Due Date

Due Date

Review: I like Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifianakis is often funny. I don't really like Due Date and it ain't that funny.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky

Review: There is something special about the movies of Mike Leigh. Don't really know what it is. Perhaps it's because they are so very British. Or because of the way that he makes his movies. First he hires the actors, and then all people involved creates the script and the movie itself. But what I guess he's best at, is making everyday movies about everyday people without ever being boring. I liked Happy-Go-Lucky, as I have liked all his earlier movies.

Love and Other Drugs

Love and Other Drugs

Review: Lame, lame, lame, Jake Gyllenhaal, lame, lame, Ann Hathaways boobs, lame, lame, romance, lame, cliché, lame, the end.

Soundtrack of Week 4

Triune Gods - Seven Days Six Nights

Triune Gods. A bit of an indie hip hop super group consisting of Canadian beatmaker Scott Da Ros, American emcee bleubird and Japanese emcee Sibitt. Seven Days Six Nights is their debut album that was recorded during; yeah you guessed it, one week. This is not one of those instant records that you might get at once, but I urge you to give it a chance. After a couple of listenings, the strengths of Triune Gods become more and more apparent. Scott Da Ros is a much underrated producer and bluebird has been a favorite ever since I saw him open up for sole back in 2004. Sibitt is a very able emcee. Unfortunately I can't say anything about his lyric content since he raps in Japanese. But his voice and style complements bleubird very well and together with Scott Da Ros amazing beats this is an album that will be played a lot at my place.

Rating: 3.5/5

Evil Ebenezer & Factor Present: Widows Creek

I've never really been a big fan of Evil Ebenezer. Both Call Me Evil and Evil Eye felt uninteresting to me, and I never spent much time listening to them to be honest. So when I heard about him releasing an EP with Factor I only decided to check it out because I like what Factor's been doing lately. And I'm glad I did. I hadn't expected it to sound like this at all. It's beautiful. Evil Ebenezer feels much more mature in his lyrics now and it feels really heartfelt. And Factor keeps going from strength to strength. A beautiful EP that makes me want to hear more.

Rating 3.5/5

The Fox Heads - We Want to Be Numb

Ira Lee. What can you really say about that guy? With the risk of sounding like a star struck teenage fan all I can say is; I love everything he's been doing lately. Like most readers of the blog already know Little Eskimo Jesus (Ira and mattr.) released last year’s best album if you ask me. This year he's planning on releasing no less than 6 albums in 10 genres! 2011 is the year of the Ira. More about his onslaught of albums in an upcoming interview here. One of the albums to be released this year is by The Fox Heads. It's Ira and Funken. A 4 track promo EP is now out and once again I'm blown away. Ira continues being one of my favourite lyricists at the moment. And let's not forget about Funken here. I totally love his productions! I really don't know a better way to describe the music than dysfunctional pop. We get a combination of live instruments, live and programmed drums and vintage synths. This is music to make you both want to dance, think and smile. To all labels out there, sign The Fox Heads or stay stupid!

Rating: 4/5

Passage - Pass and Touch EP

Passage. One part of anticon. One third of Restiform Bodies. All out amazing artist. Even though it's been a bit quiet from him lately when it comes to solo material, to me he never slips away to the back of my memory. And after a really good album from Restiform Bodies back in 2008 I've been looking forward to something new from him. And this week he released Pass and Touch EP through Marathon of Dope. Contrary to the title, this is no EP. It's a short album. And it's a beautiful one. 9 songs that really show what a talented artist this man is. Everything is done by himself, and I don't feel his doing anything wrong on this album. This has been a week of many interesting releases, but I must say that Pass and Touch EP is the one that I've been listening to the most next to the latest Brad Hamers album. According to Passage himself we can expect another album this spring/summer. The working title is Breathplay and it will feature more songs, a couple of remixes, guest appearances and will consist entirely of unreleased material. I can't wait! Thanks to the decent people over at Marathon of Dope, Pass and Touch EP is a free download. So just go here and get some great music to listen to.

