I think we‘ve covered (well mainly David to be fair) some pretty good new releases today, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into album releases by Trees up North, Black Twig, Volcano Victims and others over the weekend.
And as if this day just wasn’t good enough, indie pop project The School Book Depository are back with another new release, which I’m guessing (I really should remember to ask) is the latest in the lead up to a new album.
They’re firm favourites at NMR, the project being the invention of Swedish musician Fredrik Solfors, and he’s been responsible for two outstanding albums in the last few years, most recently ‘Bob and the Pitchfork Mob’. Every month I have a new favourite track from those albums, check out ‘Tear in the Fabric’.
Latest track is entitled ‘Killer in the Mountains’, and it actually tells a true story, which Fredrik has been telling us about: “I was ten, family vacation in the Swedish mountains and, as if rain, blisters, freeze dried food and biblical swarms of mosquitoes would not be enough, the place was suddenly invaded by helicopters and police officers. A Dutch couple had been murdered in a tent in our immediate vicinity and you could feel the tension in the air.”
But there’s a 2nd part to the story: “A few years later a man confessed to this crime and a series of other homicides, sparking the greatest judicial scandal in Sweden. It was revealed that a team of prosecutors, therapists and lawyers had encouraged the man to confess to more and more murders by giving him therapeutic sessions, attention and drugs, claiming they could regenerate suppressed memories. As it turned out they were all false confessions.”.
Blimey, and I thought my holidays travelling Europe with a family of 5 crammed into the worlds smallest Sprite Caravan, and being towed by an old Austin Maxi over the Alps was traumatic enough.
I like the way it tells the story, and musically it’s very much in the style of The School Book Depository, albeit with a musical theme which has a slight pentatonic /oriental feel to it. I keep saying it, but he doesn’t write a ‘bad’ song.
I really can’t wait for the album, and it’s good to see the new tracks getting a few more listens on Spotify at least, I know it doesn’t mean a lot, but I think there is a real appreciation growing for what a damn fine songwriter Fredrik Solfors is.
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