Here are the winners of the 2010 Manifest Awards, Sweden's alternative Grammy:
Punk/Hardcore: Troublemakers - Made in Sweden ()
Dance: Samuel L Session - The man with the case ()
Jazz: The Opposite - Intertwined ()
Dansband: Blender - Välkommen in ()
Rhythm: Jaqee - Kokoo Girl ()
Composer: Lisa Nordström and Lisen Rylander Löve (Midaircondo)
Lyrics: Ken Ring
Rock: Makeouts - In A Strange Land ()
Pop: El Perro Del Mar - Love Is Not Pop ()
Hårdrock/Metal: Abandon - The Dead End ()
Synth: Arvid - Andetag ()
Singer/songwriter: Kristofer Åström And The Rainaways - Sinkadus ()
Folk/ballad: Tore Berger - I huset långt på landet ()
Hip-hop: Mohammed Ali - Processen ()
Best poplabel:
Best live: Fever Ray ()
Best unsigned: Fulmakten
The nominees for the 2010 Manifest Awards, Sweden's alternative Grammy, have been announced:
Punk/Hardcore: En Svensk Tiger - Versace style () Troublemakers - Made in Sweden () Tysta Mari - Sveriges Casino () The Clichés - Monkey see, monkey do ()
Dance: Minilogue - Samlad årsproduktion Samuel L Session - The man with the case () The Field - Yesterday and Today () Tomas Andersson - Stiff Disco ()
Jazz: Bengt Berger - Beches Brew () Jonas Kullhammar Quartet - The Half Naked Truth 1998-2008 () The Opposite - Intertwined () Plunge With Bobo Stenson - Origo ()
Rhythm: Calle Real - Me Lo Gané () Jaqee - Kokoo Girl () Music is the weapon - Music is the weapon () Syster Sol - Dömd att bli bedömd ()
Rock: Florence Valentin - Spring Ricco () Makeouts - In A Strange Land () Murder by guitar - Murder by guitar () Skriet - Skriet ()
Pop: Anna Järvinen - Man var bland molnen () El Perro Del Mar - Love Is Not Pop () JJ - JJ n° 2 () Jonathan Johansson - En hand i himlen ()
Hårdrock/Metal: Abandon - The Dead End () Candlemass - Death Magic Doom () Katatonia - Night Is The New Day () Tribulation - The Horror ()
Singer/songwriter: Ane Brun - Live at Stockholm Concert Hall () David Åhlen - We Sprout In Thy Soil () Jonna Lee - This Is Jonna Lee () Kristofer Åström And The Rainaways - Sinkadus ()
Folk/ballad: Taken By Trees - East of Eden () Miriam Aida - Letras au Brasil () Tore Berger - I huset långt på landet () Esbjörn Hazelius - Blunda och du ska få se ()
Hip-hop: Mohammed Ali - Processen () Organismen - Om Gud vill och vädret tillåter () Promoe - Kråksången () Stor - Nya skolans ledare ()
Best live: Frida Hyvönen () Jenny Wilson () Fever Ray () Florence Valentin ()
Best unsigned: Den Svenska Björnstammen Extended Heads Fulmakten Nora
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU, a special pre-Halloween edition:
01. TALK 1
02. Switchblade - 1815
03. TALK 2
04. Abandon - In reality suffer
05. Raison d'Etre - Metamorphyses phase III
06. TALK 3
07. Notre Dame - Le theatre du vampire
08. Mercyful Fate - Desecration of souls
09. Cortex - Warrior night
10. TALK 4
11. Immortal - All shall fail
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.
Flattery will get you everywhere: seeing my name (or even just It's a Trap!) in an album's thank-you list is a surefire way to put a smile on my face. So thank you to NEI for making my day a little brighter. However, it's not as if I'd be tempted otherwise; I've been looking forward to their album for a long, long time and can confidently say that they deliver as-expected. As said before, these guys make the sort of quality angular rock'n'roll that dudes like me in their 30s and above still recall with extreme fondness. Still, I have a friend complain that he thought NEI were a bit lazy sounding, especially when you consider that these dudes formerly played with monster acts such as Brick, Breach and Fireside. While I understand his point, let me counter with "40 rabbits": a rager of a track that recalls those bands' finer moments. Patrik Instedt's vocals are especially maniacal here as he recalls a story that's as confusing to his own (fictional) experience, as it is for the listening. Blood, rabbits, an empty room, the woods, an Abandoned car...? It's a distressing portrait. I like it.
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Joensuu 1685 - I'm on fire
02. TALK 1
03. Boy Omega - Dinosaur drugs
04. Katatonia - Forsaker
05. Moloken - Die fear will
06. TALK 2
07. Rising - Dead kings
08. The Cardigans - Erase/rewind
09. The Amazing - Dragon
10. TALK 3
11. The First Miles - Black heart
12. [ingenting] - Medan vi sov
13. Skriet - Kärlekens land
14. TALK 4
15. Abandon - It's all gone
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.
Along with The Amazing's self-titled debut (discussed briefly here), my pick for September's album(s) of the month would have to go to Moloken's "Our astral circle". Yes, [ingenting]'s new record is also brilliant and well-deserving of praise and Abandon's "The dead end" is likewise incredibly powerful, but I've listened to Moloken a heckuva lot more often that anything else. Now if you remember, I wasn't that impressed with the band's epic debut EP, but it did show promise and on this new effort they have delivered in full. Once again, the band sound is rooted in heavy, dark hardcore ala "Souls at zero"-era Neurosis, especially considering the prominent bass presence, but they're also not afraid to go full-on metal when necessary. They're also unafraid to show off their chops either, as you'll hear on the song I've posted today. Some of their flair is subtle, but any musician should recognize that this rhythm section is a monster and that those long instrumental passages kick serious ass. Kinda like Tool minus the pretentious restraint, I'd say. And with better songs too, though that's not saying much considering Tool has always been way more about craft and mood than catchy riffs. Anyhow, this is a great release with broad appeal to all fans of heavy music, whether it be crust, doom or whatever. I hope other metal fans take note.
Regardless of whether or not you are aware of frontman Johan Carlzon personal life issues or the circumstances of his all-too-early death, I think that his contributions to Abandon's posthumous double-disc album "The dead end" speak for themselves. His performance, his lyrics and his paintings are a reflection of misery, an outpouring of extreme darkness and pain. His anguish is fully tangible, visceral. When so much music barely aspires beyond "let's not be bored," Abandon transcends into art through purity and force of expression. It is not easy listening by any means, but it is powerful and necessary. Johan will be missed, but not forgotten.
Black Star Foundation has confirmed a September 28 release date for Jesaiah's debut record "Et tu, hope" as well as Abandon's "The dead end". Both records will also be available in Europe on October 9 via Cargo distribution and in the UK on November 18 via Plastic Head.
Malmö-based indie/hardcore label Black Star Foundation (Holmes, Pg.Lost) has signed on with Sound Pollution as their new distributor. Look for new albums from both Abandon ("The dead end" 2CD) and Jesaiah ("Et tu hope") soon.
It may not be the lost KBD bonzer you've been hoping for, but this reissue is still a solid example of mid-80s Swedish hardcore punk. Trojne keep it fast and furious for the three tracks on the A-side, keeping time with two-step beats and gruff shouts på Svenska. It's not quite the reckless Abandon expressed by some of their beloved peers, but that's not necessarily a mark against them. I like it both ways. As for the flip, I detect a few metal crossover influences creeping in on both "Cell 37" and "Bakom galler", but the bulk of the material always remains raw and ripping even when they drift away from banging out pure power-chords. Hardly essential though that's hardly the point -- this is still a fun piece of history I'm glad to have in my collection and I'm sure everyone involved is just as stoked it's available again for new folks to discover. - Avi Roig
I'm going to admit from the start that I had some difficulty with "A partial print" when I listened to it on Startracks' page a week or so before its release. I was overwhelmed and excited by the opening five compositions, and then this feeling slipped a little - the Abandonment of Tiger Lou's typically quite structured, complete arrangements on tracks like "Trails of spit" seemed to dilute the weight of the songs' conclusions, and the closing, nine-minute long opus felt too ambling and unfocused to be a proper culmination of the album's energies. I admit these issues here only to demonstrate that "A partial print" is not an album that reveals its immediacy, its intentioned presence on a first or second listen - what you are presented with 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.
The tone of "A partial print" is a dark one, represented not only in the recurring theme of leaving a small fragment of yourself behind, but in the intricate Abandon and melancholy of the instrumentation which, on a number of occasions, evolves into heavy, post-hardcore breakdowns akin to the efforts on Small Brown Bike's brilliant swansong "The river bed". The production on the album is fantastic, accentuating the full drum arrangements, the beautiful guitar and bass work, and, of course, Rasmus Kellerman's magnificent, haunting voice. "The less you have to carry", in my opinion the greatest song Tiger Lou have crafted, is the first to truly bear the burden of "A partial print", and is therefore the song that fashions the aesthetic tenets of the album. The line "A partial print is all that I'm leaving behind, a little something to remember me by" is repeated in the closing title track, giving the record an unsettling conclusion - that of an endless cycle of departure and loss, but, as Tiger Lou established themselves as the masters of harrowing grace with "The loyal", this journey doesn't feel haunted or disillusioned, not even as you retrace your footsteps. Nor is it all a cynical, disheartening experience - glimmers of hope shine through in "So demure" and the single "Crushed by a crowd".
"A partial print" is difficult, complicated, heartbreaking, and inspiring - everything we've come to expect from Tiger Lou. - Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Danish indie label Tigerspring (Choir of Young Believers, I Scream Ice Cream, Taxi Taxi) has signed Århus-based act Messy Shelters, the solo project of Mikkel Bolding. Look for the EP "Abandonship" in early November, but in the meantime you can listen at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/messyshelters
Swedish rockers Fingerspitzengefühl have Abandoned their hard-to-pronounce German moniker and shall henceforth be known as Switch Opens. See their new myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/theswitchopens
Trojne
Tiger Lou
