There's a new Mattias Alkberg album (and book!) being released on September 21 via and it's called "Anarkist". The first single "Asterism & obelisk" is out now and, in addition to hearing the streams embedded here, can be listened to at Matti's website where he also has the lyrics posted: http://www.mattiasalkberg.se/
Nimo's debut single "Gungar fram", featuring guests Näääk and Kaliffa, out now via .
Speaking of The Tallest Man on Earth, his self-titled debut EP will be re-released on 12" vinyl with a previously unreleased bonus track called "In the pockets" tacked on.
Check out Lé Betre, a new unsigned Swedish hardrock act from Leksand, the same small village that The Tallest Man on Earth is from: http://soundcloud.com/lebetre
The new Firefox AK album "Color the trees" is now confirmed for release in Sweden on August via , with a G/A/S release on July 29 via / and also down under in Australia and New Zealand on at about the same time.
A new release from ? "Welcome to emotion", a new song from Nicolas Makelberge given only to Minna Enström: http://www.eeemotion.se/music/nicolasmakelberge/welcometoemotion/
has a new mp3 from Team Rockit for free download: http://www.sincerelyyours.se/yours0166.php
Every year the Swedish electronic music festival Voltfestivalen invites an acoustic ensemble to cover various genre classics and this year the honor of performing goes to The Uppsala Chamber Music Choir who will be playing the following:
Mr Oizo - Flat Eric
New Order - Blue Monday
Björk - All is full of love
It all goes down June 11 at Uppsala Concert Hall. Details: http://voltfestivalen.se/
Reminder! It's a Trap! Clubnights come to Stockholm tonight at Debaser Slussen with Katharina Nuttall! Of course the time difference means I'll probably still be stuck here at work by time you folks start heading out to drink cold beer on outdoor patios or whatever it is you Swedes do on warm summer evenings, but I'm not bitter about it. No, not at all. In the meantime, let us enjoy a darkly satisfying tune from Katharina's latest record "Turn me on", out now via .
Katharina Nuttall - Falling down
Peter Bjorn and John are holding an art show at the TriBeCa Grand Hotel in New York City featuring all of the various illustrations that Jonas Torvestig created as inspired the band's most recent (and quite excellent) album "Gimme some" and the number 3. It opens tonight at 7pm ET and will eventually make its way to Chicago, Los Angeles and then back to the band's home country of Sweden.
Cut CityWhen I first heard "The sound and the sore", my first exposure to Cut City's final chapter, it was immediately evident that the band had continued the evolution evident between their first full-length, "Exit decades", and the phenomenal "Narcissus can wait" EP. Still, this was little preparation for "Where's the harm in dreams disarmed?" While it saddens me considerably that this will be the last we'll hear from the band, the album is a fitting farewell. There is not a weak song on the album, and the ground covered -- in terms of the songwriting, the instrumentation, and the emotional landscapes explored -- is more than I could have expected: opener "Void" resonates with all of the passion found on "Narcissus...", its nervous energy emerging from whispers of instrumentation; "Future tears today" is dark and anthemic, unnerving yet beautiful, confidently moving toward its end; "The kids of Masochism High" with its crushing waves of distortion and screaming lead guitar has become one of my favorite songs penned by Cut City; and "Left of denial" would not feel out of place on a John Hughes film soundtrack. And that only briefly covers less than half of the songs; I could easily write as long a post as I did for "The sound and the sore" for most of the tracks on here.
This may be their last battle cry, but I have little doubt that Cut City's final album will echo long into the future, and deservedly so.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Swedish crustpunks Anatomi-71 have posted a couple preview tunes off their forthcoming LP "Från primat till reptil": http://anatomi-71.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-album-preview.html
Sorry I've been MIA on the editorial front, but it's probably not gonna change much for the foreseeable future either. While Europe heads into summer slowdown/festival mode, I'm getting more work piled on me than there are hours in the day. However, I do have a list next to me on my desk of artists I'm long overdue to cover and I really am gonna try my best to get through them one way or another in the not-so-distant future. First up, here's a little something from Alouatta off their brand new 10" "DIY EP" (out now via ) where they out-Wipers the Pacific Northwest. No kidding, for all the bands local to me that attempt to emulate said regional sound, Alouatta has em beat in every which way. Seriously, if someone told me these dudes were from Portland, I'd believe them. And yeah, that's an endorsement.
Alouatta - The comeback
Air France will be travelling abroad in July to do some DJ gigs opening for Memory Tapes:
07/05 - Fleche d’Or, Paris (FRA)
07/06 - XOYO, London (UK)
07/07 - Manchester Deaf Institute, Manchester (UK)
07/08 - The Arches, Glasgow (SCO)
Gaffa reports that the Swedish Grammis have split the Urban/Dance category back into electro/dance and hip-hop/soul for next year's awards: http://gaffa.se/nyhet/50120
They've also brought back the Best Video award and have followed the lead of P3 Guld by dropping the male/female artist categories to just have one Best Artist.
