Tag: The Legends

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed back in 1995, Stockholm-based duo Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — initially began as a recording project, before expanding into a full-fledged touring band.

Throughout their nearly three decade history, the Swedish pop outfit has a long-held reputation for being sonically restless and notoriously difficult to pigeonhole. Their full-length debut, 1995’s Nouvelle saw the duo tackling Bossa nova. 1998’s The Friend I Once Had saw the duo exploring electronic pop and electronic dance music. The Swedish outfit’s next three albums — 2001’s self-titled, 2002’s Spring Came, Rain Fell and 2003’s Strangely Beautiful — saw the duo dabbling with old-school-inspired soul.

2017-2018 may have arguably been one of the more prolific and busiest periods of Angergård’s lengthy career: With his solo recording project The Legends, he released Nightshift. Djustin, the Labrador Records founder and label boss’ collaboration with Rose Suau released their full-length debut, Voyagers. He closed that period out with Club 8’s 10th album, 2018’s Golden Island, which featured “The Hospital,” one of the most industrial/goth-leaning tracks the pair have ever released.

Over the past year, the Swedish duo have released a batch of singles, including their latest, the recently released “Sucker.” Anchored around incredibly catchy hooks, shimmering, reverb-soaked guitars and a relentless motorik groove serving as a lush bed for Komstedt’s ethereal croon, “Sucker” sees the Stockholm-based outfit dabbling in dance floor friendly, hook-driven 80s New Wave nostalgia.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the past couple of years of this site’s nearly 10 year history, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering Stockholm, Sweden-based multi-instrumentalist, electro pop artist, electro pop producer and Labrador Records label head Johan Angergård and his various projects including Djustin, Club 8 and his solo recording project The Legends.

Since the early 00s, Angergård has released six albums, including 2009’s self-titled debut, 2015’s It’s Love and 2017’s Nightshift, which was a decidedly From Here to Eternity/fFrom Here to Eternity . . . And Back-era Giorgio Moroder-like affair.  Along with that, the prolific Stockholm-based multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist, producer, label held and JOVM mainstay has released a number of critically applauded, blogosphere dominating singles. He’s currently working on his forthcoming seventh full-length The Legends album — but in the meantime, his latest single, “Fascinating” finds the JOVM mainstay collaborating with emerging, Taos, NM-based psych pop duo Tan Cologne, who will be releasing their full-length debut Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico this year through Labrador Records.

Clocking in at 83 seconds, the decidedly lo-fi song is a breezy and infectious track centered around shimmering and swirling layers of guitars, thumping percussion and ethereal vocals that evokes the sensation of diving through warm water — and of being awoken from a surreal, feverish dream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

I’ve written quite a bit about Stockholm, Sweden-based indie electro pop act Club 8 throughout the course of this site’s nine-plus year history. The act, which features Labrador Records label head and incredibly prolific and eclectic producer and electronic music artist Johan Angergård and vocalist Karolina Komstedt has a long-held reputation for being difficult to pigeonhole sonically: With the release of their debut album 1995’s Nouvelle, the duo initially was a Bossa nova-inspired pop act. However, with 1998’s The Friend I Once Had was a decided sonic left turn for the duo. with the material primarily being electro pop and electronic dance music.  The duo’s next three albums, which were released between 2001 and 2003 found them dabbling in old school soul.

2017 began an incredibly prolific and busy period for Angergård: his solo recording and production project The Legends released an album; Djustin, his collaboration with Rose Suau released their full-length debut Voyagers; and Club 8 released their ninth album Lost. Now, some time has passed since I’ve last written about the Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays — but this year has been busy for the acclaimed duo. They released a single earlier this year that landed on Hype Machine‘s Top 5. And following up on the momentum of that single, the duo’s latest track “The Hospital” may arguably be the most industrial/goth-leaning bit of material they’ve released in some time. Centered around thumping, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, layers of shimmering and arpeggiated synths and Komstedt’s breathy and ethereal vocals, the club banging track manages to subtly recall the likes of Depeche Mode and Soft Metals. And while being a dance floor friendly anthem, the song finds the duo at their most contemplative: the song’s narrator is in a hospital bed, acutely aware that the end may be near — but desperately hoping that it isn’t.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Retro-futuristic 80s Inspired Visuals for The Legends’ “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else)”

