I came to the point a few years ago when I finally realized I was a bona fide adult. It was kind of a "holy shit" moment because it's not as if I had it planned it or had any big aspirations or anything, but I could no longer ignore the symptoms: career, mortgage, wife, kids (well, actually dogs, but same difference as far as I'm concerned), 401k, yadda yadda. Big "R" responsibilities and with that comes new gravity, new concerns. Do you ever think about what you want to be doing five years from now? What about 10 or even 20? I actually sat down with a financial planner the other day and faced up to those questions. Which is not to say that Rasmus Kellerman is facing similar circumstances, but I wouldn't doubt it. Recording under his own given name without the anchor of a backing band says something to me about newfound confidence and maturity. It's a scary feeling stepping off on your own like that, but also very exciting. Closing doors, opening new ones you couldn't fit through before.
If you've ever had the pleasure of seeing Rasmus perform solo, this won't sound unfamiliar. Tiger Lou was always essentially his project, as least in the studio, but there's no hiding it here. There's nothing to hide behind.
"In the large deserted woods on both sides of the Swedish-Norwegian border, Finnish people settled down in the 15th- and 16th century. These areas are now called "Finnskogen", the Finnish woods. The settlers came from difficult times in Finland, and burned down forest to cultivate rye in the ashes. In these vast forests it was hard to tell if you were in Sweden or Norway. Culture does not know borders either, and the music is a common Swedish- Norwegian tradition.
So reads the intro text on "Finnskogen brinner", the collaboration between Swedish fiddle artist Patrik Andersson and his Norwegian counterpart Vegar Vårdal. I am by no means attuned to the many regional differences in Scandinavian folk tradition, so I can't begin to explain how the music of Finnskogen, but these gentlemen play beautifully together. Some of the more minimal folk records I've been listening to as part of my "Listen to Norway" exploration (this is #5) can get grating, especially with the uncertain harmonies of the Hardanger Fiddle, but this one never falters. Two players and their instruments, maybe a little foot-tapping; that's all you need. "Dette var sagt at når Halteguten, Ola Porkkala, spilte denne valsen kunne ikke folk la vaere å gråte."
My apologies for not keeping up with weekly posts in this series, but my dayjob workload has been astounding. Rest assured, there will be lots more music (folk and otherwise) posted in weeks to come.
Here is Kite covering "I give you morning", one of my all-time favorite ballads. Like a lot of people who read this site, I suspect we all first heard the song when Weeping Willowscovered it, though of course it's been a longtime Swedish evergreen from way back when Fred Åkerström first did it på Svenska ("Jag ger dig min morgon") in 1972 on the album "Två tungor". And of course Håkan Hellströmdid it as well on his "visor" EP "Luften bor i mina steg". There's probably more versions out there, but let us not forget the original by Tom Paxton which I believe originally appeared on 1969's "The things I notice now" (and was rerecorded for 1982's "Even a gray day", an LP I have in my collection). Now, as far as ranking them goes, I consider the OG and WW versions to be my favorite, but this new one by Kite is pretty darn good, but even better: it's different. Reverence is for the weak; let's give it up for Kite's pulsating synth version!
After banging my head against CSS coding problems for five or so hours yesterday, I need to hear something that adequately reflects the state of my brain. Something noisy and repetitive. Bonus that it fills the gap between this week's other postings of Monument and Du Pacque. That something: Ikons. Monotonik beats meet loud guitars under a black shroud of destructive noise. "The hawk" is way more Kraut than goth, but they have those tendencies, let me assure you. Keep on droning, let me forget my problems, clear my mind; melt away the cobwebs, the fuzz. Block/black out the world around me.
Absolut Noise has been going on and on about Du Pacque for years, but until I heard this song, nothing clicked. The difference? As Absolut Noise correctly points out, they've upped the intensity, both in terms of their performance and also sheer noise level. Perhaps I was blind to their potential before, but let it be known that I have been enlightened. I'm on the bandwagon; this is an act to keep an eye on.
This is the sort of release that feels tailor-made for me: obscure Swedish postpunk act records a single demo that gets lost to the ages, only to be resurrected a dozen or so years later by a likewise obscure label for a limited vinyl release. I had never heard of the band Monument before unearthed their lone 4-song EP, but why would I? They didn't do much except make great music in the wrong place at the wrong time, a fatal and inescapable error only apparent in retrospect. It's a shame too, because I think they'd fit quite nicely alongside the current pseudo-goth/synth revival (Zola Jesus, Cold Cave, etc.), though their sound is a bit more streamlined/less overtly indie. So yeah, if you dig on classic dark rock ala Cure or Depeche Mode or are one of those few people like myself who count themselves as fans of Bay Laurel (some strong similarities there in terms of pacing and vocal timbre, though Monument lacks their heaviness), then you'll be way into this. Or if you're like me and you love digging up unknown Swedish postpunk gems, you need this too.
Believe it or not, I actually have a large list of tracks I want to post, I just haven't had time to write them up yet. So you'll have to settle for this, a new track from Elephant9 which also happens to be the best thing that came across my desk this week. A lot of stuff tends to be very abstract and while I almost always appreciate it on an intellectual level, it's not necessarily the sort of thing I ever feel like listening to. Not so with this, this is visceral and it is funky! Seriously, I didn't know they had it in 'em.
