Lust for Youth / War - The Glass House Etiquette

 2011; 2 tracks  Here is a split between Swedish lo-fi synth duo Lust For Youth and War, another fuzzy synth/post-punk that features members of the bands Iceage and Sexdrome. Both groups are signed to Posh Isolation (with LFY being also signed to Italian record label Avant!), a Danish underground label that releases music of a primarily dark, melancholic, harsh industrial and noisy variety.

01 Lust For Youth - Denial, Veronica
02 War - Somme, Maggio

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International Harvester - Sov Gott Rose-Marie

1968-69 (2001); 14 tracks
Sov Gott Rose-Marie is this underground Swedish experimental/psychedelic/folk ensemble's first and only release. International Harvester became Träd, Gräs och Stenar in 1969, and continue to create more prog/Amon Düül II-ish type stuff, but that is beside the point.

This is an absolutely, absolutely ABSOLUTELY stunning album. Completely stunning. Listening to it now on repeat, I am just in utter awe of the perfect, intimate beauty of these songs. I am reminded of some Bergman films, like Summer with Monika and Wild Strawberries. A mystery that is transcendental, warm and radiant. Communal peace and stability achieved through glorious repetition. Candid minimalism - children yelling as they play, the music grows dark yet women still sing. One can just envision charcoal-colored smoke rising from a gathering, many heads hung over a fire as the music carries their souls across worlds and universes unknown. A dog barks. Each track on Sov Gott Rose-Marie (Sleep Well Rose-Marie) is like a hand-crafted wooden sculpture. This album is a work of psychedelic magic, mantric lyrics hypnotically chanted in both Swedish and English while traditional melodies and rhythmic, battle-like drums spin away as in some dreamy medieval orchestra on a grassy hillside.

I am in love with this treasure of the past. 

Notes: 

- Tracks 1 to 13 were originally released as an LP in the spring of 1969 by Love Records (Finland). 

- Track 14 is an previously unreleased bonus track. 

- The first eleven tracks and bonus track (14) were recorded on August 10-12th 1968 in Nacka Aula, Stockholm, directly on two channels with natural acoustics. The effects were made afterwards.


and suddenly i realize that you are bound to die

Air France - No Way Down EP

2008; 6 tracks

Air France is a Swedish indie/pop/folk band. All I can say about this likeable EP is it's dreaminess is the greatest thing about it.

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