as i approach my tenth week of life in finland, i have to say that my mission of finding good, local finnish music has been trickier that first thought. a few exceptions aside, most of the music here seems to centre around metal or offensively cheesy finnish electro hip hop.
not all is gloomy though - im lucky enough to be working with jesse - a finnish guy with quite the ear for good music. he has taken the liberty of exposing me to some excellent finnish bands, which i hope to take the liberty of showing to you.
the first and possibly most impressive that i would like to share are quirky, jazzy electro funksters "uusi fantasia". apparently they have been an 'underground' act of some repute for a while, but it wasn't until the release of their latest album "heimo" - and in particular the single "liian myöhään" (which features a locally famous 70's finnish crooner - watch the hilarious video here) - that they found the spotlight.
i picked up "heimo" recently, and really loved the tongue in cheek groove featured throughout. elements of chromeo, erlend oye and goldfrapp can all be found on there, but they are at their best playing their unique brand of quirky, horn filled jazz funk. the beautifully crafted instrumentals scattered throughout were a real highlight for me.
one of my favourite tracks on the album is "valaanretki" - an instrumental number that starts life fairly unremarkably with some nice pads and keys, but then takes on whole new meaning as a bunch of festive horns waft their way in at around the 3 minute mark. amazingly laid-back, smoky vibes:
Uusi Fantasia - Valaanretki
for those of you in helsinki tomorrow night, uusi fantasia will be playing a free show at alppipuisto.. they will be on stage at 9.
check out uusi fantasia's "heimo" here.
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