The Spiny Normans

I receive more great music than ever, so I’ll kickstart this week with six releases:

The Spiny Normans – “Waiting For the Storm” – EP

The Spiny Normans are based in Stockholm but have some of their roots in Åland. They released the debut EP in the Autumn, which will be available on Spotify and other services in a couple of weeks. I’d say it’s about folk inspired pop with a certain sense of drama. Here are two songs:

Lejonsläktet – “In och ut” – EP

The duo Lejonsläktet, whom I talked about last month, have released their debut EP now, full of great psychadelia with a vibe of Jämtland. Here’s the starting track “Ett svagt hopp om” from the EP:

The Tarantula Waltz – “Scandinavian Minds”

The Tarantula Waltz has released this Americana-sounding single from the new album “Tinder Stick Neck”, his third album which is being released this week.

Iris & Hedvig – “The Watcher & The Mind”

Here’s a new interesting young pop duo, Iris & Hedvig, with the debut single “The Watcher & The Mind”.  The song was produced by Christina Wehage, whom we’ve met before in her own project Be The Bear.

Rökmorsa

Rökmorsa is one of the projects the trio Pontus Björlin, Anders Åkesson and August Sörensons have been working on. They have collected 12 songs they recorded already in 2008 on the album “Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight”. It’s instrumental, experimental and a blend of influences from now and then. Here are two tracks:

Manor Rungs

The producer deadbeat has written songs and produced music for other artists before, for example electronica artist Compute and The Girl & The Robot. Now he’s grabbed the microphone himself and released seven songs under the name Manor Rungs. It’s a quite special blend of electronica and rock in Swedish, with some instrumental breaks. Listen for yourself:

Albert

Albert – “Albert” – album

When I listen to the Malmö band Albert’s debut album it’s hard to believe that the band has only existed for a year or so, and that they recorded everything in just four days. It feels so well produced, so well thought out and with a mature sound and great song writing, seemingly coming from a band with a longer history, who have found just the right way to express themselves. Now I know also that some of the band members have played together for a longer time than that, for example in the band Since Our First Guitar which I’ve written about before. Nevertheless it’s a great album, indie rock, with a relaxed vibe, a bit in the outskirts of what The National is doing. Here are three songs from the album:

Audio Fauna

Johanna Kalén and Mari Kronlund form Audio Fauna, a duo they started last summer. They have two tracks out, two great songs with folk inspired pop that have a nice tension and sort of sneak up on you.

The Mary Onettes – “Naive Dream”

A little more than a week ago The Mary Onettes released their new album “Portico” and took the opportunity also to present the new music video to “Naive Dream” from the album. I can just note that the band has had a fantastic and a productive music year with two new albums and loads of excellent songs. Just lean back, dream away and enjoy.

No Coda – “Heretic”

No Coda continue their row of fine singles, here with the new song “Heretic”:

Sveket

The Red & Hidden Language

The trio Pelle Ljungberg, Teddy Skoglund and Lars Jönsson form the core of the folk-psychadelia band The Red & Hidden Language.  Last year they released their debut album with songs that bring artists like Nick Drake, Devendra Banhart och CSN&Y to mind. Here are two songs:

Sequoia

Here are a couple of songs from a band/project called Sequoia. Great songs with nice falsetto vocals, rather varying but with a foundation in folk-inspired pop. As they haven’t released anything yet on Spotify and similar services, you can go to their Soundcloud page to hear more songs.

Sveket – “Hollywoodslut”

The duo Sveket are releasing a new single next week, “Hollywoodslut” (“Hollywood endings”), with a surprising electro pop arrangement, quite a distance from the earlier singles with a more traditional sound. The melodramatic retro-schlager vibe in the vocals and the melodies is still there, though, which makes an interesting combination. The single is also first taste of the upcoming debut album “Une vie à vivre”.

Wilderness – “Hold On”

The trio Wilderness follows up on their debut single from last year with the new song “Hold On”. Great dreamy electro pop where they get help from Sabina Wärme this time too. The single is accompanied by a beautiful music video which you can watch here below.

Here’s a premiere of a new single. We get a first glimpse of Songs of Sam’s new song “Julia”, which will be released officially on Sunday. Behind Songs of Sam we find Samuel Heiligers, earlier violin player in the indie band Monde Yeux. He’s kept this project going since his days in high school, but have so far only showed it in private circumstances. He made an exception, though, for the the independent movie “You Never Know” by Vi-Dan Tran, where you can hear his music.
Here’s “Julia”, a warm and beautiful acoustic waltz and a declaration of love:

The Mondanes

Slow Show – “Nowhere”

A couple of days ago the indiepop duo Slow Show released the energetic and uplifting song “Nowhere”. The song is a remake of an earlier version from 2010, and was recorded together with eight other new songs in August last year.

Natten – “Omen” – EP

I wrote about the quartet Natten in the Autumn. Now they are back with new instrumental night escapades on the new EP “Omen”. With their mix of jazz, electronica and other influences they have carved out their own unique style, their own ambience, which I recognize when I listen. Imaginative and sometimes with a filmic vibe. Listen to the EP here:

The Mondanes – “Silver Spoon (live session)”

The Mondanes is a new quitet hailing from Göteborg. Here they are with the song “Silver Spoon” in a nice Byrds-vibing live session.

Colleagues – “Tears”

The band Colleagues doesn’t exactly pour out songs on the market, even though they have received quite some attention from the two songs they have released so far. “Parent’s House” came out in the Autumn 2012 which was followed by the music video “Visits” a year ago, and now the song “Tears” with an exuberant electro-indiepop.

Ronnie – “Angels”

You may have heard Ronnie Hagstedt before in the house duo The Lab Wizard or as the singer in the hard rock band Optimystical. On the new solo single “Angels” he also shows us that he’s got some soul vibes in his great voice, in a song that feels like classic souldisco in a modern costume.