Amatria (2012) ♪♪♪
Van A Salirte Las Alas (Spain)

There’s something long-term persistent about Joni Antequera aka Amatria. Originally released as a demo in 2009 the songs ‘Hoy Van A Salirte Las Alas’ have been brewing in the Spanish underground for two years before indie label PIAS saw time fit to sign the young artist. Making it now available for the international market. All the while the shy artist has been working restructuring the songs and getting live-attention for his music. ‘Today you’ll get wings’ is about independence and freedom, about spreading your wings in a burst of young energy. Originally recorded in his bedroom Joni gave the songs a restyle without losing the original concept of simple electronics from his computer as basis for his acoustic songs overflowing the rhythms. A prelude was the single ’11 Baños, 20 Euros’, an electronic song about teenage angst and surviving puberty set in the bathroom: “Not only have I been up / I also assume the consequences / is not an expensive truth / The water has not stopped roaring and crashes into my ears”. If you find this single promising there is more to enjoy on the album. ‘Comevegetal’, ‘Eh qué ves’, ‘En caso de error, liore’ and the very catchy ‘Lluvia radio activa’ are made according to the same recipe. A hypnotic danceable rhythm over which the other instruments are placed. The but is that Joni is not the best of singers. And he follows the same typical way of singing that is so common in recent alternative Spanish pop/rock. Typical in a sense that a large percentage of Spanish male indie singers tend to sing slightly off key and off rhythm. Creating a sort of whimpering and mewing style of singing that may sound a bit wobbly when you can’t understand Spanish. And Amatria is no exception to that rule. You can lead this back to Spanish songtradition where the old troubadours accompanying the flamenco groups had the same almost wailing form of singing. Commercialized, rock-i-fied and carefully mixed with Anglo-American indiepop you can still feel that songtradition in acts like Amatria. Listen to ‘Restos de poliurea’ and you see the sierra’s sizzling in the burning sun while the cantautor emotionally strums his guitar and wails about love and hate. In that sense you can dub Joni an electrocantautor, with a laptop at his feet and a guitar in his hands. We may even defined ourselves a new Europopmusic subgenre here. If the Spanish underground keeps this output up who knows.

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Nina Badrić (2011) ♪♪♪
NeBo (Croatia)

Four years again Nina Badrić pleased us with an album that mixed Croatian folk melodies with R & B vibes into what you could call Balkan-pop. Badrić held her Croatian roots high on that album with the single ‘Imati pa nemati’ as the best track of the album. The news that Nina would represent Croatia at this years ESC in Baku sounded promising but listening to her new album she seems to have taken a turn to international superficiality. ‘NeBo’ or ‘Heaven’ delivers 14 variations on love. Nina about the album: "This is an album of love for people. Forgive those who know, who know that the heart of the sky is the limit, who believe in the great love that changed the world and good people. Heaven is for those who know that the pain is not crazy, but for the people of love ". That said the first three slide past you unnoticed. It is the titletrack that shows some character. Nina’s voice turns raw over muffled distorted guitars when she sings: “Oh heaven to all those / I remember every debt / , each of us dreams / and the sky determines the way”. Halfway the guitars take over and push the track upwards. We wanted to have more tracks like that but they are a rarity between the soft jazzy pop the majority of the songs drown in. On ‘Sve mi pamti’ the magic happens again and with ‘Dat ce nam bog’ she could easily wow the ESC stage. Why not more of that? Why chosen for this kitchy bling-bling downtempo sound. The duet with Eighties icon Massimo (former Dorian Gray) says it all. Nina plays the girl in love but in that role she just isn’t convincing. I’d rather see her with a bit more balls. The closing track ‘Mama’ is totally out of place with the entire concept of the album but it is the kind of track we hoped for. Stomping beat, horns and Nina telling her mother not to worry: “Mama, I'm not alone tonight / Because I finally gave myself the opportunity to live”.

