I always have a bias for gentle indie folk music, so when Birds are better released his latest single ‘Hymns for the Hope and the Sorrow’, I was pretty sure I’d like it. Fronted by Stian Fjelldal, Birds are better is an Oslo-based folk band birthed from the former’s desire to make music that he’d actually enjoy if he were a listener. This isn’t Stian’s first musical expression as he has been making music for many years (we briefly featured a previous album), even releasing so

Regular readers will know, of course, that we discovered Pinegaze last week, a genre of music specifically aimed at Scandinavian musicians who spend their time starting slightly mournfully into a forest. It’s a genre cousin of Shoegaze, which we haven’t featured much so far this year, so we’re delighted to introduce Indonesian band Meraung, who’ve just released EP ‘Change’. Meraung, of course, means “roar”, with the band helpfully explaining to us that the name was chosen be

I found myself searching through sites like MetaCritic and AlbumoftheYear this morning to try and find new post-rock releases I might have missed, but couldn’t quite find anything that stirred my interest, so it was genuinely lovely to be sent the brand new single by Swedish band ÅHM this afternoon, whom I hadn’t come across previously. And having now spent some time with their earlier tracks, ‘Broken Beam’ feels like the most assured thing ÅHM have released so far. There’s r

We’ve really been treated this week. Firstly Major Parkinson presented their view of the apocalypse, all horns, grand ideas and the faint suggestion of a helicopter or three, and then NMR favourites Phogg arrive with their final track before the releases of their new album. And as ever, the first rule of Phogg Club applies: you never quite know what’s in the Phogg curiosity box until you open it. What’s inside this time is ' Tears' , and straight away we should acknowledge

If the apocalypse really was approaching, I’ve often wondered what the correct response would be. Panic buy pasta? Drive aimlessly and check into a slightly damp end-of-days hotel in Torquay with “ Sea View (Weather Permitting) ” on the sign, queue politely for a final ice cream, and buy a commemorative tea towel? Or maybe, and this feels increasingly sensible, the logical option would be to head to Norway to see a Major Parkinson live show, on the basis that if the world is

I wrote about noisy post punk outfit Green Tea Bitches earlier this week, and couldn’t help pointing out that we do spend a fair amount of time featuring artists that we love very much, but that do seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time staring slightly sadly into a pine forest. Of course I missed the obvious point that this should be a genre in its own right, a distant cousin of Shoegaze, known as Pinegaze (other Nordic tree species are available) and The Quiet No

So here’s a typical Nordic Music Review curiosity who’ve just released their debut track and probably haven’t been featured in many places. Green Tea Bitches are a Chinese / Danish electro post-punk outfit who seem to thrive on contradiction, describing debut track ‘ Bad Taste’ as either “really bad pop” or “really cool post-punk,” depending on your perspective. They’re also probably too Chinese for Denmark, too Danish for China, and too loud for almost everyone. But not for

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 ‘...

I’ve been meaning to write a few words on Swedish project Roy for a while, as I’ve enjoyed all 4 tracks that have been released so far...

I don’t think I’ve covered any Finnish post rock bands recently, probably not since I last wrote about Ghosts on TV. And it was...

I wrote about Cats of Transnistria this week, whom I’ve been writing about for over 10 years, but we also featured Otinget some 3 years...

I first featured Finnish duo Cats of Transnistria in early 2015 but haven’t written about them since 2019, which shows that either I’ve...

I do try and feature some pretty complex music, which always appeals to my Cardiacs / Major Parkinson obsessions, but of course things...

It’s Monday morning, so here’s some timeless Nordic Indie folk to soothe the morning commute, or ease you into the start of your study...