Various Artists
Whispers from the forest, screams from the mountains
The Wire

I know it probably seems odd to review a free comp with limited availability (it was primarily distributed to subscribers of UK mag The Wire with copies of the December issue), but when you consider how well this collection captures the most exciting aspects of Sweden's current music scene, it should hopefully make sense. Simply put, Häpna, Ideal Recordings and Kning Disk are the top three Swedish labels currently releasing a consistent stream of interesting, forward-thinking music. Even with the few artists I'm not so fond of such as Nicolai Dunger's A Taste of Ra, I would never fault their craftsmanship or imagination. It might not appeal directly to my own personal tastes, but it has my utmost respect and that is of crucial importance. There's always something to admire, even when you are not inclined to investigate further.

As for the styles of music explored in this collection, it's incredibly rich and diverse. There's everything from pop melodicism (Anna Järvinen, Eric Malmberg, Balroynigress) to dark, terrifying drones (Sewer Election, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, The Skull Defekts), fractured experimentalism (Hans Appelqvist, Tape, Folke Rabe) and classical composition (Erik Enocksson, Jerry Johansson and Library Tapes). All in all, a perfect portrait of where to look for the future of Swedish music. Ignore it and get left behind.
- Avi Roig

In case you were wondering, here's the tracklist for that free comp of Swedish music "Whispers from the forests, screams from the mountains" that comes with the latest issue of UK mag The Wire:

01. Hans Appelqvist - Jag en gök (Häpna, from the album "Sifantin och mörkret")
02. Eric Malmberg - Milda döden hämtar oss alla till slut (Häpna, from the album "Verklighet & beat")
03. Anders Dahl - Hundloka - percussion, guitar, bouzouki (excerpt) (Häpna, from the album "Milieu")
04. Tape - Augustan chateau (Häpna, from the album "Sifantin och mörkret")
05. Anna Järvinen - Helsinki (Häpna, from the album "Jag fick feeling")
06. A Taste Of Ra - Morning of my life (excerpt) (Häpna, from the album "Morning of my life")
07. Christine Ödlund - Lightning & voices (Ideal, from the upcoming album "Phenomena")
08. Nash Kontroll - All muzzles look the same (Ideal, from the "Must be destroyed" 7")
09. Mokira - Skaka hund skaka (Ideal, previously unreleased)
10. Sewer Election - White Golgotha (Ideal, previously unreleased)
11. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - Heaven is the notion that all this will end (Ideal, previously unreleased)
12. Skull Defekts, The - Finding your way through the forest by settng it on fire (Ideal, previously unreleased)
13. Erik Enocksson - The state the sea left me in (Kning Disk, from the album "Farväl Falkenberg")
14. Dan Fröberg - We'll never be the same again (song) (Kning Disk, previously unreleased)
15. Jerry Johansson - Next door conversation part II (excerpt) (Kning Disk, from the album "Next door conversation")
16. Folke Rabe - Swinee river (Kning Disk, previously unreleased)
17. Library Tapes - Fragment VIII (Kning Disk, from the "Fragment" EP)
18. Balroynigress - Shampo and champagne (Kning Disk, from the album "Shampo and champagne")

Ideal Recordings, Häpna and Kning Disk, three of the best current Swedish labels for exciting new music, are teaming up with UK mag The Wire for a special sampler entitled "Whispers from the forests, screams from the mountains" featuring 77 minutes of what they do best. I don't know the full tracklist, but Ideal reports that they are contributing exclusive works from Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Sewer Election, Christine Ödlund and Mokira plus a track from Nash Kontroll off their upcoming 7". In conjunction with said comp's release, the three labels will again team up for a live show at Konsthallen in Göteborg on December 8 featuring Balroynigress (Kning Disk), Hans Appelqvist (Häpna), DLSODW (Ideal) and a special performance by the ensemble of Jean-Louis Huhta (The Skull Defekts), Anders Dahl and Johan Berthling (Häpna/Tape).

