Artist: Madrugada
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Got a new track today from Norway's My Midnight Creeps and I'm handing it over to Nancy Baym to talk about it:
My Midnight Creeps is the side project of guitarists from Madrugada and The Ricochets, apparently formed as an outlet for all the rocking they suppress in those bands. They've got a Rolling Stones meet The Cramps and Gun Club in Detroit sound and an over-the-top dramatic sweep. This first single from their second record refines and amplifies what was best about their first. The song starts with almost 90 seconds of buildup worthy of a Hitchcock film - cinematic as all get out - but when it finally bursts into that heavy wall of full-out guitar bombast, it's undeniably affecting in the knock-you-over way that only guitar-heavy rock and roll melody can be. You know you're being manipulated, but there's no denying the raw lure of the sonic environments they build. If it were 5 minutes instead of 7, it'd be perfect.
The band's new album "Histamin" comes out on March 5.
My Midnight Creeps - Don't let 'em bring you down
Madrugada sideproject My Midnight Creeps will release their new album "Histamin" on February 26. Listen to the first single "Don't let em bring you down" on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mymidnightcreeps
8
Madrugada frontman Sivert Høyem closes this second solo album by singing: "I must take to the stage/I need nerves of steel/no matter how weak and how weightless I feel/I just wanted to come across strong." It's an ironic and telling line on an album written just after the biggest year of Madrugada's career. While the songs all deal with vulnerability to varying degrees - estranged narrators desperate for human contact, numbed to that contact, or savoring intimate moments of closeness - the sound betrays no hint of weakness and is anything but weightless. To the contrary, it's heavy, strong, and once you accept its borderline-corny sense of drama, downright beautiful. Høyem is gifted with what's likely the best voice in contemporary rock, and every note on here is sung deliberately and milked for maximum nuance. Fans expecting a repeat of his first solo record "Ladies and gentlemen of the opposition" will find this about as similar to that as Madrugada's "The deep end" was to "Grit" - it sounds very little like its predecessor. Where his first mixed folk with rock and blues for an eclectic set of songs, this is one consistent slow dark march in a minor key. You've got to be in the mood, but when you are, it's breathtaking. Let's hope it sees wider distribution than its current Norway-only release.
- Nancy Baym
I'm waiting for my copy of Madrugada frontman Sivert Høyem's new album to show up in my mailbox, so I'm not yet ready to weigh in on his new solo album "Exiles". Lucky for you, contributor Nancy Baym is ahead of the game and wants to share the title track with you:
Sivert Høyem has never been one to shy away from long songs. "Sister" on Madrugada's second record "The nightly disease" was just over 9 minutes, and now, on his second solo record, he offers up this 8+ minute title-song "Exiles", which he says is about "the tragedy of prostitution and trafficking that I witness every day in my hometown streets of downtown Oslo." Miraculously, it never feels long, even on repeated listens, just rich and powerful. And, as ever, his singing is a marvel to behold.
Listen for yourself and you'll find it hard not to agree. In a word: Epic.
Sivert Høyem - Exiles
The nominees for the 2006 Spellemannprisen, the Norwegian Grammy, have been annnounced:
Female artist:
Elvira Nikolaisen - Quiet Exit (Sony BMG)
Marit Larsen - Under The Surface (EMI Music Norway)
Mira Craig - Mira Mira (Homemade Records)
Male artist:
Bjørn Eidsvåg - Nåde (Petroleum/Sony BMG)
Odd Nordstoga - Heim Te Mor (Universal Music AS)
Thomas Dybdahl - Science (Universal Music AS)
Pop group:
Delillos'85 - Suser Videre (Universal Music AS)
Jim Stärk - Turn Around And Look (Sweet Recordings)
Minor Majority - Reasons To Hang Around (Big Dipper Records)
Electronica:
Lindstrøm - It's A Feedelity Affair (Smalltown Supersound)
Splaxxter Watts - The Shakeout (Cafe Superstar DA)
The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams (Smalltown Supersound)
Rock:
120 Days - 120 Days (Smalltown Supersound)
Bonk - Bonk Against Nothing (Racing Junior)
Madrugada - Live At Tralfamadore (EMI Music Norway)
The Low Frequency In Stereo - The Last Temptation Of... (Rec 90)
The School - Espionage (Kong Tiki Records)
Metal:
Benea Reach - Monument Bineothan (Tabu Recordings)
Enslaved - Ruun (Tabu Recordings)
Gorgoroth - Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam (Regain Records)
Keep Of Kalessin - Armada (Tabu Recordings)
Hip-hop:
Darkside Of The Force - El Dia De Los Puercos (C+C Records)
Karpe Diem - Rett Fra Hjertet (Bonnier Amigo Music Norge)
Tungtvann - Siste Skanse (C+C Records)
Jazz:
Atomic - Happy New Ears! (Jazzland)
Helge Sunde/Norske Store Orkester - Denada (Act)
Håkon Kornstad/Håvard Wiik - The Bad And The Beautiful (Moserobie)
Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilssen-Love - Seven (Smalltown Superjazzz)
The Thing - Action Jazz (Smalltown Superjazzz)
Open class:
