|| FensePost || (Tafra's "Why Even Bother" full album review) "in my review yesterday of Tafra's "Oh Daniel" music video, I mentioned the artist had the sound of SKWBN. For those of you unfamiliar with the acronym, that's Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, a Swedish duo. But then again it's no surprise as the story goes like this: Niklas Tafra was supposed to play bass for SKWBN at the I'm From Bräke-Hoby festival but forgot to wake up that morning. Any guess as to the reason behind closing track "I'm Sorry Bräke-Hoby"? Opening with "Cheesy Epic View", Why Even Bother immediately caught my attention for its lo-fi, twee-like sounds. Following suit, most songs are fairly brief, but a select few do top the three minute mark, like the catchy lo-fi electro pop tune "Tired Of London". In tunes like "A Hundred Million Things" and "Dear Satan", Tafra surfaces with a somewhat Son, Ambulance sound. The inherent sadness if Tafra's voice contrasts beautifully with the backing na na's and poppy electonics. While it may seem to object to the lighter mood of the instrumentation in Tafra's songs, the lo-fi and light-hearted instruments keep the tunes poppy. So, where does that leave Tafra? Well, I've got a stack of Series II albums awaiting my thoughts. Though there are a few I have yet to crack the case on, from what I've heard so far from the label, Tafra is my favorite one yet! "

|| RetroLowFi || "This guy is a Swedish multi-instrumentalist, and his brand of indie pop is highly danceable and buoyant, featuring vocals bordering on mopey, but the chirpy rhythms always keep the monkey in all of us dancing."

|| A Free Man || (interview with the new Labrador Records band The Sound Of Arrows) What other Swedish bands or artists should we be paying attention to?"My favourite Swedish act happens to be a friend of mine, Niklas Tafra. He is one of Sweden's most inventive pop-geniuses. Why he hasn't become massive by now is a mystery to me. Also I really like our label-mates Sambassadeur's recent album, The Bridal Shop and Mapei (urban credibility points - hurrah!)"

|| A Free Man || (review of the song "Cheesy Epic View") "Tafra is London based Swede Niklas Tafra's solo project. His debut LP "Why Bother" was released in February by Series Two Records. Check out the opening track from that record, which wins the award for title of the week."

|| RetroLowFi || "This guy is a Swedish multi-instrumentalist, and his brand of indie pop is highly danceable and buoyant, featuring vocals bordering on mopey, but the chirpy rhythms always keep the monkey in all of us dancing."

|| The Lemur Blog || "Tafra, aka Niklas Tafra, Swede living in London, signed to everyone's favourite bedroom pop label Series Two Records makes cheesy, charming pop that oozes homemade tunes on a tray. Don't be afraid if you think you hear a cellphone interruption in Cheesy Epic View, that's just Tafra using a sound clip that becomes a rhythmic background comp. Oh, Daniel is covered in his wonderful mandolin playing. On I'm Sorry Bräkne-Hoby something that sounds like a distorted sucking noise is also turned into a rhythmic comp. After Tafra stops singing after a little more than two minutes the song goes on, gradually turning into a quite serious ambient noise track. Weird but loveable! "

|| As The Radio Play || "Tafra, the half Croat/half Swede, with the soft voice and instrumentation similar to Suburban Kids with Biblical Names has finally given the world an alternative to Elton John's "Daniel" for songs you can play for your friend Daniel on his birthday! "Oh, Daniel" plays like an AM easy listening ode to his buddy, it is sweet, simple and probably the cheapest gift he ever got Daniel."

|| FensePost || ("Oh,Daniel" single/video review) "Tafra's "Oh Daniel" follows the Suburban Kids With Biblical Names influence. The track could as easily have been found on one of the duo's Labrador Records releases as on Tafra's Why Even Bother. This is, of course, no surprise. And you'll soon learn why... Following the twee sounds of his release, Niklas Tafra's video for "Oh Daniel" finds the singer/songwriter dishing out a light, poppy tune on a ukulele while his mopey voice is somewhere between sad and sarcastic—a feat SKWBN were masters at accomplishing. Of course Tafra has the sound of Suburban Kids With Biblical Names! Part way through one of the SKWBN members gives Tafra a lift to the ocean. The theme of the video covers Tafra's gift to a little boy, Daniel, for his birthday. Given the lo-fi, cutesy nature of the tune..."

|| BiBaBiDi || "I've never even heard of Columbus, Nebraska, but the small record label, Series Two Records, is clearly the best thing to hit the teeny city. Yeah, I'm making the sweeping generalization. Series Two brought us the wonderful Suburban Kids With Biblical Names related project, SpringFactory (MySpace) -- remember them? BBBD buttered them up last month -- and now they've dropped a new one on us: Tafra. Tafra is Niklas Tafra, a half-Croatian Swede currently living in London, who has an incredibly knack to write these dreamy sort of Swedish pop waltzes that are obviously bedroom recordings, (duh) outrageously catchy and heartwarming, and strangely experimental/noisy in their constructions. He plays mandolin; he can't quite hit those higher notes; he writes about ridiculous subjects (re: "Oh, Daniel"); he's after your own heart, and admit it -- you're in love."

