Thing one about Oslo in the winter: It’s cold. But really, that should sorta be thing two, because thing one in Oslo in the winter is the city’s By:larm Festival, which took place last weekend. (Actually, Oslo residents would tell you that the world skiing championship is thing one, but whatever…) Each year at By:larm, Scandinavia showcases its finest musicians across roughly 20 venues and four nights. Besides sampling artists from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland, the festival also gathers more established music-industry legends for on-stage interviews, panels, and presentations.

Over the course of those four nights (from February 16-19), we saw everything from icy jazz abstractions to Balearic-inspired disco to sprightly indie rock to full-on Norwegian black metal. Below, we share with you some of our favorites.

Supersilent @ Blå
It’s awesome that in a place like Oslo, a trio of abstract jazz-noise fusionists can be superstars—at least if you’re to go by their last two By:larm performances. Last year’s gig won us over, and this year’s, at Sunkissed Live at club Blå, was no exception. It’s near impossible to accurately describe Supersilent’s vibe: They seemingly assemble blocks of sound like Legos, arranging scrapes, hits, and (occasionally colorful) synth tones in a jazz-informed way, but make it sound as intense as it is free of recognizable structure. It came out beautifully, and was no doubt a head-scratching surprise for many who gathered at this dance-friendly club, likely looking for a booming four-to-the-floor.

Vaughan Oliver Presentation
We’ve always been huge fans of 4AD—especially the classics like Cocteau Twins, Pixies, The The, etc.—so it was pretty awesome to get a look into the creative side of lead designer Vaughan Oliver, who is as responsible for the label’s brand as its founders. His 45-minute presentation on the last 30 years of his career was equally as enjoyable as any of By:larm’s musical showcases, and offered more than just an abstract inspirational chat about cover design, as he went into riveting detail about his own inspirations and his creative and collaborative processes.

Niki & The Dove @ Stratos
High above Oslo, Stratos offers nearly 360 degree views of the city, but during most By:larm nights, the place is packed so densely that you can really only look forward. That was fine for everyone on the night that Niki & The Dove performed, as the duo delivered melodic indie-flavored dance pop. Singer Malin Dahlström and keyboardist Gustaf Karlöf maybe take the dove thing a little too far, festooning themselves with bits of feathery flair and face-makeup flourishes, but, musically, there’s more to it, combining bits of modern pop (ie. MGMT and Chairlift) with ’80s acts like Cyndi Lauper and The Motels.

Black Metal Tour
As the story goes, the black metal scene in Norway was, in the early ’90s, centered around all of about six people, who were anti- just about everything—capitalism and religion, of course, but even… fans? Anyhow, when one of its central figures, Mayhem guitarist Euronymous, accused Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. Burzum; a.k.a. Count Grishnákh) of beginning to popularize the scene, he plotted to take him out to the woods and kill him—and videotape it. The Count quickly turned the tables on Euronymous, showing up at his Oslo apartment in the middle of the night and stabbing him to death, leaving his pocketknife in Euronymous’ forehead. A mythology ripe for a bus tour, right? Well, that’s just what Satyricon and Celtic Frost member Anders Odden has organized, and it’s pretty amazing. See the rebuilt church that Vikernes and friends burned to the ground (next to the world skiing championships’ ski jump)! See the basement of Euronymous’ former record shop, Helvete, ground zero for Norwegian black metal! See the apartment complex where he got done-in! And then take a trip to Neseblod Records (the new ground-zero shop) and buy the t-shirt! Does it milk the legacy of this bunch of D&D nerds gone wild? Entirely. But it was also one of the best things to see in Oslo, hands down.

Svarte Greiner @ John Dee
Erik K. Skodvin’s Svarte Greiner project is a quiet listen, if you’re on headphones checking out his gorgeous records for the Type label. If you were at John Dee on this night, it’s a different affair—all noisy guitar run through a battery of loopers and effects, with the guitar more or less tossed off to the side and acting as a simple tone generator. By:larm is nothing if not a varied festival of Scandinavian delights, and this show, at the abstract end of the spectrum, was one of its most pleasing.

Telephones @ Blå
As Telephones, Henning Severud’s latest incarnation as a three-piece group takes Norway’s well-worn approximation of Balearic-inspired disco to its logical end, filling in the sparseness with all sorts of gorgeous, maximal color. It’s no wonder that Prins Thomas signed the project to his Full Pupp label. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for in the future.

