The Danish-Swedish trio Black Light White Light are on their way with a new album. It’s called “Gold Into Dreams” and will be released on October 6th. In Spring they showed the first taste of the album, “High Like a Hurricane”, and recently the second one, the single “Operators”. The sound is a bit harder and rawer now compared with the earlier songs, but I certainly still recognize their style which breathes of brit pop just as well as of psychadelia.
As I already have one foot in Denmark I might as well take the full leap over and present the Danish band The Wands. In November their debut album comes out, an album which has been preceeded by this excellent single, “Sound of the Machine”. With their nice fuzzy guitar they takes all the way back to sixties and the original psychadelia.
The Janitors, hailing from Stockholm have just launched their new EP “Evil Doings of an Evil Kind”. Here we meet a much darker and harder psykadelia than the one from their colleagues above. It’s often hypnotic and monotone in a large echoing room which they fill with explosive noise rock and razor sharp melodies that cut through the massive guitars. The song themes go hand in hand with the music like for example with greed in “Greed” and the growing ultra right movements in Europe, which the band comments on in the song “Here They Come”.
Long time no see. It’s been more than one and a half month since I posted. As I’ve been out on the road in Europe most of the time, without Internet connection, I haven’t even listened to music for quite some time. In the end I got such an abstinence that I just had to find a place with w-fi, put my headphones on, put on a playlist with new music and just dwell in this for a couple of hours. Probably my best listening experience this year. I guess I had to rest my ears for a while, find some new motivation and lust to take on a new music season.
So, let’s start today.
I have told you before about the duo Dödens Dal’s project about inviting singers to put lyrics on and perform songs from the duo’s last album. First up was Jenny Wilson with “Under lager av is” and now it’s Peter Morén’s (Peter, Björn & John) turn. The song is called “Måste det vara så?”, the original title is “Över fältet, mot ljusen”, and it’s another hit in this interesting project.
It’s unusual to meet songs in this way, first as an instrumental, and then as someone else’s interpretation lyricswise. I can compare it with reading a book, creating your own images, and then looking at the book-based movie, where you have to struggle with mixing your own interpretation with the director’s. An added song track can of course change a song to something completely different, but what happens here is that both Jenny and Peter add another layer to the ambience that’s already there, but at the same time add images and places that wasn’t there when I listened originally. Next month they will release an EP with more artists and songs, which will be exciting to explore.
Here’s a fresh single release from the duo Grapell. “Shaping My Love” is wonderful, warm soul pop with a touch of the eighties. The song is taken from the EP “Friends”, to be released on the eighth of October.
Alexandria is a band from Stockholm I wrote about last year, when they sent me the rehearsal room-recorded “Whatever”. Now they are signed to a label and have recently released their debut EP “Laid Back Forever EP”, about a week ago. The earlier song “Whatever” is there in the company of three other songs, in a sound that feels like indie pop inspired by the seventies, a bit in the direction of psychadelia, with distanced vocals and dreamy harmonies. There is a common denominator in the sound and the harmonies between the songs, but they vary the rhythm in an interesting way; from the nice soul-tasting groove in the title track to a more straight rock beat in “Secret Beach”, with it’s hooky guitar figure. A fun and great debut to listen to. Here’s “Another Station” from the record together with the video to “Secret Beach”.
Luha is the name of a Swedish-Filippino artist, who recently released her second single, “Heart”. It’s a light and pleasant pop-track with a percussion-heavy chorus that makes me think of Iida. Sung with a bright and delicate voice the reminds me of Frida Sundemo.
Last year Noras Falcon, or Elin Rosenberg which is her real name, released the debut EP “The Spark”. One of the songs from the EP, the duet with Staphan O’Bell “Kiss the Night”, made it to my “Best of 2013”-list, but it could just as well have been this song, “Sing It Out Loud”. Her new video to the song gave me the opportunity to play it again:
The 19th of July Dead End Records invites you to a rock party at KB in Malmö. The want to open up people’s eyes in Malmö for new rock bands in a time when the already established acts are dominating the gig market. The bands that haven’t climbed to the top of the ladder are often struggling with a hen-and-the-egg-problem: no fanbase – no gig, no gig – no fanbase.
Dead End Records takes it into their own hands by showcasing four great bands that deserve a bigger audience. If you arrive between 19.00 and 20.00 it’s even free to enter, after that only 50 kr.
The four bands Demotional, Carubine, Deceptic and Supralunar span over a wide spektra of rock and metal:
Demotional serves a melodic metal with plenty of energy. The debut album “State: In Denial” was released last year and here’s the latest single “Illusions”, released earlier this year.
Carubine is a trio that mix influenses from the seventies’ hard rock with alternative rock and grunge from the nineties, into their own brew with a great groove. Here are two of their singles.
Supralunar is a band I’ve written about before, and they also bring some influences from the seventies to the table where they blend it with nineties’ rock, but with more focus on vocal harmonies and catchy melodies. “People Like Us” here below is a great example. New album this Autumn.
Deceptichas only presented an album teaser this far, but it sounds interesting to say the least. Progressive metal with grand-sounding choruses is one description of the album which will be released at the end of August.
Transubstans Records has gathered some of the the most interesting hard rock and metal bands in Sweden. Listening through a good part of their album releases from the last year I find quite an impressive collection of records, ranging from 70’s-inspired hard rock to doom metal. Here below you’ll find a selection of great tracks from equally great albums. Klick the titles to go to the bands’ pages if you want to hear more of them.
Björn in the band Wayflower had just stopped using Swedish snuff (a kind of tobacco used in Sweden) and was att home feeling bored. He took his restlessness and abstinence and turned it into a video:
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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