Suddenly the kind of summer most people appreciate has returned to Sweden. I’m more into rain and cool weather myself as I get rendered fairly useless even at temperatures in the lower 20s, but there’s all of this awesome music that deserves some attention so I’ll anyway have to at least try to get some things done.
Recent Listening
The past week I’ve primarily been listening to my Modern Sky Helsinki playlist, trying to pick my favorites ahead of the festival end of this month. So much good music from so many great artists it’s difficult work, but I’ll need to be able to prioritize what to see when I actually get there. Will share it later on.
Ggotjam Project‘s soundtrack for LINE’s web drama One Summer Day (좋은 날) showed up on Spotify about a week ago, after being released on July 29th. For quite a few years now I’ve felt like the Korean acoustic pop/coffee shop music part of the indie scene is oversaturated so I tend not to pay as much attention to it as I used to, but “Sweet Love” is such a delightful song I couldn’t possibly resist it. Half-whispering female vocals with careful male backing, EZ Kim‘s delivery has me hooked from the first verse and the refrain is just lovely. The strings are really working for me as well.
Thanks to an interview with Angle Magazine I was informed of the awesomeness of 57 already last year, but it took me embarrassingly long to give the duo enough attention. It was only while catching them live during my last Korea visit that I realized what I had been ignoring. Female drummers always impress me and though I’m not usually one to swoon over shirtless men that was so hot. It took me another several months to listen to 57’s self-titled EP–such a solid effort! One of the best releases of 2014 for sure.
Random News
Other great music I count myself lucky to have heard recently is that of we hate jh. The band’s first full-length album The Naive Kids is scheduled for release on August 18th and it’s awesome from beginning till end. Songs are grouped in 3 chapters depending on style: songs with a style like that on last year’s mini album officially, we hate jh; songs with a bigger frame; and songs that are different. I’m particularly fond of the big frame songs myself, but there should be something for everybody.
In other great news, YOUNG,GIFTED&WACK‘s 3rd anniversary compilation 3 Little Wacks is finally out, following a successful crowdfunding campaign during spring. The release includes new songs from Indieful ROK favorites Flash Flood Darlings and saram12saram and several great tracks more.
Blog Stuff
Not much to add on the blog front since the last randomness post: there will be some posts completely dedicated to Modern Sky Helsinki for sure, and it looks like the Top Band 3 commentary series will actually happen! This is also a time of the year with many other talent shows happening, so I’m hoping to get around to writing about those as well. It’s just a question of time.