The four original members of Lød formed after graduating school in Copenhagen, inspired by the post-punk that was prominent in the fervent, close-knit music community of the city. The first version of Lød was very much birthed in this same shadow: loud and heavy.

With time and addition of a fifth member, their sound began to rely less on distortion, foregoing aggression for a greater focus on melody and rhythm. Bands like LCD Soundsystem & Kraftwerk provided further inspiration and it became an ambition for Lød to create music that - while never taking the easy route - could make people dance. With their debut EP, released via London-based label Tough Love, they have very much achieved this. They're a dance band, in the same way one might consider NEU a dance band.

The recording of Folder began in October 2016 with engineer Julius Pedersen, who helped the band shape tracks that had taken more than six months to write. The result is a 24-minute, four song debut EP sung in Danish. You might consider it uncompromising were the songs not so accessible.

And despite their length, these are 'songs', with defined melodies and structure. Looping and monolithic, early commentators in their home country have noted a “trance-punk” aspect to their sound. Such nomenclature can be tedious, but it's not a million miles from the truth. Bringing to mind the likes of Preoccupations in their similarly propulsive take on post-punk, Lød add a further glacial edge indebted to both early industrial and no wave.

NPR premiered the title track here

Lød are:

Vocals: Søren Gade

Drums: Mads Uldum

Bass: Sebastian Kjær

Synt: Anders Andersen

Guitar: Erik Thøgersen

Ghost Toast is an instrumental, experimental progressive rock band from Debrecen, Hungary, formed in 2008. They love heavy, trippy music and film scores as well, so they use these elements to create their own music. During their concerts Ghost Toast uses projected background visuals which are created by the band specifically for the songs.

With their third album, titled Out Of This World, the band used elements of heavy prog rock, world music, folk, and electronic music. The songs on are connected by a loose concept - a connection between fantasy and some mythological themes (influenced by the Dark Tower saga by Stephen King, Dune by Frank Herbert, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, and Greek mythology).

The band’s music is influenced by bands like Tool, Faith No More, Mastodon, Crippled Black Phoenix, Ulver, Special Providence, Oceansize, Jaga Jazzist, Shpongle, Orbital, Ott, Plaid, Future Sound Of London, various film score composers (like Ennio Morricone, Jeremy Soule), etc. The songs on Out Of This World are connected by a loose concept - a connection between fantasy and some mythological themes.