"Music For The Statues of Gothenburg is a piece written for three statues along Kungsportsavenyn, the main street of Gothenburg. It is an observation on the sonic landscape of the city and a question about the usage rights of the public space." Composed by Andreas Bygdell (The Touch) and performed by Martin Molin (Detektivbyrån). More: http://felsteg.com/project/music-for-the-statues-of-gothenburg/

Ex-Detektivbyrån member Martin Molin is going the opposite direction of Dödsvarg and is composing the music for the upcoming show "The Famous Swedish Project" (emphatically "not theater, not performance and not dance, but everything at once"), to be performed by PLAY Teaterkonst and set to premiere on February 6 in Göteborg. More info at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playteaterkonst

I have been following P3 Guld/P3 Gold, Sveriges Radio/Swedish Radio's annual awards ceremony, for a long time now, almost as long as the event has existed. Which also happens to be about as long as I've been seriously following Swedish/Scandinavian music and running this site. There's no doubt that SR has been a huge part of my Swedish musical education over these years, both due to their outstanding website and online streaming offerings, but also because of their devotion to quality programming and the promotion of domestic acts. Of course, Sweden's outstanding music scene makes the latter a no-brainer, but you know that if someone's gonna mess it up, it's gonna be a state-run institution. Anyhow, I usually try to listen in to the show's audio broadcast every year (Swedish Television/SVT's live stream is blocked for international users), but never in my life did I ever expect the opportunity to attend in-person. The idea never even occurred to me. So as soon as I received an email asking me if I wanted to go, I immediately jumped at it. Who wouldn't? Even with a scarce one-week notice, I would be a fool to pass up the offer.

So off I went, spirited halfway 'round the world in some sort of fever-dream, all for a gala previously thought unaccessible. But before we get into my personal experience of the event, let us first take a history lesson.

P3 Guld was started by Swedish Radio nine years ago, evolving out of and superceding the then-current Popstad (Pop City) live music event. "So we have Grammy awards in Sweden as well and this was a year that there was some controversy surrounding them," says SR's Pia Kalischer, the official "mother" of P3 Guld, "They said they would no longer have anything to do with quality, they would only be based on sales and we thought that was kind of dumb so I saw a gap in market and I figured, well we should do something that's an event that will have to do with new music and also live music, as we broadcast a lot of concerts [see P3 Live for example]. So I figured it would be fun if we could do something that was open to an audience with live music and let's throw in a few awards to have a reason to throw this thing."

"Today I'm the Commissioner of Music and Events at Sveriges Radio, before that I was Head of Music for P3 for ten years. I was also a program manager and before that I was a producer and I've always had my heart in the music and for as long as I was working as Head of Music, I was continuously working with the P3 brands musically so that it would be connected to new Swedish music. That was the whole idea that people would associate P3 with new Swedish music."

And so P3 Guld came to be. The first year was small and humble, taking place at a tiny theater in Växjö (home of The Ark, Melody Club and uh, Birdflesh) before relocating permanently to its current home in Göteborg, Sweden's second city. Pia explains: "The city of Gothenburg came to us and said, "Please, come over, we'll help you. We have a very strong music scene in this city and all kinds of genres as well." It's the home of Swedish heavy metal and also lots of indiepop and also hip-hop, it's got everything basically. And a good organization within the city that helped us to get connected with the venues, the arenas, the people... so we grew from a small theater to a little bit of a bigger theater which seated 900 people, to [another] which seated maybe 1000 and then suddenly our partners said "Let's do this big" so we went to Scandinavium which is a huge arena that usually has hockey games. So went from 900 to 3000 people in a couple years. And we did that for 2 years in Scandinavium and that was huge." This year, however, the event has been scaled back and moved to the slightly smaller Lisebergshallen at the Liseberg amusement park. Seating approximately 2,500 with the complex, multi-tiered stage setup to allow for quick set changes, this is the first time the event was slated to include a standing audience. As to whether it was a fully conscious choice or rather the result of Scandinavium being booked for the European handball championships, nobody seemed too daunted or disappointed by the switch. "I personally feel that it was wonderful and it was fun and it just suddenly exploded, but for me," says Pia, "I've always wanted the P3 Guld to be sort of intimate. I want it to have a club feel so that audience gets closer to the bands and the bands get close to the audience. When the bands and audience connect that's when you get that certain electrical feel that really makes for good radio and good television. When it's real. That sounds so trite, but I really mean it."

All the same by me, as a newcomer to the P3 Guld live experience. I'm more than happy to play the part of the humble guest, letting myself get shuffled here and there for whatever pre-arranged activities my hosts have in mind. Well, except for the P3 Live-sponsored pre-pre-party on Friday night -- I really don't need to see some (ex?) cokehead pop-music producer's feeble attempt at playing in a rock band, so I opted out for a quality evening with my local friends, exploring the exciting, burgeoning world of Swedish craft beer. So then on Saturday, after a slow day of recovery and light window-shopping around Haga, we're spirited away to the official pre-party at the Brew House, a swirling mess of tabloid photographers snapping shots of the various pop artists who decide to make an appearance, mixed in among far greater numbers of industry reps and hanger-ons. I say hellos to the few folks I recognize and am introduced to many more, including a project manager from Music Export Norway down from Oslo to check things out (Øyvind, I'm ready to come over anytime!). Then there's also Watain, lurking on the fringes, looking seriously bummed and out of place. And intimidating -- no way am I going to attempt to introduce myself though a picture with the band would've surely been awesome. My fellow guest DJ Grace and I do a short interview on the air for the pre-show (I manage to be coherent enough to give props to the year's current best single, "Coming from you" by Paper) and we're off again, following a trail of torch-wielding sentries on our way to the venue.

As for the show itself, the live broadcast (on both P3 and SVT) demands a strict schedule. Pia has prepared us: "Some other award shows like the Swedish Grammis they have 21 prizes to give out. So you have to sit there for what? 3 hours? And they can only fit in 4 or 5 musical acts. So we do it in 90 minutes, 9 prizes and I think we have 10 bands this year. So it's very fast-paced. And there are always some of the big acts [who] really like to debut new songs... we don't only do the big hits of last year, we want them to play new music." Once things start moving, they stay moving and there is no downtime whatsoever.

The actual array of categories at P3 Guld is an interesting sidenote. Unlike every other music award, there are very few niches. "P3 Guld is really just a segment of the Swedish music business because we felt that we wanted to do something that reflects the music format of P3," Pia tells me, "The Grammis also gives out awards for, y'know, new children's music, classical music, jazz, every genre... which I really personally think is great. I think they should concentrate on being a very grand prize. And we basically do a rock show. [laughs] So it's pop, rock, some soul and hip-hop, some heavier stuff, but it's one piece of the cake of the whole musical landscape. So there's no jazz award, there's no opera award." And more importantly, there's also no longer an award based on gender. "We used to have two prizes for the best female artist of the year and the best male and we changed that two years ago," Pia informs me, a decision that apparently did not come without unintended consequences. "Last year we got lots of criticism because [P3 Guld] didn't feature enough females. Now it's hard for us to change the recording business where men seem to have an easier time than women, but we really tried to think about that this year. We really worked very hard to change and we also decided to joke around a bit with it." As we would later discover. Furthermore: "Part of the reason I'm afraid that we didn't have enough women solo artists last year, because not a lot of women released records. Or rather there were so many men last year who released records that were really good, that it was hard. But this year there are more females that have had a stronger... that have put their foot down I suppose."

"Is that just on stage or behind the scenes as well?" I ask.

"Well the thing is with P3 Guld is that behind the scenes, it's 98% women. I think that's due to me actually. Without thinking about it I appointed a female producer, we have female bookers and one of the TV producers is a woman and so in the production team, as it comes to the people who make the decisions, 70% are women."

"So do you think that's reflected in other parts of Sweden or do you think that this is a special thing you've created?"

"I don't know, I just know that... of course I'm a feminist. Yes I am. But I'm maybe not the most conventional one, I don't always count heads. I think that there's different ways of gaining equality, but I do think it was a good thing we were criticized last year and I do think we've really shaped up. There's a big discussion and I think the discussion in itself makes for change. What's been interesting is that you've seen all these women who've gone solo, women in the indie bands like Jenny Wilson, Sophia Somayo. They've decided to do everything by themselves as a way of being empowered and I think that's interesting. So that's kind of specific to the Swedish scene -- lots of women working and doing everything every step of the way, writing the songs, into the production, and gaining full control of the final product. Which I think is amazing."

Not to mention artists such as Marit Bergman and Robyn, I might add. The intersection of gender and music is an ever-evolving, fascinating subject, so it's especially interesting to see a prominent event such as P3 Guld tackle the issue head-on.

Which doesn't mean I could necessarily follow the discussion every step of the way during the actual show. I could understand when Howlin' Pelle of The Hives awarded Robyn the Guldmicken for Sweden's "2nd best" live act, I could understand host Kitty Jutbring's recurring references to Ace of Base thanks to the musical cue, but as far as gender-relations go, I could only really pick up on Kitty's vagina dress and her coinciding use of the word "fitta", which apparently is totally acceptable for broadcast. Not that I wasn't fully entertained. Like I said above, the show was action-packed and unrelenting and my language barrier did little to interfere.

Local fave Håkan Hellström kicked things off in style with "River en vacker dröm".

Säkert! performed an exceptional take on the song "Influensa".

Those Dancing Days killed it with "Reaching forward", as previously mentioned.

Awards were given, speeches were made. There were also a few surprises, a rarity for such a highly-scripted, high profile event. The biggest and most obvious: This Is Head winning Best Pop over Robyn. Another: Skudge winning Best Dance over the far more popular Swedish House Mafia, though it must be reiterated, P3 Guld is not necessarily a popularity contest. While some categories are decided by audience votes, the specialist genres are done by jury. Once again, Pia gladly fills in the details: "We have one jury that takes out the nominees for the audience to vote for and those are made up of the music editors that work within P3 and a couple of people from outside; we have one person from SVT [Per Sinding Larsen], so he's with us to do the five open categories. And then when it comes to specialist juries, there's a head of jury who's always that person who has that type of specialist program [at P3] and the brief to them was to select people that are experts in their field. So it's either very senior music editors and music journalists or very genre-specific experts [so we] have quality before the quantity or sales, which is not a parameter in this at all. But of course sometimes those things sort of match." As is the case with Robyn, who has deservedly won almost every award she's been nominated for this year.

Another highlight: the unexpected collaborations. Hello Saferide and Detektivbyrån from 2009 is a definite standout in my memory, Pia cites Anna Ternheim's collaboration with Max Peezay as hers. She says, "I like all the stuff that really goes under your skin and becomes exclusive for this event, things that touch people." As for 2011's best song medley by Orup and Spiderdogs, well, it was certainly nothing I expected, though I'm not so sure it will go down in history. What was far better however, was Tove Styrke doing "Million pieces" together with Familjen:

See, now that's the kind of perfect collaboration I'm talking about.

As with all major events, P3 Guld comes in three stages. We had the pre-party, the party itself and then of course, what remains at last is the after-party. Once Robyn brought the house down with her 3-song medley/finale (thankfully, rumors of a surprise Roxette appearance did not come to pass), we gathered our coats and made our way back through the cold to the Hotel Elite where, as with most large gatherings in Sweden, I felt like a fish out of water and about a foot shorter than everyone else, a feeling most easily remedied by the consumption of alcohol. Which is exactly the point -- the post-show party is when everyone finally starts to relax and feel comfortable enough to simply hang out and enjoy themselves. Free from expectations, they were all smiles and I was excited to reacquaint myself with numerous people I have met on previous trips over the years, or merely communicated with via email. And rub elbows with bonafide Swedish popstars: somehow I ended up getting my picture taken with a member of Kent, no fooling. Not at all what I expected, but more than welcome. Beyond that, what goes on at the after-party is off the record as far as I'm concerned, though it's not as if anything scandalous went down in my presence (besides the telling of tales from previous years). Perhaps everyone was holding out for the after-after-party, but with me scheduled for an early flight home only hours away, that was not even a remote possibility. The bar shut down, I went to bed, I was happy. Even if I never get a chance for a repeat visit, I'm more than content with my experience.

01. TALK 1
02. The Goner - Within the hour
03. Moto Boy - The heart is a rebel
04. Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen
05. TALK 2
06. Valkyrien Allstars - Hvis jeg var deg
07. Tobias Hellkvist - Patience
08. Scarred By Beauty - We swim
09. [ingenting] - Tack
10. TALK 3
11. I'm From Barcelona/Daviel Lindlöf - Lower my head
12. Monazno - Yes we can't
13. Silver - The white logic
14. Eskatol - Siste dans
15. TALK 5
16. Murmansk - The surgical assistant
17. Dyno - Destroy! Destroy!
18. Folkvang - Folkvangs första
19. C.Aarmé - Angola (Princess version)
20. TALK 5
21. Abhinanda - Junior

Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.

