Hommage Records is a new Norwegian label devoted to early 80s synth music and their first release is "Maskindans", a 2CD comp exploring the roots of Norwegian postpunk. See their website for more detail: https://www.hommage.no/
I'm pretty excited to hear this as is one of my absolute favorite genre timeperiods.
Norwegian artist Kim Hiorthøy has a new band called Drivan that just finished recording an album for release on Smalltown Supersound. The group got together when Kim was asked to create music for a dance performance put on by Swedes Lisa Östberg, Louise Peterhoff and Kristiina Viiala and Kim enjoyed their vocalization so much, they decided to continue the collaboration. All of the lyrics are in Swedish and the music is described as "folky hip-hop loops meet Marine Girls." No official release date yet, but I'll keep you posted.
Series Two and Eggnog Records are teaming up for a limited 3" CDEP series featuring releases from Swedish artists Double Dan, Robert Church plus two others and a seven-song comp with cuts from Death Valley Sleepers (DK), Mike Downey (SWE) and Sweet Sweet Concorde (SWE). Details: https://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=31429084&blogID=471146547
Tar... Feathers will be back in the studio next weekend working on their 2nd album, "Time of death: Always o' clock".
Gaffa is saying that Mew's new album will be out in June: https://gaffa.dk/nyhed/31153
Good Tape Records has now confirmed that The Late Parade's full-length debut "In chase of red beads" will be released on May 11.
Via Doomsday Mag comes word that D-Takt & Råpunk Records will be releasing a new 12"/CD from Tortyr and a 7" from Warvictims in March/April. They'll also be handling the brand new Moderat Likvidation 12" "Mammutation" as well as a repress of the killer Loud Pipes album "The downhill blues" on vinyl. For more info, go here: https://dbeatrawpunk.blogspot.com/
Swedish indierockers Sad Day for Puppets will be releasing a new 7" via UK-based label Sonic Cathedral featuring "Marble gods" b/w "Big waves". The official release date is March 2, but you can preorder now: https://www.soniccathedral.co.uk/shop.html
Lampshade will be going on hiatus at the conclusion of their upcoming tour. Personally, I'm quite disappointed since I don't think any of their various sideprojects (As in RebekkaMaria, etc.) come anywhere close. So it goes...
Finally, the tracklist for Sahara Hotnights' new cover album "Sparks":
01. Wide river (Steve Miller Band)
02. In private (Dusty Springfield)
03. Big me (Foo Fighters)
04. Mess around (Redd Kross)
05. Japanese boy (Aneka)
06. City of brotherly love (Cass Mcombs)
07. Calm down (Birdy)
08. Love will never do without you (Janet Jackson)
09. If you can't give me love (Suzi Quattro)
10. Be forwarned (Pentagram)
Very weird for me to see them covering Cass - we grew up in the same town and has overlapping social circles.
Zip Records has locked down the date of April 28 for the US release of Little Red Snapper's album "Morning light".
I don't know why no one bothers to tell me these things in advance: Maia Hirasawa's excellent and charming album "Though, I'm just me" is out next week in the US via Thrive Records.
Norwegian label Synesthetic Recordings is putting out a 7" from Norwegian prog act Tangle Edge on February 16 featuring two old previously unreleased tracks. Side A is "Long time since I saw an egg" which was recorded for radio back in 1985 and the flip will feature "Ambrosia parallels", an acoustic cut from 1991. 200 copies only, so act fast: https://www.synestheticrecordings.com/SYRE027.htm
Music Export Finland's February newsletter is now online: https://musex.fi/mxf/news?articleId=179
Head to Tenderversion's site to preview three tracks from the new Scraps of Tape album "Grand letdown" and to get preorder info: https://www.tenderversion.com/