The Tough Alliance

While Sweden is back in full swing conquering the pop market in all shapes and forms, it’s important to recognise that a lot of the country’s strongest music is coming from the electronic scene. Beyond more familiar acts like the Knife and Lo-Fi-Fnk, you’ll find Gothenburg’s the Tough Alliance (aka Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund), who are without a doubt the next act to shell out import bucks for. Though they have a new album out in Sweden called New Chance, thanks to a deal with Montreal label Summer Lovers Unlimited, Canadians get this brisk EP originally released last year without a hefty price tag. New Waves is painfully brief but it sticks around long enough to demonstrate that these unlikely hipsters decked out in boy band baggy wear swinging baseball bats are masters of melody. TTA spit, shit and bleed some of the most sugary harmonies this side of Candyland. Single "Silly Crimes” shares an affinity with the Russian Futurists, albeit if they were down in Club Med, swaying with the palm trees and soaking in the sun. "25 Years and Runnin’” inserts hooks in a more blatant brand of spliced trance pop, and to polish it off, "Mine Was Real” sounds like something Stock, Aiken and Waterman would have whipped up for Kylie circa 1990. Let’s hope we see more of their back catalogue over here, as well as what’s to come from these talents.