I wrote about YAST, or Youth and Student Travel, already in the first stumbling steps of this blog in 2008. They had just left their hometown Sandviken for Malmö, or at least they were in the process of doing so, and they had a couple of DIY-EP:s in their luggage. Now, five years later, they have just released their debut album, they work with the label  Adrian Recordings and right now they are touring in Europe.

When I listen to the new album it strikes me how well they had defined their music already back then, in the beginning. It’s still this dreamy, light indie pop, with a laidback attitude, a playful naivety and sweet melodies. But of course, they have a bigger sound now, it’s more polished, there are more and smoother vocal harmonies as well as guitar layers and their registry is wider. It’s an album that feels perfect for a summery, cloud-watching day and and album fit for a band that have one foot in the gound where they started and the other foot in a big step towards new destinations.

YAST on Tumblr – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

In the beginning of the year I presented a taste from Grande Roses’ upcoming album “Disease”. The album was later released during Spring, and with such a excellent collection of  soot-black post rock songs, it would be a sin not to mention it in a post. Not least because of the album’s highlight  “Radio Heartbreak”, which is probably the best rock track I’ve heard so far this year, and which has totally got stuck in my head. Here it is, together with the video.

Grande Roses’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

I wrote about Per Sahlströms album “Cross the Line” three years ago. Since then he’s released another album, “Play the part of the random guy”, plus some single songs, where the latest one “Reconstruct Me” was released during Spring. “Play the part of the random guy” fits pretty well now; with it’s happy, light indie pop with doses of the sunny seventies, latino and dreamy folk pop, it feels refreshingly springlike, and like a good soundtrack for today. The first two songs here below comes from the album.

Per Sahlström on Spotify – on Bandcamp – on Soundcloud

This Spring the shoegaze band Star Horse has followed up on the debut EP “Crush” from the Autumn with the new EP “Lust”. They serve us five songs, this time with a wider, and somewhat bigger sound, but still with the same unmistakably dreamy gentleness, and melodic beuatiful music.

Star Horse on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

This Is Head released their second album “The Album ID” in March. It’s great fun to listen through this album, an album free from conventions and predictability. I haven’t listened that much to their acclaimed debut album from 2010, so I won’t go into any comparisons. It’s in any case hard to define their music more than giving some hints like for example U2 meets David Bowie meets post rock meets indie experimentation; it varies from song to song and a great deal of my joy with the album is the journey in itself, to become surprised, notice details, and enjoy smooth melodies and cool turnarounds. Here’s a few tracks to taste, but I recommend listening from start to finish.

This Is Head’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp