Of Monsters and Men – My Head is an Animal :  Such amazingly wonderful, sweet, poppy goodness from this Reykjavik-based 6 piece.  I especially appreciate the omnipresent accordion and loud shout-outs that occur throughout the album.  I do wish the vocals were a bit more difficult to get at . . . but I suppose I can look past that for all the lovely male-female duet vocals and some damn good picking.  Sounds like a mixture of La Strada and elements of Seabear.  Wow.

Kakkmaddafakka - Hest : This band is all over the place – and that’s not a bad thing.  The music is sometimes frantic, sometimes so disco, glammy, always pop bliss.  Apparently their shows are a real hoot as they include up to 10 band members plus a dancing schoolboy choir and a horn section.  Madness.  Seems like a super hip soundtrack to your next party and is way more complex/interesting than a lot of that other neo-New Wave stuff that’s out there.

F.S. Blumm & Nils Frahm – Music for Lovers versus Time : Nils Frahm is a blue-eyed, late 20-something piano virtuoso based in Berlin.  F.S. Blumm is a like-minded German classical composer/exerimentalist.  This album is a smorgasbord of improvisational minimalist bliss and takes repeated listens before you really get a feel for what this collaboration is trying to do.  I think it’s really remarkable . . . but I also have a penchant for organic found sounds kind of music. Here’s a track from the far more polished three-song release by Frahm entitled Wintermusik:

The River Monks – Jovials : The River Monks take their name from their city of origin: Des Moines, IA.  The music seems suited for long floats down muddy rivers, late-night swimming, and moonlight love-making.  Needless to say, I really dig this mostly folksy, slow speed, definitely feels-like-night-dew-on-tall-grass release.  The falsetto can get a little too high at times but the playful acoustic guitar makes it lovely . . . and the occasional band-wide vocal accompaniment gives it a Balmorhea “Settler” kind of feel.  Here’s two!

(skip the first 30 seconds)

Anna Vogelzang - Canary in a Coal Mine : I’ve very much in love with this woman and her banjo.  A self-released 13-track folk album that carries the rhythms of all four seasons, Canary in a Coal Mine sounds of soft hearts and deep loves.  Honestly, I’m just so impressed by pretty much every track on this album . . . but “Canary”, “Volcanoes”, and “One and Only” are just folk-pop bliss.

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