Been meaning to get this written up for over a week now, but I haven't found the time and now that I'm about head out on vacation to Sweden for a couple weeks, I figure I need to get at least something up. So without further ado, here's my picks for the best releases of 2012 so far (in alphabetical order):
Agent Side Grinder - Hardware () Beastmilk - Use your deluge () Diskoteket - Det ska se ut som slutet () Magnus Ekelund & Stålet - Supernova EP () Nitad - Rastlös & vild () Susanne Sundfør - The silicone veil () Tvärvägen - Staring directly into the sun () Vånna Inget - Jag ska fly tills jag hittar hem ()
On the cusp/too early to tell: Anchorless - Every nook and cranny () Norra Kust - s/t () Westkust - Junk EP ()
Reissues: Missbrukarna - Zooma in en zombie () Ratsia - Jäljet ()
Listen to a selection of these records below via Spotify:
The upcoming Diskoteket LP "Det ska se ut som slutet" is now available for preorder from : http://irrlicht.se/en/page3.html
I've been listening to the 2-song sampler quite a bit, so I'm very excited to finally get the full package in a couple weeks.
has announced that they will be releasing the debut album "Det ska se ut som slutet" from Uppsala, Sweden-based act Diskoteket as part of their series. Listen to some old tracks via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Diskoteket
Says the label: "Diskoteket ascends the Upplandian underground with forty minutes of brutally romantic post-punk; "...slutet" is lush, raw, pompous and painfully honest."
Chicagojazzen's new LP "Misantropi för nybörjare" ("Misanthropy for beginners", out now via on limited vinyl only) plays like an audio sketchbook for a hyperactive imagination. Ideas are cast out, explored and rendered in abstract lofi; a decision guided by what seems to be aesthetic choice as opposed to pure circumstance. Many artists go that route to conceal their lack of talent or to adhere to some sort of genre orthodoxy, but in this particular case I find that the roughness of the sound nicely compliments the roughness of the material. Which is not to say that it works every time -- some songs come across as quite under-composed or even half-assed -- but the overall feeling I get from the record is very positive. I keep listening because I'm intrigued, because I'm curious about the process. So it's hard to isolate a particular instance to give others a best impression; it's preferable that you sit down, put the record on and listen the whole way through, letting your mind wander as the sounds do the same, but I'll try with "18 år i en ruttnande kropp", a seemingly pastoral postrockish piece with a darker undercurrent as befits the title ("18 years in a decaying body"). It builds long and slow before stumbling to an awkward conclusion which, I suppose, is an apt metaphor, though that could just be stream of consciousness running its course and petering out. Regardless, it sounds interesting and the overall tibre never goes exactly where I'd expect. As to where Chicagojazzen goes next as an artist, I'm very curious to hear.
is a new label founded by Håkan Jonson and Erik Enocksson with a focus on putting out limited edition vinyl records and books. Their first release will be "Misantropi för nybörjare" ("Misanthropy for beginners") by Chicagojazzen (aka Erik Karlsson of Skellefteå, Sweden), an record they describe as "37 minutes worth of instrumental pop, neatly tucked into a bed of tape-hiss and crooked arrangements owing as much to Norwegian second wave black metal and American Eastcoast hiphop as to late '80s Brittish shoegaze." The official release date is April 30 and said LP will be available limited to 250 copies on 140g white vinyl. Release #2 will be "Den vita staden", a poem by Jessica Andersson with an expected release later this coming spring. More here: http://www.irrlicht.se/
