The duo Jehovas, hailing from Umeå, have released their first single, “Stannar du stannar jag”. It sounds synth pop from the eighties, school dances and leather ties in this song that has sort of sneaked in to my mind and stayed there for some hours now with the chorus line and whistle melody. I asked them why they chose to name the band Jehovas:

We think the name fits. There’s something tickling in the sect-like, sickly ordinary and allmighty in Jehovas. After long internal battles we chose to go official with Jehovas and our favourite colour then became pine, pine wood. Readily then in a form of a wooden panel in a small kitchen in a suburb or a small community, where the disease is propagating like a sect or where the sect is spreading like a disease. In that way Jehovas wants to make electronic welfare state pop.
(transl. from Swedish)

This month a new single is going to be released, which you can follow on their site and on Spotify.

Stannar du stannar jag

The electropop duo Koko released their debut album “K.O.” in the beginning of summer. On most songs they also get help from singer Elina Johansson from Dear Euphoria.  The collection of smooth pop melodies is backed by rather restrained arrangements, where it feels like that not a single synth figure has been added without reason. That works great, and the songs have a rather soft, airy, driving club-vibe over them. Well, airy may not be the best word, since they have described their music before as disco from the bottom of the ocean, which makes sense somewhere.

Here is the album version of the earlier single “The Follower”. Follow Koko on Facebook and listen to them on Spotify or on Wimp.

The Follower (alternative mix)

Olof Persson from Broken Boys also has a solo project he calls Heat and White. In spring he released his debut EP “Sea-Through”, which is a different cup of tea than Broken Boys. Here we move down to the sea in 4 ambient and melodic variants of the same theme, with a very special mix of  melodica, reverb heavy guitars, synth figures and beats.

You can listen to the entire album on Bandcamp. The EP is released on the label Zeon Light who explain that they are a tape label, which obviously means that  “Sea-Through” also is available on cassette tape.

Sea-Through

In the end of the eighties 8-bit video game consoles, from Nintendo and Sega, dominated in the TV-couches. But newer and more powerful technology was on it’s way, and Triangle Corp. had developed a game console, shaped as a pyramid, Pharaoh-12, which could boast with 12 bits.

The intent was to start marketing Pharaoh-12 in 1989 and 12 original games was developed for the launch. The music to these games was created by Swedish composer Norddan Fox. Unfortunately Triangle Corp. failed to find the necessary investors in time to be able to mass produce the unit. Soon the new 16-bit consoles took over the market and the entire project died.

Norddan Fox’ music was hidden away and forgotten during a long time, until  Petter Lindhagen, from Tired Tape Machine,  convinced Norddan to let the world hear the songs. Together they started the label Feeder Recordings and a couple of months ago they released the album “Songs from the Pharaoh-12”.

Listen to one of the tracks here below and listen to the entire album on Feeder Recordings’ Bandcamp page.

Coal Mine Joe

Koltrast (transl. Blackbird) is an odd bird in the world of hip hop, if I should call it hip hop. The band consists of the duo Bessem Bedziri, who is behind the beats and the soundscapes, and Olov Larsson, who delivers the lyrics. On their new album “Inre”, you can also find guests like Remedeeh, Henrik Stålnacke, Naomi Runa and Emilie Tejeda.

They explain that the core in the project from the start has been to experiment with the relation between words and sound, and even if the song below “Ruttna Röda Äpplen” (“Rotten Red Apples”) is closing in on hip hop with melody and a strong hook, much of what you can hear on the album would make a strong impression on a poetry recital as well as on a hip hop scene.

I think that they succeed extremely well in creating a connection between the somewhat desolate, melancholic music and Olov’s word imagery and a pleasant balance between the inner journeys and the outside scenery. There’s a strong bond to nature, which is evident in the song titles to start with, and to what I experince as being nordic. I also appreciate that Olov sings in his northern dialect which makes it feel more naked and closer.

You can listen to the album on Spotify. Follow the band on Facebook.

Ruttna Röda Äpplen