Put on your sunglasses, enjoy the sun and listen to some cool music.....that's exactly what I plan to do!
The boys from Anamia have mailed a brief update (including a few pictures) and accordingly the recording of 4 new tracks was quite a success. The band is still in the process of mixing the songs, but I'm really looking forward to listen to the new "babies". Hopefully they will spend a little more energy on promoting the new EP than they did on last year's An Extraordinary New Fitness Product, because this band is simply too great to go unnoticed. Will keep you posted whenever there is something new to tell.
Some of you might remember the Scottish indie pop band The Knight In Plaster I featured in the blog a few times last year? If not song titles like A Nasty Piece Of Work and My Girlfriend Tried To Run Me might ring a bell? If not you really should feel sorry for yourself that you missed out on them the first time around. The band has since reformed and changed its name to The Felt Tips and on Wednesday, August 15 the (debut?) single/EP Boyfriend Devoted will be released on Cloudberry Records. Things might have changed on the outside, but the music is still charming indie pop with a heavy dose of inspiration from Belle & Sebastian. One of the EP tracks is a new version of the fabulous Treat Me Gently which thus makes the "Current Favorites" list for the second time.
As regular visitors would know I've become quite a fan of the musical universe of Sweden's Tower of Foil over the past year. So needless to say I was pretty excited when the band contacted me a few weeks back offering me the opportunity to post an exclusive pre-download of the title track of the band's new EP Faster than your eye. The EP (which will be the band's 11th since 2000) will be released on Friday, August 10 (for the ridiculous amount of €3), but as always it will also be possible to download the 3 tracks for free from the band's webpage, if you cannot afford to spend a little pocket-money. The number of members has varied through the years, but on the new recording the band should more accurately be called a duo, as the current line-up consists of Daniel Björck (vocals, guitars, keyboards, music & lyrics) and Tomas Larsson (guitars). Both are also members of The Idle Hands and among several other side jobs Daniel played piano on the Celestial album Dream On released earlier this year. If you're already familiar with the music of Tower of Foil the new song certainly won't be a disappointment. It's arguably one of the best tunes in the history of the band and based around the piano (with acoustic guitars) it's so calm, soft and elegant that it should be difficult not to be captured by its beauty. Hopefully the remaining two tracks of the EP will be equally wonderful? Come Friday and I should be so much wiser.
I mentioned UK (Cardiff based) electro/dance pop act hornby pylons two weeks ago and the band has now released/published (what is actually the right term here?) a new track called fool proof and incapable. The description of the music I used the last time is still very much valid. It certainly is completely different from what I normally post in the blog. It's somewhat monotonous, it's absolutely insisting, it's highly infectious and extremely cool!
Here we go...another day and another favorite tune. J.A. has sent a mail recommending Drum of Glass by Norwegian new wave/electronica quartet Monomen and after two listens I knew exactly why he was so eager that we should listen to this. The four youngsters (the lead singer is 18 years old) have clearly been snooping around in their dads' record collections and been listening to bands like Joy Division, New Order, Depeche Mode, Devo etc. So very clearly a track that finds its inspiration in the 80's, but at the same time still manages to sound like fresh breath of air. And a track that is so energetic, so wonderful and has this "it will get into your head and stay there" catchiness that I feel almost certain that Editors would give away their entire back catalogue for just this one song.
It's almost surreal. Monday morning I had never heard of Northern Portrait, but 48 hours and 2 songs later I'm in complete awe. The first output Crazy blew me away and the second track by the band I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me almost did the same. It's difficult to imagine that this "trend" will continue, though we should find out soon, as more songs are on the way. Labeled by the band itself as "sophisticated guitar pop" - so true! I've asked (or call it beg if you prefer) for more info on the band, because I simply refuse to accept that something so genuinely incredible like this can emerge out of nothing!
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