I’ve waited for this one, – a new single from London’s Sportsday Megaphone. They impressed me with their rough and energetic indie electropop the last time they released a single, the brilliant “Less and less”. Now they’re finally here again with “LA”, and I’m very happy about the result. VERY happy. The single is maybe a little less rough than their first, but equally brilliant in the songwriting and the sound. The single will be released on Sundays best records on 16th june, on 7″ vinyl and download, and it will probably be available on all good digital download shops, as most Sundays best-releases are.

The a-side “LA” is wonderful, but the b-side “Young lust” is the one I like best.
Listen and enjoy!

Sportsday Megaphone – Young lust

I just neeeed to tell you about a wonderful album I bought a couple of days ago, a real gem. The Swedish DotShop recommended it, and since this is a shop I usually have a lot of confidence in and have done some fine buys in earlier, I decided to buy it unheard.  I’m so glad I did!

So, what am I talking about? Ok, let me tell you:

Johan Heltne is the artist. He is from Sweden, and this is his second album. According to the press release, his first album from 2005 is quote “acclaimed but criminally unknown” unquote.  The new album is called  “Vetenskapliga Bevis För Att Jesus Lever” (Scientific Proof That Jesus Is Alive), and as you probably understand, Heltne sings in Swedish. He has made the album together with 20 of his friends, all of whom record and publish their own music. Some of them are Rickard Jäverling, Andreas Runeson, Jonathan Johansson, Andreas Eklöf, Andreaz Hedén, Ola Sahlén, Gustaf Spetz and David Åhlén.

Wonderful, warm, poetic, intensely beautiful songs!

I can’t say more than LISTEN to these mp3s, and then go out and buy the album if you like them. It’s available on dotshop, but also on emusic and itunes. All these mp3s are from the artist’s website, where you also can find videos and some words from the man who made these wonderful songs.

Johan Heltne – 16 avenue de l’opera

Johan Heltne – Hjärta, Instinkt, Principer

Johan Heltne – Din alkoholism är ingen alkoholism

Johan Heltne – Mayas sång

Enjoy!

I’m late with everything at the moment, and this album is so good that I should have told you about it the minute I got it. Sorry about that…
This is probably the soundtrack of spring and summer 2008 for me. The Lodger‘s debut album “Grown ups” was a real kick, with classic melodies and fantastic energy, and I’ve waited for the second one. I’m not disappointed at all. On their second album “Life is sweet” (out now on Slumberland records), they continue where they left us, probably a bit more refined.  There’s still edge and roughness in the songs, but for me, the melodies sounds more in focus than they were on The Lodgers highly melodic debut.

Highlights for me are the bouncy “a year since last summer”, the darker “the conversation”, “Honey” with its unusual rhythm structures, the wonderful and catchy single “The Good old days” and the opener “My finest hour”.

With The Lodger, Life definitely is sweet!

The Lodger – The Good Old Days
The Lodger – The Conversation
(Both from the labelsite – link above)

Liz, Ryan, Ryan, Joshua, Ceri, Rosie and Steph are The School, a very nice band from Cardiff, Wales, playing super-melodic perfect pop songs with lots of sunshine inside. The band will soon release their new four track EP, “Let it slip”, on the fine label Elefant records (16th June).

I’ve listened to the EP almost non-stop since I received it a while ago, and it’s easy to fall in love with the songs, the band and the whole feeling they have in their music. Everything is very 60s, from the sound to the cover. Wonderful songs, all four of them, with infectious choruses, lots of ooh’s and bap-bah’s, handclaps and lush strings. I’m especially reminded by 60s girl groups, as well as more modern bands like Lucky Soul, Camera Obscura and Belle & Sebastian or bands from the 80s, like The Primitives.

I must admit that I’m not the only reason that this EP has been played constantly in my home the last weeks. My 9-year old daughter loves these songs, and her father is pleased that these brilliant pop-songs may compete with High School Musical and Hannah Montana in my daughters stereo.

You can order the EP directly from the label right now.

Hi there!

It’s been a long time since my last post, and it has been totally unintended. My computer crashed. and I’ve been unable to do anything online for some time now. I’ve got a week of emails to go through, new music to listen to and some interesting side-projects to dive into, and I guess a new post will be up here in a couple of days.

Sorry for not answering your emails or your myspace requests, but now you know the reason.

Good to be back!