silence is Wild (review) but as is often the case, her dramatic, ostentatious piano balladry really found its mark live.

The bespectacled, startlingly blonde songstress’ stock-in-trade is her conversational lyrical style, which eschews trite rhymes and perfectly measured metre for detailed, eccentrically delivered narratives that come across more like short stories put to music. Whilst at times this formula grew thin on record, it works better in a live setting with Frida’s charismatic delivery disguising some of her clunkier lines. Clearly nervous, the easy wit she displays in her songs didn’t always come across and her banter was limited, but nonetheless she came across as thoroughly charming, and her spontaneous cello-backed paean to the sound guy during a technical fault was brilliantly creative.

Highlights included ‘Dirty Dancing’, excellently bolstered by the harmonies of her backing musicians, and ‘December’, whose vaudevillian melody doesn’t quite mask the tragedy of the tale underneath- you can’t help but feel slightly guilty tapping your feet to a song about abortion…If there was one critique, it’s that ‘London!’ was disappointingly thrown away without ceremony when it clearly would have been the perfect closer but that apart, it’s one of the most impressive performances I’ve seen in a long while.

Support came from Joe Gideon and The Shark, a brother-and-sister duo who sounded like the White Stripes with a more bohemian edge. Wouldn’t be particularly worth mentioning if not for the revelatory drumming of “The Shark,” who struck me as a curious cross of Meg White, Mariam Wallentin and an infuriated octopus- visceral, intense, and marvellously enchanting.

Joe Gideon and The Shark

Joe Gideon and The Shark on MySpace
Frida Hyvönen on MySpace

We haven’t heard from SKWBN for a while. So it’s no surprise that their sound has gone through some changes. For the better, I would say. Their previous EP was a litte too lo-fi and cute, a little too cheerful and a little too much sing-a-long and not enough substance. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the cheerful and sing-a-longs, but when it all gets too much it feels like you just ate all your favourite dishes and deserts at once.

Not this time, however. The opening track, ’1999′, is a disco kind of thing with toy trumpets and sloppy percussion. Who can resist that? The following track, ‘Studenter På Flak’ (Students on truck beds, roughly translated) is a litte more subtle and bitter, in a way.  The lyrics are about feeling trapped in your city, Stockholm in this case. And I for one can relate to that. It’s a beautiful song in it’s own little way with lonesome whistles and Pet Shop Boys-pianos. The following two songs, ‘Europe’ and ‘World Music’ feel connected in their mood. The first, a laid back piece with a gently swinging rhythm, the second is the strongest track on the EP with wonderful africa rhythms and backing vocals.

Suburban Kid’s new EP feels like the slightly more confused younger brother of Night Falls Over Kortedala, Jens Lekmans latest masterpiece. The production is similar, an attractive mix of congas, cut up vioce samples and flutes. The lyrics jump between the tragic and the humorous. Much like Jens, Johan Hedberg and Peter Gunnarson describe the simple everyday life in charming way, just not quite as effective. Never the less, #4 is a great step forward for SKWBN, a step towards something genuine and unique, something to look forward too.
65%

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names on MySpace

Silence may be wild, but it’s not an adjective you’d necessarily apply to balladess Frida Hyvönen. ‘Quirky’ perhaps, or ‘melodramatic,’ but ‘wild’? Nah. But that’s not to denigrate the Swedish songstress, for what she’s lacking in edge she mostly compensates for with an idiosyncratic lyrical approach and a fine line in lush melodies.

The most striking element of the album is the lyrical content, which eschews the hackneyed rhyming couplets of many singer-songwriters for a conversational style at odds with her grandiose musical arrangements. More well-crafted short stories than expressions of generic platitudes about love and loss, they give a sense of emotional authenticity to these seemingly autobiographical tales, and at her best she displays a vein of rich wit worthy of her former touring partner Jens Lekman. But occasionally there’s a sense she tries a little too hard, her stream-of-consciousness approach coming across as too self-knowing, pat- even cringeworthy. Take these sample lines from ‘Dirty Dancing’, an endearingly kitsch piano ballad that appropriates the clattering castanets and female harmonies of a 50’s girl group, which does so well until those last, wincingly clumsy two lines:

“He was my older brother’s friend and had a light around him
that would chase off any winter
He had no father and his mother seemed younger than ours
And he was a dancer

He had the keys to a place where we could practice
It felt almost like Dirty Dancing
Minus the United States and instead of a resort
it was the Folkets Hus basement”

