I guess my New Year's vow must be to not sleep...at least on the margins of music. And while we play plenty of new music here at the station, there are always artists and bands who don't make the cut for reasons that really have little to do with the actual music that they make. One recent discovery was the Finnish band Paavoharju whom I talked about on Monday. Next up, Studio, which is the production team of Dan Lissvik and Rasmuss Hagg who take jamming to another level on their latest release West Coast. Though I have not heard the entire album, the song I have, "West Side" is cool, and perhaps on that "cosmic level," evoking cool from the edge of this universe as they prepare for voyages into spaces where the unknown is the destination. From what I can tell, these guys are the sorta hipsters like Brooklyn's MGMT who take the disco/funk musical idiom and sync it to their framework, evoking other genre's but working it out in their own way-- jamming without the noodling. Their DIY aesthetic has given them a very interesting sound; atmospheric yet thumped with rootsy bass work, artsy yet not so self-conscious that you can't dance to it, druggy psychedelia without the drugged psychosis. Other than playing their own music, they also organize light shows and even handle the cover art for their releases. That's scrappy, but what does it sound like?Studio: West Side
