11 good songs for you on the last day of august:

The Decemberists - Summersong
- a new song from the new album, - said to be the weakest song on the album, which makes me really optimistic, cause I like it a lot… From pitchfork.

Monomen - asian spacestation
- new track from this norwegian band. from their bandsite. Thanks for the tip, Bates Motel!

Peter, Bjorn & John: “Young folks” (ft. Victoria Bergsman)
- from pitchfork

Sometree - hands and arrows
- from bandsite

Stars of track and field - movies of Antarctica
- from labelsite This is the first single from the band’s album CENTURIES BEFORE LOVE AND WAR. The album is available on iTunes now.

Guther - statements
- one of my favourite bands, of course from my favourite label (Morr). Here’s a track from their new album ’sundet’. From anost.net

The Album Leaf - always for you
- Jimmy LaValle is soon out with another album with his fine ambient popmusic as The Album Leaf. The cd is called “into the blue again”, and this is one of the new songs. From cityslang.

The Submarines - Peace and hate (Morgan Page remix)
- also one of my favourite bands right now. Fantastic album out now. From betterpropaganda. This version is very different than the album version.

The Isles - major arcana
- the opening track of their fantastic album ‘perfumed lands’. One of the albums I listen most to these days. I always get these deja vu’s when I listen to their songs, because they remind me so much of the first albums by The Smiths. A very english sounding american band… From bandsite.

As tall as lions - Ghost of York
- from betterpropaganda

Malajube- montreal 40 degrees celcius
- from the bandsite of this canadian band

And another tip at the end: Check out the singer of the norwegian band Delaware’s new myspace page for his solo-songs. At the moment there are 3 livetracks there. Really good music. www.myspace.com/richardholmsen
<

Choir of your believers are a duo from Berlin, Germany AND Copenhagen, Denmark. I can’t find too much info on them, other than that the bandmembers are Jannis, who also is a part of the fine danish rockband Lake Placid, and Noya Makrigiannis. Their myspace-bio says nothing about them, only “blablablablabla…” (yes, it really says blablabla…).

Their music sounds quite unique, but modern day references might be Sufjan Stevens and Josè Gonzales mixed with a tiny dose of Mew-arrangements. The songs are melancholic and in a calm mood, but at the same time the arrangements are powerful and the songs rise in crescendos to fantastic climaxes. The instrumentation is interesting, - their main instrument seems to be the acoustic guitar, but often the songs build up with several different instruments and with background vocals that lift the songs to higher dimensions. The duo are currently working on their debut album, writing songs and recording demos, so we might see a release from this fabulous band in the near future. I give you two songs here, and there are two more great tracks for download on their myspace pages (especially check out the wonderful “riots”).

Choir of young believers - sharpen yr knife
Choir of young believers - burn the flag

Rating:
While reading, listen to these DEMO recordings of two songs mentioned here (they are slightly different on the album):
Dýrdin - “Prins i àlögum”
Dýrdin - “17 júní”

Skipping stones records, home of among others Eardrums’ favourites The Charade, will be releasing the icelandic twee poppers Dýrdin’s self titled debut album early in october. The band has received quite a lot of buzz in the blogosphere, and it will be interesting to see if the debutalbum will be well received by the music blogs.

This blog-writer is ambivalent.
I like the sound, the band, the songs - at least some of the songs. I am an old twee-boy myself, growing up listening to bands like Talulah Gosh, Shop Assistants, the Field Mice, Sarah-bands and more hit oriented twee bands like The Primitives. Dýrdin definitely has something in common with those bands.

On the other side, I think Dýrdin’s songs are ‘nothing special’. They are not unique in any way, - and I’m going to resist hard not to say that they are special because they come from Iceland. I see the label try to make something special about this in their press-bio, telling about the bands descendance from rustic vikings and abhorrent peasants. I’m from Norway, and I’m already sick of labels using Vikings, fjords and the arctic landscapes to sell music, so that’s no selling trick to me.
When I listen to the songs one by one, I can enjoy the music, but as a full album, I’m bored too soon. The songs sound too much the same. The same guitar technique, the same thin guitarsound, the same way of singing, the same production, the same…

So, what does Dýrdin have that is good? They definitely have the spirit! You can hear that they’re having fun making their songs, and this makes it fun to listen to. They have some good songs, they have the energy and they manage to make pop as simple and pure as it should be made. Their lyrics (at least what I can understand of them) sound really funny, and the stories are sometimes as fantastic as childrens stories may be.

Some songs are really good, - especially the bouncy pop-killer ‘Prins i àlögum’ with lyrics in icelandic about a girl that innocently believes everything she reads in books, and thus mistakenly believes that by kissing a frog, it will instantly turn into a handsome prince. It doesn’t work of course, and she suddenly realizes it would never work anyhow; she could never really love a handsome prince who eats flies (Dyrdin’s own explanation of the words). The chorus is fantastic, and it is easy to get hooked.
‘17.júni’ is a fascinating popsong about Iceland’s folkhero, Jón Sigurðsson, who played the greatest part in Iceland gaining independence from Danish rule. Every year, the people in Iceland celebrates their independence day on his birthday june 17th. The song tells the story of a statue of him in downtown Reykjavik, standing there in the crowd, unable to move, but of course he also wants to participate in the celebrations, have a balloon and a hot dog too, and most of all, some candyfloss… After all, it is his birthday, he should be having a ball!
I also like the song about a girl who meet a charming and handsome ski instructor in the mountains, falls in love, and 25 years later, she’s still waiting for his phone calls (‘Meistari á skíðum’).

