I’m going to kick off the Autumn season today by presenting some more artists I discovered at Roskilde, and then continue with loads of new Swedish music. Here’s a beautiful collection of music of various genres and from different parts of the world:
Jake Bugg from England serves some brit pop, but first of all folk rock with a luster of the early sixties; the best I’ve heard in the genre lately. Here are two songs from the latest album, which is available on Soundcloud, among other pages.
The Roskilde Festival is an excellent occasion for me to get out of my bubble of mainly Swedish indie music, where you normally find me. During the year I continually listen to all music tips I get about Swedish artists, and there is little time left for anything else. Even so, I feel that I’m only scratching the surface of this area, limited also by my own taste and by what I think I have some kind of understanding of. I guess I have sligthly more insight than most people of my niche, but outside of that I feel rather lost.
There are Swedish artists performing att The Roskilde Festival, like for example Lykke Li, Postiljonen, Chords, Wintergatan, Woodlands and Elliphant, but they are few and some of them play early in the week before I arrive on Thursday. So I’m listening to all the other artists to be able to make some kind of schedule for what I want to see. Of course I have to sync this with my daughter’s wish list, which goes quite well I must say, probably because both of us have a broad music menu and love to discover new niches.
Well, width is a keyword if you’d like to describe the festival’s range of music. And then it’s not only about that they serve you everything from doom-metal to country to house to indie pop and everything in between; it’s also about where the artists come from. It is like the organizers chose the biggest paint brush they could find to paint with as many colors as possible on the relatively small pop-canvas that Roskilde represent. I was fascinated when I studied the list of artists, discovering that they came from Finland, Danmark, Hungary, Mali, Brasil, Colombia, Egypt, USA, Etiopia, South Korea, Iceland, Bosnia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Sweden, Norway, UK, Australia, Marocko, New Zeeland, Estonia, Angola, Portugal, Puerto Rico, France, Niger, Germany and Canada (I probably have forgotten to name some countries), and I wondered how they could fit all this into the festival.
Today I thought that I would present some artists from our neighbours Denmark, which is just a few steps from where I live here in the south of Sweden, and naturally there are quite a few Danish artists performing at the festival. It’s been on my mind for some time to dive into the Danish music scene, but I haven’t had the time so far. Here are a few of those that I will try to watch:
Danish is a fantastic language for pop music, and it doesn’t get more heartfelt and beautiful than with Marie Key in this big-sounding singer/songwriter pop.
Defies all genre description in a crazy mix of musical escapades, which I feel just have to be fantastic to experience live. From experimental excursions to great melodies. Unfortunately they play at the same time as Queens of The Stone Age, so it will be hard to choose.
Californiaman, or Joel Igor Hammad Magnusson which he calls himself when he plays the bass in Me and My Army, is on his way to release his solo album “Golden State of Mind”. It is said that the album will be out in Spring and the focus of the music is on what he calls blue eyed soul: music inspired by soul pop from the late seventies/the early eighties headed by artists like Steely Dan, Robert Palmer, Doobie Brothers, Phil Collins, Don Henley among others.
He has already uploaded a number of songs on his Soundcloud page, and it’s a beautiful collection of tracks, like a warm, laidback californian breeze sweeping into my room in this cold Swedish early Spring. The retro vibes are indeed there, like the the mashup of the mentioned influences he claims it to be, and so wonderfully untrendy that it perfectly slips in between all indie, Americana and electronica. Put on your sun glasses and listen to a couple of songs here below.
Saturday, Monday follows up on the soul-experimental cool excursion “Headshake” in the Autumn with the the four-track EP “The Ocean”, released today. Listen to the title track here below, where you also this time can hear Julia Spada contributing with her vocals.
The artist collective Caligola, where members from Mando Diao participate, released the EP “Back to Earth: Resurrection” in December. The first single from the the EP is the anti-racist “Smash Dem Brains In”, which is a cover of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s song “Fite Dem Back”. The EP was a great listening experience and feels like a patchwork of styles from now and then, in the same spirit of exploring as the debut album “Back to Earth” from last year. I just had to add the soul-vibing “Forgive Forget” from “Back to Earth” also here below.
Meadowmusic presents new music from many corners and edges of the world, but with a strong focus on Swedish music. Listen, read, watch, comment and share the music. All songs you find here on this page have been approved for publication by the artists and labels.
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