Expect more folk discoveries and other new (to me) tunage in weeks to come.

Day 1

Thursday effectively began for me at 6am when my plane touched down on my flight from Seattle, WA. After a not-so-quick trip uptown to visit with my family who were kind enough to put both myself and my wife up for a few days, I was back on train, heading downtown to NYU for the Swedish Music Seminar. I was ignorant of the event's full history, but this series of seminars has existed annually since 2001, though 2009 marks the first time they were included as part of the "official" CMJ program. It was also the first time they would take place over the course of two days, at a much more leisurely (and welcome) pace. I had attended before a couple years ago and enjoyed it a lot, made a ton of fantastic connections and was glad to be back, especially since this time out I was coming as a panelist, not just a wide-eyed blogger, moreso a hardened cynic with an axe to grind. Still, my mission is never to rain on everyone's parade, so I mostly contented myself with passive observation and note-taking.

Panel I - State of the Digital World

Not a lot of surprises here; much of the content was taken up with familiarizing the attendees with the benefits of Spotify and its effect on the populace (such as filesharing use going way down as more users take to streaming/progressive downloads). Not that it's completely faultless -- Spotify has already been successfully cracked, so its advantages against (advanced) users who would prefer to own/retain their files are rendered moot. Naturally, labels are upset that the application model is not 100% safe against piracy, but most smart folks understand that some income is better than none, so you work with what you can. Established artists bitch about the meager revenues Spotify pays while their income from CD sales dwindle into nothingness; it's not so hard to figure out which path is in their best interest. Everyone should be aware by now that the good days are gone forever, but some folks are still struggling mightily to hold on to what little they can and this fruitless battle is a consistently recurring theme of this modern age. An important question: would artists be motivated to create without the promise of a big payday? My answer: most certainly, if they are true artists. Financial rewards mean nothing when you are driven to create.

Another prominent topic centered around the importance of "discovery", the methods with which we are introduced to new music. Be it media (digital or print), word of mouth or via automated systems (see Pandora, Last.fm or any other similar recommendation engine), it remains a crucial component of the industry for both the business and fans. Whether or not the algorithm methods will ever supplant the power of personal recommendation remains to be seen, but so far it appears that the latter is winning. As sometime IAT contributor Nancy Baym suggested recently¹, trusting the algorithm can lead to an artistic cul-de-sac, an endless self-reinforcing ghetto. Personal taste is never so cut and dry; we desire nuance and surprise.

Panel II - The Power of Women in the Industry

Women remain a minority in the music industry, but it's not as bad as it used to be. Almost all of the women on today's panel have been working a long time to overcome adversity and prejudice and are now masters of their own destiny, successfully running their own businesses. Nowadays, they say, it's not so much a matter of fighting sexism, it's more about being good role models for change. The lesson: speak out, start it up and don't wait for someone to give you permission. To paraphrase panelist Sofia Talvik, "No one else will work as hard for you as you." That's good advice for anyone, male or female.

Panel III - Media in Today's Music World

The point of view I attempted to impose on the audience in my panel: most modern music magazines deserve to fail. 90% of all music should be destroyed. The industry must be burned to the ground so it can be built again. And also: content is king. I don't believe I was as eloquent as intended, but that's the gist. Our world is becoming more and more niche oriented every day, so to be all things to all people, to be the diamond-selling (or event platinum) superstar is nigh-impossible. Revel in the cult, the obscure; don't look back, forge a new path -- ubiquity is the exception to the rule. And I really am serious about hastening the death of music -- Sweden still reigns supreme when it comes to overall musical quality (percentage good versus total output), but the more the barrier to entry is lowered, the more we have to suffer through endless mediocrity. Honestly, I'd much rather hear something I immediately hate than waste endless hours mulling through albums that inspire mere shrugs, as I do now. Fellow panelist Matthew Schnipper was wise in turning Fader Magazine away from regular record reviews; it's a soul-sucking exercise, possibly deadly when your enterprise is dependent on advertiser dollars. Still, I remember zines like "Grimoire of Exalted Deeds", where 90% of the reviews were absolutely venomous -- I didn't always agree with them, but I knew that when they actually liked something, there was something to it. I am drawn to strong editorial voices, strong emotions. I believe that things will eventually work themselves out, but the sides are being drawn.

Panel IV - CMJ 09 Super Panel: Idol Views from Two Music Nation Leaders - USA and Sweden

I'll own up to watching a few seasons of AI in my time, but c'mon- it's more about the spectacle of human drama than the music. Pass!

Swedish Music Showcase @ Norwood

I was far from my best by the time the bands started playing, but I tried to hold on as long as I could. Jaw Lesson (nee Hajen) confirmed what I already suspected: fantastic voice but lacking the material to match. If nurtured correctly, she will be great someday. Next was Francis whose blues-punk was far more extroverted, but still somewhat lacking. I am reluctant to completely write them off, but would consider their US prospects to be dismal -- they are a decent band, but far from world-class. Sofia Talvik, on the other hand, is totally hopeless. She's an absolutely brilliant self-marketer, but her music is boring and forgettable. Then we have Moonbabies, the one band I really wanted to see most, who eluded me. After fulfilling my obligation of two (short) DJ sets and a 16hr day on 3hrs sleep, plus factor in an exhausted wife and a 45+ min journey to bed, I decided to call it a night. My most sincere apologies! As for Adam Tensta who was set to perform even later, you are good at what you do and I respect that, but I'm not into it. Swedish hip-hop is at its best when it's in Swedish or when it's not trying to be like other hip-hop. Rep for the home team and the fans will follow.

Tracks played:

The Goner - Haven
David Åhlén - Spirit fall
Rickard Jäverling - The wedding ring
Erik Enocksson - Non strigis
Brothers of End - Why
Johan Heltne - Din alkoholism är ingen alkoholism
Detektivbyrån - Laka-koffa
-----------
[ingenting] - Medan vi sov
Bröderna Lindgren - Annan sort
Penny Century - Just because
Mattias Alkberg - Jag bara tänkte, liksom, att
Samuraj Cities - 2 close 2 yr hrt
Broder Daniel - Underground

Day 2

Panel I - Industry and Business Radar

Having missed the introductions, I stumbled into a panel that was dominated by a couple folks extolling all of the big deals they've made for their established artists/bands/brands. Seriously, who the fuck cares if Dr. Dre made a bundle by lending his name to a line of headphones? How is that at all relevant to a room of people interested in importing (or exporting) Swedish music? I have zero interest in hearing the bullshit of a few schmoozers talking about how successful they are at selling corporations their manufactured version of cool and extending their tenuous longevity in the business. At best, that's the domain of already-made-it; at worse, it's music for people who don't care about music. For all the talk of finding new markets and new audiences, they sure seemed clueless about the one they were in front of. Thankfully, Patrik Larsson of Headlock Management managed to get a few words in about the importance of artist development, building leverage and the importance of sometimes saying no. Likewise, Elliot Aronow of RCRDLBL pointed out that most people in the world simply don't care -- you have to figure out ways to make them care.

Panel II - What's Currently Hot (or Not?) in the Music Industry

Sadly, no one seemed interested in making bold, broad statements on the subject matter, but a few folks name-dropped their personal faves. No consensus though, hardly worth repeating. Patrik Larsson did however reiterate the value of artistic development, a hot topic for anyone on the business side of things. Where there was once a tried and true path is now a vast, uncharted ocean. Possibilities are endless, but how many of them are worth pursuing? Most folks agree that communication is key though -- find your fans, keep them close, make them feel special. And then sell them expensive crap they didn't know they needed so that they feel even more special. Or something like that, I might've nodded off.

Panel III - Melodifestivalen

Melodifestivalen and Eurovision have their allure, but they cannot compete with the sights and sounds of NYC. Pass!

¹ this post alludes to what I'm talking about, but I believe that Nancy has elaborated elsewhere (if I remember correctly)

The 2009 Emmaboda Festival is bigger than ever, more bands, more spectators, more camp sites. It offers a broader selection of music than ever and it is one of few Swedish festivals with a positive growth rate. Yet it is still the smallest and coziest festival I have been to. The festival that used to be all about indiepop is nowadays all about variation and this years program contains everything from electropop to Springsteen influenced rock and ultra-commercial metal. Major foreign artists include 2 Many Djs, The Wombats, Metronony and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, among others, but I will keep my focus on the Swedish bands.

The site of the festival is the small town of Emmaboda; a sleepy industrial city in the middle of the Småland forests in south-eastern Sweden that is brutally awakened by thousands of partying, concert-going teens and twenty-somethings once a year. The festival area itself consists of one big forest-covered field that contains everything: stages, camping, bars, food facilities and port-a-potties. This also means that you can camp more or less right next to a stage and, if you wish, bring your own drinks to concerts.

There are two stages (they are actually more like barns-turned-stages) at the festival: one called "the forest" located in, well, the forest and one called "the meadow" located on the open field in the middle of the festival area.

Thursday

The first thing I do as I enter the festival area is to hurry over to the forest stage where Stockholm pop sensation Jonathan Johansson is performing. He is telling anecdotes from the cool elitist nightclubs of the Swedish capital and plays drum machine powered pop, reminiscent of early Swedish 90's pop. If the Smashing Pumpkins had formed in a Swedish suburb instead of Chicago, it would have sounded like this. However, it is a little too slow to wake up the sleepy audience and it is only the finishing Bruce Springsteen cover "Dancing in the dark" that really stand out.

Next up is Skansros, a Göteborg-based pop ensemble with a Håkan Hellström hangup. Their set includes everything from funky pop pieces to a little too pretentious out-of-tune ballads, but most of it is just plain excellent pop music.

Dead By April, Sweden's hottest commercial metal act and this year's least expected booking at the festival take their time to sound check and enter the stage a good half hour after set time. Their music combines growling and delicate singing with sweet melodies and heavy riffs. Their act of trying to look hard and sensitive at the same time fails miserably, and they end up looking like Sweden's version of Crazy Town or Evanescence.

Thursday's headliner are Skåne's legendary Bob Hund. They perform a super tight set as always. Top-notch both when it comes to song selection (a good mix of new songs and old hits like "Hörlurar" and "Min lilla planet") and crazy antiques from singer Thomas Öberg, today wearing a black mask instead of the usual white one. A perfect synthesis between madness, genious and rock music.

Detektivbyrån start off playing their harpsichord-powered folk pop just after dusk and perform a beautiful, almost meditative set. However, their attempt to make us listen closer by playing at a lower volume fails totally, plenty of times throughout the set their songs are overpowered by a screaming audience. But that is all forgotten when they finish the concert with two covers: "Lambada" and Klaus Wunderlich's classic "Popcorn". Pure genius.

Friday

Friday starts off with a mild breeze, blue skies and a cozy breakfast gig by Miss Li. Her naive, yet clever songs and piano hammering is a perfect combination and makes the audience forget their hangovers right away. It is a charming and relaxed show, at times perhaps a bit too relaxed when she repeatedly forgets lyrics and talks at length with her band mates about Ulf Lundell.

A few hours later Joel Alme gives us a solid rock show from the forest stage. There are strings, brass, warm melodies and heartfelt lyrics that never becomes too pompous or pretentious. Plenty of new songs show there is still a lot more to come and modern classics like "Always on my mind" and "Queens corner" draw down massive cheers. Perfect pop hits from the Swedish West Coast. Joel is Emmaboda's own Bruce Springsteen.

I have never seen The Baboon Show perform their chaos rock live before. Today's great show is sadly wasted on way too sparse an audience but frontwoman Cecilia Boström is never the less all over the stage from the second the band enters. Hits like "Faster faster harder harder" stick out in a set that is exemplary short. Like The Hives with a female lead singer.

Florence Valentin's performance on the Meadow stage proves that they have grown into a tight live music machine. The show kicks off with the bands most recent single "Spring Ricco" and from then on it is a full-frontal, left-wing pop attack. Lead singer and agitator Love Antell is cocky as ever, one second he talks about bringing down the government and the next he dedicates "Uppå sociala", a song about spending your welfare money on alcohol, to all the recent high school graduates in the audience. If you can stand the super obvious Clash influences, this is a really great show.

Legendary raw punks Moderat Likvidation made their first gig since the 80's last year and have been touring off and on since then. At Emmaboda they mix classic songs like "Köttahuve" with new ones from their most recent album "Mammutation". It is punk with d-beat, death and hardcore vibes. The old songs has the crusties moshing and the audience cheering and singing along while the new songs mostly leave people waiting for another oldie... But it is, all in all, a very good performance, appreciated both by the punk-dads and the new generation punks in the audience.

