01. Vapnet – Döda fallet I haven’t seen Pitchfork give this album a 9.6 review yet. What’s going on? Have they lost their copy of the album? It took me some time to get into this, but now it’s like potatoes to me – great, versatile and very secure (like an old friend).
02. Moto Boy – Moto Boy Best new artist of the year! Moto Boy came from nowhere and released the most beautiful album I’ve heard in a long time. His live show was also magnificent (what a charming man!).
03. Envelopes – Here comes the wind I stopped listened to this after I saw them do a disappointing show last month, but before that I played it every day for weeks and weeks. There are so many great songs on here, and I just can’t resist that lo-fi charm!
04. Joel Alme – A master of ceremonies If you don’t like The Smiths or crooners, you might want to avoid this one. If you do like The Smiths and crooners, this will be like audio gold for you (I obviously belong to the latter category of people).
05. Juvelen – 1 I refuse to not mention Juvelen in the same sentence as Prince, but that doesn’t stop his music from sounding fresh and modern, and there are some real slick hits on his debut album.
06. Markus Krunegård – Markusevangeliet You could make a very good compilation CD with Laakso, but so far they’ve failed to make a consistently amazing album, so I was rather surprised with how good singer Markus Krunegård’s debut was.
07. Lykke Li – Youth novels Hype-hoopla! Ok, this is not as amazing as it should be, but still – it’s a fine, fine album. She’s even better live, that where she shines.
08. Pacific! – Reveries The singles that have been released from this album are all astonishing, the rest is ok. Still, half of the songs being top notch, and the rest average make for a bloody great album.
09. Afasi & Filthy – Fläcken Swedish hiphop album of the year, and sometimes I wish they’d rap in English so I could share it with my non-Swedish friends without them saying “It sounds great, but I really wish I could understand what they’re rapping about”. Someone called these guys Sweden’s Lil’ Waynes, which is a charming and somewhat fitting description. Nice grooves!
10. Håkan Hellström – Försent för edelweiss Lots of people love this but in my opinion Hellström’s latest album is the weakest one of his career – there’s just too much lame progrock on it! There are some corkers on here though, so there future is still looking bright.
Disappointments of the first half of 2008 Looptroop Rockers – Good things With pre-released MP3s “The Building” and “Marinate” my hopes were sky high! They all fell flat.
El Perro Del Mar – From the valley to the stars Where have the great melodies gone?
Albums from the first half of 2008 that might be great, but I need to listen to them properly before I can pass judgement
Speedmarket Avenue – Way better now Niccokick – The good times we shared , were they so bad Gentle Touch – In memory of savannah Alf – Tivoliv
There has been a kind of remix craze going in the last few years. At the moment it feels as if every song needs to be remixed as if to justify the original song’s existence / hype. It has reached a stage where a new remix is given more attention than a new song by the same artist. It was a long time ago that remixes were the sole property of dance music and rare white labels that could be found in shops in Soho, which after all is fair enough. I rarely get excited nowadays by a new remix, especially if I’ve heard the original song previously. I’m not really into hearing a new version of a song where someone has cunningly added a piano to the mix or more reverb to the vocals. Sometimes it can be quite interesting though, such as the remix of Lil’ Wayne’s “Lollipop” that had Kanye West on it, the Rocca remix of Lykke Li’s “Everyone but me” or Aesop Rock remixing The Mountain Goats. There has to be an element of subversion or surprise there, which is why I find Black Kids remixing Lykke Li to sound more like a PR trick than something I’d like to listen to. Black Kids seem to have done a remix of “I’m good, I’m gone”. It’s no fantastic remix, but they’ve removed those half-annoying tinny backing vocals in the beginning of the song! Wowcha! Boom! Bam! One super hip artist remixing another! Who would have thunk it? Personally I prefer that live performance of “I’m good, I’m gone” with Robyn etc that came out earlier this year. Gothenburg band Pacific! (who are pretty great) have recently remixed The Concretes’ “Keep yours”, and they’ve managed to put their own unique mark on it, which I guess is something that should be given credit to – take a good song and make it sound like your wrote it! The infamous Kleerup (whose new album is a bit of a disappointment I must say) did a terrible remix of the same song last year. Speaking of terrible remixes, Monster Bobby is not exactly doing any favours to Marit