By our fellow bloggers in Situation Skitstörd. You can read the whole interview if you click on the link below. It's in Swedish so our foreign readers will have to excuse us this time.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Kristian Anttila - Innan Bomberna (2005)
Album: Innan Bomberna
Year: 2005
Country: Sweden
Okay, so after Kristian released his first album Natta De Mina, he just disappeared. The only thing we know happened then was a fight between Kristian and the record label. He therefore created his own label two years later and released Innan Bomberna there, and stated "it was the shortest way from his heart to the listener's". Innan Bomberna got praised by reviewers everywhere, and the song Paris got much attention from media since he sang about the riots in Paris imidiately after it happened.
In the process of making this album Kristian got help from other great musicians, making the sound more varied. The sound overall is softer, sugary sweet and playful at times, but still straight forward, fitting Kristian's bipolar personality. If you come across an interview of this man, you should sincerely read it. They're most often completely hilarious, and you don't really know if he's speaking the truth or if he's just making it up. To the question "What would make you happy?" he answers:
"I would probably have to re-live my life from the start to achieve that. What I miss is the ability to feel solidarity, affinity, and to have normal relationships... I don't know. I was about to move to a big house on the countryside last autumn, I though that was the solution back then. I would like to have a lot of animals. And I still have those ideas, I'm just not completely done yet. But I don't feel like any of that today. It's just because I'm horny. I've thought about neutering myself by the way. I would like to see how it is to live without the sex drive. If that's the only thing behind our motivation. To live."
Song(s) you should listen to: This album is full of great catchy danceable tracks! My favourites are probably Bland Bovar Å Banditer, where he sings about getting rid of criminals and troublesome youngsters, while realising he's one of them. I also like the super eccentric and happy Ingenting, Ingenting... Ingenting!!! where Kristian out of nowhere sings about the feeling of rejection, and suicide as the way out.
I told you before that Kristians trademark is that the last track is always the best. On this statement is actually true about the two last tracks. The track Tio is a well-written song about being an outcast, and how no one is able to help you, and it turns quite epic in the end. It also has a wonderful acoustic version, which is almost better than the "real" one. The last track Innan Bomberna is fragile, vulnerable, and heartbreaking, but just as great.
Kristian Anttila - Natta De Mina (2003)
Album: Natta De Mina
Year: 2003
Country: Sweden
Consider this as a warning, but the next four posts will not handle any pretentious metal band from hell. Instead they will be about Kristian Anttila, a peculiar outcast from Gothenburg, who decided he wanted to make music as a teenager. He tried to get into the music business somehow, but always got missunderstood because of the things he wanted to create, or by his slightly bipolar personality. He realised that he would probably have to do this journey alone, so he learned to play some instruments and wrote an album when he was 24 years old. He sended it around to some record labels, and got hooked by National, but they wanted someone else to produce the album to be able to release it. And Natta De Mina is the result of that.
Even though it's a pop album, you will get strucked be the kind of dirty and punky feel it has to it. It's very loud, and a bit hysterical and distorted at times. The lyrics are also quite extreme to be this kind of pop music. He's not afraid to say what he thinks about loaded subjects such as religion and politics, always in a very provocative way. And if that wasn't provocative enough, he most often tops it with sex, violence, and drugs. These are just some of the facts that makes his lyrics great, and if you don't know Swedish... Too bad for you.
Song(s) you should listen to: During the first two tracks Harhjärta and Hetsdöpt you will probably wonder what the fuck is going on. They're both extremely loud and eccentric. After this you will probably get your consciousness back somewhere during the rest of the album.
Kristan Anttila kind of has a trademark in making the last song of the album very soft, vulnerable, and completely wonderful. The last track is always the best when it comes to his works. And so is the case with the last track on Natta De Mina. It's a humble and sweet lullaby, making your ears a bit happier after the pop punk torture.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Suis La Lune - Heir (2008)
Album: Heir
Year: 2008
Country: Sweden
To me it feels like this really good record was released yesterday, and since we haven't uploaded it yet, I decided to do so. I got in complete shock when I realised this was released in 2008. That was like 3 years ago. And so the age crisis kicks in...