Laakso singer Markus Krunegård has had a massive success with his solo career. If it is the timely release of the vampire themed single "Jag är en vampyr" or just the winning concept of great pop melodies, I don't know, but when he enters the Meadow stage one thing is clear: he is a superstar. There is a huge audience, teenage girls scream at the top of their lungs and sing along to every song. The show is remarkably average though, it lacks structure (perhaps due to things repeatedly being thrown onto the stage) and is not very engaging if you're not already a big fan.

Saturday

Saturday offers yet another perfect festival morning with sunny, not too warm weather. My first show for the day is mp3 blog hyped electropop dude Nordpolen. His show starts off with a sample of Swedish opera classic "O helga natt" that turns into a loop and builds up to the first song. The band mixes electronic pop harmonies with a steady beat and bare chested lead singer Pelle Hellström looks like a young Dave Gahan in his leopard jacket. A decent set, but it is only hit single "Skimret" that really stands out.

Göteborg rockers Franke enter the main stage wearing corpse paint and start off their set without uttering a word. As usual. Today, their angst powered reverb heavy brand of rock is lost in poor sound and distortion, perhaps by accident, perhaps on purpose. Their distaste for their audience is as apparent as ever. After 30 minutes singer Niklas Franke whispers "We are Franke" into the microphone, that is the only words they speak other than their barely audible lyrics throughout the whole set. The few older songs they play are great, but otherwise it is just remarkably dull. Old hits such as "Aldrig förstå" are sorely missed.

The Haunted perform their death metal without compromise and deliver a excellent set despite poor sound conditions and when they encourage us to "open your hearts to Lucifer" at the end of the show, I think we are all ready to do just that. Most memorable is however singer Peter Dolving who between songs tells stories of obscure Norwegian Nazi porn, repeatedly tells us to take good care of each other and, at the end of the set, strips butt naked before he walks off stage.

The closing act at the Meadow stage are electro pop duo Familjen. A massive crowd has gathered and after two seconds of the first song they all start dancing. The dancing continues throughout the set and then out through camp sites and to the out door dancefloor/stage Trädgården where Den Svenska Björnstammen and Adrian Lux keep the dancing going on all night or at least until I leave the premises for this year. Good night Emmaboda, see you next year.

Words and pictures by Kalle Landin

01. The Bear Quartet
02. Frida Hyvönen
03. Detektivbyrån
04. Sally Shapiro
05. El Perro del Mar
06. Hello Saferide
07. Jenny Wilson
08. Fever Ray
09. The Big Pink
10. Timo Räisänen

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01. Pintandwefall - Jail
02. TALK 1
03. Detektivbyrån - Partyland
04. Carolina Wallin Pérez - Pärlor
05. Piroth - Fog dancers
06. TALK 2
07. Sonic Ritual - Take the edge off
08. Lapko - Miami vicer
09. My God Damn Territory - Used to be
10. The End Will Be Kicks - Sweets & filth
11. TALK 3
12. Murmansk - Behind kitchen knives
13. Gösta Berlings Saga - Bergslagen
14. TALK 4
15. Folke - Wet soap
16. The Goner - A song
17. Regina - Totuus minusta
18. TALK 5
19. Lowood - Crash

Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.

01. Loney, Dear
02. The Fine Arts Showcase
03. Montt Mardié
04. Phoenix
05. The Bear Quartet
06. Frida Hyvönen
07. Detektivbyrån
08. Jens Lekman
09. Hello Saferide
10. Passion Pit

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01. El Perro del Mar
02. Håkan Hellström
03. Loney, Dear
04. Jenny Wilson
05. Detektivbyrån
06. Bob Hund
07. Sahara Hotnights
08. Kleerup
09. Camera Obscura
10. Hello Saferide

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01. TALK 1
02. Culkin - Breathholders
03. Max Peezay - Boven i droven
04. Detektivbyrån - En annan typ av disco
05. Billie the Vision & the Dancers - You'd better watch out, 'cause I like you
06. TALK 2
07. Sad Day for Puppets - Marble gods
08. Viola - The hardest hit
09. Samuraj Cities - Spoonful of talk
10. Kalle J - I skydd av mörkret
11. TALK 3
12. Murmansk - Vague language
13. Boeoes Kaelstigen - Radius (Dmitry Fyodorov Radius Relaxation Remix)
14. The Low Frequency in Stereo - Texas fox
15. David Åhlén - We sprout in thy soil
16. TALK 4
17. Paper - Out of it into it
18. Andreas Tilliander - Caught in a riot
19. On Volcano - Out of sight
20. Entombed - Seeing red
21. TALK 5
22. Säkert! - Någon gång måste du bli själv

Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.

01. Fever Ray
02. Detektivbyrån
03. The Soundtrack of Our Lives
04. Suburban Kids with Biblical Names
05. Hello Saferide
06. Ane Brun
07. Marit Bergman
08. Anna Ternheim
09. Loney, Dear
10. A Camp

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Synth:
Thermostatic - Humanizer (Wonderland Records)
Zeigeist - The Jade Motel (Spegel/Imperial Recordings/Playground)
Moonlight Cove - Orphans of the Storm (Kinetophone/Hot Stuff)
Elegant Machinery - A soft exchange (Out of Line/Hot Stuff)
Rhythm:
Movits - Äppelknyckarjazz (BD Pop/Universal)
Erici - Brasilicum (Erici Music/Dead Frog)
Saft Stockholm - Ordet (Saft Productions/Stockholm Electronica)
Kungers - Galaxen (Rätta Visan/Border)
Experimental:
Anders Dahl - Doorbells (Bombaxbombax)
Nina de Heyney, Charlotte Hug & Christian Jormin - Acoustic Electronic (LJ Records)
Pär Thörn - Schöneberg/Stammheim/Gärdet/Rågsved (Treffpunkt)
Anders Hultqvist - Traces (Chamber Sound)
Pop:
Frida Hyvönen - Silence Is Wild (Licking Fingers/Playground)
Hello Saferide - More modern short stories from... (Razzia/Bonnier Amigo)
Joel Alme - A Master Of Ceremonies (Sincerely Yours/Border)
Nordpolen - På Nordpolen (Sincerely Yours/Border)
Rock:
The Hellacopters - Head Off (Wild Kingdom/Sound Pollution)
Pascal - Galgberget (Novoton/Bonnier Amigo)
Fatboy - In My Bones (Fat State Production/Playground)
Manikins - Crocodiles (P.Trash Records)
Dance:
Pär Grindvik - Samlad årsproduktion (Stockholm LTD)
Anders Ilar - Sworn (Level Records 11)
Style of Eye - Duck cover and hold (Pieces of eight records)
Zoo Brazil - No Place Like Home (Gung Ho! Recordings)
Jazz:
Bobo Stenson Trio - Cantando (ECM/Naxos)
Nina Ramsby & Ludwig Berghe Trio - Du har blivit stor nu [En kamp!] (Moserobie/Bonnier Amigo)
e.s.t. - Leucocyte (ACT/Bonnier Amigo)
The Splendor - Sound of Splendor (HOOB/Border)
Punk/Hardcore:
Disco Volante - "We are forever" (Not enough)
Disfear - "Live the storm" (Relapse/Border)
Nitad - "Ibland kan man inte hindra sig själv" (Kranium)
Meanwhile - "Reality or nothing" (Feral Ward)
Hårdrock/Metal:
Burst - Lazarus Bird (Relapse/Border)
Dismember - Dismember (Regain/Sound Pollution)
Grand Magus - Iron Will (Rise above/Border)
Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner/Bonnier Amigo)
Hip-hop/R'n'B/Soul:
Chords - Things We Do For Things (Juju/Playground)
Afasi & Filthy – Fläcken (P.o.p.e./Playground)
Masse - Gott & Blandat Vol. 2
Allyawan - Blu Duk Mixtape Vol. 2
Folk/Ballad:
Gunnel Mauritzson Band - Det som sker...(Sandkvie Records/CDA)
Maria Hörnelius, Bernt Andersson & Kjell Jansson - En sång för Kent (Eld Records/Border)
Jonas Knutsson & Johan Norberg - Skaren - Norrland III (Act/BAM)
Bjernulf/Björklund/Lindh – Pål Olles väg (Courage)
Singer/Songwriter:
Melpo Mene - Bring the Lions Out (Imperial Recordings/Playground)
Hyacinth House - Black Crows Country (True Music Production/Glitterhouse)
First Aid Kit - Drunken Trees (Rabid Records/Border)
Olle Nyman - Venture (A West Side Fabrication/Border)
Live:
Detektivbyrån (Danarkia)
The Hellacopters (Psychout Records)
Lykke Li (LL Recordings)
Robyn (Konichiwa Records)
Myspace prize for best unsigned act:
Montauk
Hero in action
Miranda Gjerstad
Sci-Fi Hands
John F Karlsson
Dyno
Tim Schmidt
Nottee
The Bellevues
Diskoteket

Go here for more: http://www.manifestgalan.se/

So with a rather large grain of salt, let me present to you It's a Trap's 2008 top albums of the year.
- Avi Roig

10. Siena Root - Far from the sun (Transubstans)
Graveyard and Witchcraft get all the acclaim, but Siena Root is the better band.

09. Nitad - Ibland kan man inte hindras sig själv (Kranium/Deranged)
Fucked Up, another band who put out one of 2008's best releases ("The chemistry of commmon life"), have moved far beyond the realms of hardcore. Nitad have stepped up to take their place.

08. Park Hotell - Free for friends (Ultra Radio Records/BD Pop)
I can't stand Morissey, yet somehow some Swedish acts are able to take his influence and turn it into something wonderful. If only more indiepop bands were as good as Park Hotell.

07. Katzenjammer - Le pop (Propeller Recordings)
I fully expected Detektivbyrån to be my favorite folk-crossover act, but these ladies from Norway snuck in ahead of them.

06. Hello Saferide - More modern short stories from Hello Saferide (Razzia)
Even better than I hoped. The perfect follow-up to the first album.

05. Johan Heltne - Vetenskapliga bevis för att Jesus lever (Raffaella)
A beautiful and beguiling album. So weird and mysterious, so absolutely entrancing.

04. Montys Loco - Farewell Mr Happy (NONS)
Of all the bands on my list, these ladies are the only ones to truly create something new and unique sounding. Sweden's most consistently underrated and underappreciated band.

03. Haust - Ride the relapse (Fysisk Format)
If there's a more pissed-off, evil sounding album in 2008, I haven't heard it.

02. Lukestar - Lake Toba (Phone Me Records)
A full year later and I still love this album just as much when it first came out.

01. The Goner - H-Trilogy: Hind hand, Hallartrallar, Haven (Svarta Markaden)
I realize it's pretty lame to put a series of limited cult releases at #1, yet no other artist this year has intrigued me as much as The Goner. "Hind hand" blew me away when I first heard it, the following two were even better.

Jonas Appelqvist

10. Wildbirds & Peacedrums - The Snake (Caprice Records)
This headstrong indie duo got me convinced at a festival gig this summer. And when I heard "The snake" for the first time I was hooked. It's that good.

09. Frida Hyvönen - Silence is wild (Licking Fingers)
Frida goes from strength to strength and with this album she has established her status as one of the finest songwriters in Sweden right now. Don't believe me? I dare you, listen to "Dirty dancing" and you'll know what I'm talking about.

08. Paper - An object (Novoton)
A homage to Suicide, Joy Division and monotonous kraut rock. The mix between The Bear Quartet and Audionom is a win-win. Literally.

07. Satyricon - The age of Nero (Roadrunner)
With massive walls of sound this Norwegian old school combo decided to continue to piss off black metal fans that claim they're not "true" anymore. Hell, when it sounds this good, I couldn't care less.

06. David Sandström Overdrive - Pigs lose (Razzia)
David Sandström and Oskar Sandlund went into the studio and came out with an astounding album only surpassed by early career move Refused.

05. Lack - Saturate every atom (Play/Rec)
2008 turned out to be the year of resignation for Lack. At least they got to resign at the peak of their career; "Saturate every atom" is proof of that.

04. Britta Persson - Kill Hollywood me (Amigo)
Britta released this album with a somewhat secluded approach and it was received with open arms by almost everyone. Sounds contradictory? It's not, just pure genius.

03. Cult of Luna - Eternal kingdom (Earache)
It just goes to show, these guys don't know how to fail. Top notch!

02. Division of Laura Lee - Violence is timeless (I Made This)
Göteborg's finest spent three years in the studio. The result, Fugazi-esque punk rock, shows that it was worth the wait.

