Welcome to The Archives where all the best new Nordic music gets stacked up each week. Some weeks are more "stacked" than others. You will also find new titles on this page that didn't make the front page, so check back often. Do I feel compelled to mention that almost all of these are import CDs and are available at extremely decent if not decadent domestic prices? I do. Click on the cover scan for more details about each release and purchasing options. Bold links in quotes within the descriptions are windows media sound samples, try before you buy.

Advance tracks from upcoming releases:
The Tallest Man On Earth "Pistol Dreams" from Shallow Grave
Antennas "Lies" from the upcoming album, currently available as a single.

Second album from Blood Music, AKA former First Floor Power dude Karl-Jonas Winqvist, the follow-up to Sing A Song Fighter!, his charming fizz-pop debut. Don Quite, named for a childhood misspelling, is a more melancholy affair, written after his grandfather’s passing last year. Still, it’s lilting, languid pop led by voice and piano, for fans of the croony, orchestral-pop sounds of Jens Lekman and Sufjan Stevens. Karl-Jonas sings in a voice imbued with child-like wonder and wild-eyed naiveté, backed by sweet harmonies, all of which are cavorting baroquely with saucy synths, strings and ebullient rhythms, the electric sound of joy, indeed. Get inside K-J's "Lovely Love", discover "Eagles In the Water", and as a reward for those of you digging deeper, experience "Moontalk". Don Quite features guest appearances by James Huggins (Of Montreal), Lars Skoglund (Laakso), Sara Wilson (First Floor Power), Andreas Söderström (ASS), Leo Svensson (The Tiny) and Simone Rubi (The Rubies).

Cathartic proto-folk/cave-soul/meta-jazz with freak appeal, Wildbirds & Peacedrums are a betrothed duo from Gothenburg, Sweden who ply the audible frequencies with cyclic rhythms and (in)delicate female vocals, and little else, outside of infrequent bouts of glockenspiel and zither! Their debut, Heartcore, recently re-issued worldwide by The Leaf Label, has much too offer in the way of challenges and rewards. Most accessible is the lovely "I Can't Tell In His Eyes", while "Doubt/Hope" gives you a taste of the wild song-scenarios you'll encounter. Like a body reduced to a pounding heart, two heaving lungs, and a stack of clattering vertebrae; perhaps it’s what’s missing that makes what’s here so visceral (minus the viscera)… Fans of Bjork, PJ Harvey, Majessic Dreams, Kate Bush, Diamanda Galas, Montys Loco, and Fiery Furnaces chanteuse Eleanor’s oddest moments will find wild-eyed salvation in W&P’s revelatory art-rock minimalism. Impress your friends...

Since their humble beginnings in the mid-80s Finnish cult act 22 Pistepirkko have bestowed upon an unsuspecting planet's populace a dozen full-length albums (including The Others), an essential double-album retrospective, a DVD, and a slew of singles. With (Well, You Know) Stuff Is Like We Yeah!, like 2006’s Drops & Kicks before it, this quirky, veteran trio employ their awesome super-powers on behalf of song and songcraft, keeping things simple, but as always, skewed in the most compelling ways. With deep, thirsty roots in psychedelia, garage, pop, surf, folk and electronica 22-PP’s musical boundaries are elastic to say the very least, and here, with the songs distilled to their most primal essences, they have created their most profound and most beguiling album yet, and oddly, enough produced by Kramer. Check out the first single, "Suburban Ladyland" and the woozy-sweet "Zombie".

