I don’t even seem to have enough time to listen to music let alone write about it. Well other than this short midnight entry about Itä-Hollola Installaatio, because I freaking love this so much. New single Tyttöystävä is out now on Sound Of Finland. You can hear that beauty on any of those stream thingies. It’s damn good and some of the other stuff that is on Youtube and Bandcamp is even better. Whether it’s the band or Robert Ensio Niemistö solo, it’s all so good. Why the hell it took me so long to start listening to this kid? The man is like a genius.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=vQY42BKHz8Q]

Itä-Hollola Installaatio at Facebook

These days I probably mostly feature country songwriters from East Nashville, but there’s still great things happening in Finland as well. This debut full-length The Iron Door from Is This Really Me easily falls into that category. According to the press release the key to opening The Iron Door is a psycho-analytical reading of Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Kamazarov. My personal Dostoyevsky education is limited to The Idiot and Crime and Punishment, so I’m not entirely sure did I find the door key, but at least the music found a window to my heart and I’m loving this album. This Helsinki-based band takes influence from folk music of the late sixties and early seventies. I think you can hear a fair share of pop melodies just as well. There’s definitely traces of indie pop in there and maybe someone like 80s -era The Go-Betweens is lurking somewhere close by. Well no matter, if I want to call it folk or pop or folk-tinged indie pop. The thing that matter is that the album is great and extremely highly recommended.

The Iron Door just came out on the Marsu on Paras label and it’s a beautiful LP+CD combo. You can buy a copy directly from them (info is on their facebook page) or from Levykauppa Äx. Here’s a couple of examples from the album.

Is This Really Me at Facebook