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Rachida Brakni (2012) ♪♪♪
Rachida Brakni (France)

Actresses that start singing, it keeps being an intriguing combination. The couple Brakni – Cantona now uplift the bar with an ex-football star turned actor writing the lyrics for his wife’s musical project. This may sound like David Beckham writing lyrics for a new album by Victoria but luckily the French / Algerian couple has more sense of style and obviously more talent. Rachida’s musical debut is a dark, flowing musical project where text and music are in the service of her dark brown husky voice. She speaks-sings her husband’s lyrics over music written by Cali aka Bruno Caliciuri also known for his work with Alain Bashung and Arno. The result leads to opening track ‘Je danse et je ris’ an Arabic styled hypnotic song about the desperation of losing a loved one: “One evening in December fate ruled / the crunching metal took everything / my god please bring it to me / I need to see him one last time / Without him I choke, am in agony / I’m going to die now I know / He will return one more time / I dance / I cry and I laugh / I scream and I die.” A song that slowly grips you and won’t let go. And you’ll agree a song you’ll never hear Victoria sing let alone David write for her. Although not specifically mentioned you cannot escape the feeling that some songs are influenced by the recent events in the Arab world. The lyrics to ‘Terre Fatale’ certainly can be explained as such: “This is a holy disaster survival / I'll quote that elusive such a beautiful night / Caught in barbed wire as your roots / Silence falsely casual take-off / I step through the workings of a march in revolt”. Even more biting she gets on highlight ‘Soufre de vie’ which translates as the sulfur of life: “A final story beneath the skin more sulfur than a life of forced labor to boost the blasting of an unpaid leave of life, Neverending Story without envy, end of story and sudden death”. But then the classic Arabic tales of 1001 night were never made for the fainthearted with its elements of death, murder and intrigue. The duet with Rodolphe Burger (known for working with Jacques Higelin and Sandra Nkaké) takes up on these tales on an intimate song. Overall this selftitled album is an intriguing project although Brakni is obviously not the world’s best singer and dictates the lyrics more than that she sings them. But then again this is not a novelty in French pop. The tandem Cali / Cantona delivered a good set of songs and production that stays interesting for the entire length of the album. The question is if this is interesting enough for a musical career or just a one-off project. If the latter is the case it is a convincing project worth checking out.

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Deichkind (2012) ♪♪♪
Befelh von ganz unten (Germany)

“Achtung, alle hände hoch”, here’s anarcho combo Deichkind. With ‘Tetrahon’ as opener the band fires a list of names and facts towards the listener like a machine gun. There were some doubts if the band would be able to regroup themselves after the death of producer Sebastian Hackert but with ‘Orders from down below’ we can rest assured. Kryptik Joe and Ferris throw their ‘Bierkanister’ at you and yell in your ear ‘Did I tell you to do it like this?’. It’s in-your-face electro-noise that would make Electric six turn white. They give no rest while  they thunder on with the titletrack. Of course it is all a bit bad boy nonsense and fun. Like they state on the track ‘Leider geil’: “Bad for the young, bad for the North Sea, bad for the head - but unfortunately fun / bad for your karma, bad for the future, bad for the job - but unfortunately, cool! “. Deichkind likes to provoke. ‘Illegale fans’ is a message to the music industry. On a beat that comes directly from Front 242 they make new electric body music and deliver thé anthem for Pirate Bay users ‘we’re illegal radical digital fans’. On ‘Bück dich hoch’ (Bend over high) the take a swing against the fashion industry and printing designer names on clothing, "Come stimulate my profit / Otherwise you will be screened out”. By then you reached track nine ‘Egolution’ and I must admit that I already felt quit washed up by then. The pouding beats, the stern vocals, the sampled horns and bleeps, it all gets a bit to much. Isn’t there really no track that kicks back and gives the listener some air? No, untill the end Deichkind marches on and as an encore you get some nice punkrock with Slime. It’s brutal fun but after eleven tracks you’re wasted. A more dosed distribution of the madness would benefit the album. Not this time, you get the orders from down below they say ‘Dance and bang your head’. No rest for the wicked.

