This week's top 20 Swedish album chart:
01. Jill Johnson - Music row ii
02. Amanda Jenssen - Happyland
03. Peter Jöback - East side stories
04. Larz Kristerz - Om du vill
05. Bo Kaspers Orkester - Samling
06. Lars Winnerbäck - Tänk om jag ångrar mig och sen ångrar mig igen
07. Martin Stenmarck - Septemberland
08. Christer Sjögren - Schlagerminnen
09. Peter Lemarc - Klassiker
10. Europe - Last look at Eden
11. Melissa Horn - Säg ingenting till mig
12. Nisse Hellberg - En modern man
13. Amy Diamond - Swings and roundabouts
14. Takida - The darker instinct
15. Carolina Wallin Pérez - Pärlor och svin
16. Mustasch - Mustasch
17. Daniel Lemma - Rebound
18. Caroline Af Ugglas - Så gör jag det igen
19. Ebba Forsberg - Ta min vals: ebba forsberg sjunger Leonard Cohen
20. Sarah Dawn Finer - Moving on
Killing the Legacy covers the new 7" from Lighthouse Project, one of the best Finnish modern hardcore acts out there: http://killingthelegacy.blogspot.com/2009/11/lust-for-lie.html
BBC Music reviews Norwegian jazz act Tord Gustavsen Ensemble and their new record "Restored, returned" which pairs the well-regarded pianist with vocalist Kristin Asbjørnsen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/f4rj
Pulverised Records continues to mine the Swedish underground for old-school death metal and have announced yet another signing: Morbus Chron. The band is currently making plans to record their debut full-length for a release sometime next year, in the meantime, listen to tracks from their demo cassette at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/morbuschronband
Danish noiseniks Marvins Revolt leave for an extensive European tour today in support of their new record "Patrolling the heights", out now via Play/Rec:
11/06 - Urjes Living Room, Enschede (NL)
11/07 - Vortex, Siegen (GER)
11/08 - Den Ijskelder, Gent (BEL)
11/09 - KTS Freiburg (GER)
11/11 - Le Mojomatic, Montpellier (FRA)
11/13 - Pierrot Lunar, Girona (ESP)
11/14 - L’eclèctic Club, Barcelona (ESP)
11/15 - Sala Mogambo, San Sebastian (ESP)
11/16 - tba, Bragança (POR)
11/17 - Armazém do Chá, Porto (POR)
11/18 - tba, Lisboa (POR)
11/19 - Dolce Vita, Don Benito (ESP)
11/20 - Freemarket @ Maison des 3 quartiers, Poitiers (FRA)
11/21 - La Lanterne, Rennes (FRA)
11/23 - Le Rigoletto, Paris (FRA)
11/25 - La Zone, Liege (BEL)
11/26 - La Malterie, Lille (FRA)
11/27 - RTT, Bruxelles (BEL)
11/28 - Verso, Luxembourg (LUX)
11/29 - The Hope, Brighton (UK)
11/30 - The Ole Blue Last, London (UK)
12/01 - tbc, Newport (UK)
12/01 - tba, Newport (UK)
12/02 - The Flapper, Birmingham (UK)
12/03 - The Harley, Sheffield (UK)
12/04 - Islington Mill, Manchester (UK)
12/05 - Uncle Alberts, Middlesbrough (UK)
12/06 - Royal Park Cellars, Leeds (UK)
12/08 - Richter Collective X-mas Party @ Twisted Pepper, Dublin (IE)
12/09 - Cypress Avenue, Cork (IE)
12/10 - Bakers Place, Limerick (IE)
12/11 - Bar Ritz, Castlebar (IE)
12/12 - Kelly's, Galway (IE)
12/13 - The Calidonia, Liverpool (UK)
12/14 - The Central, Nottingham (UK)
12/15 - tbc, Birmingham (UK)
12/16 - The Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes (UK)
12/17 - The Chantry Social Club, Canterbury (UK)
12/19 - Lades, Copenhagen (DK)
Air France will be following Jens Lekman to Chicago to DJ following his NYE gigs and are also looking for additional gigs around the same time: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=63897182&blogId=517370739
Norwegian indiepop act Je Suis Animal are touring Germany in December:
12/09 - UT Connewitz, Leipzig
12/10 - Gebäude Neun, Lüneburg
12/11 - Hafen2, Offenbach
12/12 - Astra Stube, Hamburg
12/13 - Bang Bang Club, Berlin
Swedish self-explanatory duo Trummor & Orgel will release their third album "Visions" on November 18 and also have a new website to match: http://www.trummororgel.com/
There will be a record release show at Södra Bar in Stockholm the night of the release.
