Tag: Reviews
This record has taken me a long time for me to compose a review for, mainly because I really am unsure how to describe Deltahead's sound to anyone who is unfamiliar with them, but I'll try: Deltahead are a band that plays a drunken combination of blues, punk, rockabilly and garage rock, so fans of The Black Keys, take note. I believe this works best for the on the tracks "Don't move to Finland", "My mama was too lazy to pray" and "I smile at you". These three songs make the first half of the album fly through, but the second half drags a little as the tempo is taken down. Although it's only thirty minutes total, it makes it seem as if the album is a little too long. However, I can see this band's sound working best in the live setting and, as they progress in songwriting together, putting out one rocker of an album.
- Matt Giordano
On their new EP, Eskju Divine continue their epic-styled indie rock. At points reminding me of Adom, with parts Radiohead, The Mercury Program and The Cancer Conspiracy. I was unsure what to think about it as first, but after listening multiple times, it's really the instrumentation that shines on this recording. It creates a surreal dreamland for the listener and is the most effective when the vocals are absent. And while the vocals are not bad at all (at points, they are good segues into different song-parts), I particularly find the music to be the strong point.
- Matt Giordano
Hets are something of a Swedish indie "supergroup", with members from Laakso, Doktor Kosmos, Fireside and Moneybrother. With those bands in mind, you don't really expect Hets to play Swedish punk sung in Swedish, but that's exactly what they do. Everyone seems to mention Mattias Alkberg BD when they talk about Hets and I can see why, since Hets do sound like MABD (although I don't think MABD should be the only people allowed to make punk music sung in their native language). Living in London, it's not every day I get to witness a concert like this, so perhaps I'm overreacting slightly, but I really enjoyed this show and I think I will now look into getting my hands on Hets' album (I assume and hope that the punk ethos is reflected in the price of their CD).
- Simon Tagestam
This Danish quartet is led by a talented female vocalist who is somewhere between Melissa Etheridge and PJ Harvey on the "gritty pipes" spectrum. She also reminds a bit of Sofia Hardig, a Swedish vocalist who mines similar brooding, guitar-based indie rock territory. There's an emotional edge to the 13 tunes here that's really gripping. "Turn around" is a particularly great song, with its artfully muted background ambience and intimate upfront vocals; when strings enter the mix subtly, the effect is spine-tingling. The single "Seldom lost" is a sharply arranged guitar rocker, and if you're the type that digs brooding mid-tempo indierock, you'll reach nirvana in tunes like "Frosty fingers", the kick-ass "Pressure" ("I put pressure on you to leave me be/I put presuure on anybody who'd prefer a smile"...lines that sum up Kira's aesthetic nicely), the bluesy jangler "Let it out", and the achingly lovely acoustic tunes "Sullen girl" and "I won a while". Serious attention seems to have been paid to the overall pacing of this album and the very potent rendering of both the vocals and the often fiery, '60s-influenced guitar work. It has paid off nicely; this is probably one of the sturdiest and most consistent Scandi-rock platters of the year.
- Kevin Renick
I have to be honest, I wasn't that keen on Lo-Fi-Fnk's debut EP "...and the JFG?" that came out last year. Amid brilliant releases from other Swedish "electro duos", such as The Tough Alliance, Three is a crowd, Cat5, and Le Sport (then known as Eurosport), Lo-Fi-Fnk just didn't cut it. Now, with no new TTA material around, a dissapointing album from TIAC, Cat5's album yet to be released, and an album from Le Sport that's got a lot of great songs although I've heard most of them before - "Boylife" comes as a true saviour. The first half of the album is superior to the second, but that's mainly due to starting off with the two magnificent tracks "City" and "Adore". If you're into any of the bands I mentioned above, you should check this one out as well; it's one of my favourites of the year so far.
- Simon Tagestam
This record just may be the best one released in the pre-summer months, and will prove listenable throughout said sunny days and warm nights. Peter Bjorn and John offer up their third proper full-length here, and although I was skeptical at first, upon more listens I'm finding myself loving this. It could just be the trees and flowers blooming and that everytime I listen to the album it's bright and sunny out, but I also think it's the trio's songwriting. With this record they have honed their craft into lilting pop melodies, yet still retaining the sounds and production values older fans have grown to love. "Young folks" is a damn fine first single, but the real highlights are "Amsterdam", "Paris 2004", "Let's call it off" and "The chills", with the last song containing one of the most beautiful closings I've heard in a long while. It may take the older fans a little while to get acclimated to a happier Peter Bjorn and John, but once you do, you'll realize that this record fits perfectly in the collection of what is becoming a tour de force in Swedish music.
- Matt Giordano
I've always been a fan of male vocalists with really high voices. From Jon Anderson to Thom Yorke to Daniel Smith, there's something really compelling about both naturally high pipes as well as falsettos stretched to the max. So when Avi described Eric Beyond as having such a voice, I was immediately interested. And this self-titled release does not disappoint. It's a curious blend of styles, mostly a kind of proggy psychedelia with both pop and musical theatre underpinnings. Remarkably, the disc is only half an hour long, yet the instrumental passages (and a few tunes like "Seabisquit" are entirely instrumental) unquestionably recall the halcyon days of '70s prog; you can hear a bit of Yes, Faust and others in the arrangements. On "If this is the way", Beyond sings "If this is the way everything is falling apart/I want it to happen," going to the upper reaches of his falsetto on that latter phrase. You almost hold your breath listening to it. The pretty piano ballad "Shadows" also gives him a chance to go up, up and away, while on the uptempo "I don't follow", great bass and percussion work (and the guitar parts dazzle throughout) share impact with the hilarious lyric "I got to admit it, I can't listen to you/Cause you're consuming too much contemporary Cul-CHUR," Beyond singing the last syllable high and, uh, outside. Big fun! There's a couple of almost-normal indie-pop kinda songs here like "One of those days", but most of this is willfully eccentric stuff, and if you can't take that voice, you'll be weirded out immediately. Me, I dug the heck out of this; it really doesn't sound much like anything else, and I wish it had been twice as long.