Bergman’s “Out on the piers”. Ok, I know I risk sounding like an old fart here. I’m not getting all annoyed by remixes and I’m not thinking of putting a bumper sticker on my car nor starting a facebook group advocating “death to the remix”, I’m just a bit baffled that’s all. Are people craving remixes or is it just a phenomenon that has spiraled out of control a bit? I still get pissed off if I buy an EP from a band and there are 4 remixes of the same song on it, instead of any b-sides / new songs. The Sound of Arrow’s new EP “Danger” has got a nice format – three songs and four remixes (plus an intro and outro) – everyone’s happy (even those intro/outro fans)! Hopefully some other artists will take note, probably not. Maybe the whole music climate where no one listens to a song more than a week doesn’t give artists and labels any choice but to flog remixes instead of new material. A remix of or by an artist is a good way of telling people that the artist is alive and well (this is how Pet Shop Boys seem to have survided in the last few years, and done it rather well). On the other hand, the thought of artists remixing each other’s songs is rather charming and romantic, it brings to mind some kind of notions of community and friendship. Have a listen to some of the above mentioned good and bad remixes:
Another Camden Crawl - another rubbish experience. I got to Camden around 8:00 pm, went to get my wristband, then headed off for some gigs! Oh, how very exciting! Thought I’d go and see thecocknbullkid first at a place on Parkway – massive queue! Headed over to Cuban Bar where Skepta was meant to play, only to found out he hadn’t turn up! Ho hum! Walked to Dingwalls where The Bookhouse Boys were performing – massive queue! So, instead of watching a gig I went to the Camden Tup where Pacific!where meant to perform in 45 minutes. I drank a couple of pints and read the paper I bought earlier. Naturally I wasn’t in the best of my when the band started playing. Oh yeah, the girl I was meant to go with couldn’t make it either because she was “sick” (hungover, I suspect) and then all my other friends went on the Friday, except for a colleague who couldn’t make it because she drank too much booze the night before (what's up with people?). Luckily Pacific! put on a marvellous show. If I was drunker and in a better mood, I might have enjoyed it way more, and perhaps I’d done a little jig. Now I just nodded my head, and swayed a bit side to side. The best songs were their best songs (this is usually the case with gigs, right?) – ie “Sunset Blvd”, “Hot lips”, “Number one” etc. I’m not too keen on their more instrumental tracks. I filmed them playing “Number one”, so enjoy that below. They weren't too animated while performing, but the singer (who doesn’t look a look like Vernon Kaye in real life) did a little guitar thing (watch the video!), and both of them were very good at tapping their feet. After the gig I realised it was 30 minutes until the next one (Slow club, which I probably wouldn’t have been able to get in to) so I decided to buy some Ben & Jerry’s and head home to watch some “Battlestar Galactica”. Go Kat! Boo Starbuck!
Exotic west coast melodies in a cold, wet and horrible Camden full of disgusting Red Stripe
Today I’m going to Camden Crawl to watch a band called Pacific! whose members hail from Gothenburg. I’m quite excited! Not about going to Camden Crawl though, it’s always quite messy, it's cold outside, and you only get to see about 3-4 bands per night. I might go and see Lo-Fi-Fnk also, but Lykke Li is playing at the same time as Pacific! so I’m going to have to give her the boot (think I've seen her enough in the last few months anyway). Pacific! came to my attention last year through some fantastic 12”s on Dolores records (Alf, Broder Daniel, Caesars, Håkan Hellström, I’m from Barcelona etc), and then I got their debut album earlier this year. It’s a good album, more than half of it is excellent, the other part (30-40%?) is ok although a bit dull sometimes. As an album though, it works very well. They’ve got that French sound that Phoenixmasters, some sort of modern electroBeach Boys kind of thing. I love Phoenix, so I’m not complaining. They’re playing at 9:15 pm in The Camden Tup (which is sort of on the other side of The Underworld), and I hope they can manage to give justice to their sweet melodies when they play live.
Camden Crawl and The Great Escape – just not good enough!
If you’re in the mood to combine a festival experience with seeing some great new Swedish bands, Camden Crawl in London (18 – 19 April) and The Great Escape in Brighton (15 – 17 May) are not exactly ideal. Two fantastic Swedish acts play Camden Crawl – Lykke Li and Pacific!, but the only Swedish band worth seeing at Camden Crawl – Envelopes – are not even 100% Swedish. I’m going to stay home and sulk!
