Tag: Reviews
7
Tobias Hellkvist's segment of the split opens strongly with "Vintervarm" from the album "Sides". The following track, "Always problems", is thickly instrumented, as many of Hellkvist's other compositions are, reminiscent of Broken Social Scene's more experimental efforts. At six minutes, though, "Always problems" doesn't have the movement or flair that the majority of "Sides" holds, but as a track on a split EP, the track entertains. "Ships of the North Atlantic" is the standout on Side A, demonstrating Hellkvist's talents as a vocalist.
Scotland's Metronomes work in a similar vein to Tobias Hellkvist: strata of guitars bleeding out their reverb-heavy lines into compositions that tread the territory between downhearted and uplifted. Metronomes would not feel out of place on Polyvinyl Records' stellar roster in the 90s. "Bridge and tunnel" has the quiet confidence of an American Football or a Sea and Cake track, gliding along on its clean, delayed guitar stabs, and the other contributions to the split continue this Midwestern indie/postrock feel.
The split is well-balanced, though skews ever slightly towards Tobias Hellkvist's faculties. It's still worth the effort to track down, especially for anyone who still holds a torch for acts like Owen and Cap'n Jazz.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
10
Detektivbyrån began making waves as soon as they released their first songs last year. This was more than a little surprising given how very niche it sounds to play all-instrumental music heavily influenced by Nordic and Eastern European folk based primarily on accordion, vibes, and keyboards. Yet the sheer fun of their sound has won them an enthusiastic following.
"Wermland", their first full-length release, is fun. But it also reveals them to be far more than quirky entertainment. The songs here are beautiful, and woven together into a whole that is evocative, whimsical, ageless and timeless. At points it's got the simplicity of children's music, at others, sophistication that would be at home in classical music. Throughout, it demonstrates impeccable melodic pop sensibility. Their ability to synthesize diverse traditions into immediately accessible riffs and rhythms that are simultaneously deeply familiar and altogether fresh is exceptional. This serious contender for album of the year will sound just as good decades from now.
- Nancy Baym
9
There is something endearingly vulnerable and honest about Robert Svensson's music, a quality that carries through in waves on even the thinnest guitar sound or simplest of keyboard arrangements. This sincerity attracted me to Svensson's other project Mixtapes & Cellmates and, while elements of that band bleed over into his solo project, "Young punks are on the never-never" is a far more personal collection of songs, thus amplifying the very attribute that attracted me in the first place. Pair that with a stellar lineup of musical guests -- Markus Krunegård of Laakso, Adam Olenius of Shout Out Louds, Jejo Perkovic of The Bear Quartet, and Japan's Cokiyu -- and you have one of the very best albums of the year. Robert Svensson crafts some of the most original music coming out of Sweden, positioning himself as an equal alongside most of the bands one could claim influence him -- a point strongly evidenced by those who appear alongside the young songsmith on his debut solo album. Whether he croons along with Markus Krunegård on "Young enough", a track that opens like a Tom Petty creation before being assaulted with rather Scandinavian assemblage of instrumentation; raises his fantastic voice over the dance floor-ready heights of the appropriately titled "1991"; or whirls about on the choppy, far too short "Young punks", it's as though Robert Svensson can do no wrong. Since I didn't give 10s to either Aerial or Shout Out Louds, the acts who produced my two favorite albums of 2007, I can't very well give Robert Svensson a 10 here... but I am damn tempted to.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Teeth of the Divine on the international release of The Psyke Project's most recent album "Apnea": https://teethofthedivine.com/site/reviews/the-psyke-project-apnea/
It's a solid release, but definitely not their best work.
The Silent Ballet reviews Swedish doom act Suffocate For Fuck Sake and their new concept album "Blazing fires and helicopters on the frontpage of the newspaper. There's a war going on and I'm marching in heavy boots": https://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/1811/Default.aspx
8
After last year's uneven "Where the ocean meets my hand", Billie and his band of twee warriors have returned with what is easily their most consistent album, and also their best. Most notably, the band has added a proper drumkit this time around, and the time was ripe for such a maneuver, as bongos can only take you so far (even Guster realized this one). The drums, therefore allow their songs to groove like they haven't done before, thus "Lily From the Middleway Street" and "Swedish sin" are great, driving songs. And with "I miss you" and "Relay race", the band has given us their most affecting work since "Ghost". After a bit of a lull, it's great to see Billie the Vision and the Dancers back on their game.
- Matt Giordano
9
"Yes this is my broken shield", the opener to The Deer Tracks' debut record, is a track that could easily have overshadowed the rest of the album. And while "Aurora" never again reaches the stellar heights of the closing minutes of "...broken shield", the band has plenty of other avenues to explore. The electronic production on "Aurora" is nothing short of fantastic, combining the glitchy with the organic, folding the vocals and guitars effortlessly into the mix, and creating dense, lavish compositions that effortlessly span the emotional range from triumphant to melancholic. Strangely, there are only little touches to connect this project to David Lehnberg's previous bands (Leiah, Ikaros, Ariel Kill Him), with far more connections drawn to acts such as Four Tet, the Notwist, Sigur Rós' "Ba ba ti ki di do" and Mew. "Aurora", despite the range of its influences, is a distinctively Scandinavian, if not characteristically Swedish, record -- showing beauty to be both a thing of wonder and tragedy, and effortlessly so. As I wrote for "Yes this is my broken shield", The Deer Tracks have raised the bar. "Aurora" is one of the great albums of 2008.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
9
Tobias Hellkvist is a year younger than me, and he's been making music consistently since his teens. One of those strange anomalies that occur along the varied timelines of musical progression, Hellkvist picks up on a few well-established ideas -- those of folk guitar landscapes and postrock architecture -- and transforms both accepted forms into something greater than the pair combined, an almost 2 + 2 = 5. There is not quite the technical proficiency of Espen Jørgensen, but that is not Hellkvist's aim. "Sides" is an album of layering, of introduction and reintroduction, of something being shaped and remodeled and augmented. One of the best examples of this, and one of my favorite tracks on "Sides", is the fluent and gorgeous "Vintervarm". Hellkvist has quite a nice voice too, as evidenced on "Summer away". All in all, "Sides" is one of those albums that's as hard to pin down as it is easy to fall for. I have no doubt that it will be a strong contender when it comes to choosing The Best of 2008.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Dusted is not too keen on the Serena Maneesh retrospective "S-M backwards": https://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4556
PopMatters on Norwegian artist Hilde Marie Kjersem and her record "A killer for that ache": https://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/63508/hilde-marie-kjersem-a-killer-for-that-ache
Tobias Hellkvist/Metronomes
Detektivbyrån
Robert Svensson
Billie the Vision & the Dancers
The Deer Tracks
Tobias Hellkvist