#album

NMR Indie Playlist

Andy Wors

Oct 21, 2019
3 min

rauður - 'Semilunar' (album)

We have a couple of long outstanding album reviews to bring you this week (apologies again to 'The Sideways'), but we wanted to write briefly about the debut album from Icelandic 'rauður', because this whilst we do love our 'Indie Pop' comfort food, her new album 'Semilunar' takes us into a different dimension completely, and the reality if that it'll probably take months to dissect and comprehend completely. So behind 'rauður' is the musician and producer Auður Viðarsdóttir,

In Short: 'Náttfari' - 'D-Sessions' (album)

Andy Wors

Sep 20, 2019
2 min

In Short: 'Náttfari' - 'D-Sessions' (album)

Sometimes it takes a little longer to develop an emotional connection to an album, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, because whilst albums like 'Beezewax' are an obviously attractive Indie Pop album full of melodies, maybe it lacks the real depth and substance to make it an album I'll keep going back to week on week. But thankfully there are other albums that grow beautifully on me over time, and the new(ish) album from 'Náttfari' does exactly that - 36 minutes of atmos

Album of the Week: 'Monalia'- 'So Much Better'

Andy Wors

May 16, 2019
3 min

Album of the Week: 'Monalia'- 'So Much Better'

I keep hearing that the popularity of albums is on the decline, but sometimes only an album can really define a band, and only through a collection of tracks are they really able to capture our attention - I guess it's the reason we keep on stating that we'll always give priority to albums at Nordic Music Review. Norwegian band 'Monalia' are a great example, I've heard a few individual tracks over the past year and been interested enough to write their album release date dow

Andy Wors

May 10, 2019
3 min

Album of the Week: 'Fródi' - 'Hola'

This was originally meant to be an 'In Short' review, but the Faroese musician Fródi has released an album which has grown on me so much that I felt I should cover it in more depth. His new album is entitled 'Hola' (translated to 'A Hole') and it's a powerful, unusual release, which maintains a sustained vigour through use of minimalist inspired rhythms (and maybe there's some progressive influences in his music too), and when it opens up there's a lovely melodic ambitions as

Album of the Week: 'The Wit' - 'A Whole Article. A Life'

Andy Wors

Feb 22, 2019
4 min

Album of the Week: 'The Wit' - 'A Whole Article. A Life'

So we're a couple of days late again, but we know you're used to being patient, and our Album of the Week is definitely worth waiting for. Until recently 'The Wit' were a completely new name to us, but a single called 'Dead Clones' found its way to us, and we liked what we heard so much we decided to wait for the full album before we wrote about them. I'm so glad we did, because 'A Whole Article. A Life' is the most personally appealing album I've heard this year, with a mixt

Andy Wors

Feb 15, 2019
2 min

Album of the Week: 'Pastis' - 'Circles'

Our Album of the Week is a couple of days later than normal, but we like to think it's a particularly good selection, and it's from a band we've featured a few times before. 'Pastis' are from Finland, and we've followed their progress for some time, featuring their debut EP 'Four Stories', as well as a steady stream of singles in the run up to their debut album 'Circles', which was released last Friday. Originally meeting on the football terraces, they are now a 5 piece ban

Andy Wors

Jan 11, 2019
2 min

'Vestbo Trio' - 'Gentlemen...' (album)

We featured the Swedish improvisation outfit 'Trio Ramberget' yesterday, and we'll keep with the 'trio'; theme with a few words about another 'hot off the press release', this time by Danish instrumental band the 'Vestbo Trio', who feature Michael Vestbo on guitar, supported by Eddi Jari and Jesper Smalbro on drums / percussion and electric / acoustic bass respectively. We wrote about these guys back in 2015 when they released an album entitled 'While You Were Gone' - still

'Caper Clowns' - ' A Salty Taste To The Lake' (Album)

Andy Wors

Nov 21, 2018
2 min

'Caper Clowns' - ' A Salty Taste To The Lake' (Album)

I'm not convinced too many people read every word of our long detailed reviews, so we'll do our best to keep our 'Caper Clowns' waffling relatively short and sweet. Instead we'll simply point you all in the direction of the curiously named 'A Salty Taste To The Lake' before heading off for a cup of finest British tea (even if we're far more European right now), content in the knowledge that we've recommended an Album that will keep you entertained to the end of the year. OK m

'Cinnamon Space Machine' - 'Captain's Log' (album)

Andy Wors

Oct 10, 2018
3 min

'Cinnamon Space Machine' - 'Captain's Log' (album)

Music arrives to Nordic Music Review in all kind of ways - emails, the excellent Submit Hub, twitter messages, by scouring other (far more reliable...) music websites, Bandcamp, Nordic gig and festival listings, the list is simply endless. How Swedish 4 piece band 'Cinnamon Space Machine' ended up downloaded on our new album playlist on Spotify (many months back) is more confusing, they just simply appeared one day, and maybe that's appropriate for a psychedelic rock band who

Andy Wors

Apr 6, 2018
3 min

Stina Stjern - 'Kap Herschell' (album)

