Fluxblog on new music from Peter Morén and Sally Shapiro: http://www.fluxblog.org/2008/04/too-much-information-for-one-brain-to.html
Blandmissbruk has posted a remix of the new Division of Laura Lee track "Central Park": http://www.myspace.com/blandmissbruk
Check out Robyn's brand new video for "Who's that girl": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYomJbEZG54
Norway's The Lionheart Brothers will tour the UK in May alongside The Mae Shi and Johnny Foreigner as part of a tour sponsored by Drowned in Sound:
05/06 - Graduate, Cambridge
05/07 - Fibbers, York
05/08 - Snafu, Aberdeen
05/09 - Barfly, Glasgow
05/10 - Barfly, Liverpool
05/12 - The Place, Birmingham
05/13 - King’s College, London
05/14 - Louisiana (headline), Bristol
05/15 - Oceans Room (Great Escape), Brighton
05/16 - Old Market (Great Escape), Brighton
MP3: Pellarin - Whistle like you're 56
Lars Pellarin is a minimalist techno artist from Denmark, probably most recognizable to readers here as being a member of Printer (via the Malmö-based Adrian Recordings). He also runs his own label Statler & Waldorf and puts out an assortment of elegant/eloquent techno records from other artists such as Mikkel Meyer and Melk. His new solo album "Gundsø" is named after the city he grew up in, north of Roskilde and is mostly a subdued affair, minimalist to the nth degree. Melodies struggle to rear their head above the smooth plateau of sound; generally speaking, it pulses along smoothly, content to elicit the barest of head-bobs. "Whistle like you're 56" is easily the most "pop" track on said record as it's one of two that feature vocals and, of those two, the only one to feature actual recognizable words. Still, the pop label is a bit of a stretch as I wouldn't expect to see it climbing the charts anytime soon -- not that it means it isn't worth hearing (it is!), it's just not that kind of track. This is head music. Crank it up and zone out!
Pellarin - Whistle like you're 56
Download a free track from Finnish garage-pop act King of All the Animals: http://www.tigerbombs.com/koata.htm
First Aid Kit's debut EP "Drunken trees" is streaming in its entirety at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thisisfirstaidkit
Said EP comes out tomorrow via Rabid Records.
Peter Morén
The last tycoon
Quarterstick Records/Wichita
The huge success of Peter (Morén) Bjorn and John's "Young folks" did the disservice of casting them as potential one-hit wonders despite a back catalogue of some mighty impressive song crafting. Given this, it's interesting to hear what Peter Morén does on this first solo outing.
The short story is that he goes the singer-songwriter route, creating quiet, intimate, and earnest numbers built on his singing, a warm guitar very well-played, and additional instrumentation ranging from sparse to lush, percussive to orchestral. Some songs evoke the breezy French jazzy lounge sound that gentle Swedish bands do so well (one even finds him singing in French). Others are more straight-ahead pop numbers akin to his work with Peter Bjorn and John.
Morén's voice conveys an appealing honesty and vulnerability, and he's grown considerably as a singer, but in some passages, his songwriting talents stretch further than his voice. The resulting intermittent dopiness and a few too many slow or too-long songs keep "The last tycoon" from being uniformly great, but there are more than enough creative, touching and memorable melodies paired with thoughtful lyrics to affirm his status as one of Sweden's best exports.
- Nancy Baym
Swedish roots/punk act Wilmer X just turned 30 and in celebration, they've added a bunch of old videos: http://www.wilmerx.com/
The White Heat webzine has a great feature on Norwegian avant/jazz/metal act Shining: http://www.white-heat.com/?page=articles&id=26
Check out the video for Petter's new single "Goda dagars magi": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAx3fmuvNDM
Ratatosk talks to Norwegian "splatter folk" act Thinguma*jigSaw: http://www.ratatoskonline.net/article/interview-thingumajigsaw
Ex-David & the Citizens member Mikael Carlsson aka Homeland has 12 new acoustic demo tracks available for free download: http://www.homelandhome.com/
Here's the video for the new Anna Järvinen single "Kom hem": http://youtube.com/watch?v=ve_cjfwHESM