"It's a trap reader's companion volume one" reviews

Mundane Sounds (February 16, 2005)
The music scene is so fertile in Scandinavia, a Pitchfork-style website has emerged. Called It's A Trap, this site is updated daily, with news and reviews for excellent bands you've more than likely never heard--or will ever hear, outside of Soulseek. That such a website exists is proof enough that we Americans aren't always getting the full scope of what's going on abroad, proving that 'comprehensive' doesn't properly serve the description of some (most?) American music media outlets. It's a great resource worth examining.
As you'd expect from such a general website, the music found on It's a Trap Readers Companion Volume One pretty much covers all bases of musical styles. The one consistent factor is that almost all of the songs are excellent. It's also obvious that the biggest band from the area, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, is a massive influence. Of course, there's also the Hives, and their garage rock style is also noticeable, too. (Neither bands appear hear, though.) Thankfully, there's more interesting music than that; there's country (The Lionheart Brothers, Waver), pretty pop (Jim Stark, Isolation Years), crunchy pop-rock (David & The Citizens, Thirdimension), folk (Jose Gonzales) and even a weird moment or two (Desert Planet). Even though there are some styles I just don't like, I can't say that any of those songs are particularly bad, and I haven't hit the skip button yet.
There's plenty of great music here, and at the rather cheap price of six bucks, it's a steal. All I know is that it's a risky proposition for you, though, because if you're broke like me, you'll be tempted to spend your hard-earned money seeking out more records by many of these acts. Volume Two cannot come soon enough!
- Joseph Kyle

Copper Press (???)
It's a Trap is what you might call the Scandinavian online music embassy, the international proponent of all music emanating from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, with an emphasis on guitar-based indie rock. Conceived and maintained by one man, Avi Roig, the site is based in Albany, California, several thousand miles from its area of coverage. "[N]ot content with simply being a webzine," reads the press release to this album, "the time has come for the next logical step." Hence this handy Reader's Companion released on the zine's eponymous label.
For those wholly unfamiliar with It's a Trap and its journalistic agenda, no matter. The disc stands on its own as a fine three-nation (no Danes or Icelanders to be had, unfortunately) compilation, giving seventeen desperately underexposed bands the chance to be heard outside of their usual geographic confines and to allow their work to mingle with what's on offer elsewhere. Peter, Bjorn & John kick off the comp promisingly with their gritty, lip-curled pop song "It Beats Me Every Time." KVLR (formerly Kevlar until Dupont took their trademarked vowels back) follow up with the previously unreleased "Uncanny Valley," which conjures images of a macho Death Cab for Cutie. "Arizona Spit Trip" by Fun will no doubt please post- and instrumental rockers and devotees of labels such as 54'40" or Fight! and Touch and Go.
It's supremely tempting to go through the rest of the disc track by track, but it's sufficient to say that each one is consistently strong, hand-picked for its universal likeability. Even the "8-bit rock n' roll" of Desert Planet's "Return of the Ninja Droids" has a peculiar sort of charm. Fans of the Barsuk and Merge catalogues will find a lot here to suit their palettes, José González's plaintive "Crosses" and CDOASS' zippy "Speak to Me" (think Talking Heads, Devo) foremost among the rest.
Not long ago I wrote of compilations being hit-and-miss affairs. Defying the norm, this one is nearly all hit.
– Eric J. Iannelli

Amplifier Magazine (Issue 46, January-February 2005)
Like the liners say, It's a Trap! is a daily webzine/label devoted to Scandinavian music, a genre and geographical location that's birthed such totems as Tages, ABBA, and The Soundtrack of Our Lives. Packaging a host of unknowns, the compilers have pieced together a mixed bag offering something for everyone. They couldn't have picked a stronger opener - Peter Bjorn & John's "It Beats Me Every Time" is a way-cool freak-beat rocker built on an insistent bass/guitar line. The Lionheart Brothers' "I Burn Myself on You" rivals The Pernice Brothers for gauzy pop; WE's "Catch Electrique" engages in some monster garage-band riffing. Tempering the noise is Kristofer Astrom's & Britta Persson's gentle acoustic ode "The Wild" and Jose Gonzalez's Nick Drake-styled "Crosses." "Return of the Ninja Droids" by Desert Planet plunges deep into the 'something for everyone' category, its robotic instrumental muzak seemingly lifted from a computer hard-drive. A worthy sampler for sure - now excuse me, I'm going to e-mail Peter Bjorn & John for a copy of its latest.
- Brad Harvey