01. Lukestar - Lake Toba (Phone Me Records)
Indie rock at its best - edgy, melodic and, at the same time, raw and hard hitting as hell! The number one spot was, even in January, Lukestar's spot all along.

Matt Giordano

06. Vapnet - Döda fallet (Hybris)
Their track record has been making consistently good albums, and this is not an exception.

05. Robert Svensson - Young punk are on the never-never (Nomethod)
A fantastic pop album that has me looking even more forward to the next Mixtapes and Cellmates record.

04. The Kid - Transient blood (Hybris)
On their second album, The Kid has transformed themselves into brooding pop masters.

03. Paavoharju - Laulu laakson kukista (Fonal)
A beautiful, cold, meandering album. Not only does this album sound natural, it sounds symbiotic with nature.

02. Markus Krunegård - Markusevangeliet (V2/Universal)
He's made classic albums with Laakso, and a great Hets album. Now Markus is a bonafide solo artist, and, with this maintains that he's one of the best songwriters around.

01. Juvelen - 1 (Hybris)
One of my most anticipated of the year. Ten songs, ten potential singles, yet one cohesive pop statement. Juvelen is here to stay.

Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

10. Division of Laura Lee - Violence is timeless (I Made This)
This is a total gut decision. Part of me is not okay with this result, but enough of me is perfectly alright ousting at least five other contenders to make room for this dirty, energetic album in my top 10. Despite giving this album only an 8, it has survived in far better standing than a few 9s from this year. "LAX" has been on quite a few of the mixtapes I've made for friends over the past few months, and DoLL launched my brother and I across America this summer... I couldn't imagine 2008 without "Violence is timeless".

09. Robert Svensson - Young punks are on the never-never (Nomethod)
Mr. Svensson lost considerable ground on this list, especially compared to the first draft I worked up a few weeks ago. Still, even at number nine, "Young punks are on the never-never" made it. A wonderful debut solo album from Mixtapes & Cellmates' vocalist, marking the beginning of what is sure to be a fine career.

08. Park Hotell - Free for friends (Ultra Radio/BD Pop)
This top 10 list is populated with a lot of debut records. "Free for friends" is definitely one that I had been waiting for, and it didn't let me down. It's a perfect autumn record: tracts of introspection still fuelled by the reckless hope of summer days.

07. Kiki Pau - Let's rock (Pyramid/Johanna Kustannus)
While I was completely surprised by "Book of Norma", I at least knew who Norma were. Kiki Pau are my favorite surprise this year. Their style of indie rock is confident well beyond their years, harkening back to "Meat is murder"-era Smiths, contemporary NYC garage, The Clash ... and any album with a song titled "Bukowski" (with the lyric: "Steinbeck made me want to get drunk") gets my vote.

06. Convoj - Exceptionnel (Wonderland)
This latecomer also forced me to reconstruct my list. It was all about complete, too. Oh well. Convoj's "Exceptionnel" is a brilliant record, more than deserving of a top 10 spot.

05. Håkan Hellström - För sent för edelweiss (Dolores)
If it weren't for all the summer memories I attach to "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust", Hellström's effort would be in fourth place. The fact that this album is in fifth place is a testament to the creative forces at work in Northern Europe. When I first heard this record, I was pretty sure it would be in my top three albums of the year. How wonderful it is to be so wrong. "För sent för edelweiss" has become my favorite Håkan Hellström album, just edging out "Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg".

04. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (XL Recordings/EMI)
The fact that Sigur Rós took risks on this album when they could have skirted by with "Takk pt. II" impresses me. It may not be their finest album, but it's fun, kinetic, and lush; everything we expect from the Icelanders, and yet something quite different, too.

03. Tiger Lou - A partial print (Startracks)
I struggled a little with "A partial print" at first, but it eventually won out. As I wrote in my review, the album is "a collage, a collection of images, all of them darkly beautiful extensions of the emotional landscape of "The loyal", but the connections between these impressions can take some time to present themselves, but they will, and then "A partial print" comes fully into being."

02. Markus Krunegård - Markusevangeliet (V2/Universal)
While I gave "A partial print" higher marks, "Markusevangeliet" has been a valued companion of mine since April -- and there's something to be said about resilience. I said back then that I thought Laakso frontman Markus Krunegård had possibly crafted the best record of the year... and, although I might have proven myself wrong, his accomplishment is by far one of the best solo records in recent memory.

01. Norma - Book of Norma (Novoton)
In a damned impressive year for Scandinavian music, my top prize goes to "Book of Norma". It's been a while since I have been as taken aback by a record as I was with Norma's latest effort, the first album I have ever given a 10 to here on It's A Trap! Just an absolutely brilliant album.

Arnulf Koehncke

10. Ane Brun - Changing of the seasons (DetErMine)
Someone wrote somewhere how well recorded this album is -- I can't help but agree. The songs are good too and it's actually the first Ane Brun record that I can really relate to.

09. Audrey - The fierce and the longing (Tenderversion)
Honestly, this record sounds a lot like their last one. That's a good thing in Audrey's case -- I think it's really rare that a band is this well defined regarding both songwriting and sound-aesthetics.

08. Fredrik - Na na ni (Jezebel)
It surprises me how much I still like this record. I didn't think it would be such a grower -- guess I was wrong.

07. Snöleoparden - Snöleoparden (Rump)
I just like the whole of-the-cuff playfulness and complexity that this record embodies. I dare anyone to listen to the daycare-singalong second track and not smile.

06. Hello Saferide - More modern short stories from Hello Saferide (Razzia)
If you'd asked me in the beginning of the year, I'd probably have predicted this album to top my year-end list. Well, it hasn't completely gotten me hooked yet, though I totally agree with all the praise for Annika's development. And "Lund" has already become a personal favorite of mine.

05. Bobby and Blumm - Everybody loves... (Morr Music)
This record is just so playful -- there's so much to discover in F.S. Blumm's guitar work and Ella's charming voice. It makes me wish I could see them live again.

04. V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble - Do nothing 'til you hear from me (iDEAL)
Another great record, though it needs patience and concentration to really enjoy it as a whole. It's just great how it builds up all this tension with its drones and suspense curves only to then release the listener with a soothing return to tonality in the next to last track.

03. The Radio Dept. - Freddie and the Trojan Horse (Labrador)
Too bad their album was delayed until next year. This EP showed such potential with all its Prefab Sprout'ish moments and melodies. And it even delivered some nostalgia to me as a long-time fan when I listen to the hidden track's distortion and overdrive.

02. Vapnet - Döda fallet (Hybris)
It's amazing: This record is such an instant classic that I almost didn't think of it as a 2008-release. And doesn't that already say all there is to say?

01. Auton - Anywhere out of this world (Structures Sonores)
This record is just so good (which is why my review of it is just so overdue). Incredibly virtuosic yet never overbearing musicians that shift from straight-out jazz to drone to post-rock to Satie-like piano moments with such casualness and grace. My Scandinavian record of the year. Go to the label website now and order copies to give away as christmas presents ;-)

Nancy Baym

10. Don't I wish I could put something here. Like the Caesars. What a bummer that record was.

09. Mikko Singh - Uskotko että siellä on kukkia? (self-released)
An almost-entirely instrumental record that's somewhere between pop and new age, equally well suited to a massage or mellow downtime at home. Very pretty with some nice elements of fun.

08. Violent Years - s/t (Playground)
A fine contribution to the southern gothic alt country genre with many outstanding moments and at least one truly great song.

07. Kusowsky - Något speciellt (self-released)
Kusowsy are so unabashedly singalong guitar pop that I feel a little guilty enjoying them, but everytime a song from this EP showed up on shuffle this year I found myself stopping to smile.

06. The Social Services - It's nothing personal, it's national security (Stereo Test Kit)
Only 1/3 Scandinavian, but she's the singer so she gets extra credit. It's a smart, eclectic, cynical, funny, and loose indie pop album.

05. Tiger Lou - A partial print (Startracks)
I really wanted to love this record, but don't. As background music its dark, hypnotic and self-contradictory sound is stunningly close to perfect, but on close listening its repetitiveness becomes abrasive in ways I don't think were intended.

04. Markus Krunegård - Markusevangeliet (V2/Universal)
On his solo record, Krunegård avoids most of Laakso's glam excesses to deliver a powerful and rich electronically-driven yet organic and seductive sonic environment.

03. Vapnet - Döda fallet (Hybris)
They don't stray too far from the distinctive, poppy, and borderline corny sound of their previous recordings on this one, but that's a good thing because they are one of the most calming make-you-happy bands going today. I highly recommend this as a soundtrack for either hanging out on a warm beach or cleaning house, cooking, and other mundane chores of daily life.

01. Madrugada - s/t (Virgin/EMI)
Faced with the sudden death of their guitarist and an album 80% completed, Madrugada did the right thing by finishing it up. Even without the tragic back story, it's a powerful and mature rock album that I am still listening to regularly almost a year after its release.

01. Detektivbyrån - Wermland (Danarkia)
In a very disappointing musical year, this instrumental genre-collapsing folk album based on accordion and glockenspiel was the one extraordinary surprise. Everyone I've played it for ran out and got it immediately. You should too.

Simon Tagestam

10. Nordpolen - s/t (Sincerely Yours)

09. Joel Alme - A master of ceremonies (Sincerely Yours)

08. Envelopes - Here comes the wind (Brille)

07. Håkan Hellström - För sent för edelweiss (Dolores)

06. Markus Krunegård - Markusevangeliet (V2/Universal)

05. Love Is All - A hundred things keep me up at night (What's Your Rupture?)

04. Afasi & Filthy - Fläcken (P.O.P.E.)

03. Frida Hyvönen - Silence is wild (Licking Fingers)

02. Moto Boy - s/t (Songs I Wish I Had Written)

01. Vapnet - Döda fallet (Hybris)

01. Detektivbyrån - Partyland
02. TALK 1
03. Björn Kleinhenz - At night we die
04. Hjertestop - Illegalt signal
05. Idoru - Chase
06. TALK 2
07. Fever Ray - If I had a heart (instrumental edit)
08. Champagne Riot - Scandinavian warfare
09. Caesars Palace - Only you
10. José González - How low
11. TALK 3
12. Alarma Man - Nightwolf
13. Adolf Filter - 1982
14. Brick - Ha ha ha
15. TALK 4
16. Auton - El Dorado
17. Gutted String - Feeling small
18. The Bombettes - It ain't me babe
19. Tiger Lou - Trust falls
20. I'm from Barcelona - Headphones
21. TALK 5
22. Kite - Ways to dance

Reminder: my show airs on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday at the same time.

01. Frida Hyvönen
02. Tiger Lou
03. Hello Saferide
04. Håkan Hellström
05. Glasvegas
06. Jens Lekman
07. Detektivbyrån
08. The Tough Alliance
09. The Legends
10. Anna Ternheim

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

01. Hello Saferide
02. Håkan Hellström
03. Glasvegas
04. Detektivbyrån
05. The Knife
06. Britta Persson
07. Anna Ternheim
08. Fredrik
09. The Radio Dept.
10. Logh

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

"Wermland", their first full-length release, is fun. But it also reveals them to be far more than quirky entertainment. The songs here are beautiful, and woven together into a whole that is evocative, whimsical, ageless and timeless. At points it's got the simplicity of children's music, at others, sophistication that would be at home in classical music. Throughout, it demonstrates impeccable melodic pop sensibility. Their ability to synthesize diverse traditions into immediately accessible riffs and rhythms that are simultaneously deeply familiar and altogether fresh is exceptional. This serious contender for album of the year will sound just as good decades from now.]]> Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700 reviews http://www.itsatrap.com/n/24267 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/24267 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/24267#comments Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week, unique to our group:

01. Hello Saferide
02. Vapnet
03. Laakso
04. Those Dancing Days
05. Tiger Lou
06. Juvelen
07. The Tough Alliance
08. Anna Ternheim
09. The Legends
10. Detektivbyrån

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

01. Hello Saferide
02. Anna Ternheim
03. Håkan Hellström
04. Detektivbyrån
05. Club 8
06. The Radio Dept.
07. Frida Hyvönen
08. Jens Lekman
09. The Tough Alliance
10. Shout Out Louds

