The Devil Probably, however, grabbed my attention. It’s minimalistic pop with a pinch of shoegaze. Catchy indie pop that fades into heavy guitar droning and then gracefully back again. Seriously, it’s great. I want to hear more of this.

If I were to describe their sound, I’d say it’s like Windmill had teamed up with Why? and had Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes sing. Insane, but that’s about what it sounds like.

Or if you prefer the band’s own words:

The Devil Probably sings about nicotine-psyched TV-sets, woman-swallowing wallpaper, angels with dirty humming faces, fat sucking vampires, beehive-masks, swamp things, piss-smelling wrists, stuff like that. Enjoy.

Also, they’re apparently named after a French movie from the 70s, but other than that I don’t really know to much about them. Judging from the number of views on their myspace, I guess they’re pretty unknown for now. I think this is a band you should keep an eye on though. I know I will.

Anyways, they have a nice, free 4-track EP (wow, that rhymed) out now. There’s not much more to say than that you should head on over to thedevilprobably.bandcamp.com and download it.

Oh, and don’t get me wrong about Danish music in general. I’m sure there’s a lot of other great Danish bands, I just haven’t been digging that much for it. If you know of something I might like, why don’t you drop a note to hello@birdssometimesdance.com

Much to my disappointment it seems the disk doesn’t actually levitate, though. Despite that, I’ll try to make an honest judgement solely based on the soundwaves contained on the disk.

He calls it “electronic pop music’s answer to antigravity” himself, and I have to agree that though previous releases have been a lot more experimental and obscure, this is by no means music with its feet (metaphorical feet, mind you) planted on the ground. This is beautiful, catchy electronic pop music floating in space, perhaps even in another dimension.

While last year’s Apokryfa was very acoustic and folksy with banjos, mandolins, Accordions and everything, Levitating Disk is a lot more electronic. What the two albums have in common though, is that both are a lot more catchy and accessible than previous releases. They’re polar opposites in a way, but both directions feel so very natural.

Like a lot of what comes out of Metronomicon, this album doesn’t really sound like anything I’ve heard before (except other stuff from Metronomicon, that is) and though there are probably tons of references to other music here, I can’t quite seem to grab hold of much. One thing I did notice though, is how the track “Can you believe it? It’s a mystery” sounds a lot like Half-Handed Cloud. That I can dig.

Anyways, Levitating Disk is a solid album I’d I’d recommend any day, levitating or not. And if you ever make an actual Levitating disk, Jørgen, please reserve a copy of it for me.

Herr Nilsson sounds like a good mix of fellow indiebands from Bergen, Swedish Håkan Hellström, Dexys Midnight Runners and Johnny Cash. That their sound is somewhat influenced by other bands from Bergen might not be that shocking, considering that the band has members hailing from a number of other bands, Kiss Kiss Kiss Kong, Catostrophes, Casiokids and Soda Fountain Rag at the very least. All of them great bands that I recommend you check out if you haven’t already. Anyways, this mix isn’t plain and simple a mix of influences clashed together into a product, but a thorough and lovable sound that stands firmly planted on its own legs.

As I wrote in an interview with Terje, the frontman of Herr Nilsson, my first encounter with their music was through their album Downhill Thrill, which I bought unheard from a secondhand music store. That gave me a quite special relationship to the band, and especially that album, which perhaps makes it hard for a follow-up to reach quite to the top. Perhaps also because I’ve heard a handful of the songs on Long Live Herr Nilsson on their own several times beforehand, the album just doesn’t feel quite as coherent and tightly sewn together as a whole as its predecessor. That could just be me though.

One thing that’s clear however, is that the band has grown. It all just feels more confident, and the sound seems richer and more varied. The big and cheerful songs seem bigger and more epic, and the slower ones seem so effortlessly beautiful.

There’s really just one thing to say; long live Herr Nilsson!

I would like to question the success of this new sound. It is very uneven and comes off more as a poorly executed concept than a full-fledged realized album. Some styles are better played with when you can prove your experience and understanding of them. I wouldn’t say that’s the case here.

It has a few brilliant moments, but as an album it fails on many fronts. The sound throughout the album is very bland and lacks a focus. Ongoing bland loops and rhythms that never seem to convey any identity or manage to stand out. This new bland music is rather offensive in comparison to their previous music that was way more graciously delivered, even if it wasn’t exactly the highest caliber of pop music.

Out of the rare momentums of the album, I would like to dwell deeper into why the song “Cinco” does things well while the others don’t as much. Unfortunately it is the only highlight of this sophomore effort. In contrast to the lackluster tracks on the album, this track has focus and identity. The melody is very pleasant with some playful tropical beats and a great attention to detail. Normally the melody-shifts on the album are making the songs worse, but that’s not the case with this one. Instead they are complementing the song to remain both fresh and exciting. These pleasing additions give it more variation and flavour. “Cinco” truly represents music with beauty and originality.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album is pretty much the opposite of what has grabbed my attention here. There are a few positive songs that are enjoyable to some extent, but they are usually better in the beginning than during their lifespan. What I mean here is that the melodies are suffering from frequent uneven shifts; and in effect this lack of focus is ruining what used to be an enjoyable song. At first everything seems to blend together well, but then suddenly the song is thrown out of focus by some disturbing effects or parts. This ruins a lot of the songs on the album and it happens well too often, but let’s not forget how repetitive the melodies might stay. If things were more focused without these experimental additions from the musician himself it would have kept a song more appealing. Like the song “Cranberry” would have benefit greatly of losing the bland intro. It is still a pleasant song, but the beginning can easily put anyone off focus before the song kicks in.

