Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Christian Kiefer & Sharron Kraus



The collaboration between American singer/songwriter Christian Kiefer and British folk singer Sharron Kraus resulted in an album called The Black Dove, released in March. It was released on Tompkins Square Records and on the album page it says: "In creating The Black Dove, the two worked on songs and instrumentals based on the idea of love letters between two people, one the pursuer and one the pursued, one flesh and blood, the other a ghost."

The first song below is sung by Christian Kiefer while the second is sung by Sharron Kraus. Both are of the kind of mellowish alt-country music that I just want to hear more of.

Dearest
On The Chase

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Dimbodius

Busy again, sorry. But I'll try not to let it affect my music listening as much this time.

I'm generally against just having samples up for listen on artist homepages. Ordinarily I'm no longer interested in an artist I've decided to look up when I find that there are no non-live, full versions of songs available for free download. The artist I decided to look up today was different.



Swedish guy Dimbodius has been compared to both New Order and The Cure. Apparently he's been around for a while and the first full length album, When We Fall, was released in 2004. Synthish and great.

The song below has a pretty piano in the background, all the way through. Unfortunately Dimbodius' voice doesn't sound as good as on record, but it's still a nice song. This is important though: Do not forget to go to his homepage and listen to the samples in the little player at the bottom! It is good music. The kind that makes you very glad there is something as wonderful as music.

Hands Let Go (acoustic) (live at off the record, Oct. 2005)

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Red Carpet

Yes, it seems so many has already written about them, but I didn't even know these guys existed till I read the newsletter from my favorite alternative music store yesterday. So I wanted to make a post about them, in case anybody else has missed out as well :p



Finnish Red Carpet appears to have recieved plenty of praise since releasing their second album, The Noise of Red Carpet, in autumn last year. These four guys make some nice pop, more specificly "harmony pop" if one is to agree with Rumba Music Magazine. And while I'm not overly excited I still like it. A lot.

When You Sing is taken from their latest album, while Model, which reminds me of Nada Surf's Let Go that I liked so much, is taken from their 2003 debut, Halfway. Apart from those two songs, Red Carpet has plenty of short as well as a couple of full mp3 samples more available from their homepage. You can also visit their MySpace to hear some nice, though unfortunately non-downloadable, tracks more ^^

When You Sing
Model

Monday, April 17, 2006

Marybell Katastrophy

And here's something I heard from for the eardrums the day before leaving for Easter.



Danish Marybell Katastrophy, aka Marie Højlund, used to be a member of Tiger Tunes but now that they're on a hiatus, she's gone solo. I do hope she'll continue with this project long enough to release at least one album, if not more. I find it hard (more so than I usually do) to label her music, but I don't think I'm all wrong if I describe it as some kind of darkish electropop. I like it!

You can get all songs on her 4 Songs demo from her MySpace or just listen to them directly from her homepage. I like them all, but the song below has become my favorite :p

Hey Frank (left click)

Thursday, April 13, 2006

pg.lost

A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me a message that consisted of three elements: the word "listen" in Swedish, a set of (quite many) exclamation marks and a MySpace address. It took me a while, but eventually I got there and now I can totally understand why he used all of those exclamation marks.



Swedish four member band pg.lost makes some pretty awesome post rock. As influences, they mention Sigur Rós, Mogwai and Mono and I'm more than happy to say that they don't disappoint. Admittedly, it takes a while before the magic kicks in, but when it does it is oh so wonderful.

Siren (left click)
The Kind Heart of Lanigon (left click)

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Bobby Baby



Yay! Not only does Bobby Baby have a new awesome song up for download, but she's also coming to where I live to play in a couple of weeks ^_^ Bobby Baby is the most recent alias of Swedish girl Ella under which she make some great pop music. She shares all her music for free on the internet so do not miss going to her homepage for more, should you enjoy the song below.

Lucky Moments

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Munck//Johnson

And now for some more Danish music ^^



After collaborating as a duo for five years, Munck//Johnson debuted on PonyRec in summer 2005. From what I've heard their music is cautious, simple and beautiful. As it says on the label biography page: "By the third time through a song, you'll be in love."

The first song below is available on the new CD/LP, Count Your Blessings, while the second comes from the debut, Unlike You.

Ellis of Davenport (wma)
Ease Me

Monday, April 10, 2006

Under Byen



I've been meaning to write about Under Byen since they released their third album, Samme stof som stof, a month ago, but I wanted to wait till I could link to some samples from it first. It took me a while, but a couple of days ago I finally noticed they had relaunched their site with a fresh new look and two new songs.

Under Byen is a Danish octet formed already in 1995. Their music is generally speaking beautiful, even though their style varies from classical to mellowish alternative rock. One remarkable thing about Under Byen is that despite the eight people they have no guitarist! If you liked Lampshade you should definitly check these people out.

The song below is taken from the new album and it's a pretty good summary of everything that makes me like Under Byen. The title of it means "This songs is about getting the best out of it".

Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det

Dorothy Band

Yes, I'm a bad person. I'll try to shape up and update more often again, though I doubt I'll be back to posting every day anytime soon...



Sadly, Dorothy Band is no more, but as I learnt that they have a MySpace page not too long ago and I really liked their only album, Dorothy in Wonderland, I wanted to make a short post about them anyway... Dorothy Band, or just Dorothy, was a Seoul based band playing some sweet and happy 60s influenced pop. While the four members are of different nationality as well as ethnicity, lyrics is mostly in Korean. They have four songs on their MySpace of which two are downloadable:

소풍 (Picnic) (left click)
Darling (left click)


And while you're at MySpace, listening to those Dorothy tracks not available for download, make sure to also visit Bloody Cookie's MySpace for some awesome goth rockish chick action.