When he is not playing classic 60s rock and roll with the band Volter (and releasing one of my favourites albums last year), singer-songwriter Jani Tuovinen (aka Jann Wilde) uses the moniker The Saturnettes to make some new wave, synth-pop music. Back in 2011, The Saturnettes released a very fun debut album and now Jani and the band return with a new video, which is the first taste of a follow-up album to be release sometime during this year.
Come August power pop band The Lieblings will release their debut album Take Us To Your Leader on the always interesting label GAEA Records. The first single just hit the net and if it is any indication of what the album contains, we are in for a party-dance-sign-along-bubblegum-pop treat with fuzz on top. This new song comes with a video in which you may recognise the faces (and butts) of friends and relatives in the Finnish pop scene, all of them singing and dancing to the rhythm of this delicious two-minute pop song.
Robin Pahlman has travelled the world to reinvent himself as a songwriter. After being in bands like Agent Kooper and Carmen & The Devil, and playing anything from punk rock to bluegrass, it took a stint in Seattle to start writing little acoustic songs on his own. Now, based in Vienna, Austria, Robin prepares his first solo album, which hopefully will be later this year.
The artwork for the debut single is quirky as a Journey record cover, but Miss Lonelyhearts is a tender and intimate acoustic song, with a emotive crescendo built up using smooth trumpet sounds and banjo licks, much in the spirit of early Iron & Wine. Beautiful song.
The lovely net-label EardrumsPop has just released the debut EP by the no less lovely indie pop band Eva On The Western Castle Island. Eva is a young Malaysian girl who lived in the city of Johor Bahru and used to sing in karaoke booths and night markets before moving to the forests of Finland and joining an indie group. Thanks to this cross-culture combination the band has created an original sound with an irresistible bubblegum pop sensibility, enhanced by Eva’s sweet vocals.
Like any other EardrumsPop release, The Wong Way EP is available as a free download and it features beautiful artwork.
From the deepest of the Finnish indie nation (that is Helsinki neighborhood Kallio) comes one-man electronic band The Glass Mountain. The man behind it, Mika Mäkilaakso, has already released the first three home recordings, which combine guitars, old fashioned synths and pleasant pop melodies to create a weird retro futuristic feeling. More songs and live gigs are expected later in the year.