Soundi top albums of 2011
Check out Finnish mag Soundi's top album picks of 2011: https://soundi.fi/node/13393
Musik med Sophie Zelmani
Check out excellent singer/songwriter Sophie Zelmani performing live for PSL: https://blogg.svt.se/psl/2011/12/13/musik-med-sophie-zelmani/
Studio/Information RIP
Swedish act Studio and , the label they run, has apparently called it quits: https://www.inf000.com/
Grande Roses - What's left of us
Grab the Grande Roses tune "What's left of us" as a free download via Facebook in exchange for a like: https://www.facebook.com/Grderss?sk=app_190322544333196
Rosemary - A Persian tale
Rosemary is an Iranian/Danish electronic pop duo with just enough quirkiness to separate themselves from the endless reams of also-rans. Download the whole thing for free at their website: https://www.rosemarymusic.net/
Adam Kanyama - A till K (video)
Up-and-coming Swedish hip-hop from 16-year-old Adam Kanyama, the winner of Rap It Up 2011.
Monde Idéal - Future waits
Monde Idéal is yet another in the long line of Swedish electronic pop duos, this one featuring Andreas Löf Hermansson and Alexander Sjödin (Sailor & I). "Future waits" is their first single.
The Silent Ballet reviews Scraps of Tape
The Silent Ballet reviews the latest Scraps of Tape record "Resident flux": https://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/4594/Default.aspx
A Bob Hund Valentine
The next Bob Hund album "Låter som miljarder" will be released on February 14.
Fibes, Oh Fibes! - Cerahtonia
A brand new track from Fibes, Oh Fibes!, the first taste of the band's upcoming album "Album" which was produced by Pontus Winnberg (Miike Snow) and John Eriksson (Peter Bjorn and John) and will be out this coming April. Look for the first official single "Apex of the sun" to be released on January 21.
Días Nórdicos 2012
Días Nórdicos 2011, the Nordic art and music festival in Spain this past September/October, was apparently a resounding success and now the event is looking to expand for their next edition in 2012 with more disciplines, more venues, more partners and eventually, more cities. Read the official report with highlights from 2011 as well as goals for 2012 right here: https://www.diasnordicos.com/dossier
MP3: Rising - Mausoleum
Rising represent to me the direction that Metallica should have gone post-"Black album". Heavy and bellowing, but still incredibly melodic and song-based; the exact sort of qualities that made them one of the biggest bands on the planet, albeit in a more streamlined form. Of course that did not come to pass, but we still have Rising and on their new record "To solemn ash" they take the directness of their hardcore background and put it to good use. Not a single note out of place, just straight-up head-banging riffs from front-to-back. Kinda in the same way that countrymates The Psyke Project stripped out all the bullshit to remake themselves into a brutal war-machine, except that Rising have more melodies than all-out mosh. Denmark must be sick and tired of being the Scandinavian underdogs because they sure sound pissed!
Silverbullit in the studio
At last: Silverbullit report that they are officially planning to record new material: https://www.facebook.com/silverbullitband/posts/10151027350235487
The return of Blue for Two
Legendary Swedish act Blue for Two, the duo of Freddie Wadling and Henryk Lipp, are back again with a new album, their first in 14 years. Entitled "Tune the piano and hand me a razor", it will be released on February 6 via .
Next Life
Artificial divinity
Fysisk Format
Meshuggah djentiness + Genghis Tron Commodore-64iness – vox = Next Life.
The above equation is all you need in order to understand what "Artificial divinity" sounds like. For the purposes of review, however, I suppose I should give you an idea of its listenability. Well, it's alright; there's a bit of piddling about with sounds on a couple of tracks here, the results of which touch on a dark ambient sentiment more than any hint of conventional metal. Not that conventional really applies anywhere on "Artificial divinity", mind. Those tracks works very well as they stand on the album. The big let down on something that would be an otherwise killer album, though, is that the other tracks -- the metal stuff -- could really do with vocals of some sort. This style of metal just doesn't lend itself that well to instrumentalism, despite what the Norwegian trio might think. It has to be said, though, that even though Steve Wiebe doesn't really look like he's into metal, if he is, he's probably into this sort of stuff. Twelve songs in just over 20 minutes. Mental bunch of bastards!
- John Norby