Review: Urban cone
Even though this is their first gig in Norway, the venue is packed when the five guys in Urban Cone enter the stage.
Even though this is their first gig in Norway, the venue is packed when the five guys in Urban Cone enter the stage.
At the very centre of the festival, the WiMP-tent at Youngstorget, you will find the ticket-exchange.
Tuesday 1500 – 22.00
Wednesday 14.00 – 00.30
Thursday 14.00 – 01.30
Friday 14.00 – 01.30
Saturday 14.00 – 01.30
The delegate check-in is located in the seminar hotel, Hotel Royal Christiania.
Tuesday 1500 – 2100
Wednesday 0900 – 2300
Thursday 0900 – 2300
Friday 0900 – 2000
Saturday 1200 – 1400
Siden det bare er en uke til by:Larm, stenger vi nå presseakkreditering. For de av dere som ikke har fått svar, vi har fått mange søkander, og behandlingen pågår fortsatt.
Tons of great music was released in the Nordic Countries in 2012. Now we are calling for all fans to vote for their favourite amongst them.
Dream pop trio Postiljonen have been compared to The XX and M83, and the associations are well-founded, as these bands appear to be clear sources of inspiration.
An Icelandic youngster stood behind what was probably one of the most spectacular concerts tonight. The humble and somewhat shy singer, performs songs from his debut album Dyrd I Daudathogn, backed by no less than six other band members.
Not to be confused with The Black Twig Pickers, Black Twigs is a Finnish, fuzzy jangle-pop band, with occasional hypnotic droning and rhythms with distorted tunes, which judging by today’s performance are capable of display a potpourri of the sound of the alternative 80’s.
- Are you thirsty? Do you want some flesh and blood?, Vithr screams at the audience which seems desperately afraid of answering incorrectly.
You know it. I know it. Cockroach Agenda certainly know it: Slayer is one of the greatest bands of all time. And as any fan knows, the early Haunting The Chapel and Hell Awaits period, is a 100 percent super, mega rad.
Wether he can be called a country rapper, an RnB artist or a comedian – Stig definitely knows how to make people dance.
There are a lot of things about Arlie Mucks that would make it so, so easy to hate them. They have floppy hair. They wear horn-rimmed glasses. They have boyish charm. They are annoyingly young. They get compared to The Smiths and Arctic Monkeys. They have a tambourine and they have really white teeth.
With a big, black hood concealing his face, Phantom’s Tommi Koskinen hunches over a dome, pushing and pulling out dense layers of samples and effects from it with slow, stretched hand gestures.
Tarjei Ekelund were inspired during a climbing-tour in Japan, where he once used to live. Together with his band members, Aleksander Berg (Bass) and Ruben Nesse (Drums), they manage to bring Japan to the audience for twenty minutes.
Despite the deceitful name, Holograms gave absolutely no reason to doubt they were here at Mono this evening. And neither did the crowd.
There is a certain Danish coolness about this eclectic act; laidback and with a sense of energetic calm.
The members of Stockholm based band Solen are ex-jazz musicians. They all got tired of playing jazz and ventured out into the world of alternative pop music.
Since 2011, Blood Command has had a firm grip on their hometown audience. Hailing from Bergen, these guys know how to make “obnoxiously loud” work to their advantage.
Dance music has always been about endless possibilities and if, at first, a Swedish woman who goes by the name of Elliphant and toasts in Jamaican patois might raise an eyebrow, you only have to remember that authenticity never counted for shit in pop and if you discounted everything that wasn’t authentic, you’d be left with virtually nothing.
Even though House of Mystery’s concert isn’t exactly mysterious, it is certainly entertaining. Heavy bass lines which make the audience’s knees shake, controlled feedback from the lead guitarist, mixed with bongo drums and Indian howls from the singer, make this concert an enjoyable experience.
The Stratos stage is on the top floor of the old Oslo opera house. With windows on each side of the room, only the night sky is surrounding us, creating a special atmosphere.
Kråkesølv have been around for a couple of by:Larms but, they had no problem proving they deserved their place on this year’s line-up. Their somewhat sugarsweet indie rock mixed in with dreamy riffs and slow thundering drums made a big impact in the Wimp tent on Friday evening.
There are quite a few bands who play together as teenagers, and eventually break up due to differences and other ventures. Ska-pop band Razika is an exception to this typical story.
