Mojo - The Music Magazine

Forget Eurovision. SPOT Festival is the best advert for Scandiwegian music, reckons Kieron Tyler.

FIVE DAYS AFTER Norway's Eurovision Song Festival victory, MOJO finds itself in Århus, the Danish city that hosts SPOT, the annual festival dedicated to Scandinavian music. With the newly configured Eurovision voting system, Iceland came second and Denmark scored 13th position with Århus-native Brinck and his Ronan Keating co-composition. Poor old Finland came last. It's a good time to take the temperature of Nordic music.

At SPOT, 111 acts are playing over three days: 80 are Danish, seven are Norwegian, four are Icelandic, three are Swedish and two are from the Faroe Islands. A smattering of interlopers includes Yann Tiersen, along with some Dutch and Belgian folks. Denmark obviously has the edge, but as the festival unfolds it's clear Nordic music overall is in super-rude health.

It's a delightful festival, mainly held on one site, centred on the city's concert hall and in venues on nearby streets. Shows run to time and audiences include factions open to anything. No bottles of piss arc stagewards. Danish hip hopper Birk Storm might not engage everyone, but at close to midnight on Saturday he's slaying the crowd.

Thursday's opening show takes place in the large concert hall. The apparently unknown Ave are playing with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and a thirty-strong choir. The audience goes bonkers, but their post-Paranoid Andronics soon get a bit much. Nice touch with the typewriters as percussion though.

On day two, shouty Finnish girl trio Le Corps Mince De Françoise are pep-filled, even at three in the afternoon. They're a good starter for homeland band Bodebrixen (pictured, above), who play an outdoor tent. Amazing and irresistible, they exude charm as their seven members crowd the stage. Their happiness evokes early Haircut 100 or Housemartins with a Belle & Sebastian twist. Musically, this sing-along pop is so perfect it sounds like you dreamt it up. As the audience bounce along to Key Chain and Clock Radio, it's clear Bodebrixen are ready for more than Denmark.

Then it's off to Norway for Hanne Hukkelberg and a moody contrast to the sun-kissed jollity of Bodebrixen. Hukkelberg's recent album Blood From A Stone was introspective, yet warm. Live, with a sympathetic band, the formerly spectral songs glow. Asked after the show whether she thinks the Eurovision profile will do anything for Nordic music, Hukkelberg says her countryfolk "don't want to think about Eurovision, but it does mean something."

Later on, Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini packs the main concert hall, while the curious post-gothic Danes Diefenbach play a bar down the road. Ending the night, techno whizz kid Mike Sheridan has his lap-top out. "Here's my new single," he says - half an hour later it's still burbling away.

Ping-ponging around on Saturday, a similar all-sorts mix prevails. The unifying factor is that everything is fully formed, and every performer knows exactly how to project. Playing a small tent, Thee Attacks are a mod-looking four-piece from Aalborg in north Denmark. Soulful vocals complement a '65-era Townshend guitarist who whacks out Have Love, Will Travel-style riff after riff. So good - and with no covers - they'll easily move beyond the garage and could crossover to become a successor to The Hives. Primitivist über-producer Liam Watson is here and smiling along.

On a different tack, Oh Land is singer Nanna Øland Fabricus, two backing vocalists, a bass player and drummer. With light-up mini bungalows on their heads, Oh Land charm with a Björkish approach to reflective melody and clanking beats. Soon afterwards, the mesmeric symbiosis of Swedish twin sisters Taxi Taxi is gripping. A change in mood comes with two Finnish bands: Murmansk and Joensuu 1685. Murmansk mix the attack of Death Valley 69 Sonic Youth with My Bloody Valentine and top it with Julie Driscoll vocals. The all-out assault of Joensuu 1685 draws from Recurring-era Spacemen 3 and La Düsseldorf to wig-lifting effect. Finland is in good hands.

As the finale looms, things are blurring - despite the £5 beer. Oh No Ono, also originally from Aalborg, are closing SPOT. A unique proposition, their off-the-wall vision of pop encompasses psychedelia, New Romantic pop and high-pitched Prince-style vocals. Bassist Nis Svoldgaard tells MOJO that SPOT is "the most important gig in Denmark, there's a lot of people here that you want to like your music."

Poked about Eurovision, he decrees that "it's a cute old show. That was a good song that we won it with in 1963 [Grethe and Jorgen Ingmann's Dansevise]."

Needless to say, Oh No Ono's post-pop savvy doesn't draw on this rinky-dink tribute to dancing. But what they have in abundance is a clear style, nagging melodies and an utterly distinctive approach.

Which sums SPOT up. Everything has its own twist. Whether it's the hyper-real Oh No Ono or the irresistibly perky Bodebrixen, you're swept along by music that wants to connect. There's no question of style over content: they're indivisible at SPOT where everyone makes the effort. Pity those Eurovision entries couldn't have taken some tips beforehand. This is a much more compelling advert for Scandinavian music.

Kieron Tyler