One half of the Swedish duo formerly known as The Lovekevins, now The LK, singer-songwriter Fredrik Hultin is branching out on a solo endeavor to win the hearts of kittens and people alike. His debut album, titled The Singing Well, was released in February 2007. [last.fm] Fredrik’s Website Fredrik @ MySpace Fredrik store | e-music | itunes | amazon Download | Subscribe | Subscribe in iTunes
read more »Before I start this thing off let me just say that I hate making lists. I’m more of a pile person. So you won’t see any numbers in the list of albums, rather my top five followed by my other favorites. So here it goes. Nada Surf has been a favorite band of mine since their first album (that was a ways back). It’s amazing how much their sound has matured since then, and Lucky truly shows that they’re on top of their game. It’s indie pop rock at it’s best. And they’re killer live! mp3: Nada Surf - The Fox Buy Lucky (bonus track version) For a while there Department Of Eagles’ In Ear Park was all I was listening to. Daniel Rossen and friends put together a gem of an album that took elements of Grizzly Bear and mashed them up with some McCartney-like pop. mp3: Department Of Eagles - Herring Bone Buy In Ear Park The Walkmen’s You & Me took them from a band that I casually enjoyed from time to time, to a full on wonder that I try to set aside time to listen to when ever I can. The Walkmen have always had an interesting sound that travels from a dark alleyway to an extravagant cathedral, but You & Me magnifies it even more and leaves me in awe. It’s powerful. mp3: The Walkmen - On The Water Buy You & Me It’s rare that an album or person lives up to the hype. Lykke Li and her album Youth Novels does just that. I fell in love with her sound quickly then pushed over the edge with her amazing energy that she puts into her live performances. Despite the insane amount of remixes and radio plays, Youth Novels still hasn’t grown old to me and that’s also rare. mp3: Lykke Li - Little Bit Buy Youth Novels I can’t quite explain why I took to Glasvegas’ debut S/T album his year. Perhaps it was the Beach Boys/Earth Angel/Smiths halo surrounding their black and white sound that enamored me. It might not have a struck others the same way, but for me this album made an lasting impression. mp3: Glasvegas - Daddy’s Gone Buy Glasvegas Those were the main highlights for me, but these albums also brought much joy to me throughout the year: mp3: Eureka Birds - The Still Life Buy Eureka Birds mp3: Beck - Walls Buy Modern Guilt mp3: Mates Of State - My Only Offer Buy Re-Arrange Us mp3: The War On Drugs - Taking The Farm Buy Wagonwheel Blues mp3: Ratatat - Mirando Buy LP3 mp3: Wye Oak - Family Glue Buy If Children mp3: Cadence Weapon - real estate Buy Afterparty Babies mp3: Arizona - Ghost Buy Glowing Bird mp3: The Uglysuit - Happy Yellow Rainbow Buy The Uglysuit mp3: TV On The Radio - Golden Age Buy Dear Science, mp3: Fredrik - 1986 Buy Na Na Ni mp3: El Guincho - Palmitos Park Buy Alegranza mp3: Friendly Fires - In The Hospital Buy Friendly Fires mp3: Takka Takka - Lion In The Waves Buy Migration mp3: The Little Ones - Like A Spoke On A Wheel Buy Morning Tide mp3: Mason Proper - Lock And Key Buy Olly Oxen Free mp3: Tobacco - Tape Eater Buy Fucked Up Friends mp3: Arms - Kids Aflame Buy Kids Aflame mp3: Ra Ra Riot - Ghost Under Rocks Buy The Rhumb Line mp3: MGMT - Time To Pretend Buy Oracular Spectacular Of course there was so much good music flowing out this year it was hard to narrow it down. What were your faves?