GBG-based drone act Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words has a new limited edition CDR release out now on the label Mystery Sea. Check out their website for samples and more info: http://www.mysterysea.net/
As for the future, look for a new netrelease on Zeromoon entitled "The other kind of falling" (which I imagine is a companion piece to the superb album "Fall, fall, falling" released earlier this year) as well as two new releases for Ideal Recordings including a new CD and a 2xC60 cassette and much, much more. More info: http://www.deadwords.org/

Here's the playlist for this week's special spooky/scary Halloween edition radio show:

01. TALK 1
02. Entombed - Hollywood Babylon
03. ARM - Humming bug
04. Camouflage - Oktober
05. TALK 2
06. Notre Dame - Red Cross
07. Sanctum - Lie low
08. Bay Laurel - Pale colours
09. TALK 3
10. At the Gates - Blinded by fear
11. Frode Haltli - Lude
12. Brighter Death Now - Little baby
13. Death Breath - Lycanthropy
14. TALK 4
15. Breach - Mr. Marshall
16. The Skull Defekts - Carved in bones
17. The Cardigans - Mr. Crowley
18. TALK 5
19. Diabolique - Catholic
20. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - Masks, walls and other ways to keep things out, to keep things in
21. The Bear Quartet - Broken heart
22. Mercyful Fate - Come to the Sabbath
23. TALK 6
24. Beyond Dawn - Cigarette
25. Pimentola - Heart's dementia (Phase I)
26. Repoman - Chemically obsessed
27. TALK 7
28. MZ412 - Infernal affairs II
29. Satyricon - Nemesis divina
30. Switchblade - Selfdestruct schematics / Open aftermath
31. TALK 8
32. Rasion D'etre - Metamorphyses Phase IV
33. Cortex - We are the dead
34. TALK 9
35. Emperor - I am the Black Wizards

iDEAL Recordings will be pressing an extra-special Skull Defekts 10" dubplate for the upcoming Göteborg Art Sounds exhibition featuring artwork by Thomas Ekelund (Nullvoid/Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words). There will only be a grand total of 8 copies with a mere 5 being made available for purchase to collectors. More details about the fest: http://www.gas-festival.com/

Look for a new album from Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words called "Lost in reflection" to be released via Ideal later this year. Dead Letters will be doing an album with Release the Bats soon as well.

The playlist for this week's all-GBG radio show:

01. Maia Hirasawa - Gothenburg
02. TALK 1
03. Hemstad - Sommar i Göteborg
04. Division of Laura Lee - We are numbers
05. Håkan Hellström - Kom igen Lena!
06. TALK 2
07. In Flames - Everything counts
08. Pistol Disco - Walking with Jesus
09. Viktor Sjöberg - W/nothing
10. TALK 3
11. Kristofer Åström - Just a little insane
12. The Knife - Listen now
13. Broder Daniel - Dark heart
14. TALK 4
15. Samuraj Cities - All along the shoreline
16. MPTP - Jim Morrison
17. At the Gates - Cold
18. TALK 5
19. The Book of Daniel - The camels parade
20. Silverbullit - Magnetic city
21. The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Nevermore
22. TALK 6
23. Nicolai Dunger - What tomorrow
24. The Kid - Portion control (Fatsuit haze/Zlatan wins the World Cup remix)
25. The Idealist - The knives are my eyes
26. C.Aarmé - Visions
27. TALK 7
28. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - I could have sworn I heard them SING
29. Junip - Official
30. Diabolique - Catholic
31. TALK 8
32. Convoj - My timekeeping heart
33. Tsukimono - Dear sister
34. Eric Beyond - Step off
35. TALK 9
36. Björn Kleinhenz - Out of style
37. Detektivbyrån - E18
38. TALK 10
39. Bad Cash Quartet - Too bored to die

Tsukimono
Time canvas
Kning Disk

Limited to one hundred CDR copies, "Time canvas" is an admitted step away from Johan Gustavsson's previous work under the moniker Tsukimono. Moving from the far more complex arrangements on album "Née", Gustavsson has stripped down his compositions to focus on fewer and more organic elements and the limits of their range and capabilities. The results are long, thoughtful, and beautiful works, the shortest being over eight minutes in length. As with the far darker Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, the beauty here is in the delicate layering and subtle progression of the songs, which can admittedly take quite a while and might frustrate some listeners. "Time canvas" is structured upon the arrangement of sparse samples of instruments, a soundtrack that neither cast shadows nor illuminates, and one that rewards its listeners' patience.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

The playlist for this week's radio show:

01. Kaizers Orchestra - Ompa til du dør
02. TALK 1
03. Logh - Thieves in the palace
04. Élodie - At the end of the line
05. Beem - Ducker
06. TALK 2
07. Hell On Wheels - Alexander
08. Isolation Years - Albino child
09. Honey Is Cool - Bolero
10. TALK 3
11. Mob - Wait for me
12. Skywriter - For heaven's sake
13. Menfolk - Zero is also a number
14. TALK 4
15. Plain Fade - Datura
16. Division of Laura Lee - Dirty love
17. Det Gamla Landet - Det heliga landet
18. TALK 5
19. Elope - Black eyed citizen
20. Fontän - You, me & a tree
21. Gehenna - Touched and left for dead
22. TALK 6
23. Mustasch - I hunt alone
24. Cobolt - The Atlantic Ocean takes her back
25. Blinders On - Blinders are on
26. Madrugada - Higher
27. TALK 7
28. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - I could have sworn I heard them SING
29. Notre Dame - Into the coven
30. TALK 8
31. The Motorhomes - The man