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

01. Eva Eastwood - Well well well
02. Bullet - Bite the bullet
03. Sophie Zelmani - The ocean and me
04. Drifters - Tycker om dig - Svängiga låtar från förr
05. Jeremias Session Band - Trastland
06. E.S.T. - Leucocyte
07. Takida - Bury the lies
08. Flamingokvintetten - Bästa!
09. Roland Cedermark - Pärleporten
10. Smurfarna - Smurfparty
11. The Fantastic Four - The Fantastic Four
12. Lasse Stefanz - Rallarsväng
13. Veronica Maggio - Och vinnaren är...
14. Ammotrack - Ammotrack
15. Detektivbyrån - Wermland
16. Backyard Babies - Backyard Babies
17. Miss Li - Best of 061122-071122
18. Amanda Jenssen - Killing my darlings
19. The Refreshments - Jukebox - Refreshing classics
20. Emil Jensen - Emil Jensen

01. Hello Saferide
02. Detektivbyrån
03. The Radio Dept.
04. Jens Lekman
05. Logh
06. Håkan Hellström
07. Shout Out Louds
08. Tiger Lou
09. Kent
10. Juvelen

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

01. Sophie Zelmani - The ocean and me
02. Drifters - Tycker om dig - Svängiga låtar från förr
03. Detektivbyrån - Wermland
04. E.S.T. - Leucocyte
05. The Fantastic Four - The Fantastic Four
06. Flamingokvintetten - Bästa!
07. Takida - Bury the lies
08. Smurfarna - Smurfparty
09. Nordman - Djävul eller gud
10. Veronica Maggio - Och vinnaren är...
11. Miss Li - Best of 061122-071122
12. Jeremias Session Band - Trastland
13. Lasse Stefanz - Rallarsväng
14. Backyard Babies - Backyard Babies
15. Amanda Jenssen - Killing my darlings
16. Roland Cedermark - Pärleporten
17. The Refreshments - Jukebox - Refreshing classics
18. Lisa Miskovsky - Last year's songs - Greatest hits
19. Patrik Isaksson - 10 år en snäll mans bekännelser
20. Sanna Nielsen - Stronger

01. Hello Saferide
02. Håkan Hellström
03. Detektivbyrån
04. Pelle Carlberg
05. Jens Lekman
06. Loney, Dear
07. The Radio Dept.
08. Acid House Kings
09. Air France
10. The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

01. Hello Saferide
02. Frida Hyvönen
03. Håkan Hellström
04. Detektivbyrån
05. Familjen
06. Vapnet
07. Christian Kjellvander
08. David & the Citizens
09. Parken
10. Jens Lekman

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First, the standard question: how long have you lived in Göteborg, what brought you there and what keeps you hanging around?

Different for all of us but between 3-5 years.

Martin was brought here first, he had a love story in Göteborg and when we wanted to start this band I (Anders) moved here and soon Jon too. After my four years here, the windy weather keeps me a little confused, it's never still, as in Wermland where we come from, there it's quiet and never cold winds like this. I like both. Right now a lot of things are happening with this band and it suits us to be in a city with much going on, musically, also we have both our booking agency and our distribution company right around the corner here in Göteborg; that's nice since we want to have a straight and good contact with everyone we work with.

How do you guys fit into the city's musical landscape? Are you more at home in the folk or indie scene? Or is there another niche that fits you better? Or does that kind of segmentation even affect you at all?

Since we play instrumental music that happens to reach so many different kinds of people from many different places in the world, I would say we don't have much in common with any kind of scene in Göteborg or anywhere else. I think we contribute with something beautiful to the musical landscape of Göteborg. We don't call us indie but other people do, sometimes we call ourselves folk but there's so much we do which is not "folk", I don't know, we never think about this really.

This summer we have played both at Urkult which is very, very folky out in the deep woods of north Sweden, and at Emmaboda which is called Indieboda and that tells about their profile.

To me, we are something new. Someone called us Folktronica. Maybe that's it. But that's just words, in fact we have people listening to us who have never heard about "indie" or "folk" and they don't care, they are not a part of a scene and we don't have a need to be either.

What inspired your interest in traditional Swedish folk music? Was it hard to find eachother/other people who shared similar interests?

We are from Wermland, in those cabins out in the woods of Wermland everyone has an accordion. It's like people in cities have an e-mail. Both my grandmother and grandfather has always played the accordion for me. (My love for accordion though actually started in 1989 with the extremely beautiful song "Lambada" by the group Kaoma, I got a mix tape from my parents which they bought at a gas station when we drove from Karlstad to Stockholm at the higway of E18, I listened to that song every night, rewind, listen, rewind, listen...).

One day in 2004 me and Martin borrowed an accordion from our grandmother and just did a song. Martin pulled the accordion bass side forth and back and I played the buttons, it was too hard to do it by myself at that time. =)

The three of us knew eachtother before the first time we played together in this band. We had a very clear idea of what to do together and it was magical how easy it was do work together from day one.

Would you say that Detektivbyrån inspires listeners to become more interested in Swedish folk tradition or do you find that it works the other way around, inspiring people who are typically only interested in folk to branch out into other modern indie/experimental music?

Sure, both of them, and that's fun!

"Indie kids" come up to me after shows and tell me their parents gave them an accordion as a birthday present, they started to play it since they listened to us, and that's one of the most beautiful things I can hear after a show. Then there's an local radio station which has this accordion special every Thursday and usually there's just old traditional stuff, but they really dig us and play for the old people out there, and these people send cute e-mail to us, they are glad we are taking care of their accordion tradition.

How excited are you to play this year's Nordic Roots fest? Got any other plans for when you're over here?

Hey, none of us has even been to the US so it's pretty huge for us, both as a band and personally. We met a band that had played at that festival and they told us it's one of the most amazing audience you can get, I asked them if there's something special to think about when we are going and they just answered "Have FUN, have so much fun." And we will. We will enjoy every second of it.

I'm scared of the long flight. It is NOT natural to pretend you are a giant bird together with a huge group of people. People get caught and locked in for stuff like that, but in this case it's legal, we even pay money for it...

We are gonna play at Lotus festival in Bloomington, Indiana the week after the Nordic Roots fest. We have people in both LA, NYC and other cities, wanting us to play at their clubs and we really want it to happen but I'm afraid we won't make it out there since the big distances you got. We'll see what happens. It's the first time we come over but hopefully not the last.

Lastly, how about sharing a song from the new album? Tell us about it.

You can download two songs from the new album at detektivbyran.net, please choose one of them whichever you prefer, or use both! "Om du möter varg" was written on Martin's and my grandmother's electric organ, out in her cabin. "Neonland" was written as a lullaby for my little kid.

For all readers, we'll release our new album "Wermland" on our own label Danarkia, 3rd of September. It's financed, composed, played, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by ourselves and if you want to you can Pre-order it at our website detektivbyran.net
If you do you'll get a signed copy up on the release date.

I flipped a coin and it came up "Neonland", but you really can't go wrong with these guys no matter what you do. If you like what you hear, head to their site for more.

01. Håkan Hellström
02. Laakso
03. The Radio Dept.
04. Detektivbyrån
05. Kent
06. Sambassadeur
07. The Concretes
08. The Kid
09. Studio
10. Tiger Lou

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

01. Logh - Saturday nightmares
02. TALK 1
03. Pay TV - Miss Capitalist
04. TST - No teenage future
05. Dmitry Fyodorov - Wolfbrigade
06. TALK 2
07. The Opium Cartel - Flicker girl (ft. Rachel Haden)
08. Bjorn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson - Någonting är pa väg
09. On Volcano - Out of sight
10. TALK 3
11. Lemonator - Heart burns
12. Loudpipes - Downhill blues
13. The Greencoats - Honey
14. TALK 4
15. Christian and Karla-Therese Kjellvander - Two souls
16. Detektivbyrån - Neonland
17. Knife and Ape - Upset blues
18. TALK 5
19. Cut City - Replacement
20. Culkin - Twin Lakes annual
21. Last Days of April - Playerin
22. TALK 6
23. Viking Truckers - Love on the road

Reminder: my show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) airs Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday.

01. Håkan Hellström
02. Laakso
03. The Radio Dept.
04. Detektivbyrån
05. Kent
06. Sambassadeur
07. The Concretes
08. The Kid
09. Studio
10. Tiger Lou

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

01. Laakso - Worst case scenario
02. TALK 1
03. The Kid - Mayhem troopers
04. We Live In Trenches - Autonomy clinic
05. Detektivbyrån - Om du möter varg
06. TALK 2
07. I'm From Barcelona - Paper planes
08. Wired for Mono - The man behind the wall
09. The Amazing - Dragon
10. TALK 3
11. Pugh Rogefeldt - Surabaya Johnny
12. Opeth - The lotus eater
13. The Knife - Silent shout
14. TALK 4
15. Culkin - Allegiance
16. Haust - Desperate living
17. Lack - Behead
18. Nitad - Ge mig ge mig
19. TALK 5
20. Kamraterna - Det här är ditt land

Reminder: my show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) airs Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday.

01. Juvelen
02. Laakso
03. Kleerup
04. Pelle Carlberg
05. Håkan Hellström
06. Audrey
07. Fleet Foxes
08. Jens Lekman
09. Detektivbyrån
10. Christian Kjellvander

See, now that's more like what I would expect! Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

06/29 - Fusion Festival
06/30 - Astra Stube, Hamburg
07/01 - Cafe Panam, Leipzig
07/02 - Open-air-Amphitheater der Monbijoufestspiele, Berlin
07/03 - Breminale, Bremen

01. Boys of Scandinavia - Worse than a girl
02. TALK 1
03. Markus Krunegård - Jag är en vampyr
04. Deathbed - Neon light fantasy
05. The Grand Opening - Dark dark dawn
06. TALK 2
07. The Bear Quartet - I have an itch
08. C.Aarmé - Dustin
09. Noxagt - Wall's end
10. TALK 3
11. Menfolk - Hell is in Texas
12. Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen
13. Folk&Røvere - Solveigs sang
14. TALK 4
15. Bobby Baby - Goodbye love
16. Häive - Raina: Yömyrsky
17. Peter Bjorn and John - All those expectations
18. TALK 5
19. Meleeh - Vittra
20. Rigas - The hardest pocket to pick
21. The Kid - Mayhem troopers
22. TALK 6
23. Cortex - Warrior night
24. Tiger Lou - The war between us
25. Sophie Rimheden - Stay the night (ft. Adam Tensta)
26. TALK 7
27. Moto Boy - Beat heart
28. Nina Ramsby & Martin Hederos - Kanske jag kommer hem
29. September Malevolence - Who watches the watchmen?
30. TALK 8
31. Säkert! - Sanningsdan
32. Paper - Before that day
33. Moonbabies - Walking on my feet
34. TALK 9
35. Susanne Sundfør - I resign
36. Stina Nordenstam - Trainsurfing
37. Red Moon - The height
38. TALK 10
39. Broder Daniel - When we were winning

01. TALK 1
02. Repoman - Chemically obsessed
03. Moder Jords Massiva - Vapen
04. Kornstad Trio - Intornette
05. TALK 2
06. Ghost Brigade - Autoemotive
07. Rather Sound Than Safe - The beat
08. September - My neighbourhood
09. TALK 3
10. Ebba Grön - 800°
11. Torpedo - My evil twin
12. Jonna Lee - Dried out eyes
13. TALK 4
14. Marvins Revolt - Bugs in time
15. Pimentola - Death is a secret
16. Nils Berg - Sailors fighting in the dance hall
17. TALK 5
18. Lampshade - By and by I come
19. Midnight Choir - Will you carry me across the water
20. Moonbabies - Walking on my feet
21. TALK 6
22. Candlemass - Elephant star
23. Front and the Factory Lies Beneath - Under a black sun
24. Cortex - Warrior night (live)
25. TALK 7
26. The Grizzly Twister - This city is a halo
27. New Decade - I guess you ran from something
28. The Grand Opening - Don't drop off
29. TALK 8
30. The Bear Quartet - I'm still her
31. Paper - My life is going under
32. Darkthrone - Wisdom of the dead
33. Detektivbyrån - Nattöppet
34. TALK 9
35. Mob - Ghost track
36. Fare You Well - Deceiving eyes
37. TALK 10
]]> Sat, 29 Sep 2007 18:18:29 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/200 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/200 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/200#comments Look for Detektivbyrån to tour Latvia in October along with an appearance at the Nordic Film Days in Riga.]]> Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/520 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/520 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/520#comments The playlist for this week's all-GBG radio show:

01. Maia Hirasawa - Gothenburg
02. TALK 1
03. Hemstad - Sommar i Göteborg
04. Division of Laura Lee - We are numbers
05. Håkan Hellström - Kom igen Lena!
06. TALK 2
07. In Flames - Everything counts
08. Pistol Disco - Walking with Jesus
09. Viktor Sjöberg - W/nothing
10. TALK 3
11. Kristofer Åström - Just a little insane
12. The Knife - Listen now
13. Broder Daniel - Dark heart
14. TALK 4
15. Samuraj Cities - All along the shoreline
16. MPTP - Jim Morrison
17. At the Gates - Cold
18. TALK 5
19. The Book of Daniel - The camels parade
20. Silverbullit - Magnetic city
21. The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Nevermore
22. TALK 6
23. Nicolai Dunger - What tomorrow
24. The Kid - Portion control (Fatsuit haze/Zlatan wins the World Cup remix)
25. The Idealist - The knives are my eyes
26. C.Aarmé - Visions
27. TALK 7
28. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - I could have sworn I heard them SING
29. Junip - Official
30. Diabolique - Catholic
31. TALK 8
32. Convoj - My timekeeping heart
33. Tsukimono - Dear sister
34. Eric Beyond - Step off
35. TALK 9
36. Björn Kleinhenz - Out of style
37. Detektivbyrån - E18
38. TALK 10
39. Bad Cash Quartet - Too bored to die]]> Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/680 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/680 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/680#comments The playlist for my radio show this week:

01. Säkert! - Allt som är ditt
02. TALK 1
03. Madrugada - Shine
04. My Midnight Creeps - Don't let 'em bring you down
05. TALK 2
06. Asha Ali - A promise broken
07. Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen
08. Pelle Carlberg - Clever girls like clever boys much more than clever boys like clever girls
09. TALK 3
10. Enslaved - 793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne)
11. TALK 4
12. Fare You Well - Take me away
13. The Kissaway Trail - Smother + Evil = Hurt
14. Emmon - Wake up time (Thermostatic remix)
15. TALK 5
16. KVLR - Traitors and thieves
17. Magnus Carlsson - Va med mig
18. Jonas Kullhammar Quartet - Bebopalulia
19. TALK 6
20. De Må Være Belgiere - Cirkler
21. Johndoe - Kjøtere
22. Manes - Deeprooted
23. TALK 7
24. Khoma - Stop making speeches
25. The Giant's Dream - Significant dawn
26. Las Puertas - The water
27. TALK 8
28. Lordi - The chainsaw buffet
29. Logh - A sunset knife fight
30. Lack - 5 o'clock in the evening
31. TALK 9
32. The Bear Quartet - Before the trenches
33. Jan Johansson - Visa från Utanmyra
34. TALK 10
35. Kashmir - The aftermath]]> Sat, 21 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/713 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/713 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/713#comments The Silent Ballet reviews the new Detektivbyrån single "Lyckans undulat": http://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/669/Default.aspx]]> Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/730 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/730 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/730#comments Copies of the new Detektivbyrån/Hemstad split 7" just showed up: [click here]]]> Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25704-festival-report-roskilde http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25704-festival-report-roskilde http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25704-festival-report-roskilde#comments Words by Jonas Appelqvist, pics by Martin Eriksson

Besides the music, you can sum up this years festivity in Roskilde in two words. Mud. And rain. The movie quote "dry land is not a myth!" is not at all overrated when speaking of how it was at the festival and camping area. Reminiscing back to 1997, the year that everyone talks about as "the one with all the rain and mud", this year's festival really had its moments weather-wise but it rained as much as it did in one week 1997 in just one day (Thursday, first day of the festival) this year, simply making it impossible to go anywhere without a pair of proper rubber boots. It poured down 0,9843 in (25 mm) on that day. It was hell to be exact.

Fortunate for me, I had rubber boots and managed to get around up until the last day when a throat infection and blisters from my newly bought boots brutally stopped me. Apart from that, I got around seeing lots of bands (not counting the Scandinavian acts reviewed here), drinking beer and meeting lots of friends and, hey, that's festival life for you. Due to the bad weather, Roskilde wasn't really the party I expected, but it was never dull. Roskilde never is. And I will definitely be back next year, you can count on that!

Some of the bands I saw: The Arcade Fire, Mastodon, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The National, Beastie Boys, Camera Obscura, Roky Erickson & The Explosives, Strike Anywhere, among others.

Unfortunately Cold War Kids had to cancel because their tour bus had broken down. It's a pity.

Death By Kite
It was with low expectations I went to see these Danes and luckily for me, I was wrong. Death By Kite really invited the crowd to a show with their indiepop as main attraction. And with a bang. Seeing as their recently released self-titled album (by the nice blokes at Quartermain Records) is somewhat of a hit in Denmark, they gathered quite an audience. Björn Lange and his partners delivered Placebo-esque rock with a touch of Sonic Youth and, hey, I'm not complaining. It's just that it's not too original, y'know. And a lot of the material is a bit similar. Other than that, it was an excellent show where the three members were well in tune with each other and when "Bhf. Asta" rang out, the roaring from the crowd nearly lifted the tent roof at the Pavilion Junior-stage.

Decorate. Decorate.
The fact that this band formed in 2006 does not at all affect the tight feeling they have developed. Playing arty rock in the vein of Interpol seems to be the new black in Denmark and these guys are good at it. That doesn't mean it's good. In fact, it's really dull at times. Doing their best to get the crowds attention from the beginning by playing the semi-hit "Karen" did more harm than good. The tunes that followed that one, which indeed is a great song, sounded like bleak carbon copies. Thumbs up for the artistic intentions. However, it was one big yawn, to be honest.

Detektivbyrån
Classic Swedish folk music mixed with dreamy psychedelic pop music - is that appreciated today? That's what I was wondering before I went to see Detektivbyrån, the charming trio from Värmland. And apparently, yes - approximately 2000 people went as well and saw a humble, playful band get lost in melodies and rhythms not far from Pluxus at times. But the huge difference between the two acts is that Detektivbyrån uses almost all acoustic instruments exclusively and that their tunes are so much better orchestrated. With just an EP out ("Hemvägen"), one brand new single called "Lyckans undulat" and a 7" split with Hemstad, this instrumental band has nothing to lose and a whole lot to win. And, I might add, when playing the single track it struck me that drummer Jon Ekström must have a metal background or something like that. I could tell from the first stroke. The tunes with a more waltz feeling, where the concertina takes a main role, kind of get me to think of Philemon Arthur & the Dung, but, of course, performed in a widely different way. Since PA&tD are long time favorites, I love the fact that these guys acknowledge them once again. Being Swedish, I, and a lot of people in the audience, could enjoy their banters when they apologized for their bad English and expressed sincere love for the people that went to see them. Definitely a nice afternoon gig. The only minus is that it can be hard to stay focused for that long listening to instrumental music.

In Flames
This death metal platoon is, by now, scene veterans and a worldwide name. Something that announcer Per Sinding-Larsen stated at the Orange Stage before the gig. Since the audience consisted exclusively of metal heads, that information seemed a bit unnecessary, but you know - a background like that calls for a band that can live up to it. As In Flames entered the stage, expectations rose and the sound knocked them down again. The first couple of songs suffered from the worst sound ever. Not only was it low, Anders Fridén's cordless microphone was not top notch. We did, however, get to hear "Leeches" third and by then, it was the band I expected to get to see. Being a group that started the well known Gothenburg metal-scene along with acts like At the Gates and Dark Tranquility, In Flames has taken quite a step from that scene and created a mix of neo-metal and heavy death metal. Something that, according to the puritans of metal, is off limits. in a way, I can agree. It just doesn't get me started. The rest of the crowd however, loved it unconditionally. Especially songs like "Trigger" from "Reroute to remain" where the singalong was deafening. Still, the experience was a bit disappointing.

Mando Diao
The first time I saw this Borlänge band they had just released the EP "Motown blood" and they were fresh, cocky youngsters. They're still cocky, but definitely not newcomers anymore. With three full-length records out they can sort out the hits and give the crowd what they want, namely rock. The horn section was a really great addition to the gig's intensity wherein the band often rely on the changing vocal harmonies of lead singers Björn Dixgård and Gustaf Norén. It added an extra dimension to the bands ecstatic performance. And when the two singers sang "Long before rock n' roll" in John & Paul-style; no one could really doubt this band's qualities. The fact that they, the day after this gig, was invited to play at the Live Earth-marathon around the globe is proof enough. On the downside, I'd appreciate some variations in their songs. But if you're just going to see one rock n' roll gig this year, it should be one where Mando Diao is headlining.

Quit Your Dayjob
Uncompromising, sadistic, humorous and mad. Hell yeah! QYDJ, one of Sweden's most insane bands, delivered a show at 3am like there was no tomorrow. One hour before the gig, people stood chanting the lyrics to "Look! A dollar". With songs that are rarely longer that 1:30 and a mixed-up surf/punk/electro sound, the band has found a winning concept. And it showed at Roskilde this year. Keyboardist Marcass tried his best to instigate the crowd (I made a bet with photographer Martin that he would strip off his clothes between the two first songs. I lost. But he did it later on as I had foreseen.) and singer and guitarist Jonass tried to beat his guitar to pieces while spitting the one-line lyrics into the microphone. And the people gathered at the Pavilion Stage loved it. And so did I, despite the fact that this was my 5th Quit Your Dayjob gig. The furious versions of "Pissing on a panda" and "Wasted" were masterpieces and the new material, taken from a forthcoming album due to be released this fall, sounded great. Speaking of new material, rumor has it that a female vocalist from one of Sweden's top pop/rock bands right now is doing guest vocals on one of the songs. I thought she would turn up for this gig but no, I was wrong again. Either way, I pity those who didn't take the opportunity to go see QYDJ at this year's Roskilde.

Slaraffenland
This quintet had the unpleasant task of performing at 12pm. in front of hungover festival visitors, but considering that their music can be categorized as free-jazz/indiepop with some postrock-vibes, they (and the crowd) did a terrific job. The atmospheric sounds they created was indeed a wake-up call and they demanded attention. With saxophone, trombone, oboe and a fantastic playful drummer accompanied by driven guitars, it's not hard at all to guess that this is a Rumraket-band, the label run by Danish act Efterklang. Considering their Swedish and Danish membership, you would have guessed that they would be quite well-known in Scandinavia, but apparently they've earned themselves an acclaimed name abroad instead. A pity really. 'Cause this band was appreciated at Roskilde and I'm sure they would be in the rest of the Nordic countries as well. It was epic and breathtaking at times. Especially in my favorite song, the last in the set, "Watch out" where the poppy side of the band breaks through and creates an atmosphere of well-being. And I'm not sure that that's what the band strived for when they wrote the tune, but that's the feeling that comes to me. And it's a good one. Over all.]]> Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 articles fest http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1373 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1373 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1373#comments The new Detektivbyrån/Hemstad split 7" on Italian label Black*Kitten Records has been confirmed for release on June 21.]]> Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1716 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1716 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1716#comments IAT faves Detektivbyrån will release the new single "Lyckans Undulat" on June 6. More details to come.]]> Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1748 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1748 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1748#comments Last night's playlist for my show on Sirius Blog Radio:

01. Isolation Years - Yellow cross on blue
02. TALK 1
03. Johndoe - Nattskift
04. Montys Loco - Wasteland
05. Once We Were - Cut corners
06. TALK 2
07. [ingenting] - Mycket vasen for ingenting
08. Margaret Berger - Robot song
09. Namur - Marching
10. Lampshade - New legs
11. TALK 3
12. Maia Hirasawa - Gothenburg
13. Mixtapes & Cellmates - Quiet
14. Fattaru - 100:-
15. Juvelen - Hanna
16. TALK 4
17. Säkert! - Allt som är ditt
18. Sonores - 16th of June
19. Detektivbyrån - E18
20. TALK 5
21. At the Gates - The swarm
22. Barra Head - Kill the lights
23. TALK 6
24. The Tough Alliance - Leg 7
25. Torpedo - My evil twin
26. Alog - Catch that totem!
27. TALK 7
28. Valley Days - 10k angels
29. A-ha - Celice
30. Victims - Who the fuck are we?
31. TALK 8
32. The Vicious - Alienated
33. Viola - Unreal life
34. Zweizz - Nowadays the only boring everything is so frustrating
35. Viktor Sjöberg - Winter guitars
36. TALK 9
37. Closer - The talker
38. Aerial - My god, it's full of stars!
39. The Kissaway Trail - La la song
40. Laakso - Italy vs Helsinki
41. The Psyke Project - Panic
42. TALK 10
43. C.Aarmé - We are the world