I've long regarded Meleeh as a decent band, still their new album "To live and die alone" took some time to grow on me. I think it's because it confounded expectations; I thought I'd hear more post-Refused style Swedish hardcore, but what I got was something far looser, darker, rawer and way more in line with 90s screamo, in the best possible way. I should've been tipped off by the song title -- "What I carry with every heartbeat" screams HeartattaCk, bikes, patches, vegan potlucks -- yet, it wasn't until this past weekend that I had my a-ha! moment. Aside from the vocals, which are still the weakest link, the music isn't too far off from Modern Life is War, albeit more burly and driven. Add a few extra bursts of melody and some subtle syncopation and we've got a band doing their best to push their sound forward. And it gets better and better with every listen too.
After countless hours/days/weeks of endlessly mediocre promo records, I need a palate cleanser and nothing seems to work better for that than stuff like this, old-school death metal played by old-school death metallers. Mr. Death features ex-members from Treblinka, Tiamat and Expulsion and they sound exactly like you'd expect and just the way I like it: filthy and rotten. And fun, something that modern bands often seem to forget. Who says brutal metal can't make you smile?
I've recently been listening to this track a lot, in kind of a roundabout sort of way. The story: my wife and I go to the gym every morning (well, at least I do, her schedule is more, um, intermittent) and she requested my help with putting together some good workout tunes for her mp3 player. Of course I'm content with a healthy mix of brutal death metal and hardcore punk, but that just won't do -- she wants something melodic, so I oblige myself to pick out a few choice selections from my collection, most of which she is unfamiliar with. The criteria: match the BPM of High Hats' "The end", a track she knows and loves (as should everyone). So yeah, "The end" clocks at 155bpm, so I scan my files for appropriate tunes to match... Laakso and The Hives seem to fit the bill pretty well, but I know that few things are better than a pounding techno beat and "Habibi" is a solid 156 according to my calculator. Perfect! Now I just have to contend with her shrilly shouting "Don't!" at me every time I do something she doesn't like. Which is surprisingly often.
As commented yesterday, the new Shining album "Blackjazz" fulfills the promise of everything the band was/is supposed to be. Earlier attempts were decent, but only now has the group fully realized their potential and become the thundering jazz-metal monster the hype extolled. There's still some stuff I'm iffy on -- moments definitely veer toward forbidden thrash/funk territory and the vocals can be pretty tacky -- but when they get into a heavy groove, they are a beast. Once you get past the initial skronk of "Healter skelter" it's a steamroller full of pounding, industrial strength drums, offset rhythms and furious ensemble playing that keeps building and building from loud to LOUDER and never once lets up. I'm into it.
I'm not gonna lie to you, I haven't magically become a fan of Oh No Ono overnight. Their style of indierock is still way too, I dunno... stereotypically indie for me. Heavy on quirks, light on hooks. But that's just me and I understand my opinion is not the be all end all even though I think it should be. Anyhow, what I am a fan of is , vinyl and free stuff, so I'm more than happy to team up with the label to give away an autographed copy of Oh No Ono's new 2LP "Eggs" which will officially be released on March 9. The stats, should you be curious: gatefold packaging, extra loud 45RPM DMM cut with high quality 24-bit masters. So yeah, basically everything that you could want from a vinyl release with no shortcuts. You want it? All you gotta do is send me a private message to enter and I'll pick someone's name out of a hat at the end of the day, maybe even yours. Not a registered user yet? Well, now's the perfect time to remedy that. Good luck!
UPDATE: A winner has been selected. Thanks to everyone who entered! Better luck next time.
I've long held the opinion that Tobias Fröberg's talents are best served as a sideman/producer (he's worked with Theresa Andersson, Peter Morén, Tomas Andersson Wij and many others, typically with strong results) and his new record "The big up" doesn't do much to sway me, but he does hit one out of the park every now and then and lead single "When we go to war" is a perfect example. It's dark and simmering in the right ways, giving a proper bottom to Tobias' lightweight vocals. The swell of the strings too; perfect counterpoint. All in all, a strong winter single and well worth checking out.
"Alright, we got a brand new album out called 'All the way to the sun'"
(nothing)
"You got that one?"
(nada)
"'All the way to the sun?' Brand new album?"
(nope)
Ouch! That's awfully bold of them to not edit that out, but I suppose the same can be said for recording a live album in Madrid, far from home. Not that I care, I've never been a TNT fan anyway and never paid much attention to them back in the day because I considered all those pop-metal hair bands to be poseurs. Still kinda do to an extent, but my tolerance for the stuff has gone up quite a bit; in fact, I even managed to make it about 2/3rds of the way through "Live in Madrid" before I turned it off. Besides, it's not as if I was holding out for the big single "10,000 lovers in one" because honestly, that song blows. At least "A fix" has some balls. (this is Listen to Norway, part 4)
Technical note: the stage banter on the CD comes on at the end of each track, so I edited this together from two cuts to make a more cohesive listening experience.
Here's another song I'm semi-obsessed with right now, though not nearly as deep as Susanne Sundfør's latest. I typically make a point of being at least vaguely familiar with most chart-topping bands because you never know -- sometimes the cream really does rise to the top -- but I had always ignored Donkeyboy because their name sucks and also because, for some reason, I thought they were a hip-hop act and Norwegian hip-hop is almost always awful. I'm late to the game, but I stand corrected! Now I know: Donkeyboy is a fine mainstream pop/rock act that manages to be successful by employing smart, strong hooks with a touch of 80s pastiche. It's a good formula, it worked out well for Superfamily at home in Norway and The Sounds sure seem to do well by it, though I'd argue they are far less "smart"; now Donkeyboy are attempting to take it to the next level (apparently Sweden is already conquered). Good luck to them, I say. They might be a tad too unassuming to break in territories where bold and brash win and that's a shame because that's yet another reason they're a good band. I see bands like Datarock and I think "trying too hard," yet people still seem to like them. Whatever, it's not as if I didn't already think the music biz was a shitsystem.