1349 @ John Dee
After the black metal bus tour, it would seem a disservice to ourselves to not check out at least one “real” black metal band. And damn, are we glad we did. To the relatively uninitiated (uh, that’s us), 1349 sort of appears like a parody of black metal, and actually, that’s totally okay by us tonight—the circumstances of a bunch of white indie-rock hipsters watching this kind of performance in a certified club atmosphere (and not a dank basement out in the sticks) lends itself to a bit of over-the-top extravagance. And 1349 is nothing if not over the top, with all the hallmarks of what you probably think black metal’s all about: hulking band members, long head-banging hair, guitars that look like medieval battle weapons, and a shitload of “scary” facepaint. Real black metal? Hardly for us to say (apparently, they started around 1997, long after the Euronymous murder). Entertaining and well worth our time? Fuck, yes.

Shine 2009 @ Internasjonalen
The recipe for Finland’s Shine 2009 includes equal parts early ’90s piano house, Pet Shop Boys pop, and laid-back breakbeat hardcore. When the duo brought all those touchstones together at By:larm, it was hard to not at least nod your head a bit, if not outright get down. “New Rules” is a gorgeous slice of summery electro-pop, and if the audience members mouthing the words to the song was any indication, this group is destined to build exponential hype over the next year.

Frisk Frugt @ Jakob Kulturkirke
We really just caught the last couple minutes of this intensely minimal performance by Denmark’s Frisk Frugt (translation: Fresh Fruit)—a calming, simple, single tone squeezed from an organ, twisting its way through a series of sonic manipulation. But the real star of this show was maybe the venue, Jakob Kulturkirke, a converted church that’s now a performance space. The lighting and acoustics are intense and beautiful, and we can only imagine what Dungen would’ve sounded like the next night, had the line to get in not been wrapped around the block.

As you may have noticed, we’ve been covering just about every thing going on with San Francisco outfit Mi Ami, and that’s mostly because the now-duo has recently taken on the task of making psyched-out, DIY dance tunes, which we’re quite fond of. The band is only weeks away from releasing its first EP of such material, and will also be touring the US and Europe in support of Dolphins starting next month. Between March 11 and March 27, you can find Mi Ami in one section or another of the US, and between April 9 and April 27, they’ll be traipsing about Italy, France, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands. You can check out the full list of dates below.

Mar 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ Pianos
Mar 12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Danger Danger Gallery
Mar 13 – Baltimore, MD @ Floristree
Mar 14 – Chapel Hill, NC @ The Nightlight
Mar 16 – New Orleans, LA @ The Pearl
Mar 17 – Atlanta, GA @ 529
Mar 18 – Charlottesville, VA @ Magnolia
Mar 19 – Washington, DC @ Subterranean A
Mar 20 – Swarthmore, PA @ Olde Club (Swarthmore College)
Mar 21 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick Lounge
Mar 22 – Chicago, IL @ Reuben’s Palace
Mar 23 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Yellow Barn
Mar 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Glasslands w/ Laurel Halo, Psychic Reality
Mar 25 – Pittsburg, PA @ Gooski’s
Mar 27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Public Assembly (DJ Set)
Apr 9 – Rome, Italy @ Init Roma
Apr 10 – Paris, France @ La Java
Apr 12 – Lille, France @ Aeronef w/ Battles
Apr 13 – Brighton, UK @ The Green Door Store
Apr 14 – London, UK @ Corsica Studios
Apr 15 – Liverpool, UK @ Mello Mello
Apr 16 – Dublin, Ireland @ Button Factory
Apr 17 – Cork, Ireland @ Crane Lane
Apr 19 – Manchester, UK @ Islington Mill
Apr 20 – Glasgow, UK @ Arts School
Apr 22 – Den Haag, Netherlands @ Paard
Apr 23 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ OCCII
Apr 24 – Koln, Germany @ Genau
Apr 25 – Trier, Germany @ Exhaus
Apr 26 – Leipzig, Germany @ Conne Island
Apr 27 – Berlin, Germany @ Levee

Some of you may know him as the man behind the consistently on-point Hotflush label and others may simply know him has the producer making dub-heavy bass and techno music as Scuba, but Paul Rose has also made more house-influenced tracks under the name SCB since 2008, building a small discography of obscure remixes and singles. Now, Rose is about to slip another single under his side project’s belt with the “Loss” b/w “FutureUnknown” 12″ (pictured above), which is set for release via Will Saul’s Aus imprint on March 21. The press release describes SCB’s songs as “pure unadulterated dancefloor joy” and “an almost Scuba-esque brand of floating euphoria.” That sounds pretty good to us.

