I finished the year with This Heel, the prolific Swedish outfit led by Martin Månsson Sjöstrand, and it turns out Manchester-based Tigers & Flies operate in a remarkably similar musical universe - one where sharp, shout-along Pop Punk tunes are balanced with deliberate, organised chaos. They’ve recently released an album entitled ' Expanded Play' , which helpfully does exactly what it suggests by combining a couple of EPs from the last few years. The result is a hugely enjoya

There are few things I appreciate more at NMR than a band whose ambition wildly exceeds any reasonable scale, so naturally I was delighted to see that This Heel have returned with a new EP boldly titled ‘ Rock the World’ , which to me sounds like a 90s charity stadium concert. But who needs the likes of Live Aid, really, when a determined Swede with a basement full of pedals can do the job in nine minutes flat? Freddie Mercury had Wembley; Martin Månsson Sjöstrand has a pract

We find our music in all kinds of strange places: email submissions, online searches, friends at labels — and occasionally from contacts who apparently only ended up at a gig because their girlfriend needed the bathroom. SlightlyCubic is one of those magical bathroom-break discoveries, and ‘ Facades Departure ’ makes the whole chain of events feel entirely worthwhile. It’s an entertaining, unusual and quietly emotional mix of electronic and ‘classic’ instrumentation that’s k

I doubt whether Björn Yttling does too much sitting around watching the Swedish equivalent of ‘ Homes Under the Hammer’ on his weekday mornings. He is, of course, one-third of the (still touring) Peter Bjorn and John , seemingly produces about half of new Nordic pop releases, and has now re-awakened his Yttling Jazz project for the first time in over a decade — we suspect the man’s concept of “a quiet weekend” involves conducting a small orchestra in his kitchen. His latest

We haven’t quite reached the point yet where we’re President of the Universe, but when we are we’ll of course mandate a number of key Nordic Music Review principles — the first of which we’ve been advocating since 2014: that all bands must be easily Googleable, or that some kind of galactic-wide database exists purely for our purposes in finding them. Because trying to find those extra little snippets of info we like to know whilst researching Swedish West Coast band Wild Oce

It’s been far too long since we last wrote about Phogg , but they’ve returned this year with a series of singles, all typically unpredictable — the latest being “ Mother’s Modern Son.” For a band we once described as a “ curiosity box of warped psychedelia, ” this new single feels like opening that same box in a dusty back room filled with lava lamps, melted candles, and at least one philosophical frog still pondering the meaning of fuzz pedals. The song opens with a flowing

Somewhere between the American West and a middle-class Swedish cul-de-sac (if their video is to be believed), Armadillo King  have once again set up camp — guitars slightly dusty, hats firmly in place, and this time hearts faintly bruised — with new track “Suburban Rose,”  a wistful look at lost love. It’s the start of another chapter in their cinematic world of Americana melancholy, the first song since their 2024 album “Revivals”.  This time we’re treated to that possibly

We’re officially on a four-month countdown to one of our favourite Norwegian bands, Sløtface , arriving in the UK for a three-night tour (opening February 26th) starting at the quite brilliant Exchange in Bristol, before heading to the impressively central The Lower Third in London, and then up North to Soup (formally The Soup Kitchen) in Manchester, which I love even if it does always feels like it needs a damn good clean. In the meantime, “Yes Chef”  should keep us suitably

Do we need to wake up? This should do it perfectly. According to their website, Poor Bamb i surge out of Stavanger like an ‘oil spill… leaving a polluted trail of noise and controlled chaos’. It’s a powerful line in itself, and very apt too because new single ‘ Business or Pleasure ’ is a highly entertaining barrage of guitar, noise rock and punk influenced vocals courtesy of singer Sarah Hestness, guitarist Espen Eidem and drummer Simen Amundrud. There’s quite a few things

Looking bank at old posts it seems that we were the 1st music website to feature Norwegian musician Vilnes when he released his debut ‘...