Recommended Releases

Monzano – By This Time Last Year Everything Will Seem Younger

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Knut in Nordic music, Recommended Releases, Reviews | Comments Off

Monzano cover

The Norwegian quartet Monzano have been one of my favourites for many years. They have been around for a very long time (almost 10 years now?), and I think my first listen to their music was in 2005, just before they released their first ep “The Window Was Open But The Smoke Wasn’t Moving”. Their debut-album “High Horses & One Trick Ponies” was released in 2007, an album I gave full score in my review. Since then, vocalist and songwriter Sjur Lyseid has had some success with his more folk/acoustic based solo-project The Little Hands of Asphalt, released a solo-album, and he has also worked as a producer for some of the bands from indie-Oslo (My Little Pony, Einar Stray, Nomber5s).

Now Monzano are back with their second album, “By This Time Last Year Everything Will Seem Younger“, released on Spoon Train Audio February 15th. This time, it’s a new band: Only Sjur Lyseid and Eivind Bøe are left from the “old” Monzano, and two new members Magnus Rauan and Eivind Almhjell have joined the band on bass and drums. I would expect them to sound a bit different after the change, but they still sound like Monzano… Is that good or bad? I’m really not sure, but I like them just the way they are, – both then and now. So, I guess it’s good, – at least for me…

The new album. “By this time…”, is like a treasure chest of good songs, and some of the gems inside sparkle more than others. I prefer the calmer moments of Monzano, and songs like “Know Your Velocity” and especially the intensely beautiful “Even Bluer Pills” could be on repeat on my player without ever making me bored. “Even Bluer Pills” may be one of the best songs I have heard from Monzano and all their related projects, ever.

On songs like these, they manage to paint with their finest brushes, – the songs are full of fine details and the warm vocals are at their best. On the only song I don’t like on the album, the upbeat and rough “The Nombers game”, they step into clichés and lose the subtle details I like so much. I usually love Lyseid’s rich vocals, but on this song, he seems to push it to the limit, and his singing becomes thin and weak. One of the more upbeat songs that manages to keep the richness and warmth, is “Grand Siblings”, where everything is to the point, and I can almost hear a young Ben Gibbard singing…

Some of our regular readers (and listeners) may know the song “Yes, We Can’t” from our own compilation “Birdsongs, Beesongs“, but in many ways it sounds even fresher and better here on the new album. I loved “our” version of the song, but this sounds like gold.
“Waterways & Altitude” is another really, really good song, with lovely arrangements, fantastic lyrics and vocals, and very nice strings (cello?). There’s also a tiny distorted keyboard detail in there, that lifts this song from “really good” to “brilliant”!

The album ends perfectly, with “The Buildings, then the trees”, a stunning low-key ballad, where Lyseid’s lyrics and vocals get our full attention, only accompanied by some keyboard chords on most of the song, before everything builds bigger and bigger to a final crescendo where the album’s title is repeated by a beautiful band-choir. My spine is freezing, and my heart is warm…

I deliberately didn’t mention “Cold Waters”, where they are joined by Thea Raknes from Norma Sass. I thought you could listen to it, and make up your own mind:

Monzano (feat. Thea Raknes from Norma Sass) – Cold Waters

New mini-album from Transmittens on WeePop! records

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases | Comments Off

Regular readers know I’m a fan of the tiny 3″ cds from WeePop! records. Their first release in 2010 is from the Kansas-duo Transmittens, who will release a 10 track mini-album called “We disappear” on January 29th. This will be Transmittens second release on Weepop!, and it can be pre-ordered already now from the label’s website.
From the press release, the music is described as “catchy synth-pop songs laced with jangly guitars and some very clever lyrics”, and I guess it sounds something like this:

Transmittens – Marfa Texas (from the new mini-album)
Transmittens – Balloons in the sky (from their debut)

New free ep from The Argyle Wishlist – “all details”

Posted on January 19, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases, Reviews, Songs | Comments Off

Argyle Wishlist

The fine indiepop-trio The Argyle Wishlist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin have recently released a new 5 track ep called “All details”, and they are giving it away as a free download on their website. I’ve only listened through this ep one time, but I’m already in love, and I’m starting my second listen as we speak. It’s all clearly 60s inspired, with soft drums, lovely melodies and a warm, clean guitar-sound. A really pleasant listen.

