You should get these guys on tape

Image by: Album-cover 

I don´t exactly know why, but for several years I have avoided listening to the band I Got You On Tape despite that they have been very hyped. I think I had some prejudices about the music being too frisky and hollow but luckily I gave it a try lately and got surprised - pleasantly that is. 

The lead singer sounds like a young David Bowie, and it´s especially his deep and drowsy voice that carries the music to a higher level. Furthermore the group doesn´t sound like all the other indie-rock bands at the moment but travels more back in time instead of trying to keep up with the musical trends reigning at the moment. The song "Somersault" already sticks to my brain and the choir in the beginning sets the mood right from the start. 

The art-rock band with roots in jazz released a collection of remixes in January with the simple title "I Got You On Tape 2 - Remixes" and broke at the same time with their label Auditorium in favor of the Copenhagen based label Tigerspring. So far I Got You On Tape has released to albums, one in 2006 and the other in 2007. 

It´s rare that I find music with the ability to make my entire body soften like butter and make me forget about the world and life around me. It´s dreamy, careless and mellow all at the same time, and I guess I owe I Got You On Tape a simple thank you note. 

Teenage trip hop talent

Image by: Peter Svendsen 

16 years old and already an established musician. That´s the reality for Mike Sheridan who just won a Danish Music Award for "Best Electronica Release of the Year" last month. And it´s certainly not because of the lack of competition on the Danish electronica scene. 

In 2008 Mike Sheridan released the record "I Syv Sind" which got great reviews. The mellow and mature mood that the experimental trip hop reflects makes it difficult to picture that it´s a teenager who is behind the deep felt tracks. Especially when he has been cited for saying, that his biggest trouble at the moment, is his father who does not want to raise his allowance. 

The tracks like "At Elske Dig" and "Med Små Skridt" are smooth and comfortable for the ear while still very experimental. The latter one features the Danish singer Maya Albana. The resemblance with the king of Danish electronica Trentemøller is obvious but as Mike Sheridan has stated himself he is far from a clone of Trentemøller, but refers instead to a special Copenhagen sound that is flourishing at the moment and which does not find its like anywhere else. 

Only critique is the lyrics on some tracks which is the only place where his young age shines through because of the little too banal texts. 

Mike Sheridan has also composed the music to a ballet performance playing at the Bellevue Theater and he has actually been so busy with his career that he had to drop out of high school. All I can say is poor kid. 

US-rockers taking off

Image by: Simon Birk

With the combination of psychedelic rock and a Californian happy and up-beat sound Danish Figurines are well on their way to make it internationally and particularly in North America. 

Their third album "Skeleton" received a lot of well deserved attention and got good reviews from among others the leading American Pitchfork Media who wrote:

"Part of Skeleton's appeal lies in the songwriting's lead-to-gold alchemy; most tracks begin fairly nondescript before unsuspectingly blossoming into glorious pop gems." 

They have also been nominated "Favorite New International Act/Group" at Canadian Indie Awards. 

But the band is also one of the most hard-working and have played countless of concerts in especially North America. 

From 2004-2006 the Danish documentarist Janus Schumacher followed Figurines to make the film "Detour" about the band, which ended up focusing on the bass player Andreas Toft´s problems with fitting into the band and his final exit just as they were about to break through abroad. I have not seen it yet, but it sounds interesting. 

I heard Figurines once as an opening act for the British band Kaiser Chiefs and I got really impressed with the lead singer Christian Hjelm´s voice and ability to get through to the crowd. They were actually a lot better than Kaiser Chiefs themselves, who disappointed me with being too popish and boring. 

Copenhagen Festival with quality acts!

Image by: Beat Day 

Balstyrko has just been announced to play at Beat Day which is an two-days long festival held in Copenhagen on the 14.-15. of August. The program looks very interesting, both the Danish names and the ones from abroad. 

Besides from Balstyrko the Danish acts are so far:

• Oh No Ono
• Mew
• Efterklang
• Choir Of Young Believers
• The Raveonettes
• The Late Parade

Mew and The Raveonettes are the ones who have received most recognition and attention outside Denmark while Choir of Young Believers, The Late Parade and Balstyrko are less established. Of the less known bands I´m looking most forward to see is Choir of Young Believers. 

Behind the misleading name is only one guy, Jannis Noya Makrigiannis, who is half-Greek, a quarter Indonesian and a quarter Danish. The music is melodic indie-folk-pop, with a very wistful sound to it and has nothing do with gospel-singing Christians. His last album is called "this is for the white in your eyes".

New album from Mew

I haven´t been listening to the indie-rock band Mew for a while, but apparently they are out with a new record this summer as a follow up to their 2005 album "The Glass Handed Kites". 

It will be their first album since the departure of their bass-player Johan Wohlert, who later teamed up with his girlfriend Pernille Rosendahl in the band The Storm. I was not very impressed with the music coming out of that collaboration, which was too pretentious and didn´t posses near the raw quality as Mew does. 