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Los Evangelistas (2012) ♪♪♪♪♪
Homenaje a Enrique Morente (Spain)

In 2010 a legend died in Spain. Enrique Morente was a flamenco singer who broke with contemporary flamenco and started experimenting with styles and music. His passing away and his talent was commemorated last year in Córdoba with the White Night of Flamenco. One of the highlights of the evening was the one-off project Los Evangelistas featuring members from rockbands Los Planetas and Lagartija Nick. The result was as amazing as controversial. Completely opposite to what someone might aspect the band created a homage filled with multi-layered electric guitar-fuzz, rockbeats and dark vocals. Suprisingly the act was a big success and the band felt obliged to hit the studio to record the whole set with Martín “Youth” Glover behind the mixing desk and with vocal collaborations by Carmen Linares and Soleá Morente. The result is as amazing as it is impressive. A gothic cathedral of feedback and fuzz builds six minute opening track ‘Gloria’ into a magnus opus and then the album is only starting. Originally called ‘Misa Flamenca’ it sounds like a soundtrack of a pilgrimage to Santiago. Epic, almost baroque rockguitars weave a web around the listener. In conjunction with this atmosphere, the themes are most complex. They sound very simple but the music takes it time to slowly build up to a climax. When you know who are behind this project you’ll find some similarities with their regular work. A song like 'Serrana de Pepe de la Matrona', sung by J, is a clear example of the music which can be found on the last two albums from Los Planetas. Others like ‘En un sueño viniste’ and ‘Alegrías de Enrique’ can be dissociated from bygone Spanish rock releases to a greater or lesser extent due to the vocals of Antonio Arias. But flamenco as most people will define the it gets not. Or it should be the haunting ‘Delante de mi madre’, with the voice of Carmen Linares, a veteran flamenco who chants the lyrics like mantra lulled by a mattress of multilayer guitars, electronics and percussion. And ‘Estrella’, the song composed for the birth of Enrique’s daughter, features flamenco singer Soleá Morente. In twelve tracks Los Evangelistas translates the heritage of Nineties psychedelic guitar acts like Spectrum, My Bloody Valentine and Spacemen3 to the Spanish Sierra’s in a grand tribute which is as much impressive as it is ruthless. For fans of noisy guitars and alternative Eurorock this is thé Spanish album to start of the year.

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Kora (2011) ♪♪♪♪
Ping Pong (Poland)

Kora (real name: Olga Jackowska) was the singer of the Polish band Maanam, that  began a new era of rock in 1980 and created the soundtrack for the Solidarity revolution in Poland. Five years ago the band split and Kora started to explore new directions. It took her quite a long time to come up with her first real solo album. (She did release a few solo albums during her time in Maanam as well, but these were more side projects.) Kora met the young songwriter and guitarist Matthew Waszka Waszkiewicz. He agreed to produce Kora’s album and that was a great choice for both the grand old lady of Polish rock and the young musician. Waszkiewicz also composed nine of the ten songs of the album, Kora wrote all the lyrics, except for the title track, which was written together with poet Jozef Kurylak.The result is a fresh and relevant album with ten perfect pop songs. It showcases the voice that is so well known in Poland at its best, singing songs that fit her voice perfectly. The songs are half pop, half rock. The band plays enthusiastically and inspired. The lyrics are simple, yet mature, reflective and never superficial. ‘Ping pong’ can definitely be compared to Maanams best albums.

The album opens with the title track, ‘Ping pong’, which Kora co-wrote with the poet Jozef Kurylak. It is a punky song with intriguing, mysterious lyrics. It deals with the eternal struggle between good and evil.

‘Ping pong’:
“I sleep at night and a black child throws a ball at me / A black ping pong ball / We do not know where this child came from / Devil insulted, devil offended / All their evil fell on his head / Dark fear ping pong / We do not know where this child came from.”

Strefa ciszy’ (‘Quiet zone’) is a very poetic song in which Kora expresses her deep concern with ecology. It tells a tale of the destructive nature that became tired with human presence in its field:

‘Strefa ciszy’ (‘Quiet zone):
“What does the river tell me, when I am sitting in it / The river tells me that it does not like me, does not like me. / It does not want to be friends with me. / … / It says that I am lost, I am lost. / Only the land does not change / We live in a quiet zone / We are living beyond words / We do not know sorrow and pity / We do not have the heart, the skin, the bones.”

One of my favorite tracks on the album is ‘Jak narkotyk’ (‘Like a drug’). A mid-tempo song with a great chorus and very touching lyrics: “Why this sadness in your eyes? / It was not you, it was him who wanted it / You came back to me so changed / The mirror did not recognize you. / I love the night / Because then, you do not see my face / We have ourselves, mouth / We have the words / Straight to the ear is the shortest path. / I'm looking at you through the heart / The secret sun of our blood / Your presence is like a drug / It calms fears, drives away the dawn.”

