The Norwegian band Wild Fauna has created a sweet, messy sound on their debut single “Crooked Smile”. It’s raw, full of crunchy garage guitars and feels liberatingly simple and energic in the powerpop-vibing chorus. The 90’s seem close when I’m thinking about refererences and I’m not surprised when I see that they mention Dinosaur Jr. and The Posies among the influences. The song is the first taste of their debut album, which is due for release soon.
The alternative rock duo The Perfect Mess released a new video last month. It’s the song “First Mess” that gets a special treatment, a song taken from their debut EP, released last year. I think it’s one of the best tracks from the record. Here the 80’s-vibing synths get some more space, which combined with the dramatic guitar riffs give a special atmosphere in the song.
The first song I heard from Joe & the Anchor’s new album “King of Sins” was the wonderful ambient ballad “Sin Against Sins”. The song is not quite characteristic for the other songs on the record, but I can sense some spices here which runs through many of the tracks. Here’s an unpredictability in the harmonies and the song structures, big emotions and a sweet sense of melodies.
The album is quite varied, a brew with inspiration from britpop, Americana, alternative rock and other styles. They mention artists like The National, Editors and Nick Drake as influences and when I listen I feel it pours down associations from the first song to the last and I hear everything from Soundgarden to Foo Fighters and Manic Street Preachers. It’s a colourful mix with both deep dark shades as well as brighter ones. The base is a a rather powerful and spacious guitar-based sound, carefully spiced with synths and nice vocal harmonies. Joakim Rosenlund has a special tone in his voice I really appreciate and he also has both the power and the amplitude in his expression to take on these multifaceted songs. Another splash of colour is Yrsa Schau’s vocals who join Joakim on a few songs.
Here are three excellent samples from a quite delicious album, the second full length record from the band since they started in 2013.
Quarrtsiluni is a word in Inuit which roughly means that you are quietly sitting together waiting for something to happen. You may listen to this album in that way, but I do think that it’s rather eventful. There are six tracks which are titled only with numbers: Song one, two, three.. and so on. Each song or track is an improvisation with the starting point in the feeling of just sitting together and the sensation that something has to be said, something necessary. Maybe the spirit of the great whale is among us in the music, as they write on the label Lamour records.
Lisa Ullén on piano and Nina de Heney on double bass have been playing together for a long time and they are a well established duo. On “Quarrtsiluni” they are also joined by Swiss Charlotte Hug on alto violin.
Read more here and listen to the entire album in one session in the Youtube clip below, or sample one of the tracks in the Soundcloud player.
The horses without makeup are back, now with their debut album “Pt 1”. Last year we got to know their mix of grunge, punk and stoner rock when they ran us over with their first EP. Here on their first full length record the song “Sopsekt” has found its home among eight new songs, and if you liked them before, you won’t be dissapointed now. This is pure rock energy which grinds you in 27 minutes and obviously they grinded themselves a bit during the recording sessions. They write that the singer and guitarist Martin overdid himself while they were recording and fainted among all the equipment. They wanted to keep everything from the session so they simply put this track at the end of the album, and you can hear the incident on the last track “Number 9”. For sensitive listeners I can report that Martin is back on his feet again. Here are two songs:
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