Signe Svendsen "Hvem vil ikke elskes igen" (2022)

Hvem vil ikke elskes igen

release date Oct. 14, 2022

format: vinyl (LGLP2201) / digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]

producer: Lars Skjærbæk

label: Lydia Gramophone - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Tiden" - 2. "Du fik hendes øjne" - 3. "Hvem vil ikke elskes igen" - 4. "Sig at solen rejser sig" - 6. "Ville give dig alt" - 7. "Hun sagde det" - 9 "Lydia" - 10. "Uden aftale"

5th studio album by Signe Svendsen following a little more than 2½ years after Det forlyder (Jan. 2020) is like all of her albums produced by Skjærbæk, who also contributes on guitars, mandolin, synths, and on backing vocals - his younger brother Troels plays bass, and Lars' daughter Sofie Juliane is backing vocalist. The album has been made with a handful of handpicked musicians, which also include multi-instrumentalist Christoffer Møller, who has often teamed up with Skjærbæk as acclaimed producer-duo Mahler & Bir. Svendsen's own label Lydia Gramophone is named after her grandmother, and she's the centre of the strong "Lydia" (track #9), where Svendsen recounts the harrowing fate of her grandmother.

Hvem vil ikke elskes igen ['Who Wouldn't Be Loved Again'] follows Svendsen's mellow-styled folk, ballad-line of singer / songwriter releases. The pen has been sharpened and the songs appear more personal and really suit the minimalist musical expression on what clearly comes out as Svendsen's best album to date. This is truly an album without fillers and imho, it's the Danish album of the year.

Highly recommended.

[ Gaffa.dk 4 / 6, Politiken, BT 5 / 6 stars ]

Scatterbrain "Keep Dancing" (1981)

Keep Dancing [debut]

release date: Aug. 1981

format: vinyl (IRMG 3) / digital (10 x File, FLAC) (2005 remaster)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]

producer: Scatterbrain, Anders Lind

label: Irmgardz... / Glorious Records - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Neo-Love Tango" - 3. "Vatican Reggae" - 4. "Crosses of Verdun" - 6. "Ice Age" - 8. "Insect Danger" - 10. "Keep Dancing!"

Studio album debut by Danish band Scatterbrain originally released on Irmgardz... The band here consists of founding members Jesper Siberg on vocals, keyboards & electronic percussion, Hilmer Hassig on guitars & synths, Jens Erik Mose on bass & synths, and Morten Torp on vocals & synths. Despite only releasing two albums, Scatterbrain has quite a substantial legacy in Danish music history, where the band stands as forerunners and as the first actual synth-rock band coming out on the punk rock scene.

In retrospect, the band appears influenced by Joy division and to what was perceived as a growing art punk scene at the time counting artist like Magazine, Visage, Gary Numan, and Ultravox and apart from these musical contemporaries it also seems that artists like King Crimson, Brian Eno, and Kraftwerk should be included amongst the band's natural sources of inspiration. This also include inspiration from artistic ideas of visual arts and authors, and Scatterbrain build on cold war politics and a de-humanisation of society, which is also reflected in some of the aforementioned artists' music (with bonds to David Bowie and Lou Reed) and also a similar starting point of contemporary Danish author Michael Strunge and his poetry, e.g. "Skrigerne" (1980) and "Vi folder drømmens faner ud" (1981).

Keep Dancing came out to positive reviews but the band and its music didn't attract a wider audience and Scatterbrain was first and foremost a cult-like band. In retrospect, however, Keep dancing and the band's second album Mountains Go Rhythmic (1984) both stands as highly original releases with the debut as an album that has found status as a cornerstone in modern Danish rock-history.

At the time, I came across the debut and I kept an illegal copy of the record, which I both found challenging but also quite fascinating and unforgettable, although, I also saw it as strange and too experimental for my liking. Many years later, as of 2023, I got hold of the original vinyl issue, and it's definitely an album to know of.

Recommended.

