mIC Norway talks to Hardingrock, the new project of Ihsahn from Emperor along with Heidi Solberg Tveitan from Starofash and Hardanger fiddle-master Knut Buen: mic.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2007061313022019408560" target=_blank>https://www.mic.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2007061313022019408560

Dark Dose on the new Carnal Forge record "Testify for my victims": m/?p=162" target=_blank>https://darkdose.com/?p=162

Taken By Trees aka ex-Concrete Victoria Bergsman has cancelled out of her own record release show, scheduled for June 18 at the Spitz in London. Is it nerves? Rumour has it that she is a reluctant live performer. Scout Niblett will take her place as the headlining act and it appears that Tough Alliance member Eric Berglund has bowed out of DJ duties as well.

Check out the Pistol Disco remix of "Guns" by Swedish dark rock act Ikons: myspace.com/1kon5" target=_blank>https://www.myspace.com/1kon5
Ikons features members from Samuraj Cities and Boat Club and, like all Pistol Disco-related sounds, this track is a total face-melter.

Promises Promises have a new track posted on myspace that they recorded with help from Kristian Anttila: myspace.com/promisesx2" target=_blank>https://www.myspace.com/promisesx2

MP3: Miss Li - I'm sorry, he's mine

Two albums in under a year? Unheard of! (Ryan Adams excluded) miss Li quickly rose to prominence on the back of myspace-related hype, got signed to National and hustled out her debut record "Late night heartbroken blues". Despite its flaws, I found it to be a charming debut. A little rough in spots, perhaps a little rushed, but perfectly acceptable. Now, not even six months late, miss Li's gone and released the follow-up "God put a rainbow in the sky" and surprisingly, I think it's better than the first one. The songwriting is bit more varied and the overall level of quality is far more consistent. The formula isn't that much different: miss Li is still a saucy little tart and though she might express remorse for stealing your man, you don't believe that she means it. When she says she's sad and follows it with "But life's cruel when you fall for / Someone that don't belong to you" it really doesn't seem all that genuine, y'know? Overall, I think there's still plenty of room for improvement, but keep giving me cheeky little numbers like this and I'll keep paying attention.

Miss Li - I'm sorry, he's mine

The Concretes
Live @ The Luminaire, London, 06/06/07

Tonight saw the debut of the new slimmed down and shaken up line up of The Concretes playing to a sardine packed Luminaire. minus Victoria Bergsman, vocal duties are now taken care of by drummer-turned-vocalist Lisa milberg. Phil Collins eat your heart out. milberg still needs to gain a shade more stage presence, as she came across with a reassuring charm, but needed to give her between-song banter a bit more gusto. However, this can be forgiven when you consider she's spent the last five years hitting skins for the band. The band's eleventh London gig to date was a definite triumph, especially when you consider what a torrid time the band have had over the last year. The band entered the stage to the instrumental chimes of album title track "Hey trouble" which acted as a very gentle rallying cry to war. There was a definitive air of survivorship around them, which possibly was a reaction of the crowd making the band feel like they were playing some kind of homecoming gig. Rather than a comeback, this was the rebirth of The Concretes.
- Nick Levine

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words
Fall, fall, falling
Kalligrammofon

Like searching for beauty in a canvas saturated with black paint, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words isn't necessarily an easy project to understand or enjoy, but there is magnificence hidden under the convoluted layers and crushing waves of distortion and noise. "Fall, fall, falling" is a soundtrack to fragmenting. In Ekelund's own words, "It's about breaking down...apart... up. It's about grotesque reactions and the distortion of memories..." This is an album for those who found "Requiem for a Dream" beautiful, for those who can see the splendor in fractured sections of marble that once were brilliant statues, who understand the freedom that comes with knowing you've hit rock bottom, and that time and experience and maturity no longer necessarily matter in moments of pure, raw emotion. The most focused of Ekelund's records, "Fall, fall, falling" is a dark, flawed masterpiece, and made the more poignant and impressive because of its imperfections. This album will not lift your spirits, nor will it assure you that things will be alright – it lavishly depicts landscapes that we all have traveled, darkened corridors or self-analysis, painful tracts of introspection in the face of despondent moments of our lives, and ultimately is a record that assure us that others have traveled similar roads and have survived even the worst that we can build for ourselves... and that we can demolish.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

The Domus
Fractures
Kasual Recordings

Perfectly produced, effortlessly executed, and deftly crafted, "Fractures" is almost an archetype indie-electro-pop record. Listening to tracks like "A3Dm" and "Old new bridges" I want to give this record a 9/10, but a few of the tracks on the album verge on becoming overly sugary. This is not to suggest these sweet sections do not work; they do – I just am far more affected by the slower, thoughtful, almost mournful moments of The Domus' songwriting. Overall, "Fractures" is quite an album, even in its more playful moments. An interesting and eclectic mix of influences and interests, sometimes reflecting along similar tangents to lablemates Jettie, and other times almost approaching the mischievous tone of Juvelen, this isn't a record that should be overlooked. Kasual Recordings has always had an ear for great talents – The Domus are a great addition to their accomplished roster.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

Fare You Well
Sounds like a serenade
Diet Records

A wall of sound? Check. Attitude? Check. Lots of harmonies? Check. Breakdowns? Check. Emo? You bet! When Canan from Satirnine teams up with members from The Ackermans, the result is somewhat blurry. Like a job half done. 'Cause when you're in this emorock genre, it doesn't matter if the musicianship is brilliant (and it is on this disc, I give them that), you need strong melodies and big choruses. Something Fare You Well is missing. There are, on the other hand, some tracks that stand out. The poppy "Take me away" offers up a nice touch that sounds a bit like a darker form of The Promise Ring and the heavy "Traps" follows the vein of Bad Astronaut. But as a whole, the album isn't as edgy as I want this kind of music to be and it is certainly not what I expected from Canan. A sign of the times I suppose. Sounds like a serenade? Nah, sounds more like a sleeping pill.
- Jonas Appelqvist

