Indie-dance pop is pretty near the top of my list of despised musical forms, but even in the darkest depths there can be light. Whether by pure accident or divine inspiration, Satellite Stories' "Helsinki art scene" does right by adhering more to the tenets of tightly wound post-punk or early indiepop than reconfiguring and watering down the artsy punk-funk of Talking Heads and their acolytes. The sound is stripped of all artifice, the pace is set to racing and the chorus is infectious; a simple and memorable descending single-note guitar line ties it together with a bow. Shame that the rest of the band's other material pales in comparison, but I'll always take one great song above the rest of the mediocre dreck that's overflowing my mailbox.
September will be releasing her cover of Petter's "Mikrofonkåt" as a proper single following the clip's overwhelmingly positive online response. There will be a proper new album out from September in February.
Swedish metal clowns Hammerfall are recording their next album in Nashville with veteran producer James Michael (Mötley Crüe, Meat Loaf, Scorpions, etc... full list of credits here). A tentative release date has been set for May 20.
"Transparent is OK" is the 3rd single off Simian Ghost's forthcoming album "Infinite traffic everywhere", due out November 29 via . Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AVqlJdjhB0
Check out Voice Of..., a new solo project from Joakim Westlund of Aerial/The Giant's Dream: https://www.voiceof.se/
RIYL Logh or any of Joakim's other bands.
Malmö-based act Fredrik will be releasing new 7" EP called "Origami" on November 16 via featuring the group's very first recordings as a trio following the addition of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Anna Moberg as a permanent member. Full details: https://www.thekorarecords.com/fredrik-origami.html
Otherwise, the band is hard at work on their new album, due out next March.
The Kissaway Trail frontman Søren Corneliussen has started a new sideproject called The Pinecone Cheer -- listen at myspace: https://www.myspace.com/thepineconecheer
The Statens Kunstråd/Danish Arts Council has announced the recipients of their grant money for 2011: https://www.kunst.dk/musik/omtilskud/hvemharfaaettilskud/
Bands receiving funds include Powersolo, Cody, Slaraffenland, Murder, Marybell Katastrophy, Efterklang, Afenginn, WhoMadeWho, The Tremolo Beer Gut, When Saints Go Machine and Turboweekend, among many others.
Danish brutal hardcore acts The Psyke Project and As We Fight are teaming up for a split album release under the name Ebola to be released on March 21, 2011. The bands also plan to collaborate on future live engagements and you can keep up with the project here: https://www.thisisebola.com/
Episode #2 of my new podcast Harsh R is now online: https://www.harshr.com/
Features new music from Fun, Rising, Johan Heltne and others, plus a whole bunch of other things I've been listening to. Feedback is appreciated!