Top 10s for 2007: It's a Trap!

Special offer for December! Buy one "It's a trap! Reader's companion", get the other for free! Or buy either of the Logh or Tiger Lou 7"s and get a dollar off each! Also note that I've lowered the price of the KVLR CD to a mere $4! Go shopping!

Rumor has it that Logh is working on a live album.

José González
Live @ Babylon Berlin:Mitte, Berlin, 11/12/07

Having seen José once before as opening act for Logh in December 2004, I went into this concert with very high expectations. Roughly two years and a sharp rise in popularity later, he was now set to play an old cinema in Berlin-Mitte - a beautiful location, complete with plush curtains, balcony and mirror ball. José took the stage exactly on time (the concert was being broadcast live on the radio) and played an equal mix of older and newer tracks. Crowd responses grew more intense during current single "Down the line" and reached a peak in the brilliant encore of "Storm", "Hearbeats", "Crosses" and "Love will tear us apart". Generally, his guitar-playing seemed rougher and more aggressive than before, in line with the anger and darkness of the lyrics from current album "In our nature" (as well as with the closing Joy Division cover) and that made his performance all the more intense. Truly a memorable evening, although maybe a bit short - a second set had been scheduled for about an hour later due to huge demand for tickets.
- Arnulf Köhncke

MyFriends: The Deed, Hymns from Nineveh, In a City By the Sea, The Mymmelins, Twin Piloda

Audrey will be begin recording their next album at Mission Hall in Skåne, Sweden on December 27. Mathias Oldén (Logh) will produce/engineer.

Immanu El
They'll come, they come
And the Sound

Having dedicated a decent amount of the past five years of my life to the music scene (in various functions and positions, most ending in savage failure), I've developed a rather refined musical palate. I nod and smile and say things like, "Yeah, this band's not too bad" when a friend plays me a song or a group they've recently fallen in love with, but rarely do I find these sessions truly rewarding. My ears have been damaged too long and too often by music for me to continuously fall over myself for new bands like I used to (but I desperately search for that wide eyed, naïve boy in the landscapes painted in new records), not unless they're really bringing something to the table. And Immanu El's "They'll come, they come" is unquestionably a forceful and substantial album; an effort that probes sections of our musical consciousness that have fallen into shadow and been ignored too long.

Sweden has Aerial and Once We Were, both bands supporting a very high standard for the cinematic explorations of other Scandinavian groups, and Immanu El pass this rigorous assessment with flair and elegance. As is often the case with exceptional records, the closer is brilliant. "...in valleys" is a sweeping, graceful composition, and a fitting conclusion to an album that effortlessly traverses terrain we typically associate with bands like Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and Logh. It's difficult to truly do anything novel and unique in the genre of post-rock, but Immanu El come damned close, at the very least combining all the beauty that the aforementioned groups investigate in a subtle, distinctive manner. "Panda" demonstrates how essential Claes Nilsson Strängberg's voice is to the overall sound and achievement of Immanu El. Vocals are often absent from these types of explorations, and attempting to place a voice into the strata of other instrumentation is a complicated and precarious procedure. Immanu El excel in this respect, and in a myriad other respects throughout. Absolutely brilliant.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

The playlist for my radio show this week:

01. Mattias Bärjed - 99 pounds
02. TALK 1
03. Piroth - Waltz for prima ballerina
04. Hyacinth House - Swedish signs on Monkey Island
05. Aerial - Secret goddess
06. Icos - Fly away
07. TALK 2
08. Robyn - Konichiwa bitches (Trentemøller remix)
09. Folke Rabe - Argh!
10. Him Kerosene - Ladybugs
11. TALK 3
12. Audionom - In the streets
13. The Alpine - Trigger
14. Immanu El - Astral days
15. TALK 4
16. Nina Ramsby & Martin Hederos - Jag har en vän
17. Logh - Thieves in the palace
18. Galento - Gunnar Hardings paraply
19. TALK 5
20. Promise and the Monster - Antarkis
21. The Je Ne Sais Quoi - Heroica
22. Anchor - In the throes of passion
23. TALK 6
24. Repoman - Valley of snakes
25. Ulver - Shadows of the sun
26. Bobby Baby - Do not twist
27. TALK 7
28. Superfamily - Warszawa
29. The Fine Arts Showcase - Modern love
30. Sinikka Langeland - Sus i myrull
31. TALK 8
32. Graveyard - Thin line
33. Mai - Snowing downtown
34. KVLR - Abomination
35. TALK 9
36. Säkert! - Sanningsdan

