Existensminimum - Last Night My Head Tried To Explode And I Wrote Everything Down [novoton -2006]

Today we got a nice little piece of music sent to us wrapped up in a lovely artwork. It was the debut album from Existensminimum. Here you get offered a trip into rhythmic and krauty excursion of electro-pop territories you had almost forgotten existed. It displays a dark, dirty sound that is brutally melancholic and harsh at the same time.

For Magnus Henriksson, who also plays the drums and percussion for Moneybrother, cacophony isn’t anything bad; it’s the only way to do music. “Last Night My Head Tried to Explode and I Wrote Everything Down” can be put under the same category as Fireside’s “Elite” from 2000 since it got the same approach and the feeling that Existensminimum want to be, and do something else than your regular Swedish indiepop shit. And that feeling is overwhelming.

What I really love and want to give Magnus credit for is the Kraut-rock songs that displays restlessness and frustration that is hard to not get run over by and reminds me of a more brutal and angry Neu!

These 10 songs are a real adventure for the ears and soul for those who dare to look beyond the frame of the standard pop and rock music of today. Are you one of them you will be largely rewarded.

As some one else said; I hope Magnus Henriksson quit playing with Moneybrother and focus on Existensminimum.

Preview the complete album here!

The Secret Machines –Ten Silver Drops [Reprise -2006]

Some guy working for a Swedish paper compared them with The Mars Volta, and then I just wonder what kind of psychedelic drugs that guy had running in his system.

From what my ears tell me “Ten Silver Drops” is a very British sounding album. At times it sounds like David Bowie stucked in an elevartor with The Doves with its clear pop hooks. But when they start mixing it up with tasteless Grunge-riffing guitars, based on well used chords, spiced up with some neat keyboard sounds, I just wanna turn it off.

I want to give them credit for their will to create their own sound and rules. But as far as the song writing goes their way of experimenting with sounds is way better then the actual songs are.

The record contains 8 songs; at first sight it seems too few. But trust me it’s more than enough. Why they have support shows for U2 and get hyped everywhere is hard for me to understand.

This is a textbook example of overrated music. This is more about the money someone is putting in to their machine than the ability of their music.

Listen to some songs from: “Ten Silver Drops”

It’s A Trap Readers Companion Volume 2 [ITA-2006]

There is this guy called Avi Roig who runs a great homepage about the Scandinavian music scene. Somehow he always gets hold of all the gossips and news before everyone else and no one can challenge his devotion towards what he does.

2003 he released It’s A Trap Readers Companion Volume 1 had acts like: José Gonzales, David & The Citizens,Peter. Björn And John, Khoma etc. These are bands that now have got signed to different important labels in the US. I don’t know how much this record helped out but it sure did opened some people eyes and ears.

So now the follow up is here with 17 new bands Avi thinks everyone should get to know better. To mention a few: Hello Saferide, The Bear Quartet, Moonbabies, Tiger Lou, The Grand Opening, Viola, Det Gamla Landet, The End Will Be Kicks, Björn Kleinhenz.

Seven of the bands got unreleased materials which always make a compilation disc more interesting and appealing It’s not that many bands I didn’t know about as a Swedish dude, but I think the disc is made with a thought for the people living in the US and they have probably never heard about a 3^rd of the bands. Avi continues with his mission and for that we should all thank him.

Check out and listen to the whole track list:
http://www.itsatrap.com/vol2/player/index.html