Ane Brun - It all starts with one
Lykke Li - Wounded rhymes
Rubik - Solar
Gus Gus - Arabian horse
Malk De Koijn - Toback to the fromtime
Siinai - Olympic game
Björk - Biophilia
Iceage - New brigade
Montée - Renditions of you
Anna Järvinen - Anna själv tredje
Goran Kajfes - X/Y
The Field - Looping state of mind

Read more: http://nordicmusicprize.com/eng/pages/1-nordic_music_prize_2011

Sweden:
Anna Ternheim - The night visitor
Jonathan Johansson - Klagomuren
Loney Dear - Hall music
The Field - Looping state of mind
Mattias Alkberg - Anarkist
Lykke Li - Wounded rhymes
Anna Järvinen - Anna själv tredje
Deportees - Islands & shores
Veronica Maggio - Satan i gatan
Goran Kajfes - X/Y

Denmark:
Larsen & Furious Jane - Dolly
Michael Møller - A Month of Unrequited Love
Oh Land - Oh Land
Mikael Simpson - Noget Laant, Noget Blaat
The Late Great Fitzcarraldos - The Late Great Fitzcarraldos
Malk De Koijn - Toback To The Fromtime
Iceage - New Brigade
Thulebasen - Gate 5
When Saints Go Machine - Konkylie
Hymns From Nineveh - Hymns From Nineveh

Finland:
Von Hertzen Brothers - Stars Aligned
Röyhkä & Mattila - Kaksi lensi tuulen mukaan
22-Pistepirkko - Lime Green Delorean
French Films - Imaginary Future
Siinai - Olympic Games
Rubik - Solar
Regina - Soita mulle
Michael Monroe - Sensory Overdrive
Mirel Wagner - Mirel Wagner
Chisu - Kun valaistun

Iceland:
Sóley - We Sink
Lay Low - Brostinn strengur
Ham - Svik, harmur og dauði
Sin Fang - Summer Echoes
ADHD - ADHD2
FM Belfast - Don’t Want To Sleep
Gus Gus - Arabian Horse
Mugison - Haglél
Björk - Biophilia
Apparat Organ Quartet - Pólýfónía

Norway:
Razika - Program ’91
Lars Vaular - Du betyr meg
Jonas Alaska - Jonas Alaska
Team Me - To The Treetops!
Ane Brun - It All Starts With One
Stein Torleif Bjella - Vonde Visu
120 Days - 120 Days II
Montée - Renditions Of You
John Olav Nilsen og Gjengen - Det nærmeste du kommer
Martin Hagfors - I like you

This list will eventually be culled down to a final 12 on December 1 before the winner is crowned on February 16.

10/22 - Sonar, Baltimore, MD
10/24 - Eagle Theater, Pontiac, MI
10/25 - Bottom Lounge, Chicago, IL
10/26 - Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI
10/28 - Triple Rock, Minneapolis, MN
10/29 - Cicero's, St. Louis, MO
10/30 - Jackpot Music Hall, Lawrence, KS
11/01 - Marquis Theatre, Denver, CO
11/02 - The Complex, Salt Lake City, UT
11/04 - Soma, San Diego, CA
11/05 - Nile Theater, Mesa, AZ
11/07 - El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
11/08 - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
11/09 - Hawthorne Theater, Portland, OR
11/10 - El Corazon, Seattle, WA

01. Bob Hund
02. Jens Lekman
03. Lykke Li
04. Håkan Hellström
05. Anna Järvinen
06. Kurt Vile
07. The Bear Quartet
08. The Radio Dept.
09. Austra
10. Rubik

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01. Håkan Hellström - 2 steg från paradise
I like all of Hellström's albums but his previous one had about 3-4 songs that I loved, so I was a but surprised that "2 steg..." turned out to be his best album of his career.

02. Masshysteri - Masshysteri
Pure melodic punk perfection. A darn shame they've split up.

03. Robyn - Body talk
A bit disappointing that all the talk of 3 albums turned out to be 15 new songs in total, but thankfully some of the songs were killer ones!

04. Monty - 2010
A great album that I believe didn't get the attention it deserved. Montt Mardié in Swedish sounded excellent.

