Birds sometimes dance

A little guide to By:Larm

The year goes by fast and we’re already in the middle of February, which means it’s time for By:Larm again. By:Larm is an annual festival and conference in Norway with the purpose of promoting new norwegian bands. I guess it’s quite similar to SXSW. Anyway, I thought I’d give you some tips on who I think is worth seeing.

First of all, you’ve got Blood Command. I’ve seen them live once. It was last winter when they played as support for Silver at Sub Scene. They played really well, had a great energy on stage and the songs are catchy!  They play a mix of Jr. Ewing and the San Diego hardcore-scene with Silje Tombre in front with a voice reminding me of Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs. By:Larm also has a lot of other hardcore/metal bands, like Social Suicide and Manhattan Skyline and other more familiar bands. A completely new name for me is Kollwitz. They play an eclectic mix of different subgenres of hardcore and metal. The music is desperate, cacaphonic and it can go from  almost complete silence to dark and grim noise. Full of contrasts.

By:Larm doesn’t just have good hardcore and metal, they also have everything from pop to garage and jazzrock. Like Elephant9, maybe norways best musicians; Torstein Lofthus from Shining on drum, Nikola Eilertsen from BigBang on bass and Ståle Storløkken from Supersilent on keys. They play good old-fashioned jazzrock in “bitches brew”-style. You can call it a blend Hansson och Karlsson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Soft Machine and Tony William’s Lifetime. I haven’t seen them live, but on their debut-album Doodovodoo, they are super tight, super organic and their presence is clear.

Svermere is another jazz band that I really fell for. They are a modern folk jazz-band that follow the footprints norwegian and swedish jazz musicians made over thirty years ago. Just like Farmers Market does with Balkan-music, Svermere make old folk tunes into groovy and complex jazz songs. When it comes to booking jazz, By:Larm has done a great job. They’ve booked a lot of great jazz bands, even though most of them don’t play pure jazz. Most of them fuse jazz with other genres like metal, electronica, folk, rock and so on. You have Jaga Jazzist with their electro jazz-thing, Shining and Chrome Hill with their jazz metal, Elephant9’s jazz rock and Svermere’s folk jazz.

The festival is also good when it comes to another genre I’m very fond of; noise. They’ve booked a lot of noise bands this year. First, you have my favourites in Izakaya Heartbeats, a quite new band (though they were formed like four or five years ago, their consisting lineup was created early last year.) They play music that is hard to put in a genre, but if you’re creative you can call them something like shoegazenoisehypnokrautpsychedelic rock or something like that. Their new album, which was released in January is great. It is atmospheric and in some ways very catchy. Sometimes, it can seem quite chaotic with three (sometimes four) guitars and one old analouge synth, but thanks to strict disipline (I guess) and good drumming, they make it work.

Megaphonic Thrift is a band I have big faith in. They released their EP this autumn, which rocked, and their album is set to be released sometime this spring. I can’t wait. I love their noisy rock with pop harmonies, several layers of guitar that make complex patterns and generally good songs. I’ve also heard that they are fantastic live.

A band that surprised me is the finnish Joensuu 1685. I’m not familiar with the finnish music scene at all, but at least I have Joensuu 1685. They play psychedelic space rock, maybe a bit like earlier mentioned Izakaya Heartbeats. I’ve just heard what they have up on myspace, but it seems very promising, so let’s hope that they are just as good live.

Over to more poppy music, we’ve got Dunderhonning. Originally from Harstad, Dunderhonning plays hard-hitting pop rock with strong aspects of noise rock. They sound a bit like NME, a bit like poppy Sonic Youth and a bit like 00’s typical indie rock band. You might’ve heard it before, but the combination works, so why not? The lyrics are also in Norwegian, which is a really big plus for me. I love it when bands sing in Norwegian. Especially when they nail it like Kråkesølv. And if you haven’t seen Kråkesølv live yet, then By:Larm is your chance. Kråkesølv is an awesome band from Bodø that play a great norwegian kind of indie rock mixed with post rock and other good things.

Death By Unga Bunga is something you also should see. They have a raw and primitive sound, catchy garage riffs and songs that could just as well have been made in the 60s. They have a crazy show and they sound just as raw as the old Stooges. Their live show is great, they have a lot of energy, and I believe they’re likely to play one of the best shows of By:Larm this year.

Folk rockers are also represented, and my two favourites are Jens Carelius and Navigators. Navigators are actually quite big, having a contract with Sony and all, but the singer is one of Norway’s best rock vocalists, Trond Andreassen. They have already released the single Wall Of Stone, and it sounds very promising. I saw their show at Øya, then just under the name Trond Andreassen, and that was great. I believe many of the songs I heard there will be on the album, and if they are, the album will probably be awesome! Even though Navigators have a bit more credibility, I believe Jens Carelius can be just as good. I’ve seen him live a few times and it’s fantastic. He and his band play with a fantastic feeling that they manage to convey in a furious, electrifying and honest way.

Well, that’s some of the bands that I recommend you see, and although By:Larm books a lot of great bands each year, I’ll have to finish of with a question for By:Larm; next year, why not book my band instead of Donkeyboy?

For more info, you can go to their website – bylarm.no

- Ole Torstein Hovig, 16/02/2010

---

Tagged as: Festival, Jazz, Metal, Noise, Norwegian, Oslo, Pop, Recommendation