|| Said the Gramophone || "Niklas Tafra sings this song because he did not know what else to give Daniel as a present. He considered a cocker spaniel, he considered peace on earth. But in the end he settled for trumpet, mandolin, and a surprisingly hoarse throat. He settled for a song in sugar and gold. It's a tune that's like the most important part of a high-five - the bit where your hand is touching your dear friend's hand and you're a single circuit, warm on warm, partners & companions."

|| Swedesplease || "I almost made the mistake of typecasting the music of Tafra on first listen. It was hard to avoid with the sweet vocals of Niklas Tafra. Then the horns kicked in and I was convinced I had this group figured out. But the stereotyping probably began with the bio where it says he played on a SKWBN album (from the song below it sounds like he had a falling out with those guys). The first song I listened to started out as a simple indie pop song (nothing wrong with that, right?), but after about two minutes the vocals disappeared to be replaced by a steady, undulating beat."

|| IndiePages ||"After a couple EPs on small Swedish labels, this is the first full length from this Swedish fellow who now lives in London. The music reminds me a lot of Suburban Kids With Biblical Names (so it didn't surprise me to learn that he is not only friends with those guys, but also played on their album) - basically bedroom synth-pop with a variety of sounds/samples that range from the clever use of that annoying cell phone static you sometimes hear when it's too close to your speakers on "Cheesy Epic View" to what sounds like a chorus of ukuleles in "Oh Daniel" to whatever the hell's going on in the irritating and crunky-sounding "Your Ex-Boyfriend's MP3s". There are a few duds on the album, as not all of his musical instrument experiments work out and the otherwise fine "I'm Sorry BrŠkne-Hoby" goes on way too long - but when he does get it right (like in "Why Do You Have To Be So Compilicated Baby" and "Oh Daniel"), he hits that spot perfectly! MTQ=7/11"

|| Planeta Pop (In Italian) ||"Internet y el correo electrónico tienen estas cosas. Desde un pequeño sello de Nebraska llamado Series Two Records nos llega la música de un sueco-croata que vive en Londres llamado Niklas Tafra. Tafra ha sido colaborador de bandas como Suburban Kids With Biblical Names y debuta este año con un primer álbum que lleva por título Why Even Brother. Una grabación realizada con pocos medios pero con mucha imaginación y que contiene pequeñas delicias como Cheesy Epic View y Oh Daniel."

|| Indiepop.it (Italian version) ||""Perché preoccuparsi" è un affermazione che ben si adatta al serbo/svedese Niklas Tafra. Come un Owen Ashworth sotto tranquillanti, canta le sue canzoni pigro e annoiato, un filo di voce che esce per inerzia respiratoria. Alla nuda esposizione del piccolo, delle miserie quotidiane, alla saga dello sfigato, siamo abituati sin dai tempi di Jonathan Richman, ma Tafra non guarda così lontano. Discende piuttosto da Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, che ha declinato quel verbo in forma elettronica e lo ha rinchiuso tra le mura domestiche, e dal miserabilismo camp di Morrissey filtrato e tradotto dal suo compatriota Jens Lekman. Niklas ne è una versione nichilista e noncurante, che si annulla in uno spleen così spesso da non lasciarsi scalfire dai sentimenti. Le sue storie, strette fra il tragico e l'ironico sin quasi a sfiorare la poesia, sono narrate con un distacco emotivo che non nasconde cinismo, ma puro e semplice disinteresse. Come se riguardassero un'altra persona ed un'altra vita. "Why even bother", appunto. Su basi di elettronica iterativa, che evocano fatale malinconia con semplici patterns riupetuti, Tafra snocciola surreali storie d'amore ("we went back to your place, but I didn't have a condom. But I didn't really care", Tired of London), di solitudine ("most of my friends are imaginary, but it's you I imagine the most", At the cemetery), di inadeguatezza (il dramma psicotropo "Your ex-boyfriend mp3's"), di semplice autoreferenzialità (la chilometricamente titolata "I wrote a song about a guy about a guy who wrote a song…."), e chiude con una lettera di scuse a un festival svedese al quale non ha potuto partecipare ("I'm sorry, Bräkne-Hoby") In un lavoro così fortemente caratterizzato sul piano lirico è inevitabile che la musica tenda a scomparire, ma a dispetto della apparente semplicità messa in campo, tafra riesce a creare un tessuto melodico credibile e dolentemente ingenuo tanto nel simil-country di "Why do you have to be so complicated baby" quanto nei momenti più emotivamente pesanti di "A hundred million things", sovraincise di cori, campioni d'arpa e tromba. E quando l'elettronica viene meno si fa più evidente l'influenza di Lekman (in "Oh Daniel" c'è anche l'ukulele), depurata da quella punta di maniera che si è insinuata nel giovane dandy originale. Manca a dire il vero un terreno comune tra i due estremi di country povero e cruda elettronica, un punto di contatto che ne renda credibile la fusione, e questo è forse l'unico aspetto sul quale Niklas deve ancora lavorare. Sul resto, pochi dubbi: Abbiamo un campione in erba. "