05. Johan Heltne - Sara,
This is what Kent would sound if they were still good (plus if they were a bit more into jazz).

06. CEO - White magic
With no new The Tough Alliance we had to do with CEO, which was just fine, just fine.

07. jj - jj n° 3
A lot of people weren't that keen on jj's second album but I really liked it. Shame they're so terrible live though.

08. The Radio Dept. - Clinging to a scheme
Another boring live band, although I don't care as long as they release albums as brilliant as this.

09. Ludwig Bell - Jag har försökt förklara
Some of it a bit too cheesy perhaps, but some of the songs on Bell's album are pure pop masterpieces.

10. Orup - Född i november
The big Swedish comeback of the year? Orup delivered a great personal album, oddly enough with lyrics not written by him.

Fantastic songs in no particular order

Supergruppen - Farsta centrum by night
Ludwig Bell - Silvertejp
Oskar Linnros - Ack, Sundbyberg
Masshysteri - Dom kan inte höra musiken
Robyn - Dancing on my own
Håkan Hellström - Man måste dö några gånger innan man kan leva
Museum of Bella Arts - Who do you love
Säkert! - Dansa, fastän

Best cover of the year:
jj - My life

Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

Albums (in no particular order, except for "You're a wasteland...""):

"You're a wasteland, honey" Robert Svensson (my album of the year)

"Let this be the last night we care" Alcoholic Faith Mission (my only other 10/10)

"Trilogi" Fredrik

"This wilderlessness" Yamon Yamon

"In never out" Pg.lost

"Conscious castle" Another Nation's National Anthem

"s/t" EP, Night Minutes

"Dada bandits" Rubik

"White mountain" Kiki Pau

"Clinging to a scheme" The Radio Dept.

mp3:
"The sound and the sore" Cut City

Laura Studarus

Jónsi: Go -- Not just my top Scandinavian album, but my top album of the year. Period. There's so much emotion in this one that the first time I heard it (a lo-bit stream over crappy computer speakers) I cried. The fact I also happen to be a noted wimp should in no way stop you from checking this out.

Club 8: The people's record -- Yet another in a long string of reasons why Johan Angergård (Club 8/Legends/Pallers/Acid House Kings) should continue on his quest for world domination. (Or failing that, musical domination.) So many bands lose their way after so many albums -- their attempts to infuse their sound with new elements as convincing as a child's Halloween "scary" costume. And then there's Club 8 -- who has mixed afro/Cuban beats in with their sweet pop, and created a delicious hybrid beast...all without sacrificing an iota of their identity along the way.

Jens Lekman: Sure he didn't put an album out this year, but he played a one-off gig in Los Angeles that had everyone swooning. One of the best performers working today. Full stop.

Ólafur Arnalds: ...And they have escaped the weight of darkness -- Second in emotional resonance only to Go. It can be difficult to write about experimental instrumentals without sounding foolish -- so at the risk of sounding increasingly stupid, this album will recalibrate your perception of beauty.

The Radio Dept.: Clinging to a scheme -- It's about time! Back and better than ever. Welcome.

Casiokids: Topp stemning på lokal bar -- Are these "kids" playing near you? (Given their touring schedule it's a real possibility.) Go! Go! Go! Are you currently at a Casiokids concert? Dance! Dance! Dance!

Seabear: We built a fire -- Another gloriously dreamy album from the Icelandic collective. This is nostalgic chamber pop ready to soundtrack new memories.

Kaskas: In the meanwhile -- Finland's Yo La Tengo blending influences and styles with grace. A side-project that -- if the world is just and good -- will become a full-time gig.

Söder tea: If this were music, it would be a perfect ten. I'm starting to feel like a junkie asking my friends in Sweden to hook me up. No I can't quit any time I want, and of course, I don't have a problem.

Sambassadeur: European -- Classic pop with an orchestral flair. Why these guys haven't caught on stateside is one of life's great mysteries. (Then again, I'm from the country that just nominated Justin Bieber for a Grammy, so what do I know?)