So if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-15 months or so you’ve seen the name Johan Angergård as a result of his various electro pop projects including — Djustin, Club 8 and Acid House Kings, and he’s also known as the founder and label head of renowned Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop label Labrador Records; however, the acclaimed electro pop producer and label head, has had an equally accomplished solo career with his solo recording project The Legends — including 2009’s noise pop-leaning self-titled effort and 2015’s It’s Love, which featured lead single “Keep Him.” That same 12-15 month period has been an extremely busy and prolific period for Angergård: Djustin and Club 8 released long-awaited album and he released a series of critically applauded singles off his recently released full-length effort, Nightshift has revealed a decided change of sonic direction for his The Legends project, as his sound went towards a swaggering, neon-colored, retro-futuristic sound reminiscent of 80s Giorgio Moroder, Computerworld-era Kraftwerk, early house and Holy Ghost!’s Crime Cutz, and Homework-era Daft Punk as heavily vocoder-processed vocals are paired with tweeter and woofer rocking 808s, processed cowbell and layers of arpeggio synths as you’ll hear on the propulsive and summertime, club-banger “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else).” And while breezy, the song’s breezy quality is deceptive; at the core of the song is a bittersweet, sad sack narrator’s loneliness and heartbreak over being alone during yet another summer in the city while everyone else seemingly has someone in their lives.

The recently released video for the song is a pastiche of early 80s animation, including a lengthy Japanimation segment reminiscent of Pole Position and Voltron. Certainly, if you’re a child of the 80s, the video is remarkably fitting and will bring back some warm memories of easygoing, neon-colored summers.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-18 months or so, you’d be fairly familiar with Stockholm, Sweden-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, Labrador Records label head and electronic music artist Johan Angergård, who’s best known for his work as a member of Club 8. 2017 has been a rather busy year for the renowned producer, electronic music artist and label head, as his solo project The Legends recently released a new album earlier this month and his project with American pop artist and vocalist Rose Suau, Djustin will be releasing their long-anticipated full-length debut Voyagers on May 5, 2017.  And with Voyager‘s first single “Illumination,” Angergård further cements his rapidly growing profile for slickly produced, retro-futuristic, 80s-inspired synth pop — along the lines of Giorgio Moroder, John Carpenter and others — with a nod towards propulsive, dance floor friendly house music. In fact, Suau’s vocals add a plaintive and urgent need to the song.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of the past year, you may recall that although Johan Angergård may be best known as a member of renowned Swedish electro pop acts Djustin, Club 8 and Acid House Kings, as well as the founder and heard of renowned  Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop label Labrador Records. But interestingly enough, Angergård has had an accomplished solo career, as he’s released several albums with his solo recording project  The Legends — including 2009’s noise pop-leaning self-titled effort and 2015’s It’s Love, which featured lead single “Keep Him.” Last year was an extremely busy year for Angergård as Djustin and Club 8 released long-awaited albums and he released two original singles “Cocaine” feat. Maria Usbeck, “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else)” and a cover of The Chainsmokers smash-hit “Roses” feat. Rozes with his solo recording project. Those first three tracks wound up revealing a decided change of sonic direction for him and The Legends as his sound went towards a swaggering, neon-colored, retro-futuristic sound reminiscent of 80s Giorgio Moroder, Computerworld-era Kraftwerk, early house and Holy Ghost!’s Crime Cutz as heavily vocoder-processed vocals are paired with tweeter and woofer rocking 808s, processed cowbell and layers of arpeggio synths; and in fact, the cocksure “Cash” and the dance floor and boom-box rocking “In Love With Myself,” the two most recently released singles off his recently released album Nightshift. 

“Riding The Wave,” is the latest single off Nightshift and sonically speaking, while the song continues the neon-colored, retro-futuristic vibe of the preceding singles, “Riding The Wave” manages to sound like a Giorgio Moroder-leaning take on Harold Faltermeyer‘s “Axel F,” and as a result, the song possesses a late night, coke and strobe-like fueled sensuality.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: The Legends’ Boom Box Rocking Single “In Love With Myself”