And my opinion is:
look for the album on iTunes or something, and get the songs you like the most. As I said, some of the songs are really, really good, - but all the songs put together as an album makes it just too much for me. It’s like a very sweet, sugary and fantastic desert, - you rarely manage to eat more than one portion, and if you do, you feel a bit unwell.

Rating:
(Listen at Contriva’s myspace pages)

The German instrumental collective Contriva has signed to our favourite label, Morr music, and will be releasing their new album called ’separate chambers’ in november. The project was earlier on another of our favourite labels, Monika Enterprise.

People who know Morr have most probably heard other stuff that the people behind Contriva have done. Masha Qrella has released an album on Morr (2005), and she’s also involved in projects like NMFarmer and Mina. Max Punktezahl has been involved in The NoTwist, Jersey and Saroos, Rike Schuberty plays with Masha Qrella and Noel, and Hannes Lehmann plays with Mina. These are four friends and four songwriters, all of them an equal part of ’separate chambers’.

On ’separate chambers’, we hear more vocal work from the project than we’ve been used to. The songs are very melodic and light, - very ‘morr-ish’, and as they say themselves: closer to pop than to instrumental concept music. ‘Separate chambers’ is a pleasure to listen to, both harmonic and musically challenging and interesting.

The track ‘Unhelpful’ could have been a song from the more rockier versions of labelmates Lali Puna, with static-sounding rhythms, and fast, energetic guitarplay.
‘Before’ is a summery popsong with guitars, light drums and lush female vocals. ‘Say cheese’ starts almost acoustic with a calm melody played on acoustic guitars and harmonica, then turns almost psychedelic with weird twangy guitars. Still, the mood stays the same.
‘Concrete sleepers’ is one of my highlights, - beautiful electric and acoustic guitars working together and vreating this very special atmosphere. The closing song, ‘I can wait’, is a delicate melancholic popsong with good lyrics and interesting vocals.

Another good release from Contriva and Morr music!

Rating:

(While reading, listen to Junior Boys - in the morning (from pitchfork))

In 2004, I was totally overwhelmed by the cool electronic sound of “birthday”, “under the sun”, “high come down” and all the other perfections on Junior Boys‘ debut album “Last Exit”. The album was for me the best album of 2004, and it still remains one of the best albums in my collection. A clever mix between old-school synth-pop and modern cut-up electro wizardry. To be honest, I never thought such a debut could followed up by something better. Luckily for me, I was wrong. The duo’s new album “so this is goodbye” is as good, and maybe even better than the debut.

It is still easy to recognize the unique style of Junior Boys:
- stylish electro-pop, clever mechanical beats, analogue synth sounds, Jeremy Greenspan’s charactheristic soothing and whispery voice… It is all there, also on this new album. But, something is also very different; the focus seems to be more on the melodies than on the beats and rhythms this time. Since “Last Exit”, Greenspan’s colleague Johnny Dark, has left the band. He continues with his own music under his own name on Junior Boys’ old label, Kin, and has just released an EP there (kin 004: johnny dark - can’t wait). Junior boys of 2006 has a new member, Matt Didemus, and I believe the slight change of focus may be because of the line-up changes. The cut-up rhythms and distorted beats that was so present on “Last Exit” are not that present on the new album. The 2006 version of the duo seems to build their grooves more as layers of short-sounded synth riffs, - as melodic patterns that build the groove with less dependence on drums and percussive beats.

Junior Boys’ lush electronica is not a party album, - more an album you put on the day after the party. Their songs are more for the ears and the sofa than for the feet and the dancefloor. On this album, JB doesn’t rush anything. They are not trying to make the 3 minute perfect pop songs that hit your ears immediately. The songs are given time to build up, and they get the time they need to be complete. Most songs on the new album are 4-5 minutes long, and the longest is over 6 minutes. The songs develop, and sometimes, the last parts of the songs are more interesting than the beginning.
Some songs seems to be stripped down to the core, just because the song needs it. Listen to “first time”, where Greenspan almost sound like Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside in his high pitched honeyvoice. The accompanying sounds are few and only what’s needed is used. The voice and melody is the focus. Extremely clever and beautiful.
The cold sounding electronics are given a lot of warmth through Greenspans soulful and inviting vocals.

I did not quite “get” the new Junior Boys album at first listen. It is not as immediate as “Last exit”, but it definitely grows after a few listens. I must admit that I’m a bit in love with this album right now, - I find most of it completely fantastic. The simplicity, the melodies, the warmth, the clever rhythms, the lyrics, the fun… It gives me a lot, and it will probably be one of my top rated albums also at the end of the year.

Some of my favourite tracks:
- “caught in a wave” with its dark and impressive groove pattern.
- the depeche sounding “count souvernirs”
- the catchy single “in the morning”.
- the lyrically strong opening track “Double shadow”.