For the last few years (perhaps as some sort of belated recompense for Bryan Adams) Canada’s been the place where indie’s been at, with such wonderful beat combos as The Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes, Final Fantasy, Sunset Rubdown, The Dears, Broken Social Scene, K-OS and The New Pornographers emerging from its pseudo-Gallic shores. But times are a-changin’. Canadia’s dominance of the alternative scene is slipping, as the mantle of musical greatness is wrested from it by a new contender. And no, it’s not the UK or the US of A. In fact, it’s someone really quite unexpected. Enter “Konungariket Sverige”, or as we call it in this part of the world, Sweden.

Home to Volvos, the Nobel Prize and devastatingly attractive blondes, this Scandinavian nation hasn’t really pulled its weight musically since ABBA thanked us for the music and buggered off back in the mid-80’s. But recently, we’ve seen a number of great bands emerge from the icy wastes; The Shout Out Louds, The Concretes, Peter Bjorn and John, I’m From Barcelona, just to name few. But perhaps their greatest ambassadors at the moment are the glacial brother-and-sister electro duo known as The Knife. Now, you might not have heard of them, but you’ll probably have heard of one of their songs. You know that Sony Bravia advert with the thousands of multi-coloured balls bouncing down a hill? (Query: why not multi-coloured cannonballs? With chavs at the bottom of the hill? Then they could’ve performed a public service as well as hyping their product…) Well, that particularly striking piece of advertising was accompanied by a delightful guitar piece sung by Jose Gonzalez, who despite his Hispanic name is yet another Swede. It's name was “Heartbeats”, it received a lot of attention from the music press, and Jose was propelled into the big time (and good for him, ‘cos it was pretty great.) But compared the synthtastic ebullience of the original, Jose’s acoustic rendition seems rather, well, dull. Drenched with dense keyboards, KORG solos and synth drums, the Knife’s version is the antithesis of Jose’s; an insidiously catchy synthesis of 80’s-style upbeat electro-pop and Karin Dreijer Andersson’s unmistakable icy vocals. It’s frankly stunning and undoubtedly one of the best songs I heard last year- the sole reason it wasn’t in my Top 30 list was because it was released in 2002. Otherwise it’d be duelling (possibly with muskets, swords are so last millennia) with ‘Trains For Brazil’ for the top spot.

Their latest LP ‘Silent Shout’ isn’t nearly as immediate as their earlier stuff; it’s a very clinical, often sinister musical journey with dischordant synths and relentless techno beats as cold and unforgiving as the Arctic winter. It’s definitely an acquired taste- Pitchfork awarded it Album of 2006 but it’s not an easy album to get into. But there’s been some mighty fine remixes- Ratatat’s take on “We Share Our Mother’s Health” made my Top 30 Songs of last year and with good reason. And although I don’t really thinking sharing my mother’s health is particularly appropriate or desirable, I will share a couple of MP3’s. Because I’m nice like that.

The Knife - Heartbeats

The Knife vs. Ratatat– We Share Our Mothers Health