“Louis” is Join the Riot’s tribute to Lou Reed, one of the band’s heroes. It’s also the first single from their debut EP “Buckle Up”, which was released recently.
Oh, sweet absence is a young band hailing from Eksjö, who make music which sometimes feel like if Lou Reed and The National had started project together.
Epic, grand Göteborg-garagepop from Malmö with the band Pestens tid. They have a new brilliant album out now, “Inte tänka, inte höra”. Here are two songs:
We’ve met Jonnie Holmberg before as a drummer in Lilla Milo, a band I wrote about earlier this Spring. He has formed the producer duo KLoN together with Johannes Hansson, a duo that work with the conept that each song is sung by a different artist. So far they have released two singles, “För högt” and “Hade du vart kvar”, sung by Andrea Hatanmaa and Jonnie Holmberg repectively. It’s wonderful mix of soul funk and pop with a more contemporary angle on the the first one and a retro-seventies vibe on the second song. Listen for yourself:
The two brothers John and Adam Kristiansson, hailing from Lund, form the duo Saintway. A couple of weeks ago they released the debut single, “It’s Over Now”, a well produced track which breathes of countrypop, decorated with beautiful melodies and neat vocal harmonies.
I bumped into the band Beat the Heart a couple of times last year, and their “Glebe Market” became a favourite of mine. They have a new EP out now, “Waiting For a Sequel”, with grand, ambient pop, from which I’d be happy to share a couple of tracks with you:
Here are two songs from Caravan Cult’s debut EP “Escape the Looney Bin”. It’s a great debut from the band, with a pleasant melancholy in their indiepop/rock, a bit in the direction of The National.
If Mount David’s first single came with a breath of Van Morrison, the second single, “Do Most Anything” have a fragrance of Simon & Garfunkel and CSN&Y. Not bad at all.
Manifestet – “Hur det blev som det blev”
We’ve met Jonas Carping before as a solo artist and in The Glade. Now he’s created a new project, “Manifestet”, together with Martin Karlsson, and released the debut single. It’s called “Hur det blev som det blev”, and brings a strong vibe of classic Swedish folk-progressive music, but which comes out like a battle song for our time.
Crying Day Care Choir recently released their debut album “Leave the Kingdom”. So bring a blanket and settle down on the green grass under the blue summer sky and the band will treat you with warmth, flowers, peace signs, smiles, sing-a-long and fellowship. Here’s the first single and video from the album, “Up & Away”:
Joe Fiddle, or Joe Nyström which is his real name, comes from Älvsbyn in the north of Sweden. For some time he’s made a living as a street musician in both Dubrovnik’s old city and at the pier in Santa Monica, but is now back in Sweden and Umeå. In the Autumn he’ll release his first record “Where I’ll Spend My Years”, and serves us a taste here with this single, “Where I’ll Spend My Years”, a song that has vibes of Bob Dylan and Tallest Man On Earth.
Samuraj Cities started out in 2006 as a duo with label backing, but now they describe themselves as a music collective with a DIY spirit. They caught my attention with the new video to the song “Atlas”, a video they released last month. The song is taken from their excellent album “Metallic” from last year. I haven’t presented this album before so I added “Boulevard” from the album also. “Atlas” breathes of The Cure, like if they have taken some of that sound and wrapped it in a large, warm blanket, made of wool from black indie sheep.
The trio Fjärilseffekten, Hampus Blomberg, Hannes Wiklund and Anton Fernández, hailing from Södertälje, sent me this live-recorded pop song, which they build up sweetely. I love the banjo playing also, which fits like a glove in the arrangement. Last year they released the EP “Dansa som en idiot”, earlier this year the single “Brinner upp” and are now aiming for their first full length album.
Philip Larsson started Monte Nour as a solo project, which last year grew and became a five-membered band. The debut single is called “Busy Day”, a happy-sounding song which makes me think of Paul McCartney and Rufus Wainwright.
Here’s another wonderful album I missed last year, but which I was reminded of recently as the band Garmish, hailing from Malmö, put up a new remastered version of the album “Fishes” on Spotify. The song “Native Son” was the song I heard first which made me fall for this band immediately. It’s a musical interpretation of Richard Wright’s novel with the same name, and is the most beautifully fragile song I’ve heard in a while. The album then is an exciting adventure in various directions with a lot of different ingredients like electronica, hip hop, funk and other stuff. They seem to do whatever they feel like but have created their own Garmisch ambience which works. Some of the songs are featured in movies, like for example “They Seem To Be Intelligent” in the New York documentary “Nathan’s Famous” and “And Now We Stand Against the Wall” in the upcoming Canadian movie “Sour Diesel”.
Richard Ahlgren and his Danmarck continue to deliver great, intense rock tracks. Here are the two latest ones, “ole ola” and “ali Khan”, where he thanks Wilco, new wave and Pearl Jam’s “Olé” in the subtexts to the first song.
Vindstyrka12 is a band from Göteborg, led by the singer and songwriter Jon Lyster. As a taste of the upcoming album “För det du vet att du älskar” (release in June) they have released the single and video “Ser jag er igen”. And it’s hard to miss Jon’s anger in this song, a song that was written after he got robbed on his way home from a pleasant night out on the town. This is not only about the contempt for other people from the muggers themselves, but also about a chilly society where we shut our eyes and turn away from what’s happening right in front of us on the street. The song becomes a raging rock protest with a clenched fist against this. To me Jon is a new, fresh voice I’d love to hear more from.
Ironically the video was taken down after only a few days on Youtube. Youtube stated that the content was too violent and threatened to close Jon’s account, but he has uploaded the video again, as you can see below.
The trio Supralunar have released a couple of singles while we’re waiting for their debut album, which is said to be scheduled for release in the Autumn. We’ve heard the excellent “People Like Us” before and here’s the second one “Nine Candles” with a video that well reveals their sources of inspiration, as they dress themselves through the history of rock.
This year Magnus Bergman celebrates 15 years as an artist and a few days ago he released the album “MB15” with 15 previously unreleased songs from his career between 1999 and 2014. Some of them come from his diligent song production last year, , but he serves us plenty of other samples from his career like for example this pop-pearl from 2005, “Duellera” and the newest track, the bluesy “En riktig djävul”. The last mentioned song will also be a part of his sixth solo album, to be released in the Autumn.
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Author Archives: Pär Berglund
