Cold Monday morning...

Someone somewhere must have a sick sense of humor. Up to the start of 2014 the winter in Denmark was probably among the warmest ever, but just around the exact moment earlier this month, when I was finally allowed to resume my running career, King Winter decided it was time to wake up from his slumber and return to action. Not only making it cold, but extremely windy (fucking hate wind – runners generally do) as well. Thank you so very, very much for trying your utmost to tear down whatever little motivation I’m able to build up, but please do go on if you like; you won’t stop me!

This glorious track by NY shoegaze duo The Blessed Isles popped up on SoundCloud not so many hours ago. Taken from the band’s forthcoming LP, which will be out later this year and if the rest of tracks are able to even remotely match Chase Away the Sun (truly not a very good title for a song on a day like today) it most certainly will be a real treat for any fan of the classic, epic, dream-pop sound.


Alphabeat, not exactly among the most featured bands around here, has decided to take a break to let the band members focus on various other musical projects. Recently lead singer Stine Bramsen lent her voice to Carpark North (which resulted in the surprisingly strong 32 – stream below) and today her debut solo single Prototypical hits the streets (hmmm – that’s a completely outdated expression – should probably be hits the airwaves and streams near you instead). Already picked up by Danish radio (it’s this week’s Uundgåelige (inevitable) on P3) and the live session version of the track was praised by a number of foreign bloggers last week. Actually I did hear the song on radio this morning and to be quite honest it didn't leave much of an impression! But then the video hit my mailbox earlier today and I decided to give it a few more spins. And I really should be to "experienced" to be surprised of what happened, because like it's often the case with a great song, it required a small effort before I fully started appreciating it. The song does no mark a radical career change or anything, because just like Alphabeat this is still pop music (though the track has a slight gospel feel). But it's less summer and bubblegum, has a far more mature expression without forgetting that most important thing is that a great pop song has to be catchy; and it sure is!


A preview of the song (apparently meaning that it's not the complete version)...

Når bladene falder...

Hvordan en smuk dansk efterårsklædt skov præcis hænger sammen med stemningsfulde optagelser fra en svedig natklub er jeg ikke helt klar over, men ikke desto mindre er det den kontrastfyldte kombination man finder i denne nye og superflotte video fra Android Orchestra. Videoen er for bandets nye single Falling, som er det andet udspil fra debuten Are We Looking At The Same Stars. Et album indeholdende en stribe fine ørehængende popsange og som kan hives ned til den yderst fordelagtige ”name your price” via bandcamp, hvilket i min verden er et tilbud, som vel kun ignoranter vælger at sige nej tak til! En Single EP skulle vist være trapperne, men den vender jeg lige tilbage til, når den dukker op…og nå ja…bør vel også lige nævne, at bandet også har brygget et tropical remix af Alphabeat singlen Love Sea sammen (scroll lige lidt ned for at give den det et lyt), der med næsten sikkerhed vil give alle os, som så småt er begyndt at skele til vinterdepressionen, et yderst tiltrængt fix af sol og summer!






 

Love sea...

Swedish popsmith Tobias Isaksson (a.k.a. Azure Blue) has remixed the Alphabeat single Love Sea and though I've never really been a fan of my fellow Danish countrymen, I must be honest and admit that they've written quite a wonderful and catchy pop song here. By adding some of the "classic" Azure Blue sound Mr. Isaksson has somehow (and rather amazingly) managed the impossible task and made the song just one notch better.