Norwegian psych-rock juggernaut Motorpsycho follow-up the Indie Rock Valhalla that was 2006’s Black Hole/Blank Canvas double-album with the band’s 13th full-length, Little Lucid Moments, their most hypnotic and heroic work to date, and the heaviest prog-rock action they've explored since the late-90s. Four immense, proggy tracks, includes a prerequisite 'suite' of songs (shades of "Starship Trooper" by Yes, harmonies included). Motorpsycho seed their proto-stoner supernova jams with Steve Reich-ian interludes, mind-expanding Deadheadsian guitar-weaving and galaxy-wide jazz odysseys; spooling up monstro riff-mongering and seismic traktorbass™ that evoke both Sonic Youth and Swervedriver; all simultaneously anchored and propelled by the jazz-motorik stylings of new drummer Kenneth Kapstad (former member of Gåte), who totally shreds time & space, amen. Four molten, mesmerizing tracks strung out over nearly 60 minutes, recorded roughshod in late 2007, this is MP in epic, zoomrock mode. Here's part of the second passage from the 21-minute salutatory suite, "Little Lucid Moments", and another open-throttle edit from the monumental "She Left On the Sun Ship".
U.S. Tour:
6/20 Wexner Center, Columbus OH
6/21 Terrastock Festival, Louisville KY
6/22 Empty Bottle, Chicago IL

Things get a little more ornate and orchestrated when Boy Omega Man Martin Henrik Gustafsson trades in the electronic backing of recent efforts for a bevy of strings, horns and pianos on his latest effort, Hope On the Horizon. The songs start simply but soon immerse the listener in grander-than-usual dynamics and epic arrangements, like on "A Quest For Fire" and a chiming sweetness that belies the subject matter on "Suffocation Street". While his desperate vocals still recall earnest troubadours like Conor Oberst and Elliot Smith, this time out Martin's waltzy folksongs are awash in a rootsy Sufjan Stevens-esque grandeur unheard on previous efforts...

With Montys Loco's last album, Man Overboard, still in regular rotation we welcome with open arms these Swedish electro-pop mavens' new recordings. Farewell Mr. Happy is yet another beautiful and bizarre collection of uncompromising looped and sampled dark-dreamery, comparable to The Knife and Bjork, and retaining that sinister Phil Spector girl-group-gone-bad vibe. Their sonic habitat remains a sleepy, hyper-sensual sonic otherworld, but the edges here aren't softened at all, in fact the opposite is true. The new songs are dangerously serrated and sprinkled with oldchool industrial flourishes, but of course it's Anja Bigrell and Marie Eklund's woozy and winsome vocal aerobatics that stir the spirits and tug purposefully at the heartstrings. Explore the first two singles: "Farewell Mr. Happy" and "Heavy".

With a sound that has matured from adorable to drop-dead gorgeous in the space of time between releases, The Second Band's new album, The Definite Form, is more epic, more rapturous and more assured than ever, an orchestral-pop gem that will be in my Top 10 for 2008. The Örebro, Sweden combo’s soulful brass-driven ecstasy is still evident, but this time out, older and wiser, shadowed with a feeling of heartbreak and melancholy that is undeniably Scandinavian. Fans of The Beautiful South (arrangements), Headlights (sweetness), Bright Eyes (earnestness), Okkervil River (rustic charm) and Shout Out Louds (a manic melancholia) will find plenty to swoon to here. Get dizzy with "The Piano Machine" and "Funeral At Sea".

An Object is the debut album from Swedish motorik-punk troika Paper, featuring Calle Olsson from The Bear Quartet and Paddington DC along with members of Audionom. They've been around for almost a decade, dropping the occasional download or compilation track, but this is their first official release, and on the esteemed Novoton label to boot! Paper's sound is based around the frustration of punk, the delicacy of pop melody and the hypnotic power of repetition. Think early Wire meets early Wire, simple, single-minded, powerful; with contrails of Neu!, Silverbullit/Citizen Bird and Joy Division. Fans of The Bear Quartet’s recent electronic eccentricities, Audionom’s hypnotic avant-punk, and Paddington DC’s zoom-pop will be spellbound, if you don’t mind a bit of krautrockin’ cochlea-knocking. While seemingly greater than the sum of its parts, check out these highlights: the 12XU-ish "Out Of It Into It" and the album's first single "To Her".

