“If the world is at stake, but you feel nothing.” That’s how Bellefolie describes ‘Beautiful Madness’, and it turns out to be an accurate way in, with opening track ‘Modern Apathy’ setting the tone perfectly. Lyrically it gets your mind working straight away: “Apples hoppin’ off trees into modern apathy, they don’t sound alive at all, staring into coloured walls”, a line that neatly sets out the albums temperature. While the opener quickly grabs your attention, it’s the inst

It’s a welcome update to our Nordic Music Playlist, featuring some of our favourite tracks from the year so far, including our Single of the Week Major Parkinson, the also featured Green Tea Bitches, an excellent track from The Dahmers, a new one from The School Book Depository that we hope to cover in more detail, previously featured Club 8 and JUNG, and many more.

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

Copenhagen based artist Kleo has released her album ‘ Event Horizon ’ through Tambourhinoceros, a soft intimate record that rewards close listening. Built around gentle vocals, subtle electronics, and beautifully restrained string arrangements, it has a calmness to it that makes it easy to enjoy on 1st listen. The lyrics are thoughtful, warm and human too, and you you will really understand Kleo by the end of it. ‘ Stars and UFO’ s feels particularly close up and personal,

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 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