I’m not saying I’m biased toward Neneh Cherry, but essentially I see humanity as being split into two camps: The righteous which recognize Buffalo Stance as one of the greatest achievements of Western civilisation, and the lost which have not yet had its epiphany.
Her first single as a solo artist, On My Knees, came out February 1st. Having played with her best friends Michael Paskalev and Jonas Alaska for many years, she is now all on her own. Maybe this was a bit too soon.
Kid Exodus is a band that makes people throw musical influences at them. Florence & the Machine, James Blake and Daft Punk is mentioned in the by:Larm program, and while this is not completely off, the mix Kid Exodus cooks up on stage is most of all the sound of themselves.
It’s very easy to picture Finland’s Delay Trees composing soundtracks to films about sad people who live in cold places that only get six hours of daylight during the winter and who have to fight their way through tons of snow just to get to the mailbox.
It was with a curious and open mind that a small crowd gathered to attend the first show of the evening on the stage at Rockefeller Annex.
The Swedish trio Nonono! delivered a solid performance at Jaeger, despite only playing for about 15 minutes. The Swedish trio, who performed here last spring, play pop and dance electronica perfectly suited for the dark basement at Jaeger.
Perhaps it’s the grubby surroundings of Mono, but there’s something about Say Lou Lou tonight that confounds my expectations aroused by their “Maybe You” single for Kitsuné.
– Are you having a good time?, John Olav Nilsen asks the crowd and receives a resounding, affirmative roar.
– You lucky bastards.
File this one under: Dude who has made it! A big crowd at a big venue, expensive production, the best jazz-face-pulling session guys in town, drop-dead gorgeous vintage guitars and (boner alert) and a stunning white marine pearl drum kit.
To be online when Indians – Denmark’s Søren Løkke Juul – was allowed to announce that he’d signed to celebrated British indie 4AD was to witness true excitement in a man.
What is this I see before me? There is a moment of clarity directly between hearing the words, “I’ve got some bad news for you…” and the terrible message: A split second between hearing the rung snap and feeling your body fall.
There is a truth universally acknowledged, that four self-deprecating jokes in a 25 minute set is too much. It is thus nice to learn that Morten Myklebust has toned down his (totally unnecessary) self-conscious humor, and instead does what he knows best: To perform his songs with heart and feeling.
There was a rather small audience waiting for Nosizwe’s concert in the WIMP Annex. It might be because the highly profiled band Turbonegro was playing in the neighbor tent, but I do not regret choosing this tent instead.
The energetic, hard-hitting and original Swedish mod rockers of the early 00s seem far away, replaced by a far more gloomy gang, dressed in 1800s attire, singing Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding’s lyrics about tragic destinies, accompanied by folk tunes that melodically don’t stand out.
There is an apparent logistic problem of letting every by:Larm band play in Kulturkirken Jakob, but there are few, if any, more beautiful venues in the city of Oslo.
There have been high expectations of Hvitmalt Gjerde in advance of their by:Larm concert. Their name has been mentioned a lot when people have been asked what they were looking forward to at by:Larm, and 400 people are gathered here to check out what the fuss is all about.
Some might say it is better to be late, than never being there at all. I couldn’t agree more. After standing in line for the elevators for 10 minutes, I had to make a choice.
There’s a truckload of 90s references to be made when describing the sound of LCMDF, the Finnish electro-pop-rock duo made up of sisters Emma and Mia Kemppianen.
Choosing a pun as a stage name probably won’t make you a much cooler person, but then Phil T. Rich doesn’t really need to get much cooler than he already is.
Bow to Each Other is a duo of beautiful young women. One Norwegian, Gunhild Kristoffersen, and one Canadian, Megan Kovacs, based in Oslo. The two has embraced the misty sound of Scandinavian synth-infused pop.
Inspired by America’s country and roots tradition, Monica Heldal’s already won British Mercury Prize nominee Ben Howard’s heart. Given her Stevie Nicks vocals, her Katie Melua looks and the growing Fleetwood Mac revival, his won’t be the last.
Emile the Duke strolls onstage. There is really no other word that aptly describes the way he moves. Sporting a beige suit, sneakers and slicked hair, he might as well have been some dude happening to wander onstage on karaoke night.
If early Turbonegro decided that on their first EP, they wanted it to sound like Black Flag, but with their own twist, they would have sounded like Haraball does now 20 years later.
Too much of a good thing can be lethal. Aact Rraiser’s set opens like the start of a wild night out downing every blue drink in sight while dancing enthusiastically.
