The Knife is nominated for a couple different categories at this year's PLUG awards: m/general_vote.php" target=_blank>https://www.plugawards.com/general_vote.php

Profile: Miss Li

Amandine
Live @ The Luminaire, London, 11/11/06

It started out a bit nervously tonight for Amandine. The sound on stage seemed to be a bit rubbish, although I didn't notice this (not being on stage and all), but for the first two songs it felt as if all things weren't really in all the right places. Then it all shaped up and, by the end, it was a finished product worthy kings! I really like singer/songwriter and alt.country stuff, but it has to be very good to hold my attention live, since my attention span is way too short and I easily drift off (physically and mentally). Amandine managed to draw me in tonight though, despite them not playing too many songs from their album from last year which are the only songs I've heard from their repertoire. For playing such slow songs, they were quite fun to watch, especially their bass player who looked and behaved as if he was in some punk band. When they had finished, I left the venue, even though Adem (England's folk guru #1) was on next (Lisa Germano was meant to headline tonight, but she cancelled). I'm not too bothered about missing out on Adem (who I, to be honest, have seen too many times), I only came to see Amandine, and it was well worth the little trek to Kilburn (mind you, it's almost always worth going to The Luminaire, London's best venue).
- Simon Tagestam

Bobby Baby
Loves to dance EP
Red Letter Day Records

If you've popped "Loves to dance" into your stereo hoping for a fevered romp around the kitchen, you will be sorely disappointed. Sweet young malmö dreamer Ella Blixt is more Amelie than Annie. And the title song is more about love than dancing. But I'm not complaining. On the contrary! I do have a soft spot for dreamy pop and soothing sentiment, and this EP is big on both. It's the perfect accompaniment to a long, hot bath, or a lazy Sunday morning lie-in. Ironically, the tune most likely to get you bopping in your bubbles is "I won't dance with you baby tonight", while "Goodbye love" will have you crying into your comforter. Gorgeous, mellow electronic innocence, in an adorable pixie package. mmm.
- Stacey Shackford

Don Agbai
Cats and travel EP
Vapen & Godis

This is a nice, fizzy electropop CD that goes down smoothly. The Swedish trio serves up five tracks, including the peppy and melodic "Barcelona 2002 (All I wanted was a postcard)" in a radio-friendly pop version as well as an extended dance remix. It's a great song, as is the opener "A trip to Venice". Although there's certainly an '80s influence here in the thumping beats and rhythmic synth work, this disc doesn't really sound retro. The pleasingly casual vocals and impeccable sound give the recording a zesty, fresh vibe. Band members Johan, Tobias and Fredrik perform with an enthusiasm that leaps from the grooves and I can't imagine anyone not liking this disc unless they're just indifferent to dance pop in general.
- Kevin Renick

Kazakstan
s/t
Katalyst

It's a good thing the quality of the music isn't always signalled by the album cover, otherwise I'd expect something subpar from this debut by Sweden's Kazakstan (the cover art depicts the underwear-clad waist of some hairy dude with twin revolvers tucked in his briefs). Fortunately, this is a pretty cool little CD, if rather short. As Avi m/index.php?story_id=1046">pointed out previously, Kazakstan's somewhat similar to Wilco; there's definitely a kind of alt.country strain at work here. But just when you think a song is trotting along lazily, it'll suddenly shift into something more exciting. Take the opener, "Song to the past". The acoustic beginning gives way to a brass-flavored rockin' section four minutes in which sounds fantastic. "Tierra del fuego" is uptempo from the start, with a sublime dynamic shift halfway through that shows the arranging smarts of this ensemble. There's one or two near-instrumentals, one of which features some atmospheric keyboards. much potential here, and even though this disc isn't meaty enough to be a classic, Kazakstan sound musically disciplined and creative enough to keep a sharp eye on in the future.
- Kevin Renick

Loney Dear
Live @ 205 (11/03) and White Rabbit (11/04), NYC

Prior to Friday's show, I had only been familiar with the thrid Loney, Dear album "Sologne". With SubPop re-releasing the album stateside in February with a few additions, this was a chance for the band to showcase themselves and to get a buzz going. The band opened their CmJ stint with a sold-out showcase for the label, whom they were meeting for the first time. I did not have the chance to attend that show however, but caught the band over the next two days and did they put on a show! The Friday gig at 205 featured them playing a very uptempo set, especially compared to their recorded back-catalogue. The songs hit with a confident pop and swagger, whilst the band themselves were rather reserved, evening during rollicking versions of "The city, the airport" and "Warm, dark, comforting night". Saturday's show saw them in a more intimate performance, focusing on the softer side of things, including an absolutely gorgeous version of "I love you (In with the arms)". With "Loney, noir" seeing release this coming February, I'd expect Loney, Dear to be on everyone's radar for 2007, and if not — they should be.
- Matt Giordano

Loveninjas
I wanna be like Johnny C
Labrador

Loveninjas are here, and gone is every aspect of twee from their music. Their debut EP was a rock band being held back by a very lo-fi production and buried instruments. This release, the first single from their proper debut album, finds the band in very energetic form with excellent production. I really am very exicted by this, a movement away from their surroundings. This stylistic change (no matter how slight) really works in Loveninjas' favour. The songwriting has boosted a lot as well, and three of the four tracks are just plain great, the weak one being "The way", both musically and lyrically, it just sounds a bit too much like a demo (and one that would probably get scrapped at that). The title track, "Sweet geisha love" and "When is our time" all come recommended, and if the album proper is as great as these three songs, you have yourself quite a record.
- Matt Giordano

