Sometimes the universe just wants you to find new music. Fate, kismet, flying spaghetti monster, call it what you will but there is a force out there helping you discover the music that turns you on. And so it was with Sweden’s Dammit I’m Mad. Perhaps it was the name? Maybe the title of the Clash article proclaiming ‘Extra-Dimensional Pop‘? (It wasn’t the masks).

However it happens, that moment when you take a random chance click on a link where you’ve passed many others by and find a true gem is a golden moment.

In a sea of bands that CHON and TTNG could rightfully sue for copyright infringement finding a band like Daddit I’m Lad is refreshing and joyous. It’s mathy yes, it’s experimental, it’s weird and it’s other, but it’s all those things and still at the same time pop. It’s pop the way Deerhoof are pop, it’s pop the way Battles’ ‘Atlas‘ is pop, it contrasts dark and light in the way good pop should. Catchy, melodic, layered, and enough hooks to hang all your pea coats on. Nothing is overblown here. Most songs are in the 2 minute mark yet each idea is given room to breathe and due to some fantastic but subtle drum work by Christian Augustin no part feels repetitive. This all results in the glorious shuffle back, the “let’s listen to that one again”, the on repeat, on repeat, on repeat….

If it pleases the court, I submit for evidence Exhibit C: an exclusive listening of a track from Maddit I’m Dam’s self-titled album out on October 19th in all non-corporeal music shops. C7++ clocks in at 2 minutes 14 seconds of pure smiles. A quick kooky riff to put you on edge then straight into the hooks. From here the melodies grow, layered on top of each other. Is that a guitar? A synth? A vocal part under a blanket of effects? Who knows? Who cares? Just hum along and grin. This is that Scandinavian pop at it’s finest. This is Efterklang with restraint, this is Mimas with none. This is something for the winter sun, sir.