It says a lot about Oslo’s Disaster In The Universe that, after performing at Øya last year, British A&R guy/DJ Ross Allen listed them as his favourite act, while a pompous Pitchfork reporter described them as “The worst band in Norway (and, possibly, the entire world).”
An exciting artist went from the ordinary to the extraordinary in half an hour. Bendik Giske’s show varies quite a bit. The first couple of songs are catchy, but lack some substance and comes across pretty ordinary.
At the young age of 22, Synne Sanden has managed to accomplish quite a bit during her career, including an album produced by acclaimed jazz musician Bugge Weseltoft. During her show at Revolver she proved why great artists like him would want to work with someone as talented as her.
There’s a moment early in Ida Jenshus’s set when she smiles in that professional manner that says she knows how to be liked. With a mild tremble in her voice, arms raised to her fans, a guitar solo in exactly the right place, and a melody that’s as challenging as chicken soup but still as nourishing. “Days Of Nothing” sets the tone for what follows.
Featuring a Wu-Tang rapper on your first album is no trifle, especially when your sound is as much indebted to dreamy electronic pop and black metal as it is to Mafioso rap.
With a perfect balance between vitality maturity, backed up by a band consisting of Oslo’s finest musicians, Mona and Maria are a delightful new act from Norway.
When grindcore leapt out of Birmingham in the mid 80s, like an angry, blood spattered tramp from 28 Days Later, it was initially known for its aggression, sonic shock and demented velocity, not the high end technical proficiency of its musicians.
Iceland is a small country with 320,000 inhabitants, but that has not stopped them from exporting big artists like Bjørk and Sigur Rós. The band I met as I walked into Sentrum Scene is also from Iceland, but they sound nothing like the previously mentioned artists.
The five young boys in Ulige Numre looked nervous entering the stage, but quickly became comfortable. Their touring all over Denmark last summer seemed to have helped them find confidence on stage.
Despite already having played the tent last night, Thea & The Wild still attracted a fair amount of people their second time around. Norwegian singer-songwriter Thea Glenton Raknes – former Norma Sass vocalist – delivered energy and warmth from the first song to the last.
Boska took the audience through a diverse sonical landscape, ranging from minimalistic electronica, hard techno, through deep heavy beats and acid-beats, accompanied by twisted vocal samples, on to a lighter atmosphere, opening up space in a way that brings Lindstrøm to mind.
Swedish Noonie Bao, or Jonnali Parmenius which is her real name, has already proven herself as a talented songwriter and producer for e.g. Tove Styrke. Until recently, however, she has also displayed her talents as an artist, after having released her debut «I am Noonie», a product of five years of labour, late 2012.
Zawadi is introducing himself and his fine ladies, leaving the rest of the band members unmentioned. He is clearly proud of his backing choir.
Cranking the camp, Turbonegro are total legends. With a total understanding of the darkly comic undertow of rock ‘n’ roll, they exaggerate it with a comic book genius into a live show that is hilarious and terrifying at the same time.
The past few decades, Icelanders has proven themselves ninja masters of the electronic music scene. With Sigur Rōs, they took post-rock away from the almighty Canada.
A young girl new to the city might be excused for not finding the Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, where Mariam The Believer was playing. I might even be excused for getting in a taxi taking me even further away from where Miriam’s powerful voice is already catching the.
Anders Magnor Killerud is a man whose attributes include both musical talent as well as enthusiasm, and that fact alone makes a Ludvig Moon show worth attending.
Highasakite is one of the Norwegian indiepop bands of the moment. Following their performance at Øyafestivalen last year they have been riding high on a wave of international acclaim, generating praise from Pitchfork, NME, Paste Magazine.
The band was not particularly electric, well not in the literal sense of the word anyway. Three immaculate artists on stage, waved around their instruments, shook their heads and gave you room to join in their abstract journey across Frøys world.
To actually make people move about at ultra cool and blasé Mono is no small feat. Danish quartet Panamah manages just that – people swing from side to side in an orderly fashion, complete with handclaps when needed.
There is a revival of the old-school heavy metal. It is a breath of fresh air to a scene where you have to play faster and harder than everybody else to get anywhere. Bombus is a perfect example of going back to the basics.
With a background from classical composition, Heartfelt, or Brede Rørstad, has an interesting approach to creating unique pop songs.
Heartfelt’s set at Revolver started out with him and a drummer on the stage with a sweeping playback of strings and insisting vocals. After a somewhat noisy opening tune, hinting at great things to come, two saxophonists and a bass player accompanied him.
