Gentle Touch

Thanks to Spanish reader José Antonio for sending me an email recommending Swedish band Gentle Touch. I've never heard of these guys before (at least two other bloggers have), but the duo (or is it a trio?) plays (in their own words) "romantic electropop inspired by acts like Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys". The music is very catchy and reminds me quite a lot of another Swedish electropop act, Le Sport; just better. A 4 track EP was released in February on Songs I Wish I Had Written and the 3 tracks below are available as free downloads.
+ Smedby (brilliant!!)
+ Memories
+ Speaking Of Reasonable

Ruined By Martin - Update

Danish duo Ruined By Martin caught my attention last year, when the band was selected the demo of December in Danish magazine Gaffa. I quickly bought/downloaded all the songs I could find after streaming them once (they were that great) and obviously I crossed my fingers hoping that the media attention would lead to a record contract. However this wasn't the case (I don't really know this for a fact) and not much has been heard from the band since then (except for the Christmas "present" Burn The Sun). But today I received a most welcomed "update" email from one of the band members.
The duo is now a trio (a guitarist has joined the band) and has recently been busy recording a three track demo, which according to the band should be available from the webpage and Myspace very soon.
One new track called Perfect Sense has already been uploaded to Myspace as a free download (the band is not sure if the song will make it on the demo) and even though the song is described by the band as a bit more electronic than their previous work, it is still a damn nice and very catchy pop song.
Impatiently waiting for more...........
+ Perfect Sense
+ Burn The Sun

Bahnhof

Sometimes it's difficult not to be amazed how easy it is to find great music on the web. Last night I did a 5 minutes search at Myspace for new Danish indie bands and quickly came across Bahnhof. Reading the following description obviously made me quite interested in what the band has to offer; "Musically Bahnhof is situated in the rock category, yet a new electronic dimension has been added which creates a new sound, where the 80ties collide with 2006 in a crash of noise, synth, vigour and melody." After listening to the 4 (very good) songs available, it becomes rather clear that Bahnhof pretty much (like several other bands these days) follows in the musical footsteps of bands like The Bravery, Editors, The Killers etc., which doesn't have to be a bad thing at all. And in this case it sure isn't, because the band has plenty of talent and songwriting skills, to be standing own their own feet. The band has been recording since 1999 and released a self-financed EP last year (I've just ordered a copy) called The 2005 Bahnhof EP. A few more demos have been recorded this year as well, and the band has signed a booking deal, so hopefully we will hear a lot more from these guys in the near future!
+ Tanktop Girl (fantastic song!)
+ The Eyes Of Ruby

Terry Hall

The Terry Hall profile at Myspace is pretty cool; especially because every week a "Terry Track Of The Week" is posted, which is made available for download for (well) one week! This week the track is the classic and absolutely wonderful Thinking Of You by The Colourfield (how many bands was he actually involved in?).
+ Thinking Of You

Catching Up

Today I'll be spending a little time going through some of the mails and "friend" requests I've received while I was away.

The second album by Tender Trap called 6 Billion People is released on matinée recordings this week. The two tracks available for download indicate that this could be a very nice indie/twee pop album and hearing the rest of it should be top priority!
+ Talking Backwards
+ 6 Billion People

A big thank you to Rodolfo (a reader from Peru - this blog is worldwide :-)), who recommends a few bands. Check out UK band Gledhill and the very good single Good Times Ahead, which (apparently) will be the summer anthem of Sky Sports.
+ Good Times Ahead

If you decide to call your music project Kaptajn Smart you really shouldn't be all that surprised if people believe that you have some kind of novelty thing going on. At least this was MY first impression, but once I listened to the music I quickly changed my mind, because this is really nice and very catchy electro pop.
+ Where's My Polka Dotted Girl?

I'm really surprised that Country Girl by Primal Scream is doing so well (no. 5 in the UK 75 singles chart). Not because the song is bad (it's not - it actually quite good), but simply because is has been available for free at Myspace for some time now.
+ Country Girl

Chris recommends a couple of songs by Moonbabies. The band has posted a total of 5 songs that didn't make the Orange Billboard!
+ In The Banshees (very good!)

Debut single Be My Light by Norwegians Asleep is a really catchy pop tune. Not unique or original in any way. Just very good!
+ Be My Light

Interesting article on Soundvenue. Seems like Red Hot Chili Peppers were a little too inspired by Tom Petty when the band wrote Dani California. Two mash up mixes are available. What do you think?

Last one for a while...

