Now I’m going to play some music from the Swedish-Irish duo Tenonsaw. They recently released “Avenging Angels E​.​P.”, an EP that feels much more accessible than their earlier works. There’s still an experimental, sometimes minimalistic approach and these odd chord sequences, but with a clear focus on carrying the lyrics and Salt’s vocals. The result is a set of pop songs with a unique sound and ambience, desolately beautiful and songs that grow each time I listen. Here are two of them.

Tenonsaws site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Rara – on Bandcamp

Fou De Toi

It’s hard to keep up with an ever increasing stream of new Swedish music to my inbox. I’m trying to find ways to be more efficient, and one way is to present releases in a post like this, as a collection of releases, so I thought that I should try it out and see how it works. I hope you like it. Well, here’s a collection of new singles, and it came out with a pop theme as well.

Fou De Toi – “Fall Out”

The pop chorus masters Fou De Toi was contacted in the beginning of this year by the producer Ronald Blood (Shout Out Louds, Mando Diao et. al.). Apparently he had seen them live and liked what he heard. They had a meeting, decided to collaborate and then during a weekend in April they reunited in Ronald’s studio to work with some Fou De Toi songs. This song, “Fall Out” is a first result of this session, and if I read between the lines you’ll probably get to hear more songs soon.

Fou De Toi’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

Cajsa Siik – “The Fix”

“The Fix” is Cajsa Siik’s first single since the album debut “Plastic House” last year. It’s also the first peek at her upcoming album, an album which currently goes under the project name “Contra”. “The Fix is a conversation I had once with myself about escapism as a way of freedom”, Cajsa writes about the song.

Cajsa Siiks site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara

Skuggväsen – “Kärleksdöden”

Behind this melodramatic song title “Kärleksdöden” (“The death of love”) we find a band that call themselves Skuggväsen. Well, I don’t really know if it’s a band as the info is quite scarce. It’s a synth pop song in Swedish and besides the electronic background and the nice synth lines there’s also a vibe of classic Swedish pop.

Skuggväsen on Tumblr – on Soundcloud

I Don’t Speak French – “Let It Go”

Recently I wrote about I Don’t Speak French’s debut single “We Are the People“. This week they released the follow-up “Let It Go” where they continue to explore their a bit unique indie sound with falsetto vocals, smooth bass lines and a bit restrained but groovy arrangement. I like the feeling of unpredictability in their songs, of where the song is going next.

I Don’t Speak French on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara

In Summer I wrote about Filip Sundberg’s solo project Tiger Forest Cat and the soft single “Everybody’s Running”. Later he followed up with a four-track EP, an EP that doesn’t disappoint me at all. It’s a wonderfully sounding EP where he borrows to the sound from the seventies and the eighties and from today, but the feeling that remains is that from sunshine pop of the late seventies, where the sky is always blue and the winds are warm and gentle. It’s a little like some remember the summers of their childhood with always good weather, which is not so strange in my case as I was a child during those years. The EP is free to download and on the download page there are also vocal tracks to fetch if you’d like to remix the songs. Here are two of the songs.

Tiger Forest Cat on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara

Kid Wave is a band based in London, but led by two musicians from Norrköping. So far they’ve released a couple of singles, the latest one being this pop single, “Shelley”, which with an airy sound and layered guitars hints at good old surf pop, but in a more relaxed tempo, like if the surfing board got to heavy and they decided to chill out on the beach instead.

Kid Wave’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara – on Soundcloud

Marrakech, hailing from Umeå, whom I wrote about in Spring, released their debut album  “Minns ingenting” this Autumn. We find them on the same scene as before; it’s the early seventies and they play blues rock influenced by heavier bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple among others who are on their way of creating the hard rock genre. The sound is as basic as it can be: two guitars, a bass guitar, drums and vocals and besides some vocal harmonies I can’t hear any additional tracks in this production. What you can hear is exactly what you get when you get to see them live.

Marrakech on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud – on Rara – on Bandcamp