Here’s a new single with Fou De Toi and a new change in their sound. This time they have written and produced the song together with Olle Blomström, aka Faråker. Obviously this song is the first single from the upcoming EP and not the earlier single “Don’t Know What to Do“, which I wrote then. Here they start out with a more open sound, breatlessly urging us on, literally. It all explodes in a contagious pop refrain with football choirs, which will hook you up the first time you hear it, I promise.

Fou De Toi’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music – on Soundcloud

Soil Collectors turn out to be a quite descriptive name of this quartet of free-thinking musicians: Hannah Tolf, Jonathan Albrektson, Isabel Sörling and Martin Öhman. They dig deep down into the musical soil of native cultures around the world. From the inuits of Greenland, Mexican indians or desert nomads they fetch rhytms, voices, myths and tones on which they build something new and unique. Rhytmic rites build up to electronic, grandiose spaces, chanting voices and shouts are mixed with melodic vocal harmonies and ambient soundscapes are coloured by ancient cultures.

It’s music that keeps moving and changing and which is totally unpredictable. I dare to say that their new album “Tah-Tay Leet’ Kah Lah” doesn’t sound like anything else. It’s a fascinating blend of world music, art and pop, which is impossible to categorize. The song here below, the beautiful and powerful “Windbird”, is based on a legend from the inuits of Greenland. It’s the song that comes closest to our expectations of a pop song, but I recommend to listen to the entire album to experience what I’ve tried to describe above.

Soil Collectors on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

Half of the duo Our Underground Firm, the rapper Compulsive, has released his debut track “Take Me Home”. It’s a fascinating track where he moves through the big city’s illusive setting, a setting where he no longer belongs. His humanity is being stripped away, which he underlines with his somewhat chopped flow, and the swirling voices and sounds around him put him in a suggestive and foreign world. It’s creative and thought out from the first line to the last. Hiphop at its best. And the city, it’s Stockholm.

Compulsive on Facebook

Victor Håkansson and his The Culture In Memoriam are back with a new single, which is also the first peek at the upcoming album “History’s Dust”. It’s an impassioned strike at the hollow values of the adult world, that builds up to a grandiose final where I immediately join them in the chorus. We also get a bonus track in the shape of “Foggy Days In Malmö” where Victor is left alone with his guitar and his intensity in a folkindie-vibing song.

The Culture In Memoriam on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

Philip Larsson and his band Monte Nour are preparing for the release of the debut EP “Into the Light” on Friday. They have released a couple of singles from the EP already, the last one being “Olivia”, which you can listen to here below. It’s a sweet and beautiful pop ballad that reminds me of Paul McCartney, and where Philip is backed by a string quartet which adds vivid, classical warmth. I have also added the first single “Too Confused”, released earlier this month.

Monte Nour – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music