Interview with Johan Angergård from Labrador Records

The prolific Johan Angergård from Acid House Kings, Club 8, The Legends etc bares all in this ten-minute interview. It's quite a rare treat to see and hear about the inner workings of a small but perfectly formed label. Stylishly delivered from Labrador's office in Stockholm, Johan talks about being bored with a music competition that is being shown on Swedish tv (which turns out to be the Eurovision song contest), office life and some of his favourite moments from the label's 13 year history. It is also soundtracked by some of the label's luminaries. All good stuff.

Days - Live radio session on WNYU in New York

Before playing at this years NYC Popfest, Swedish band Days went into WNYU to record a live session for them. It makes for interesting listening (if a little awkward around the questions) and is pretty great to hear such an unknown European indie band on US radio.

Read more about it and download the session from the band's label, Shelflife Records.

The Sunny Street

Here is a band, based in London and referred to by so many blogs and reviewers as a French pop duo yet comprising of two French people a Greek person and an Englishman. None of this matters. The music is beautiful and honest. Timeless (a word used carefully here) and emotive and occupying a space that is entirely their own without shouting too much about it. A video.

Burning Hearts - Into the Wilderness

With 'Into the Wilderness', Burning Hearts continue their rise to prominence as chroniclers of the harsh, arctic north. 'Into the Wilderness' is an EP that follows their 2009 album 'Aboa Sleeping', a record full of imaginative and flawless melodies, the kind that you can only really half imagine or make out when listening to any other dream-pop band. A combination and perfect balance between a feeling of alienation from the world but at the same time an understanding of it's desperate beauty is what informs this music. Musically they are warm synths, percussive guitars and inviting bass lines. You might feel as though you have heard their music before but your not sure of when or where and each song plays out with such ease that it's gone before you've realised it;s there; like a train running, engines off, silently through a station. As a result they are one of those rare groups that produce music that seems to have sprang from the head of Zeus, fully and perfectly formed.

Available for pre-order now on Shelflife Records and out on June 21st.

Here's the title track with a perfectly complimentary video -

Something Old: The Go-Betweens/ You Can't Say No Forever

This is one of the few songs that completely takes over your faculties as you listen. Visceral, heartbreakingly raw and shatteringly honest; as you listen you momentarily shift and you are left ever-changed past its end. Incredible guitars and a vocal approach perfectly executed.

"You can't say no forever/I've tried"