Anyways, Suis La Lune has forever been, and will always be, one of Sweden's emo sweethearts. Maybe the whole world's emo sweethearts actually, they've toured Europe and the US after two releases and have been praised since then. Even the fact that their lyrics mostly suck is forgiven. I think people look pass that in this case since you will have trouble hearing the actual words most of the time. They're most often whined or mumbled, or just drowned by the guitar. The vocals are heart aching and perfect for the genre though. They're very picky and careful with writing music, and it shows. Even though it's screamo, and very chaotic at times, their thing is to include very melodic light parts with soft sweeps of hope as well. Which actually makes it pleasant to listen to by others who don't have a sadomasochistic music taste, or like to roll around in self pity.
Song(s) you should listen to: Well, it's just an EP, so you better listen to all four songs. They all shift from soft beautiful melodies to chaotic and epileptic bunny thump parts. Just enough to keep you focused for the next 15 minutes.
Monday, July 18, 2011
I Hate Myself - 3 Songs (2005)
Band; I Hate MyselfAlbum: 3 Songs
Year: 2005
Country: United States
When I choose albums to write about on this blog I try to find albums that are "fresh" or albums that I think deserves more listeners. Very "hipsterish" I know but I just find it more interesting that way. This time we'll try something different. Anyone who consider themselves to be a fan of the emo-genre have most likely already stumbled across I Hate Myself. I guess you can say that they are kind of a "gateway-band" to the genre. This is the last record that the Marburger brothers ever recorded under the name I Hate Myself, since then they have been performing in other bands such as Burnman and Die Hoffnung.
The album was released as a one-sided LP containing three songs (well duh!) and is inspired by the life of Roy Sullivan. Roy Sullivan was a park ranger who lived in Virginia, United States. Between the years 1942-1977 Roy was hit by lightning on seven various occasions but amazingly enough he survived all of them. Eventually people started avoiding the man, afraid that they too would get hit by lightning. That made him very sad of course and on the 28th of September 1983, at the age of 71, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the stomach. I have heard other stories saying he shot himself because his wife left him but it's a very sad story anyway.
"Sadness" is very strongly represented on this album. Unlike earlier releases by I Hate Myself these three songs are very mellow and not as spastic as other songs. Apart from some screaming on the first song Roy Sullivan, By Lightning Loved the lyrics are smoothly sung through the whole album, making this a very soft album compared to they're previous releases. But according to me this is by far the best songs that this band ever recorded. The songs, the aesthetic and the theme of the album is just so perfectly fit together. Apart from that I think that the song is by far the best Jim Marburger has ever sung on a I Hate Myself release, I don't even miss the desperate screaming and the pitiful whining from previous songs.
Whenever I get in the mood for some I Hate Myself this is the record I always put on and I find it very hard to part from it. Not that I would ever want to.
Song(s) you should listen to: My favorite is definitely Roy Sullivan, By Lightning Loved. The middle part is really soothing and that one hit on the snare drum right before the song kicks off at 2:35 always makes me smile. From there the song just pours itself over you with emotion.
The Lightning Says. I can't stop thinking that the last words I Hate Myself ever sung was "I love you, love me too". Brilliant, just brilliant.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Terra Tenebrosa - The Tunnels (2011)
Album: The Tunnels
Year: 2011
Country: Sweden
Some people like to dress up as spooky creatures, run around in the woods, and rehearse in a studio full of dead rats and mould. Include a concept involving a main character with the hazardous name The Cuckoo - an enlighted spirit who tries to bring justice to this world, with help of his two assistants Risperdal and Hibernal (which are also two types of drugs used by patients with mental disorders). Didn't thought such a band existed? Well, let me introduce you to Terra Tenebrosa.
The band members have decided to be anonymous, but it's no secret that two of them were members of the old hardcore band Breach. The idea about Terra Tenebrosa actually started when one of the members rediscovered two songs he wrote for Breach that never got recorded. They experimented a lot with these songs, because they didn't wanted them to sound "too Breach". One of Breach's characteristics is still there in most of the songs though - the heavy cooperation between drums/guitar that will hammer into your head like ten thousand tanks. Other than that, it's not so easy to figure out the influences behind this. It has some really good drone-parts, but other than it's hard to categorize. The overall mood is dark and atmospheric, sometimes actually a bit disturbing. The vocals are haunting and barely there, in fact Terra Tenebrosa was supposed to be an instrumental project from the beginning.
Song(s) you should listen to: Well, if you haven't gotten into a state of apocalyptic headbanging after the first track The Terranbos Prayer, you're simply not human. But if I would have to chose a favourite track, I would probably chose The Mourning Stars, which is actually pretty pleasant to listen to during the first half of the song. Then it makes me almost a bit nauseous, but in some kind of sick sadistic good way, which develops in the following track The Arc Of Descent.
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