Scandinavian shoegaze (or "newgaze") has been fairly prominent lately - Serena Maneesh and The Radio Dept. spring to mind, as does the Icelandic collective Singapore Sling. 'Sling formed in Reykjavik in 2000, released their debut album, The Curse of the Singapore Sling, in 2002, which was met with some glowing reviews and high expectations for the future.
As expected, the band thrives on distortion, thick dense layers of feedback, shrieking guitars, and shrouded vocals. Pop-tones are prevalent, sometimes gritty (a la Velvet Underground) and sometimes sweeter (in the noisiest way possible) like The Jesus & Mary Chain. Not surprisingly, these guys are extremely similar to JAMC - Henrik Bjornsson's vocal stylings sound like a carbon copy of Jim Reid's with an added snarl at times. However, they do bring a lot more power to the table than most shoegaze bands, raucous sounds bouncing off walls in every direction.
Their second album, Life is Killing My Rock 'N' Roll, is a lot heavier and noiser. It falls further from JAMC and closer to Sonic Youth in their Daydream Nation days. Not full-on noise to the point of spazz, but adequately imbued with thrashing and drowning sounds. It's also darker with a guitar and buzzed out voice that's drawn up comparisons to BRMC.
Singapore Sling - Summer Garden [mp3] [buy]
Singapore Sling - Dirty Water [mp3]
Singapore Sling - Sunday Club [mp3]
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