The Italian String Machine

Italian String Machine – “New Nostalgia” – EP

The duo Italian String Machine, Victor Hvidfeldt and Joel Lindström, are releasing their  debut EP “New Nostalgia” on Monday. “Nostalgic futurism and dance to a Vangelis soundtrack” they write about the four songs on the EP. And I can certainly hear the eighties nostalgia with quite a dose of synth pop from that decade, while some other touches suggest that they have the other foot in the electro pop soil of today. I presented one of the songs, the excellent “Neuromancer”, last time I wrote about them, but the other songs are just as good. Here are two of them:

Daniel & Daniel – “The Code of Colour” – EP

Daniel Lindquist and Daniel Forsberg form the duo Daniel & Daniel and have recently released their fourth EP, “The Code of Colour”, recorded in a barn in the deep forests of Småland, close to Markaryd. They have created their own experimental rock brew where psychadelia is an obvious ingredient, but also with a taste of progressive and alternative rock. Here are two of the tracks:

Reveries – “Tip of Your Tongue”

Reveries come from Linköping and have released this single, “Tip of Your Tongue”, a large-sounding pop track with post rock tendencies. A new single is on it’s way soon.

Adna – “Night”

Adna, whom I wrote about in the end of last year, released her debut album “Night” just a little while ago. Here’s the title track from the album, filled to the brim with beautiful melancholy.

Franskild – “Clockworks”

Franskild is a house duo that consist of Love Ojensa and Tim Söderström. Their first release this year is this suggestive, melancholic electro pop song “Clockworks”, which appeals, at least to me, a lot more than the high octane house music popular today.

Axel Wikner is 16 years old and produces dance music, mostly house but also some odd genres like moombahton. Not my cup of tea usually, but I felt for a diversion today. Axel started playing around with music software last year, but after he discovered that his music was being played on clubs it took a more serious direction. He has now released a couple of singles and the EP “Modern Talking”. Here’s the latest song, “Sub Bomb”.

Axel Wikner on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

Here’s a piece of catchy, dance friendly electro pop from songwriter and singer Malin Bylund. She’s from Stockholm but moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to study vocals, where she now lives. This is her first official single, if I may call it that, but you can hear several more songs on her Soundcloud page.

Malin’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud

Here’s a single from Veronica Keding, “Kärlekens farkost”, a house-inspired pop song in Swedish. What caught me the most in the song was the catchy intro synth figure which comes back in the song later and adds a lot of colour.

Veronica Keding’s site – on Spotify – on Wimp

A little less than a year ago I presented the duo Fort Fairfield’s smooth song “Danziger Strasse“, and I think it’s appropriate that I also present the album where the song ended up. It’s called “Prenzlauer Berg” and was released in Spring. 16 tracks with nice laidback bass figures and an almost minimalistic instrumental electronica. A coherent and very much enjoyable album. Here are two tracks; one of them with guest vocals from Cosima Lamberth.

Fort Fairfield on Facebook – Spotify – Soundcloud