Mellemblond "En jordisk chance" (2021)

En jordisk chance

release date: Nov. 19, 2021

format: digital (11 x Files, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,84]

producer: Mads Brinch, Adrian Aurelius, Jakob Høyer

label: Møs Møs - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "For at noget kan blomstre" - 2. "Atomernes spil" (4 / 5) - 3. "Blæsten i træerne" - 7. "Det der gik i hjertet" - 8. "Hjertets tro" - 9. "Ved at vi skal leve" - 10. "Nattetåge"

6th studio album from Mellemblond released a single year following Solregn. The tracks have alledgedly been composed at the same time as Solregn, but then issued the following year. After all, it's quite a different collection of songs we encounter here. Kristoffer Munck Mortensen - aka Mellemblond - has many faces to showcase, and as he released Solregn it was undoubtedly also his idea to present various songs with a common expression. That album was predominantly acustic with an almost minimalist expression, which was a new side to his talent, and as a contrast, this new collection draws more on some of the qualities you will find on his two albums: Fra et sted (2015) and Guldlokzonen (2018) although, they weren't exactly similar but in terms of arrangements and instrumentation are close. He now mix styles, he previously has exelled with. It's soft melancholic compositions, more raw uptempo rockers, and you'll also find a rather new adventurousness with polished chamber pop. At the same time, it's a style testifying to early 70s, a stream of consciousness wound up on swamp rock-inspiration mixed with folk and modern indie pop in a perfect original tone.

The front cover fits nicely to the content: Munck Mortensen is stationary positioned in bare feet holding his electric guitar in something ressembling a firewood shed. It's directly relatable, signalling a connection to a simple life. Mortensen narrates sincerely and straight-forwardly, and on En jordisk chance the fine lyrics are accompanied by an appropriate amount of electricity and noise without making it wild or pompous.

Kristoffer Munck Mortensen is a rare modern original. He sings and plays distinctively without sounding like foreign examples, and when doing so, he only seems to follow a fundamental desire to communicate. Had he been born in the US or in Britain, he would have outshined John Mayer and Ed Sheeran, but luckily, he wasn't - then we do have someone, they cannot touch.

At this advanced stage of the year, En jordisk chance enlists as Danish Album of the Year and simultaneously, it also arrives as one of the best albums of 2021.

Highly recommended.

[ Gaffa.dk 4 / 6, Jyllands-Posten 5 / 6 stars ]

Mellemblond "Solregn" (2020)

Solregn

release date: Sep. 11, 2020

format: vinyl (MØS 017) / digital (11 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]

producer: Brian Mørk Hansen

label: Møs Møs - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Hvor er magien" - 2. "Vildrede" - 3. "Et øje" - 4. "I mit stille sind" - 5. "Levende stemmer" - 6. "Mørkt stof" - 7. "Solregn" - 8. "Vinterskæbner" - 10. "Vågnede en morgen"

5th studio album from Mellemblond aka Kristoffer Munck Mortensen as follow-up to Guldlokzonen (May 2018), is like that issued on the small independent label Møs Møs located in Copenhagen.

This new album is exclusively acoustic tracks - of which five of eleven are Kristoffer Munck Mortensen's own reinterpretations of older songs, while the other six are new compositions. I imagine the 'old' songs have been given another present life through live versions and via the restrictive (long) quarantine period that was still a reality in relation with the release. The track "Vildrede" is a duet, also released as a single, credited Mellemblond and Kira Skov. In addition to Munck Mortensen (and Kira Skov on track #2), only other musician participating here is the experienced jazz bassist Nils Davidsen, who is also credited on cello.

Solregn has garnered positive feedback and the song "Vinterskæbner" from Guldlokzonen and "Et øje" from Lysvågen (Mar. 2013) have received some airplay on (national radio) Danmarks Radio P3 and P4, and the album is also a quite unique release. Mellemblond has been a musical project right from the start, where it is clear that the poetic side has played a major part. Munck Mortensen has his own distinctive vocal, but it's especially the lyrical dimension of his songs that elevates the compositions to something other than ordinary pop music. In this way, he has managed to bring something other into the music than what we usually find in Danish-language music, and there is a consonance with late Eik Skaløe (from Steppeulvene), Povl Dissing (who sings Benny Andersen), and Trille, who are all musicians with a distinct lyrical quality and who have bridged to a textual universe much closer to that of author Tove Ditlevsen than the majority of other Danish songwriters have succesfully made attempts to build a kindred relationship with.

The gentle post-production, and the completely simple soundscape make the lyrics stand out even more clearly. You may think what you want concerning doing reinterpretations of one's own melodies - but this way, at least they get an intentional new and different life, which in a way reminds me of how British band Tindersticks in 2013 succesfully made the album Across Six Leap Years.

Solregn is downright excellent in places. Heartfelt and sensual. This is music with great depth.

Great recommendation from here.