On their new, self-titled album Norway's reigning rock royalty Madrugada’s ferocious, impassioned blues-rock is even more charged and heartbreaking than ever after the untimely death of guitarist (and My Midnight Creeps frontman) Robert Burås last year. Taking the songs that Robert had completed, and recruiting guitarists like Kid Congo Powers (The Bad Seeds, The Cramps, The Gun Club) and Emil Nicolaisen (Serena Maneesh) to flesh things out, the remaining members of Madrugada offer this album as testament to their lost brother, a true rock-n-roll dude. Have an earful of the ominous and portentious first single: "Look Away Lucifer". Could this be the band's swan song? Hard to say. I imagine it would be hard to move forward after such a loss, but we'll see...

Recently nominated for a Swedish Grammy Nouvelle D'Amour is the ambitious new album from our favorite Swedish/Ugandan soul siren Jaqee (Jaqueline Nakiri). For this new platter this songbird's partnered with Swedish rock icon Mattias Hellberg (Nymphet Noodlers, Hederos & Hellberg, esteemed solo-singer-songwriter) who voodoos up some killer songs and crafty arrangements as well as some truly rambunctious and rootsy psych-country-dub-ragga-folk-blues grooves, in a soulful sub-Sahara stylee. There's hints of Massive Attack's hazy dubscapes and proto-folky Devendra Banhart's Smokey Monuntain-esque genre-splicing; throw in the kitchen sink (and a banjo!) and you're golden. Check out the first single "Sugar", the smoky "Zion", and the plucky "Banjo Lullaby".

At long last, one of 2007’s best Swedish albums, from one of our fave artists, finally arrives here at HQ in early 2008…sorry it took so long! The Fine Arts Showcase, led by post-modern popsmith Gustaf Kjellvander (Christian's little brother and member of Songs Of Soil), makes mecurial, melodic rock music. When covering an album's worth of Rough Bunnies tunes Gustaf continues to shine as a vocalist and arranger. Cute, girly Rough Bunnies ditties become grand, expensive, stentoroian-voiced epics; he's creating polished art-rock baubles from the cult-cultivating Rough Bunnies’ melancholic lo-fi uncut gemmage. Dive into the album's first single, "Modern Love" and the multi-referential "Rough Bunnies Saved My Life"

Happens every year, a spectacular late addition, in fact it's not even here yet... Mattias Barjed, glowering guitarist for The Soundtrack of Our Lives, created and curated this double-album soundtrack for a hip new Swedish miniseries (about twenty-something rockers in early-70s Gothenburg) that plays out like a gritty retro-rock opera! Features contributions from Barjed's TSOOL bandmates, plus members of Elope, Hipwhips, Jan Martens Frustration and many more. Also includes a new, unreleased song by The Tallest Man On Earth. Check out guest stars like Hipwhip's Markus Lindmark on "Set Us Free", series female lead Fanny Risberg on a cover of The Hipwhip's "Stay With Me Forever" , and an awesome guest vocal by TSOOL frontman Ebbot Lundberg on "Coming Down Cold". I'm calling this my Album Of The Year and just in time to take the top spot on my list of fave Nordic albums of 2007.

Award-winning Swedish songstress Anna Ternheim's domestic debut is here, in EP teaser form, highly recommended for Cat Power, Frida Hyvönen and Imogen Heap fans. Six mostly-acoustic songs include the 'Naked Version' of her recent single “Lovers Dream”, a cover of David Bowie & Iggy Pop's "China Girl", plus a live video of her righteous Broder Daniel cover, “Shoreline”, a piano and vocal version of this classic Swedish rock track so compelling I’m posting her studio piano version and BD’s bombastic original just for kicks. U.S. Tour May 2008.

Back in stock soon! Fans are still mourning the passing of Madrugada/My Midnight Creeps guitarist Robert Burås on July 12th. Since that sad day we've belatedly and finally come across a supply of Madrugada’s haunting 2005 live album, Live At Tralfamadore, at a bearable import price. An album released just 12 days after the astonishing gig at the Olso Spektrum in December 2005, documented here in glorious stereo. Feel it: "Hard To Come Back". Extras include songs from the 2005 Oya Festival and a couple other venues. Features special guest appearance by Kid Congo Powers, one of Robert’s guitar heroes.

Currently unavailable, sorry... I'm a fan of the EP format to begin with and this highly recommended debut EP from shoegazing Swedish trio Norma