Spark! will release their new album Maskiner on the 27:th of May. The first album with vocalist Christer Hermodsson. The video for the song Zombie is the albums appetizer.

Swedish Electro vol 3 is out and available for free at Bandcamp. It's a good opportunity to get acquainted with new electronic acts from Sweden. There is also some more established artists like Spark! and Chaos All Stars on this extensive compilation. Check it out!

Swedish Electro vol 3 at Bandcamp.

I finally had the chance to see one of my favorite bands live. Stumbled on Soft Metals by chance a couple of years ago and was fascinated by their mix of retro sounds, dreamy arpeggios and the cool voice of singer Patricia Hall.

Two great albums later and they finally reach Europe and Sweden. Sadly they did'nt get a gig in my town Göteborg. They did play in Stockholm and in the much smaller town Växjö.

Växjö was the closest, so me and a friend jumped in the car directly after work on friday and drove 165 miles to get there. In reality we drove several miles extra after missing an exit just outside Borås.

We got to Växjö just in time to catch the opening act Pure Ground. Lovely new acquaintance for me. Also sounding really analogou but much harsher and more minimal then Soft Metals. Alot of influence from The Klinik. I really liked it and the night got off to a great start.

It's not until Soft Metals enter the stage that I realize that Patricia Hall had been dancing junt in fron of me during the whole Pure Ground concert. One thing that I love about smaller venues is how close you get to the band and the stage. Lovely experience for me, but at the same time I really think that these band should have been playing at a bigger venue for a hell of alot more people.

Soft Metals was great and delivered a cool show. Ian Hicks kept in the background working the machines and the cool Patricia held the front singing and occasionally playing the synth. Everything sounded great and they playded alot of my favorite songs, ending the hole thing with the cover of Hot of the heels of love.

Thanx to Klubb Kalabalik for this great evening.

Martin Rudefelt is back with a new album, Retropia. Now he is taking his new material out to live audineces with his partner in crime Torny Gottberg.

I had the pleasure of opening up for them with my band Batch ID on the 8th of March at Jazzhuset, Göteborg.

We had a great night. Cryo did a rather short set wich sounded really great. I have always admired the soundscape that Martin has created for Cryo.

I feel that the danceable and uptempo songs worked best for the band. The slower tunes might be good for longer shows, but with a short set it only slowed things down and in some way killed the party. But in all it was a good show and I would love to see the band on a bigger stage doing a longer performance.

Industrial band Paresis is about to release their debut album on the Armalyte Industries label.

Their first single Replacer is a free download available from the labels bandcamp site. With the single is also four remixes and a very strange cover version of Haddaways song What is love.

Grab it now at Bandcamp.

Time has been slipping through my fingers and I realize I have been neglecting my blog (and a bunch of other stuff).

There have been conserts and festivals like Bodyfest and Depeche Mode. There have also been some records, books and other stuff. Sadly there have been a lack of inspiration to write and reflect about them.

There is reasons and explinations that are personal and private. In short I had a really crappy and awful 2013 with alot of stuff going on that drained my creativity and energy. Thankfully things are looking better again and things will hopefully  return to normal.

I really hope that the blog  soon will be on track again and that it will not be too far between posts.

Johan

Celebrating 10 years of Container 90, the band releases two quite unusual C90 tracks. The two tracks are an hommage to Kraftwerk and released under the bandname Der Container Klang. I know it's a bit confuzing... but never mind.

The two songs are given away for free during January. So get over to Sham recordings and start the download.

Sham Recordings.

Hurry to head over to Laibach to download a three track EP from the forthcoming album Spectre. The album is due for february 2014 and will be released by Mute.

The three tracks are Eurovision, No History and Resistance is Futile. I've just been listening to the tracks and I am really exited by their new material.


The offer is time limited and expires on 21 October.
Free download

A CocoRosie concert is a very different experience in all aspects. They look and sound totally unique, and even their audience differs from all other concerts I have attended. It must have been the first time for me where the female part of the audience were in majority. And I must say I really enjoyed the lack of testosterone in front of the stage.

The sisters last album, Tales of a grasswidow, is my favourite album from the band. Therefore it was also one of those rare occasions when you really wished that the band would perform a lot of material from their latest release.

On stage they were joined by two extra musicians. The human beatbox Tez, who perform most of the rhythms during the show, is something really extraordinary. He has joined forces with the sisters before, but he was given more room during this show then when I saw them a couple of years ago in Malmö.

The show was beautiful, queer, weird and wonderful in all aspects. It was a long time since I was this moved and exhilarated by a concert. Thank you very mush for a magical evening.

It is quite fascinating to see a band on stage were the members are the same age as my parents... and I'm not exactly a youngster myself (45 years old).

Picturing my dad on a stage making obscene moves, cursing and singing about drugs is quite impossible. But for Iggy Pop and The Stooges is just another day at work.


Thankfully they seem to enjoy work and gives a wonderful performance. I love to hear them play their classic songs like I wanna be your dog, No fun, Cock in my pocket and Fun house. I wonder if we will see band like The Hives and The Sounds perform when they reach 60+ years? I hope so.