One more dose of aural filth to close out the week! (see also here and here) Obliteration are a relatively young band from Norway with one album under their belt on Nocturnal Culto's Tyrant Syndicate label and a new one on the way at the end of the month from Fysisk Format, so that alone should already give you a decent idea of what they sound like. For those still in the dark, that means disgusting old-school death metal. Think Autopsy, Possessed, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Bathory, etc... you get the picture. Maybe not as much raw anger as those other tracks I posted earlier, but certainly just as ugly and brutal. "Ingesting death" is the first track from "Nekropsalms" -- play loud!
Obliteration - Ingesting death
"Tomorrow, in a year", the Darwin-inspired opera scored by The Knife, will be hitting the road for a few European dates:
11/27-11/28 - Large Hall, The Concert Hall, Aarhus (DK)
01/08-01/09 - La Pallas, Athens (GRE)
01/29-02/01 - Dansens Hus, Stockholm (SWE)
06/05 - Städtische Bühne, Münster (GER)
For more details and ticket info, go here: http://www.hotelproforma.dk/
7
The new Siena Root album, their fourth overall, is a serious jammer, though not necessarily of the type I usually go for. Instead of the usual retro hard-rock served up in snappy 3-6 minute packages, the band stretches their chops to create two extended "suites", each about 25-minutes long and conveniently dissected into smaller tracks on CD. The first half, "We", is the more straightforward of the two and features the band in standard space-ballad mode, transitioning into a heavy tent-revival refrain before taking their their planetary caravan "in the desert", zooming "over the mountain" and coming back home again with "as we return", as each section is conveniently subtitled. It's the kind of piece that works best as a soundtrack to a long drive, not so much for casual listening. As for Suite II, "The road to Agartha" (what?), that's where they get real, let down their guard, and fly their freak-flag high. The Beatles may have embraced a bit of Eastern mysticism and indulged in a bit of sitar in their time, but they never rocked out like this with full Indian flair, dueling flute solos, copious hand-percussion implements and other non-standard rock tropes. This is where the extended format works best, where Siena Root can be as self-indulgent as they need, get it out of their system, exorcise their demons, or chase down whatever it is they're after. Likewise, I also think it's the far superior of the compositions, though again, not necessarily for easy, everyday spinning unless side-long psych-jams are your main deal (you dirty hippie). "Different realities" is nowhere near Siena Root's best album, but they were successful with their intentions and that's worth something. It won't ever end up in my steady rotation, but I plan to enjoy it whenever the proper occasion should arise (again, see: road trips).
- Avi Roig
Sons of God, aka Swedish noise artists Leif Elggren and Kent Tankred, will be performing a short series of US dates this week together with like-minded countrymate Joachim Nordwall (The Idealist/Skull Defekts):
11/06 - MassArt, North Hall, Boston, MA
11/07 - Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
11/09 - Philadelphia Sound Forum (Vox Populi Gallery), Philadelphia, PA
Labrador Records has posted the new Sambassadeur single "Days" as a free download: http://www.labrador.se/days/
Swedish hardcore act Kvoteringen are streaming a new track off their forthcoming LP "Samhällets förrädare", due out on Feral Ward very soon: http://www.myspace.com/kvoteringen
Siena Root