A few weeks back, UK garage badman MJ Cole sent over the details about his forthcoming EP. Now, we’ve got those new tracks along with the green light to exclusively stream them here on XLR8R.com. Set for release via Cole’s own Prolific imprint, the Satellite EP was originally slated to drop March 7, but has since been moved up to February 28. Over the course of its four tracks, the EP touches on house, garage, and a variety of bass mutations. The artwork and streaming audio are posted below.

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LA’s globally minded synth-pop duo Rainbow Arabia is just days away from the release of its debut long-player, Boys and Diamonds, which will be followed almost immediately by an extensive tour of the US and Europe. Daniel and Tiffany Preston will start things off on March 8 at Mighty in San Francisco, and end their string of US dates on March 26 in San Diego—touring that whole span of time with South Africa’s Spoek Mathambo. Then, after a short break, Rainbow Arabia will fly across the pond to deliver its well-regarded jams to European fans between April 5 and May 5. You can check out that full list of tour dates below.

US TOUR // all dates with Spoek Mathambo (except SXSW)
March 8th – San Francisco, CA at The Mighty
March 10th – Seattle, WA at Nectar
March 11th – Portland, OR at Branx
March 12th – Boise, ID at The Reef
March 13th – Salt Lake City, UT at the Urban Lounge
March 14th – Aspen, CO at Belly Up
March 16th – Austin, TX at Red 7 (SXSW)
March 19th – Austin, TX at Malverde (SXSW)
March 22nd – El Paso, TX at Lowbrow Palace
March 24th – Tucson, AZ at Club Congress
March 25th – Los Angeles, CA at The Echoplex (Record Release Party)
March 26th – San Diego, CA at Soda Bar

SPRING EUROPEAN TOUR
April 5th – Festival SUPER MON AMOUR ! @ Grand Mix – Tourcoing – FRANCE
April 6th – Festival SUPER MON AMOUR ! @ Olympic – Nantes – FRANCE
April 8th – De Helling – Utrecht – NETHERLANDS
April 9th – Melkweg – Amsterdam – NETHERLANDS
April 10th – Festival SUPER MON AMOUR ! @ Laiterie – Strasbourg – FRANCE
April 11th – Gebaeude 9 – Koeln – GERMANY
April 12th – Astra Stube – Hamburg – GERMANY
April 13th – Debaser – Malmo – SWEDEN
April 14th – Debaser Slussen – Stockholm – SWEDEN
April 15th- Bla ! – Olso – NORWAY
April 16th – Jazzhuset – Goteborg – SWEDEN
April 18th – Musikcafeen – Arhus – DENMARK
April 19th – Huset Magstræde – Copenhaguen – DENMARK
April 20th – Berghain Kantine – Berlin – GERMANY
April 21st – Karlstorbahnhof – Heidelberg – GERMANY
April 22nd – Carré Rotondes – Luxembourg – LUXEMBOURG
April 24th – Electron Festival – Geneve – SWITZERLAND
April 27th – Le 106 – Rouen – FRANCE
April 28th – Witloof Bar Botanique – Bruxelles – BELGIUM
April 29th- La Machine – Paris – FRANCE
April 30th – Camden Crawl Festival – London – UK
May 1st – Sounds from the other city – Manchester – UK
May 2nd – Captains Rest – Glasgow – UK
May 5th – CAMP – London – UK

Manhattan’s multi-purpose art/music/etc. venue Santos Party House has an exciting new series of art installations premiering this Friday, February 26, interestingly titled Somebody Arted in Here!. Among the artists involved in the inaugural event is Gang Gang Dance vocalist Lizzie Bougatsos (pictured above), who will be transforming the venue’s storefront with an installation made collaboratively with Rita Ackermann. There will also be a “late-night rager” that will follow the opening of the art show, and will feature DJ sets from Brian Degraw (also of Gang Gang Dance), Thomas Bullock (A.R.E. Weapons, Rub ‘n Tug), and others. You can check out the flier for the event below, and get more info here.