But if you can overlook the occasional clanger of a line, there’s much to enjoy here. ‘London!’ is a fine example of Hyvönen at her best, a tongue-in-cheek love letter (of sorts) to the capital delivered with a certain show-stopping quality, drenched with harmonies and vocal showboating. The gloriously unsubtle ‘Highway 2 U’’s title may have the unfortunate air of a Celine Dion B-side but it’s also quite touching thanks to the injured, haunting quality of her vocals, and the ethereal synth/choir combo of ‘Enemy Within’ is cute, if a little too reminiscent of Hulk Hogan’s poignant early 90’s classic ‘Hulkster in Heaven’ for my liking. Unfortunately the formula wears a little thin at times, especially towards the latter end of the album, with some songs drifting precariously close to blustery MOR territory. There’s still the odd nice touch- the light-hearted lo-fi synths of ‘Birds’ are a breath of fresh air, and the glockenspiels and sleighbells of ‘Oh Shanghai’ add some prettiness to an otherwise drab melody- but one suspects she’s used her most potent lyrical salvos earlier on in the record. A shame, as this album holds a lot of promise, and certainly marks her out from the many nice-but-bland female singer-songwriters flooding the scene but its peculiar affectedness too often comes across as a weakness rather than a strength.
73%

mp3:> Frida Hyvönen: ‘Enemy Within’

Frida Hyvönen on MySpace

Oh St. Giles-In-The-Fields, how I love thee. Conveniently located in Central London, its superb acoustics, intimacy and unassuming beauty makes it the perfect venue for the discerning music lover. No wonder the usually confident Anglophone Emil Svanängen stumbled over his English phrases from time to time; if I had been given a chance to play such an amazing venue, I’d be tongue-tied too. But thankfully his sense of wonderment carried over to the music he played, in a set that further reinforced the Scandinavian stranglehold on superior harmonic folk-pop.

Much of the charm of Loney dear can be sourced back to ever-effusive main man Emil, whose evident joy at performing amplifies the quality of his best tracks, and papers over some of the cracks in the weaker ones. Performing several songs from his new album Dear John, I wasn’t quite convinced they really marked much of a departure from his breakthrough LP Loney, Noir but most of the songs were of a high enough quality to ensure that wasn’t much an issue. Taking a folksier, more stripped down approach to his material was a welcome move- the electric guitars and retina-destroying strobes at his IndigO2 show last year were pushing it a bit- and although co-singer Malin Ståhlberg was back home in Sweden her undulating harmonies were faithfully and impressively recreated by falsetto-blessed keyboard player Samuel Starck and drummer Ola Hultgren. For a couple of songs, Emil left the stage and performed unamplified in the aisle, his warm, accented Scandinavian vocals taking full advantage of the wonderful church acoustics. These moments showcased Emil at his best- he has a tendency to get carried away at times, but when he reins in his more florid vocal gymnastics and goes for simplicity, you truly get a measure of his considerable talent.

He’s always had had a penchant for singalongs too- it was seeing him successfully cajole an initially sceptical audience to provide harmonies during a support set two years ago that made me sit and take notice of this strange Swedish man- and he tried to get one going for his final song, ‘The Meter Marks OK’. Alas, in the face of an audience full of self-consciousness indie types, he only managed to muster a relatively muted response this time round, but given the surroundings it couldn’t help but sound amazing anyway. It wasn’t the longest set in the world, but it didn’t need to be – any longer, and he may have pushed his limited template beyond its natural limits. Restraint suits Loney dear well, and tonight he proved it once and for all.

Being a sophisticated venue for sophisticated people, St. Giles’ curfew was set unusually early, so there was only room for one support- ‘Blue Roses,’ the new project from Yorkshire songstress Laura Groves. An older, wiser performer than the nervy teenager that graced the stage of KCLSU in 2006, it’s heartening to see the complexity and character of her songwriting ripen with age. Taking a more distinctive direction than her previous work, her delicate and unfussy arrangements are well suited to the locale and interestingly, she seems to be moving towards Joanna Newsom’s epic balladry rather than the succinct anti-folk so in vogue in the moment amongst British female singer-songwriters. Her fey, lightweight vocals aren’t the strongest, and sometimes she struggled with the higher notes but nevertheless, I discerned some of the same intriguing promise I saw in Emil way back when.

It must be hard touring with two dozen members, even in a band as intrinsically happy as I’m From Barcelona. Ridiculous overheads and logistical nightmares aside, the tensions that must come from travelling round the world with so many people must get a little wearying. It’s certainly had an effect on Emmanuel Lundgren. The ringleader of Sweden’s foremost mentalist musical army has clearly lost some of the wide-eyed joyousness of times past, with new album “Who Killed Harry Houdini” having more in common than the reflective harmonic folk-pop of Loney Dear than the sugar-rush exuberance of their debut. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing- there’s only so much major-key ‘ba-ba-ba-ing’ a human being can take and it’s always encouraging that a band wants to do more than rehash past successes. But this new downbeat vibe does have some implications for their live show, renowned for being one of the most all-out fun experiences live music have to offer.

