first up, thanks to a couple of people who helped make this week’s show a cut above the norm – namely fbi’s emily farrell for her interview with sigmatropic (see last post for more info and mp3). catch’s emily’s show roundabout every monday at 10pm.
and double-thanks to another fbi trooper, jules thomas, for calling in with a live report from the icelandic airwaves festival in reykjavík. currently making her way round europe, she called at 5am her time, so i reckon you’ve got to give props for that… this week’s playlist is now live, and here’s a few tunes from some of today’s artists – co-incidentally, all three are from scandanavia. chilly… >>
KIM HIORTHOY [NORWAY]
det blev fel mp3
thanks to yet another fbi broadcasters, peter hollo from utility fog for picking up a copy of kim hiorthoy‘s ‘hopeness’ on his recent travels and dropping it into the fat planet pigeonhole. played the track ‘mandarinera’ today – the above mp3 is an old one (posted liberally throughout the blog community it seems), but i have a particular fondness for this track – it being my first experience of the norwegian electronic minimalist, taken from one of the excellent ‘wire tapper’ compilations. this mp3 is from the bubblecore web site – i recommend a long visit to track down some of the other mp3s on there, particularly mice parade, igloo, red snapper, nobukazu takemura and HiM‘s wonderful ‘slow slow slow dub’ (not to be confused with a scandanavian death metal dude of the same name…)
JENS LEKMAN [SWEDEN]
rocky dennis farewellsong to the blind girl mp3
jens lekman is one of those artists (like joanna newson) who divides people entirely, right down the middle. it’s straight-forward loving or loathing. the problem people seem to have with lekman is that his music is ostensibly comedy, albeit pitch black. take the track i played today ‘a higher power’ (from his new collection ‘when i said i wanted to be your dog’) which starts with a proposal to his girlfriend that they both shove plastic bags over their head and shuffle off this mortal coil. the above mp3 is similarly tounge in cheek, although it makes it perfectly clear why many folks love the guy – the music is consistently excellent. strip the comedy from this and lekman’s name would probably be sung from higher mountains. seems the old dilemma still exists – how can you write funny songs and be taken seriously?
ANNIE [NORWAY] (pictured)
chewing gum (fake ID’s juicy fruit bootleg) mp3
annie‘s ‘chewing gum’ hasn’t hit australia yet – however, when she hits, i’m sure it’ll smack like a tsunami. from what i’ve read, annie’s all over the uk and probably rightly so. this is 100% pure pop, it’s what the phrase ‘bubblegum pop’ was invented for. she’s an artist that royksopp, the streets, richard X and mylo have all chosen to work with. so maybe pop is no longer the dirty word that it once was? ::: and here’s where i wrestle with my conscience – i’m not so much breaking the rule of this blog, more bending it… i don’t post commercially available mp3s, but if i can’t be bought… well, it might worm its way on here. the above mp3 is a bootleg from one of my favourite bastard pop mxrs, fakeID and glitches up annie into a harder territory. check out his site for loads more where that comes from.