Vocalist Jesse Bell is also a part of one of the collaboration projects that will participate on Eardrums’ upcoming collaboration-compilation “Between Two Waves”, due for release in early March. His project is called The Postcard Music, where he works together with Stephane of the French band Skittle Alley.

Here is the video for the title track from the new ep, “All Details”:

Race Horses – Goodbye Falkenburg

Posted on January 19, 2010 by Knut in Other, Recommended Releases, Reviews | 3 Comments

Race Horses from Wales will soon release their debut-album “Goodbye Falkenburg”, after a couple of absolutely brilliant singles in 2009. Their first single “Cake” was one of my favourite tracks last year, and I hear several candidates for 2010 on this new album.

Nothing seems to be impossible for these guys when they’re making their songs, – they’re bursting with creativity. The album will be released on January 25th, and you can expect some lovely melodies on it, in addition to a choir of trainee dentists on backing vocals, field recordings of animal sounds, nature and party guests…

Their sound has been described as “the place where Barbershop meets post-rock via folk, oompah, psychedelia and pop”, and maybe that’s a good description? When I listen, I hear good music, interesting music, and a band having a wonderful time making it!

It’s a very, very strong debut, and I’m sure songs like the irresistable “Pony”, the beautiful “Glo Ac Oren” or “Voyage to St Louiscious”, or maybe the wild and almost children-song-like Captain Penelope Smith, will be on my list of best songs of 2010.

Race Horses have definitely become one of my favourite bands, – I love this band, – I love this album!

* Falkenburg was a ship bombed in WWII, and also the name of a German sailor who died at sea. As the story goes, he returns to the shore every 100 years to search for a virgin to marry.

Here are the videos for their two singles “Cake” and “Man on my mind”:

Fredrik – Trilogi

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Knut in Nordic music, Recommended Releases, Reviews | Comments Off

Fredrik - Trilogi

I have been waiting for a long time to tell you about this wonderful, wonderful album. I received my review-copy of Fredrik‘s new album “Trilogi” a long time ago, but the release was for some reason moved to a later date, and my post had to be moved too. Now, finally, the release date is soon here. I saw the digital version of the album on emusic yesterday, but if you want the cd, you will probably have to wait until the release date on January 26.

When I first heard this album, I was completely struck by it’s beauty and complexity, – and I was just sitting there listening and listening and listening. This is still the way I listen to this album. It’s that good. I am tempted to use words like “masterpiece”, “timeless” and “a classic”.

So who is Fredrik and what is Trilogi? Some of our readers probably know a Swedish band called The Lovekevins, – a band who later changed their name into The LK, and who participated on our “Summer’s here” compilation… It’s basically the same band, but also very, very different. Both bands have Fredrik Hultin and Lindefelt as their core members, but I have a feeling that The LK was Lindefelt’s main project and Fredrik is …eh, well, – Fredrik’s project. (I’ve seen somewhere that Fredrik has 6 members, but in the recent biographies I have seen, only Fredrik and Lindefelt are listed as members of the band).
- Why is it called “Trilogi”? It’s in fact put together by 3 parts and was originally released as 3 very limited 3″ cd ep’s:
“HOLM” is the first section’s 4 songs, “AVA” is the mid-section with 4 songs and “NER” is the last 5 songs.

While The LK has a quite electronic pop-sound with acoustic elements, Fredrik’s sound is acoustic with electronic elements. The songs have a variety of instruments, – strings, horns, guitars, piano, bells, music boxes, humming, howling and quite subtle electronics, – and it gives me a feeling of a folk-album instead of an electronic album. On top of this is Fredrik Hultin’s smooth and soothing vocals, and a lot of beauty.

