Electro pop with Johan Reinhold, HvH, White Birches and a Square ska-rock blast

April 30, 2014 at 4:44 pm
Johan Reinhold

Johan Reinhold

Johan Reinhold – “Feel For You”

“Feel For You” is Johan Reinhold’s warm tribute to his mother, who passed away a year ago of cancer. Here you’ll also find the explanation to why Johan took a pause from the music, even though he was in the middle of the success with his songs, among them “Shoot Me Down“, which I wrote about. He writes that he went through a hard time and he yearned for the opportunity to be able to tell his mother how much she meant to him. He did this in the best way possible: with this song.

The song is also his way of picking up his music career where he left it, and is one of the two songs of the single “Closing Doors”, due for release May 12th. All net proceeds will go to charity to help fight cancer.

HvH – “Cause of Your Destruction”

HvH stands for “Hammar village heights” and is the name of a new indie trio from the outskirts of Stockholm. Their debut single is called “Cause of Your Destruction”, a hymn-like electro pop song, rather naked but yet grand. The song is also a part of a new election campaign album for F! (Swedish feminist party). It’s an album with songs from 65 artists, well known as well as less known artists, among them Robyn, The Knife, Nina Persson, Crucified Barbara, The Bear Quartet, Ane Brun and many others. A quite unique initiative in Swedish politics.

White Birches – “Stands of White Birches” – EP

The electro pop duo White Birches, Jenny Gabrielsson Mare and Fredrik Jonasson, promised us an EP this Spring, and now they’ve fulfilled that promise with the new four-track collection “Stands of White Birches”. It’s about dark, dreamy, beautiful melodies and with a sort of muffled electro pop sound. We’ve heard two of the songs before, and one of the songs “The End of The Line” was on my list of the best songs of last year. With the new “Take Me Dancing” they show us that their source of inspiration is certainly still there:

Square – “The Reversed Spanish Chair”

It’s been almost six years since I wrote about the band Square. They are now in the process of releasing their fourth album “The Reversed Spanish Chair”, and I notice that they haven’t lost any energy since the last time. Not the least, and they’ve been doing this since 1998, music that could be described as a mix of garage rock and ska with a turbo engine built into it. I’d even say that they sound better than ever.

I said that they were in the process of releasing the album, which actually means that they are releasing the album song by song; every other week a new track is presented until August later this year. So far they’ve shown us three songs. Here are two of them:

Kvartetten Raekan

October 16, 2012 at 2:11 pm

Kvartetten Raekan

Kvartetten Raekan’s music is born out in the streets. During three years they have played at least twice a week on different streets and places around Stockholm, where they play their own mix of  jazz, ska, backbeats and improvisation. They have also toured the streets in Europe and in the US living on what they have earned from the music.

After the US trip they recorded an EP, and you can listen to one of the songs here below. At the same time they have developed into something more than street musicians, as they now also arrange clubs and concerts with their own special atmosphere. “We want it to be like mass pychosis where we bang hard on our acoustic instruments while the audience is dancing wildly around us” they write. “There is a brass band in Paris called Belgistan. Their band is an imaginary country, and when you listen to their music you are automatically transported to the place called Belgistan. That kind of philosophy is perfectly in line in what we do.”

Kvartetten Raekan’s blogon Facebookon Soundcloud

Snabba skor

Kitchen Sink Movement

January 24, 2011 at 3:59 pm

Kitchen Sink MovementApparently Kitchen Sink Movement is a drama movement that started in the fifties, with a focus on the urban working class’ worries and problems. Sounds heavy. I don’t know if the band Kitchen Sink Movement derived their name directly from this, but their music doesn’t sound too heavy at all.

On the two-track single, “Dead Man Walking”, they released in the autumn they play an energic rock with a lot of ska vibes. A type of music that sounds like it’s made for energizing a live audience.

On their site you can listen to more tracks. and the single is also available  on Spotify.

Dead Man Walking

The Happy Hippo Family

May 25, 2010 at 1:54 pm

Today it’s party time together with The Happy Hippo Family. Nice melodies and playfulness, ska, backbeat and pop and sometimes a dose of Madness. They have recently released a few songs to give a taste of their upcoming album. Here are two of them:

Anthem of the Universe
Undressed Melody

Visit The Happy Hippo Family on Myspace

Square

November 11, 2008 at 1:00 pm

SquareFascinating is just the first name when it comes to Square. My legs start moving and I wish I was transferred to a party scene at a festival somewhere so I could enjoy it fully. And I don’t even like to dance.

I could start some kind of description of their music by calling it high-speed ska. But it’s ska like you’ve never heard it before. Rock, punk and a lot of other influences perfect this to a mixture I have never heard before. Brass players that have to work real hard, a great rhythm section, nice guitars and a singer that gives so much that I can hear the sweat pouring.

They have released two albums before and a third album is being released the 21st of November. Here you can listen to some tracks from the album.

L-l-l-let Us Into Mama’s House!:

Mr P and His Pushy Machine
HC Bad

Read more about Square on their site and blog
and listen more on their Myspace page

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