Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A trip to Norway awaits tonight with Dunia Aljawad as it is necessary to go north and beat the heat that is just pounding here in Korea. Great tunes of course from one of Europe's indie & artistic hotbeds is the extra bonus, of course.
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
August 18, 2021
Karin Krog – We Could Be Flying
Thomas Dybdahl – 45
D’Sound feat Macy Gray – Save Some
Adam Douglas – Build A Fire
Tyler, The Creator feat Rex Orange County & Anna of the North – Boredom
Ol’ Burger Beats – Athens (inst)
Flunk – Midsummer
Vanary – Isolation
JUNIOR PARIS – NO TIME
Fred Paa Jord – Syden & Beyond
Sondre Lerche – I Can’t See Myself Without You
Todd Terje – Delorean Dynamite
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight on a cool rainy Round Trip Wednesday night roundabout. But if we can get through the clouds tonight, we’re taking to the skies pronto, and this Norske edition of the Wednesday gig as June 29, 2022. This is Danno of course on the mic while I head to the bus terminal en route to ICN from studio 2, GFN HQ in Downtown Gwangju, how do you do? Tonight we are joined once again by Dunia Aljawad to rock some crazy tunes from some crazy places, with Norway being the destination this evening. As one of the major members of the Scandinavian quartet in Europe, it’s no surprise that Norway boasts a truly prolific modern music scene amongst other forms of artistic expression, with names like Sigrid S, AURORA, Anna of the North and many others hailing from the home of the fjord. However, it’s not merely a more recent phenomenon, which we’ll demonstrate by going back to the 1960’s with an exploding jazz and avant garde scene going on back then in the great polar caps, and we’ll talk the history and the tightness on the other side. This is The Drop.
Karin Krog – We Could Be Flying
The Drop has commenced the festivities for this week’s edition of our Round Trip Wednesday night, as always celebrating the unique musical cultures to be found in this week’s country of choice, and tonight we head to Norway. What’s snappin & tappin, Drop Gangsters (Korean)? Danno on the bus to Incheon International via radio, heading with Dunia Aljawad tonight on flight TD078 for Oslo at 9pm sharp.
Of course, Norway has always been a country gifted in the arts, and musically in the modern era it has simply been exploding with new talent just like its neighbor Sweden. However, without some of the jazz & avant garde experimentation of the 1960’s & 70’s, we certainly would not have the same scene in Oslo & Bergen as we do today, and that brings us to our TIGHT (or) feature to open the show.
That was Karin Krog with We Could Be Flying, appropriately enough. Krog got her professional debut in 1964, and on this landmark record a decade later, the artist is moving towards a much more experimental sound. It was recorded in 1974 when the American pianist Steve Kuhn was living in Scandinavia. Krog moves far beyond the standard jazz of her roots, into territory that's spacey, cosmic, and filled with the best influences bubbling underground in the Euro scene of the 1970s.
The energetic and creative rhythm section includes Steve Swallow on bass and Jon Christensen on drums and the album sounds as contemporary today as it did in the mid-seventies. The programme on the album includes vocal versions of originals by Kuhn, a cover of Joni Mitchell's "All I Want", a rare Jon Hendricks lyrical version of JJ Johnson's "Lament" plus the title tune, "We Could Be Flying", originally by Michel Colombier. Do check in full if you are not so initiated and want a little more of that from tonight’s Round Trip.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, podcast details, etc.
Now, we’ll stay in the mold of our jazzy opener but move into some more modern purveyors of soul, jazz & funk to start the Norwegian buffet for this evening. Up next we have Thomas Dybdahl to be followed by D’Sound and Adam Douglas, which we shall of course expound upon after we air it out and This is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday night to Norway.
_________
Back on The Drop as we are coming down the home stretch towards the ICN terminal & check-in tonight for flight TD078 bound for Oslo tonight and taking off at 9pm sharp. Danno here getting ready for Dunia Aljawad to join us en route on the plane, and warming up presently with some funk & soul from Norway of a more contemporary variety to whet the whistle before we really start drinking, so let’s get to the summary.
Thomas Dybdahl – 45* (…for those unfamiliar, this is the title track to the Norwegian Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter’s album from 2020 called FEVER. Originally intended to be a part of just an EP, '45' got Dybdahl and long time friend and producer Håvard Rosenberg on a creative roll, and thus both of them expanded the recordings into a full-length album, released on Valentine’s two years prior.)
