Tundramatiks: Roinan rodeo
Influenced by punk, progressive rock, ska and folk music, Tundramatiks has now added Balkan accordion tunes to its hysterically fast Finnish rock.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Burning Hearts: Extinctions
Burning Hearts’ brilliant and undeniably beautiful compositions move freely, like they had a mind of their own.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Death Hawks: Death & Decay
Made with great skill and a sense of style, Death & Decay may be retro, but it’s far from musty reminiscences of old times.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Black Twig: Paper Trees
Sound of Helsinki-based Black Twig is a mixture of the 1980s chiming indie bands, 1960s psychedelia, shoegazing buzz and garage esthetics.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Auteur Jazz: Cunning Album
Auteur Jazz’s style has often been described as “action jazz” – and for good reason. The band’s drive is quite breathtaking on their third album.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Club Merano: High Road
At its lightest the softly psychedelic and slightly cinematic 1970s progressive pop of Club Merano sounds like Air’s more rocking relative and at its vaguest like a Beatles tribute band that has swallowed Pink Floyd and Rush.
Text Teemu Fiilin
BMMB: Dirty Seconds
BMMB has created an amazing debut with futuristic space funk and R&B using wailing synths and unnaturally synthetic drum beats.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Music from the library
The Helsinki-based Regina knows that time is a pop band’s worst enemy. However, it found a new sound from its own past.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Sanna Lehto
A sound the size of a mountain
The Helsinki-based Siinai may be a newcomer to the indie scene, but its music is far from the pleasantly loud traditional indie sound. That could hardly even be expected from a band that wants to create a theme album for the Olympics.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Vesa Mäkinen
Jätkäjätkät: Jatkojatkot
The furious live ensemble made up of nine guys combines hip hop with everything from reggae to folk and 50s Finnish schlagers to ska.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Astrid Swan: Hits (Pavement For Girls)
Swan has made the album entirely on her own, interpreting Pavement’s boyish, guitar-dominated college rock through a female voice which is accompanied by a piano, keyboards and drum machine.
Text Teemu Fiilin
22-Pistepirkko: Lime Green Delorean
Even though the trio of Finnish indie veterans named their tenth studio album after the 1980s cult sports car, it doesn’t bow down to the ‘80s or other decades, just to itself.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Processory: Change Is Gradual
Processory’s futuristic, melancholic and dark and occasionally gloomy electronic pop is not all dim. Behind all that lies an atmospheric melody with stylishly light production.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Sansa: Savior
Sansa knows how to compose a top-class pop song with an emotional dimension and she is also able to sing them in a touching, slightly fragile and husky voice.
Text Teemu Fiilin
NT’s White Trash: Mourning Becomes Electric
NT’s White Trash’s three-minute distortion pop songs are well composed, catchy and production-wise withstand international comparison.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Shine 2009: Realism
This summer’s Finnish indie phenomenon will undoubtedly be the debut album from the Shine 2009 duo. While the sounds point to the Hacienda club in Manchester, the songs work better on the couch at home.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Mummypowder: Centuries Later
Mummypowder still trusts its key competence – music with tons of melodic hooks, drawing its inspiration from 60s harmonic baroque pop, 70s power pop and the 90s classic indie.
Text Teemu Fiilin
TV-Resistori: TV-Resistori
TV-Resistori made its name playing slightly naive indie pop, but its new sounds are softer, more like popular music and less amateurish.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Felix Zenger: Won’t Say A Thing
Finland’s or perhaps the world’s most talented beatboxer Felix Zenger’s debut album is thankfully not only about showing off his beatboxing skills, but of course it’s part of the deal.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Teeth: EP
Teeth’s songs start off somewhere around dubstep, but end up closer to futuristic house and techno.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Mirel Wagner: Mirel Wagner
You don’t want to listen to Mirel Wagner’s stories, filled with death, self-destruction, sin, deep lakes and dark woods, alone in the dark.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Angelica Kult: Before and After the Flatline
The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees come to mind often, although Angelica Kult’s sound is a couple of shades more modern and metallic.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Viola: Viola Music Club
Almost all of Viola’s songs in 2010 were small, bittersweet and slightly twisted chunks of nerd pop, done with extreme style.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Pintandwefall: Time Is Right for Romans, Baby
Pintandwefall’s music is so full of pop sensibility and catchy hooks that it can grab even people who aren’t fans of trashy rock.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Nightsatan: Midnight Laser Warrior
The album re-imagines the imagery (and especially soundtracks) of 1970s and 80s hilarious trash horror and sci-fi films, but also has elements of Vangelis’ and Jean-Michel Jarre’s slightly deeper sounds and even progressive rock.
Text Teemu Fiilin
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