Amanda Mair is back with another single on Labrador Records. The song follows her debut on the label, “House”, as a danceable track packed with pop hooks. The new track is “Doubt” and it finds Mair continuing her surprising ability to craft a magical pop track filled with a maturity well beyond her young (16) age.

Solander is a Swedish folk-pop trio that creates mystically beautiful songs. Their latest is called “Flight” and it is just as pleasant and sad as the band’s prior work (you can hear tracks dating back to 2009′s “Looking For Gold”, which we raved about, on bandcamp). Solander handed “Flight” over to Iris Piers for a video and the result is ethereal and dream-like with amazing color and fantastic footage.

Night Falls Over Kortedala was one of my favorite releases of 2007, topped only by Fishboy’s release that year. It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since that album, and that it’s taken so long for Lekman to follow it with new material. Wait no longer; Lekman is back with a new EP dubbed An Argument With Myself and we have been given the title track to enjoy as a little taste of what’s to come.

Listening to Pallers‘ new track “Come Rain, Come Sunshine”, I heard something familiar: the voice of Johan Angergård. To be perfectly honest, I had forgotten about his involvement in the band’s early single, Humdrum. What I do recall from that early single is light electronic dance music with trance-like beats and pop-like hooks. “Come Rain, Come Sunshine” fits that memory perfectly.

“Under Water” is one of my favorite tracks off Acid House Kings‘ new LP, Music Sounds Better With You, out now on Labrador Records. So it’s exciting to hear the band and label are giving it single status (just released via Labrador on June 28) and a new video!

Holiday for Strings is a magical band, consisting of three professional chefs, John Eriksson (Peter Bjorn & John), and Pontus Berghe (aka Pony from Thieves Like Us). “Unwilling/Not Able” is most like the latter group, with angular 70s laid-back European disco meets modern Chillwave.
This video was created by Daniel Eskils, who has become known in the music video world thanks to his work for artists like Temper Trap, Caribou and Boys Noize. It features footage from airports, layovers, and a barrage of secretive people-watching.
“Unwilling/Not Able” is …

In a video from Fredrik, you know you’re always going to get something a bit different, just like their music. And just like their music, you know it will be a little strange but very good. “Chrome Cavities” continues this pattern, using a play on shadows and color. It features “a vintage British overhead projector, an off-white canvas, scissors, paper, 8 hands and a fishtank full of flammable liquids.” The result is your standard Fredrik genius.

Amanda Mair is the latest discovery by Swedish label Labrador Records. If you’re like us, you dig pretty much anything that comes from Labrador, and this should be no exception. “House” is part folk-pop, part Euro-dance track. Mair hails from an island outside Stockholm. And get this — she’s only 16!

36.1 minutes. That is the length of the new Fredrik album, Flora. Not bad, especially since the band has put together a video that spans that amount of time and covers the album in its entirety. Brilliant, I say! Flora continues what Fredrik has created on their past two releases – eerie experimental pop music that is other-worldly.

I have absolutely no clue what Det Vackra Livet means, but I do know that they create some pretty amazing and dark pop music influenced by the early 80s. This is the new project from the folks behind The Mary Onettes, and it’s pretty obvious. The sounds are vastly similar, with exception to the lyrics. Det Vackra Livet comes to us in the band’s native tongue whereas The Mary Onettes dole out their songs in English. Either way, it’s really, really good.