Arve Henriksen
Strjon
Rune Grammofon

Artists are constantly pushing the limits of what consists of art in minimalist measures, but this is going just a tad too far. Not unlike John Cage's "ASLSP" composition for the organ which has been droning since September 2001, song after song fails to pique any interest. Okay, yes, mr. Henriksen is an experimentalist at heart, interested in Zen meditation sounds and it's good that he's bridging that school of thought to the tones of trumpets, but make some noise! However, the track "Glacier descent" is a surprise as the music suddenly opens up into a beautiful vocal piece. This album brings up the question of where sound becomes music. Listening to the background noise of traffic jams in the street would be more exciting than this. Then again, it could be a good album after a stressful day, for a massage, or just to fall asleep by.
- Jennifer Ma

Opsvik & Jennings
Commuter anthems
Rune Grammofon

Akin to the soundtrack of a Charlie Kaufman film, "Commuter anthems", the second album from the Norwegian-American duo Opsvik & Jennings, is a bizarre concept album exploring the in-between world one enters when traveling from the realm of their personal lives towards the structured environment of a professional existence; in many ways it's an exploration of being nowhere in particular. Built up through layers of overdubbed instruments, a few electronic touches, and the obvious talents of the pair, the record is an exercise in controlled chaos and improvisation – and somehow it stills retains meaning. "Commuter anthems" is a sequence of daydreams, much like my morning commute from the District's suburbs into the city – eyes scanning the parking lot motorways lining the metro tracks, the occasional police sirens rushing to an accident, the clacking of the train's wheels. Opsvik & Jennings have replaced all of these elements with instruments, horns replaced with strings, distracted longings traded for tracts of dreamy melodies, and the entire journey is sketched in the bizarre pacing and structuring of their compositions. Of the same tenor as minotaur Shock, but less focused or restrained, this album isn't one to enhance a summer's day, rather to reflect upon the hours lost scuttling to stay in one place.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

Park Hotell
The guest who stayed forever
BD Pop

For a debut double-EP, "The guest who stayed forever" is a damned fine collection of songs. Echoing the sounds of New Order with a few subtle Smiths-esque touches, and yet still rather at home with their Norrland neighbors, Park Hotell have finally delivered on all the promise and hype that's built around the band. I'm often left wanting for more when presented with an EP, but they quality of the six songs here leaves nothing to be desired. With everyone and their sister starting up an 80s throwback band and the market quickly becoming over-saturated, Park Hotell approach this nostalgic genre with class, skill, and confidence that shines through even the less produced songs on the first disc. The two songs on the second record, "Low on resistance" and "Sentimental endings", seem to point in the direction the band will head when the time comes for a full-length and are a fine culmination of all that's built up throughout. That being said, there isn't a bad track anywhere on this EP; the future looks wide open for Park Hotell.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

Rockettothesky
To sing you apple trees
TrustMe

Confusion reigned supreme during my multiple listens to Rockettothesky's CD "To sing you apple Trees". I honestly have a hard time making sense of a lot of what Jenny Hval throws at me. maybe I just don't get "it": On the one hand, ms. Hval's talent is evident in her ability to combine unique vocal styling with catchy melodies to create an air of fleeting, dreamlike fantasy. On the other hand, her failings are evident in her need to shake, almost jar the listener out of the dream state she's worked so hard to create. It seems as though she is hellbent on being her own worst enemy; I simply don't understand why. Nothing exemplifies my point better than the song "A cute lovesong, please". She uses her voice to excellent trancelike effect when she asks, "When you think of me, do you masturbate?"; then follows it up by confessing that "I want you to know that you make me want to menstruate." Huh? Is menstruation a sexual response to you, ms. Hval? Or do you want to menstruate out of disgust for your protagonist's sexual desire for you? Or maybe, just maybe, you tried so hard to rhyme, you succeeded in ruining what could have been a perfectly good song. Perhaps I'm just being far too analytical. There are some decent songs on "To sing you apple trees" such as "Cigars", "They are bastards!" and the popular "Barrie for Billy mackenzie" (even though I still don't know what the hell a "Barrie" is). But, the sad truth is, if I want to be entertained by a wacky Scandinavian, there's always Björk. Rockettothesky is simply going to have to do better than this.
- Heinrich Souza

Streetwaves
The pleasure to end all pleasures
I Made This

It's a shame that Streetwaves couldn't keep up the emotional velocity set out in the powerful opener "Whatever is available will be your next step", by far the best track on the entire record. But the energy is high throughout and I hope that my opening line does not color "The pleasure to end all pleasures" too darkly; while it has it's flaws, it's a fun, vigorous garage-indie-rock album. The bar is merely set very high by the opening track, and it remains a bar that the album doesn't approach again. The gritty Nine Black Alps and The Hives influenced mode, while strongly written and executed, occasionally suffers from a lack of direction and songs that could easily have been shortened by at least a minute. Complaints aside, there are a number of excellent high points. "Choking in the boysroom" is one the better dark indie songs I've heard in a while, its shorter length and lower-fi production benefiting the composition. The Pavement-like "Holy stranger" shows that Streetwaves are just as competent with slower tempos and clocks in as my second favorite song on the album. While far from faultless, "The pleasure to end all pleasures" is a dirty garage rock record, and in this vein it works – we already have enough finely tuned, flawlessly polished, and forgettable acts like The Strokes out there.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson