Under the Radar reviews Valgeir Sigurðsson

Under the Radar reviews the new album "Draumalandið" from Icelandic artist Valgeir Sigurðsson: https://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/draumalandi/

Pitchfork reviews Bobby and Blumm

Pitchfork reviews the new Bobby and Blumm album "A little big": https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14187-a-little-big/

The Kissaway Trail
Live @ Popadelica, Huskvarna 05/01/2010

I've been a bit lazy for a while now when it comes to digging up some new cool music. You know how it is, you have your good ol' playlists on Spotify or iTunes and you tend to stick to those on sheer laziness. In a sense one can say I'm still very much stuck in 2003 when it comes to "new" music. With one exception -- "The funeral" by Arcade Fire. That's 2005. Now, five years later, thanks to good friends who force-feeds me new playlists, I'm having a "The Funeral" flashback. Or rather, a "The Funeral"-goes-2010-tantrum. The band in question is The Kissaway Trail, a couple of really cool Danes. With their second record, "Sleep mountain", the wheels are really turning for Thomas L. Fagerlund and his crew. The heat is already building in the UK and overseas, The Kissaway Trail has already made a number of prestigious shows in prestigious venues. The question is, will this show count as one of those? The answer is... no. Get me right here, The Kissaway Trail is an awesome band, with awesome songs, and the show is marvelous, but this just ain't the perfect conditions. They are a club act; they need a tight space with lots of sweat and the fumes of alcohol, preferably late at night. At Popadelica they play a bit too early, the sun is still up and more importantly, the people are still missing. The right atmosphere just ain't there. Nonetheless, The Kissaway Trail still puts on an impressive performance; these guys will be around for a long time. I just hope the next time I see them it's in a more suitable venue.
- Christian Stenbacke

We are the Storm
Live @ Popadelica, Huskvarna 05/01/2010

"The really good songs tends to write themselves," singer and guitarist Staffan Blomén declared as we sat down for a chat a couple of hours before We are the Storm played at this year's rendition of the Popadelica Festival in Huskvarna, Sweden. We were of course talking about the smashing "I woke up to the bells", which surfaced as a live video a while back. The song is simply breathtaking, so simple and yet so direct. Can you believe this band is still unsigned? They won't be for long, take my word for it. Listening to the songs on the eponymous EP the band released last year got me thinking about Fireside still on their best, or a rougher version of Britain's Athlete. While I was under the impression that the music of We are the Storm was all about dealing with all those not-so-good-feelings we all get from time to time, Blomén explained it was quite the opposite. We are the Storm are all about letting out all that which can't be kept within, no matter the feelings. A fact very clear when the band finally hits the stage - The Seven Nation Army, seven people crowded in a very limited space, performing like their lives depended on it. Let me say this again: We are the Storm are still not signed to any label (it's crazy, I know)! They still lack some experience when it comes to playing live, yes, but the songs! This short 30 min set features only new songs, songs that hopefully will be recorded sometime this summer, and even though "I woke up to the bells" is still the strongest song by far, I sense great potential in these lads from Uppsala. Sure, they need to work on their performance, but with a few more shows in the bloodstream I'm sure they will figure out how to get a good flow going. Because here's the thing, when they're actually playing music, they are amazing! Record labels, get it touch. Now.
- Christian Stenbacke

PopMatters reviews Captian Cougar

PopMatters reviews folksy Finnish act Captain Cougar: https://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/124401-captain-cougar-of-dreams-long-gone

Jóhann Jóhannsson
And in the endless pause there came the sound of bees
Type

Jóhann Jóhannsson lives in a world haunted by ghostly choirs, lonely hums, ominous silence, and the occasional thunderclap. On "And in the endless pause there came the sound of bees", the Icelandic composer's newest full-length, he takes his cinematic leanings to an all-time high. It works beautifully, even when divorced from source material (Marc Craste's BAFTA-nominated animated short film "Varmints")

While "City building" features the delicious urgency of driving strings, the descriptor that could best be applied to the majority of the album is glacial, which, it should be noted, is used as a compliment. Jóhannsson teases out his undercurrent of sadness through thirteen tracks, underscoring it with pervasive wistful highlights such as "Rainwater" and "The gift". Thematic, without falling into Philip Glass repetition, spare without becoming dull, Jóhannsson's pristine sensitivity and light touch has the power to elevate both film and life alike.
- Laura Studarus

O'Spada
Time 7"
Make Mine/Despotz Records

It's nice to hear a woman aping Prince's funk as opposed to the usual falsetto-bearing manchild. Julie Spada's natural range is a perfect fit for the style and she does a great job with it, navigating deftly through all of the sharp twists and turns she sets up for herself in the arrangement. Shame that the hook isn't a bit stronger and the b-side remixes (by Montauk and Naiv) are throwaways because the beat on the original is really happening, despite my distaste for slap-bass, wacky synth and all other obvious 80s-era musical crimes. Same shame goes for whoever decided to press this on 7" as opposed to a proper DJ-ready 12" dance single because the pressing really suffers from a deficiency of bass. Still, I must say that "Time" bodes well for the forthcoming full-length "Pay off", due out later this month. O'Spada is not without potential.
- Avi Roig

Alcoholic Faith Mission
Let this be the last night we care
PonyRec/Paper Garden Records

My first exposure to Alcoholic Faith Mission was quite pleasant, but, with the exception of a few tracks, it was not an enduring experience. Still, I knew there was something there, a delicate concept that had not fully formed on "421 Wythe Avenue". In my review I compared the group to acts such as Broken Social Scene and fellow Danes Slaraffenland, whose "Private cinema", while a far more ethereal work, is a kindred spirit of Alcoholic Faith Mission's gentle, yet driven take on pop music. I also noted that "There is a tragic beauty here, one that blends the emotional registers of Mixtapes & Cellmates and Moonbabies, yet remains quite distinctively an original construct, and it is this ingenuity that sets Alcoholic Faith Mission apart from many of their contemporaries." All of this remains true on "Let this be the last night we care", but the promising intimations are now fully realized -- while retaining the airy, spacious attributes of "421 Wythe Avenue", there is an anthemic, Arcade Fire-like quality permeating the compositions; for fear of waxing poetic, it is as though the intricate clouds of dust of their previous effort have found a way to manifest themselves in a more concrete fashion. "Let this be the last night we care" is brilliant -- engaging even at its most haunted and distraught moments, such as "Sobriety up and left"; moving even when playful; gorgeously layered and focused, all in the same breath. I have had the distinct pleasure of reviewing a number of very strong albums over the past few weeks, and still Alcoholic Faith Mission's stands out from the crowd. It's rare to stumble upon an album like this, one that is reminiscent enough of other acts as to be somewhat nostalgic and yet remains so markedly unique, capable of reminding us where we've been while concurrently functioning as our soundtrack to the present.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

The Graviators
s/t
Transubstans Records

Three million! That answers the question: how many bands do The Graviators sound like? There's not really much else to say but, for the purpose of letting you all know exactly what you're getting, let's do a little exercise. By the end of this review you will know exactly what the The Graviators sound like, and I'm not even going to describe their music. Let's begin. Look at your CD collection. Check out all your treasured '70s-inspired doom/stoner albums, bookended with Black Sabbath and Pentagram. There's a load of them, right? A good percentage sound pretty similar, but there are a few in there who are doing something a little bit different. They've got the old-school fundamentals, yet they have an original, goosebump-inducing take on the style. They're awesome! They're constantly crumbling plaster off the ceiling. But the others are just good. They might get one listen a year, just for a wee change. But, not long in, you get a reminder as to why they only get one listen a year and you put something else on. As I sit here listening to The Graviators -- again -- I'm pretty sure it's not one I'll ever listen to again. I don't say that because it's a bad album; it's just that there's an abundance of better. Maybe I'll give it another spin in a year or so, just for a wee change.
- John Norby

All About Jazz reviews Espen Eriksen Trio

All About Jazz reviews Rune Grammofon act Espen Eriksen Trio and their new record "You had me at goodbye": https://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=36200

Pg.lost
In never out
Black Star Foundation

Pg.lost have always impressed me -- their first effort, "Yes I am" is as solid and engaging a debut record as I know, followed quickly by the lengthier, though less intricate "It's not me, it's you!", which, despite my criticisms, remains a fantastic foray into the world of postrock. That said, this most recent effort is perhaps their crowning achievement. "Yes I am", while a stunning record, feels more like an EP than an album; "It's not me, it's you!" occasionally used sledgehammers of sound where previously they had weaved elaborate melodic threads; but on "In never out", Pg.lost get it just right -- the building, anthemic qualities of "Yes I am" are paired faultlessly with the heavy, driving relentlessness seen on "It's not me, it's you!". Whatever worries the opening track's minimalist darkness gave me at first were easily dispelled by the detailed and layered, but just as heavy, "Jura", one of the album's finest moments. Now, after almost a week with "In never out", it's hard to imagine the album starting any other way, even if the majority of the record has more in common with the haunting, stratified second track. Even though those initial thrills that course through my brain upon hearing damn fine postrock have subsided somewhat, I'd still recommend "In never out" to friends interested in heavier, more distortion laden postrock just as readily as I would Mono's "One step more and you die" or Explosions in the Sky's "All of a sudden I miss everyone". Pg.lost deserve to have their name and their achievements, especially "In never out", mentioned in the same discussion as artists and albums of the caliber cited above.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

