Music of the moment

Just a post about some of the interesting and really great music I'm listening to at the moment

Snowden

To start it all off I was introduced to this band in such an old school way as by "word -of-mouth", the other guitarist from Late Night Venture, Peter, had visited a friend that told him to check this band out, and he then told me, and I went to the myspace page of the band, having no expectations what so ever.

But what hit me here was this sound that just caught my attention right away, somehow it kind of reminded me a bit of Interpol but at the same time it also had some references to the playfulness of Arcade Fire . Very rhythmic and with the excellent voice of the lead singer that proved a great diversity between the different songs. That along with dreamy yet staggering guitars, the distorted pumping bass and the cool drums, is just really hitting it off.

It took me a very short while to realize that it would take at least 3-4 weeks to get their record sent to denmark, so had to go and buy it right away on itunes.

That record has just been growing on me ever since, every song has its own forces, from the danceable, hit song : "Anti-Anti" to the more noise and abrupt "Counterfeit Rules" to the warm and melancholic acoustic "Sisters".

The thing is that Snowden is just way more and way deeper than for example Interpol, even though there's some references, snowden brings a dark & warm feeling with a down to earth approach.

I can highly recommend you to go and get this record.

• Visit the Snowden MySpace site here
• Visit Dave from Snowdens blog here
• Visit Snowden homepage here
• Buy the record on itunes

Kyte

Next up is a band i discovered because one of my friends on MySpace, had one of their songs on her profile for a while and I really thought that this was something. Then just a couple of days later Late Night Venture played a show with the swedish band immanu el and I had the guys sleeping at my house after the show, because they didn't want to take the long drive to sweden after. I talked with the piano/cello/guitar guy Jonatan about all sorts of stuff and just as I was about to introduce him to Kyte he was just typing the webpage as we spoke, kind of fun .-) but the point was that I heard some more songs from their mini album and then I was quite sure that I had to have that album, so as with Snowden, I couldn't really wait so bought it on iTunes.

So what is this music, well it's somewhere inbetween post-rock and electronica, very bright and clicky. Somewhat inbetween The Postal Service and swedish band Jeniferever. Very lush with extremely catchy songs. After buying the album it has been on my iTunes playlist every day, it's really an excellent 6 track mini album.

• You should go visit Kyte here
• or go buy their record on itunes

Said The Shark

Now a danish one I'm listening to a lot these days. It's kind of a rediscovery. Because they have had their debut album out "Always prattling about wolves" about 2 years now. But now they're releasing their second album "Silly Kings" and you can already listen to some songs from that album on their MySpace page. I bought the debut album already, when it was released the first time, but kind of rediscovered the magic universe of their music, when we had the pleasure to play a show with them in Hildesheim, Germany at the Schallgrenzen festival (will probably blog about that at another occasion :-) ). They played a very genuine and warm concert, and since then I've been listening to their debut much more and always end up on their MySpace page, where the song "Runaround" always greeted me welcome. A perfect simple dark song. However, it's now the song "Took Away" that greets, and this is just as perfect and enchanting.

So what's the thing with Said The Shark. It's the fact that i can't pinpoint exactly what it sounds like other than they sound like a very deserted place out in the woods, where there is more between life and earth than meets the eye, it is kind of adventurous and very dark, but with a twist of warmth. Really effective music.

Someone would probably say Cat Power and someone would probably say PJ Harvey, but even there might be a slight resemblance, Said The Shark is much more interesting in my ears. It's due to the very original and genuine vocals of Maya, the soundscapes that Kim makes (also from Windermere, another great danish band) along with Rasmus, Mikkel and Hans pulling it all together.

• I will strongly encourage you to go visit said the shark at their MySpace page here
• Or visit their homepage here
• Buy their debut album "Always Prattling About Wolves" on itunes
• Buy their new album online here

I know I will buy my copy of it on the 13th of may, where Said The Shark is having their release party at Loppen in Copenhagen.

This Will Destroy You

Last one for this post, is kind of a post-rock act, but one of the more interesting and brutal, "This Will Destroy You" have some sort of resemblance towards the more heavy sounds that you find in the post-hardcore scene. Played by bands like Cult Of Luna, Isis, Pelican, Neurosis and the likes. But where these bands have growl vocals in common, This Will Destroy You are more pure melodic and instrumental (only with a few highly effected vocals), making a lot of room to have every single note played coming out where it should. In Front. Therefore This Will Destroy You is getting a bit closer to bands like Explosions In The Sky, Godspeed You Black Emperor and Mogwai.

The thing is though, that This Will Destroy You have a way more "Ambient" soundscape approach, where they often mix electronica elements with the pure and the ripping guitars, it's a fine mix in between the handplayed infernos and the delicate electronic pulses that drives the work. When this is blended with the fact that "This Will Destroy You" makes very catchy melodylines that you can remember and the fact that they have a perfect sound for what they make, you end up with sort of a reinvention of post-rock. So with "This Will Destroy You" you get one brutal, yet dreamy and at times very lush and light, companion for Late Nights watching stars.

• Give yourself the opportunity to go and listen to This Will Destroy You on their myspace page here
• Go buy the album online at itunes
• Go see them live at Loppen in copenhagen, where I will be supporting with the late nighters on the 29th of April

.. This pretty much sums it up for now .. I'm a music addict, so I listen to a lot of other stuff at the moment as well, but these 4 have been on heavy rotation the last couple of weeks.