It seems like the band MF/MB is having an intense year this year. They have released the new record “colossus” and I see them on one gig poster after the other. Maybe I’ll go and see them on Malmöfestivalen on Monday next week. During summer they have released a couple of singles with their special, intense guitar/synth-rock, both taken from the album and definitely worth a listen:
MF/MB’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara
I’ve had some vacation away from the blog for a while now, so I thought I would start again today, and I’ll probably write a few more posts this week. The music continues to flow into my inbox, so I have quite a stash to choose from.
I’m starting with a fresh single from today from Beat The Heart, a band I wrote about in June. It’s the song “Nurse Me (With Your Soul)”, which will be part of their new EP “It Never Ends” in the end of August. A good song in the same dreamy, romantic vibe as the ones I presented before.
Beat The Heart on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud
Suuns
Despite the wonderful start of the festival on Thursday, it felt like it started for real on Friday. More artists, a lot more people moving around, the press room full of writers and photographers and overall a more excited and engaged atmosphere. Add to that a fantastic festival weather; sunny with just the right temperature and pleasant, cooling breezes. We tried to keep up with all things we had planned for, but just as I thought our schedule was a little too optimistic, though. Here are a few of those artists we watched:
Jonathan Wilson played at the “folk scene” Odeon, which fit his 60/70’s-influenced folk/blues-rock perfectly. It’s tight, inspired, warm and I get vibes from both a Dylan from the seventies as well as from jammy psychadelia. Here are a few songs from his latest EP “Pity, Trials and Tomorrow’s Child” plus a live video:
About spreading warmth to the audience, the Icelandic band Of Monsters And Men knows exactly how to do it with their lovely folk pop. Catchy melodies with a lot of sing-a-long intentions.
We also checked out the Canadians in the band Suuns. Seductive, experimental and surprising jumps between different ambiences and rhythms, from indie dance to thick guitar driven noise walls to more suggestive works.
Efterklang
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:
Three childhood friends started this band in 2000. Big, warm sound spaces, beautiful pop with a stillness that sometimes reminds me of Black.
Creative electronica which moves from smooth pop melodies to ambient crisp sound experiments.
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.
Gracious, beautiful electro soul.
Here’s some big-sounding indie pop/rock from Beat The Heart, hailing from Stockholm, who have released their debut EP “Glebe Market”. They have created a comfortable sound in these rather soft songs, large but with moderated arrangements, into which they have put some more ingredients: a little bit of the sixties, some folk and a dose of the eighties. A quite promising debut.
Beat The Heart on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud
Meadow Music in swedish
Designed by