Next week: expect lots more killer jams including totally a brand new track from Closer and maybe even a spotlight set on post-rock/ambient music. Good times!]]> Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1767 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1767 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1767#comments New in the mailorder: "Great Northern Recordings compilation no. 2"
Just like the first, this is luxuriously packaged and super limited so act fast or you might miss it. Some great music too - two tracks each from Detektivbyrån, ASS, Gösta Berlings Saga and Erik Enocksson. Very recommended.]]> Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1916 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1916 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/1916#comments The Silent Ballet reviews Detektivbyrån: http://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/425/Default.aspx]]> Mon, 09 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25987-detektivbyran-hemvagen-ep-denarkia http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25987-detektivbyran-hemvagen-ep-denarkia http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25987-detektivbyran-hemvagen-ep-denarkia#comments Detektivbyrån are influenced by the folksier side of Sweden's musical heritage, but there's a sweet purity at work here that seems to have sprung right from nature. Indeed, in Avi's profile of the band awhile back, they said they were inspired by wildlife (wolves in particular) and the ocean. Although a couple of tracks offer soft, glowing keyboard work, the ones you'll most remember are like whirling, rustic little dances. The third track in particular is one of the most gorgeous, infectious instrumentals I've ever heard, taking everything Björk had in mind on "Vespertine" and consolidating it in three minutes. Warm, lovely and life-affirming, this disc is one of the nicest surprises to come out of Sweden in ages.]]> Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0800 reviews http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3039 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3039 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3039#comments Cobra Charlie has posted a remix of Detektivbyrån's track "E18": http://www.myspace.com/cobracharlie]]> Mon, 15 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0800 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3100 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3100 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3100#comments IAT recommended acts Detektivbyrån and Hemstad will be teaming up for a split 7" to be released via Italian label Black*Kitten Records. No release date yet, but expect it sometime around spring.]]> Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0800 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25660-top-10s-for-2006-c-j-larsgarden-a-perfect-friend-pacta-sunt-servanda http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25660-top-10s-for-2006-c-j-larsgarden-a-perfect-friend-pacta-sunt-servanda http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25660-top-10s-for-2006-c-j-larsgarden-a-perfect-friend-pacta-sunt-servanda#comments Top 10 records 2006:

01. Sonic Youth - "Rather Ripped" (Geffen)

02. Yo La Tengo - "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass" (Matador)

03. SunnO))) & Boris - "Altar" (Southern Lord)

04. The Evens - "Get Evens" (Dischord)

05. Ekkehard Ehlers - "A Life Without Fear" (Staubgold)

06. Melvins - "A Senile Animal" & "Houdini Live: A Live History of Gluttony and Lust" (Ipecac)

07. Svarte Greiner - "Knive" (Type)

08. Stereolab - "Fab four Suture" (To Pure)

09. Red Sparrowes - "Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun" (Neurot)

10. Pruditsch / Rowenta - "Orion und Kassiopeia" (Jeans Records)

Others who made good records 2006: Juana Molina, Amute, Akron/Family, Isis, Mogwai, Sébastien Roux, Alva Noto, Damien Jurado... etc.
It has been a good music year.

Top 10 Swedish things:

01. Audrey - "Visible Forms" (CD, Tenderversion)

02. Pontus Lundqvist - "Mina Ögon!! Mina Ögon!!! 1987-2006" (Book, Lystring)

03. Switchblade - "Switchblade" (CD, Trust No One)

04. To play and record with A Perfect Friend

05. Mäklarna (TV)

06. Ideal Recordings (Record label)

07. Elope - 3WD (CD, Gravitation)

08. Normal Man (Fanzine)

09. Detektivbyrån - "Hemvägen" (EP)

10. Musikministeriet (TV)


---------------------------

C-J is currently working on the debut album of A Perfect Friend, his electronic/folk duo with Thomas Denver Jonsson. Look for it next year via Stilll.
www.pactasuntservanda.se
www.aperfectfriend.com
www.myspace.com/aperfectfriend

]]> Tue, 19 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 articles top10s http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25655-top-10s-for-2006-its-a-trap http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25655-top-10s-for-2006-its-a-trap http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25655-top-10s-for-2006-its-a-trap#comments Official top 10 releases for 2006, in alphabetical order:

There was a glut of good music in 2006, but only a few truly great albums. I found myself enjoying a very high percentage of the music that came my way, but very little remained in regular rotation for any length of time. Too much of a good thing? Perhaps. Regardless, I had some trouble compiling my list since I wanted to ensure that my selections were fit for posterity. That means albums like The Knife's "Silent shout" and Motorpsycho's "Black hole/black canvas" were out, despite being admirable pieces of work. They deserve high praise, but I simply didn't listen to them that much. Similarly, I'm From Barcelona and Peter Bjorn and John were off the list because their 2006 releases pale in comparison to what came before (both the original "Sing!!" demo EP from IFB and PB&J's "Falling out" are 100% unfuckwithable). What's left? Well, lots actually. The difficulty is separating all the 8s from the 9s and 10s. Let's get going then:

01. Aerial - Black rain from the bombing (Nomethod)
It came out in January and stuck with me throughout the entire year. That alone says something. As for the music, it's an amazing display of epic bombast and twisting riffs. Why can't more post-rock be noisy like this?
MP3: Time is on fire

02. The Book of Daniel - Songs for the Locust King (Black Star Foundation)
A late in the year release so I was reluctant to list it, but there's no denying the quality. Full of wisdom and poetry.
MP3: The camels parade

03. C.Aarmé - Vita (Carcrash/Burning Heart)
The brightest stars always burn out the fastest. RIP.
MP3: We are the world

04. Closer - Tokpela EP (Closersounds)
One of those bands I fell in love with the moment I first heard it. Heavy rock doesn't get better than this.
MP3: Open casket

05. Johndoe - Dødvinkel (JHND)
This one snuck up on me and is probably the one record on this list I've listened to the most.
MP3: Kjøtere

06. Montys Loco - Man overboard (NONS)
God, I hate the genre label 'folktronic', but I really can't think of a better way to describe this. Quirky instrumentation and arrangements aside, the music is simply brilliant and would work in any context.
MP3: Wasteland

07. Namur - Songs from the Valley of Baca (Thehourislate)
It's probably for the best that David Åhlén retired this stage moniker because this will be hard to top. Nothing wrong with quitting while you're ahead.
MP3: Marching

08. Raison d'Être - Metamorphyses (Cold Meat Industry)
I honestly don't believe I've heard another dark-ambient album this good. Ever.
MP3: Metamorphyses phase I

09. Oskar Schönning - Happy jazz, please (Amigo)
Another one of those records that found its way into steady rotation without much thought. Echoes of that other famous bassist/bandleader Charles Mingus along with fellow Swede Jan Johansson, but with an ear to the future.
MP3: Happy jazz, please

10. Sonores - Elefanten (Structures Sonores)
These guys asked me if I wanted to co-release this with them and I said no because I thought I was too busy. I blew it.
MP3: Jonathan

Best two demos I heard all year: Circle Six and Iisole

Four favorite non-Scandinavian releases:
Converge - No heroes (Epitaph)
Kayo Dot - Dowsing anenome with copper tongue (Robotic Empire)
Jesu - Silver (Hydra Head)
Rome - Berlin (Cold Meat Industry)

Two old metal warhorses who prove that age doesn't mean a thing: Iron Maiden & Slayer

What to expect for 2007? Well, my predicted goth revival for 2006 didn't live up to expectations even though it seemed to spawn quite a few excellent releases (The Kid and 1999, for example). Regardless, I'm not going to let that stop me from making more asinine predictions. My pick for the new trend of 2007: industrial/EBM. I swear, it's gonna happen. It's time.

Honorable mentions:
Asha Ali - s/t (NONS)
Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen (Danarkia)
The Fine Arts Showcase - Radiola (Adrian Recordings)
Kazakstan - s/t (Katalyst)
Knife and Ape - Hex! (Deleted Art)
Lampshade - Let's away (Glitterhouse)
Lemonator - At the presence of great beauty (Odor)
Once We Were - Contra (Tenderversion)
Britta Persson - Top quality bones... (Amigo)
Plain Fade - Aure (Punos Sound)
Promoe - White man's burden (Burning Heart)
Tsukimono - Neé (Kalligrammofon)

]]> Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 articles top10s http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25654-top-10s-for-2006-staff-picks http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25654-top-10s-for-2006-staff-picks http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25654-top-10s-for-2006-staff-picks#comments Not everyone was able to get their lists in on time, but I think you'll find more than enough titles here well-worth investigating, whatever your tastes may be. Enjoy!

Jonas Appelqvist:

01. The Fine Arts Showcase – Radiola (Adrian Recordings)
When Christian released a kinda mediocre record, Gustav stepped up, delivered and restored the honour of the Kjellvander brothers.

02. C.Aarmé – Vita (Burning Heart)
Music for the gut, not the brain. Göteborg's finest punks just recently split up, it's a pity.

03. Hets – s/t (V2/Etikett: Hets)
I was a bit hesitative when I heard that members from Laakso, Fireside and Moneybrother formed a band. They proved me wrong.

04. Raised Fist – The sound of the republic (Burning Heart Records)
This long awaited full-length proved to be exactly what I hoped for. Uncompromising hardcore, this time with hooks!

05. Insurgent Kid – Paranoia (Wasted Sounds)
Just recently released and it went straight into this list. The punkrock on this disc is, in fact, all I ever need.

06. Khoma – The second wave (Roadrunner)
I always knew something good would come out of Plastic Pride.

07. Aerial – Black rain from the nombing (Nomethod)
Epic and almost instrumental post-rock from Sandviken that moved me big time.

08. Tar... Feathers – Make way for the ocean floor to fall to the surface (Release the Bats!)
Self-willed indiepop that sounds like Modest Mouse mixed with Xiu Xiu at times.

09. Darkthrone – The cult is alive (Peaceville)
Pioneers that released their most interesting record since "Total Death". Black-metal with one hell of a punkrockattitude!

10. Cult of Luna – Somewhere along the highway (Earache)
One of the records I've listened to the most in 2006 and it's still intriguing.

Top 3 non-scandinavian records of 2006:
Converge – No heroes (Epitaph)
Electric President – s/t (Morr Music)
Cursive – Happy hollow (Saddle Creek)

Nancy Baym:

01. Hell On Wheels - The odd church (Hybris/PlayRec)
It's catchy, it's quirky, it's consistently strong. And it's interesting too.

02. Skywriter - Where both worlds never meet (Iceberg Records)
The slow ones drag a bit, but the fast songs are a sublime mix of sexy, cool, driving and restrained.

03. Consequences - s/t (BOW/Groover Recordings)
Puts the "infection" in infectious pop. I can't stop listening to it and really don't want to either.

04. Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's block (V2/Wichita)
Not as good as last year's "Falling out", but an okay Peter Bjorn and John record is still better than most.

05. Pelle Carlberg - Everything. Now! (Labrador)
He's thoughtful, he's sensitive, he's twee, but most of all he's the perfect mix of soothing and beautiful. Frazzled nerves be gone!

06. The Phonies - Gran tourettes (Money Laundry Records)
Inconsistent record from Finland's Phonies, but it's best songs are exhuberant enough to carry the rest.

07. Billie the Vision & the Dancers - The world according to Pablo (self-released)
While I'm From Barcelona gets all the buzz, I prefer this. It's kind of mellow, a little dark, sort of conceptual if you bother to figure it out, but most of all, it just sounds good.

08. David & the Citizens - Stop the tape! Stop the tape! (Bad Taste)
David Fridlund's a melodic genius and the music may be better than ever, but Fridlund's angst runs too close to whining too much of the time.

09. Starflower - Moment in the sun (Music Is My Girlfriend)
Tranquil and poppy, youthful and tuneful, it's a gentle little debut from a band I hope will diversify its sound in releases to come.

10. The Charade - Real Life Drama (Skipping Stones)
Half of this is too sweet for me, but the rest is charming as all get out, and "September" easily wins the award for catchiest sugar pop song of the year.

Honorable Mentions:

Sivert Høyem and the Volunteers - Exiles (Hektor Grammofon)
It's not out yet and I've only heard 2 songs, but given his track record with Madrugada and his last solo record, it's guaranteed a spot in my top 10 when I do get to hear the rest.

Tiger Lou - The loyal (Startracks)
It came out in 2005 but now I've finally heard this record. It's got such a cool consistent vibe, such a unique sound, and I'm under it's spell completely.

Matt Giordano:

01. Peter Bjorn and John - Writers block (V2/Wichita)
After last years excellent "Falling out" I expected a great album, but this release just floored me.

02. Loney, Dear - Sologne (Dear John)
Yes, this is technically a re-release, and yes, it's that good.

03. The Fine Arts Showcase - Radiola (Adrian)
This is the new album I listened to most this year, and a it was quite a leap artistically for Mr. Kjellvander.

04. Hell On Wheels - The odd church (Hybris)
This one sat in my room for about a month until one day I brought it in the car with me, and to say the least, I was impressed.

05. Vapnet - Jag vet hur man väntar (Hybris)
"Thoméegränd" instantly hit me with pure pop genuis, and this album is so textured and deep, it has yet to be fully realised.

06. Firefox AK - Madame, madame! (Razzia)
It took me a while, but I have finally realised how genius this album is.

07. Nicolai Dunger - Sjunger Edith Södergran (EMI)
I believe this is Mr. Dunger's most cohesive album to date, and perhaps his most intimate.

08. Sibiria - Inom familjen (Hybris)
Martin A and Martin H put out two stellar albums in one year. Gorgeous.

09. The Knife - Silent shout (Rabid)
This album is both bleak and enchanting.

10. David & The Citizens - Stop the tape! Stop the tape! (Bad Taste)
This album is so solid, and it should silence all of the naysayers.

Other:

Best 2005 release of 2006:
El Perro Del Mar - El Perro Del Mar (Memphis Industries/The Control Group)
Gorgeous, that is the only way to describe the songwriting of Sarah Assbring, and it's good to see the rest of the world catching on.

Top three non-Scandinavian releases:

Tom Waits - Orphans (Anti)
This is absolutely essential.

Nobody & Mystic Chords Of Memory - Tree colored see (Mush)
Another post-Beachwood Sparks work of excellence, now I'm only wishing for Beachwood Sparks to reunite.

My Morning Jacket - Okonokos (RCA)
America's best current live band, and this is their document.

Top ten songs of 2006*
01. Montt Mardié - "My girlfriend is in the Grand Prix finals" from "Science" (Hybris)
02. Peter Bjorn and John - "Paris 2004" from "Writers block" (V2)
03. Kristofer Åström - "So much for staying alive" from "Black Valley" (Startracks)
04. Loney, Dear - "The city, the airport" from "Sologne" (Dear John)
05. Tom Waits - "Bottom of the world" from "Orphans" (Anti)
06. Vapnet - "Thoméegränd" from "Jag vet hur man väntar" (Hybris)
07. The Velvet Teen - "Gyzmkid" from "Cum laude" (Slowdance)
08. Nicolai Dunger - "Lyckokatt" from "Sjunger Edith Södergran" (Dolores)
09. Loose Fur - "The ruling class" from "Born again in the USA" (Drag City)
10. Islands - "Don't call me Whitney, Bobby" from "Return to the sea" (Equator)

*These songs, as well as 31 others appear on my "Best of 2006" mix, which I have made 20 copies of as a double-disc set to give away to the readers of It's A Trap! Here's the deal, the first twenty people to email me at matthew dot giordano at macys dot com with their name and postal address will receive a copy (as well as tracklisting) in the mail. Enjoy.

Kevin Renick, in alphabetical order:

01. Ampop - My delusions (Dennis Records)
Balancing the epic and the emotive is an increasingly dicey proposition as more and more groups on both sides of the Atlantic sacrifice one or the other in the process. Iceland's Ampop gets the blend just right with these 11 surgingly powerful, yet fragile tunes. .

02. El Perro Del Mar - s/t (Memphis Industries)
Possibly the most bubbly, infectious, melodically rich, beautifully sung sad album ever made.

03. Sofia Hardig - The need to destroy (Filthy Records)
An adventurous electronica foray in which Sofia makes an art out of distorted vocals that are nonetheless emotionally wrenching. Dark, machine-laden grooves that grip the soul.

04. The Knife - Silent shout (Brille Records)
By any standard, one of the year's boldest and most significant records, especially for a spooked, tech-savvy, mask-wearin', brother-sister dance-tronica act.

05. Lampshade - Let's away (Glitterhouse)
The sophomore release by this fabulous Swedish/Danish group is just as good as the debut; RebekkaMaria and company fuse primal rock and Scandi sensuality together in a thoroughly compelling manner.

06. Mew - And the glass-handed kites (Sony BMG Music)
A continuously flowing, continuously melodic and dazzling production that got many satisfying spins on my car stereo in 2006.

07. Monty's Loco - Man overboard (NONS)
Take a female vocalist who's like a tougher Emiliana Torrini, add equal parts acoustic/electronic instrumentation, throw in a few dollops of inspired weirdness and mix/produce well. Result: a grabber of an album that tickles the sonic taste buds..

08. Britta Persson - Top quality bones and a little terrorist (Amigo)
I like my Scandinavian music to be a little tart. Britta's debut CD is positively lemony from start to finish, a real standout in a year filled with great records by Scandi girls.

09. Patrik Skantze and the Free Souls Society - Fiction at first view (Mimo Sound)
A master class in inspired prog songcraft, superb guitar playing and the art of channeling diverse influences into your own lovingly prepared recipe.

10. Sonores - Elefanten (Structures Sonores)
As a long-time fan of both atmospheric ambient and mournful female vocals, this texturally absorbing disc had me at "eftermiddag".

Best EP: Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen (Danarkia)
Best CD to reevaluate your life to: Es - Sateenkkarisuudelma (K-RAA-K)
Best reasons to have faith that the spirit of weirdness lives on in Scandiland: The Bear Quartet, Sir Eric Beyond, and Tar...Feathers

Simon Tagestam:

01. Vapnet – Jag vet hur man väntar (album / Hybris)
Vapnet lived up to all my expectations and delivered a fantastic album

02. Moneybrother – De vet ingenting om oss (single / Hacka Skivindustri)
This song came totally unexpected and instantly floored me.

03. Lo-Fi-Fnk – Boylife (album / La Vida Loca)
Very exciting album from Sweden’s new dance kings, now TTA gone all new age.

04. Mattias Alkberg BD - Ditt hjärta är en stjärna (album / A West Side Fabrication)
Third and best album from this Bear Quartet member.

05. Taxi Taxi – Old big trees (song on myspace)
Killer song. Got high hopes for these young twins.

06. I'm From Barcelona - Let me introduce my friends (album / Dolores)
Hate them live, but still love their music.

07. Juni Järvi - Wherever thou art (album / Everlasting)
The surprise hit of the year, a collection of some magnificent songs.

08. [ingenting] - Mycket väsen för ingenting (album / Labrador)
An album that deserved much more attention and praise than it got.

09. Juvelen – Watch your step (song on myspace)
Sounds exactly like Prince when he was at his best. Pretty damn good that is!

10. Sir Eric Beyond and the Avant-Garde - s/t (album / Flora & Fauna)
Weirdest and most wonderful gig at Emmaboda this year where 'Sir Eric', even though he's Swedish, only talked in English in-between songs. He also released a fine record.

Three amazing songs from albums that I wasn't too keen on:
Fattaru – 100 spänn
Hello Saferide – The quiz
Peter Bjorn and John – Young folks


---------------------------

Jonas Appelqvist is in the works of completing the first fullengthrecord with Blinders On, indierock based in Malmö. The band is, as I write this, finished with the mixing and the mastering of the album entitled "Obsolete music", so we should expect a release in January. The 17th, to be precise. More on that after New Year's Eve.

Nancy Baym can be found happily blogging away at Online Fandom and digging music at Last.fm.

Matt Giordano wishes everyone safe, yet wine-filled holidays and New Year's celebrations, and hopes those who'll be getting his "Best of 2006 mix" enjoy them. He also hopes Arsenal can pick up the pace in the premier league and that Scandinavian bands continue to release the world's best music. Here are the new releases he's looking forward to in 2007: two Laakso records, Kristofer Åström, Shout Out Louds, Via Audio, Christian Kjellvander, Spoon, Tiger Lou (I can hope), My Morning Jacket (I can hope), Nick Cave (I think it's about time for another), Moonbabies, Nicolai Dunger, and all Hyrbis releases.

Kevin Renick is exhausted from trying to pare down the list of favorites from a really great year in music.

Simon Tagestam is a regular contributor to IAT and he doesn't really have any plans for 2007, except some vague ideas concerning a Nintendo Wii, his mother's 60th birthday, more tattoos, and badminton.

]]> Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 articles top10s http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25627-profile-detektivbyran http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25627-profile-detektivbyran http://www.itsatrap.com/n/25627-profile-detektivbyran#comments Name: Detektivbyrån

From: Göteborg, Sweden

Sounds like: Playful instrumental music driven by accordians, toy organs and other unique homemade instruments

Listen: E18

Discography:
2006 – Hemvägen EP (Denarkia)

Links:
www.detektivbyran.net
www.myspace.com/detektivbyran

It's very rare to hear new music that's truly unique, so of course I was instantly impressed when I first heard Detektivbyrån. Not only do they rely heavily on underutilized instruments such as accordians and concertinas, they also mix it up by incorporating electronic elements and other sounds never heard before. I think my wife summed it up best when she called their music "vivid" - it's the kind of stuff that's easy to imagine as the soundtrack to fantastic mental adventures. Or maybe even as a film soundtrack. It's incredibly evocative, not to mention genre defying. It took awhile for all three members to sit down and go over these questions, but for a band this good, the wait was worth it.

Who are you and where are you from? How did the band get together?

We are Detektivbyrån, a trio from Wermland, Sweden, now located in Gothenburg. We have known eachother for a long time, we all grew up in the same city, played in the same bandy team (on ice, we're not really sure if that's the English name for this sport!?).

We got this idea, or obsession if you like, we wanted to create something that we'd never done before, musically that is.

What makes Detetikbyrån special? Why should anyone care about you?

One of us, Martin, is like that MacGuyver figure. He builds new instruments that we use/abuse. Our sound is built by the combination of these new creations and old traditional "pearls" like accordion, glockenspiel (we don't like this German word, is there a nice English word for it?), musicbox and scissors.

Our music is the soundtrack to the life you actually want to live.

Where do you get inspiration from?

Jon: The wild life and the sea. Wolves
Martin: The Danish book "Märk Världen" by Tor Nørretranders. Fear of death. (Joy of life!?)
Anders: Erlend Loe

What do you do when not playing music? What do you think you'd be doing with your life if you didn't have music?

Jon: Hunting/Hunting
Martin: Producing music/ Cooking nice dinners and building stuff.
Anders: Hitchiking and playing pinball (Swedish word for "pinball" is flipper, like that crazy dolphin of yours) / Travel the world

What's your favorite food?

Jon: Stekt fläsk med löksås och kokt potatis. I don't know what that dish is called in English. Sorry. But I like Kebab too and I guess that is an international word.
Martin: Lasagne with 65% cheese, 30% pasta and 5% tomato sauce
Anders: Green stuff

Who would win in a fight: Det Gamla Landet or Detetikbyrån?

We don't know what they look like, haven't met them. So?

Lastly, what's the future look like for you guys? What do you have planned?

We will sew nice clothes to wear on stage. Yellow spraypainted old shoes is one of the ideas. We'll keep on promoting our new release, "Hemvägen EP". Play live. Next spring/summer we'll tour Sweden and we are actually talking about a US tour next autumn. Check out www.detektivbyran.net for news and updates. On the site, you also can get a hold of the "Hemvägen EP".

]]> Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0800 articles interviews http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3854 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3854 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/3854#comments Lots of new special content for you today as well, including my promised profile piece on Detektivbyrån as well as a nice big batch of reviews. I'm also working on a piece summarizing my toughts from last week's seminar and hope to have it posted in a day or two.]]> Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0800 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/27884-mp3-detektivbyran-e18 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/27884-mp3-detektivbyran-e18 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/27884-mp3-detektivbyran-e18#comments I've held off on posting a track from Detektivbyrån for a couple weeks now because I've been waiting for them to get back to me with responses to a few interview questions I sent them. Well, I can wait no more. Finding new music that's as unique and inspired as Detektivbyrån is a rarity and I knew as soon as I heard them that they'd be someone I want to share with you. A lot of their sound comes from their reliance on the accordion as the melodic lead. They often mix it up with various other non-standard instruments, but it's the squeeze-box that stands out, especially on the song I've posted today - the opening track of their debut EP "Hemvägen". It's not languid enough to be called Morricone-esque, but it's definitely soundtrack-worthy. Close your eyes and no doubt you'll be swept far away to some foreign land, perhaps embroiled in a spy chase or the like. It's not often that music can be this vivid. Very recommended.]]> Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0700 mp3s http://www.itsatrap.com/n/4416 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/4416 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/4416#comments Swedish noir/instrumental act Detektivbyrån has a new EP out called "Hemvägen" and you can preview a few tracks at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/detektivbyran
Very recommended.]]> Mon, 18 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0700 news http://www.itsatrap.com/n/5975 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/5975 http://www.itsatrap.com/n/5975#comments Check out Detektivbyrån, a newish electro/acoustic instrumental act from Sweden: http://www.detektivbyran.net/
It reminds me a bit of Jaga Jazzist, 'cept with less electronics and more of a gypsy/folk feel. Really nice.]]> Tue, 02 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 news