Echoes of maanam can be heard in the uptempo new wave song ‘Nie jestem biała i nie jestem czarna’ (‘I'm white nor black’): “I'm white nor black / I have lost the language and the desire to act / The past is because I have already survived / … / It's an art to lie around doing nothing / Do not eat or drink in the summer as a hare / Being so close to land as to heaven / As it has no beginning and no end.”

With ‘Ping pong’ Kora successfully reinvented herself. Let’s hope that this album is only the beginning of her second career….

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MIA. (2012) ♪♪♪♪
Tacheles (Germany)

“I brace myself against the wind / I put myself into the wind, and only forward / I run as long as the last fiber of my body is on fire / And always look forward / Never look back / Only forward.” German indie-darlings MIA took their time to come up with an answer to the huge success of ‘Willkommen im club’ of 2008. And the opening track makes it clear. They did not intend to consolidate on their previous sound (electronic-alternative pop) but want to go forward. And indeed on ‘Tacheles’ Mieze and her boys have left the club. The stomping rhythm is still there in the background but the whole album is much less focused on the party and more on the song. Single ‘Fallschirm’ is a good example of that course change. A sixties beat, handclaps, clear guitar...it almost sounds like a R&B bubblegum pastiche. Here again the will to look forward and not back is the central theme: “I'm back / from a trip around the world / once back and forth / I'm still happy / because I love to fly without a parachute / drop and regret nothing”. A jump in the dark, a leap into something new. At first I was not sure if I liked that new. Because the symbiosis of pop, rock and electronic music in the past was so dynamic and catchy that the albums had an instant appeal. The current MIA is maybe more balanced and .power of songs lies in more subtle harmonies. The individual band members also seem to get more space to contribute to the sound of the album. Like on ‘Immer wieder’ where percussion, xylophone/keyboards and guitar all get room and aren’t compressed into one big beat. What MIA distinguishes from other German indiebands is that the band is very focused on what they do. The album as a whole is consistent and build up from the same idea. Maybe that is the secret behind a band who, though the change in sound remains, they continue to have a militant eager feel around them. Even in the darkest track ‘Am tag danach’ they keep their head up high: “Give me more, not the rest / Give yourself completely. To the last / If you know what I wanted / Are we still there, the day after.”. No doubt they will be there. And maybe then they look back, stick out their tongue to critique and move ever forward. Again we think an album by MIA is worth four stars which makes a consecutive series of great albums over the past six years. Which makes them the most stable band from Germany in sound, popularity and artistic quality.

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Noisecut (2012) ♪♪♪½
Háj & lov (Slovakia)

Bratislava electro-pop quartet presents their fourth album. ‘The forest and the hunting’ as the title translates has an urban sound to it but displays a dark longing to nature. And whoever been to Slovakia knows what rural means in a country with the Tatra mountains and the alluring Slovakian Paradise. In that sense the album title is a good choice, there is something eerie about Noisecut’s music. Opener ‘December’ starts with a foghorn-like drone, overtaken by Japonec’ guitar while M and Losos create a pounding rhythm. Singer Bet-Maj Sepja speaks/sings how she wants to escape the cold and the winter.  Central theme seems to be escapism. Single ‘Jazda ‘(Drive) is about wanting to skip from the big town and escape to the forest. In the video guestrapper Lyrik drives into the forest where Sepja awaits him like a pagan nymph. ‘Dáta taja dych’ (Computer-Data hide its breath) tells about the longing for human contact instead of empty  internet-connections. Desillusioned Bet-Maj sings “if I delete you, you don´t exist for me”. On ‘V krajine bez mora’ (In the land without the sea) she dreams of a life near the sea but is confined to the big city. But ‘Mariena’ is the best track on the album. Already winning a Radio Head award in 2010 the song re-appears on this album in a new version. The song brings in musical elements from Slovakian folklore and tells the story about the mysterious Mary. Normal girl during the day she changes at night when she is lured into pagan forest rituals: “you are on your knees and look to the candle light / you pray, your heart is warm  / but everything has changed / Mariena, you are forced  to dance with snakes / you´ll dance in trance for whole night”. As an electro-pop combo Noisecut makes with ‘Háj & lov’ a step forward in creating a more organic album with acoustic instruments over the electronics. In doing so they create a more all-round popsound and it suits them. Listen to a track like ‘Tanjuc!’ to hear what I mean. An interesting start of the year for Slovakia.

