Lost At Sea reviews Ane Brun: http://www.lostatsea.net/review.phtml?id=21247073154433e20c36c97
AOL is streaming the entire Serena Maneesh album: http://music.aol.com/songs/new_releases_full_cds?defaultTab=34
Millencolin frontman Nikola Sarcevic will be releasing a new solo album on Burning Heart later this year, his follow-up to 2004's "Lock-Sport-Krock". In other Millencolin sideproject news, guitarist Mattias Färm is fronting a new project called Franky Lee also featuring Fredrik Granburg from Randy on drums and Magnus Hägerås from The Peepshows on guitar and bass. They'll be releasing their debut album this fall and some samples should hopefully be online soon.
Finland's leading post-rock act Magyar Posse has posted a new song for download: http://www.magyarposse.com/
The band's new album "Random avenger" will be out late April/early May.
Pitchfork on the new Nicolai Dunger record: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/d/dunger_nicolai/heres-my-song-you-can-have-it-i-dont-want-it-anymore.shtml
Khoma received a perfect KKKKK rating for their new album "The second wave" in the latest issue of Kerrang.
Novoton has posted the new Existensminimum single "Changing lines" for free download: http://www.novoton.se/sounds/Changing_Lines.mp3
The track is the second single from Existensminimum's upcoming debut5 full-length "Last night my head tried to explode and I wrote everything down", due out May 5.
Swedish singer/songwriter Pete Thompson, who some of you might remember from his IAT.MP3 EP with Björn Kleinhenz (available here), has updated his website and posted some new songs: http://www.petethompson.tk/
MP3: Galento - Hela bilen
It was really difficult to pick a song from Galento to post. Their new album "From the sea" is even more obtuse than their previous work "Golfstarblue". I suppose you could call them post-rock as they are definitely in the business of creating epic soundscapes, but there's way more artistry here than usually demonstrated in that genre and they lack the usual quiet/loud dynamics. No, this truly qualifies as "experimental music". They take organic musical sounds, chop them up and put them back together and then throw in elements of electronics and found-sound. At times I'm reminded of Negativland, other times it's Alog or maybe Majessic Dreams. It's mysterious and evocative, like the soundtrack to an abstract movie. The problem, as said above, is that it's extremely difficult to pick out one section of the record to represent the whole. No, scratch that: it's impossible. Hopefully this one piece stirs up your interest enough to check out the rest. It's worth it.
Galento - Hela bilen
My first impression upon hearing today's new song from The Defectors was that the chorus "Bring on the tentacles!" Obviously that's not the case once you know the song title, but I didn't bother reading the sleeve before I put the CD in my car stereo. So while my head was spinning with the images of a HP Lovecraft horrorshow featuring Cthulu and the Deep Ones, The Defectors were really just singing about graveyards, the undead and other b-movie plots, following in the footsteps of bands like Deadbolt and the Misfits. It's a shame that first impression was so off because there's a wealth of literary inspiration there just ripe for the picking, but I can settle for "Dancing ghouls".
US tourdates for Victims are now almost 100% confirmed:
04/27 - Warehouse Nxt Door, DC
04/28 - Unitarian Church, Philly, PA
04/29 - Abc No Rio, NYC
04/29 - tba, NYC (Possible late show)
04/30 - Harvard Social Forum, Boston, MA
05/01 - AS220, Providence, RI
05/02 - Valentines, Albany, NY
05/03 - 29 Custer St., Buffalo, NY (6pm)
05/04 - Roboto Project, Pittsburgh, PA
05/05 - Basement Of The Tower, Cleveland, OH
05/06 - No Exit Cafe, Chicago, IL
05/07 - Red Sea, Minneapolis, MN
05/08 - VFW (202 Broadway), Fargo, ND
05/09 - tba, Great Falls, MO
05/11 - Ss Marie Antoinette, Seattle, WA
05/12 - Food Hole, Portland, OR
05/13 - Burnt Ramen, Oakland, CA
05/14 - Warehouse, Long Beach, CA
05/15 - Mexican Cultural Center, Santa Ana, CA
05/16 - Phix (1113 Nw Grand), Phoenix, AZ
05/17 - Univ. House, Las Cruces, NM
05/18-20 - Chaos In Tejas Fest, Austin Tx
Listen to Värttinä get interviewed on the NPR program Weekend Edition: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5318114
Don't forget that I talked about the group and posted an mp3 last Monday. Recommended listening.