Splendid E-zine (January 5, 2005)
Thank the men and women of the webzine It's a Trap for recognizing the partial truth in the stereotype of the lazy American. Due to plain apathy and isolation, it's likely that most US music lovers aren't aware of more than a small handful of Scandinavian bands, so the site's architects and writers have compiled a handy Polaroid of their scene. Though it focuses largely on different shades of rock, Reader's Companion Vol. One scrapes a number of genres. Desert Planet's "Return of the Ninja Droids" is videogame blip-hop very much in the style of fellow Scandinavians Tøyen. CDOASS (who've opened for the Hives in the UK) prove that the formerly current punk-funk craze has spread beyond its centers of origin, for better or worse. Like a male Tracy Chapman or a more assertive Iron & Wine, José Gonzaléz's sparse strummer "Crosses" is a stunning breather.
The Lionheart Brothers give us the comp's most revelatory, take-notice cut with "I Burn Myself on You", which combines the sinful catchiness of the best indie-pop with the Verve-like orchestration of its strings. Fun and WE muck things up a bit with their shit-stained takes on filthy AmRep/Touch & Go rock.
While being completely civil and polite about the whole thing, It's a Trap is still sending a wake-up call with this first Reader's Companion. Turns out there's a lot of great stuff going on up there -- who would've thunk it?
- Justin Stewart

High Bias (December 19, 2004)
The great web site It's a Trap!, which focuses on Scandinavian music of all stripes, has put out a handy compilation featuring many of the acts it champions, most of whom don't have the profile of The Soundtrack of Our Lives or even Nicolai Dunger. High Bias is no stranger to the Nordic vibe, as loyal readers know, so it's not gonna be a surprise that I find this disk a delight. It's got a great mix of genres (power pop, hard rock, singer/songwriter stuff) from old friends (Thirdimension, WE, José González), recent acquaintances (David & the Citizens, Isolation Years, KVLR) and new faces (Waver, Lionheart Brothers, Peter Bjorn & John). All these folks make the frigid climes of Northern Europe sound like a very interesting place to be for hardcore music nuts like me. I wonder if Rolling Stone needs a Nordic correspondent?
- Michael Toland

Indie Workshop (November 11, 2004)
Thank the lord that our borders in this fine country of America are porous enough to let through the foreign hordes of music and art. What would we do without the all-important wake-up call that Americans are not responsible for starting, or finishing every single trend in popular culture? That is not saying that we aren’t the prime movers in some fields (like waging useless wars), but one look at this CD compilation will prove that we aren’t the only country making and listening to beautiful and amazing music.
First off, not every song on this widely varied compilation of Scandinavian music may be something you are into, but it’s worth a shot, and It’s A Trap certainly rises to the challenge. Maybe you think that the land of ice and snow has only black metal to offer? Well, then this set of music will probably change your mind, with a broad spectrum of singer-songwriters and bands both loud and soft.
The real trick is to not sit here and say, “Check out the song by Jose Gonzalez. He is like Sweden’s answer to Iron & Wine”… That kind of nationalism just dilutes these artists’ works. I will say that of all the songs on this compilation, I really enjoyed the quieter pieces of work, like Gonzalez and the Lionheart Brothers. Where some of the heavy bands, like KVLR, succeed in their task of rocking the northern lands, some of them on this comp fall short, and that is all right, as long as they are ok with not becoming the next Hives or International Noise Conspiracy (please don’t ever do that…)
Go and get this comp, probably from their website… it is a webzine that puts it out… and then check out the liner notes on the site. Explore and listen to it all. You never know what you will discover.
In conclusion, with the daily shrinking of the world and the increasingly hostile environment we find ourselves in, let us hope that peace and music become synonymous and synergistic to keep us all good neighbors. In that sense, all of this music on this comp is from local bands, local bands that are playing in a whole other time zone.
- Grant Capes

