BEIT

And here's another millim oldie, before I move onto something newer tomorrow ^^



While I know next to nothing about yesterday's artist, I know even less about BEIT. I think they aspire to make power metal. They have male vocals in Korean. I assume the few songs available on millim are from 2001. That's about it.

Well, I do like power metal, which their song The Murder is a pretty good sample of. And I love rock ballads like the song below. They too should've made it by now. I'm gonna have to ask mrkwang to see if he knows what happened...

비 (Rain) [left click]

Protein Puppet

Here's another old millim favorite of mine. I don't think anybody that asked me for recommendations on Korean music a couple of years ago got away without hearing them :p



Sadly, I know next to nothing about Protein Puppet or 단백질인형, which is the actual name in Korean. They've been on millim since at least 2002 and late 2004/early 2005 they were still active as the original "demo" suddenly was replaced by two "demos". What I like the best about Protein Puppet is their amazing shoegazer influenced rock songs, but their modern rock and trip hop stuff too is incredibly good for a band unsigned this long.

Unfortunately, again, my favorite song is no longer available at millim. In fact, Raining isn't even listed on the site anymore. Well, the songs below aren't that bad either. The first song is a great example of the Protein Puppet rock style while the second represents their more electronic side ^^

Cry [left click]
To heaven(추모곡) [left click]

Incubator

Whenever I should be studying for exams I get ideas on various projects I'd like to do. More often than not those are related to the more alternative side of Korean music, and usually nothing happens once exams are over. The last such idea I will, however, try a little harder to realize as it's not as time consuming as those ideas usually are - making notes on any good artist I come across on millim.com. Here's an old favorite of mine ^^



Kim Min Hyuk, aka Incubator, has been in various Korean indie bands since 1998. He makes som really nice rock songs and has good vocals - Picture an early Korean Hideki. I'm really surprised that despite having his material up on millim since 2001, he still hasn't gotten a record deal for this alias.

Unfortunately the link for my favorite, Good Day, isn't working anymore, but here's one of his newer songs that I also like a lot. And an interesting cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, which isn't really representative for his other works :p

자유의감옥 (prison of freedom) [left click]
Billie Jean [left click]

Serenaide

Though they haven't released anything for a couple of years, five member band Serenaide of Singapore are still active playing live every now and then. Their first and so far only actual album, The Other End of the Reciever, was released by Fruit Action in 2004. Male vocals and a poppy sound - after listening to their songs a few times I was not surprised to learn that one of the members' main influence is Pulp ^^

Furry Animal Fury

Detektivbyrån

Sorry about not sticking to my write-every-day-for-a-couple-of-weeks plan, but I was not in any state to even sit up when I got home yesterday so it was probably for the better...



Swedish Detektivbyrån (lit. The Detective Bureau) are just about to release their second EP, Hemvägen EP, and like Hedvika I am already completely in love with their music. Last year I was all about Yann Tiersen. This is the same kind of instrumental music, only with plenty of electronic instruments - how could it not be love?

Go check out Hedvika's first blogpost on Detektivbyrån for more download links and go visit their MySpace to hear a few songs more. The song below will be featured on the new EP ^^

E18

adultchild

While writing reviews for every CD I buy hasn't kept me from buying too many CDs, at least it's made me learn more about them. Here's what I found a couple of weeks ago when researching for a review I should have done in March..



The Korean trio adultchild has been around since 2004, but it wasn't till this year that they first appeared on album. Being signed by Pastel Music (my favorite Korean label right now ^^) they participated with their song Sad Thing on the Cracker soundtrack - one of my favorite releases so far this year. Their music is nice and mellow whith female vocals making it all sound beautiful.

Down below are two of my favorite songs of adultchild. I believe 상실 is a live recording with just kkasi, so make sure you also get Star to hear what they'll sound like when they release an album ^^ Go check them out on millim.com for more!

Star [left click]
상실 (loss) [left click]

gruppa.fm

And here's something else I decided to check out after reading some random journal at last.fm ^^



Since my Russian is limited to just reading, there's not much I can tell you about gruppa.fm. However, after surfing their site I've reached the conclusion that gruppa.fm is a duo. And since the site is only available in Russian, I'm pretty sure they hail from Russia and not one of the former Soviet republics. Anyway, they're making some pretty catchy pop/rock with occasional electronic elements and the woman is the one providing the vocals, kinda like a poppier Zemfira. I like this a lot!

Check under "музыка" at their homepage to download all of their Made in Russia album, track by track. You should definitly get them all if you like the song below ^_^

Караоке (karaoke)

Bettlare & lösfolk

Since I'll be heading to school for some beer & music in less than an hour, I decided to check out one the bands I hadn't heard of before ^^



Bettlare & lösfolk are five people making ballads from the poems of Swedish poet Nils Ferlin. I think the best expression in English to describe their music would be singer/songwriter, but it's really a "trubadur" singing "visor" (something like Swedish folk pop) accompanied by a band. The singer's voice is not perfect, but this goes pretty well with the "vistradition".

Check out their pages at YouSeekMusic (Swedish) and MySpace to learn more about them and listen to more of their works.

I stolta städer (in proud cities)

Panda & Angel

Panda & Angel is a Seattle based five member band. They play some kind of gloomy alternative rock with interesting female vocals that is very appealing to me. Their self titled EP was released on Jade Tree about a month ago.

Their homepage is under constuction right now, but you can check them out on MySpace where you should make sure to also get Ohio December 24th. If you have a last.fm account you could also listen to full samples of every song from their EP on it's last.fm page ^^

Dangerous

Tigarah

It seems she's already gotten a lot of attention on blogs all over, but I didn't hear about her till last week, when I was wasting time reading journals at last.fm.



Japanese Tigarah mixes Brazilian baile funk music with hip hop in a way that makes me wanna hit a dance floor - Even though I could never dance to this kind of music... Her rhymes are supposedly clever, so if you (unlike me) are knowledgeable in Japanese, checking the lyrics out could perhaps be interesting. So far she has released one EP and an album should come out this fall.

Go visit her homepage to listen to all of the songs from her EP and download all remixes made by MR.D. You could also take a look at her MySpace for a few downloadable tracks from her EP, including my favorite below ^^

Girl Fight! (Left click)

And I'm back!

After an awesome summer and some exams (last one today!), I'm finally back online for real! Now the plan is to make a new post here every day for a couple of weeks or so and then I'll try to keep it at 3-4 posts/week. Also I'll be a lot more active writing reviews in my last.fm journal since I happened to spend too much of my salary on CDs when I got back...

Absence note

Sorry about the long, unexpected hiatus. I got stuck working most of my awake time on a big project for a couple of weeks and then I had to spend the rest of the time catching up in all other courses. Now exams are here and I should try to focus on them so no finding new music for me...

And things won't get better. I'll be spending all of summer working in Dalarna, most likely without any internet access, and won't be back till some time in August. So no updates for quite some time... Sorry 'bout that too.

So, no updates till mid-August. But if I (for once) can succeed in transforming into a better person this summer, I shall return as a better blogger with plenty of kick ass music to promote ^_^

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

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)

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

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)

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)

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

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

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