D’Sound feat Macy Gray – Save Some (…now, speaking of Grammys, this tune just dropped on June 4th of last year featuring Macy Gray. The long-time Norwegian outfit celebrated their 25th anniversary together with a special album originally slated for release last year that was actually released January this year, and the title is, appropriately enough, 25.)
Adam Douglas – Build A Fire (…for those not familiar, Douglas hails from Oklahoma but moved permanently to Norway in 2007. This is a track from his latest LP Better Angles, which dropped in March last year courtesy of Compro Records.)
Moving along to finish the first fourth, we’re gonna stay pretty up on the timeline but go back a few years to a wicked collaboration between Tyler, The Creator, Rex Orange County and Norway’s very own Anna of the North with a tune called Boredom, and we’ll close with some Nordic bumps and a project called Big Ol’ Burger Beats and the instrumental of a cut called Athens. THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday night way up north.
Tyler, The Creator feat Rex Orange County & Anna of the North – Boredom*
Ol’ Burger Beats – Athens (inst)
II.
The Drop arrives at the check-in desk we just got to the terminal here at ICN, and of course it’s just hurry up and wait as we check in for the flight. Danno here standing in line to check in for flight TD 078 bound for Oslo at 9pm sharp tonight, for those geographically challenged that is the capital of Norway. Dunia Aljawad will join us on the flight before takeoff in part 3. We just got a taste of some Nordic folk right there to open up part 2, so let’s get to the strums…
Flunk – Midsummer (…veteran folktronica band formed as a duo 20 years ago which has now expanded into a quintet. This single was a feature upon release of the band’s latest LP, entitled The History of Everything Ever, released in late May of last year and bursting with incredible knowledge, apparently.)
Vanary – Isolation (…this is a standalone single that dropped in early July also in 2021 from the band. Vanary is a newer quintet on the Norwegian folktronica scene, having busted out in 2019 with an uptempo cut called Free Bird that put the group on the map.)
Moving along SM, #9870, podcast let us know …
On deck we got a trio of indie-oriented jawns dug out of the melting polar caps, and we’ll start with JUNIOR PARIS and have Fred Paa Jord along with Sondre Lerche rounding out the block, and we’ll discuss all the background after the foreground dies down but for now THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday to Oslo.
_________
Back on The Drop and for once not arriving in a total tizzy at the departure gate after a harrowing security experience. Danno here ready to take off for Oslo momentarily & Dunia Aljawad will be on board for the trip once we’re ready to take off, but let’s get to those last three cuts we just sent off into space, all origin Norway...
JUNIOR PARIS – NO TiME (…this is a tune from last year and the artist is still rather young. JUNIOR PARIS began making full tunes at the age of 11 and then started moving into becoming a multi-instrumentalist thereafter. NO TiME dropped in August of 2021 and was part of a larger debut LP released later.)
Fred Paa Jord – Syden & Beyond (…this budding quartet started as a jamming affair between guitarist Anders Winsents and drummer Per Elling Kobberstad in early 2019. With a minimal microphone set up and an 8 track cassette recorder they jammed out a slew of instrumentals that would easily be mistaken for bootleg tracks by Nigerian 70’s artists such as William Onyeabor.)
Sondre Lerche – I Can’t See Myself Without You (…this tune was released as part of the patience LP in 2020. The artist is Norwegian and now based in LA, with this joint being a good playlist add for the summer months here.)
Okay, so the lemmings who like to wait in line for a maximum amount of time are kind of aggressively running to wait around as final call just blurted over the PA, but we still got time. To finish the first half this evening, we’ll get some space disco in from one of the founders in Todd Terje called Delorean Dynamite. This is from a great album in 2014 called It’s Album Time which we definitely recommend, and we’ll hear more from Mr. Terje in hour 2. This is The Drop and it’s time to fly at halftime.
Todd Terje – Delorean Dynamite
III & IV Round Trip
Aurora – Runaway
Anna of the North - Lovers
Sigrid – Mirror
Nelly Moar - PussyBoy
Todd Terje - Inspector Norse
A-ha – Take on me
Susanne Sundfor - Slowly
Astrid S. - Think Before I Talk
Royksopp – Ice Machine
다비치 DAVICHI - 안녕이라고 말하지마 Don't say Goodbye
Paul Kim – Every Day, Every Moment
Aurora - Runaway
• Aurora Aksnes has, at just 22 years old, managed to cultivate a style that feels both elaborate and organic, vulnerable and primal.
• She has managed to put her own stamp on iconic songs by David Bowie and Oasis.