[ 👍Gaffa.dk 5 / 6 stars ]

// - - -

3 versions of "Et øje" by Mellemblond

• 2012 single version
• 2013 album version
• 2020 acoustic version

Gregory Porter "All Rise" (2020)

All Rise

release date: Aug. 28, 2020
format: 2 lp vinyl (gatefold, pink vinyl) / digital (16 x File, FLAC - Deluxe)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Kamau Kenyatta, Troy Miller, Gregory Porter
label: Blue Note / Decca Records - nationality: USA

6th studio album by Gregory Porter is originally released on Blue Note and Verve in the US and on Blue Note / Decca in the EU. The album comes in many formats and in at least two versions as far as track numbers concern. The various cd versions contain 13 tracks as does the European - traditional and pink vinyl - 2 lp editions, but it also comes in a Dutch 3 lp version and a cassette edition both containing two bonus tracks, and it also comes as a 16 tracks digital Deluxe album (Qobuz). This rises a bit of a negative aspect about his releases, I think, 'cause with a running time at just over one hour, the thirteen tracks could be fitted on a normal 1-disc issue, and fifteen tracks would then be "the excuse" to release the Deluxe edition as a double album - though only on vinyl - but it has become a bit of a habit that Porter's album's are released as standard double albums despite not running that long. Three tracks on each side of the vinyl issue results in short playing times at approx. 15 mins. It's hardly compressed adding one or two tracks to each side.
Another thing is the cover art.... and let's just get straight to the point: Porter's front covers have never been about art, or attempts at making great art work, but let's be frank, it has never been this poor, and a triangle with the title alone would even be an improvement.
That bit aside, and speaking entirely of the musical qualities, All Rise is yet another strong evidence of Porter's composer and vocal qualities that simply makes him the king of contemporary vocal jazz. Gregory Porter has relaunched jazz as an everlasting and very modern genre by adding stylistic elements from contemporary popular music - be it funk, pop, or soul. It's remarkable how this man is able to write and compose songs of near classic status over and over again, and that's perhaps where this new collection may feel like an exercise in treading water.
Recommended.

Lise Westzynthius "JA" (2018)

JA

release date: Sep. 14, 2018

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,22]

producer: Camillo Gino, Lise Westzynthius

label: Heavypop / DME - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Mommo" - 2. "Flyv mig ind" - 3. "Kaster dig op" - 4. "Laura Palmer" - 8. "På den anden side" - 10. "Fuck. Du forlader mig aldrig"

5th studio album by Lise Westzynthius following 6½ years after Tæt på en kold favn (Mar. 2012) issued on Westzynthius own label Heavypop via Danish Music & Entertainment and co-produced by Westzynthius and Camillo Gino (Askjær) (guitarist in the Danish band Rum 37). All songs are credited Westzynthius alone except two compositions: tracks #3 and #4, which are both co-written by Bjørn Rasmussen. Btw. "Laura Palmer" is translated dialogue (by David Lynch) taken from the Twin Peaks TV-series.

Apparently, and according to Westzynthius herself, she spent some years after her 2012 album finding back on her feet. From her own website it's described as she took "...a deeper dive into her inner self. This lead to a journey of 6-7 years within the fields of body work, shamanism, hypnosis, ayahuasca, tantra, meditation, etc. All along the way, new songs were born, and Lise slowly started working on them together with a good friend, Camillo Gino."  According to Westzynthius this journey was a healing process, where she focussed on being more minded on her physical conditions because she has had a natural way of dealing with emotional aspects, and she need more grounding. In this regard, JA ["YES"] is a way of meeting and focussing on positive aspects of life, and if that includes being stark-naked, Westzynthius has no reservations with that.

Musically, the album mostly follows the tone of her 2012 album. The biggest difference is her extreme positivism, which at times tend to be an expression touching on naivety. Lyrically, she has certainly evolved. Where early lyrics bore traits of obscurity and mysticism, which involved some kind of deciphering of her lyrics, she now expresses herself in a much more direct manner. Thematically, she hasn't completely left her divorce, she returns to the memory of her ex-husband in several lyrics, e.g. on "På den anden side", which also recounts the title of the debut album by her ex-husband, and at the same time she keeps repeating that she's looking forward to meeting his real self "On the Other Side" [of what? When they are dead? Or, when she's finally over the break-up and they can meet again?], but the overall impression is an artist, who appears more willing to experiment. I'm not fully convinced about the end result, though. There's a blue-eyed and near new-religious tone to most of her songs that keeps bothering me but apart from that, it's just nice to have Westzynthius back.