“Trilogi” is not an easy album, – it demands the listeners attention, – but it doesn’t feel complex or difficult. It’s very melodic and full of warm harmonies, but there’s so much to discover here, and to get the most out of the album, you just HAVE to listen. The lyrics are in English, but most of the titles are Swedish.

Trilogi is Fredrik’s second album. Their first one, NaNaNi, is in many ways the link between The LK and Trilogi, carrying elements of both. My recommendation: Get everything Fredrik and Lindefelt has ever put their hands into.

One of Fredrik’s friends run a netlabel called HEARTPHONE, and they have released a free single there, with “Holm” from Trilogi and an exclusive instrumental track called “Maran”. You can download it for free here:
http://heartphone.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/hrtph006-fredrik-holm-single/

The Trilogi-album will be released on CD by The Kora Records January 26th 2010 and on double-vinyl by the swedish Biograf label. Both versions come on charcoal cardboard with corbeau greens and matte silver highlights. The vinyl release also features a DRM-free digital download of the album as well as the exclusive, hidden EP Post.

Here’s a video from Trilogi, the beautiful first track, “Vinterbarn”, which means “winter child”.

Fredrik – Vinterbarn from The Kora Records on Vimeo.

Funny Little Dream with debut album

Posted on January 17, 2010 by Knut in Bandprofile, Recommended Releases | 1 Comment

Funny Little Dream

The Indonesian indiepop-duo Funny Little Dream was one of the many bands who participated on our first free compilation, “Summer’s Here”, and their cute, sunshiny song “Sunshine” never really managed to get out of my head. It’s still in there somewhere, and the warmth of summer, the smell of summer, the sound of summer comes to me whenever I hear this song again.

The band has now released their self-titled debut-album on the small Indonesian label Lovely Records, and in the midst of one of the coldest Norwegian winters ever, I feel the warmth and sound of summer, again. The album is full of warm and super-melodic popsongs that may be too sweet for some, but they’re just perfect for me. Ganesha and Peppy has mastered the art of classic songwriting, and although their themes are easy and sometimes naive, this is perfect pop music.

It’s mostly Peppy who sings on the album with her sweet vocals, but Ganesha also sings on several songs, and I really like the variation the use of two vocalists gives to the album. The album is at the moment only available in Asia (correct me if I’m wrong), but I hope someone makes this brilliant piece of pop available all over the world. It’s cold up here now, and we need Funny Little Dream!

(I guess you can contact the label or the band via myspace, and order a copy from them. Doesn’t hurt to ask!)

Here’s “I want to tell you”, – one of the tracks on the album, and also one of the two songs on their Cloudberry single:

Funny Little Dream – I want to tell you / (this is the cloudberry version, not the album version)

Here’s an acoustic version of their song “Strangers in love” from the album:

New EP from electropop-duo Katsen – “Basic Pleasure Unit”

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases | Comments Off

The UK indie-electro-pop duo Katsen will release a new 5 track EP called “Basic Pleasure Unit” on Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation on January 22. The ep will feature 3 new tracks, one new extended mix of the beautiful “Florian” and one of my favourite songs from their album “It Hertz!”, “Where nobody can find us”. The new songs are really good, and I especially like the one where Chris Blackburn does the lead vocals, “A Soulless party”. His vocals are a bit warmer in the sound than Donna Grimaldi’s, and it gives a refreshing change in the sound. “Accidents in the home” is another really good one, which might grow to become my favourite with a few more listens. I love the chorus on this one.
I just had a look at Katsen’s website , and it looks like you can buy the ep already now digitally from the site. The hand-made cds can be preordered.

Here’s one of the songs that’s both on the ep and the album:

Katsen – Where nobody can find us

Sleepover

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases | Comments Off

- Sleepover

If you like jangly, fuzzy indiepop with great melodies, I highly recommend you to visit the free web label Magic Goat. They have just released a wonderful debutalbum by Sleepover from Salt Lake City. It’s really good, so get over there now and download it for free!