• the soundtrack to the Disney film Frozen II was released, with Aurora providing backing vocals on the song "Into the Unknown"
Anna of the North – Lovers
- This is now the solo project of Anna Lotterud, who’s based in Oslo, but was originally a duo formed while Lotterud was studying in Melbourne.
- This is the title track to the then band’s debut album, and was a massive success. nna has said this song was inspired by a relationship ending; "I was really in love with this guy, and he broke up with me and it was super sad",[2] although "There’s still a hopefulness in there... There’s still a future ahead, life is gonna get better." Kinda sounds like the Korean concept of han.
- In July 2017, Anna was featured on Tyler, the Creator's singles "Boredom" and "911 / Mr. Lonely" off his album Flower Boy alongside Rex Orange County and Frank Ocean, respectively. Anna was also invited to perform with Tyler, the Creator and Steve Lacy on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Sigrid - Mirror
• combines a fresh-faced innocence with a normcore coolness and lyrics that take no prisoners. Her 2017 single, Don’t Kill My Vibe, brought her international success – to the point that she won the BBC Music Sound of 2018 award, and her rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows was included in the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of DC’s Justice League.
• She never considered writing or performing in Norwegian “even though surprisingly, I almost only listen to Norwegian music today”.
Nelly Moar – PussyBoy
- This is an artist that’s both from the famed indie hub of Bergen and an exponent of the ongoing vintage soul movement going on in Norway right now.
- Moar studied jazz vocals at the Grieg Academy, and just released the self-titled debut EP on May 27, of which this is the final tune on the record.
Todd Terje - Inspector Norse
• Norway’s space disco is a genre that started 20 years ago with a group of teenagers in the arctic Tromsø, and is still going strong, even beyond the country’s borders. One of the artists responsible for that is Todd Terje, a DJ, songwriter and record producer who is best known for his 2012 house track “Inspector Norse”.
• Todd’s sense of humor is apparent throughout his work, but also in the illustrations he uses to promote his latest releases or gigs on social media – he has even said he just wants his music to be “fruity”.
A-ha – Take on me
• topped the charts in the mid-80s and helped shape the MTV generation. They continued on until 2010, when they officially parted ways, but then reunited in 2015 and have been amazing long-time fans around the world ever since.
• ‘Take on me’ was only after being released three times that the song became a hit. After the single’s initial failure the band completely re-recorded it and also created an accompanying animated video
Susanne Sundfor – Slowly
- This is an artist that has gained great respect over the years for her critically acclaimed and quite popular releases. From the time of Sundfor’s debut in 2007, every single album release went straight to or near the top in Norway, with the first few characterized by an electronically-driven sound.
- Music for People in Trouble, Sundfor’s 2017 release, went for a different sound, with the artist going for a folk sound. No difference though, the album went straight to #1 in Norway, Sundfor’s fourth in a row to go straight to the top.
- This tune by the way, is from 2015’s Ten Love Songs.
Astrid S. - Think Before I Talk
• Astrid Smeplass is definitely Scandinavia’s latest sweetheart. First female artist in 15 years to win a Spellemannsprisen (the Norwegian Grammy awards), Astrid S.’ single ‘Think Before I Talk‘ has topped the charts in Norway, and has become platinum in Sweden and gold in Denmark.
• the Norwegian singer made her American television debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers. she has done backing vocals for Katy Perry.
Royksopp – Ice Machine
- This is a duo out of the far north in Tromso formed in 1998 that reached fame in the early aughts with the critically-acclaimed Melody AM, which was the duo’s debut album. The band is named after a type of puffy mushroom that grows in the arctic where they’re from.
- Stylistically, the band makes use of various genres, including ambient, house music and synth-pop. The band is also known for its elaborate concert performances, which often feature eccentric outfits. Those shows are awesome, by the way. Un-believable.
- This tune appeared on the band’s Lost Tapes LP, released last year.
다비치 DAVICHI - 안녕이라고 말하지마 Don't say Goodbye
• Davichi (다비치) is a South Korean pop duo under MMO Entertainment. The duo consists of Haeri and Minkyung. They officially debuted on February 4, 2008.
• The group name, ‘Davichi’ means that they will shine over everything.
• Davichi is one of the most influential singers in the Korean music industry.
Paul Kim – Every Day, Every Moment
- This is a tune that appeared on the 키스 먼저 할까요? Should We Kiss First OST, which came out in 2018.
- Born right here in Gwangju, Paul or Kim Tae-hyung spent years living abroad in New Zealand and Japan, and has now become a go-to guy for ballads in Korean shows, with 4 albums and 3 EP’s under his belt since professional debut in 2014.