Jesus and Mary Chain - In a Hole

HÅKAN HELLSTRÖM // KÄNN INGEN SORG FÖR MIG GÖTEBORG

(Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg, 2000)

Whoooo... Some songs about being sad, in love, and drunk. How simple can it be?

Håkan Hellström is a Swedish singer-songwriter, who in Denmark is seen a bit like Scandinavia's Morrissey. In Sweden he has by some gained the same reputation, but the majority of Swedes I know, consider him as a pathetic ugly plague, who can't sing.

Personally I think he sings fantastic, and if I was gay I would rather fuck him than any other guy in the world...

Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg was his debut-album, and was released in 2000, where it became a big sensation in Sweden. It reached number one on the Swedish album chart, it received amazing critical acclaim, and won several awards.

The reason why he became so popular, beyond he is simply a fantastic songwriter, has probably something to do with the fact that he's so sincere and heartfelt - much more than anyone else of his colleagues on the Top 10 charts.

Particular this album is very honest...

”Ge mig arsenik, för stan är full av tanter och tragik
Pulver hjälpte mig verkligen, skriv det här i tidningen
För jag var nere men uppe på fem
Lillebror, bli inte som jag när du blir stor
Du stod i dörren och sa, är det här allt det bli så dör jag”

“English: Give me arsenic, 'cause the city is filled with old ladies and tragedy
Powder really helped me, write this in the paper
'Cause I was down but up again at the count of five
Little brother, don't become like me when you grow up
You stood in the doorway and said, I'll die if this is all”

From: Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg (Don't feel no grief for me Gothenburg)

... and poetic not at least - like this phrase, which I always have found fantastic:

"Eva jag hänger mig för kärleken", "Men va inte så högtidlig - du med din dramatik och stesolid"

“English: “Eva I hang myself for love", "But don't be so solemn - you with your drama and diazepam"

From: Uppsnärjd i det blå (Tangled up in blue)

Behind him is an amazing band, which among other instruments plays exceptionally lively guitar, melodic saxophone, and wild bongo rhythms, and like no one else in the in world Håkan manages to surpass the energy from his band. Just imagine a drunken Morrissey dancing sadly around in a disco, and you pretty much got the spirit of the album.

The majority of legends within the post-punk movement are prone to be so heavily depressing that it's extremely hard for an average escapist to relate to their universe in a normal state of mind. That isn't a problem with Josef K:

"Sorry for laughing
there's too much happening
sorry for laughing
there's too much happening"

(Track 10: Sorry for laughing)

It's actually music you can introduce for a friend, who isn't into this kind of music... But Josef K, who has taken their name from the main character of Kafka's novel The Trial, are defiantly also mysterious and obscure:

"So I'll disappear through the crack in the wall and the memories I leave will be nothing at all"

(Track 4: It's kinda funny)

The instrumental part is scratchy and melodious in a lovely way that makes the almost 30 minutes together with Josef K to an absolute pleasure.

epo-555 - Tess La Coil

Belle & Sebastian - Electric Renaissance

Björk - Human

Maybe it sounds a little religious, but in some perspectives I do actually hate science. Darwinian literary studies make me sick, and when doctors, biologists, psychologists, mathematicians etc. define love and beauty it’s getting decidedly depressing.

Their conclusions are moreover often fucked up or in conflict with their colleagues, common sense, and reality. Perhaps ignorance is the best way to deal with it…

I don’t think it’s Björk’s intention to give a response to this kind of science, since I’m as an inveterate Björk listener is quite sure about the fact that Björk simply just lives out her own universe.

“And there's no map
And a compass
Wouldn't help at all

Human behaviour, human, human
Human behaviour, human,
Human behaviour, human,
Human behaviour

There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic”

… nevertheless she’s right. Definitely, definitely, definitely right…

Echo and the Bunnymen - Stars are Stars

Crystal Castles - Crimewave

Crystal Castles has with their sound and attitude caught something in their music, which I truly can relate to.

Emptiness, dreams (hope), and more emptiness… Moreover their music actually sounds like something, which has been made in this millennium.

I think Crimewave is a perfect pop tune and one of their best songs. It’s extremely stylish, sexy and fits exceptionally well to Crystal Castles’ visual identity.

Many seem to dislike the fact that you can’t hear what lead singer Alice Glass singing, but I think that’s a very conservative and superficial way to dismiss the song as an aesthetic statement.

The structure of the song is also very special. They have (just) taken the lyrics from Health’s original version and repeated it eight times.

“Eyes lit
I pawn short breaths
A fawn's dark eye lids
But life's breath like a sun against my head”

… a little pop minimalistic master stroke!

The Dwarves - Fuck You Up And Get High, 1990

Under Byen - Remix 2 (2004)




Under Byen is a Danish eight piece experimental orchestra, who since their debut album “Kyst” from 1999 slightly has become more and more famous for their very unique contribution to modern rock/pop music.

Lead singer Henriette sings like a whispering Björk, and her sensual voice is supported by a wild and multifarious sound of both modern and traditional percussions, stringed, and wind instruments. Many foreign reviewers compare Under Byen with Sigur Ros, but where the Icelanders are a little new age-like, Under Byen is a more unbalanced experience.

Remix 2 contains remixes of songs from the album “Det Er Mig Der Holder Træerne Sammen” (Danish for “It’s Me Who Keeps the Trees Together”) from 2002. We still hear Henriette’s whispering voice, and the compositions are still very much based on Under Byen’s work, but it’s all crashed into new melodies by different Scandinavian electronic artists.

The album is an interesting experience for people who already adore Under Byen, but for people who haven’t heard the band yet, I will say it’s an excellent introduction to Scandinavia’s experimental music scene.

Tracklist:
1. Xploding Plastix - Det er mig, der holder træerne sammen
2. Mikael Simpson - Legesag/Under Skyen version 1
3. Ilz - Plantage (Torsdagshugo)
4. Mikael Simpson - Legesag/Under Skyen Version 2
5. Jomi Massage - Mission
6. Sofus Forsberg - Plantage (HWok-mix)
7. Waldchengarten - Om Vinteren
8. Puzzleweasel - Puzzleweasel

Curent life/death situation (17 May 2010 - Høng) ---

Just recieved this e-mail some minutes ago:

Hi Peter,

I left you voicemails on both your phones because we have received extremely bad news from Marieke at Accenture.
The project you were going to start on has been cancelled for the complete Scandinavian team!

Due to this it is urgent for you to cancel all your plans concerning your moving for this job.

I can be reached for more details.

I'm very sorry to bring you this bad news....

Best regards,
Zoridza

Seriously. I have absolutely no idea about what I should do now. No money and no Amsterdam...

Heaven knows I'm miserable now...

Joy Division - Closer, 1980 ---

I think one of the reasons, why this album is so amazingly beautiful, lays in how Closer starts and how it ends. How it takes me as a listener from one depressive state of mind to another depressive state of mind, without the music lose its strong intensity.

"Can I go on with this train of defense
Disturbing and purging my mind
I count up my duties -
when all's said and done
I know that I'll lose every time"

"Mother, I tried, please believe me
I'm doing the best that I can
I'm ashamed of the things
I've been put through
I'm ashamed of the person I am"

The lyrics in the first five songs contain a lot of frustration, and there are concrete references to lead singer Ian Curtis’ life. While the music is organized a little messy with mechanical sound effects, aggressive drum play, and scratchy guitars.

"Instants that can still betray us
A journey that leads to the sun
Soulless and bent on destruction"

From the sixth track, Heart and Soul, Closer takes a new direction. The sound is still very mechanical, and the lyrics are still depressive, but how the lyrics are depressing is different. It’s not as concrete as the first part – it’s more reflective, which serve to depict Curtis’ depression as a strangely beautiful thing for me as a listener.

After Heart and Soul the album is brought to an end by a famous trilogy of songs called Twenty Four Hours, The Eternal, and Decades - from which the sound also takes a new direction.

"I never realized the lengths’
I'd have to go
All the darkest corners of a sense
I didn't know"

"Procession moves on, the shouting is over
Praise to the glory of loved ones
now gone"

"Weary inside, now our hearts
lost forever
Can't replace the fear
or the thrill of the chase
These rituals showed up the door
for our wanderings
Opened and shut, then slammed
in our face
Where have they been"

The mechanical and aggressive sound is replaced with something very atmospheric. There are careful synth elements, light piano tones, and the soundscape is altogether incredible multifarious. It’s like these three tracks change Closer from being another almost perfect album to be the most perfect album ever made.

Tracklist:

1. Atrocity Exhibition
2. Isolation
3. Passover
4. Colony
5. A Means to an End
6. Heart and Soul
7. Twenty Four Hours
8. The Eternal
9. Decades

Sonic Youth - Mote, 1990

My Bloody Valentine - Strawberry Wine, 1987

Current life/death situation (13th of April - Amsterdam)

Listen close and don't be stoned...

After living almost 2 months in a youth hostel in Amsterdam with almost no money, I finally found some work I would like to do.

I'm going to be some Business Deployment Focal Point, from the 1st of June though, so I need to go back to Denmark for some time.

But I feel quite happy about the situation. I will spend my summer in lovely Amsterdam instead of rainy Dublin or the Danish country side. Furthermore, a Dutch girl I´ve met can maybe get me an extremely cheap room in a squat in the city center of Amsterdam.

Think I will celebrate it all by buying some books and a prostitute......



(Don't really have the balls or the morale to buy a human being - guess it will be some weed instead.)


I'm defiantly also going to update my blog a bit more. Some time on the Danish countryside (the epic center of emptiness) will probably move my blog to a new (and so far never seen) pseudo artistic level.

New Order - Temptation

There is just something fairly special about the lyrics in this song.

For instance there is this phrase:

"Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got grey eyes
And I've never seen anyone quite like you before
No, I've never met anyone quite like you before"

I can think about so many memories with this phrase as a jumping-off point.

Kissing a girl in Paris, after she laughed at my eyes, a lovely ex-flirt with grey eyes, one with almost black eyes, reflecting disco lights... So many things..

The escapistic, dreamy lyrical touch appears through the whole song

"Up, down, turn me around
Please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone
I'll find my soul as I go home"

"Bolts from above hurt the people down below
People in this world, we have no place to go"

... which the music supports entirely perfect with a danceable, sparkling, and light melody.

hihi hæhæ haha hehe hoho høhø håhå huhu hyhy

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