It’s here: http://magicgoatmusic.com/

New single from Chariots of Tuna – “I’m so good at shining” – and it shines!

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases, Reviews | 4 Comments

Chariots of tuna

Aahhh! A new single from Chariots of Tuna is better than Christmas, and this one is actually better than most things I can think of!
I adored their debut single, as you can see from my review, but the band has really progressed since then, and this is even better than I had dared to hope for. The songwriting is even more to the point, the vocals are more focussed and better, and these two songs are two gorgeous pop-treasures that in my ears are perfect. I am one of those who feel a little pain when I hear ecstatic guitar solos, but on “Seven miles away”, even the guitar solo is good!

I STILL want more…

The single is released for free through Tweefort Records, and you can get your digital copy here:
http://tweefort.com/2010/01/09/new-release-im-so-good-at-shining-chariots-of-tuna/

Boy Genius – “Staggering”: Wonderful new album, – but do they want us to listen? (Update: Yes, they do!)

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases, Songs | 8 Comments

UPDATE: Jason from the band has updated us on the release-options of the album.
See below for a comment from both me and him. I’m satisfied now!

Brooklyn’s Boy Genius will release their second album “Staggering” January 26th 2010 via Greenpop recordings. This band only gets better and better. I liked their debut album “Anchorage”. I liked their 2009-single “Blame Love” even more and I love almost everything on “Staggering”. I will get back to the “almost” later in this post.

Boy Genius’ jangly sound and especially the sharp, edgy vocals of Jason K takes me right back to the 80s, and bands like Felt, The Go-Betweens (the songs of Robert Forster), Beat Happening and maybe even Talking Heads. The fine mix between his and the female backing vocals from Lisa K and Marisa Cerio adds a fine dimension to the songs, – it softens and roughens it up at the same time.

On this album, they start with full melodic power, with one of their older songs, “Scatterbrain”, followed by the supercatchy single “Blame Love” (it’s got trumpets! Yay!). The dominant basslines on “Ramona Saves the day” could easily have been made 20 years ago. “Old new England” has some of the same good pop-qualities as “Blame love”, – excellent indiepop! Another huge favourite of mine is “When Sunday Goes”, with lovely boy/girl vocals (and trumpets!).

UPDATE: The below part of the review is commented by Jason from Boy Genius in the comment section, and the situation is not as bad as I thought it was. The album will be released on iTunes and other digital shops, so it’s NOT unavailable for people who don’t want to buy the vinyl-album to get the download code. I’m leaving the text below anyway, because it’s what most of the comments are about.

My joy for this album has some limitations… and so does the album…
Quoting from the press-release:

“From its inception, the goal with Staggering was to craft an album tailor-made for vinyl that would both glorify the format and preserve the history of the LP. (…) The album was recorded on tape, mixed to tape and mastered directly from tape (…). The result is an album that has all the warmth and charm of a classic vinyl pop record. For this reason Staggering will be available on vinyl only, in limited numbers, with a download code included for the modern-minded listener.”

Please don’t misunderstand me: Releasing music on vinyl is OK, – but please -, don’t close the doors for “modern minded listeners” like me, who either don’t own a vinyl record-player or who just don’t want to own more vinyl albums (or cds). To get this as a digital download, I have to buy the LP and get the code. The LP will probably be stored somewhere and never touched again. I have bought albums in the past on vinyl, just to get the download code, but more often, I just drop thinking about it and don’t buy it.

When I hear about bands who release their music this way, I’m thinking – “don’t they want people to listen to their songs?”. Since it’s a limited edition too, it really makes me wonder if this band wants to get their music out to people at all.

The music is great, though! Listen:

MP3: Boy Genius – “Old New England”

MP3: Boy Genius – “Ramona Saves the day”

MP3: Boy Genius – Blame Love

What do you think of bands releasing music on vinyl only?