Norwegian indie act mylittlepony (nee My Little Pony) has changed names once again and shall henceforth be known as Making Marks, the title of their sophomore album. They'll break in the new name with a few dates in Italy:
04/18 - Black Market, Roma
04/19 - Spazzio Mavv, Vittorio veneto
04/20 - Carmen Town, Brescia
04/21 - La Mela di Newton, Padova
04/22 - odelay!, Bologna
will be releasing a new LP in March from Finnish noiserockers vene. Hit up the label website for full details and a sample tune: http://www.ifsociety.com/news.php#n167
Swedish indierock act The Bombhappies have announced that their new album, tentatively titled "A good fire", is done and ready for release on March 9. They will be playing a release show that night in Stockholm at Kägelbanan/Södra Teatern, details here.
"Animal" is the first single from Call:Vega's upcoming album "Comets", due out November 25 via .
Alright, finally some new music from Red Moon. Probably should've posted this weeks ago, but life/work has intervened and besides, it's generally for the best that I let things percolate a bit first. Anyhow, glad to have Katarina and Eva Thulin back on my speakers and likewise glad that they're continuing to put out superb dreampop as if they never took a 5-year break. "Suspicious" is my favorite tune from the duo's new EP "I am here", both the longest and heaviest they have on offer, though if you dig on this you'll surely dig the rest. All the major label-funded JAMC wannabees can't hold a candle to these ladies, never could.
TOWTOW (The Old Wind) is Tomas Liljedahl from Breach, and it doesn't say who else (maybe it's just Tomas). So with some trepidation and a lot of anticipation involved, I checked out the myspace page expecting something ok-but-not-quite-as-good-as-Breach. "In fields" start really nice, dissonant guitars showing that Tomas does this quite well without Niklas Quintana and Anders Ekström, whose presence I was expecting to miss. But I do not! This sounds sludgy, dissonant, but crisp. When the vocals kick in I'm home. Tomas, you have direct access to my spine with your voice from my adolescence listening to Breach constantly on my freestyle (it was like an iPod but with cassettes). "Raveneye" continues the sludgy heavy dissonant vibe, throwing in a violin (is it a violin?), and "Reign" does the same. It quickly sinks in that this is some good shit right here. The lower production values and slower tempo remind me of "It's me god"-era Breach (greatest record ever) and a little pre-, like "Old songs vs new beats"-era (also a really good slice of Breach). Tomas shows here how much of his presence defined what Breach was, and what a great scream he has. This would be nostalgia, but since no 'good ole days' ever came Breach's way, this is really a second chance for the world to catch on. You hear that World! Catch the fucking fever already!!
Bear in mind that these are rough un-mastered cuts from the recordings of, hopefully, a very promising new album.
- Mathias Rask-Andersen
The thing that gets me most stoked on Underacheiver is their pounding chukka-chukka rhythm with all instruments playing steady eighth notes. No grace notes, no pick-ups, no extravagance; everything completely soli. It's worth noting that the tones they use aren't too distorted either, the heaviness they achieve comes from the total ensemble force moreso than anything else. It's the same thing that makes C.Aarmé so great, that same simple/single-minded repetitiveness, heavy on the down-strokes and light on full-voiced chords. See also: The Ramones. I'm way into it.
Download the band's entire 4-song demo right here: http://underachiever.se/?page_id=13
KråkesølvThere's a certain jazzclub ambience about "Trådnøsting" that belies the fact that it's essentially an indiepop album and it's hard to pinpoint the reason for this, other than Kråkesølv's ability to outlay a sound that's so upbeat and complex, yet so relaxing and easy on the mind that it creates a sense of being at one with the music. It gets into the head and fuses with the brain, eliciting a variety of emotions so strong that it's not even essential to be able to understand Norwegian to know where they're at with a particular song. That's not an easy thing to pull off and, whether intentional or not, the Bodø quartet have done so in such a natural way that it displays the true quality of their songcrafting skills. Style-wise, Kråkesølv are so much like Germany's little-known indiepop act, Monostars, that the only thing separating them in places is the distinct difference in accents. Where Monostars exude a certain abrasiveness in the natural intonation of the Munich dialect, Kråkesølv offer a more lilting, almost flowery, adaptation that complements the melodies in the music and sounds off like an additional instrument. That's simply down to the natural Norwegian accent with its airy peaks and troughs and, for Kråkesølv, it works exceptionally well throughout, with particular note being made of "Privat regn" for its catchy pop anthem stylings and "Vågøyvannet rundt" for its dreamy, fairytale qualities. The title track really displays what Kråkesølv are all about in terms of their musical outlook, as does "Waldemar". What is this outlook, you ask? Well, from spinning this disc a few times, it seems it's all about creating beautiful music that really grasps the heart. Hopefully, the obvious international limitations that come with singing in Norwegian (read 'not in English') won't damage the band's exposure too much.
