Obliq, which we wrote about a little more than a year ago, have made a series of live studio recordings, from both earlier songs as well as new ones. They filmed the sessions and plan to release a video every month.

Here are “We Come From the Stars”, featuring Annelie, to listen to and download. And below, the latest video, “The Loneliest Figure”. Go to Obliq’s Youtube channel to follow them.

We Come From the Stars

The Loneliest Figure:

Skadade ljud is a new acquaintance. They started the band last summer, but it really took off this april as they released their first creations out into the open, with a three-track EP.

It’s pop/rock in Swedish, where they paint grand, slightly mellow pictures. And all is told by Daniel Månstråles vocals which gives it all that little extra touch of drama.

Here are two songs to listen to:

Ingen förstår oss ändå
Citodon

Visit Skadade ljud on Facebook

My Closest Friend, hailing from Göteborg, released a singel in the end of May, “Air”. They offer two songs with rather different character. “Air” with a heavy post-grunge rock feeling and “Real Time”, lighter with some country vibes in it. I can’t help thinking of  R.E.M. as I listen, maybe to some extent because of the vocals.

It will be interesting to see what My Closest Friend will come up with next. You’ll find the band on Myspace and on Facebook. Here are the songs:

Air
Real Time

In November I wrote about The Open Up and Bleeds. Their debut album is now recorded and ready for launch, but so far there’s no date set for the release.

Of course you get a better view of a band when you can listen to an entire album, but it’s a little hard anyway to catch The Open Up and Bleeds. Makes it even more interesting for me, as I’m served a lot of variation from dirty, messy rock with a heavy drive in high speed, to slower, more tense and dark songs.

It’s The Stooges, Neil Young-rock, a rawer This Perfect Day and maybe some early The Cure too. As I said, it’s not available yet, but I really hope it will be soon. Meanwhile you can visit the band on their Myspace page and on Facebook. Here’s a song and also a video from the album:

This Noise

OK Is Not OK:

Others about The Open Up and Bleeds: Absolut Noise, Buck Theorem’s Hide-out

The masked rapper Follow Him to the End of the Desert is here with the 21-track mixtape, “Jacksonian March Mixtape”. And there’s quite some material here.

With the help of a number of guests like for example Prop Dylan, Stiko Per Larsson and K-Element, he present a coherent album with a lot of variation. Funk, soul, jazz, rock is mixed into the agressive rap but at the same time there’s a lot of self-distance and humour. Really good this, and I’ll make it this summer’s hip hop favourite.

If you’d like to grab the entire album, it’s available for download, completely free. You can find Follow Him to the End of the Desert on Myspace and on Spotify. Here are two tracks and a video:

Sea Lion (feat Stiko Per Larsson)
Lord Knows (feat Prop Dylan)

Jacksonian March feat Prop Dylan: