5 Years of NFOP

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Every Friday at 4pm CET

#11 Burning God Little

13 Sep 2010 — Tonje Thilesen

Indie and electronica are probably the highest represented genres within the Norwegian music scene, but, all though rare, I now and then stumble upon something a little more experimental or shoegazy. Today, may I present to you the spectacular one-piece Burning God Little (aka Martin Hartgen), which music can be described as a mixture of electronic, shoegaze, post-punk and experimental. All though still only in the initial phase, I am very excited about the future of his music project — I absolutely think that Martin Hartgen has the potential of reaching the skies with his summer-esque music and dazing vocals. Of course, don't forget to download all his so far recorded stuff for free from his Urørt site; I'm quite certain you will like it. Oh, and I made the album art (above) since I had no official image to put up.

Burning God Little - Notes On Being Snowblind
Burning God Little - +++

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#10 Attention Now!

11 Sep 2010 — Tonje Thilesen

Open up your ears for Attention Now!, an amazing little indie(tronica) band from Stavanger, Norway, standing with "one foot planted in the indie scene and a toe dipped in the electronica melting pot", as they say themselves. Their music might remind you of the likes of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone or a less "energetic" Architecture in Helsinki, while the beautiful song Soundwaves (below) has something about it that makes me want to compare them to The Antlers; especially by how the song evolves after the second minute (however, very little can be put next to The Antlers, since they after all are Perfection with a big P).

Grab some mp3's for free off their Urørt site n.o.w.

Attention Now! - Soundwaves
Attention Now! - Think About Talking

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#9 Bellman

11 Sep 2010 — Tonje Thilesen

With such a unique and distinguished voice, singer-songwriter Bellman (aka Arne-J Rauan)'s soulful music has found its way into many Norwegian hearts, mine included. With his soft, almost androgyne-like vocals, Bellman makes music that goes in between many genres — all the way from the dreamlike lo-fi pop over to the powerful heights of post-rock. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming album in mid-October, but meanwhile you can buy his 2009 album Mainly Mute from here, or download the song below for free.

Bellman - All That Is Beautiful (The Atomic Powered Robot)


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#8 Team Me

10 Sep 2010 — Tonje Thilesen

Team Me are one of my favorites among the indie pop bands from around here, but was originally started off as a side/solo project by Marius Hagen, but is today a band consisting of six members, with Marius himself on vocals. I guess I could compare them to the likes of Sufjan, Belle & Sebastian and Moddi; the last-named of whom I think has been of big inspiration to their upcoming debut (and the song below, too).

Marius also has another exciting music project in the making with Tord Øverland, also known as the bassist in The Wombats; a project they actually formed years back, but which they just recently blew the dust off. The project goes under the name SiN, and can in addition to Team Me, be downloaded for free from here and here.

Team Me - Weathervanes and Chemicals
SiN - Lost In A Span

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#7 We Are Mystery

08 Sep 2010 — Tonje Thilesen


The bedroom-recorded music project We Are Mystery consists of the former punk-rockers Eirik Djuvsland and Charlie Ytterli. Based in a small town in the outskirts of Oslo, they are making incredibly catchy electropop/electro(nica) — with a tiny hint of surf rock added. Their sound is somewhat like Midnight Juggernauts meeting the funky beats of FM Belfast, while the song Broken Heart (below) is leaning more towards the indie genre.


They are also in the progress of making a new, slightly "heavier" demo entitled Living Dead, of which I'm pretty excited about after hearing the brand new track they sent me yesterday from the upcoming, (of course) free demo. Eirik Djuvsland also has a little side-project himself, making some slightly more electro/experimental beats, but which indeed are perfectly fitted for the dance floor.


Both projects can be downloaded for free here and here.


We Are Mystery - Broken Hearts

Eirik Djuvsland - Katt med Hatt



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#6 The New Wine

08 Sep 2010 — Tonje Thilesen

As I already mentioned in one of my earlier posts, Bergen might have one of the most interesting music scenes when it comes to electronic music in Norway. Here's yet another indie/synthpop band from the very same city, going under the name The New Wine; which EP entitled Bridge (released back in April) became rather popular among the Norwegian critics — and it didn't surprise me why. Also, there isn't for no reason that The Whitest Boy Alive have declared their love to these synth-poppers, whom also toured with TWBA a couple of years back.

Even more exciting, their debut album Waves will be released on September 27th (the international release is a bit later, though), so remember to drop by their myspace to hear some of their newest, slightly more pop-y tracks which will be released on the upcoming album — or simply just download Bridge EP for free here. Stay tuned.

The New Wine - Revolving Cylinder


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#5 Proviant Audio

06 Sep 2010 — Tonje Thilesen

There are plenty of gems to find on the underground norwegian music website Urørt, which is basically bandcamp.com norwegian style. While browsing around on the site yesterday, Proviant Audio aka Mathias Stubø (18) caught my attention, especially because of the description "laptop jazz" which triggered my curiosity. In fact, "laptop jazz" is a pretty accurate description of Proviant Audio's sound: chopped up beats and samples in a warm, delicious mix of electronica, jazz and neo-funk — or beat-jazz which he calls it himself. I guess it kinda reminds me of our dearest Star Slinger at times too, with a bit more jazz added, and perhaps even a tiny, tiny bit of (a less minimalistic) Kim Hiorthøy. Anyways, snatch some sweet Proviant Audio mp3-s for free here.

Proviant Audio - Hey, Let's Do It!
Proviant Audio - Would You Mind

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#4 Moddi

05 Sep 2010 — Tonje Thilesen


Moddi, the up-and-coming singer/songwriter from the very north of Norway makes some of the most beautiful and honest pop music I've heard in a long, long time. His debut album Floriography (February 2, 2010) is packed with atmospheric, calming tunes and clever lyrics; truly music fit for the amazing coastline of northern Norway (in Senja, where I have family from myself), the land of the midnight sun in the summertime and aurora borealis in the winter.

Growing up with icelandic music all around him, you can clearly hear that he's been highly influenced by Björk's hazy vocals and compositions that can be compared to the post-rock genre. The album itself was also recorded in Iceland and produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson, whom you might also recognize as the producer behind Sigur Rós and Múm. The future does indeed look very bright for Moddi and his lovely, little band, which with no doubt has the potential of making it big. Real big.

Grab the album from iTunes Store.

Moddi - Magpie Eggs
Moddi - Rubbles (free download)
Moddi - Littlejune (free download)


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