The way a lot of listen to music changed this year. Sometimes it was the distraction of everyday events that kept us from focusing, and sometimes it’s because the discovery of gigs or festivals felt only like a distant memory. But what this year lacked in live events — or over compensated with streaming events — it made up for in quality albums. In no particular order, our albums of the year: Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt Cutters Fiona Apple reappeared after an eight year absence with a record that was worth every minute of the wait. Fetch the Bolt Cutters would be captivating for its rhythmic pa ..read more

Nearly six months after its originally scheduled launch, the new venue Stairway finally had its opening night. The space, located around the corner from the Metro in Vanløse, opened its doors with an afternoon-long reception on their roof deck (protected from the rain by a tarp) and with a free concert from Chorus Grant and Dør Nr. 13. “I would say that those two bands, we booked them because they, in way, determined the direction that we are going to do the program at Stairway,” said Stairway booker Jeppe Greve when we spoke to him in June. “More established bands but still not mainstream-mai ..read more

At face value, daylight seems like the wrong setting for electronic music. When you come to associate performances with small, dark clubs, smoke machines, and projections, open air and sunlight seem like a mismatch. But perhaps that makes Lucrecia Dalt’s live set at Alice all the more novel. Though Alice has been running their summer series for several weeks and other venues are putting outdoor space to use, there have still been precious few opportunities to see live music this summer — and even fewer opportunities to see artists not resident in Denmark. Dalt, from Colombia via Berlin, is a t ..read more

Sitting in the courtyard on Nørre Allé between Union and Alice on a sunny Saturday is a nice way to pass an afternoon. Mizgin is playing energetic Kurdish folk music from a small stage. People are seated comfortably in rows, clapping along, and enjoying their drinks from a bar set up in front of the entrance to Alice.  The concert is part of a summer series of shows with an audience capacity of 50 people, spaced at a government-mandated safe distance with clear guidelines posted on every table. It’s Alice’s way of making up for what has been months of no live music — and an effort to deal ..read more

Torres isn’t a newcomer, but like many artists playing in Denmark for the first time, she’s amazed that people have heard of her. And while there are maybe 40 people at Loppen on a Tuesday, these are people who know her music well. It’s a crowd that cheers for older songs and that applauds for a little too long after every song. Opener Katie Harkin — once the frontwoman of indie rockers Sky Larkin, lately of Courtney Barnet’s touring band — leads a formidable charge. She’s performing to a nearly-empty room, encouraging people to come forward in a time of social distancing, but she has a tre ..read more

Photos by Amanda Farah It’s been close to a whole three years since the last time we caught up with Moor Mother, Camae Ayewa’s solo noise and spoken word project. In the meantime Ayewa has been keeping busy, releasing records with Irreversible Entanglements, ZONAL, and last year’s Moor Mother release, Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes. One thing that has very noticeably changed in the intervening years is the size of the crowd, which has doubled since that night in 2017. The sonic pallet is still dark, twisted and pained, opening on a distorted, bassy synth drone, and accompanied a lone ..read more

“Thank you for remembering me,” says Isobel Campbell. “We didn’t do any press, so we worried only five people would show up.” Looking around a reasonably full room at Hotel Cecil, this seems like classic understatement, a part of the performance from a singer-songwriter whose nearly-25 year career involved stints in a beloved indie rock band and a multi-album collaboration with a titan of alternative rock, to say nothing of her five solo records. But Campbell has kept a low profile in recent years. Her latest album, There is No Other…, released this month, is her first in almost 10 years ..read more

Photos by Amanda Farah Bristol-based, kraut-rock-revivalists Beak> have finally shipped to Copenhagen, which means Loppen is heaving on a Sunday night. Lead by Geoff Barrow (him off Portishead), Beak> combine synths, bass and drums to create occult floor-stompers, pub psych and giallo-inspired soundtracks, sounding at times like Goblin after a really hard night out, at others like Tangerine Dream on a very tight budget. What at first looks like a huge row of amplifiers turns out to be a light display, in equal measures trippy and tongue-in-cheek, as befits the three men on stage ..read more

Photos by Amanda Farah Brexit day must be a strange time to be touring abroad as a British musician. From most you’d expect a bit of sheepishness (even a Leaver would feel a bit out of place, surely) and despondency. But tonight Richard Dawson and support act Burd Ellen deliver a blinder that breaks through the shackles of the present. It’s a sold-out night at Alice, with a good proportion showing up early for Burd Ellen, in no small part buoyed by their set at Fanø Free Folk Festival last summer. The Scottish goth folk duo expand on their traditional repertoire with samplers, fiddles an ..read more

It’s an evening of firsts for Tusks. It’s the band’s first gig of the tour. It’s frontwoman Emily Underhill’s first time in Denmark. It’s their guitarist’s first ever show with the band. And for most people in the crowd it will be their first gig of the year, starting off mellow and broody. Though usually presented as Underhill’s solo project, Tusks are on stage at Ideal Bar as a fully-formed outfit. The difference this presents between the album recordings is immediate. Though there is plenty of guitar on Tusks’ albums, they are much more prominent here — which is before you account for sy ..read more