I had a busy week last week and was unable to update the blog as much as I would have liked so just to catch up on a couple of things.
First up is Chris Price. I have featured Chris before. The tracks for his first EP have now been mixed and he has now made the mastered version of "Charge Me Up" for download (he had previously made a rough mix of this track available). This track has a nice poppy feel to it and Chris has been compared to the likes of New Order and Devo. This is a link to a piece on the Washington Post where you can find out more.
Chris Price - Charge Me Up (Mastered Version)
I am sure many of you have visited Hello! Surprise! which is a guide to Swedish pop music with many mp3's available. It's an excellent resource to what is happening in Sweden right now. Anyway Rokk Is is a similar resource for Icelandic underground bands to post their mp3's. It covers a range of genres but is well worth a poke around. Not sure about some of the Metal bands though! Sticking with Icelandic music smekkleysa.net is an English language portal and there is plenty to find under samples & stuff. Thanks to Magnús for the links and he advises downlaoding some of these tracks from the latter site:
Maus - How far Is Too Far (the best indie band in Iceland according to Magnús)
Singapore Sling - Overdriver
Slowblow - Dusty Couch
Heading back to Sweden the people behind the excellent Songs I Wish I had Written mail order site have a new project that has started running. Lovely Sweden will be a compilation of the cream of Swedens pop crop and is due for release in May or June. It also plans to be a guide for non-Swedish visitors to discover music, what to buy/download etc. It looks an exciting project!
First up is Chris Price. I have featured Chris before. The tracks for his first EP have now been mixed and he has now made the mastered version of "Charge Me Up" for download (he had previously made a rough mix of this track available). This track has a nice poppy feel to it and Chris has been compared to the likes of New Order and Devo. This is a link to a piece on the Washington Post where you can find out more.
Chris Price - Charge Me Up (Mastered Version)
I am sure many of you have visited Hello! Surprise! which is a guide to Swedish pop music with many mp3's available. It's an excellent resource to what is happening in Sweden right now. Anyway Rokk Is is a similar resource for Icelandic underground bands to post their mp3's. It covers a range of genres but is well worth a poke around. Not sure about some of the Metal bands though! Sticking with Icelandic music smekkleysa.net is an English language portal and there is plenty to find under samples & stuff. Thanks to Magnús for the links and he advises downlaoding some of these tracks from the latter site:
Maus - How far Is Too Far (the best indie band in Iceland according to Magnús)
Singapore Sling - Overdriver
Slowblow - Dusty Couch
Heading back to Sweden the people behind the excellent Songs I Wish I had Written mail order site have a new project that has started running. Lovely Sweden will be a compilation of the cream of Swedens pop crop and is due for release in May or June. It also plans to be a guide for non-Swedish visitors to discover music, what to buy/download etc. It looks an exciting project!
I'd like to add that Maus have more excellent mp3's, as well as videos ontheir web site. The mp3's are on the icelandic version under "mp3 hljóðdæmi", the videos seem to be more accessible on the english version of the page. The web designer has cunningly prohibited direct linking to the correct page, unfortunately.
Also, I'd like to take the opportunity to point out some other great icelandic bands, f.e. Ensími. Mp3 samles here and videos here. Kimono have a cool video for a good song here. One of my favorite songs ever is Fyrirmynd with the band Soðin Fiðla (which translates as Boiled Violin). Sigurrós fans can maybe spot Jónsi singing in there somewhere. Other songs you should listen to are Superman by Trabant, First Aid with Unun, Kindness and Love with Risaeðlan, Juliette 2 with Ske, Tarfur with Quarashi, and then all the other songs on the Bad Taste web site as well, because most of them are actually pretty good. And tomorrow, if all goes well, Dýrðin will be putting a new demo on their web site.