Fever Ray, the solo project of Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife, has revealed that her debut album will be released on March 18 via Rabid Records in Sweden, March 23 in Europe via Cooperative Music and on March 24 via Mute in the US and Etc Etc in Australia/NZ. The album was produced with assistance from Christoffer Berg and Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid and will include a guest appearance from Cecilia Nordlund (Souls, Monkeystrikes, Cilihili). The first single "If I had a heart" will be officially released on December 15 and an Andreas Nilsson-directed video will be ready sometime before the end of the year. Oh, and look for a tour to kick off in Sweden at the end of March as well.
MP3: Dyno - Deliverance
From Closer to The Bright Oak to... Dyno? From progressive hardrock to... dance music? "Deliverance is essentially a reworking of Bright Oak's "The undertow" with sharper rhythm and more emotional distance. It's still a good song with a strong, uplifting chorus, but I have to admit that I much prefer the original. Live drumming and a slightly more relaxed tempo give the song room to breath and the original lyrics on the chorus flow far better than the yeah yeah yeahs put in their place. However, despite my initial bum-out, I'm giving these guys time. It's just that it's incredibly hard for me to not compare them to past bands, especially when they come so closely on the heels of one another. Hold it together, wait and see what happens.
Dyno - Deliverance
Sad Day For Puppets
Unknown colors
HaHa Fonogram
The 90s have been somewhat redeemed in recent years - grunge has made a little resurgence in acts like Nine Black Alps and I Am Bones; Britpop has retained much of its shimmer; indie acts like Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. continue to inspire... but what of the other stuff that was happening back then? Sad Day For Puppets would fit quite perfectly onto the "So I Married An Axe Murderer" soundtrack, right between the Boo Radleys, Spin Doctors, and Toad the Wet Sprocket, and yet this designation doesn't seem to carry with it the dreaded "cultural black hole" label for Sad Day that haunts so much of the artistic contributions of the 1990s. The influence is there, but somehow Sad Day instill a degree of sincerity into the saccharine-sweet swells of guitars. The music is just as catchy, and yet there's no bad taste left in the mouth. There is also an attempt on "Unknown colors" to update this decade-old sound: "Mother's tears", the album's standout, takes a less optimistic approach, a little reminiscent of The Stone Roses; "Lay your burden on me" could almost be a Granada song; and I can't help but hear a little Håkan Hellström in "Last night". Sad Day For Puppets have achieved quite a feat - an album saturated in the 90s that doesn't feel like a guilty pleasure.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Teeth of the Divine is not impressed with the new Satyricon album "The age of Nero": http://teethofthedivine.com/site/reviews/satyricon-the-age-of-nero/
Tsukimono has now posted details for his new album "Great blood", plus a new live cassette he has coming out on Klorofyll Tapes: http://yourson-shine.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-album-new-split-cassette-live.html
Norwegian jazz/folk artist Kristin Asbjørnsen will release her new album "The night shines like a day" on January 19 with the first single "Snowflake" out on December 24. Listen to older material at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/kristinasbjornsen
Damn's new video for the single "I'm not going to live another day without you girl" is now up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDk7XE0S9pg
Richard Reagh has started working on a new album: http://reagh.net/index.php/main/corner/recording/
Swedish dark ambient artist Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio's new album "O N A N I - [Practice makes Perfect]", their 8th overall, is confirmed for release on January 17. Details: http://www.coldmeat.se/mailorderf.asp?id=2752
The Metal Bastard mp3 blog lists his top 25 albums of 2008 which of course includes a healthy dose of Scandinavian rawk: http://metalbastard.blogspot.com/2008/12/metal-bastards-top-25-of-2008.html
Last Mile has enlisted yet another new drummer; this time it's Peter Høj Larsen (Powderhog, ex-Self). Look for the band to do a few European dates around late March.