Rating: 3.5/5

Onry Ozzborn - Hold On For Dear Life

Onry Ozzborn is one of those emcees that have been around for a while. Since the late nineties he's been dropping albums, both as a solo artist, as a part of Oldominion, Grayskul, The Gigantics, Aurora and Dark Time Sunshine. Now he's just released his first solo album for Fake Four Inc. I'm the first one to admit that I didn't have very big expectations on this album. Even though I've been listening quite a lot to him during the years, more often I feel that either the beats or the other involved emcees have managed to outshine him a bit. But not this time around. Hold On For Dear Life is an album that makes my head nod from beginning to end and this time around I feel that his flow matches the productions. A solid album which is yet another shining gem in the jewelry store called Fake Four Inc.

Rating: 3/5

Support Neila!

This is a different kind of post than the ones I usually post, but a very important one. For all you who knows who Neila is, this one is for you. I just copied her message from Facebook to tell you all what's up:

"PLEASE SUPPORT MY ALBUM TO HELP PAY FOR HOSPITAL BILLS AND RENT! I have vocal chord cancer, things are looking good, this LAST ALBUM with my real voice,my right vocal chord is altered LIMITED EDITION COLOR VINYL $15 includes shipping for continental US.to order you must email me with your physical address and your email address. ONLY THIS ONE COUNTS...PROD. REZULT, feat. dj handprints,& dj skid"

You can reach her at her Facebook page here.

Kay the Aquanaut - We Sold Our Clothes to the State

Kay the Aquanaut has gotten a bad deal from me through the years. Even though I always thought he was talented, he's been overshadowed by so many other amazing artists from Canada. But I think that time is over now. We Sold Our Clothes to the State is a free EP that serves as a bit of an appetizer for his upcoming album Waterloo. It consists of 5 tracks, all produced by zoën and I think it's a match made in heaven. Kay’s flow really works well with zoëns tracks and what we end up with is 5 laidback tracks that make me long for Waterloo. Kay the Aquanaut, your time has come even in this tired old Swedes home. Want to check it out for yourselves? Then go here and download it for yourself. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Isaiah Toothtaker - Illuminati Thug Mafia

I had a discussion with two friends the other day about Isaiah Toothtaker. Even though we didn't really have the same opinion about him, one thing was clear. We all looked forward to sinking our teeth into his latest album Illuminati Thug Mafia. I must admit that I've never been a big fan of him. I listened quite a bit to Murs 3:16 Presents: Isaiah when it came out in 2008. When the follow up Yiggy came out last year, I listened to it a couple of times and then lost interest in it. Except for a couple of nice tracks by Megasoid I wasn't really impressed at all. The thing is that I can understand what people like about it even if I don't share the views completely. Sure, Isaiah can flow and the productions that he raps to are often interesting at least. But I'm afraid that to me that's all. One of the topics that came up when we discussed him the other day was his thug lyrics. Sure, I know that unlike many other rappers out there, Isaiah have the rap sheet to back it up. Or as he presents himself on his own webpage: "infamous rapper, convicted multiple felon, over 400 witnessed bare knuckle street fights, founder & co-owner of the prestigious tattoo parlor Staring Without Caring in Tucson". But here is the thing, and this is just my personal view. Nowadays I'm just so bored by thug- and gangsta lyrics. And sadly enough that affects my impression of Illuminati Thug Mafia too. If I had heard this album 10-15 years ago I would have loved it completely. Today I enjoy the productions, but that's it really. Perhaps the album will grow a bit during the year, but for now, yet again, I'm not impressed.

Rating: 2.5/5

Brad Hamers - Post No Dreams

Hearing Brad Hamers rap is always a treat for my ears. If I would make a top 5 list of my all time favourite lyricists Brad would be one of them without a doubt. Ever since I first heard him as a part of Phlegm I've been a big fan of his music. Since then he has released music together with Big Pauper under the name Two Ton Sloth (who early readers of this blog might remember from the compilation Du Ska Inte Tro Det Blir Sommar which I put together back in 2007) and two great solo albums. His last one Ligature came out in 2007. This follow up to that album has been a long time in the waiting, but it has been worth the wait. His melancholy lo-fi productions create images in front of my eyes and take me on a ride to another place. And on top of that we have his amazing lyrics. Brad Hamers is one of the few artists that I like to have the lyrics in front of me at the same time as I listen. In that way I don't risk missing out on any of the beautiful poetry that he layers upon the tracks. Post No Dreams is a wonderful piece of art and I wouldn't be surprised if this album actually ended up very high on my list over the best albums at the end of 2011.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Company Men

The Company Men

Review: Sometimes I honestly don't know what to write about a movie. This is one of those. The Company Men is not a bad movie, far from it. It's just...bland. Seen this kind of movie a hundred times before and I can't really bother to get excited or too interested in the story. Please see it for yourself though. Like I said, it's far fram bad.

Carnage the Executioner - Worth the Wait

Carnage the Executioner is someone who's been around for quite a while without getting too much attention. He's been a part of the strong Minneapolis scene and has toured a lot with the likes of Eyedea & Abilities. I also think I remember seeing him in at least one of the Scribble Jam DVDs from back in the days. I really like his flow and his voice and some of the joints on Worth the Wait are really good. Unfortunately the quality of the songs is really uneven and I don't really dig most of the productions on it. With other beats I would probably have liked the album more, but now I'm afraid that this is one album that I really won't be listen to much more than I've already done.

Rating: 2/5

Being Human Season 3

Finally it's here again!

Skudge - Convolution/Contamination

House and techno. Not really the kind of music that you usually read about on this page. But my friend Samuel hooked me up with this gem yesterday. It's difficult to write about this for me really because it's music made for dancefloors and not to be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home. Or perhaps that's just my own prejudices. Either way, this 12" originally made in 300 copies by the Swedish label Skudge Records is really quite good. Especially the A-side track Convolution which lies somewhere between hard driven minimimalized techno and good house music. Nothing I will listen to a lot at home, but I'd love to hear it on a dancefloor.

Rating: 3.5/5

10 O'Clock Live

I just watched the first episode of the new British political satire show 10 O'Clock Live. It's actually quite fun. But then I'm also a sucker for both British humour, but also for the the plain sound of British English. As in all of these shows there is a lot of cheap laughs, but I kind of liked it. One good thing about it is that they actually have real politicians and experts as guests in the programme. I will keep watching this show for a while at least. We'll see how it develops.

Soundtrack of Week 3

Four Lions

Four Lions

Review: A British comedy about terrorism? Of course I had to see it. I was hoping that this would be a smart and fun movie with that dark British edge. Unfortunately it wasn't. The idea was good, but the level of the jokes was a bit too much on the cheap side for me, so it didn't give me many laughs. Too bad, I had looked forward to this one.

Rebelmatic - Prey for the Vulture

This is an album I had to listen to a couple of times to really be able to write an honest opinion about. What stood in front of me as some kind of barrier is the term "rock-rap". Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. The genre which only Rage Against the Machine did really good. And after a first listen to this album all I could hear was the quite boring guitar riffs and nothing much more that stood out. But after a while I began to listen more and more to the lyricist and found someone with quite a bit of talent. We're talking about Creature, who some people might have heard on the Vaudeville Villain-album by Viktor Vaughn a.k.a. MF Doom or on his self-released album Never Say Die where he is guested by amongst others Slug and Busdriver. And it is Creature that makes Prey for the Vulture a listenable album. He's got a nice flow, good lyrics and a presence that shines regardless if he raps or sings. This is probably not an album for everyone, but if you like stuff like Bad Brains this album by Rebelmatic might just go down smoothly.

Rating: 3/5

Welcome to the Rileys

Welcome to the Rileys

Review: I had read some good things about this movie before I saw it, so I was kind of looking forward to it. Was a bit disappointed by it though. Well, perhaps not as much disappointed as I was bored by it. Kind of a weak story barely saved by James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo. Kristen Stewart however was not convincing at all in her role. When will Hollywood realise that she is a crappy actress only good for teen movies like Twilight, where her pouty mode that is her trademark is enough to call acting? Predictable movie from the beginning to the end. A disappointment.

Parks and Recreation

Thanks to my man Braden Smith, I now have a new television show to watch. Parks and Recreation. After seeing 2 episodes I already like it which means that I know what I'll be doing tonight.

Magasinet Filter #18

My weekend is saved!

Being Human Goes American

I just watched the first episode of the American remake of the British show Being Human. As remakes goes it wasn't half bad actually. But the question remains. Why? There is no point in these American remakes. They will never be as good as the originals. So will I keep watching this? No, there is no real point. Especially since season 3 of the BBC Three show will premiere on Sunday. Good luck to the Americans though.

Sapient - Diamond Snares

Video from Sapients album Barrels for Feathers that came out last year. The album was kind of a let down, even if it had some good songs on it. Diamond Snares is one that I listened to quite a bit when it came.

Baths/Social Distortion/RJD2

Whenever the good people at Daytrotter releases a good session I try to post about it here. Sometimes it goes months between my posts, and some times it's more often. Like today. I will just mention to fans of Baths, Social Distortion and RJD2 to check in their recent sessions. Just click here to go to the Daytrotter page, and there you can check out these artists, amongst others. Daytrotter is a reliable deliverer of tasty treats for the ears. Like the American version of Lars Roos (Swedish joke...).

Get Low

Get Low

Review: A quiet and beautiful movie with some great actors. That's what we get in Get Low. It tells the story of a hermit who throws his own funeral party while he's still alive. To hear what people has to say about him. Robert Duvall is really good in the lead, while Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray is great in the supportive roles. A feelgood movie to be seen.

THMS - Glömda Egenskaper

Second time in a couple of months now that I review music with Swedish lyrics. But this record is far from Josef Mauritzons soulful album. This is on the other side of the spectrum. Glömda Egenskaper is dirty, filled with noise and distortion and there is not a soulsingers voice anywhere near it. What we do get is awesome music though. And I should correct myself a bit. This is not a record with strictly Swedish lyrics. Aside from THMS himself we hear people flowing in English, French, German and Japanese. What can I compare this to? Well, the closest I can come is a compromised version of Goose Bumps 4.0. This is not music for most people and you will never hear this getting played on the radio. What you will get though is exciting music that continues to push the boundaries. The best thing though for all you cheapskates out there. You can download the album for yourself by going to New Cocoon. Expand your mind a bit and give Glömda Egenskaper a listen.

Rating: 3.5/5

Red State

Can't wait until March when I can watch this.

The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet

Review: Superhero movies. Can't stay away from them. I don't really have a relationship to The Green Hornet, but I had to check it out nonetheless. I liked it. It was funny and the chemistry between Seth Rogen (who also co-wrote the script) and Jay Chou  was enjoyable. Didn't quite see the point of Cameron Diaz in the movie though, but hey, you can't everything. I'm also so incredibly glad that Christoph Waltz got to play the bad guy instead of Nicolas Cage as it was intended. He would most definitely have screwed it up big time with his overacting. All in all, The Green Hornet was a laugh, and sometimes that all you need.

Awol One & Factor - Never Gonna Take Us Out feat. Ceschi

From Awol One & Factors upcoming album The Landmark comes the video to Never Gonna Take Us Out.

Cyrus

Cyrus

Review: Cyrus was better than expected. What I thought was going to be a straight up comedy, actually had some warmth and humanity in it. Wouldn't have been as good though if it wasn't for the cast who is perfect for this movie. John C. Reilly is always doing a good job.

The King's Speech

The King's Speech

Review: Some movies you just don't know what to write about. You feel that you don't really have the words to do it justice. So I will write a very short review. The King's Speech is the historical drama about King George VI, his sudden rise to the throne, and his battle with a bad stammer. The cast is wonderful, the characters warm and complex and the mood is just right. All this I'm writing when all I really should write is: The King's Speech is, hands down, one of the best movies I've seen in years. See it!

Soundtrack of Week 2

180° South

180° South

Review: This is one of those documentaries that I probably would have missed without friends suggesting it. 180° South is about how adventurer Jeff Johnson retraces his childhood heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins journey to Patagonia. This movie basically consists of three major elements in my eyes. One part enviromental eye-opener, one part free spirit thinking and one part historical storytelling. The cinematography is simply mindblowing. So many beautiful nature scenes captured amazingly. I liked 180° South. The characters was charming, the sense of adventure was contagious and the soundtrack was superb.