Aversionline (October 2004)
8/10
This is a diverse collection of Scandinavian bands from the It's a Trap webzine/record label, which specifically focuses on that same locale, of course. Represented are a variety of bands, most of which hail from Sweden, covering everything from rather aggressive indie rock to singer/songwriter folk type stuff, with a few acts venturing towards hipster-ish garage rock or new wave sounds, though honestly the bulk of these artists are all quite talented. Most of the songs are rather dark and somber (often "emo" without being "emo", if that makes sense), and as a compilation it plays through very fluidly considering. On the more rocked out side, a killer unreleased track from KVLR (Sweden) makes an appearance with a little bit more laidback melody than expected; Fun (Finland) offers up one of the louder and more frantic tracks with a great sense of rhythm; WE (Norway) rocks out with no bullshit, lots of little leads, handclaps, etc.; Filled (Sweden) drops a rawly recorded demo track, Thirdimension (Sweden) adds a more experimental twist with some resonant piano and percussion backing acoustic guitars and soft vocals for a piece that would likely please the Radiohead/Coldplay type of crowd; while Swedish closer Koma drops "One of Us Must Hang", which tops five minutes and opens with by far the heaviest and most ominous chord progression herein with thick walls of distorted guitars and lots of subtle melodies led by a really cleanly delivered vocal performance (singing), later building into a droning and repetitive passage with orchestral synths and massive layers of pounding drums… fucking awesome. Kristofer Åström (Sweden) offers the first of the "folky" tracks, an excellent piece called "The Wild", with nothing but acoustic guitar and male/female vocal harmonies. José González (Sweden) comes later with "Crosses" – another superbly written minimal piece made up of acoustic guitar and vocals; then Jim Stärk (Norway) adds some horns, keys, and a rhythm section that lend a "pop music" sort of aesthetic to his songwriting; and Sweden's the Carpet People take a slightly bleaker approach with distant percussive hits resonating behind open guitar lines and a really textured vocal performance. Of coruse there are some unexpected twists: Finnish act Desert Planet's "Return of the Ninja Droids" is an intriguing composition that sounds identical to classic video game music (if it's an entirely original composition then I'm highly impressed by its accuracy); another Swedish act called Waver offers one of the more "radio friendly" sort of compositions, still rather dark but definitely accessible; while CDOASS (Sweden) drops a really quirky track that blends 80's styled new wave with a strangely angular attack that sounds nothing like anything else herein. Also worth mentioning is the fact that all of these songs sound very good. Sure, they almost all appear on proper releases, but nonetheless, there's not one selection herein that suffers from inadequate sound quality – another point that makes a huge impact on how strongly this set of tunes plays through from start to finish. The CD comes in a nice looking gatefold digipack with abstract artwork and a few decorative icons using clean, simple text for the tracklist/credits. It's pretty minimal but gets the job done with detailed information on where each band is from and what releases the selected tracks appear on. Selling for the extremely reasonable price of $6 US/$8 world it comes off more as a sampler than a compilation in some ways, but regardless, it's well worth checking out. I've been introduced to some amazing music through this CD and will absolutely be tracking down more from some of these artists as a result, and that's exactly what a compilation should achieve. Very fucking well done… I'm quite thankful that this showed up in my mailbox.
[Notable tracks: KVLR, Fun, Kristofer Åström, José González, Thirdimension, Koma]

Music (for Robots) (October 11, 2004)
I don't know if it's the chilly North Atlantic, the complex mythologies or the relience of a rich diet of fish, but for whatever reason Sweden and Norway have been birthing the most wonderful pop music in the world. Not a week goes by that I don't hear about some awesome new band out of Scandanavia. But for those of us in the states, it's kind of hard to keep up on all the happenings over there. That's where "It's a Trap!" comes in.
For those of you who don't know, It's A Trap is a webzine following the Swedish music scene. Editor Avi Roig has been putting together a fascinating site. This year they even put out a compilation album, and at six dollars it's a total steal. Both these tracks are off of that album, called Reader's Companion Vol. 1 [Buy It]. Each track is pretty different, and through my ignorance I hadn't really heard of any of the bands on there (aside from Jose, whose cover of Heartbeats was one of my favorite songs from last year).
I love the PB&J track. It's an awesome way to kick off an album. The song has great melody and perfect tempo, with just a dash of rockabilly (sort of like what Frank Black was doing with the Catholics, or Elvis Costello). It's the type of song that's begging to be in the opening credits of a movie. I think it's the xylophone that does it.
Jose's track is from his Veneer album put out last year. Any fan of brooding, acoustic pop with double-tracked vocals and interesting rhythms should definitely check out his work.
Usually magazine compilations are total garbage, but you can tell that this one was a labor of love. Avi has put together a wonderful snapshot of the current Swedish scene, and I wish more people would do this for the world's other musical pockets.