There are a number of ominously titled singles around at the moment. There’s one called ‘Judgement Day’ coming up soon but more about...

Many of you outside Iceland will already be aware of the ancient hymn 'Heyr himna smiður', not I suspect because you’re experts on 12th...

We haven’t featured Finnish musician Ville Laaksonen before, either as a songwriter or under his pseudonym Emilie Chardon, through which...

Sometimes when bands emerge on the scene and say that they’ll be playing the main stage at Reading / Leeds next then it sounds somewhat...

The adjective ‘derivative’ is thrown around perhaps too casually among music writers. Often it is used in a negative sense, such as...

Jazz seems to dominate the music scene in Norway. Even if it isn’t a jazz track you’re listening to there will be at least a snatch of...

It’s good to have the flying Finns Color Dolor back, it seems like an age since their last full-length album, the Teosto prize winning...

I wrote about Svavar Knútur recently when I came across an old track of his called ‘Tiger and Bear’, knowing that there was new music on...

Yes I’m still going on about the Eurovision Song Contest, but in fairness I did find it fairly inspirational as I thought the quality and...

So I’ve got this Nordicvision ‘smackdown’ (to keep David’s theme going from yesterday) thing going on between Sweden and Finland for my...

Sometimes I get almost overwhelmed by how lucky I am to be editing / writing for NMR. Two releases sent to me today by two of my...

I just read Andy’s in-depth analysis of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest and his tips and now I’m off to Betfred to take a punt on...

“It’s a game of two halves, Gary”. How many times have we heard that nonsense on Match of the Day? And I was surprised to find this new...

I was watching the second Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest last night and considering ‘what makes a good pop song’. I was none...

There have been many singles, five of them at least, from ViVii’s second album, ‘Mondays’, which arrives on 21st May and it was my...

Flicking through the 13 tracks of Miljon’s debut album for a sampler I couldn’t resist ‘Windows 79’ mainly because I recently subjected...

We featured Stoned Statues earlier, so I’ll go for a Finnish punk double courtesy of moshimoshi, who recently released their EP, simply...

We featured Stoned Statues previously and the Finnish trio have returned this week with a new track which is equally good, possibly even...

Helax is a side project of Swedish-born (Uppsala) but now Berlin-based Jon Alexander Ericson, who is better known these days as one half...

It seems that Astrid Swan isn’t a material girl, as this song, ‘Silvi’s Dream’ celebrates “immaterial permanence.” It’s her first solo...