This week's top 20 Swedish student radio chart:
01. (02) The Ark - Absolutely no decorum
02. (03) Asha Ali - Coward heart
03. (06) Badly Drawn Boy - A journey from A to B
04. (05) The Moonbabies - War on sound
05. (01) Lily Allen - Littlest things
06. (07) Regina Spektor - Samson
07. (NY) Arctic Monkeys - Brainstorm
08. (08) Sahara Hotnights - Cheek to cheek
09. (09) Joss Stone - Tell me about it
10. (11) The Shins - Phantom limb
11. (10) The Kooks - Ooh la
12. (12) Pelle Carlberg - I love you, you imbecile
13. (04) Tingsek - Proud to be part of these days
14. (13) Maia Hirasawa - And I found this boy
15. (NY) Kings of Leon - On call
16. (19) Tokyo Police Club - Nature of the experiment
17. (14) Cold War Kids - Hang me up to dry
18. (16) The Long Blondes - Giddy stratospheres
19. (NY) Jamie T - If you got the money
20. (15) Amerie - Take control
Leaving the chart:
The Mary Onettes - Void
Grinderman - No pussy blues
Marit Bergman - Mama I remember you now
Tar... Feathers on tour in Northern Europe:
04/26 - Schokoladen, Berlin (GER)
04/27 - Atomino, Chemnitz (GER)
04/28 - Riff, Magdeburg (GER)
04/29 - DB's, Utrecht (NL)
04/30 - tba, Stuttgart (GER)
05/01 - Juz, Saarlouis (GER)
Katatonia's new video for the song "July" is up on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLEogbdozHc
Danish act January Jaunt has signed with Strange Ears Recordings and will be releasing their debut album "Echoes & stills" in April. Listen to the first single "Try" at myspace: https://www.myspace.com/januaryjaunt
Pfork's 'Show No Mercy' metal column tackles the new DHG and discusses the current state of black-metal with Zweizz's Svein Egil Hatlevik : https://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/41551/Column_Column_Show_No_Mercy
Ane Brun's first two albums failed to impress me - they're okay, but underwhelming considering the accolades afforded them. I'm not what it is, but they fail to resonate with me. However, the "Duets" album drastically changed my opinion and I found myself appreciating Ane in a whole new light. The more subdued production and the balance of other voices were just what I needed to hear I guess. So when Ane released a new live album recently, I was kind of excited to hear it. I'm not too big on live records unless they really change things up from the studio recording and since "Live in Scandinavia" is all-acoustic plus string quartet, it qualifies. Remember me saying the other day how The (International) Noise Conspiracy's "Live in Oslo" is my favorite record of theirs? The inclusion of the Jaga Jazzist horns on a few tracks is a big part of that. So yeah, Ane Brun live with strings - does it work? The answer is yes, very well indeed.
Buy "Live in Scandinavia": [click here]
Ane Brun - Balloon ranger (live)
Unless I told you (as I'm doing now) that The Spacious Mind was directly related to Säkert! (see yesterday's post), there's little chance you would make the connection on your own. Without reading the liner notes, that is. Henrik Oja, the man who produced and engineered the Säkert! album, is also one of the main creative forces behind Umeå-based psych-rockers The Spacious Mind. The band has been quietly releasing album after album since 1993 and I think that "Gentle path highway" is something like their 7th official CD release overall (they've also released plenty of CDRs and other errata, as you can see here). I enjoyed their last disc "Rotvälta" quite a bit, but it's six-part, hour-long jam was not the sort of thing I could just pop in the stereo on a whim. Not that the new one is all that different - it's still full of extended psych/folk improv sessions that harken back to Swedish pioneers such as Harvester, Parsson Sound and Trad, Gras och Stenar. The difference is that I immediately got into this new record and its shorter, more readily digestible pieces, especially the first track "Rider of the woodlands" which I've posted today. It's a long dirge based on a single looping and echoing guitar figure that slowly morphs and is built upon over the course of it's 17 minute length. That might seem like an awful long time, but the repeativeness sucks you in. Unfortunately, I suspect that most casual Säkert! fans won't be able to get into this and that's a shame. Open your miiiinds people!
The Spacious Mind - Rider of the woodlands
Finally, a new profile piece is posted: [click here]
The subject: Hearts of Black Science, a very promising band I was lucky to hear when they were still in their demo phase.
Hockey Rawk will be releasing a noise comp cassette in late March/early April featuring cuts from the likes of Olle Oljud, Fröya, D. Karlsson, T. Karlsson, Tsukimono, Ourrefusalisourweaponlet'sfight, Idiomdrottning, Henrik Kihlberg and others. Also on the way from the label/art group is a CDR of an elderly man named Gert telling stories in Swedish, playing a bit of accordion and synthesizer and singing. More details to come.
Check out the video for the Sällskapet single "Nordlicht" :
As mentioned before, Sällskapet is the new full-band project of Joakim Thåström (Ebba Grön, Imperiet, etc.).
Swedish indierockers The Search will be releasing their third album "Deranged minds unite" on March 14 and celebrating with a show at Debaser Slussens in Stockholm. Listen to a few tracks at myspace: https://www.myspace.com/thesearchsweden
Lupatarkastaja has some new Finnish thrash to check out: https://lupatarkastaja.samizdat.info/2007/03/05/1756/
I've been remiss in my coverage of what's going down in Copenhagen over Ungdomshuset. Here's a decent BBC summation of the events thus far: https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6422345.stm
For further details, see Indymedia.dk. There's an up-to-date feed of news in English linked from the frontpage.