Music (for Robots) on Bulgur Brothers, the Swedish electronic trio of Mikael Stavöstrand, Andreas Tilliander, and Johan Skugge: http://music.for-robots.com/archives/001701.html

Johan Skugge
Volume
Mitek

A bit too heavy on the house beats for my taste, but not bad. It's glitchy enough that I can kind of get into it, but it's definitely too dance-oriented for casual electronica listeners such as myself. I just can't hang with that constant pulsing kick drum.
- Avi Roig

Music (for robots) posts about Swedish electronic artist Johan Skugge: http://music.for-robots.com/archives/000691.html

The Thinner netlabel has a new release from "sober Scandinavian minimal house electronics" artist Johan Skugge: http://www.thinnerism.com/

In October Västerås, Sweden will play host to the 2004 'New Perspectives' Festival which will feature all sorts of avant-rock, free-jazz and improvisation. Artists scheduled to appear so far include Merzbow, Thurston Moore & Jim O' Rourke (Sonic Youth), Blonde Redhead, Tape, Hans Appelqvist, Henrik Rylander (ex-Union Carbide Productions), Ebbot Lundberg (Soundtrack Of Our Lives), Jean-Louis Huhta (Lucky People Center), Johan Skugge and Kent Tankred. Read more: http://www.nyaperspektiv.se/

Okay, I'm totally pissed off because my webhost fucked up and somehow erased all my database information from the last week. Whether or not they'll be able to bring it back remains to be seen, but I am obviously not happy about the situation. So yeah, if you see weird things happening to the site, chances are it is not my fault.

UPDATE: I managed to recover a bit of last week's info from Google's cache (with the kind help of DJ Martian), but not everything is back to normal. I've got the info stashed away somewhere, but I'm still hoping that my webhost comes through for me with the backup.

Sonic Magazine (www.sonicmagazine.com) has a large feature on The Soundtrack of Our Lives and Union Carbide Productions in its latest issue along with a free compilation CD of unreleased tracks for subscribers.

Deleted Art will put out a five-song EP from Threeminutepopsongs later this year that will "destroy everything that preceded it." Look for it around August.

Soviac's album "GMC Out in the Fields" will see a US release later this year on Florida-based Mom Pop Records. The trio also plans for a European tour sometime this fall, but no details are available yet. The latest single "Boogie Woogie" just recently came out and the next full-length "Trilogy Sexlife Rodeo Friscotti" is due out this fall, both from Chalksounds.

In related news, Mom Pop is also the label that will be putting out the post-humous Your Halo Is A Radar self-titled CDEP this summer on July 29. More info here.

The nominees for the twelfth annual P3/Rockparty scholarship award have been announced. The prize is for people or organizations who work hard behind the scenes to make music happen in Sweden. And they are: festival arranger Niklas Jonsson, label Redline Records, manager Stina Lorentz and club organizer Mattias Berg. Read more. (in Swedish)

Denmark's The Raveonettes will appear on David Letterman on July 16.

Statemachine is having a release party for their new album "Short And Explosive" on June 3 at Alcazar/Nalen in Stockholm.

Raised Fist has scored a couple dates opening for Sepultura:

06/10 - KB, Malmö, SWE
06/11 - Rockfeller, Oslo, NOR
06/13 - Loppen, Copenhagen, DK

NRK has posted a photo gallery from the recent Turbonegro show at the Oslo Spektrum.

Ison & Fille make a guest appearance on Kaah's new 'elektro-funk' track "Namnlös", the b-side for the new single "Innan Du Går". They also guest on "Operation : Sverige", a track from Advance Patrol's current album "Utskrivna". And all of Highwon (Ison, Fille, Sabo, Ju-Mazz and Hoosam) appears on the debut-EP from AFC (Allied Forces) on the track "Ögon I Nacken".

For your amusement: Thorsten Flinck on being a body-double in The Sounds's video for the song "Dance with Me" from Expressen. (in Swedish)

Aftonbladet talks with Tomas Ledin about summer touring. His new album I sommarnattens ljus" comes out this week.

"Moodier than a manic depressive 12-year-old girl from northern Minnesota." Delusion of Adequacy reviews the latest album from Ulver, "1993-2003: 1st Decade in the Machines".

There will a 'Swedish Folksongs' evening on June 4 at the Swedish Church in NYC featuring songs by the most popular Swedish composers and poetry from writers such as E. Taube and B. Andersson. The performers will be Asa Rydman (voice), Helena Liljeblad (voice), Eva Engman (voice), Christina Nylund (piano), and Renee Cruz (bass). Admission is $10 and includes post-show cheese and wine.

Adrian Records is going be quite busy this coming fall. David & The Citizens are working on their next album in Malmö and have about eleven or twelve songs ready to go. Laakso are at Christoffer Lundquist's (Brainpool) studio in Skåne with Jari Haapalainen (Bear Quartet) working on their debut full length tentatively titled "– I miss you. I'm Pregnant". And lastly, Björns Vänner is going into the studio in a week to record the follow-up to the "Kvar på film" EP. Christian Kjellvander will be producing and the working title is "Restaurang & Björns vänner".

