Perpetual Kunk faves Thieves Like Us new album (Again and Again) is coming out next month. You previously saw and heard the Never Known Love single here not too long ago… next up is Forget Me Not, which is naturally accompanied by its own remix package. This track follows in a similar vein to the first preview release — it’s evocative of the yearn for romantic memory — introspective, but not sullen. Look for the album on May 7 through deBonton in Europe and Shelf-Life in the U.S.

Of the below, we’re particularly fond of the Not Second Date remix… and, to get a taste of the original, it can be streamed here: http://www.7digital.com/artists/thieves-like-us/forget-me-not/01-Forget-Me-Not/

The single will be released in full next week.

Thieves Like Us – Forget Me Not (Not Second Date Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Thieves Like Us – Forget Me Not (Cécile Small Town Girl Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Thieves Like Us – Forget Me Not (Sundance Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Sweden’s Loney, Dear is the project of multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter [ctrl-c+ctrl-v for the name now] Emil Svanängen. Debut was out in 2003 and I got to know the music with Lonely, Noir 2007 and I was lucky to saw a gig at Pukkelpop. The new record, Dear John is awesome. Released the album at the end of January, Loney, Dear now tours with Andrew Bird (who plays violin on I Got Lost btw). The sound is like if Thom York was born in the brutal cold of Sweden and was destined to write and record indie pop songs in the solitude of his apartment. We know that Sweden is a great place for extraordinary pop music and Loney, Dear is proof. Haunting vocals, ghastly synths, depressive-melancholic lyrics and hell of a lot of instruments combined give birth to the music which seems to avoid labels. Even atmospheric labels. Everything’s on the move here, we shift from sadness to half-smiles, from symphonic grandeour to pop playfulness. The most attractive route to the core of the album lies somewhere here: you could picture each song as a slideshow of photos (polaroids if that’s your hipster taste) and the photos capture some small emotional essence from relationships with yourself, with others, personal redemptions and tragedies and the like. The album is very vivid and full of life. Not like you know soccer worldcup themes but more like full of analogies for example between winter outside and summer in your heart or the other way around.

Loney, Dear – Summers [zshare] // [ysi]

Maybe not so new because it’s officially from the Kitsuné Maison 6 compilation. Seems like one of the coolest Parisian labels realized the post-banger era and the importance of smooth synths. Lo-Fi-Fnk is amazing since their debut LP Boylife and the City single. They are actually from Sweden. They were disappeared until now but I guess we can expect plenty of remixes and hype soon. This new song Want U is a great atmospheric disco song kinda reminds me of the new Cut Copy. I feel like it makes the air lighter around you, your heart beats less fast, you can close your eyes and fast forward the time to a nice Sunday afternoon where every difficulty that makes your soul heavy just floats up to the clouds and rains down to get lost in the city.

Lo-Fi-Fnk – Want U [zshare] // [ysi]

But, hey, we’re cool with that. The soothing and slightly melancholic sounds of Air France have always been a fave around here in Kunk-a-land — who cares if sometimes they sound like they were making the alternate soundtrack for the movie The Beach. For all i know, maybe they were… due to the high season tourist demographic, many Thai islands are known as ‘little Swedens’ after all. But enough about Thailand and movies with Leonardo DiCaprio… the point is that Air France actually hail from Gotenburg and make tropical pop music and they’re cool. Never Content was a track of their EP from 2006, while Karibien is a more recent effort, from what i can see. And both *definitely* call for a tropical drink at your side. Before the summer slips into fall, better make sure and do that!

Note: the picture totally is not a pic of the band and totally is taken from the Air France website — like, the airline one that flies out of Paris.

Air France – Never Content [zshare] //Air France – Never Content [ysi]

Air France – Karibien [zshare] //Air France – Karibien [ysi]

Sweden surely has talent but we’ve only been posting about the weird, alternative, indie band-music stuff. There are heavy electro criminals in the country as well. The Swedish House Maffia. Okay, really awful name but Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angelo got together, formed Buy Now! and made a dancefloor-killer house-hymn. If you know a lot about disco then you can find a classic song hidden inside it. According to Missingtoof it was around for the first time in 2005. WTF? 2005? This must be a wormhole-timemachine sick sci-fi thing.

Now, Streetlife DJs (on the right) are cool. They are from London. They made remixes for Cazals, Muse, Michael Jackson to mention a few. They actually edited Body Crash so it’s not that it’s exciting once again and a bit less irritating after 10 listens or so. Give Streetlife some myspace love and check the awesome and many remixes they made.

Buy Now! – Body Crash (Streetlife DJs remix) [zshare] // Buy Now! – Body Crash (Streetlife DJs remix) [ysi]

Back to Sweden. According to bio, The LK (full name is heavy: ‘The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos, and the Sound of K’) is a project of an abstract sound artist, Lindefelt, and a pop visionary songwriter, Fredrik (both of them have their own stuff). The description proves to be quite accurate when we check their album vs. The Snow which their label was kind enough to send us. Minimalistic pop melodies with a very strange atmosphere. Diverse and intense, the record is a melancholic trip through a collection of moods which result sometimes in an alternative dancey disco, pretended happiness and sometimes in post-rockish artsy sound. Childish and noisy, the album is the soundtrack of weird summer days when, at the same time, it feels and doesn’t feel like summer. A cold breeze, rain and other weird things can occupy the ruling place of hot sunwaves.

Give them myspace friendliness, check their video and read the full review on Pitchforkmedia (7.9 rating is high, of course, of course it’s Pitchfork but worth a read) and order it at The Kora Records.

My two favourites are below. Funny, the chorus of the latter reminds me of Toy Soldiers by Martika (you know the sample Eminem used haha…)

The LK – Eurovision (zshare) // The LK – Eurovision (y. s. i.)

The LK – Tandem Bikes (zshare) // The LK – Tandem Bikes (y. s. i.)

Okay, something must be going on in the cold North with the long winters, winds, and snow because they are just going crazy. Sweden is for the UK what Australia is for France…umm…or the other way around? Or not? So yeah, here’s Kleerup, Andreas. I think he was hyped first when he did the collaboration with Ann…I mean Robyn on ‘With Every Heartbeat’ (video) What is it with hearts, beats and music from North? Next big thing is gonna be that he got Lykke Li featured on his album along with other Swedish pop singers, including Lisa Milberg from The Concretes. Swedes do it to each other, nice “intensive farming”.

Funny thing is, I think the better part of the album is when he’s on his own. Then the atmosphere is like Neverending Story. Or maybe the obvious association could be La Boum-esque dancing with a headphone alone on a crowded dancefloor with 80s discoballs. But these songs are truly perfect for days full of ugly hangovers when you just wish to sit on a glacier above everything with cold winds clearing your aching head. Superman sitting on the icy top of the world, sadly holding and staring at some cryptonite in his hands.

Kleerup – Thank You For Nothing (zshare)

Kleerup – Thank You For Nothing (y. s. i.)