It’s been almost three years since Yamon Yamon released their excellent debut album “This Wilderlessness“, but now, in about a week, the next album “Uisu” will be revealed to us. Meanwhile, while we’re waiting, they have released the single “Sticks/Stones” as a first taste of the album.
Yamon Yamon on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp
I’ve written about Fredrik Jonasson’s electronica project Silencio Stampa before. The latest album “The Red Album” was released in 2011, but since then he’s also produced a row of singles and EP:s. A new album “Kalejdoskop” was launched in March, an album which I think takes a different route than the ealier music, and which appeals to me even more.
I’m wrapped in warm analogue powerful synth sounds with sweeping, beautiful melodies; music that breathes a lot of seventies’ and eighties’ nostalgia. He also spices things up with two smooth ballads with vocals by Jenny Gabrielsson Mare rand Compute respectively, where you can listen to the last one here below with “The Hours”. A great album and the best so far from Silencio Stampa.
Silencio Stampa’s site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp
Here’s a nice track from the hip hop band Anydaynow, “Interstate 22″. Well hip hop may be the wrong word for it, maybe it’s better to say soul-vibing rock with rap lyrics. They have anyhow created their very own pleasant mix, recorded, they say, in a shower room inside a an old worn building out in the Swedish woods, just a few steps away from the airport. The song is taken from their new EP “The Heartbreak” which was released recently. You’ll also find their debut single from last year here below, “College”.
Anydaynow on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud
I’m starting this week with Highmountain; acoustic singer-songwriter pop with a large dose of american folk music. Behind the project we find Axel Högberg, hailing from Stockholm and earlier singer in the psychadelia band Lynx and Me. This Spring he released the two-track single “I Will & Above You” where you can listen to the beautiful duet with Natalie Bergqvist “I Will, Will You” here below. His debut came last year with the excellent, self-made EP “Expectations On The Banyan Tree”, which you can taste here with the song “You Can’t Walk Down the Same River Twice”.
Highmountain’s site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp
Monogatari is a band created by Sebastian Ungh. With an open mind for what could be contained in music, he started writing and recording songs in 2007 with the help of instruments from all over the world; old and new, toys and real instruments joined together in the songs and was collected in the debut album “It May Have Seemed Like a Sign of Hope That the Birds Followed Them Out Into the Vastness of the Open Sea”.
A live line-up was formed, which after several changes ended up in a septet that performs using a lot of instruments like banjo, charango, accordion, guitars, drums, bouzouki, violin, ukulele, toy piano, chimes, stylophone, harmonica and percussion in various forms. A few weeks ago the new album “One Step Forward and Two Steps Back?” was released, which is the first one in an album trilogy, to be launched during this year. The records will each have it’s own direction, with this first one having an acoustic, peaceful vibe with a lot of guitars and vaious string instruments. It’s rather naked, with folk-influences from many places and sometimes with a fairytale-ambience to it. Listen to a taste from the album here below.
Monogatari’s site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud
Karin Ström is perhaps mostly known for her own electronica productions from before. After six years of producing in solitude, she felt the need for some company in the studio, which led to a collaboration with the producer Mark Ephraim (A Nighthawk, Sibille Attar, Sofia Knapp). Together with the musicians Kevin Barker (Feist), Parker Kindred (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), and Tyler Wood (Antony & the Johnsons) they recorded the two songs “New York” and “Los Angeles” in Vibromonk Studios, Brooklyn. She says that these songs are the first songs in a larger project with songs about her relation to various cities.
Karin Ström’s site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud
High Coast, a band hailing from Malmö, released their debut EP recently. On it you’ll find four tracks with earthy, Americana-vibing acoustic music full of nature poetry. “Talvatis”, the song here below, was earlier released as a single, and got it’s name from a lake in the north of Sweden.
High Coast on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp
Here’s a piece of cool rock from the band Nocturnal who recently released the album with the same name. “One of a Kind” is the name of the song, a blues and jam rock vibing track, which was also part of the first single from the record.
Nocturnal on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp
Rigas, with Henrik von Euler in the front, released this strong track, “Kungen” (“The King”), some month ago. It’s the second single from the album “Hundra år av vinter” (“Hundred years of winter”), which was released during Spring.
Rigas site – on Spotify – on Wimp
I wrote about YAST, or Youth and Student Travel, already in the first stumbling steps of this blog in 2008. They had just left their hometown Sandviken for Malmö, or at least they were in the process of doing so, and they had a couple of DIY-EP:s in their luggage. Now, five years later, they have just released their debut album, they work with the label Adrian Recordings and right now they are touring in Europe.
When I listen to the new album it strikes me how well they had defined their music already back then, in the beginning. It’s still this dreamy, light indie pop, with a laidback attitude, a playful naivety and sweet melodies. But of course, they have a bigger sound now, it’s more polished, there are more and smoother vocal harmonies as well as guitar layers and their registry is wider. It’s an album that feels perfect for a summery, cloud-watching day and and album fit for a band that have one foot in the gound where they started and the other foot in a big step towards new destinations.
YAST on Tumblr – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp
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