
The Tough Alliance
In an over-saturated Swedish music scene, The Tough Alliance have delivered glistening electronic dance pop on their new album, A New Chance. They’ve been brought to the forefront by indie darling Jens Lekman who has claimed that they are his new favourite band. The album only lasts for half an hour, but what it lacks in time, it makes up for in sheer exuberance, with whistles, whoops, bongo basslines and frantic guitars all meshing seamlessly.
Tagged: electronic music, pop music, Swedish bands
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Luke Jackson’s debut album, And Then Some
In the Spring of 2006, a seven-year email correspondence culminated in the meeting of Luke Jackson and Magnus Börjeson. Jackson had long been a devoted fan of two of the Swedish musician’s former bands: Beagle and Favorita, and the two songwriters finally met in Paris where Börjeson was mid-tour playing in The Cardigans. By the end of the weekend, Jackson had accepted an invitation to record in Sweden, which he took up in January 2008. He set to work in the studio with Magnus on bass and Christoffer’s Brainpool bandmate Jens Jansson on drums. Upon his return to London, he sent the rough mixes of the songs to renowned London-based string arranger Robert Kirby (who has orchestrated works by Nick Drake, Elvis Costello, and Elton John). Kirby loved the songs and offered to write orchestrations for the album and accompany Jackson to Sweden to conduct the necessary recording sessions with nine players from Malmö’s Opera Orchestra. It is the collision of these two worlds which makes his album, And Then Some, so compelling. Densely layered guitars and vocal harmonies fuse with sweeping string lines, none of which ever draw the ear too far from what lies at the heart of Jackson’s music.
I had the pleasure of seeing Duran Duran play a few weeks back in the balmy drizzle of New York’s Central Park. I always thought the guys had more cheek than they were ever given credit for. But don’t be fooled! For a band so rooted in the immediacy of disposable pop, they wrote some timeless songs, none more so than The Chauffeur.
Also by KATE BARNETT

I’ll admit it, on first listen and in a terrible figity mood, i jumped though the tracks, looking for the instant gratification of a big melody before switching to something else. Despite a few negative reviews from others also too quick to judge, the response to this album has been so astoundingly positive, it’s impossible to dismiss. Written after emerging from a period of social isolation and centered around issues of a man and his dying lover, The Antlers’ album, Hospice, slowly creeps up upon the listener. With delicately constructed chords and small movements, the journey of the album unravels loneliness, isolation and deep catharsis.

It takes guts to be simple. Overcrowding, overworking and over-thinking are far easier. London-based artist and illustrator James Joyce shows how good color choice, clever concepts, and a keen eye for type can get you work with big clients, such as Wallpaper, Nike and Penguin Books, to name a few. Read more

I can tell how much I like a designer by the the speed at which I bookmark their site. With Rob Lowe (aka Supermundane), it was on the home page. That’s a pretty good sign. Supermundane is a multi-disciplined creative who impressively creates all text himself for every project he does. Prepare yourself to be jealous.
YOU'RE SAYING (4)
francis said | 1 April, 2008
these guys are seriously hot, i recommend it highly. blissed out summer love, bit of early rave mixone of my news favsed with catchy, gritty, pop.
francis said | 1 April, 2008
these guys are seriously hot, i recommend it highly. blissed out summer love, bit of early rave mixed with catchy, gritty, pop. one of my news favs
Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography and more » The Tough Alliance dig Dr Dre said | 1 May, 2008
[...] wrote about hot Swedish electro duo The Tough Alliance a little while back, so we thought it was time we had a chat with Eric Berglund, one half of the [...]
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Cairo-based Denis Dailleux has photographed everyone from Catherine Deneuve to anonymous subjects from the slums of Cairo, constructing a unique portrait of the capital of Egypt. Read more
Japanese artist Toshiya Tsunoda’s field recordings will blow your mind without blowing your eardrums. By placing sensitive microphones inside empty objects, such as bottles and hollow logs, he captures vibrations inaudible to the human ear. Layers of these sounds are artfully cut and composed to produce brute, mesmerising work that challenges our perception of music. Read more
New York illustrator James Blagden’s work is so wonderfully trippy, I feel like I need to wear shades and a top hat when looking at them just to do them justice. Read more
This remarkable construction is located in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi and is built entirely from scratch every year. It features 10,000 tonnes of ice from the nearby Torne River, and 30,000 tonnes of snow, covering more than 30,000 square feet in total. Oh, it even has its own ice chapel. But be sure to bring your winter woollens. It could get a little, errr, chilly at night. Read more
Produced by our talented friends over at Miami-based studio, Common Machine, this is the first installment of a new bi-monthly series of exclusive Lost At E Minor videos that they will be putting together for us. This one is on marionette maker, Pablo Cano, who uses ‘mundane objects to create magic on a string’. And he does. We hope you enjoy!
One of Cyberoptix most popular designs is now on some amazing hand-woven, Fair Trade silk scarves. As always, they handscreen them all in their Detroit studio. Read more
The Magazineer is ‘a blog about magazine design and print culture, written by people who love, and make, magazines’. Read more
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Karen Caldicott’s clay head models
British born, New York-based model maker Karen Caldicott has been making clay heads for all major US publications over the last decade. Read more

Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more

With the recession still biting, it may be time to whip out the glue and the cardboard and make your next pair of cool kicks. Don’t know how they’d manage in the rain though? Read more

Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.

Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
Wolfmother. Rock n roll. Mystical lyrics. Heavy riffs. They have a new album out, Cosmic Egg, and we have five copies to giveaway, along with their debut album. To enter, tell us your favorite Wolfmother song and the city you live in. Yo! Two fingered salute. Read more
The Offering t shirt by New York-based designer Ryan Sullivan is printed by hand, one at a time, using a dye-based print. Printed on cotton/poly blend tees. Size is true to fit. Read more
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Eduardo said | 2 December, 2007
Wow, I want this right now.