|| Indie Mp3 ||"Blimey! Series Two Records seems to be as prolific as Cloudberry when it comes to the release schedule. Yet more free mp3's have dropped through my e-mail letterbox which are taken from the album by Tafra, first name Niklas, who played bass on the Surburban Kids With Biblical Names #3 album. As you may expect there are some similarities with SKWBN. However I like the way when just as you are thinking it's a carbon copy the music sets off on a tangent influenced by world music and ethnic instruments. It's ace stuff and here are those mp3's:"

|| Polaroid Blog (Italian) ||"Esisterà in inglese, o forse in svedese, una parola per esprimere il piacere modesto di continuare a impegnarsi in piccole faccende che riguardano sempre di più soltanto noi stessi, e al massimo suscitano una cortese indifferenza? (Tra queste attività, bisogna senza dubbio annoverare il tenere aggiornato un blog e l'invecchiare.) E così, come una parola che descrive la sfumatura di sorriso che ti esce mentre nessuno sta guardando, nei giorni scorsi, anche da lontano, ogni tanto mi tornava in mente Tafra. Quel bassista dei Suburban Kids With Biblical Names che non vedemmo mai al festival di Bräkne-Hoby perché si era addormentato (e su questo scrisse la canzone che ce lo fece conoscere) ha debuttato sulla lunga distanza con un album pubblicato dalla iper-prolifica Series Two Records. Pop a bassissima fedeltà, che si avvale in maniera del tutto indifferente di suoni acustici ed elettronici, ukulele e campionamenti. Da una parte la Merrittiana Oh Daniel, che ricorda certi tratti spontanei di Jens Lekman o Erik Halldén, dall'altra A Hundred Million Times, che si aggrappa a quello che sembra un sample di Henry Mancini. Da una parte la sgangherata title track, che si riallaccia ai SKWBN, e dall'altra Your Ex-Boyfriend's mp3s, che si potrebbe definire "bedroom-techno". Filo conduttore tra le canzoni, quella voce quanto mai sgraziata, eppure calzante alla perfezione, addirittura delicata. Soprattutto, di Tafra mi ha conquistato la singolare malinconia distaccata dei suoi testi. Come nota Salvatore, sembra quasi che l'inevitabile "unhappy ending" non lo riguardi in prima persona, non lo tocchi per davvero, e in questo Tafra mostra in pieno la metà scandinava delle sue origini. Sono piccole geniali intuizioni per tutto il precariato sentimentale dentro cui viviamo ("although I was in great despair, at least I had your body next to mine that night"). Ogni cosa gira intorno a una solitudine che cerchiamo di trascurare o di vedere come poco complicata, e che in fondo, forse, vorremmo soltanto più confortevole."

|| A Free Man ||"Tafra is an entirely different kettle of fish. I got into this Swedish/Croatian Londoner during my trip to Sweden earlier this year but didn’t feature him at that point. The more I listen to his debut LP, “Why Even Bother” (Series Two), the more I am convinced that Niklas Tafra is a budding genius. He’s in the Jamie T./Jim Noir making-music-in-the-bedroom-with-a-shitty-synthesizer camp, but Tafra’s lyrics and monotone delivery set him a little bit apart. This is slacker music that makes ”Loser” era Beck look like an Harvard MBA student. He’s deliciously dry and charming in his apparent disdain for pop musical conventions. If you’re looking for something different, give Tafra a try. 4/5."

|| The Beeb Blog ||"Tafra is one of those artists whose songs are very simple, yet very charming. He's not the world's strongest singer, and his beats aren't really the fattest, heaviest things you've ever heard, but you can't help but buy into his carefree approach. It's very basement producer, and we love it. Have a listen to the sunny "Cheesy Epic View" below, and no --it's not your mobile going off, thats the production."

|| J'ai La Cassette (French) ||"Moi aussi je suis capable de faire des clips en vélo avec des notes qui sortent de ma bouche quand je parle, ça oui, je ne peux juste pas remplir London/Stockholm/Omis dans la case "départ et arrivées" de mappy, et ça c'est le grand problème ; Tafra lui, y arrive, en fait le tout dans la vie c'est d'avoir les bonnes ressources et de venir du bon pays."