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Pariisin Kevät (2012) ♪♪♪♪
Kaikki on satua (Finland)

On the 2008 debut album ‘Meteoriitti’ Arto Tuunanen’s band Pariisin Kevät sounded like a one-man band alternative to Sweden’s pop/rock band Kent. Although the characteristics for Scandinavian indiepop are still there Pariisin Kevät takes a big step forward with this, their third album, now extended to being a full band. Entitled ‘It’s all a fairy tale’ they plunge into a catchy album filled with parables and tales which stand synonymous to modern day life. A world that swings between twinkling romance and dark madness. Arto took inspiration from old tales and folkore. Like the opening track  ‘Olen kuullut merestä’ says: “And then I heard a song from a distance, as would resemble one of me./ some will spread out to the song, long since been forgotten melody./ I've heard from the sea, so beautiful”. But the forest and the sea also hold more sinister secrets. Blood-thirsty monsters, sirens, golden thrones, a lonely princes, they all figure in the dim frays surrounding the ten songs assembled here. Musically the band also makes a switch with more sophisticated arrangements and more electronics in the forefront. It gives the album a thrill of menacing excitement. A great example of that is ‘Lopeta!’ (Stop), which is a light-body electric therapy session and a repetitive hypnotic journey into the depths of the mind.“Stop Running / Stop Thinking / Stop the intimidation / Stop imagining / the horizon painting / In Memory wading in the / end the success of the (now) / Stop Explaining / Stop!”.  Tuunanen likes his fairy tales Grimm. Note that the girl on the cover is not Red but Black riding hood. The wolf is genuinely spooked about his role in the story suddenly taking a turn for the worse. ‘Kaikki on satua’ is all about escapism and the vague longing for  a better magical place. The feverish ‘Sytytä valo’ follows this plea in a begging for the sun to break through dark matter. “The idea was rotate around the ring / You do not know where to begin and where it ends / but it takes YOU into the dark. / Sun! Open your eyes and turn on the light in the middle hole”. In contrast with what you might think based on the lyrics Pariisin Kevät created a light and accessible album and the first that shows a real signature of their own. An album in which electronics, Arto’s icy thin voice and the tinkling guitar pop are balanced into one convincing sound. Keep this up and in the near future a masterpiece is in the offing.

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Lena Philipsson (2011) ♪♪
Världen snurrar (Sweden)

The musicworld has been turning for a while for Swedish popsinger Lena Philipsson. Around since the Eighties she was slowly been discarded as a bit passé. Time for a change Miss Philipsson thought, what Madonna can do so can I. So she surrounded herself with topsongwriters and producers like Christian Falk, Vanessa Falk, Kaah, Mange Schmidt, Björn Olsson, Markus Krunegård and Veronica Maggio. The result is just as diverse as the pack of songwriters she contracted. Opening track ‘Du Följer Väl Med?’ is a catchy single but is actually a cover from the German discosinger Sarah Connor's which gets a David Guetta like makeover. On the second track she briefly switches to English before she goes electroclash with the Christian Falk-produced song "Blir Galen". It then sways from 90s house on "Igen och Igen", to the somewhat corny ballad "Ett Hjärta" let alone the utterly schlageristic ‘Live Tomorrow’ . Track by track this new album by Lena is actually not bad. Her disco-voice is trained enough to carry the songs and the production is thorough. But the whole thing lacks any character or soul. Each individual track is good enough to get your Europop party going and impress when heard on the radio or in the pub. But all together it’s a scrambled selection of songs and sound more like a strange compilation then an album. Our advice, download the singles. I’ll bet she got some cracking remixes up her sleeve the coming months. As an album you can mostly ignore it.

