Vanbot in the Sunshine

Over this extremely sunny weekend, we encountered a new artist who kindly provided the soundtrack to two blissful days of sunbathing and alcohol.

That artist is called Vanbot, the alter ego of Stockholm-based vocalist Ester Ideskog. Her eponymous debut album will be available here in the UK and across Europe on April 15th on iTunes and the like (other music download services are, of course, available). And if her latest single Lost Without You is anything to go by, it's set to contain some of the most exciting and heart-felt electro pop since Robyn's Body Talk series. You can have a listen (and indeed download the track for free) from the player below:

  Lost Without You by Vanbot

As you will probably hear, the Stockholm-forged beats and Vanbot's voice immediately invite comparisons with Robyn. The track certainly sits very nicely alongside something like Dancing On My Own which, frankly, is excellent company to be keeping.

If diversity is a concern for you, though, then you may like to take a quick gander at Vanbot's debut single, Make Me Break Me, which is also available for download ahead of the album's release.

  Make Me, Break Me by Vanbot 

We'd like you to pay particular attention to the intro, which sounds a little bit like a head-on collision between Cascada's Evacuate The Dancefloor and Pet Shop Boys' Always On My Mind before breaking into something which is at the same time punchy and melancholic. This is a very good thing.

The reason all of this works so well (particularly when accompanied by an unseasonably hot weekend) is that it provides the perfect soundtrack to those summer moments when you find yourself introspectively staring into the middle distance, allowing the world to pass by around you for those few short moments before you get yanked back into reality. Those moments where you tune out of the conversation or gaze out of the car window and wonder and question whether everything really is alright with the world; whether life is really turning out the way it should be...

Oh, you don't have a soundtrack for those moments?

What the hell is wrong with you?

So... erm.... yes. Vanbot. Very good. Buy the album.