First off, there’s less of them. By most standards, twelve musicians is a veritable army but compared to the 27-member juggernaut that first graced the stages of London two years ago it’s a serious cut-back. Admittedly, most of the additional members were superfluous hangers-on but they helped build the party atmosphere the band are famed for. Then there was the setlist, heavily weighted in the first half towards the new songs. It‘s easy to see why they did it- it puts the focus on the music rather than antics for once, and allows the audience to appreciate the band’s ear for wistful melodies. But as pleasant as ‘Paper Planes’ and the like are, it simply wasn’t the same without that OH MY GOD I‘M DROWNING IN CONFETTI feeling. 

But then, just as I was becoming accustomed to their restained new persona, all hell suddenly broke loose. A torrent of, yes, scarlet confetti rained from the heavens, a hundred balloons were unleashed from the stage and thus emerged the I’m From Barcelona of old, determined to party like they’d never partied before. Old favourites We’re From Barcelona and Painter, with their satanically catchy melodies and undemanding nursery-rhyme lyrics even managed to get a London audience to shed their I’m-too-cool-to-emote personas for a night and bounce about like madmen, and to the horror of all present I was given the microphone for a whole sixty seconds to atonally caterwaul into. Naturally the highlight of this cavalcade of joy was encore-opener ‘Treehouse’- I’d practiced the appropriate dance-moves in the preceding days and felt I delivered them with grace and dignity but Emmanuel effortlessly eclipsed my interpretation of a ’you and me house’ with some commendably enthusiastic crowd surfing. Unfortunately, proceedings didn’t conclude with full-on stage invasion with half the audience pogoing to a happy-hardcore remix of ‘We’re From Barcelona’ (as it oh-so-memorably did at ULU last year) but even taking the slow-burning start into account I’m From Barcelona easily retain their crown as the foremost purveyors of pure glee in the world today.

Anyone who follows Swedish pop will recognise the sounds showcased on Johan Hedberg’s debut. The delicate homemade beats, muted horns, cut and paste samples, and the gentle crooning baritone. Hedberg is one half of Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, an essential reference point for anyone interested in Swedish Indie Pop. Rather brilliantly he also shares his name with the Goalie of NHL Team the Atlanta Thrashers.

The story here is that during his downtime from SKWBN, Johan purchased a new computer on an installment plan. As is so often the way, this new equipment spurred on a new productive drive. Hedberg decided to take on a new approach, far from the re-recording and editing of material he would simply make music with “fast production and no turning back”.

The five tracks presented as his debut solo work still contain the jaunty rhythms that propel Suburban Kids, but with plenty of Lo-Fi synths and bleeps. ‘Hurra for Fritag fest och Ol’ (which translates as ‘Hooray for Friday and for Beer’, a sentiment I’m sure we can all appreciate), is yet another showcase of Hedberg’s way with a melody, and has probably one of the best ‘scratching’ solo’s in a record ever. Rather than scratching vinyl, it seems he has sampled parrots and crows, pasting the sounds back together to achieve the sound. Sung entirely in Swedish, the dry wit transcends the language barrier. The whole record exudes positivity, and I have no doubt it was as much fun to make as it is to listen to. This is the record I wanted El Guincho’s Alegranza to be. The only real complaint is that at just over 12 minutes long there isn’t enough of it.
82%

Johan Hedberg on MySpace

Ahhh. Pelle Carlberg. You make joyous pop music with a slightly twee edge out of bongo’s, xylophones and sweet boy/girl harmonies that detail your everyday life. Tales of getting hit on the nose by people who ask you for cigarettes and you end up giving them a fiver, or looking for a lost youth and being a teenager again. At times your songs have spoken word stories with jingly downbeat pop in the background and some sweet whistling thrown in for good measure. I even think I may have heard a woodblock in the mix too. Your album title is a reference to ‘River Man’ by Nick Drake. You have made my job as a reviewer easy. You went ahead and called the opening track on your album ‘1983 (Pelle and Sebastian)’.

Indeed Mr. Carlberg has made my life easy here, as The Lilac Time, with it’s melancholy indie pop owes pretty much everything to Mr. Murdoch and co. Even the vocals are delivered in his distinctive style. That is not to say that this is not a fine album- in fact far from it- it would probably rate up there with If You’re Feeling Sinister and The Boy With The Arab Strap, and it knocks spots off The Life Pursuit and Dear Catastrophe Waitress. With lyrics taking on mugging, dying Rhinoceri and taking tests on Facebook this is all pretty enough stuff. The real highlight of the album lyrically is the possibly libelous ‘Fly Me To The Moon’. Imagine a jangling pop song, complete with whistling, handclaps and sweeping strings. Then add these lyrics. “On the way we all realised/ that once again we had been booked on the airline of shite”. The chorus to this song is as follows: “I’ll never fly again with you, Ryan/ Never again I swear/ Guess it would kill you to be respectful, friendly or even care.” For this, Mr Carlberg, I salute you.
79%

Pelle Carlberg on MySpace

Loney Dear

Dear John, the new album by Loney Dear (note they’ve dropped the comma) has finally been given a US release date of 27th January and will come out via Polyvinyl (home to Of Montreal) rather than Sup Pop. A UK release date to my knowledge hasn’t been announced as yet – but the record will be coming out via the EMI imprint Regal.