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Maryla Rodowicz (2011) ♪♪♪♪
Buty 2 (Poland)

Agnieszka Osiecka was – and still is – a very famous poet, writer and lyricist in Poland. She died in 1997. Many of her poets were set to music in the past decades and became famous songs and thus part of the collective memory of the Polish people. One of Osiecka’s favorite performers – and personal friend – was Maryla Rodowicz. During her long career Maryla Rodowicz has recorded many songs with Osiecka’s lyrics and a lot of them became hits in Poland. At the end of 2011 Rodowicz released a unique album with thirteen brand new songs with lyrics by Osiecka never put to music before. The album was produced by Marcin Bors, who has worked with Osiecka’s lyrics before when he produced the album ‘N/O - Nosowska/Osiecka’ by Katarzina Nosowska in 2008. Bors also contributed as musician (keyboards, percussion etc.). The lyrics were put to music by some of Osieczka’s favorite composers, like Seweryn Krajewski, Jacek Mikula, Adam Sławinski and Katarzyna Gaertner.

Bors and Rodowicz succeeded in creating an album that sounds both modern and timeless at the same time. The production is flawless and the beautiful songs have obviously been treated with utmost care. Maryla sings in an almost modest, humble way, the musicians all play as if they are all part of one cohesive musical experience. The Los Angeles Life Choir that performs on some of the songs (especially on ‘John the source’) contributes to the unique, almost sacral atmosphere, as well as the experimental voices added by young progressive artist, Gaba Kulka.

The album is called ‘Buty 2’, ‘Two boots’. The art work on the cover shows us a cartoon in seventies style of twoo boots with Osiecka and Rodowicz. It refers to the opening track of the album, ‘Drugi but’ (‘The other shoe’), that deals about friendship, the friendship between the two artists, symbolized by two shoes, left and right: “Let's look at the forgotten notes / We have learned, what is called l'amour / And let's go ahead as the two new shoes / Laced together as a choir / And when the heart is precipitated / From the hard pavement gray days / Hand us to a shoemaker, people / And again, we will stand for this game / Two shoes, you’re the right one, I’m the left“

Osiecka’s poems deal with timeless themes like loneliness (‘Tonę’, ‘Drowning’), love, (‘Pieśń miłości’, ‘Song of love’), difficult relationships (‘Zamiast wódkę pić, ‘Rather than drinking vodka’) and transience (‘Kochać za młodu’, ‘Love in one’s young days’). When releasing new Osiecka-poems posthumously it is only natural that the attention goes out to the lyrics. And they do not disappoint at all. They are very realistic and tell stories of people’s lives gone downwards, of people who made the wrong choices. At the same time, there is always hope for a better life, a better world. ‘Nadzieja’ (‘Hope’):
“The black road, a black car / Hungry eyes, a frozen heart / A hope - just around the corner / … / The hope - there is nothing to live / You're welcome to drink / But under your pillow / Or quietly knocking on your door / I will come to where you are.”

‘Ja cię mam’ (‘I have you’):
“Carnival continues, the fun continues / You are the king, I am the queen / And the whole world is Disneyland / And time is a cat, disguised as a dream / The disease of jealousy - I have you / In love and anger – I have you / In despair, nudity, the stocking of old age / I would not, knew not – who would I be?” Musically, the album is quit diverse. It covers all styles of music that Rodowicz has explored in her long career. It ranges from Janis Joplin soul (‘Drugi but’, ‘The other shoe’), small ballads (‘Więc kto’, ‘So who’), intimate drinking songs (‘Zamiast wódkę pić’, ‘Instead of drinking wodka’) to folk songs (‘Pieśń miłości’, ‘Song of love’) and big band jazz from her latest album ‘50’ (‘Yokohama’).

The closing track, ‘Tonę’ (‘Drowning’), is definitely the highlight of the album. It’s a fantastic blues track, with beautiful sad lyrics about drinking away ones loneliness. And Maryla sings the blues perfectly, in her own unique way. A fantastic ending of this great album! ‘Tonę’ (‘Drowning’): ‘Drowning in the wrong bar / Drowning in a long list of wines / I am drowning, drowning in the wrong bar / And I’m fine with it / Drowning in dry, sandy beaches / The white and green flames of dawn / Hiding from the city's face / Waiting until I drown / Drowning in the noise of the starry night / In the bays of the unknown city / Wastin' time, wastin' time / I am drowning”