[ Gaffa.dk, Soundvenue 5 / 6, Undertoner 2,5 / 6 stars, Information review ]

Best of 2015:Mellemblond "Fra et sted" (2015)

Fra et sted
release date: Apr. 20, 2015
format: vinyl (Mellem 02 lp) / digital (10 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]
producer: Mads Brinch Nielsen
label: Mellemblond (self-released) - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Fra et sted" - 2. "Ryster" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Ned i et hul" (4 / 5) - 5. "Glimtvis" - 6. "Jeg må le" - 7. "Nord" - 8. "Til ilden" (4,5 / 5) - 9. "Barfodet"

[ SoundCloud playlist ] [ full album ]

3rd studio album by Mellemblond (aka Kristoffer Munck Mortensen) following two years after the album Lysvågen has so far only been released on vinyl, for streaming through various services, and for digital download as a self-released album.

Not only has the album been established with a strong production sound balancing the style somewhere between garage rock, neo-psychedelia and singer / songwriter, but it also contains a number of truly great songs, which makes this music-project one of the most interesting Danish acts at the moment. This is not yet another artist simply copying styles and movements on the international music scene. Instead, it's highly original with reminiscences of, or a unique conglomerate of psychedelic rock of the late 60s, swamp rock of the early 70s and folk rock in a 60s / 70s / 80s kind-of-style.

I really enjoy this album, which I initially only purchased for digital download. The streaming and download sound quality was, however, for the first years limited to mp3-format in 320kbps. I really missed having the opportunity to be able to purchase a cd with liner notes and listening to high-end sound quality, but I guess, that's how things are to be for the time being. Artists who have little backup from a record label need to fund everything themselves and quite naturally they (have to) choose what makes things go around, and then most consumers are satisfied with Spotyfie and bApple Music services... as well as a Sönos [mono !] speaker that goes well with the furniture... [ffs!!]. Fortunately, the album also comes in vinyl format, and that is the right choice.

On previous releases Mortensen provided great tracks and quite original lyrics, but here it just seems like he really has found his feet as a more comfortable songwriter and on top of that also showcases an ability of composing simple, elegant and truly sincere music cut to the bone.

Fra et sted sums up the past six decades of folk rock and psychedelic rock with bonds to the best songwriting talents combined with a quality stamp as warranty of Danish poetry. It's truly remarkable and easily the so far best album from this gifted artist. It also happens to be my absolute favourite of 2015, a rare verdict when comparing to international releases but this is already an all-time favourite and naturally a highly recommended album.

[ Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, Undertoner 4,5 / 6 stars ]

//--- EDIT 2021:

As of 2021 the album has been made available in FLAC-format (Qobuz.com + bandcamp.com). ---//

2015 Favourite releases: 1. Mellemblond Fra et sted - 2. Paul Weller Saturns Pattern - 3. Alabama Shakes Sound & Color

Mellemblond "Et øje" (2012), single

Et øje, single
release date: Nov. 12, 2012
format: digital
[single rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]

Single track: "Et øje"

A fine single release by Mellemblond from the band's forthcoming album. This shows the continued change of style more evidently away from the distorted guitars and simple production into more contemporary champer pop. Here the lead vocalist Kristoffer Munck Mortensen sounds more like Danish Lars H.U.G. than the late Eik Skaløe from Steppeulvene as he tended do assimilate on the debut.

Last Dinosaurs "Back From the Dead" (2010)

Back From the Dead (EP) [debut]

release date: Feb. 26, 2010

format: digital (6 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,28]

producer: Jono Ma

label: Dew Process - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Honolulu" - 2. "As Far as You're Concerned" - 3. "Saturn" - 4. "Alps"

Studio ep debut by Australian quartet Last Dinosaurs consisting of the brothers Caskey: Sean on vocals and rhythm guitar and (younger brother) Lachlan on lead guitar and backing vocals together with bassist Sam Gethin-Jones and drummer Dan Koyama.

This Ep-debut is a melodic and energetic fusion of light-hearted melody-based indie pop with influence from a native pop / rock tradition, and with bonds to British / American and Japanese culture. The songs are well-executed - the only flaw is a tendency to over-simplify arrangements and song structure with an end result putting much focus on short hooks and chorus lines. That said, Last Dinosaurs are definitely worth checking out.