10/29 - Kaserne, Basel (SWI)
10/30 - Merkker, Baden (SWI)
11/01 - Le Rocher Palmer, Bordeaux (FRA)
11/02 - Le Saint des Seins, Toulouse (FRA)
11/03 - Le Centrifugeuse, Pau (FRA)
11/08 - La Maroquinerie, Paris (FRA)
11/10 - Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers (FRA)
11/11 - Festival les Indisciplinés, Lorient (FRA)
11/12 - Festival les Boréales, Caen (FRA)
11/13 - Le 6 Par 4, Laval (FRA)
11/25 - Primavera Club, Madrid (ESP)
11/26 - Primavera Club, Madrid (ESP)
11/27 - Primavera Club, Barcelona (ESP)

06/02 - Off Broadway, St. Louis, MO
06/03 - Granada, Lawrence, KS
06/04 - Marquis Theatre, Denver, CO
06/05 - Murray Theater, Murray, UT
06/07 - El Corazon, Seattle, WA
06/08 - Hawthorne Theater, Portland, OR
06/10 - The Boardwalk, Orangevale, CA
06/11 - Chain Reaction, Anaheim, CA
06/12 - Henry Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
06/13 - Martini Ranch, Scottsdale, AZ
06/15 - Emo's, Austin, TX
06/16 - The Door, Dallas, TX
06/17 - Diamond Ballroom, Oklahoma City, OK
06/18 - Outland Ballroom, Springfield, MO
06/19 - Juanita's, Little Rock, AR
06/20 - M-Lounge, Birmingham, AL
06/21 - Hi-Tone Cafe, Memphis, TN
06/22 - Masquerade, Atlanta, GA
06/24 - New Brookland Tavern, Columbia, SC
06/25 - The Square Room, Knoxville, TN
06/26 - The Madhatter, Covington, KY
06/27 - The Eagle Theater, Pontiac, MI

"Goji berries" phantom-tempo midsection precedes the Canadian guitar battalion of "Radiants", "Wasteland" borrows Idioteque percussion before settling for an anthemic power pop chorus. "Fire Age" and "Richard Branson's crash landing" are album highlights, the former plotting Stars' vocals around a ska-synth breakdown, the latter a glimpse of Scandinavian twee perfection. Its swirling synths wash beneath upbeat melodies and falsetto-and-horns chorus to convince you that this is what Loney Dear's "Dear John" should have been. Rubik reloads and refires, each song an impressive foray into new sonic territory, strung together by catchy hooks and wiry guitars, underpinned by the astonishing depth of the arrangements. It's only on the fifth or six listen that you even hear the complex synth arpeggios buried under "Karhu junassa", or the jaunty riffs beneath "Fire age".

There's little bad to be said about this album. The mix occasionally favors layered instrumentation over Artturi Taira's vocals -- much of the album finds Taira swimming in his own arrangements. While that's likely a tactic to secure more Finnish listeners in their native country, it obscures the beauty of Taira's lyrics. His voice can adequately be characterized as "British Effeminate" indicative of all of those post-Radiohead mope-and-hope rockers that plagued the aughts in Western Europe. But Taira's falsetto exchanges their currency of faux-pathos for a well-placed sense of urgency, his yelps best on "Karhu junassa" and "Radiants" when buttressed by instrumental imitation.

So where is this album? It's tailored for the blogs in almost every way, it has registered heaps of e-praise, yet Rubik has no plans to return to North . Maybe this album will be saved from obscurity by a forward-thinking movie director or cell-phone marketing exec, and maybe it won't. I might just like it better if it remains a diamond in the rough -- quietly pretending to 2010's indie throne.]]> Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:19:04 -0700 reviews http://www.itsatrap.com/n/31819-rubik-and-69-eyes-coming-to-the-us-this-fall http://www.itsatrap.com/n/31819-rubik-and-69-eyes-coming-to-the-us-this-fall http://www.itsatrap.com/n/31819-rubik-and-69-eyes-coming-to-the-us-this-fall#comments The Finnish Music Information Centre reports that both Rubik and 69 Eyes, two bands I have barely any interest in, will be touring the US this fall: http://www.fimic.fi/fimic/fimic.nsf/0/6DEDAC5505787F8FC225764300385009?opendocument

Also, after looking at the label's website, it appears that Paper Tiger will be representing a number of other Fullsteam-affiliated bands in these parts such as Disco Ensemble and Rubik. The former will have their new EP "Back on the MF streets" released over here on May 26 and Rubik's debut "Bad conscience patrol" will follow on June 23 along with their most recent record "Dada bandits" soon thereafter.