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Sanne Salomonsen (2011) ♪♪♪
Tiden brænder (Denmark)

In 2006, Sanne suffered a blood clot in the brains. She was paralyzed in the left arm and left half of the face. Sanne was hit by a depression in the aftermath of the disease. Sanne released the comeback album ‘Unico’ in 2009, her first Danish-language album in 13 years. It was named after her horse in Portugal, which she bought for rehabilitation to strengthen muscles and coordination. At the end of the year 2011 Sanne released ‘Tiden brænder’ (‘Time burns’), the follow up album to ‘Unico’, again entirely sung in Danish. When first listening to ‘Tiden brænder’ it sounds very much like ‘Unico’. But after a few turns in the player, we had to conclude that it is a nice album, but not so good as its predecessor. It has nothing to do with Sanne’s singing; she sounds very good in both the ballads and the up tempo rock songs. It has also nothing to do with the songs themselves. The thirteen songs are well written, diverse in style and range from slow ballads (‘Hjem’) to up tempo rock tunes (‘Dæmoner’). The problem is the production. Somehow there is too much going on, beneath all the songs lies a thick tapestry of sound. There is too little air in the songs, the dense production stifled the songs. How I would have loved to hear these songs recorded with just a small, semi-acoustic band.

‘Dæmoner’ (‘Demons’) is a great rock tune that opens the album. The title track is a mid tempo song that fits Sanne’s voice perfectly. ‘Over det’ (‘Above it’) is overproduced AOR.
‘Små soldater’ (‘Small soldiers’) is a catchy tune with social-critical lyrics, in which Sanne gets support from a childrens choir and popular Danish r&b duo Nik & Jay. The song is catchy, but these two guys have nothing to add. ‘Minder’ (‘Memories’) and ‘Hjem’ (‘Home’) are both nice rock ballads. Especially ‘Minder’ is a great track, co-written by Sanne’s son Victor Ray Salomonsen Ronander. ‘Søvngænger’ (‘Sleepwalker’) is a mid tempo song that would have fitted on Stevie Nicks’ last album. ‘Rock ‘n’ roll’ is far more rock than roll. Apart from the Danish lyrics it is completely US-orientated. The same goes for ‘Ingenmandsland’ (‘No mans land’). One of the highlights is ‘Drømmenes by’ (‘City of dreams’), a tune with a somewhat more Scandinavian feel to it, sounding a bit like Eva Dahlgren. ‘Hvis du tør’ (‘If you dry’) might have been a nice pop song, but the over production kills it completely. Fortunately, the album closes with a nice ballad, ‘Lissabon’ – again this song would have fitted perfectly on Stevie Nicks’ latest album. ‘Tiden brænder’ is definitely not a bad album by Danish no. 1 rock mama Sanne Salomonsen. Yet, due to the over production it is not as good as Sanne’s previous album ‘Unico’. The songs work best when listened to separately on your iPad.

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The Scene (2012) ♪♪♪♪
Code (Netherlands)

For three decades the Dutch alternative band has been producing music. On and off that is because between 2002 en 2009 bandleader The Lau focussed on a solo career. But with the previous album ‘Liefde op doorreis‘ the band reunited to deliver a then strong but maybe slick produced album. That approach was tossed overboard for this album where Lau wanted to get a live-vibe and recorded most of the songs in one go with the other band members around him. He explains: "The last album we recorded via the internet, we did not contradict each other in the studio." Laughing "that saved a lot of sometimes unnecessary discussions. Yet I wanted to return to the method of yesteryear: the feeling that we have as a real band album. There are songs written, we have extensively rehearsed everything and everything was recorded in four days". The result is raw, energetic and urgent with simple but striking arrangements. With the declaration of love This is really exciting the album opens with the poetic lyrics sung by Lau in his raspy voice. In that sense there is no radical change in the sound. But the rudimentary approach to the recording process, the use of samples and the addition of hip hop influences broadens the sound though. On one of the strongest tracks ‘Stip’ rapper Lange Frans takes over the leading role while Lau darkly repeats the chorus. In that sense the  texts are not strictly written for Lau, either are they extremely melodic or placed in a harmonic order. It is almost like a stream of consciousness  as in the biting ‘Dier’ (Animal) with almost sounds like a torrent of words: “Touch me, cracking me wake me / Do what you do best and let me live / Sex me, fix me, me all or nothing / Do what you do best and let me live / Yank me, crank me, I accidentally / Do what you do best and let me live”. Quite different is the much smaller song Hell on which Lau darkly contemplates "Hell is heaven for the masters of the game”. After which the accompanying guitar bursts the heavens open. The title song of the album is another apocalyptic dream led in by a sample by a speech by actor Robert Mitchum  ‘Code’ is instantly recognizable as The Scene and is maybe their best album since their former commercial success ‘Blauw’ of twenty years ago. With this album The Scene again proves themselves as one of the most stable and credible forces in Dutch alternative popmusic.

