You wouldn’t know it from the disturbing lack of attention from the blogosphere, but Rickard Folke has been diligently plugging away as post-punk act Boygirlme for over half of a decade now. In fact, this Swedish musician has somewhere in the neighborhood of ten releases cataloged already (dating all the way back to 2004), and somehow still had the time to co-found the crucial synth-pop duo Degrees along the way.
Seeing as how yesterday’s Elias & the Wizzkids song featured guest vocals from Swedish songwriter Therese Johansson, it seemed only fair to follow it up with a track of her own creation. Despite the fact both artists owe a certain debt to the 80s, the Therese you heard on Waste of Time has little in common with the one that comes alive while writing under the moniker of Lowood.
Holy shit, where has this band been hiding? With a handful of releases already out in the wild, Sweden’s Elias & the Wizzkids have escaped my attention for far, far too long. Now that I’ve heard this single from the recently released album Just Do It!, that is all about to change.
The Voyage are a young band out of Stockholm who happen to cite Mew and Kent amongst their chief influences, and that’s not what you’d call a misleading assertion on their part. With only two songs to judge them by, I’d say they actually lean a little more closely to the surging pop styling of early Mew, but fans of Hagnesta Hill-era Kent will also find plenty to latch onto here. And though those are indeed some mighty big footsteps to find yourself walking in (on both counts), so far I’d say these guys are off to a damn fine start.
I think it’s safe to say I drown myself in a raging sea of 80s nostalgia, and that’s not likely to ever change. But it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to do so without bands like Swedish duo Karl X Johan popping up from time to time to blow my mind with surprisingly new and brilliant ways of twisting the sounds of my youth into something that seems as fresh as it is familiar (no short order, considering the amount of artists who have already thrown their hat into that very crowded ring).
Swedish duo This Vision are another fairly new band that managed to slip right by me, having released their debut LP towards the end of last year. This single is taken from that very same album, and it dives headfirst into the trappings of 80s new wave, piling on layer upon layer of some truly beautiful synth work. These guys sound completely at home in the melancholy realm of Pet Shop Boys and OMD, and boy do I ever live for that realm.
It might be a while before the rumors of The Tough Alliance’s premature demise get sorted out, but the forthcoming solo debut from ceo (a.k.a. TTA’s Eric Berglund) will certainly help ease the pain. Fans of his previous band’s work will find a lot to like here, with ceo forging a pretty similar musical path, still trimming the decidedly Scandinavian pop with staples of the early UK rave scene.
More Scandinavian glory, this time in the form of a young Swedish duo who call themselves Degrees. I only recently fell upon these guys, but this particular brand of anthemic synthpop is like shooting crack directly into the large section of my brain that apparently stopped developing at some point during the 80s. In other words, I love it.
While sharing some sweet new jams is certainly going to be the primary focus of the Daily Sound section, I also want to use it to revisit some of my favorites from years gone by that you may or may not have had the chance to check out before. I couldn’t think of a better way to get that ball rolling than by putting up this criminally unheard of song from the equally unheard of Swedish band Mano & the Tears.
Late last year, Malmo’s Danish Daycare (a.k.a. Daniel Jonsson) released his solo debut titled A Story of Hurt, an album full of electronic pop inspired by the likes of The Cure and Depeche Mode. I was a pretty big fan of the preceding single A Purpose to My Sins, but somehow never got around to buying the full-length — mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t find a store that wished to handle the necessary transaction in English. Well, I guess good things come to those who procrastinate, because now Jonsson has decided to re-release his debut for free to anyone with a working internet connection, and it even comes packed with an extra song.
I’ve probably wasted more than enough energy explaining my take on film remakes in the past, so I’ll just kick this off with the short and sweet version: No remake could ever sully the good name of the original. Some remakes are incredible. Some remakes suck ass. The end. Just where the upcoming Hammer version of Let the Right One In — sadly re-branded as Let Me In — will fall remains unclear, but I’ll put myself down as very cautiously optimistic for now, and the newly released set of stills of Chloe Moretz (Hit-Girl) as everyone’s favorite little blood-sucker certainly aren’t hurting things any.
If this is the sound of Shout Out Louds growing up, then I am glad this band doesn’t share my Peter Pan complex.