I've been carrying a few albums around with me for the last 2 weeks, one of which (Catch the Breeze) we've already covered briefly, but the album that I've listened to most is Norwegian singer songwriter Stina Stjern's release 'Kap Herschell', which has undoubtedly taken me a fair time to really get into, but is certainly one of the more rewarding albums I've listened to in quite a time. There is a depth and a complexity that to me is very appealing, and there is a real indi

Andy Wors

Mar 5, 2018
3 min

Mantaray - 'No More Sirens'

We promised that we would feature far more post rock music this year, and one item on my huge list of untouched tasks is to spend a few hours exploring the interweb trying to identify as many slightly less well known Nordic post rock bands for future features. So maybe a review of the new album 'No More Sirens' by Finnish band 'Mantaray' will help point is in direction of some great new music, and result in a surge of Finnish music submissions too - we can only hope. So 'Mant

Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS - 'Jazzbelle 1984 / 1988'

Andy Wors

Feb 6, 2018
2 min

Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS - 'Jazzbelle 1984 / 1988'

I probably need to start off with a bit of a confession and an apology when it comes to 'Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS' because we've never actually featured them in Nordic Music Review, despite first coming across them in the very early weeks of the website. They are, after all, a band that you can't quite forget the name of, and I have considered writing about them a number of times, but for one reason or another I've never quite got to them. Thankfully the

Andy Wors

Jan 18, 2018
3 min

Peace on Earth - 'Silent Killer'

We've covered a fair range of styles in the last week, some Swedish post metal as well as some pretty easy listening Power Pop, so it's good to be able to mix that up by covering a band who today have released an album full of continuous rock noise. 'Peace on Earth' are from Gothenburg and they are a trio of musicians, which is somewhat surprising given they collectively produce enough of a racket for at least a 5 piece band. Their debut album 'Silent Killer' is described by

Andy Wors

Jan 16, 2018
2 min

'In Deed' - Everest

We're continuing our voyage back into 2017 to pick up some of the albums that we either missed or arrived just too late in the year to do a review. We haven't forgotten about Code Electro, Juha Kajanaa, Svankropp or even the lovely Canigou EP, and we will still try and get to them if we can. We'll start off heading to Sweden and 'In Deed', a band who've had to wait 16 years to release their 2nd album entitled 'Everest', a follow up to a critically acclaimed debut, which rece

Rami and the Whale - 'Rami and the Whale'

Andy Wors

Jun 15, 2016
2 min

Rami and the Whale - 'Rami and the Whale'

In many ways there are similarities between ‘Rami and the Whale’ (the solo project of Rasmus Blomqvist) to the extraordinary Otto Niklasson Elmerås whom we featured at the end of last week. Both Swedish artists have releases that were written over a 10 year period, and their songs reveal deeply soul searched and powerful reflections on life’s complexities over that period. There are less similarities with the actual musical output, but each is equally convincing in their own

Andy Wors

Jun 15, 2016
2 min

GIRL - 'Sea and Dirt'

We’ll be featuring 2 artists / bands today that rely on the bare minimum of instrumentation when songwriting, the opposite of yesterdays featured band 'The Hallway' who I think use kitchen utensils found lying around the recording studio to add to their cacophony of noise – and very effectively too, may I add. So the first of these is GIRL, a duo from Norway comprising of Christian Winther and Ina Sagstuen, who write stripped back songs predominantly based around acoustic gui

Andy Wors

Jun 8, 2016
2 min

CeaseTone - 'Two Strangers'

One of the big advantages of being a small independent website, who write purely for the love of the music, is that ‘holidays’ are actually a chance to simply listen to even more great new music, and get enthused about what we can feature next. So there I was, sitting on a beach in Mexico, when an email dropped through advising that the debut CeaseTone album ‘Two Strangers’ was being released, and listening to such a breathtakingly good album in such an idyllic surrounding wa

Andy Wors

Apr 11, 2016
3 min

1900 - 'Tekno'

We haven’t written about ‘1900’ before, the project from Swedish musician and composer Christian Gabel, also known for being the drummer in the excellent Bob hund. The previous album was some 7 years ago, but after hearing the pre-album singles we’ve been awaiting release of his latest offering ‘Tekno’, with some intrigue and excitement, because we do like music that is original and challenges us to not always reach for our favourite but predictable melancholy folk or indie g

Another Juggle - 'Dance Sunshine, Dance’

Andy Wors

Mar 28, 2016
2 min

Another Juggle - 'Dance Sunshine, Dance’

So we’ll bring you two shortish reviews for you next, featuring bands from different musical genres and different countries too. Firstly we head back to Denmark and an album from ‘Another Juggle’, a 4 piece Dream Pop band from Copenhagen with some fairly sizable 80s influences. Their album entitled ‘Dance Sunshine, Dance’ is packed full of big tunes, Nordic melancholy and its very easy to listen to. Immediate impressions on opening track ‘Not Now’ are positive, with a slick

Andy Wors

Mar 22, 2016
2 min

Frøkedal - 'Hold On Dreamer'

I wrote way too much about the excellent ‘Giant Giant’. My new years resolution was to write succinct (but hopefully still informative…) reviews on albums, and then hope you would all go and listen for yourself. But I intend to keep my thoughts about Frøkedal and her album ‘Hold on Dreamer’ short anyway, because all I probably need to say is that it is an utterly charming and beautifully written album, and that it should appeal to a wide range of music lovers, irrespective o