With little fanfare, the Danish Music Awards were held in sunny Copenhagen earlier this month to recognize the country’s best musical talent.  While this may seem like a trivial event in the global scheme, it’s probably worth checking out the listening preferences of inhabitants of the world’s happiest country.

Band of the year honors went to VETO which manages to put out largely electronic music without sounding sterile, bored or excessively “euro”.  Front man Troels Abrahamsen delivers vocals with an uncharacteristic Scandinavian soul and imbues songs with a dark broodiness which defies any adjective approaching ‘world’s happiest.’

Despite a slot at SXSW a few years ago [Editor's Note: Still waitin' for my free SXSW badge, DUDES] , VETO hasn’t garnered much acclaim on this side of the pond.  Their latest release, Crushing Digits (Tabu Records), is set for release in the UK next week but no word on a US release date.  Until then, it’s one more reason the Danes are happier than you are.

MP3 :::
VETO – From A to B
VETO – You Say Yes, I Say Yes