Prolific Danish artist Frank Ziyanak (The Wong Boys, Death to Frank Ziyanak, etc.) has recorded a new album entitled "Shadowboxer" and is giving away as a free download: http://www.frankziyanak.com/MAIN/SHADOWBOXER.html
Danish indiepop act Bodebrixen will be heading to London at the end of the month for a few live dates:
01/27 - Tommy Flynn's, London
01/28 - The Monto Water Rats, London
01/29 - NME Club @ Koko (DJ-set), London
01/30 - Play It By Ear @ The Monarch, London
01/31 - The Lexington, London
Ea Philippa, Danish artist and "succulent queen of the elves", has new music streaming at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/eaphilippa
She will be doing a few dates around Denmark in the near future to promote her new album "Forvandlingsfrugtbar" and book/mp3 player to be released in February.
The new Torsten Larsen (of Larsen & Furious Jane) demo collection "The big payoff" is available as a free download in exchange for an email address: http://larsenandfuriousjane.bandcamp.com/
Besides Anchorless (remember?), there's another new ex-Lack band in town and they're called Beautiful Burning World. Check it: http://www.myspace.com/beautifulburningworld
AntifilmThere's something rather appealing on first mention of Antifilm that's hard to pinpoint; maybe it's the name, maybe it's the album cover. I'm not really sure. Musically, however, Dane Thomas Bred doesn't quite live up to whatever expectation I had of his debut album "IO". It's not that "IO" is a bad album, rather it's a collection of songs that have difficulty in finding focus or common ground. Of course, variety is the spice of life and an album on which everything sounds the same would make for a boring effort indeed, but there still needs to be some sort of unity throughout. "IO" gives the impression that we have a musician out there with some great ideas, but with little notion of putting together a coherent collection of songs. "What's with all the stars" kicks the album off with a second-rate attempt at some sort of semi-upbeat indiepop, a trait that, thankfully, doesn't rear its head again until "Ovenfra", and I have no idea what in the hell is going on with that particular number. That said, while "IO" does have its abysmal downsides, it makes up for such negatives with the inclusion of some wonderfully atmospheric pieces like "Rondo", "IO" and "Heavy petting", all of which border on the soundtrack/dark ambient genres and all of which showcase Bred at his creative best. Closer "Here comes the son" is labelled as 'the summer hit' and for the life of me I can't think why. Was this a summer hit? And if so, where was it a summer hit? Forgetting that, this album does show that Antifilm has great potential but, for now, has given us just over thirty minutes of material that borders on the pretentious.
- John Norby
Troels Abrahamsen reports that his delayed album "BLCK" will finally see the light of day on March 8. But that's not all, he's also producing the new Veto album which gets underway later this month.
All Scandinavian lists their top 20 albums of 2009: http://allscandinavian.com/2977/the-20-best-albums-of-2009/
The BBC calls A Camp's "Colonia" one of the best albums you never heard in 2009: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8426925.stm
Danish act Mew also gets a nod.
PopMatters reviews the latest album "Islands" from Swedish indierockers The Mary Onettes: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/117937-the-mary-onettes-islands/
Also covered, the American release of "Wayne Coyne" from Danes The William Blakes: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/118115-the-william-blakes-wayne-coyne/
It's been a long while since we've heard anything new from Danish noiserock behemoths Menfolk, but reports that they will finally relase the new album "Beast one / Man mil" this spring. Samples soon?
Gaffa has the lowdown on the nominees for the Danish P3 Guld Awards: http://gaffa.dk/nyhed/36363
Check out a live concert video of Mimas performing in Reading: http://www.beatcast.tv/page/mimas-1
A few statistics for the year, should you be curious...
Total news items: 3880
Reviews: 77
Mp3s: 235
Top downloads (for tracks posted in 2009):
01. Florence Valentin - Spring Ricco
02. Ison & Fille - Jag skratter idag
03. King Diamond - No presents for Christmas (slightly cheating since I also posted it last year)
04. The Scrags - Psycho cyclone
05. Mercy - Heavy metal warriors
Top search terms:
01. Porno (no surprise, though I suspect most people aren't actually looking for the Swedish rapper)
02. Darkthrone
03. King Diamond
04. Melody Club
05. Black Uniforms
Remember, the mailorder goes on hibernation tomorrow so get your orders in now. Otherwise, I'm hard at work on revamping the site for 2010 and will be back with regular updates next week. Take care and happy New Year!
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. TALK 1
02. Mattias Alkberg - Andra känner
03. Darkthrone - Launchpad to nothingness
04. Mikkel Meyer - Kokostosca
05. TALK 2
06. First Band from Outer Space - Turn left to the Mexican barbeque
07. Kråkesølv - Privat regn
08. TALK 3
09. Galaxy Safari - Save me
10. Witchcraft - Samaritan burden
11. Bad Hands - Sonnenrad
12. TALK 4
13. Lapko - I shot the sheriff
14. Siena Root - Into the woods
15. Marvins Revolt - Siberia
16. TALK 5
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
