Soundtrack of eternity,unendliche Sinfonie

Ooh I am liking this...



Not sure how long it will stay on youtube given the situation these days,so enjoy it while you can.This is the title track from Polarkreis' fourth album which will be out on 19th November apparently.It's not radically different from The Colour of Snow album (always a good thing),and although it's not as immediately catchy as Allein Allein or as dreamy as some,well MOST, of the other tracks on the album,I like it very much and look forward to hearing what else they've been up to in the last 2 years.Also loving the retro style video.Sehr cool.

I travel and travel,I'll never come home

So I came back to France today,to the super news (thanks to Laura at EuropeCrazy) that Polarkreis 18's debut Allein Allein will be released in the UK next month,and is being played on Radio 2! This,on top of the fact that there was loads of Europop on the music channels at home last week makes me really happy indeed.OK so it was only Agnes,Star Pilots and Kate Ryan on telly,but you can't be choosy.And then there's Teitur on Radio 2 the other week,and the World Service a few weeks before that...For me it shows progress for the music scene in the UK- a country who I've musically ignored for a good 3 years now being sick and tired of all the indie clones who've invaded the charts and sat there festering for far too long.Maybe it's now safe to put the radio on again and tune it to something other than Radio 4?

I realise that European music of any kind will never make the same impact as the aforementioned indie clones and the endless stream of American tripe in the UK,but still,it's an exciting prospect.And on a geeky note,not since The Rasmus released In the Shadows in 2004 have I been able to say "I knew about them ages ago!" So yes,three cheers for Europop :)

And speaking of Polarkreis 18,here's my other favourite song of theirs- Tourist.This is a bit different to the album version- Felix doesn't do the "Ich bin nicht hier,ich weiss nicht wo ich bin" bit normally.But it's good.His voice is magic.

For a few minutes we're the reality

About 3000 years after the event,I remembered that the Bundesvision Song Contest has been and gone.I think I might have mentioned it before,but it's a mini version of ESC where all the German states take part.It was Stefan Raab's idea (remember him?) and it's basically a really good way of finding new German music.There aren't ESC type rules as such- singles can be entered,and have been by lots of famous German bands.Revolverheld sang Freunde Bleiben for Bremen in 2006,Culcha Candela represented Berlin in 2008,the same year that Sportfreunde Stiller represented Bavaria (I didn't know that's where they're from...) etc etc.Last year's contest though,was won by the state of Brandenburg.Subway to Sally's song Auf Kiel (unfortunately nothing to do with the second best city in Germany) beat Thuringia's Clueso by 1 point.

Anyway.This year,Berlin won with quite frankly a pants song with a weird video.Schwarz zu Blau is by Peter Fox and beat the second place song by 30-odd points.And what was that song that came second I hear you ask? :) Well,none other than my favourite band of the moment- Polarkreis 18 (for Saxony)with The Colour of Snow.One of the rules (probably the only one) of Bundesvision is that the lyrics have to be at least 50% in German,so this version is a bit different to the album version.Because it's such a British style of music,it sounds a bit weird auf Deutsch,but it's still very good.



Other songs of note- well,I haven't listened to them all,but I did of course listen to (and love) Schleswig-Holstein's entry, Bis Auf Letzte Nacht (Until last night) by Ruben Cossani.



And then there's our neighbours Niedersachsen.Their song was Du Fehlst Mir (I miss you) by Fotos.It's like,you know,so indie.

Top 50- 21: The time has come to celebrate our loneliness

Polarkreis 18- Allein Allein

I thought this was some British indie band song when I first heard it in the shoe shop before Christmas.I don't know what I thought they were saying in the chorus but it wasn't "allein".Anyway,it seems to be pretty big over here,I'm still hearing it all over the place- even the housemates were singing it on Big Brother the other night :/ But it is a great song,you don't get many good current German bands singing in English so it's refreshing.The boys will be representing Saxony in next month's Bundesvision Song Contest (seemingly a bigger deal here than ESC itself) with their second single The Colour of Snow.More about the BSC another time (although I'm actually moving to Paris the day it happens)- seems SH's representative is Ruben Cossani.From HAMBURG!Since when has Hamburg been in Schleswig-Holstein? Hmph.