Although Johan Angergård may be best known as a member of renowned Swedish electro pop acts Djustin, Club 8 and Acid House Kings, and the head of Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop label Labrador Records, he’s also had an accomplished solo career, releasing several albums as The Legends — including 2009’s noise pop-leaning self-titled effort and 2015’s It’s Love, which featured lead single “Keep Him.” Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time, you may recall that last year wound up being a rather prolific and busy year for Angergård as Djustin and Club 8 released long-awaited albums, and he released two original singles as The Legends, “Cocaine” feat. Maria Usbeck, “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else)” and a cover of The Chainsmokers smash-hit “Roses” feat. Rozes — and interestingly those three tracks wound up reflecting a change in sonic direction for him, as he developed a decidedly swaggering, neon-colored, retro-futuristic sound that nods at early 80s Giorgio Moroder, Computerworld-era Kraftwerk, early house and Holy Ghost!’s Crime Cutz as heavily vocoder-processed vocals are paired with tweeter and woofer rocking 808s, processed cowbell and layers of arpeggio synths as you would have heard on the cocksure “Cash” off his soon-to-be released The Legends album Nightshift.

Nightshift’s latest single “In Love With Myself” features guest vocals from Elin Berlin and while continuing with the swaggering, cocksure vibe of its preceding singles while arguably being the most straightforward, dance floor friendly song off the album, as Berlin and Angergård’s breathily cooed vocals float over a slick, retro-futuristic production consisting of shimmering synths, stuttering drum programming, and boom bap beats. In some way, the song sounds as though it were subtly modern take on the boom box rocking sound of the 80s.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Best known as a member of renowned Swedish, electro pop acts Djustin, Club 8 and Acid House Kings and as the head of Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop label Labrador Records, Johan Angergård has released two full-length solo albums under the moniker The Legends — 2009’s noise pop-leaning self-titled debut and 2015’s It’s Love, which featured lead single “Keep Him.” Interestingly, last year was a prolific and very busy year for Angergård as Djustin and Club 8 released albums — and he released two singles, “Cocaine” feat. Maria Usbeck, “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else)” and a cover of The Chainsmokers smash-hit “Roses” feat. Rozes which not only reflect a decided change in sonic direction for the Stockholm-based label head, producer and electronic music artist but are also marked the first three singles off his sixth, full-length effort as The Legends, Nightshift,  and with those early singles, Angergård  has developed a decidedly swaggering, neon colored, retro-futuristic sound and aesthetic that channels early 80s Giorgio Moroder, The Man Machine and Computerworld-era Kraftwerk, classic house and Holy Ghost!’s Crime Cutz as heavily vocoder-processed vocals are paired with tweeter and woofer rocking 808s, processed cowbell and layers of arpeggio synths.

Unsurprisingly, Nightshift‘s fourth and latest single “Cash” continues on a similar vein, complete with a cocksure, infectious hook straight out of 1983 and a boom box meets dance floor friendly sound.  And in some way, the song should serve as a reminder that even in our incredibly difficult sociopolitical times, that sometimes you need to have some mindless fun on the dance floor — and that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.

 

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of American-born vocalist Rose Suau, best known for her work in synth pop act Shoestrings and Swedish-born multi-instrumentalist and producer  Johan Angergård, best known for his work with Club 8, synth pop side project Djustin can trace their origins to when the duo, who noticed an eerily parallelism in their lives — both are middle children, born in the same year and under the same astrological sign and have identical record collections — started with a mutual admiration of each other’s various musical projects, back in the late 90s. Suau and Angergård started writing each other lengthy letters about love, life, pop music and other subjects. Naturally, those letters turned to emails  –and although both Suau and Angergård went on to form several other musical projects including Pallers, Invisible Twin and The Legends, the duo continued a regular correspondence.

Now as the story goes, although Suau and Angergård had corresponded with each other for years and begun to really know each other, they had never met; however, last fall when Angergård was looking for a vocalist and lyricist for a new musical, side project the first person he thought of was Suau. As Angergård explains in press notes “I love the soulful sensualism in Rose’s voice and figured she’d be perfect for the project. I’m pretty used to writing everything myself and wanted to see what would happen if I did things in new ways. So, I took the chance and sent a couple of tracks over to Rose with me singing gibberish. A week later she dropped a recording of the finished vocals and it was…well, just lovely.”

Tryst, the duo’s soon-to-be released debut EP is slated for a May 13 release through Labrador Records, and the EP’s latest single “Concrete” pairs Angergård’s production consisting of cascading and undulating layers of synths and propulsive boom-bap beats and a razor sharp hook with Suau’s suggestive and sultry vocals in a swooning yet moody song that thematically focuses on lust, obsession and heartbreak. And while nodding at both house music and 80s synth pop, the single possesses a contemporary and radio friendly sheen.