The nominees for Gaffa's Danish music awards have been announced:
Album: De Eneste To - De eneste to (/) Efterklang - Magic chairs () Kashmir - Trespassers () The Floor Is Made Of Lava - Howl at the moon () The Rumour Said Fire - The arrogant ()
Band: De Eneste To (/) Efterklang () Kashmir () The Floor Is Made Of Lava () The Rumour Said Fire ()
Male artist: Jacob Bellens (Murder) () Jesper Lidang (The Rumour Said Fire) () Kasper Eistrup (Kashmir) () Søren Huss () Tobias Kippenberger (The Floor Is Made Of Lava) ()
Newcomer: De Eneste To (/) Fallulah () Ginger Ninja () The Rumour Said Fire () Vinnie Who ()
Hit song: Dúné - Dry lips () Dúné - Let go of your love () Hej Matematik - Party i Provinsen () Nephew Feat. Landsholdet - The Danish way to rock () Turboweekend - Trouble is ()
Music video: Burhan G Feat. Nik & Jay - Tættere på himlen (dir: Michael Sauer Christensen) () De Eneste To - Morten (dir: Casper Dalhoff) (/) Kashmir - Still boy (dir: Jakob Printzlau) () The Floor Is Made Of Lava - Leave me now (dir: Casper Balslev) () Under Byen - Unoder (dir: Manyar I. Parwani) (
At its best, this Danish debut sounds like a slightly campy combination of the Pernice Brothers and Chris Isaak. Alas, the rest (most) of the time it sounds like the soundtrack to an imaginary American roadtrip that's taken a surreal, comedic, and not particularly pleasant wrong turn. They try for funky now and then, try for Nashville other times, but all in all, it's postmodernism gone awry - not all influences are meant to be combined. It's a shame since they've got a fine singer, some good melodic instincts, and some splendid twangy guitar. It might make you laugh, but I don't think that's what they were going for. - Nancy Baym
Copenhagen's Skywriter come seemingly out of nowhere to deliver a remarkably strong debut record. Though the sound is completely their own, it's got shades of Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, and (as fearless leader Avi tells us) early Madrugada. The record is also reminiscent of Interpol in how successfully it sets an urban nighttime mood and sees it through to the end. The singer's got a beautiful clear voice, the guitars serve mainly to create atmosphere, and sultry bass lines propel many of the songs. The sound is dark, melancholic, uplifting, deep, and poignant. Lyrically it's a cut above most ("you drag me off my cloud/you walk along with me/the road follows my eye/as far as I can see"). There's not a weak song on here. My only complaints are that my favorite (this week), "This thing never sleeps," isn't even 3 minutes long when I wish it were 4 or 5, and at 37 minutes total, the whole album ends so soon one has to hit replay immediately. Easily my favorite release so far in 2006. - Nancy Baym
Skywriter