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Mikael Simpson (2011) ♪♪♪
Noget laant, noget blaat (Denmark)

Something borrowed, something blue. Something new?…well not entirely since this latest album from Mikael Simpson has been in the Danish shops since October last year. But we found it too interesting not to make just a short review of this fifth album by Denmarks most atmospheric singer. The something borrowed from the album title is a bit misleading since Mikael dissed most of the samples and electronics from his previous albums and goes for organ, bass and drums that play a central role and deliver a more rich and nuanced sound. But blue it absolutely is. Simpson takes you down a dark and melancholic rabbit hole leading to a disturbing inner world. Beautifully envisioned by the art work made by photographer Mikkel Bache. The comparison with Thom Yorke from Radiohead is omnipresent. The whispering vocals, the subtle use of instruments. The album feeds an nocturnal urban mood in which the drone of the city is used as a basis for songs about helplessness, bitterness and resignation: “My time is often silent when I'm with you. And damn it is not meant as a compliment” he sings. A song like ‘Lige for vi for vild’ could easily be used as a soundtrack for one of those Danish crimi’s. The elegant and hypnotic way Mikael weaves the songs together also have a downside. Because the entire vibe of the songs is so close together you tend to get tangled in the web he makes not able to tell one song from the other. An elegant web nonetheless but it makes it hard to pick a particular song and gives the album a sort of trance-like flow from which you wake up not remembering exactly what you just heard. The album is neither Simpson's best or most complete to date, but the artistic level is high and it suits him to try more diverse and contrasting expressions, with a dark inner world seeping through the cracks of a haunting universe. 

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Christophe Willem (2011) ♪♪½
Prismophonic (France)

Christophe’s previous album ‘Caffeine’ was an glittering excercise in europopdisco without sliding away into cheap rhythms, samples and clichés. It put Willem at the forefront of the wave of andrygonous singers popping up around Europe the past five years. ‘Prismophonic’ takes the same path as ‘Caffeine’ but slips where the previous did not. It already starts at the beginning with the cliché sample of ‘Ain’t nobody’ from Rufus and Chaka. Although well done the sample has been used so many times the past years that it lost its allure. ‘Starlite’ as it is called sounds more like a leftover Kylie Minogue track discarded as to obvious. No wonder when you know that Steve Anderson, responsible for Minogue’s album "X",  was behind the mixing desk A disappointing choice to start an album. Single ‘Cool’ has the same problem and it is not untill ‘L'amour Me Gagne’ that you’ll get a taste of what Christophe is really capable off. Not overly disco but stylish flowing rhythms with a little ‘zing’ to it. It is unmistakable French and a perfect vehicle for Willem’s voice. The ballad ‘Si Mes Larmes Tombent’ (If my tears fall) is one of the two ballads featured on the album and a more intimate moment before switching into R&B gear with ‘Indelebile’ featuring songwriter of most of the songs Zaho. Together they used the different stages through which man passes during and after a breakup as a central theme. No wonder that halfway the album we get the song ‘Ennemis In L.O.V.E’. Together with ‘Automatik’ these form a strong return to form after a somewhat wobbly start of the album. One more strong track passes, ‘Je Rejoins La Scene’ , before the album closes with the ballad ‘Falling’. The only selfpenned song where the singer, at the keyboard, confesses to some of his fears and weaknesses. All in all ‘Prismophonic’ is not what we expected from Willem. All little flaws and edges that made ‘Caffeine’ such a charming album are flattened and straightened and thus creating a take-away album that is maybe insync with the current trend but certainly not timeless.

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