Hyped Norwegian all-female act Norma Sass will release their debut EP "A dance of victory the morning after" on August 3 via their own Anticipated Records label in cooperation with Tuba. Listen at myspace: myspace.com/normasass" target="_blank">https://www.myspace.com/normasass
Norwegian postrock act The Samuel Jackson Five are in talks with two labels to do a joint vinyl release compilation various previously unreleased material, live tracks and remixes. No confirmation of anything yet, but I'll try to keep you posted.
mIC Norway profiles breakout hopefuls Pirate Love is advance of their North American tour: mic.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2009060310124169803616" target="_blank">https://www.mic.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2009060310124169803616
All About Jazz offers a primer on Norwegian jazz via the JazzNorway in a Nutshell 2009 festival: m/php/article.php?id=33093" target="_blank">https://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=33093
Folke, the pop alias of jazz bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg, is offering his new single "Wet soap" as a free download via label Brus & Knaster: https://www.brusoknaster.se/
Look for his sophomore album "Ordinary extraordinary" to be released in Septebmer.
I Was A King are keeping a tour diary while travelling the US: m/" target="_blank">https://www.iwasaking.com/
Check out Salem al Fakir's new video for "Roxy", filmed when he was down in California recently: m/watch?v=HZp8e5Gbzk8&fmt=18" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZp8e5Gbzk8&fmt=18
Is he really a Capitalist Casualties fan? Somehow I can't quite buy it.
Black Lodge is streaming new tracks from both Swedish hard-rockers Bonafide and Bullet at myspace: myspace.com/blacklodgesweden" target="_blank">https://www.myspace.com/blacklodgesweden
As regular readers should know by now, I'm no fan of The Radio Dept. Their tepid shoegaze leaves nary an impression on me and, even at their supposed angriest ("Freddy and the Trojan Horse"), they're still not much more than musical wallpaper. But I acknowledge that I am probably in the minority, so before I head off to the dentist this morning, I'll let contributor Arnulf Köhncke talk up the new single "David":
After such a long time waiting, it feels strange when something comes around that's this unexpected and yet so painfully obvious. But when the four-beat piano chords set in after the first line, it all falls into place. All that soul, the swaying chord changes, the secret-agent movie strings, the glockenspiels and melodicas. Even that hip-hop interlude and the 60's pop ending. No more Prefab Sprout'ness for now, no more distorted keyboards, no more analogue drums -- just those trademark vocals singing about longing and love, despair and hope.
The Radio Dept. - David
Streaming samples of the new A-ha album "Foot of the mountain" are available here: mazon.de/Foot-Of-The-mountain/dp/B002BBIVQQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1243511198&sr=8-2" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.de/Foot-Of-The-mountain/dp/B002BBIVQQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1243511198&sr=8-2
Environmentally-friendly US-based record label Branch Records has licensed Tvärvägen's album "Sånger från Tvärvägen" for release over in this part of the world: m/releases/sanger-fran-tvarvagen/" target="_blank">https://www.branchrecords.com/releases/sanger-fran-tvarvagen/
Superfamily is holding a remix contest for their new single "Let's go dancing": myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=55559658&blogId=492554735" target="_blank">https://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=55559658&blogId=492554735
The best mix will be included as a bonus track on the download version of their new album, due out in August.
Fan-filmed footage from this past weekend's Ulver performance, their m/?n=29122">first in 15 years, has now surfaced online and Blabbermouth has compiled some clips: m/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=121080" target="_blank">https://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=121080
Datarock's new record "Red" is currently streaming in its entirety at myspace: myspace.com/datarock" target="_blank">https://www.myspace.com/datarock
Robyn and French act Yelle just released a digital split single on iTunes with each of them covering eachothers songs. Robyn performs "A caus des garcons" as "Because of boys" and Yelle returns the favor with their version of "Who's that girl", or as they sing it, "Qui est cette fille". Listen to the latter here: myspace.com/iloveyelle" target="_blank">https://www.myspace.com/iloveyelle