In a moment of madness we announced on Thursday we'd be covering 10 artists and bands new to Nordic Music Review over a 3 day period, and importantly we are trying to cover a wide range of musical styles too - something for everyone we hope. 'Flyinglow' is a project from musician Joel Gabrielsson, previously a member of Swedish Drone Pop band 'Toys in the Well' - and some of their material is still to be found on streaming services, if you look hard enough. Flyinglow's music is based around electronic, ambient, shoegaze and pop influences, and it is the wide variety of styles within the music that has made this interesting, and made it stand out from other submissions we've had from a similar genre.
This isn't a full album review, so rather than attempting to explain in detail the complex range of textures and sounds to be found in the self titled album, we recommend that you just give it a listen yourself. But there are a couple of tracks which are particularly worthy of mention. 'Clockwork' was released as a single previously, and opens the album, and the electronic tones weave hypnotic evolving rhythms, and the vocals work effectively alongside these sounds.
My favourite, however, is definitely 'Evolved', an unusual but effective track which has so many highlights. Firstly the vocals provided by Sofia Gabrielsson add a lovely subtle dimension to the sounds, I love the deep bass theme which is introduced and carries the music menacingly forward, the track builds with a real intensity in the middle stages and Joel Gabrielsson's repeated vocal melody is excellent too.
I was 1st sent this album a few weeks ago, and there's no denying that it takes some listening to. But of course that is the nature of Electronica of this style, we'll be doing a feature on a great EP release from Swedish band Canigou that has taken an equal amount of time to get to like. So I hope a good number of you are open minded enough to give this album a try, and please check out Flyinglow's Facebook page and website for future updates.