The eleven-track debut full-length 'Every Other' by Swedish trio Hey Elbow dropped last month. So far they have nine European shows scheduled including a June 30 performance at the Roskilde Festival. (NOTE: the full gig list was announced on April 30 on Facebook.)
The two videos accompanying the stellar tracks "Ruth" and "Martin" compliment the playful sound masterfully created by members Julia Ringdal (vocals/guitar), Ellen Petersson (horns/electronics) and Liam Amner (drums) in their mad scientist lab in their hometown of Malmö.
"Ruth" was directed by Freja Andersson; "Martin" by Elvira Varghans and Maja Li Härdelin.
Since 2013 the word has been slowly but steadily getting out beyond Scandinavia about artist Seinabo Sey. Raised in Gambia as well as Sweden and now based in Stockholm, she was blessed with a stunning, rich, and highly distinctive voice. Top this with exceptional soundscapes created by her fellow Swede, acclaimed producer Magnus Lidehäll as well as very strong material written or co-written by Sey herself and you have a triple threat that rivals the best in the business, including her biggest musical influences Erykah Badu, Lalah Hathaway, and Lauryn Hill.
Two stellar EPs have been released so far. Named after her Swedish mother and her late Gambian musician-singer father, the six-track 'Madeleine' (2014) and the four-track 'Maudo' (2015) offer up outstanding genre bending songs that immediately commands the listener's attention and stay with you long after the last note has faded.
This month and next month Sey returns to the UK and the U.S.; about a dozen shows are scheduled. She will will also be performing at a few festivals in the UK and in continental Europe this season. First up however is a headliner gig May 13 in Frankfurt.
The gorgeous videos accompanying the three sublime tracks "Pistols at Dawn", "Hard Time" and "Younger" wisely feature the charismatic Sey herself; all three are composed of stirring imagery that fully compliment her powerful vocals. The three clips were directed by Christian Larson (Sweden), Casper Balslev (Denmark) and Gustav Johansson (Sweden), respectively.
An excellent interview with Sey was published in Swedish magazine Nöjesguiden in March; it was conducted by its editor-in-chief Amat Levin. (NOTE: Though far from perfect, the various instant translation services available on the web will provide non-Swedish readers a better-than-nothing alternative.)
Malawian-Swedish duo (founded in London as a trio in 2006) The Very Best released their third full-length 'Makes a King' on April 7. Esau Mwamwaya and Johan Hugo (formerly known as Johan Karlberg) recorded the album live with a stellar full Malawian band in the village M'dala Chikowa.
The sublime tracks "Let Go" and "Hear Me Now" showcase Mwamwaya's gorgeous vocals and are accompanied by excellent videos. Thefirstis a humorous animated clip meant to resemble an old 8-bit game; it was created by the duo in collaboration with Pappas Pärlor (= Daddy´s Beads), a small Swedish company headed by another Johan - Johan Karlgren - who creates intricate pixel like art work with plastic beads. The second clip consists of beautiful time lapse footage shot/edited by Hugo and features Mwamwaya.
Songkick lists a total of four shows in June; including a performance Sunday, June 14 from 4:15 - 5:15 pm at this year's Bonnaroo festival. A fifth date has just been announced on Facebook: Friday June 12 at the annual Northside festival in Brooklyn; the concert in McCarren Park, Williamsburg is free and starts at 5:30 pm. Make sure to check their Facebook page for updates on additional summer gigs.
Hot Chip will be touring their native UK as well as continental Europe and the U.S. between May 12 and October 22 in support of their sixth studio album which drops May 18. Entitled 'Why Make Sense?', it includes the stellar track "Need You Now". The excellent accompanying creepy-comic video features lead vocalist Alexis Taylor; the clip was directed by acclaimed London-based collective Shynola.
UK trio The Prodigy dropped their sixth studio album 'The Day Is My Enemy' March 30; it's the first since 2009. No less than five singles have been released so far, two of which are accompanied by very powerful animated videos that are a perfect match for the band's trademark kinetic sound.
The clip for the track "Wild Frontier" was created by Dutch stop motion animator Mascha Halberstad of Superfelix; "Nasty" was co-directed by Oliver Jones and Brandon Kahn of Midland based collective Better Feeling Films.
Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim (pluslive members Leo Crabtree and Rob Holliday) have ten UK shows May 4 - 16. Between June 5 and August 23 they'll be playing at seventeen summer festivals; most of them in continental Europe and in the UK; August 9 and August 14 however they'll be performing in Incheon, South Korea and in Tokyo, respectively.
On a personal and very trippy note relating to the two videos: today, for the first time in my life, I saw a fox. At dusk she/he dashed through the garden of the suburban house north of Copenhagen where I'm currently visiting. Life is stranger than fiction, n'est pas?
A stunning song + a stunning video = a very happy music blogger.
24-year-old Ghana-born/UK-raised Kwabena Sarkodee Adjepong aka Kwabs and London-based director George Belfield more than deliver with "Perfect Ruin", shot in and around Luleå in Northern Sweden. The track is taken from the singer-songwriter's debut full-length 'Love + War' which drops May 18.
Kwabs is currently on tour: he has a gig in Hamburg tomorrow Wednesday plus four UK gigs April 21, 22, 25, 26. Friday's show in Copenhagen has been cancelled; however, he will be at the Roskilde Festival which takes place June 27 - July 4. He is also scheduled to perform at several summer festivals in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and Germany between June and September.
The season 1 finale of sublime Breaking Bad prequel/spin-off Better Call Saul premiered earlier this week on AMC and Netflix. Its many rabid fans - including this blogger - will no doubt be dealing with severe withdrawal symptoms until season 2 hits the small screen early next year.
The show's delicioustheme was commissioned by acclaimed music supervisor/DJ/record producer Thomas Golubic (Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, etc.), a longtime fan of British trio Little Barrie. Though they have enjoyed some degree of success in the UK/Europe and have achieved near cult status in Japan, they were virtually unknown in the U.S. before Better Call Saul. To seize momentum, the band's label Tummy Touch understandably issued a five-track intro album in late February, but here's hoping Little Barrie won't go down in history solely as "those guys who did that great TV show theme."
Founded in Nottingham in 1999, the London-based band (guitarist/lead singer Barrie Cadogan, drummer/vocalist Virgil Howe, bassist/vocalist Lewis Wharton) have released four stellar full-lengths in the past decade, the latest being last year's superb eleven-song album 'Shadow', my personal favorite. Last week a hot mess of a video was published to accompany the outstanding track "Eyes Were Young'.
NOTE: As evidenced by clip # 2 (uploaded by a fan) when crating the killer theme for Better Call Saul, Cardogan, Howe and Wharton clearly took inspiration from the track "Why Don't You Do It", from their second album 'Stand Your Ground', released in 2007.
Dates: Little Barrie will be playing a show in Belfast April 30 before embarking on a mini-tour of Japan and Vietnam May 22 to 27. They also have a UK gig scheduled for July 25.
Published since 2008, The Nightfly is a non-profit one-woman operation based out of Long Beach/Los Angeles, California. An eclectic virtual music magazine with readers in more than 100 countries, it features videos along with interviews, reviews, news and points of views.