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words
Fall, fall, falling
Kalligrammofon

Like searching for beauty in a canvas saturated with black paint, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words isn't necessarily an easy project to understand or enjoy, but there is magnificence hidden under the convoluted layers and crushing waves of distortion and noise. "Fall, fall, falling" is a soundtrack to fragmenting. In Ekelund's own words, "It's about breaking down...apart... up. It's about grotesque reactions and the distortion of memories..." This is an album for those who found "Requiem for a Dream" beautiful, for those who can see the splendor in fractured sections of marble that once were brilliant statues, who understand the freedom that comes with knowing you've hit rock bottom, and that time and experience and maturity no longer necessarily matter in moments of pure, raw emotion. The most focused of Ekelund's records, "Fall, fall, falling" is a dark, flawed masterpiece, and made the more poignant and impressive because of its imperfections. This album will not lift your spirits, nor will it assure you that things will be alright – it lavishly depicts landscapes that we all have traveled, darkened corridors or self-analysis, painful tracts of introspection in the face of despondent moments of our lives, and ultimately is a record that assure us that others have traveled similar roads and have survived even the worst that we can build for ourselves... and that we can demolish.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

The playlist for my radio show on Sirius this week:

01. Beyond Dawn - Far from showbiz
02. TALK 1
03. Superfamily - The radio has expressed concerns about what you did last night
04. The Fine Arts Showcase - Dance with your shadow
05. Pan Sonic - Hinaaja / Tugboat
06. TALK 2
07. Mixtapes & Cellmates - Hold
08. The Bear Quartet - I don't wanna
09. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - When she's GONE
10. TALK 3
11. Laakso - High drama
12. Park Hotell - The guest who stayed forever
13. Fun - Hold it close
14. TALK 4
15. The Book of Daniel - Rabbit boy
16. Watain - Storm of the Antichrist
17. Viktor Sjöberg - w/Nothing
18. Kristofer Åström - Fallen
19. TALK 5
20. Mainliners - Olivia
21. Oddjob - Kings are walking out
22. Lemonator - Heart burns
23. TALK 6
24. Tobias Hellkvist - Slowly but surely
25. Attrap - Just a word away
26. Sahara Hotnights - Visit to Vienna
27. TALK 7
28. The Leather Nun - No rule
29. Alog - Son of king
30. Thunder Express - Vegas
31. TALK 8
32. Closer - Sensing the wake

MP3: Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - Ashen like the sky

A new month and a new Record Club selection means that my usual Friday flashback post has been preempted. June's pick: "Fall, fall, falling" from Göteborg-based artist Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, an absolute crushing record. As DLSODW mainman Thomas Ekelund himself puts it, "It's about yearning, for what was, for what could've been or for it to never have existed. It's about breaking down...apart... up. It's about grotesque reactions and the distortion of memories. It's about self-destruction, -mutilation and -loathing. It's about scars/shards. It's about that sinking feeling. It's about falling." Make no mistake, this is a devastating work, but like all of the best doom-oriented music, its innate sense of foreboding and suffocation is tempered with aching beauty. It's in the darkness that the inspiration and the will to carry on is rediscovered. This is not brutality for brutality's sake, like Brighter Death Now for instance, this is looking deeper.
Previous Dead Letters work tended towards minimalist drone and, while that's still very present, Ekelund has now started to work with much more well-defined rhythms and melody. Today's mp3 selection "Ashen like the sky" is one of the more extreme examples, sounding something like Godflesh buried at sea. A lot of electronic music can seem cold and distant, but I find that Dead Letters always retains a strong sense of earth or organicness, something I attribute to the fact that everything he does sounds as if it's been rolled in shit and dirt. The method behind the music is digital, but the feeling is very human, very real. The result is very powerful and, naturally, very highly recommended.

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - Ashen like the sky

A few copies of the brand new Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words CD "Fall, fall, falling" just arrived. Buy it now!

Kristofer Åström's amazing new record "RainawayTown" is now available for non-Record Club subscribers and I also have the new The End Will Be Kicks "Ass of a friend" EP in-stock and ready for ordering as well. Lots more stuff on the way too, including new releases from Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Tobias Hellkvist, Viola, Fun and Mixtapes & Cellmates. Go shopping!