Short on time tonight, so just two quick reviews.
Ran Nir (Sweden) – New Joy (single)
I wasn’t familiar with Ran Nir previouslyand he appears to be embracing a new journey with this single, ‘New Joy’.
The supporting press release draws comparison with 2010s artists the likes of Vampire Weekend and Two Door Cinema Club, but as is my wont with work like this I tend to look further back, to the 1980s and the synth dominated artists, duos and bands that ruled the roost then. Ran would have set well with them.
‘New Joy’ is something that Bronski Beat, Howard Jones and Haircut 100 (even though they were really a guitar band) would have lapped up, with an attention-grabbing intro, overlapping melodies (including the penetrating bass sound) a principal anthemic riff that would have the dead shaking their feet and a general buzzing vibe from beginning to end.
Backing vocals by Alice Rose Smith act as the perfect balance to Ran’s energetic style.
“I make happy music for sad people and sad music for happy people” he says. I reckon everyone could reach a consensus with this one.
Find him on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RanNirMusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ran_nir/
MÍO (Norway) – Kanke se for meg (single/possible future album track) + video
MÍO’s ‘Kanke se for meg (‘can’t see through my eyes’) is a song that “captures the fear of danger that comes with being yourself when you belong to an oppressed group—simply for being who you are.”
The press release continues, “Whether it’s being a woman, a minority, queer, trans, or ‘different’ in any way—anything that might attract unwanted attention and harm. It’s a paranoia that follows you everywhere, born from being burned too many times.”
I see where they are coming from but I’m not sure that women, per se, are an ‘oppressed group’ in 2025 while minority rights often ensure that the boot is on the other foot. And the accompanying video, darkly shot in black and white on a cold, snowy winter’s evening on the Oslo streets, is located in one of the most open minded cities I’ve ever come across. And even more so if it is the trendy Grünerløkka district on show as I half suspect it might be.
But they are undoubtedly right to focus on paranoia, which our society is riddled with, and there is a cloying melancholic, distrustful feel to the song in the early part as if the singer is afraid of her own shadow.
But then in a dramatic ‘I will survive’ moment the vocalist, Dio, finds her voice, and boy doesn’t she just; she really belts it out. They might have heard it in Bergen.
There’s folk and there’s rock and there’s folk-rock but I’m certain you won’t have heard a mix like this before.
Incidentally, Mio Dio in Italian means ‘My God!’ and I reckon that will be your reaction, too.
Incidentally (2) Dio is Dionisia Fjelldalen. Question for the band if they read this – is that the same one that worked in PR for Grappa?
The track is taken from their upcoming album ‘Hva nå?’ (‘What now?’) which will be released on 9th May 2025, via By Norse Music.
The band has set up an album release party on 15th May 2025 at Parkteateret in Oslo (Grünerløkka).
On 15th August 2025 MÍO will play at the Midgardsblot! festival, which is held in Borre, a historical location that was formerly the Viking Age capital of Norway and which, hosts, uniquely, a variety of metal and folk musicians.
Their touring schedule for this year is on: https://www.miomusikk.com/live
Find them on:
Website: https://www.miomusikk.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miomusikk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miomusikk/