Back in last months interview, Emil talked to us a little about how pleased he was with first single ‘Airport Surroundings’ and described it as “like the long-haired big sister to the obvious cute younger sister of I Am John”.

It’s certainly a lovely introduction to the new album. Featuring all the elements that make up the ‘Loney sound’ – tinkling synths, handclaps, orchestral flourishes and Svanängen’s trademark whisper of a voice. Listen for yourself below. And read all about the new record here, in our exclusive interview.

Emil will be flying over to London for his only UK show this side of 2009 as he plays The Line Of Best Fit’s club night ILL FIT at The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch. The show is on 8th December and it is totally free entry. How can you resist??

Right. I’ll put this out there, for all of you. I bloody love 60s/70s British TV Shows like The Sweeney, The Avengers, Man In A Suitcase and films like Bedazzled, The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer and any James Bond film from that era give me a big old entertainment based lob on. There’s something about them that just seems so nostalgic, so perfect, even though i wasn’t born until half way through the following decade. Everything just seems so happy and full of cliched goodness. And the soundtracks, well, they’re just incredible aren’t they? Grainy by way of sound, well written, often instrumental but always interesting enough to hold focus. So when i put ’4′, the new release from Dungen into my CD player and started it off, you can imagine the smile that instantly spread its way across my face. Well, maybe you can’t, as i haven’t reviewed this album yet. But you can guess why.

Thats right kids, 4 sounds just like the songs contained inside were cryogenically frozen around 1975, and then recently unpacked and released in 2008, still shaking icicles off their crotchets and minims. Its positively leaking that jazz laden cool throughout the whole album. However, ’4′ still finds the time to indulge in some amazing guitar wig-outs, especially the solo in ‘Samtidigt 1′, which channels the pure powerful essence of Hendrix through the Swedish fingers of guitarist Reine Fiske. Not personally one for solos, i couldn’t help but rewind to the start of ‘Samtidigt 1′ just to hear it all again. Back to the album as a whole,its clearly evident that there are millions of separate elements littered throughout this album that make it so special, but they all work in true harmony thanks to the guiding eye of main Dungen man Gustav Ejstes. Gustav has clearly taken a lot of time and effort to hone his and his troupe’s sound, in both production and performance, to a point which truly amazing music can be created, such as the kind found on 4. The sound of the drums on album opener ‘Satt Att Se’ are so perfectly done and the co-operation between the piano line and the bass so tight that it leaves me with no other words to use as a description other than ‘far out’. And it is far out, in a more literal sense. It’s almost beyond comprehension how one man and his band can get a sound nailed down so much as to fool my ears into thinking they’re four decades behind the current date on my calendar. Evocative isn’t even a starting point for 4, in terms of creating a timewarp of musical space. Further into the album, ‘Der Tat Tid’ sounds like the music playing in James Bonds’ ears as he winds his way through a beautiful mountain range in an equally beautiful car, with a lady next to him that is one part stunning, one part deadly. ‘Fredag’ is music for John Steed to whack people around the head with his umbrella to. By the time ‘Finns Det Nagon Mojilighet’ hits, we’ve crossed deep into the 70s, and things are showing a slightly more progressive tinge. Well thought out strings and a just-right crunchy guitar rhythm propel this track through near 4 minutes, leaping over skittish drums and intense feedback hurdles. This is music to be cool to, oh yes. ‘Mina Damer Och Fasaner’ shows the technical grace and skill of all the musicians in Dungen at once, and still finds time to throw in some cheeky wind instruments. ‘Samtidigt 2′ is unsurprisingly exactly the same as, and just as good as its numbered counterpart, and ‘Bandhagen’ closes it all off in style, pulling the album right back to the start in musical style terms. A subdued organ echoes the main melodies at exactly the right volume, with chord progressions that could best be described as authentic. That or amazing.

I probably couldn’t put into words how much i like this album. Gustav Ejstes, Reine Fiske, Fredrik Bjorling and Mattias Gustavsson, I salute you. You are incredible musicians, and 4 is an incredible album. If you like a band, one song, ANYTHING from the 60s or 70s, or if you just like good music, get this album. So what if its sung in Swedish, it doesn’t matter! ’4′ will drag you into another world, and refuse you exit until you use the word ‘groovy’ and mean it. It really is that good. End of. It’s the perfect realisation of Dungen’s initial intentions, and for that it deserves every percentage of its score.
90%

Dungen on MySpace