I'm not sure if everyone gets the same 'more video' links at the end of that Fine Arts Showcase clip, but I got tipped on some excellent live clips of Logh from Malmöfestivalen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaH2oI0-VJo
Definitely worth checking out!

The playlist for this week's radio show:

01. Laakso - Worst case scenario
02. TALK 1
03. Superfamily - I want my money back
04. The Bear Quartet - Ask me don't axe me
05. Ståålfågel - Små gröna män
06. TALK 2
07. Printer - Satisfaction (radio edit)
08. NEI - New morning
09. Paper - Out of it into it
10. Darkthrone - Canadian metal
11. TALK 3
12. Sweatmaster - Animal
13. Bloodbath - Buried by the dead
14. Moneybrother - Guess who's gonna get some tonight
15. TALK 4
16. The Perishers - Victorious
17. The Skull Defekts - Unholy drums are singing
18. Hell On Wheels - Alexander
19. TALK 5
20. Karin Ström - Ordlös
21. Kompjotr Eplektrika - Skulldrummantra
22. Scraps of Tape - How your heart gets thrown
23. TALK 6
24. Brainbombs - Stinking memory
25. M:40 - Brännmärkt
26. Logh - Bring on the ether
27. TALK 7
28. CS Nielsen - Happy
29. Amorphis - Weaving the incantation
30. Juvelen - Hanna
31. TALK 8
32. Killerchaps - Equally dumb
33. Dinosau - Derr lady
34. Knugen Faller - Inte som ni
35. TALK 9
36. The Kissaway Trail - La la song
37. Pg.Lost - Yes I am
38. Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Marry me
39. TALK 10
40. Don Juan Dracula - Take me home

UK-based label Stereo Test Kit (Logh, Boy Omega, Audrey, etc.) has signed Band in Box and will be releasing their debut album early next year along with a split 7" in November. Listen to demo tracks: http://www.myspace.com/bandinbox

The playlist for my radio show this week:

01. Säkert! - Allt som är ditt
02. TALK 1
03. Madrugada - Shine
04. My Midnight Creeps - Don't let 'em bring you down
05. TALK 2
06. Asha Ali - A promise broken
07. Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen
08. Pelle Carlberg - Clever girls like clever boys much more than clever boys like clever girls
09. TALK 3
10. Enslaved - 793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne)
11. TALK 4
12. Fare You Well - Take me away
13. The Kissaway Trail - Smother + Evil = Hurt
14. Emmon - Wake up time (Thermostatic remix)
15. TALK 5
16. KVLR - Traitors and thieves
17. Magnus Carlsson - Va med mig
18. Jonas Kullhammar Quartet - Bebopalulia
19. TALK 6
20. De Må Være Belgiere - Cirkler
21. Johndoe - Kjøtere
22. Manes - Deeprooted
23. TALK 7
24. Khoma - Stop making speeches
25. The Giant's Dream - Significant dawn
26. Las Puertas - The water
27. TALK 8
28. Lordi - The chainsaw buffet
29. Logh - A sunset knife fight
30. Lack - 5 o'clock in the evening
31. TALK 9
32. The Bear Quartet - Before the trenches
33. Jan Johansson - Visa från Utanmyra
34. TALK 10
35. Kashmir - The aftermath

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

UK-based label Stereo Test Kit will begin promoting Logh in late August by releasing the single "Saturday nightmares". The album "North", the band's most recent, will follow in September along with a tour later that month. Exact details soon.

Listmania! 2007 so far