TOW
Demo

TOW (The Old Wind) is Tomas Liljedahl from Breach, and it doesn't say who else (maybe it's just Tomas). So with some trepidation and a lot of anticipation involved, I checked out the myspace page expecting something ok-but-not-quite-as-good-as-Breach. "In fields" start really nice, dissonant guitars showing that Tomas does this quite well without Niklas Quintana and Anders Ekström, whose presence I was expecting to miss. But I do not! This sounds sludgy, dissonant, but crisp. When the vocals kick in I'm home. Tomas, you have direct access to my spine with your voice from my adolescence listening to Breach constantly on my freestyle (it was like an iPod but with cassettes). "Raveneye" continues the sludgy heavy dissonant vibe, throwing in a violin (is it a violin?), and "Reign" does the same. It quickly sinks in that this is some good shit right here. The lower production values and slower tempo remind me of "It's me god"-era Breach (greatest record ever) and a little pre-, like "Old songs vs new beats"-era (also a really good slice of Breach). Tomas shows here how much of his presence defined what Breach was, and what a great scream he has. This would be nostalgia, but since no 'good ole days' ever came Breach's way, this is really a second chance for the world to catch on. You hear that World! Catch the fucking fever already!!

Bear in mind that these are rough un-mastered cuts from the recordings of, hopefully, a very promising new album.
- Mathias Rask-Andersen

Kiki Pau
White mountain
Johanna Kustannus

I fell quite hard for "Let's rock", my first exposure to Finland's Kiki Pau. As I noted in my review, the group has an uncanny knack for seamlessly transitioning through and combining the pivotal elements of numerous sub-genres. There are a few tracks on "White mountain" that could have been on "Let's rock" (and this is not to suggest the band has been overcome by creative laziness, but to reemphasize the strength of that previous album), but Kiki Pau's newest effort brings in a number of new artistic avenues: on "Just real", The Smiths or Pixies-like tempos and approach is replaced by a driving, guitar-layered framework more akin to the rock'n'roll of the 1960s; the title track is one of the band's finest moments, easily combining elements of garage rock with an almost '70s pop feel; "I fell asleep" springs to life on the back of warm, distorted guitars -- yet another homage to the rock of past decades -- and ends in a glorious, near-psychedelic freak-out; and "Daniel Fulano" could almost be a Håkan Hellström composition (and I'm a big fan of Hellström's, so there is no backhanded compliment present in my words). Yet, as with "Let's rock", "White mountain" is very much Kiki Pau's creation, despite the links that can be made between their music and the works of others. While there are sure to be songs that will have you asking yourself "Who does that remind me of?", you'll find yourself quite content in the realization that, after two fine albums, those tracks sound just like Kiki Pau.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

BBC praises Elephant9

The BBC gives high praise to Elephant9's excellent new release "Walk the Nile": https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/frfd

Blowback
800 miles
Transubstans Records

Given the explosion in retro-saturated stoner bands in recent years it's a no-brainer that in order to clamber out of the weedy deluge of bleary-eyed blasters there needs to be something very special added to the mix. There are so many who fail, doomed to be forgotten in the haze of a handful of joints in a genre where the riff comes second only to the smoke. For those who have the foresight and creativity to think outside the bong, such mediocrity doesn't come into the equation. Swedish quartet Blowback fall just on the right side of the border, having applied enough originality and style to ensure a place in the upper echelons of the retro doom/stoner genre. Opener "The only thing I have" is a pretty standard stoner rock tune and is enjoyable enough in the grand scheme of the genre. It's from here on in though that many bands fall short of the mark, with the remainder of their tunes emulating the formula of the first song and refusing -- or being unable -- to do anything different. Thankfully, as soon as second track "The big black hole" kicks off with its clean, laid back, hippyish vibe, it becomes clear that this Örebro crew have the talent and vision to pull a memorable album together. "No soul" continues the variation, a slower, more brooding piece that picks up towards the end and really showcases the band's ability to be creative while remaining true to the essence of their genre. "800 miles" is varied from start to finish with a multitude of distortion levels, tempo changes, song structures and emotions flowing throughout. And while Blowback may reside in a genre that's bursting at the seams, they prove here that, if they continue on the musical path they've chosen, they'll find themselves passing joints with the elite.
- John Norby