Fallen Trees, hailing from Malmö, was formed in 2010 by the two friends Emmanuel Arvanitis and David Karlsson. With two early EP:s behind them they released their debut album now in January, the thematic “Dysto Fuzz”. Many of the songs feel like they’re built on sixties pop, with some twists of Beatles’ harmonies, but they also dives into blues rock, folk rock and ska rhythms. I think that they have created quite a personal sound, where they blend the sound of the acoustic guitars, the banjo and the mandolin with the electric, so that they land somewhere in between a pure retro vibe and a newer indie rock sound from bands like The Strokes. An ambitious album and worth checking out.

It’s worth mentioning that they together with the album, as a bundled kit, also released their own effect pedal, “The Distofuzz”. It was created by Albin Roslund at Moody Sounds in Malmö, and was made when the band was looking for a dark fuzz sound that would be unique for this record. And you can see the beauty here on the right.

Fallen Trees’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

The Safety Plan

The Shy Lips, hailing from Göteborg, released their second EP “Nowadays” earlier this year. It’s fun to listen to this music, as it’s unpredictable, happy and with a mix of styles that gives me a sense of recognition, but when I try to catch what it is, it escapes me. There’s an intimate garage-punkish sound, with a laidback, natural attitude, like if they would have entered a stage in Manchester in the eighties as a warm-up for The Happy Mondays. They send out tentacles to the sixties, with The Kinks as the most obvious reference, there’s a dose of  The Smiths, ska-rhytms and then also indie pop vibes. Well, great music in any case.

The Shy Lips on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

Nowadays
Nobody Cares

Sharp turns here in the blog. Now it’s about hard rock with Egonaut, hailing from Borås, who recently released their album “Mount Egonaut”. For friends of Mustasch, Metallica and Hardcore Superstar as they describe it themselves. I haven’t listened to the entire album yet, but it feels promising. Here’s the opening track “Crawl”, which they’ve also made a video to.

Egonaut’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Besides working with music Knut Svanholm works as a mate on a sailing ship, and that’s also where many of his songs are created; somewhere out on the Mediterranean, on the Atlantic ocean or in the Caribbean sea. Last year he released the solo album “Ergasiophobia” and also the record “The Angry Kid” with his band LOBST, which I wrote about here on the blog. Fleet of Clay is another of his projects which I have also written about as I paid some attention to the excellent album “The Essential Fleet of Clay”.

This year he’s released the solo collection “Acoustrophé”, which is something like his own version of “Rare Tracks”: songs that didn’t fit into the earlier works and that he decided to record now, live tracks and other odd songs, where you’ll find for example a translation to English of  “Vargasången” from Ronia the Robber’s Daughter and an attempt to make a Bond theme song. I like the new recordings the best, the first four tracks, where he’s alone with his guitar (except on one song), it’s personal, naked and inspired by his travelling life. The whole album feels a little like getting to know Knut a little better, and it’s clearly a pleasant acqaintance.

Knut Svanholm on Facebook – on Spotify

Stray Dog
Feels Like Loneliness

Dundertåget with former Hellacopters-guitarist Robert Dahlqvist in the front, released last month the new single “Det tog en lång tid”. I haven’t listened to the earlier two albums, but this naked seventies-sounding blues-progressive ballad sure gave me taste for more. The single also comes with the track “Inte en dag” with lyrics by Bob Hansson. A new album is underway and will be released later this year.

Dundertåget’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp