This is the myspace-profile of not one band, but a collective of 15 bands, all based in Oslo. The compilation featuring all these bands will be released in Norway on Monday 31th of March. All the bands play alternative pop music, and have a friendly attitude. Read this booklet text and understand more:
YOU KNOW, it wasn’t always like this. A few years ago, you’d consider yourself lucky if you happened to stumble across a local band that wasn’t trying to be part of a Scandinavian Rock-movement that just kept on keeping the city’s music scene in a gridlock. At one point, however, someone was able to loosen this tight screw, and the result is the jaw-dropping compilation of heavenly pop hits you’re looking at right now.
As is so often the case, the blooming pop scene in Oslo is down to a combination of destiny and sheer coincidence, with a group of people slowly beginning to realise they share a set of values and beliefs that has nothing to do with rock stardom, and all to do with DIY and independence. A great number of the people and bands that form the Oslo pop scene are in fact not from Oslo, instead originating from the towns of Moss, Holmestrand, Tønsberg, all scattered within a few hours ride from Oslo, and in some cases, from as far away as Gausdal and Bodø. The element of outsiderness might have had an impact when coming together, but don’t quote me on that.
What you have here is a collection of songs utterly shameless in their catchiness. It spans from The Little Hands of Asphalt, who immediately set the tone with the instantly loveable Oslo, all the way through a great range of songs that eventually ends with hiawata!s magnificient Dylan McKay, described by NME as Belle and Sebastian playing Nirvana songs. In between these gems you get the wonderful slacker/lo-fi-sound of Nomber 5’s and LoFiMAn, the delicate pop breeze of My Little Pony’s MacGyver Blues and the quirkiness of Je Suis Animal. Some of the bands on this compliation have lately had their fair amount of recognition, in particular Truls and the Trees and Lukestar, both bands fronted by pop maestro Truls Heggero. Gently spitfiring from the north come Ingeborg Selnes and Cold Mailman, whose delicate and sombre tunes will arguably win your heart over. Selnes also appears in Harmonica, a reincarnated Go-go’s that might just have knocked out the happiest song ever put down on paper with the brillant Princess, and with Campfire Kansas the record eventually turns more electronic and stomping. Last but not least, Yoyoyo Acapulco (don’t ask...) and Monzano churn out lush indiepop that nods to both Lemonheads and those Matador records you played to bits and pieces ten years ago.
And that’s it for now. Welcome to a parallel universe where Robert Pollard is always more important than Jack White, and Scandinavian Rock is long gone, never to be re-born. Dig in!
Thomas Karlsen, journalist OsloPuls
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