read more »Sweden’s indie rock scene is quite strong and I always tend to find a band/artist that I seem to be interested in. Fredrik’s album Na Na Ni was just given a re-release stateside, and I’ve been given a chance to listen to its entirety for the last few weeks. Fredrik’s music is experimental folk (a subgenre that is slowly becoming one of my favorites – however broad). With the use of a cello, banjo and accordion among their set, Fredrik is able to create a variety of sounds that encompasses ambience and post-rock elements that reeled me in. The album kicks off with “Black Fur” with the “oohs” from multiple vocalists. I actually find this song too slowly developing lyrically. The next track is much better, it’s a little faster paced in general and it contains much more normal singing. The next track “Hei Hei” is a simple instrumental track, which sounds like a banjo. The song is good but it instills doubts in the overall flow of the album. Three vastly different songs, variability sometimes is a luxury a lot of bands don’t have but in this case, it may be a little spoiled. My favorite song on the album is “1986”, in this case Fredrik’s singing is absolutely wonderful. I’m not going to say the rest of the alb um wanes but the latter half of the album are mainly lyricless and while musically it’s really good, Fredrik’s vocals just do not deserve to be wasted. Individually each song is very good but the album in general does not equal the total sum of its parts. It just feels so different to hear a song like Alina’s place and 1986 (which is more like a soft pop song) to a full on instrumental. Granted a lot of the time, some artists get this right…I just felt that it didn’t work for me after listening to the album in full for a few times. Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Still each song is great individually. 1986 by Fredrik Alina’s Place by Fredrik No related posts. Sorry.
read more »There’s a bunch of sweet shows tonight and one great one on Monday worth mentioning. Tonight down south in DC the Foreign Exchange and Mark De Clive-Lowe play the Black Cat while a great new band for me, Hooray For Earth plays the Velvet Lounge with Kidnapkin. Up north in Philly Sweden’s Fredrik play the Khyber (don’t miss it!) while Kings Of Leon, We Are Scientists, and The Whigs play the Electric Factory. mp3: Kings Of Leon - Tranny mp3: Hooray For Earth - Heartbeat mp3: The Foreign Exchange - Daykeeper featuring Muhsinah mp3: Fredrik - 1986 On Monday down in Arlington, Iota has a show too good to not mention. Don’t miss out on Junestar, Michael Jantz and the Davenports, and Curly and the Rockets. Enjoy!
read more »El sexteto Fredrik es el nuevo proyecto de Fredrik y Lindefelt, los integrantes del dúo sueco electrónico LK. Su disco debut Na Na Ni salió en enero pero este mes fue lanzado en Estados Unidos por Kora Records. La niñez y cuentos en los que predomina la lógica de los sueños son la base del estilo de la banda. El vocalista Fredrik contestó unas preguntas especialmente para Les Paradis Artificiels. 1986 1986 <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://ninablog.wordpress.com/wp-content/plugins/audio-player/player.swf" width="290" height="24" id="audioplayer1"><param name="movie" value="http://ninablog.wordpress.com/wp-content/plugins/audio-player/player.swf"/><param name="FlashVars" value="&bg=0xf8f8f8&leftbg=0xeeeeee&lefticon=0x666666&rightbg=0xcccccc&rightbghover=0x999999&righticon=0x666666&righticonhover=0xffffff&text=0x666666&slider=0x666666&track=16777215&border=0x666666&loader=0x9FFFB8&soundFile=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sagomusik.com%2Fdownloads%2Ffredrik_nanani_04_1986.mp3"/><param name="quality" value="high"/><param name="menu" value="false"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"/></object> Fredrik en Myspace ¿Cómo fue el proceso para cambiar de un dúo a un sexteto? ¿Cómo conocieron a los demás integrantes? Nunca nos vimos como un dúo para este proyecto, la idea de formar una banda estuvo desde el principio. Pero los dos estuvimos tan involucrados en la creación del disco que antes de que los conociéramos ya habíamos terminado el álbum. El grupo se juntó en el momento de la edición sueca de Na Na Ni y eso transfirió las canciones a un entorno más caótico con cinco extraños tratando de tocar la música. ¿Por qué las letras de las canciones del disco son cuentos? ¿Es un concepto base del estilo de la banda? Contar historias es uno de los elementos clave de Fredrik aunque las palabras no estén implicadas necesariamente en la narrativa. Pueden estar, pero a veces una melodía, un sonido o una TV ruidosa cuentan mejor la historia. No todas las canciones tienen letra pero sí todas son historias. Na Na Ni <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://ninablog.wordpress.com/wp-content/plugins/audio-player/player.swf" width="290" height="24" id="audioplayer1"><param name="movie" value="http://ninablog.wordpress.com/wp-content/plugins/audio-player/player.swf"/><param name="FlashVars" value="&bg=0xf8f8f8&leftbg=0xeeeeee&lefticon=0x666666&rightbg=0xcccccc&rightbghover=0x999999&righticon=0x666666&righticonhover=0xffffff&text=0x666666&slider=0x666666&track=16777215&border=0x666666&loader=0x9FFFB8&soundFile=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sagomusik.com%2Fdownloads%2Ffredrik_nanani_08_nanani.mp3"/><param name="quality" value="high"/><param name="menu" value="false"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"/></object> ¿De qué manera está relacionada la niñez con las canciones? Están basadas en el desorden en el que vienen los recuerdos de esa etapa de la vida. Y como toda buena recolección es todo muy brumoso y sin sentido de la lógica. Nosotros probablemente hemos mezclado nuestras propias infancias con otras, eventos y lugares confusos y así sucesivamente. ¿Quién es el director del video de 1986 y como surgió la idea del guión? El director es Lindefelt. La canción es sobre descubrir violencia y conflicto desde el punto de vista de un niño. Y así es el video. Hay un elemento fuerte de la no lógica de un sueño en la música y eso guió las imágenes. ¿Cómo describirías la escena indie sueca? Todos los músicos que conocemos están en al menos tres bandas y tienen un proyecto solista paralelo, esto quiere decir probablemente que existe algún tipo de escena. Aparte de eso no tenemos nada inteligente para decir. Quizás sea más fácil para un no sueco encontrar qué es lo típico en el ambiente musical de mi país. ¿Han escuchado música argentina? No mucho aparte de la grandiosa Juana Molina. Pero dejémoslo en secreto. ¿LK va a continuar? LK está vivo y bien. Actualmente grabando el próximo disco que se llamará “Periodika” y saldrá en la primavera de 2009. To read the interview in english click in “continuar leyendo” How was the process of change from a duo to a sextet. How did you meet the members of your new band? We never saw ourselves as a duo for this project and the thought of putting a band together was there from the start. But the two of us got so involved in the making of the album that before we knew it we had finished it ourselves. The band came together with the Swedish release of Na Na Ni and that transfered the songs and everything into a much more chaotic environment of six strangers trying to play this music. Why are the lyrics of Na Na Ni stories? Is it a base concept of the band style? Storytelling is one of the key elements of Fredrik, although words aren’t necessarily involved in the actual narrative. They can be, but sometimes a melody, a flapping sound or a noisy TV tells the story better. Maybe 50 % of the songs contain lyrics, but they’re all stories. In Wich way is childhood related to the songs? The songs are based around scrambled, left over childhood memories. And like any good recollection - it’s all very misty and totally without sense of logic. We’ve probably mixed up our own childhoods with others, confused events and locations and so forth. Who is the director of the 1986 video? How did the idea of the script arose? The director is Lindefelt who is also in the band. The song is about discovering violence and conflict from the point of view of a child. And so is the video. There is a strong element of dream logic in the music so that was definitely guiding the images as well. Is it the first time that you do a USA Tour? What expectations do you have? It’s the first time around for this band and the expectations are certainly high. Next time we hop on a plane we’ll aim at Argentine though. How would you describe the swedish indie music scene? Everybody we know is in at least three bands and has a solo project on the side, so there is probably some kind of scene. Apart from that we don’t really have anything clever to say. It’s probably easier for a non swede to see what’s typical about it. Have you listened to argentinian music? Apart from the great Juana Molino, not a whole lot. But please let us in on the secret. Will LK be continued? The LK is alive and doing very well, currently writing and recording the follow up to “Vs. the Snow”. It’s called “Periodika” and it will be out sometime around spring 09.
read more »I am a big supporter of Sweden’s electro pop duo The LK, but it was definitely a surprise to know that Fredrik is a side project of the two. Fredrik has lush rhythms and poignant pop vocals much like The LK, but without the heavy use of electronics. Fredrik takes them out of the city and into the woods where big wooden drums, xylophones, and large circles of friends chant and sing these wonderful soul filled tunes found on their debut LP Na Na Ni. The album is due out on October 28th on The Kora Records and keep an eye out in November because the plan to tour the US for the first time. mp3: Fredrik - Black Fur mp3: Fredrik - 1986 And here’s the video for 1986: <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="500" height="378" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/> <param name="src" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1759470&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1"/><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="378" src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1759470&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> Fredrik - 1986 from The Kora Records on Vimeo. And now something completely different: Islands Oasis (1) Random Randomness For A Random World (0) Sunday Buffet (1) Friday (I’m A Remix) (2) VIDEO - My Morning Jacket Live on Conan (0) Examining The XYZ Affair (0)
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