Back in Summer 2008, at the very start of this blog, we wrote about the band Salma Gandhi, hailing from Malmö. They said then that they were working on their debut album, but it took four years more, until “The Quest For Nonsense Never Ends” was released this Autumn. But it was worth waiting for…

What they call stoner jazz appears to me as wild instrumental journey into the world of psychadelia, also coloured by progressive rock, jazz, blues and other stuff. It breathes of the late sixties/the beginning of the seventies, and even more so from from the filmic vibe in the music, where it sometimes feels like I’m drawn into a hardboiled detective thriller with car rides, smoky nightclubs and drama. But during the 75 minutes they achieve much more than that, as they can travel from a flipped-out jam to blues to a beautiful melodic ambience.

It’s a solid connective album where also the crazy track titles have their own meaning. As I understand it, the band members have made it into a kind of game, coming up with titles which with word acrobatics in some way describe the songs. What about, for example, “Paranoid Cow On a Mushroom Lawn” or “Polish Rodeo For Drunken Teenage Midgets”? Listen for yourself here below in a couple of songs.

Salma Gandhi on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Dr. Steveroll I Presume

Behind the somewhat odd band name Ass & The Frenchmen we find 6 young men from Tranås and Gränna in the north of Småland. The seed to the band was sown in 2005 and after a long break they started up again in 2009, recording songs and uploading them on the net. Last year they released the album “One Night In Paris”, containing songs from the start in 2005 up until five years later, and earlier this year the album “Parent Approved Substitute” was launched.

They write that the main ingredients of the band is their common love for slightly weird things and obscure behaviour, mixed with foreign folksongs and late nights, which doesn’t come as a surprise after having listened to their album. The most obvious folk influence is the balkan music, and they also describe their music, rather spot-on I’d say, as a blend of gypsy music, blues and grunge influenced by Tom Waits, 16 Horsepower and Marilyn Manson. It feels like Tom Waits’ shadow looms behind most of the tracks, but suddenly you find yourself in a darker Manson-like atmosphere, realizing that the jump is not long at all. The vocals are mixed far back together with the rest of the band, a little too much I think if they want to really catch the listener, but maybe it’s their way of stating that they first of all are a live band, which you can get a taste of on the live album they released last year. Listen to two songs from “Parent Approved Substitute”:

Ass & the Frenchmen on Facebook – on Spotify

Son of a Bitch Cop Motherfucker
Another Last Cigarette

Here’s an interesting new trio from Malmö, No Favours, that released the single “Hands & Hearts” a couple of weeks ago. It’s also one of the songs from the debut album, which will be released now in December. Nicely rough, garage-punkish with vibes of  Sonic Youth-rock and shoegaze. There are also a couple of earlier songs to listen to on their Bandcamp page.

No Favours on Facebook – on Bandcamp

Hands & Hearts

I missed presenting Dalaplan’s single “Ta mig när jag faller” when it was released a couple of months ago. So I’m doing it now instead. Great rock from them, and maybe their best one so far.

Dalaplan’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify

Mattis Mallinen started My Heart Is a Metronome as a solo project, as a reult of “too much side-material after x number of years in various bands”. It all ended up in a trio, though, as Gustaf Simonsson and Felix Carlsten joined the project later on. The EP “Sketches” was recorded in February in an old cottage in Hälsingland, in the middle of the hard Winter and deep snow, refreshing themselves with kaffekask (Swedish coffee-drink with strong additives) and red wine.

The EP was released seven months later, containing 5 great songs, acoustic with a vibe of American alternative rock and some folk, and with Mattis strong vocals in the front. Have a taste of the EP with the song “Remnants”:

My Heart Is a Metronome på Facebook – på Spotify – på Bandcamp

Remnants