Swedish Noisepunks Axe recently recorded 15 new songs at The Dustward Studio in Stockholm and are now currently streaming one of them at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/weareaxe
And on a related note, Axe guitarist David Fried also sends word that his other band Munnen will be doing a 7" in the not-so-distant future on the label . More details on that to come...
Check out an e-card for the self-titled debut EP from excellent Swedish indie/Noiserockers In These Woods: http://nomethod.se/inthesewoods/
Sounds great, but it's not as if that's a surprise.
My Brother the Wind"Twilight in the crystal cabinet", My Brother the Wind's purported "live improv album" commences with "Karmagrinder", a ten-and-a-half minute psychedelic workshop that, with its silky electric guitar swoops and jazzy, repetitive, two-chord exploration, suggests a sonic cross-breeding of Pink Floyd's "Breathe" (albeit with some extra prog juice in the rhythm section and a tad more Noise) and Talk Talk's majestic "The rainbow". It's entirely too long, but it works, pummeling the listener into a dizzy, euphoric numbness. Ditto the title track, a chilling exercise in moody atmosphere, maneuvering heavily effected guitars over mallet-grazed toms (and little else). Luckily, it's not all endless texture -- the brief, atonal "Precious sanity" whirs by in under two minutes, surging with a borderline-frightening King Crimson-esque hubris. Formed as a quasi Swedish prog supergroup (with members of Anekdoten, Makajodama and Magnolia), My Brother the Wind certainly has an excess of technical skill (and, obviously, all the right reference points). While their debut might be a tad aimless in stretches, it certainly suggests plenty of reasons to keep listening -- perhaps a bit of studio discipline next time out will foster a more fully realized sophomore epic.
- Ryan Reed
The new Penny Century single "James Hurley" will be released as a free download on 3pm CET Christmas Eve via Swedish music blog Absolut Noise.
Out now on , the debut 7" from Swedish experimental/Noise artist The Magic State aka Nadine Byrne: http://idealrecordings.com/news#rel118
If you were lucky enough to grab a copy of "Great Northern Recordings compilation no. 4", she had two tracks featured on that including the a-side "Spectrum".
Hard for me to think of these dudes as something other than the little siblings of EL-SD, but that probably has more to do with which band I heard first than anything else. Anyhow, that dude Pontus is a beast on the kit no matter how you look at it, googly eyes or not. And yeah, support your (local) Noiserock band!
Korova Station - Come on Come on
Issue #10 of Friendly Noise is now up: http://www.friendlyNoise.se/fzn/10/
Norwegian Noisenik/prankster Zweizz has been added to the Ulver/Virus show in London at KOKO and will also be accompanying the former on a number of other dates.
Quite possibly my favorite track from The Bear Quartet's latest album "Monty Python" and, in a single word, tense. The melody occupies such a small space and moves in tight, chromatic steps, back and forth, up and down. No resolutions, only odd, endlessly circling riffs, goofy gurgling Noises and dour pessimism. Repeat, not fade indeed.
The Bear Quartet - We're not gonna make it
Absolut Noise has a new track up from Life Before Man, a long-running/never-documented Swedish indie act featuring my friend Mattias from Culkin/KVLR: http://absolutNoise.blogspot.com/2010/11/internet-killed-tape-stars.html
If you dig noisy guitar-driven indie (such as Mattias' other/previous bands), you will dig this. I do.
CMU Daily interviews Norwegian Noiserockers Årabrot: http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/htmldaily/101019.html
If Rapeman continued on and kept going in a similar direction as latter-day Shellac, they might sound something like Fun do on their third album "New 13". They're still churning out some of the best cantankerous Noiserock in the world, but they're also tempering it with a wisened, more expansive/more instrumental approach. If I'm correctly understanding this interview (my knowledge of Finnish is near-nonexistent), "Here comes the ugly man" is based off a Fugazi mondegreen relating to the title track of "The argument", and though it doesn't bear any sort of direct musical resemblance, it's an interesting factoid to consider during listening. It's also a great tune highlighting the band's churning rhythm section melded with a slight touch of their matured sense of melody (hah!). Very recommended of course.
Fun - Here comes the ugly man
Check out an interview and live session with Finnish Noiserockers Fun at Noise.fi: http://www.Noise.fi/radio/soitin/index.php?id=4481
The talking is all in unintelligible Finn-speak, but that doesn't affect the rock.
Issue #9 of the always stunning Friendly Noise webzine is now online: http://www.friendlyNoise.se/fzn/9
