The Fader is streaming the new Henning Fürst (The Tough Alliance)-produced single "A gentleman's story" from latebloomer pop debutante Martin Luuk, just released by : http://www.thefader.com/2012/06/01/stream-martin-luuk-a-gentlemans-story/
Lyrics here. If you can suffer through to the second verse, you're a better person than me.
The Line of Best Fit has a new interview up with Eric Berglund of CEO/The Tough Alliance/: http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2011/03/tlobf-interview-ceo/
New music from Nottee off the forthcoming 7", due out March 8 via and produced by Henning Fürst of The Tough Alliance. More here: http://www.eeemotion.se/music/nottee/
The Warmer Climes blog is releasing a new single from Romanian pop artist Loredana Groza in November which of course wouldn't be newsworthy for IAT except for the fact that a bazillion remixers have been attached to the project including many Swedes such as Henning Fürst (The Tough Alliance), Nicolas Makelberge, Kalle J and possibly many, many more. Full details: http://warmer-climes.blogspot.com/2010/10/loredana-rain-rain-remixed-by-vlad.html
Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week, unique to our group:
01. Familjen
02. Robyn
03. Säkert!
04. Håkan Hellström
05. Moneybrother
06. First Aid Kit
07. Kent
08. The Tough Alliance
09. Efterklang
10. Broder Daniel
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/
Adventure OfDespite what Adventure Of might temporarily convince you, brat doesn't come in as many flavors as one might think. Mining the well of youthful indiscretions that make The Tough Alliance tick, there isn't a synth, horn, or sentiment on "Malaika" or "Jehovah" That hasn't been done before. However, even while busy basking in the glory of its own electro retread, there are still enough guilty pleasures to get your ass out on the dance floor -- and clean out all trances of cynicism along the way. Not bad for a pair of singles.
Case in point? The particularly amusing, The Killers referencing, "Jehovah" b-side "Soul little body". "I've got soul and I am a soldier." My knee-jerk cynical response? "Congrats dude, you've just lapped Brandon Flowers in the Narcissism Olympics! Yea!" My actual response after the horns, monotone delivery, and tropical sentiment had time to settle in? Somewhere between elation and awkward head-bobbing. Point: Adventure Of. "A fluke!" the cynic might cry -- quick to mention The Embassy has been kicking around the same passive-cool beats for a while now. But perhaps the band says it best in "Anno domini": "If you're special then I'm special too." While it seems unlikely Adventure Of will be able to parlay their well-worn routine into anything more that a few high-energy quips, they'll have you believing the hype as long as the record spins.
- Laura Studarus
CEOIn the (what seems like a very long) wait for the new The Tough Alliance album, singer Erik Berglund has dropped this gem upon the collective lap of the music community which finds him honing his full-time band's dance-pop even further over the course of the eight tracks presented here. Varying in texture that transitions through various depths, "Illuminata" and "White magic" are dance floor-ready party jams, whilst the closing track "Den blomstertid nu kommer" is a slightly tepid, reflective number comprised of mostly live instrumentation. Although some may complain that eight tracks is a bit short, it is not reflected on its output -- in fact, what Berglund has done, is take the genre of dance-pop his compatriots have been producing over the past couple of years, and hone it into what is easily the best album of its kind in recent memory.
- Matt Giordano
Pitchfork talks to Eric Berglund (The Tough Alliance) about his new solo project CEO, among other topics: http://pitchfork.com/news/39189-meet-ceo-inside-the-mind-of-eric-berglund-of-the-tough-alliance/
CEO, the solo alias of Eric Berglund from The Tough Alliance, will officially release his debut single "Come with me" on June 14 as a limited 7".
It seemed fairly obvious to me, but Pitchfork has confirmed that the new act CEO is in fact Eric Berglund from The Tough Alliance: http://pitchfork.com/news/38620-ceo-tough-alliances-eric-berglund/
CEO's debut album "White magic" will be released on June 28 across Europe, June 29 in the US and on July 2 in Australia/New Zealand and is co-released via
The Radio Dept.To be completely honest, The Radio Dept. have never previously overwhelmed me, not in the way many friends and critics have been. This isn't to say I think they've been hyped into popularity, but their albums have often engaged me for a few weeks and then been shelved, only pulled out occasionally to listen to the two or three songs that really sunk in. "Clinging to a scheme", however, is a different beast -- for me, it is the album their previous efforts more than betrayed they were capable of: an amalgamation of the lively and charming tone of "Lesser matters" and the ambience of "Pet grief", yet surpassing them both. While this newest work finds the band in more explorative territory, it is a focused effort that maintains The Radio Dept.'s signature atmospherics despite the more adventurous tone of the record: "Domestic scene" is a near-perfect introduction to the album with its layers of languid guitars and synthesizers overlying a constant, driving beat, a tact subtly reminiscent of Doves; despite the spoken word opening (an irksome quirk that is used again a few minutes into "Never follow suit"), "Heaven's on fire" is one of the album's highlights, a strange union of The Radio Dept.'s talents with "Writer's block"-era Peter Bjorn and John's pop sensibility; and "Never follow suit" takes a few pages from The Tough Alliance's playbook, translating those mischievous tendencies and working them seamlessly into the track. While The Radio Dept. may have branched out and sped things up a little on this newest album, there is nothing that compromises the band's unique take on pop music; if anything, "Clinging to a scheme" acts as a tableau of where The Radio Dept. has been, all while elevating the band to this new peak. "The video dept." is wonderfully nostalgic of the finest lo-fi moments of "Lesser matters" and the already praised "Domestic scene" could almost have been on "Pet grief", were it a more somber affair. One of the finest qualities of the album is the fact that it isn't as solemn as much of The Radio Dept.'s catalogue, and yet remains just as personal and poignant. Suffice it to say, "Clinging to a scheme" isn't getting shelved anytime soon.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week, unique to our group:
01. The Radio Dept.
02. Jonathan Johansson
03. Kent
04. Sophie Zelmani
05. The National
06. Håkan Hellström
07. Shout Out Louds
08. Loney, Dear
09. The Tough Alliance
10. Love Is All
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/
jjOn last year's well-received debut "n° 2", jj brought a summery sound akin to a hypothetical The Tough Alliance-light, if such were a project (and an obviously close reference, as they're on their label). Its mixture of slower ballads with down-tempo firelight pop numbers took in the breezy coastal Swedish twilight. Perhaps they've not waited long enough before issuing their second album, perhaps they've had this release written and recorded before their first was out, but it's glaringly obvious that it doesn't reach the heights of "n° 2". It's as though they took the median of their first record and wrote each track accordingly, while also leaving out (both melodically and sonically) those aspects which would cause one to randomly hum "Masterplan" or "Are you still in Valda?". And that's quite a shame, too.
- Matt Giordano