- John Norby
OfagHard to get around it: Ofag is a pure ego. Five friends convene in a recording studio to hang out, play a little improv music; someone hits record and then they release it on their own label. It's not as if the end result is unlistenable (it's not), it's more a question of why. Why waste the plastic? I'm sure it was tremendous fun for everyone involved and there's no reason they shouldn't be proud of their work, but why not make it digital-only? Or better yet, offer it as a free download? Do they honestly think that fans of their other bands (Heroes & Zeros, Superfamily, Balkansemblet) will be stoked on it? Or that they'll cross over into the already over-saturated experiment/freejazz scene? Doubtful. This is for friends and family, perhaps even the curious superfan, but most of all, it's for themselves. That's fine, but I can't recommend it for anyone else.
- Avi Roig
The Radio Dept.Waiting for the next album by The Radio Dept. has been a tedious affair. First it was announced for September, then they pulled back at the last minute without much explanation, only to now, somewhat surprisingly, release this new EP. Generally, I've always found The Radio Dept. to be better at EPs than albums -- compare the longing "This past week"-EP or the stellar "Pulling our weight" for example. Unfortunately, "David" comes nowhere close to these classics. In fact, only the title track manages to combine catchiness with innovation, longing, and a popful dose of kitsch (though opinions on that may vary). The other songs, however, just can't live up to that level. Most are plain uninteresting and have a B-sidish feel. The remix of "David" is really interesting though, but the dramaturgy of it seems counter-intuitive: It only takes off after more than half the track and then doesn't dare to take its clever repetitiveness to the much-needed extreme. All in all, this really seems more the single it's intended to be than like a full-fledged EP. And though I'm still eager to hear "Clinging to a scheme" when it finally comes out, I'm not exactly getting my hopes up for a new "Lesser matters". But then again, who in their right minds would hope for that?
- Arnulf Köhncke
Thieves Like UsThere are few genres that evoke such a strong connection with urban settings as post-punk -- from decaying factories and warehouses of Manchester to New York City streets littered with cigarette butts and shadows cast by streetlights and neon signs. While post-punk's claim of the metropolitan landscape has slipped in recent years with the rising popularity of remixes and the increasing prevalence of electronic music, Thieves Like Us have crafted a dark, creeping record that contains very few organic elements, evoking a strange marriage of Wire's "154" and the minimalist production existent throughout the Junior Boys' catalogue. In the near-absence of guitars, Thieves Like Us employ synthesizers and pads to create the atmosphere of "Play music" -- a menacingly ethereal tone on tracks like "An easy tonight" and "Program of the first part"; a dancehall-ready minimalism on "Drugs in my body" and "Miss you"; and a driving, mutedly violent desperation on "Your heart feels", the stand-out track on the album. Where Cut City's brand of post-punk oscillates between the atmospheric and the all-too-present, Thieves Like Us deconstruct pop songs, warping them into skulking, introspective shadows existing somewhere between the likes of Cut Copy and Gang of Four. The seductiveness of an album like "Play music" is in the strength of its skeletal nature, in the unvarnished and austere compositions, and in the breadth of emotion explored within this unembellished format -- all of which Thieves Like Us succeed and excel at.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Here's one that's been on my to-do list for awhile now, mostly due to the fact that I've had trouble wrapping my head around its abstract expansiveness. Had I actually read the bio text and known that Skogar (aka Johannes Brander) was yet another bedroom artist playing around with a guitar, an arsenal of effect pedals and a 4-track, I probably would've filed this in the "ignore" pile (or the circular file, as it were), but I did not and I am glad for it. As "easy" as it is to make that sort of music, it rarely comes out so well; there is far more to this brand of artistry than a stack of gearboxes. It's even better that I sometimes have trouble recognizing sound sources, though this particular track is very obviously guitar-based. I could actually do without the lead noodlings buried in the mix; it's the backing loops of chirping noise and loping bassnotes that are the most interesting part, along with the subtle shifts in harmony that keep it going. However, the piece really works best in context of the whole -- another reason for my delay in coverage. There are many fine, fleeting moments, but none of them reveal the quality of the complete work. I'm glad I took a chance on this.
A sidenote in the always-interesting "small world" subcategory: Skogar's label Native Parts Records is putting out a split CDr with Malmö act Utom Alla and local-to-me band Flora vs. Fauna. Weirdness.
Skogar - Secret hymns