It really hurts this new sound when the music shifts without finding its focus, and the uninspiring use of effects here isn’t pulling any good impressions. The only thing that is worth your attention on this album is the masterpiece “Cinco.” Buy this track on itunes or whatever digital music service you prefer and let’s all pretend there was no more abonimation.

I think I have to say no, because this looks like a great debut. Their sound is a mix of different bands from the 90s like Yo La Tengo, Guided By Voices, Sonic Youth, Built To Spill, maybe the british shoegaze scene and also their fellow norwegians in Motorpscyho. Richard Myklebust’s voice sounds like a mix of Lee Ranaldo, Robert Pollard and Wayne Coyne, while Linn Frøkedal is a norwegian equivalent to Kim Gordon.

I want to highlight the last song on the album, “Queen of Noise.” A fantastic song. It starts energetic, with something that seems like a mix beetween Sonic Youth-harmony and the energy and speed from a typical Crystal Antlers song. I guess there’s probably other  references that fit better, but still, Crystal Antlers is the first thing that pops up in my mind. It starts with energetic riffs, powerful, tight and catchy drumming. When it comes to the singing, it’s like the typical Kim Gordon/Lee Ranaldo/Thurston Moore-singing. It goes about two and half minute with the quick pace-part before they enters a whole new universe. A universe that is closer to Motorpsycho and other more psychedelick alt-rock bands, even a bit post rock-ish and a bit more 90’s emo, where they create a fantastic atmosphere of building tension, noise and quite catchy tonal riffing. It just keeps growing bigger, bigger and bigger, before it at the climax turns into wild strumming, before the groove changes, and it ends with a chaotic cadence.

“Queen of Noise” isn’t a typical TMT-song, but what is? Because, just like Izakaya Heartbeat, The Megaphonic Thrift, manages to make an eclectic album that roams a variety of different  genres that many bands have played before, but just like Izakaya Heartbeat, all they genres can be put under one term I would call noisy rock or alternative rock. Because this isn’t noise rock, they aren’t Lightning Bolts, Lasse Marhaug or Wolf Eyes. This is catchy rock with good melodies, but it’s noisy too, full of feedback, overdrive, distortion. But I’m not going to take the parallel between TMT and Izakaya Heartbeat further, since this are two different bands with two different sounds.  Instead, I’m going to talk about what makes this a good album.

We start off with the basics; the drumming is great! They are tight, they are groovy. The drums are often the thing that makes of breaks the dynamics of a band, and here they’re good. They are over the top when they’re supposed to be over the top, and they’re almost too silent when they’re supposed to be too silent.

Over to the dynamics; They can go from euphony to cacophony. The point is that they manage to make contrasts that makes the music interesting and makes it stand out in the crowd. And often the contrasts/dynamics also fit their kind of harmony and their melodies.

Their melodies, songs, riffs and chords are also the third reason why I really like this album. They make those harmonies and melodies that most of all remind me of Yo La Tengo and a particular Sonic Youth song, called “Wild Flower Soul,” from A Thousand Leaves. You can hear it on the more quiet parts, and on the guitar solos, which are very Ira Kaplan-ish, especially when they make feedback squeals while hammering like crazy on the Jazzmaster whammy. What I enjoy about those melodies is hard to describe, but I guess it is te feeling I get when i’m listening on them. The feeling of better days and a kind of temporary peace, before it gets crushed by noisy guitar and desperate drumming? What makes those melodies special for me is quite difficult to describe, but I guess it’s because they make me long for something, someone, better days. They also give me a kind of temporary peace, before it gets crushed by noisy guitar and desperate drumming.

So, looking back now, were my expectations too high? If you’ve read the whole review, I guess it’s quite easy to understand that they weren’t too high, but they weren’t too low either. The album turned out pretty much just as I expected, quite flawless, but not completely flawless.

Moddi, or Pål Moddi Knutsen, is a curly haired musician from an Island called Senja, far up north in norway. He’s already played at by:Larm twice and once at the Øya festival, the latter gave him good words from the guys over at Pitchfork. He’s also released a split-vinyl with Einar Stray and a self-released live album, but Floriography is his first studio album. It’s recorded in Greenhouse Studio in Iceland and produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson, who’s worked with artists like Björk and Múm.