Hanne Hukkelberg - Rykestrasse 68 (Propeller Recordings AS)
Kristin Asbjørnsen - Wayfaring Stranger - A Spiritual Songbook (Universal Music AS)
Mari Boine - Idjagiedas - In The Hand Of The Night (Universal Music AS)
Terje Isungset - Igloo (All Ice Records/Grappa)
Wibutee - Sweet Mental (Sonne Disk)
Best newcomer:
120 Days - 120 Days (Smalltown Supersound)
Elvira Nikolaisen - Quiet Exit (Sony BMG)
Marte Wulff - Jacket (It's Definitly Records)
Mira Craig - Mira Mira (Homemade Records)
Rockettothesky - So Sing You Apple Trees (Trust Me Records)
Music video:
Bjørn Eidsvåg M/Elvira Nikolaisen - Floden (Sony BMG)
Christel Alsos - Come On (Sony BMG)
Grand Island - Us Annexed (Racing Junior)
Marit Larsen - Don't Save Me (Emi)
The White Birch - Seer Beliver (Racing Junior)
The rest of the categories are here: http://www.spellemann.no/nomine.html
The new website for Madrugada frontman Sivert Høyem's solo work is now online: http://www.siverthoyem.com/
Download a radio rip of the new Sivert Høyem (Madrugada) single "Into the sea": http://madrugada.stthomas1976.net/media/sivert-hoyem_into-the-sea.mp3
Good stuff - I'm finding I like Sivert's solo material more than the last few Madrugada albums. The album "Exiles" comes out December 11 on his own label Hektor Grammofon.
Madrugada discusses their future plans and what to expect from their next album: http://www.stthomas1976.net/madrugada/news.php
Madrugada frontman Sivert Høyem has reportedly completed work on a new solo album, the follow-up to 2004's excellent "Ladies and gentlemen of the opposition". It was recorded at Svenska Grammofon in Göteborg, the studio owned by TSOOL and was produced by Head who Sivert also worked with on Madrugada's album "Grit". Sivert himself describes the music as 'bigger' than his previous effort and that one song ("Exile") tops nine minutes in runtime. Look for it to be released this fall or maybe around the holidays at the latest.
Speaking of Madrugada solo projects, guitarist Robert Burås and his band My Midnight Creeps have finished their second album and it should also be out this fall.
Okay, today's mp3 post is from Danish post-rock act Lis Er Stille and I'm letting Jason Christie do the talking:
WOW! WOW! WOW! Move over Logh, Jeniferever, Appliance, Thom Yorke go work for Greenpeace and the rest of the postrock proggists can veg themselves out on "The construction of amp-train" with Lis Er Stille.
They are not very pretentious, they are just plain pretentious. Four tracks, three lead up - funnily enough - to the "End credits". Yep, one large chunk of a good 36 production tracks of music on two or three interpolating subtle compostions, bright and breezy, titled then crescendoed give up an overriding monster of almost quarter of an hour in length.
"End credits" (which is the only 'real' track on this EP) is epic in its entirety and, after a few snippets of Madrugada in part one, morphs into something likening prog-rock with skittle drums and circulating song lyrics. All of which is very atmospheric, along with the fairground - think house of horrors - squeals, drills and spiral sounds. I liked this, it works well at 3am.
Lis er Stille - End credits
Copenhagen's Skywriter come seemingly out of nowhere to deliver a remarkably strong debut record. Though the sound is completely their own, it's got shades of Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, and (as fearless leader Avi tells us) early Madrugada. The record is also reminiscent of Interpol in how successfully it sets an urban nighttime mood and sees it through to the end. The singer's got a beautiful clear voice, the guitars serve mainly to create atmosphere, and sultry bass lines propel many of the songs. The sound is dark, melancholic, uplifting, deep, and poignant. Lyrically it's a cut above most ("you drag me off my cloud/you walk along with me/the road follows my eye/as far as I can see"). There's not a weak song on here. My only complaints are that my favorite (this week), "This thing never sleeps," isn't even 3 minutes long when I wish it were 4 or 5, and at 37 minutes total, the whole album ends so soon one has to hit replay immediately. Easily my favorite release so far in 2006.
- Nancy Baym
Did I mention that I'll be posting new music five days a week from here on out? I know that's been the case for the last few weeks, but I'm making it official. It's hard to believe there's so much quality stuff coming out that my posting schedule is booked weeks in advance. I try to be fickle, but there's no arguing with quality.
Today's track comes to us from Skywriter, a dark and brooding rock act from Denmark. Reverbed-soaked guitars and lots of hanging chords, a frontman with a deep-voiced croon, nice sparse arrangements - imagine Madrugada, but more solemn, more sullen. "Dead end street", the song I've posted today, is the centerpiece of the band's debut album "Where both worlds never meet". It smolders with a quiet intensity that builds slowly as it weaves its melodramatic tale of a man's doomed love with a prostitute: "All she ever gave him was a name / every other part of her he paid for / and all he ever wanted was his dream / her worn-out pride, her child inside / who can say love doesn't cost a thing?" Sublime.
Skywriter