Simone Says’ debut album

February 5, 2014 at 5:04 pm

Simone Says

The band Simone Says, hailing from Göteborg, released their debut album in December: a collection of songs with a smooth jazz-influenced pop, in a style I’m more used to hear from American bands than Swedish. They excel here, though, on a record that grows with each listen, with songs that circle around Camilla Bakke, her piano and her wonderful presence in her vocals, finely varied and coloured with violin and guitars; acoustic as well as electric ones. The seventies feel close and my thoughts go to artists like Carly Simon, Carole King, Billy Joel and to some extent Joni Mitchell. Beautiful melodies and a good variation between the groovy and the delicate on an album that feels as bright as a laidback, sunny sunday morning. Here are a few songs I have an extra soft spot for:

Simone Says’ site – on Facebook on Spotifyon Soundcloud

Chrismas special 2013

December 13, 2013 at 6:13 pm

True to my traditions I’ve collected some new Christmas songs this year also, which I’m going to present here today.

Crying Day Care Choir

Our friends in Crying Day Care Choir have recorded a Christmas EP with four tracks, called “Christmas Day Care Choir”. What’s extra nice about this is that they are donating all income from the album to Musikhjälpen during this week, i.e. until December 15th. Musikhjälpen is a project run by the public TV and Radio in Sweden each year, collecting money for people in need. This year it’s about women’s rights to survive pregnancies. If you’d like to help the band to help, you can just click download in the player below.

YAST presented their album debut earlier this year and walks out of it with this fine Christmas song, “If Santa Ain’t Real”, accompanied by Alice Boman on backing vocals.

Magnus Bergman has worked hard with releasing singles this year, and it’s only logical that he would make a Christmas single as well. It’s called “Decembernatt” and is a remake of his own song, this time in a duet version together with Kim Vestin.

And it’s great that Brainpool make a comeback after almost ten years of silence, and they do that with this Christmas single “The Last Christmas”:

Tenonsaw, who released the album “Avenging Angels” during the Autumn, also wanted to contribute to the Christmas ambience. Of course they also want to experiment, and they do this by combining Mariah Careys “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and U2:s “All I Want Is You” into this song:

Next up is some lovely classical sounding Christmas jazz from Gunhild Carling, here with her new single “Winter’s Day”:

I’m finishing with celtic punk rockers Finnegan’s Hell, who serve us a Christmas song in the spirit of social realism, as they write, “Drunken Christmas (An Irish Christmas Song)”:

I hope you can find your Christmas spirit in this post; there are quite different versions to choose from here above. Merry Christmas to you, and thank you for coming here reading my posts and most of all for listening to the music.

Afenginn – “Lux”

April 9, 2013 at 3:28 pm

Afenginn

The Danish-Swedish band Afenginn was formed in 2002 and have now released five full length albums, counting the latest “Lux” which was released in the beginning of the year. I think it’s a wonderful album, where I felt just after a few bars that this was going to be a different and special experience.

They have their base in folk music, where maybe the balkan influence is what can be sensed most strongly, but I wouldn’t complain if someone called it classical music or jazz for that matter. It’s a blend of all this into their very own Afenginn brew, seductively beautiful, melancholic and which also gives me a strong filmic sensation as I listen. You can listen to the whole album on their Bandcamp page.

Afenginns site – on Facebookon Bandcamp

Waldhotel Solitaire
Paxima

Music Is the Weapon – “Moving Foundations and Outer Space”

December 20, 2012 at 3:53 pm

Music Is the Weapon

Music Is the Weapon and their eleven members are back with a new jazzy funk-party full of energic afro beats and fantastic horns on the new album “Moving Foundations and Outer Space”. There’s a great groove on the album and they sound better than ever. The sound is more distinct and with a more pronounced seventies atmosphere. The energic funk is in focus but they show a variation I really like, with for example the many-faceted  “Vredens Duvor” and the spacy “Space Is Yellow”.  Most of it is instrumental except from a few tracks, among them my favourite one, the grand “Do You, Be You” where Dinah Yonas has added lyrics and her pleasant soul voice.

Music Is the Weapon’s site – on Facebookon Spotify –  on Bandcamp

We Will Never Stop

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

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