Mew was formed in 1995, and one of the songs I have heard the most is Apocalypso, and my favorite album is still Frengers from 2003. The Glass Handed Kites in my opinion exploded a bit too much in musical effects, instead of keeping it more simple. 

I just found out that Mew is huge in Japan and Mexico so it suddenly makes sense why one of my Mexican friends almost know more about the band than I do. On their webpage you can watch an artistic video-diary from their recent recordings in New York. 

The single Comforting Sounds from 2003 is too good not to be shared here. Notice the big, grandiose scarfs which became a common trademark of the four members. Even today six years later the lead singer Jonas Bjerre still looks like a innocent puppy that someone has treated wrongly. 

 

Lullabies for grown-ups

Image by: Rasmus Weng Karlsen

No category is big enough to fit the music of Balstyrko, which is quite unique. The three musicians in the band, Ane Trolle, Blæs Bukki and Anders Christophersen, have stirred together a blend of reggae, hip hop, folk and electronica and the outcome is a bunch of cuddling, catchy and edgy songs. One critics called their newly released album "Jagten På Noget" lullabies for adults and I agree that the music is soft for the ear but without losing its character. 

The hit value of tracks like "Intet Stopper Helt", "Hold Igen" and "Jagten På Noget" is obvious and the lyrics are marked with Blæs Bukki´s sharp pen. He knows how to make words sound delicious next to each other while at the same offering critical content about society today. 

One of the things that have been great about the Danish music scene in recent years, is that people are not afraid of mixing genres in all kind of directions and inventing new forms. They are not afraid of breaking the existing norms, and I think that Balstyrko is a key example of that trend. 

Sexy, sleepy soul

Image by: Fatimalouborg

I think it´s about time that I introduce one of the most talented and interesting Danish, female singers. Her name is Ane Trolle and her voice is amazing. It´s full of sleepy, sexy soul but at the same time classical and beautiful. 

Oddly enough Ane Trolle has, despite of her over ten years in the music business, not released an album in her own name but always in collaboration with other musicians. But I´m grateful for her choice, since she is working with some of the most innovative forces in the Danish music industry as Pato Siebenhaar, Anders Trentemøller and Peder, the two latter I have already written about. 

The collaboration that I have been most exited about is with Peder because of the song "White Lillies" which is on Peder´s album "And He Just Pointed To The Sky...". Besides from Ane Trolle´s impressive voice the music is so well arranged and I get almost high because of the heavy bass, the piano consistently playing in the background and not to forget the melancholic string players at the end. It´s rare to find such a sophisticated sound. 

You can listen to the track on her website as well as the radiohit "Sweet Dogs" which is by her band Trolle/Siebenhaar and "Moan" by Trentemøller. Even though they are made by different artists the three songs share some of the same feeling because of Ane Trolles ability to put her own mark on whatever she is working on. 

Besides from featuring on many tracks of others, she is simultaneously a part of the bands JaConfetti, Trolle/Siebenhaar and Balstyrko, so definitely a productive girl.  

Take a listen to Sweet Dogs at the video below, and judge for yourself whether she has a incredible voice, and I strongly encourage you also to listen to "White Lillies". As far I can see there is not made a video for the song, so that´s why I have chosen "Sweet Dogs" as the next-best option. 

Folk please!

Image by: Þórdís Magnea Jónsdóttir

I have recently discovered a new passion for folk music which is one of the reasons why I paid some extra attention when I first heard the singer-songwriter Jakob Faurholt. His music is not pure folk but more in the direction of rusty folk-pop and the number of instruments are kept at a strict minimum. It´s basically just him with his guitar.

Jakob Faurholt released his third album in february called "Are You In The Mood For Love?" The record does not exactly contain a lot of hit-potential songs, but sometimes that can be a quality in itself. It´s usually the hits that you are skipping past after a while anyway. The album is mostly dark ballads with only one more upbeat track. "Irish I´m not" has already become my favorite song together with "Rusty country cage" despite that it for some unknown reason is bothered with an on purpose discordantly guitar solo. You can hear them both and more on his Myspace page.

I especially enjoy Jakob Faurholt´s deep, introvert voice, and the lyrics actually have some stories behind them about the less pretty sides to love and what it sometimes does to people. The lyrics reminded me a bit about the Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian who despite their seemingly cheerful sound has some cruel stories to tell. Jakob Faurholt does not reach their level with his lyrics but it´s still admirable that he goes further than the majority by giving the texts some character instead being satisfied with smooth, bland love-songs. 

Somehow it´s the simpleness of Jakob Faurholt´s music that makes it most attractive to the ear. I so easily get fed up with especially indie rock that wants to add too many musical effects instead of cutting into the bone and be more sincere. I guess that´s why I have felt so comfortable listening to folk music lately, it relaxes me because it usually does not try to pretend to be something it´s not.