The Low Frequency in Stereo
The last temptation of...
Gigantic Music

It's a little risky for an established instrumental group to suddenly start adding vocals, which made my first listen or two to this one a bit underwhelming. But then I started readjusting my ears and soon realized that this Norwegian post-rock quartet have one of the most consistent, propulsive grooves in the entire genre, and that's saying a lot. There's a muscularity to their playing that's pretty awe-inspiring; both the rhythm section and the guitar work are punchy perfection. A few tracks are straight instrumentals, but when vocals are used, they're quite effective. Hanne Andersen (who also plays killer trumpet and organ - is that a Farfisa?) gives us a taut, slightly distorted lead vocal on "21", then sweetens her delivery considerably on "Axes". Here and there, we get male/female harmonies that are quite nice. LFIS never give in to empty virtuosity: everything is about the primary groove and the interlocking musical components. The post-rock cup literally runneth over this year, but you can't deny the extra splash of excitement provided by these cool Norwegians.
- Kevin Renick

The Mary Onettes
Lost EP
Labrador

It's kind of ironic that the track which follows the mary Onettes EP on my iTunes is "Primary", taken from The Cure's singles collection. Reason being that The mary Onettes are another Swedish band painfully indebted to 80s English indie. It seems to be my luck right now that everything I review somehow falls into this genre. On the lead track "Lost", with its driving drums and cathartic vocal style, the band sound a hell of a lot like fellow Swedes Silverbullit. However, if you bear in mind that one of Silverbullit's main influences is Joy Division, I think you can see where The mary Onettes are coming from. "Explosions" is pure Jesus and mary Chain circa "Psychocandy". It's simple drumming, lolloping pace and vocals make it a close cousin of "Just like candy". What is a great shame about a lot of these 80s English influenced indie bands is that if they would have come out at the turn of the millennium, I could imagine some of them having some crossover success within the UK.
- Nick Levine

Moneybrother
Dom vet ingenting om oss
Hacka Skivindustri

This is a cover of Kirsty macColl's "They don't know" from 1979 (also recorded by Tracy Ullman in 1983 in a crazy pop version), translated and sung in Swedish. It's the first single from moneybrother's forthcoming album, consisting of only covers, all translated to Swedish. It's a fun and catchy song, and it very much sounds like moneybrother. Don't listen to it too many times though, since it'll get inside your head and it's going to be very hard to forget about it. If you want to live dangerously, you can listen to the song on moneybrother.net/" target=_blank>moneybrother's website or m/watch?v=LsxnY36hdNg" target=_blank>watch the very lo-fi video on youtube.
- Simon Tagestam

Oh No Ono
Yes
Morningside Records

I'm going to start this off by saying that I really did not like this. I've listened to it a few times since then in order to formulate my review and each time I've had a really hard time enjoying any part of it. This sounds as if Oh No Ono has taken the worst songs of the eighties and mixed them together, topped off with one of the worst voices I've heard in a while. The song "Practical money skills for life" makes me think I'm in "Weird Science"; and "Am I right?" is reminiscent of a crack-fueled "mickey" by Toni Basil. Whilst the hooks are catchy and it would probably go over well as background music at a bar, consciously listening to this album hasn't been pleasant for me.
- Matt Giordano

The Plan
Walking for gold
Razzia Records

The Plan started out as Broder Daniel's Theodor Jensen's side project. Their first self-titled album (released 2001) had a bunch of great songs on it, but overall it had more charm than actual good songs, and I found their second album ("Embrace me beauty" from 2004) very disappointing. On their (or rather "his", since Jensen is the only member now) third album, the melodies are stronger and it feels much less contrived than before. It's not all as good as some Swedish reviews have made it out to be though - some parts are not that inspiring, but it's pretty pleasant and, as an album, it works very well. "Bus", with its enchanting pace, is the song I keep playing the most. Lyrically and musically, the album is in Håkan Hellström (Jensen's former bandmate) territory (listen, for an example, to the intro to "Stay awhile"), except that the lyrics are, of course, in English and it never reaches the same heights as Hellström's songs. Jensen's voice is almost as charming as Hellström's though, mainly due to both of them hardly being in "classical measures" very talented singers (who cares!), but ignoring this and bellowing away nevertheless. I also like to think that "Walk for gold" can be seen as a testament against a cynical music industry who tend to ostracize any artist whose first album isn't an instant classic.
- Simon Tagestam

Promoe
White man's burden
David vs Goliath/Burning Heart Records

I'm a huge fan of Swedish hip-hop master Promoe's band Looptroop and I love all their albums and also Promoe's first two solo albums, but I'm not really feeling "White man's burden". Lately, Promoe has been moving too closely to appear as a caricature of himself and on "White man's burden" I think he often comes across more as a latter day Guru than a KRS-One in his prime. All the guest spots from various non-English speaking rappers are a very good idea, but with Promoe appearing to be rapping more on routine than with the passion he's previously shown, I can't help but feeling a bit frustrated. That said, this album isn't really that bad. There are some great songs on here (eg "Headache"), I guess I'm just spoiled with the high quality that I've come to associate with a Looptroop/Promoe release and "White man's burden" just doesn't live up to the high hopes I had for it.
- Simon Tagestam

The Third Try Club
Social
Adore Music

I find this EP of dismal indie rock truly annoying. The singer's vocals are okay, but the vibrato thing he's got going on (that might be there for added quirkiness) makes these songs very tough to listen to without showing cottoning in my ears. It sounds like there's some sort of defect on his vocal chords (if this is the case, I'm truly sorry). Furthermore, It's not often that I have anything against lyrics, but the ones on "Social" stick out like a sore thumb, being so unoriginal and pretentious that they completely ruin any qualities there might to be found in the music (which to be honest, isn't that great either, no matter how many electronic influences that have been thrown into the mix). After this vocal torture, the last instrumental song comes as a great relief, and I duly thank God that I didn't put this EP on repeat.
- Simon Tagestam