This experimental jazz band had a melodic feel to their sound, with a pleasing intermittent “clickety” electric buzz. During their more relaxed segments, there was a distinct theatrical groove to their songs.
Judging by the sound of their recorded music one might expect MF/MB/ to have more of a shoe-gazing attitude, but even though their contact with the audience wasn’t brilliant, they delivered an energetic and aggressive show at Mono thursday.
The Nordics’ biggest music conference is now sold out of delegate passes. by:Larm has reached the limit of 1 000 registered delegates, the event is now sold out of business passes for the first time in the event’s history. You can still purchase by:Larm Tech pass, festival pass and day pass.
We are particularly excited by this fantastic group of innovators, key players from both Europe and the US, that our delegates can look forward to meeting at by:Larm this year.
The Live program for by:Larm 2013 is ready! You can see the complete Live program here last announcement contains these ten artists: Neneh Cherry, SLOWOLF, Hilde Marie Kjersem, Lay Low, Gerilja, Broken Twin, Kid Exodus, Sirkus Eliassen, Retro Stefson and Malvin Nøsen & The Company. We are looking forward to se them and you at by:Larm 2013!
The Live program is ready! And we have 18 new confirmed artists; Ásgeir Trausti (IS), Autolaser, Bits Between, Departure, Elliphant (SE), Hanne Kolstø, Holograms (SE), Honningbarna, JJ (SE), Man The Machetes, MF/MB/ (SE), Mikhael Paskalev, Morten Myklebust, Razika, Synne Sanden, Thomas Dybdahl, Truls og Vinnie Who (DK)
Each day before Christmas by:Larm announced one new band. Here you’ll find the complete list of the artists.
Neneh Cherry, Bob Stanley, Barney Hoskyns and Matt Thorne are now added to the list of confirmed speakers for by:Larm 2013.
These two panels will try to answare the following questions; What are consumers actually buying, when the ‘product’ has no physical form? How do you ‘steal’ something with no intrinsic value? And: What is worth preserving, how do we make collections future-proof, and how do you prepare the stuff that will be history for future generations?
Music Ally have put together six sessions for us that will be looking at developments, current trends and the “state of the nation”.
The jury is in. Here is the first round of demo bands to be announced for by:Larm 2013. Anja Kløve, Aslak Hartberg’s The Fuzz, Cockroach Agenda, Emile The Duke, Fela, Frøy Aagre Electric, Ich Bin N!ntendo, Kid Astray, Vithr, Bottled in England (DK), Colleagues (SE), Solen (SE)
This week’s by:Larm announcement features some of the big guns. Just looksy here: Turbonegro, John Olav Nilsen & Gjengen, Kråkesølv, Highasakite, Kaveh, Nils Bech, Taken By Trees (SE), Mariam The Believer (SE), Bombus (SE), CTM (DK), Tim Christensen (DK), Tako Lako (DK), Black Twig (FI) and French Films (FI).
No Norwegian Autumn is complete without a continual stream of by:Larm band announcements, and we are delighted to announce the next round of bands for 2013; Mando Diao (SE), Alina Devecerski (SE), Monica Heldal, Ulige Numre (DK), Stig (FI), Equicez, Nause (SE) and Lukas Graham (DK)
Red Bull Music Academy interviewed Jonathan Galkin about his 10 years of DFA Records. Label co-founder Jonathan Galkin had an talks shop during an Academy workshop this year at by:Larm.
We are delighted to announce the legendary Kim Gordon as the first confirmed speaker in the 2013 by:Larm talks programme. Her example has made her a feminist icon and an inspirational figure. Such a diverse career will make for a fascinating Q&A session at by:Larm and we look forward to welcoming her to Oslo.
The leading digital music business information and strategy company, Music Ally, has been providing publications, consulting, research, events and training to the music and technology industries since 2001, by:Larm invited them back to host a series of digital training workshops, each class will be run twice.
We are extremely pleased to announce a further eight bands to by:Larm 2013. Young Dreams, Blood Command, Mø (DK), Urban Cone (SE), Adam Kanyama (SE), LCMDF (FI), Valgeir Sigurðsson (IS) and Indians (DK).
Five Norwegian bands is confirmed for next year’s by:Larm. Billie Van, Hvitmalt Gjerde, Okkultokrati, Matilda and Mona & Maria. This is bands that we believe is going to stand out in the coming years.