Lampshade has posted the video for "New legs": http://www.lampshade.dk/forsta.htm
The band's most recent album "Let's away" is one of IAT's top picks for 2006.
The video for "Time is on fire" from Aerial is now online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm15BfD54gY
Serena Maneesh has posted the "Drain cosmetics" video in a multitude of streaming formats and bitrates: http://www.serena-maneesh.com/news.php
Julie Forchhammer from Norwegian management company Bpop responds to Edith Backlund's accusations that she was discriminated against (see this post from last week):
The truth is: Elvira Nikolaisen had to cancel the Debaser show on very short notice. Bpop never considered putting on any replacement act, as there were already three bands on the line up. I don't know why Edith Backlund thought that she would play instead of Elvira. I guess maybe some of the Swedes she work with, got a bit eager when they heard Elvira had to cancel? Vidar Vang, Real Ones and Jim Stärk has nothing at all to do with this.
This article is already a few weeks old, but I didn't hear about it until today: Burning Heart Records was forced to layoff 50% of its workforce or go belly-up: http://www.na.se/artikel.asp?intId=997857 (in Swedish)
Olof Broström
Giant owl
Monument [2]
I'm pretty fearless in my willingness to review weird records; I guess I like the challenge of seeking a perspective on strange and offbeat sounds. So I didn't flinch after listening to Swedish electronica songwriter Olof Broström's curious sophomore full-length disc, although I wasn't sure what I would say. But let's start with the often surreal lyrics (which were handily printed out on an insert sheet), Olof's alternatingly deadpan, disembodied or just plain sad vocals, and the determinedly offbeat synth and rhythm track combo employed throughout the 15 songs. Interesting tracks include "The creation," where the vocal seems to convey a sort of pain generated for dramatic effect rather than personal catharsis, "We travel north," notable for its gurgling percussion and more balanced vocal track, "The mighty teardrops," whose minimal synth--possibly even played on a cheap Casio--does nothing to dampen the very eccentric arrangement and effects, which features an appearance by Penny Century, and on "You look like gold," the quaver in Broström's vocal adds drama to the already strange lyrics ("Of course I hear you/You're outside my window"). The instrumental "Mexico 86" sounds like traveling through a forbidding landscape at dusk, and the two "Big waters" tracks that close the album are densely textured ambient music, with the latter making a genuinely eerie, hypnotic and unsettling impression. So...Olof is eccentric and a bit outside of categories. This isn't an easy listen, but I dig artists like Mr. Broström who come from a place far away, and capture that feel in their music quite well.
- Kevin Renick
Elak Bingo
Demo
self-released
Elak Bingo! Sounds like an affirmative statement of some sort, doesn't it? For me, it already is: I've made it a personal declaration to indicate when a new band successfully inspires that sense of wonder we all crave in music. Funny thing is, "elak" means "bad" or "mean" in Swedish, and this Norwegian female twosome are anything but. Instead, Elisabeth and Ann-Kristen generate one of the most charming, whimsical, unaffectedly childlike sounds I've heard in ages. They're getting attention with their MySpace profile, where you can hear four of the songs from this amazing demo. "Butterfly" (labeled as "Space park" on the disc the girls sent me) is the sweetest 90 seconds I've heard on MySpace yet; it utilizes the repeated single chirp of a bird, a dash of violin and softly feminine vocals to charm the daylights out of you. "Little birds round the tree/You and me," sings Elisabeth, and no matter how minimal the lyrics, the effect is serene and evocative. Elak Bingo are DIY practitioners all the way, so there's no real production, no grandiose intent. But in terms of sweet, unaffected joy of musical self-expression, these Norwegian girls are a sublimely engaging pair of songbirds.
- Kevin Renick
Hell on Wheels
The odd church
Hybris/PlayRec
Add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of this record. Everyone else compares them to the Pixies, but to these ears they're more reminiscent of sounds a little earlier in the 80s -- the off-kilter yet powerfully melodic pop of the Go-Betweens circa 1983-1985 where dischordant notes careened off of one another, time signatures shifted mid-song, and what seemed at first to be quasi-random messes revealed themselves on repeated listenings to be nuanced, intricate, and brilliantly crafted. Not a note on this record is where you expect it to be, instruments and vocals (both male and female) play off one another as much as they play with one another. It's unsettling and subversively catchy, intellectually intruiging and gut level appealing. Highly recommended.
- Nancy Baym
Hemstad
s/t
Catbird Records
There's a song on here called "Som en b-sida om sommaren" ("Like a b-side in summer") and that pretty well encapsulates this record. Pick a hot and steamy night. String some inflatable palm trees with lights. Fill a kiddie pool with ice & beer & soda and your backyard with friends. Imagine sand between your toes. Pop this one in your boombox and start doing the twist. All instrumental, it's part silly, part surf, part B-52s, part casios, occassionally a little annoying, but mostly just fun fun fun. Let the summer dance parties begin.
- Nancy Baym
I'm From Barcelona
Let me introduce my friends
Dolores
You don't have to be Nostradamus to be able to predict great things in the near future for I'm From Barcelona. Last year their glorious song "We're from Barcelona" hit Indie Sweden like a bomb and made more people dance than ants in pants, now a year later IFB are signed to Dolores. Now their debut album is out and it manages to live up to the very high expectations. The songs are bursting with energy, the melodies are enormous, and if the band can capture a tenth of this magic when playing live, it'd be a sight worth selling your grandmother's false teeth for (the gold ones of course, hidden under the mattress). If this isn't on lots of "Best of 2006" lists in 6 months, I'll eat my Nostradamus beret and stop playing the lottery.
- Simon Tagestam
[ingenting]
Sommardagboken
Labrador
Forget about the Kent-like live track (which is actually a Radio Dept. cover, sung in Swedish) and the ambient (and "watery") remix, and concentrate on the first three normal tracks on the new EP from [ingenting] (which is Swedish for "nothing"). The two first songs are poppy summer songs and then it slows down with the third track "Så varm, så kall", but it's still good stuff. [ingenting] are labelmates with Acid House Kings and The Radio Dept. but since they sing in Swedish, I doubt their music will travel outside Scandinavia. This is a damn shame, since their songs are as good as aforementioned bands', it's just a bit less twee/shoegazing and more pure indie pop. Try it, you might like it even if you don't speak Swedish.
- Simon Tagestam
MP3: Viktor Sjöberg - Winter guitars
After a week of beautiful sunshine, we're now back to the typical rainy doom & gloom here in Washington State. It's quite fitting then that today's mp3 comes from Viktor Sjöberg off his debut solo album "On a winter's day". The music probably works best as the soundtrack to a still, snow-blanketed landscape, but it also blends nicely with the steady pitter-patter of raindrops. It's unobtrusive in the way that it doesn't necessarily demand your full attention, but it definitely sets a specific mood. Like, you might not notice the record when it's on, but you'll definitely feel it when it stops and the quiet, contemplative atmosphere is sucked out of the room by silence. Viktor builds his compositions with gentle, processed guitars and field recordings which means that all of the source tones are natural and warm. Even when he turns the strum of a guitar into a shimmering ripple of sound, it never feels cold and digital. Even if it's already summer where you're at, put this on with headphones and close your eyes. The seasonal theme may be winter, but this kind of music still sounds good year-round. [BUY IT]
Viktor Sjöberg - Winter guitars