Aww yeah – love The Work Drugs. This is Tom and Ben’s contribution to Mr. Iver’s remix competition. And quite frankly, Bon Iver never sounded better. They should mix the entire next album.
[soundcloud width=640 url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/56840980″ iframe=”true” /]
Ohhh – epic start to the week. New single by Finland’s Satellite Stories. One of the more exciting indie pop treasures that surfaced lately. The chaps are quite an energetic bunch on stage too. Don’t wear your Sunday shoes. Meanwhile, they are busily preparing the release of their debut album which will be out next month on Berlin’s XYZ.
Also, they’ll be sharing a song for the upcoming 10th Poule d’Or Compilation which will be out at the end of August. Look out.
[soundcloud width=640 url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/56548320″ iframe=”true” /]
Still recovering a little bit from the amazing time I had in Helsinki. I’m not fully home again, my head is still floating around the awesome festival area at the former power plant Suvilahti – back and forth between Black Tent and the tasty delicacies of the food stalls. We have all been treated so wonderful by the chaps at Flow. Massive thanks to you guys – and to Steffi and Nina at Nordic By Nature for taking such good care of us German ‘press delegates’. Gros bisous!
The whole event was kicked off by Bon Iver who played a wonderful opening concert on Wednesday night. Never saw him live before – it was really good, much more lively than his records. Flow continued with its scheduled program on Friday through Sunday, and despite some headliners sadly canceling their gigs (Frank Ocean, Bobby Womack, Hudson Mohawke) the atmosphere was just beautiful. Flow Festival was by far the cleanest festival I have ever attended. You would actually get yelled at if you used the wrong bin. Amazing. [continue reading…]
Dramatic pop mixed with Norwegian melancholy. Enter, Heyerdahl. Rumors say they recorded the attached single Mirage in an abandoned lighthouse up the Norwegian coast. And that things got a bit sexy when they sat there by themselves, exposed to extreme weather conditions, the sea and the darkness. It’s just a rumor though – all we know for sure is that Mirage sounds like they should go back there, and record more songs. Catch them live in Berlin at Monarch, August 22nd.
[soundcloud width=640 url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/32845879″ iframe=”true” /]
It’s Flow week, one more day til Helsinki. Here is another local gem spotted in the line-up: Tiiu Helinä. Electronic folk, at its finest. No idea what it is she is singing about – Finnish (Suomi?) is the strangest language. It doesn’t look like anything familiar and has ridiculously long words of nothing but ä and ö. Don’t even try to pronounce it. However, Tiiu’s music is well worthwhile and a debut album is up in the making. She is playing Wastelands (an übercool venue around a vintage gasometer, with a colour-changing balloon-like roof: EPIC!) on Sunday, 17h00.
[soundcloud width=640 url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/16807812″ iframe=”true” /]
Really excited to catch these guys. Another Finnish-native: Black Twig. Love that the festival bookers are giving away so many spots for Finnish bands – there are also a lot of (Finnish!) jazz and soul artists among the line-up too which I didn’t even know existed in such quantities (shame on the Poule). Black Twig however are right up my alley, straight forward passionate indie pop/rock – should be fun. They are playing the Nokia Blue Tent on Saturday, 16h00.
[soundcloud width=640 url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/27757971″ iframe=”true” /]