This afternoon me and the 3 girls will go to the beautiful Danish isle of Bornholm and we won't return until Sunday evening. No e-mails. No web access. So this will be the last post for 5 days!

Danish quartet Skywriter released the album Where Both Worlds Never Meet a couple of months ago, which I have to admit went completely unnoticed by me. However, yesterday the band sent me a "friend" request at Myspace and when I realized that four songs of the album are available for download; I decided to give the boys a listen. The music is quite dark alternative rock dominated by the highly noticeable vocal of the lead singer Jakob Dahn. Overall I'm pretty impressed and the songs have left me with a feeling that I really should explore this band further.
+ For Heavens Sake
+ Passengers

Did you remember to download the remix of This Time I mentioned last night? If not - hurry up and do so!

US shoegazers Panda Riot have posted a new demo called She Dares All Things. Less dark and a bit more uptempo than I expected. Still the guitars and the vocals are just right, making this track an absolutely thrilling experience!
+ She Dares All Things

tWAMi meets Green Concorde...

tWAMi has remixed the track This Time by Danish alternative rock band Green Concorde and the new version is available for free from his re-designed webpage. I'm not at all familiar with the original version of the song, but I suspect that lots of synths and drums/beats (?) have been added to make it a bit more danceable. Anyway this is a fantastic and utterly catchy track, which hopefully will give both acts involved the attention they both fully deserve!!
+ This Time (Remix)

Cannot think of a title!...

I went to the cinema last night for the first time in more than a year to watch The Da Vinci Code. I have to add myself to the growing line of disappointed people, because the adaption of the novel is pretty (or rather - very) weak!!

Maybe I should seriously start thinking of introducing a weekly post called something like "tWAMi recommends"? Last week he recommended We vs Death and this week he has suggested that I should listen to experimental Norwegians The Low Frequency In Stereo and Danish indie act Cartridge. And of course everyone should listen to the brilliant music created by tWAMi himself!
+ The Low Frequency In Stereo - Axes
+ Cartridge - Tree Crowns
+ tWAMi - My Spanish Romance

Peter has written a really nice post in German on Flying Virgins/Late Night Venture.

Oscillating Brushhead has uploaded two new interesting (and rather good) tracks at Myspace. Impressively he switches from electronica to shoegaze.
+ Girl With A Gun
+ Aminosäuren From Outer Space (thanks for the correct title Peter :-))

Seattle band Shake Some Action! is the studio recording their debut (?) album and rough mixes of two songs are currently available for free download. The band plays really catchy guitar pop and list bands like The La's, The Stone Roses and The Zombies among their influences.
+ Complicated
+ I Can See Where This Is Going Now

Late Night Venture

I mentioned Danish band Late Night Venture a few weeks back and today the band's self-titled album is released on Quartermain Records. The band was originally called Flying Virgins, but earlier this year the band decided to change the name to Late Night Venture. However the band did experience some success under the previous name, because downloads of the 2004 EP Lazy have exceeded a respectable 50,000. The tracks of the EP are still available as free downloads, and the 4 very good songs (clocking in at +26 minutes) are an intriguing/fascinating mix of alternative rock and epic dreampop, with the occasional indie twist, which obviously have made people compare the band to other ones like Mercury Rev, Placebo, Flaming Lips etc. So far I've searched in vain for the track list of the Late Night Venture album (I haven't bought a copy yet - but I certainly will), but (by reading a few reviews) it seems like that one or more of the older songs will re-appear on the new album (please correct me if I'm wrong), which should be more than enough to guarantee a really fine album.

+ Pay The Moon (from the new album)
+ Modesto (one more from the new album)
+ Clear Decay (demo version of a new song)
Lazy EP:
+ How To Devour A Butterfly
+ Tahoe Morning Diner (a new version is on the album)
+ Lazy Star (also on the album in a new version)
+ Evil Fender

Title - what title?

New demo called Madison by The Attorneys. Not bad at all!
+ Madison

Chris seems to be very high on Au4 and it's not difficult to understand, because this is a great epic sounding band!

A while back tWAMi recommended that I should listen to a Dutch instrumental/experimental band called We vs Death. Now I've finally found the time to give the band a serious listen and I'm pretty happy I did, because this band creates unique and quite interesting "landscapes" of sound. Earlier this month the band released their debut-album we too are concerned we are too concerned and 4 tracks of the album (plus several older tracks) can be downloaded for free from the band's webpage.
+ And How To Translate It
+ Thomas Corner And The Valley Houses
+ (Yes,) We Went To Novgorod
+ Mother And Father And Me