Upcoming Pink Twins live dates:

06/06 - Galleria Allinna, Riihimäki, FIN (Riihimäki Experiment) w/M.A. Numminen and Kari Peitsamo
06/07 - Kipsari, Helsinki, FIN
06/13 - Sonar Fest in Barcelona, Spain
06/19 - Club DOM, Moscow, RUS (Finnexport 2003)
06/21 - Yaroslavl Art Museum, Yaroslavl, RUS (Finnexport 2003)

Finnexport 2003 events feature also Pan Sonic and Anton Nikkilä and Alexei Borisov. See more info here: www.nbresearchdigest.com/finnexport/

C.Aarmé has announced they will release a 4-song 7" on Big Brothel Records sometime this summer. The name of the record will be "The Gag" and tracks to be included are the title track plus "Aimless", "Worst Part", and "Gasmask".

Hypocrisy has offered up an explanation for why they decided to pull out of the upcoming X-Mass Festivals European tour which was set to start on December 7 in London:

"We sincerely apologize for the cancellation of the X-Mass Fest. The reason being Dimmu Borgir have offered us to tour with them worldwide. This means we'll be touring Europe from 30th September 'till 29 October and the U.S. from 7th November 'till 14th December. We hope to see you out there this fall or this winter! Tour dates will be posted as soon as they are confirmed."

Amorphis' new album "Far from the Sun" debuted on the Finnish charts at #7. Check out the new video for the song "Evil Inside" from here.

Dead Frog Records just put up a brand new website. The label's latest releases include Holden's debut self-titled album and the single "Hard To Be In Love" from Paste. In related news, Holden just signed a publishing deal with Stiggy Music & Management AB. "Holden has everything needed to become a huge success locally and internationally," says Stiggy's Stefan Egmar, "great songs, great look, great album and a fantastic live-act with a brilliant [vocalist] Jenny Öhlund!"

Aquarius Records has put up their latest new arrival list, featuring samples and reviews of artists such as Bjorn Olsson, Johan Berthling, Uton, Markku Peltola and much, much more.

NorthSide Records has announced the upcoming release of Väsen's new album "Trio", due out this August with a US tour to follow in October. The label will also be reissuing Värttinä's classic album from '96 "Kokko", just in time for their 20th anniversary US tour in November. Dates and more details soon.

After the initial success of the festival in Helsinki, the PikseliAHKY / pixelACHE fest is hitting the road for events in New York on June 2-3 and Montreal on June 5-7. The event is billed as "an international laboratory for creative experimenting with audiovisual technologies" and will consist "audiovisual performances, interactive cinema screenings and an exhibition of media art projects." Most of the artists scheduled to appear are from pixelACHE's hometown of Helsinki, but not all. Here's a list of the Scandinavian talent to be represented: Animaatiokone crew (FIN) (Ari Nykanen, Mikko Lindholm, Perttu Hamalainen), Amfibio.org collective (FIN) (Antti A, Halcyon, *Jen, Juhuu, Maippi, Mesq, Teemu K), AVCENTRALEN (SWE) (Olle Huge, Martin Malm, Johan Skugge, Andreas Tilliander), Beeoff (SWE) (Olle Huge, Tomas Linell, Martin Malm, Mikael Scherdin), /dev/null Research Labs (FIN), Helsinki Interactive Cinema Crew & KINO Helsinki (FIN), Jussi Angesleva (FIN) & Ross Cooper (UK), O Samuli A (FIN), Tero (FIN), Tuomas Toivonen (FIN).
More info here: www.pixelache.ac

Due to increased bandwidth concerns, I may have to limit the number of mp3 downloads on this site in the future. I'd rather not, but bandwidth is expensive and it's not as if I'm making any money here. Anyhow, I don't plan on taking them away completely so don't worry about that. If anyone is willing to remotely host files or has any other ideas, please let me know.

Nojesguiden has published their top 20 Swedish albums for 2002. The list:

1. Christian Kjellvander - Songs from a Two-Room Chapel
2. Håkan Hellström - Det är så jag säger det
3. Nicolai Dunger - Sweat Her Kiss
4. The Perishers - From Nothing to One
5. Koop - Waltz for Koop
6. Andreas Tilliander - Elit
7. Ison & Fille - Vår sida av stan
8. Mando Diao - Bring 'Em In
9. Sagor & Swing - Melodier och fåglar
10. Timbuktu - Watt¹s dö madderfakking dill?
11. Looptroop - The Struggle Continues
12. Stephen Simmonds - For Father
13. Masayah - s/t
14. Puss - We Are Puss
15. Johan Skugge - Objects and Buildings
16. The Embassy - Futile Crimes
17. Smyglyssna - We Can Fix It
18. Edson - Edson for Strength
19. Hans Appelqvist - Tonefilm
20. Mokira - Plee

Read more here at the bottom of the page. (In Swedish)

Remember those five songs Kristofer Åström recorded about a week ago? Well they are all gonna end up on that upcoming MCD after all. It's gonna be called "Dead End" and will be released in February (on Startracks, I assume). Here's what Kristofer had to say about it:

Personally, I think it's the best recording we've done so far. We recorded it live in studio and did some overdubs on a couple of songs. It's got an energy to it that I miss in the previous albums.

Hardcore Superstar is about to go back into the studio with producer Roberto Laghi to record the follow-up to "Thank You (For Letting Us Be Ourselves)". The planned release date is April 28.