- Kevin Renick
Please someone pass me the bourbon to go with this record... oh and get me a cigar, book me into a New York City hotel, get me a seat by the window and let classically trained, north Stockholm resident Asha Ali be playing. Simplistic electric piano, plucked acoustic guitar, minimal backing harmonies and accompaniment is the recipe, deviated upon on one track "Just a light touch" which features some vibraphone/organ/accordion. She does the singer/songwriter thing, but with more instrumentation and sullen tones. Ali's pitches can at times reach The Tiny or Montys Loco quality, but cuts above as she manages not to warble or become too overly sentimental. An outstandingly worked EP that is sure to keep doing me in.
- Jason Christie
On their website, Holy Madre describe themselves as making "popmusic that sounds like a mixture of Fleetwood Mac, The Boss, Pink Floyd, television-shows for children and Bryan Adams," which I suspect may be Swedish for "run screaming in the opposite direction." It's true that much of this record of quiet restrained melodies would have fit just fine on 1970s album-oriented radio, somewhere between Al Stewart and Steely Dan, but the rest offers moments far more compelling. The strongest songs are "Shallow bay," a fun romp not unlike early Jayhawks without the harmonies and "The sun," with more of a late 60s almost Beach Boys feel. Other songs have their moments, but as a whole the record falls short and, by the final third, vacillates between boring and annoying.
- Nancy Baym
Jomi Massage transports you to the type of place that I like: a dark, claustrophobic, yet beautiful landscape. It is like stepping into a Tim Burton movie where he finally decided to wise up and let go of Danny Elfman. The range of emotion displayed is just as wide as film scores tend to be and goes from the sadly melancholic to happy-pissed off to depressingly lovelorn. The closest thing I could compare this to is the most depressing PJ Harvey records, but Jomi Massage also has a rock side that is sprinkled throughout the record. The music uses every instrumentation technique in the book, from a capella to straight rock to minimalist electronics. This is a very good record and effective, if a little too overproduced in parts, but certainly the type of record that I find pleasing to my ears.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Songs I Wish is one of the best new labels in Sweden right now. Their forté tends to be poppy electronic music, indebted to the 1980s. "Euro deluxe dance party" is the first full-length album released on the label and you may well already be familiar with the hit "Your brother is my only hope", which may also be the greatest pop song released in the last year. Upon first listening to the record, it came across as being too kitsch for my liking with its Italiiano-style house pianos and multi-coloured artwork (heck, they even list DJ Bobo as an influence). However, after putting up with it, I realised that there is very little irony here. It's all the better for it, as "Euro deluxe dance party" is the perfect blend of Pet Shop Boys and New Order. Notable highlights on this are the instrumental wigout "Love train" and the plinky plonky piano-led "Every lovesong" which occasionally veers into mid-eighties Italian style house music. You need this record in your life.
- Nick Levine
"Big night out" it is as the Milestone Corp. goes through the motions of being clones of the Deadly Snakes, the awesome Toronto blues-rock band. I am not saying that the Snakes have the exclusive rights to this sound, but the fact that they rock about twice as much as anything that is on this record has me wondering if the Milestone Corporation's songwriting is up to par. Some of this stuff is actually pretty good, but nothing close to what they would need to keep me interested. It's also pretty badly mixed and a little reverb on those vocals would take the edge off. Better luck next time.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Monoton, for all intent and purposes, should not have finished "Greenwood". The band lost their singer, Morten Havn, following complication after a surgery, right after almost finishing an Albini-produced sophomore album. After rebuilding themselves and the band, they reconvened with Søren Vibjerg to finish that damned sophomore album. The results are good, if not very good. Their brand of slow, heavy and country rock reminds oneself of some of Nick Cave's output or Johnny Cash's American recording series in which the legend managed to create the heaviest material of his career by stripping things down to its bare essentials. Monoton use a similar technique by relying in elongated chords, ringing bass notes and 3 note leads to create some very interesting music. The only problem I have is Vibjerg who tries way too hard to be dark and uses a deeper voice than he is able to. His voice sound way too forced for this to work properly. You can imagine Till Lindemann of Rammstein doing this perfectly, but Vibjerg is just unable to achieve it. Still, pretty enjoyable.
- Simon Thibaudeau
For the stupid two language dude that I am, there is something inherently charming about a women singing in a Nordic tongue, must be Björk-envy. In any case, Under Byen singer Henriette Sennenvaldt sings in this dreamy whispery voice that is simply incredibly sexy, yet triste. The music underneath is post-rock in a similar fashion to Do Make Say Think, but with a more noisy aspect of raw percussion and field recordings. Under Byen also uses a lot of minimal arrangements to create a thin curtain behind Sennenvaldt, only to explode a few minutes later in an intense fury. Instrumentation is all over the place and adds to the overall brilliance. I have heard plenty of post-rock in the last few years, but this is amongst the best.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Peter Bjorn and John
Sir Eric Beyond and the Avant-garde
Asha Ali
Holy Madre
Monoton