After a couple of months with a lower post frequency, I’m trying to catch up here on the blog. Today I start with one of the best Swedish hip hop albums I have heard in a while. It’s the band Supersci, hailing from Sundsvall, who released the record “Entropy” in April, a record that certainly deserves a place in the spotlight.

It’s a thematic album which interestingly revolves around the physical concept of entropy, a measure of the disorder of a system, and the law that states that the disorder in the universe constantly grows. They twist and turn this theme in a number of ways, witty, playful, thoughtful. The music is mainly based on electronica and is quite varying, both catchy and creative. They have rooted their sound in nordic ambiences but don’t hesitate to bring in world music in the shape of of  latino- and african rhythms, along with other influences. They are accompanied by a row of well-chosen guests and you get to hear Kristin Amparo, Cleo, 7evenThirty, Isabel Neib and Rapper kC contribute to the songs. Taste three of the songs from an impressive album.

Supersci’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Pontus Torstensson is a drummer who’s been involved in a number of projects. We have heard him before here in the band Echodeck in a couple of posts. In Spring he launched a new solo project where he released the debut album through the cassette label Zeon Light.

He calls the music “cosmic electronic krautdisco with ambient elements”, which works well as a description but hides the fact that the music is quite varied on the album. He moves from NIN-hard industry-pumping synths to jazz-caressing works to ambient environments. There are universal elements, though, like the pulsating rhythms in dark, retro-vibing rooms which sounds of psychadelia, krautrock, German synth pop, techno and a lot more. Well, and the space sounds also of course, they are there and push me into the Moonbase Alpha-laboratory every now and then. And this music would fit well in a space opera just as it would in the retro disco.

Tentakel on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

The two composers and sound artists Stefan Klaverdal and Håkan Lidbo have put their minds together and created the album “Contemporary Composers play Love ballads vol. 1”. Here they take on some of the most popular love ballads from the eighties and the nineties, ballads that here come out with a completely different shape and meaning.

They write that they both have a fascination for bad taste and the cultural codes which mark the lines between pop culture and fine culture. Here they want to see if they can distill drops of darkness or artistic depth from these classics which we’ve heard som many times before. They have worked with the complete original recordings, which they have time-stretched, chopped, distilled, added effects to, well, in many ways transformed the songs into something different. And the songs do become interesting again. When they succeed they extract distinctive characteristics from the tracks and turn them into a completely new mood or ambience. Here are two of my favourites where Bryan Adams’ love declaration no longer sound that innocent, and Whitneys Houston’s long tones become a eerie and haunting. Listen to the entire album on their Soundcloud page.

Stefan Klaverdal’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify

Håkan Lidbo’s site – on Spotify

Even though the paint from the debut album “På riktigt” is still wet, Låtsaspoeten is already on his way with the follow-up. It’s called “Nattmusik för människor” and he has promised to deliver it in the early Autumn, with plenty of time before the Winter darkness gets a hold of us again. The first taste “Hoppet kan va hopplöst” was released today, and he says that we can expect more extracts from the album in the time to come.

Låtsaspoeten på Facebook – på Spotify

Last year I was fascinated by her voice when I wrote about Lilla Milo and presented soul songs that have etched themselves into my mind. Now Cosima Lamberth focuses on her soul career and has released her debut EP “Head In the Clouds” with four songs during June.

I think it’s an exquisite record with tracks that each one has it’s own character and where Cosima gets to show her vocal range as a soul singer. She can be impulsive as in “Still I Know” where she pulls out the last breath of each phrase and delivers them with an inescapable urgency , or she can expose a naked voice without anything that dims the path to your inner emotions as in the longing, neo soul vibing “Come Back”.

The arrangements are also wonderful, filled with jazz drenched harmonies which vary between the dreamy to the slight melancholic. It feels warm, organic and radiates retro vibes as well as a breath of contemporary, creative soul. Listen here to two of the songs from the EP:

Cosima on Facebook – on Spotify