I have to admit, I’m not much of a patient person. I tend to get bored easily and there’s a high threshold for me to really enjoy instrumental or quite calm and slow music that’s not very catchy. The first few times I heard through the album I liked some parts of this and that song a lot, but the rest felt a bit boring. Kind of like how you’d like particular scenes of a movie and skip forward to them. I actually feel bad when it’s like that, guilty that I don’t appreciate or understand the music. Listening through it several times more however, usually separates the boring from the genius. Floriography went through that test and prevailed.

Moddi’s music is a beautiful landscape inhabited by an accordion and tender strings, as well as piano, guitar and the usual stuff. It sounds a bit like Beirut, if you swap the balkan-inpiration with Norwegian folk music.

Even if there’s a fair amount of instruments playing, the music is quite minimalistic really. It’s all built around the vocals. Pål’s vocals go all the way from careful whispering and up to a loud and passionate scream. What strikes you is how real it is, he’s not afraid of putting emotions into his singing. At first you might feel that he’s screaming just a bit too loud, but that’s the thing, it’s supposed to be that way. Emotions control his volume, not how his voice sounds the cleanest.

All in all, Floriography is a brilliant album, but I’ll have to save the full score for later. I have a feeling that there’s potential for even more in this guy. There’s a 10 with your name on it Moddi, so come get it!

Moddi – Magpie Eggs

Sunglasses

One thing for certain is that you can hear the hip hop influences, and I am not normally a fan of that genre. It’s just that I haven’t really found any satisfying music that is strictly hip hop related. However, this duo is offering an amazing crossover combining the unique aspects of both hip hop and psychedelic music. The music isn’t constantly the same loop, and the melody progresses playfully, which I fail to hear with hip hop. The beats are incredible and makes you want to move unconditionally, even if you aren’t usually into spontaneous dancing patterns.

It’s very pleasing to hear these styles and references come together so uniquely. This helps make them one of the most promising bands to look out for this year. I am certainly looking forward to the inevitable debut, though so far there is no news of such a release. In the meantime, before we unravel the mysterious future of these geniuses, lend your ears to these tunes!

Sunglasses – Referee

myspace.com/putsunglasseson

This is absolutely a good debut from the norwegian octet with members from (among others) Le Corbeau, Serena Maneesh, Far From Tellus, Mindy Misty and Donjon Doxy. I wouldn’t call it a supergroup, but rather a collaboration beetween experienced musicians from the underground scene in Oslo. And as I said, it starts really good with “Narcoleptic Highway,” which is a good indicator of how the rest of the album is. It’s a bit noisy, a bit drony, full of counterpoints, complex drumming and polyrythmic, but tight. Everything is really thight, just as tight as Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin.

“Narcoleptic Highway” and the rest of the album draws a lot of inspiration from late 80’s and 90’s indie music. Last time I wrote about them, I described them as shoegazenoisehypnokrautpsychedelic rock. I think that genre fits them, and their kind of genre eclectism. They play music of a variety of different genres, but all the genres are subgenres or another kind of alternative rock.

Even though they draw a lot of inspiration from other bands, they manage to create their own distinctive sound. A song I think really shows this is the great “Skull and Bones.” It starts quietly with just a clean guitar, before a synth and a fast strumming guitar, then the rest of the band comes in. The drums make an atmospheric beat, helped by the repeating melody in the synth. Then the vocal comes in, both asking, proclaiming and answering. And then it continues, atmospheric and droning before it ends in cacophony and noise filled with synth beeps and glitches.

I don’t have much to complain on with this album. It’s tight and as a whole it’s awesome. The songs are good, even though some of them lack a bit of catchiness. The biggest problem is that both guitar and vocal can tend to get a little bit futile, and don’t catch your attention as much as you’d like. Still, this is one of my favourite albums of 2010 so far, and it’s a great debut from what I believe is a band with a bright future.

Below is their new video for the song “Jor-El,” made by drummer Øystein Monsen.

Now it’s the wonderful band Children and Corpse Playing in the Street that he’s lending his magic hands to. The video is quite gloomy, but in a beautiful way. Check it out!

Oh, and be sure to check out more of their music over at myspace.com/childrenandcorpse.

The instrumental composers that I find interesting have been film/video-game related which isn’t something I usually listen to outside the visual/engaging experiences. However, now I have finally found an independent artist that is instrumental, and seems to hit the right notes with me – while keeping the music interesting until the end.

He is far from being as complicated as I make music sound like at times. The music here is simple and colourful. Therefore I find it worthwhile to feature the first instrumental artist to have blown my ears away. Musette is a project by Joel Danell who is based in Stockholm. His arsenal consisting of whistling, guitar, violin, accordion and piano, help shape these pleasurable melodies. Even if the music doesn’t have any singing vowels, his whistling is great. I would say his whistling quality is comparable to that of Andrew Bird. It is used beautifully with some range and vibratos. This sheer simplistic music with carefully composed instruments create a playful, fresh and beautiful experience. The songs are expansive and diverse. The latest album Datum is a shining example of what I’ve attempted to describe here. There’s no album I could recommend more than this one.

Musette – 23 oktober

myspace.com/musettes