The Heavy Blinkers to release Health on July 30th

HeavyBlinkersHealth

Finally. This is worth of a parade of some sort. Health by The Heavy Blinkers is ready and will be released on 30th of July. I’ve been waiting this one for years and at times it almost felt like this album is just a beautiful myth and I will never have the chance to actually hear it. Thankfully after 7-8 years in the making, the Canadian masters of orchestrated pop music, The Heavy Blinkers have finally finished this epic album and the first outtake from Health surfaced today. The song is called Perfect Tourists and I’ve been listening to it all day long. By some miracle, it actually easily lives up to the out-of-this world expectations I have for Health. This is Perfect Tourists.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99797815″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”100″ iframe=”true” /]

 
Did I already tell you that this band is very dear to me. Our love affair started when I heard their previous album The Night and I Are Still So Young when it came out back in 2004. It was not the happiest time of my life, but the harmonic beauty of this album always managed to shoot a rope arrow into the sun and drag it back into my sight, if it tried to drift away behind the corner. Later on I bought the back catalogue and during the time myspace ruled the social media, I noticed that Jason Michael MacIsaac had a great taste in music. I always try to find new music to love and cherish and Jason recommended a lot of good stuff at myspace during those days. So in some very minor scale, he was a like pop mentor to me at the time. Just like people like Duglas T. Stewart of the BMX Bandits have been. I can’t remember did I found the great and way too uknown Ilona V through Jason, but I remember that he was also very much into her music. If I did found her through Jason, I’m grateful. Anyway, this is getting way too long and personal. Let’s close this post with the title track of the album The Night and I Are Still So Young. More about the mythical Health when it comes out.
 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEaz_Z7sZuA]

The Heavy Blinkers at Facebook

Continue Reading

Matti Jasu & The Close Encounters: Pin On the Map

mattijasupin

The new Matti Jasu & The Close Encounters album Pin on the Map was released 26.6.2013. I bought it instantly and have spent hours of listening to it during the past week. It’s just damn good and my favourite Finnish album of the year so far. The debut Samurai VS Computer was already great, but this thing is just getting better all the time. Below you can listen to She Won’t Come Back from the new album. Listen to / buy the whole album on his Bandcamp. Price is also more than reasonable. 4€ for the digital and 6€ for the CD.

Matti Jasu Website
Matti Jasu at Facebook
Matti Jasu at Bandcamp

Continue Reading

Laura Moisio – Spiraali & Yksin koko elämän

lauraspiraali

Finnish singer-songwriter Laura Moisio was recently signed by the excellent Lumpeela julkaisut and she is currently recording her debut album. We’ll have to wait for the album to hit the record stores and our hearts until early 2014, but the first outtakes from the upcoming album surfaced a week or two ago. These digital singles Spiraali and Yksin koko elämän are available on iTunes/Spotify/etc. I’m especially enjoying this hauntingly beautiful song called Spiraali. Julia Elomäki directed this simple, but striking video for the song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhIZS7U4jz4]

Laura Moisio at Facebook
Laura Moisio at Soundcloud

Continue Reading

Rachel Brooke in Finland 19.06-22.06

rachelbrooke

Someone hasn’t been paying attention. I just noticed on Rachel Brooke’s facebook feed that she’s coming to Finland in a few days. That’s good news. Would be even better news if I had a chance to participate. Unfortunately there’s a busy work schedule coming up next week that will take the time and energy. But if you do have a chance to go see her concert, I highly recommend it. I’m not sure have I ever written about her on the blog, but she is a very good country singer-songwriter and I like her albums Down in the Barnyard and A Killer’s Dream. Especially the latter one is really good. The Black Bird below is an outtake from A Killer’s Dream.

Rachel Brooke Finland tour:

Wednesday, June 19 – Club Loose – Helsinki – Finland
Thursday, June 20 – Rock n Roll Jamboree @ Hotel Ellivuori – Sastamala – Finland
Friday, June 21 – Dinos Bar & Grill – Mariehamn, Åland – Finland
Saturday, June 22 – Dinos Bar & Grill – Mariehamn, Åland – Finland

And this is The Black Bird:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_gosUPsV5s]

Rachel Brooke Website

Continue Reading