The new album Nowhere or Tammensaari by dutch folk artist I am Oak has been on my list of albums to check out since I saw slowcoustic’s blog post about it a while back. The title obviously made me somewhat curious, because there’s a Finnish word in it and the man behind I am Oak, Thijs Kuijken, comes from Utrecht, Netherlands. I don’t know is there a bigger Finnish connection, but Nowhere or Tammensaari was recorded in Finland. However, the amazingly beautiful folk music of the album is much more interesting than the word Tammensaari in the title of the album. A good place to start is to watch I am Oak’s new music video Palpable dozen times and then stream the whole album at bandcamp. Nowhere or Tammensaari came out on Snowstar Records on june 1st.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd9WA9l9VEs]

Nowhere or Tammensaari at bandcamp
I am Oak Website
I am Oak at Facebook

THE KIK

A bit of dutch pop for tonight. I stumbled upon The Kik at facebook a while back and recognized some familiar faces from great dutch pop groups Mark & The Spies and The Madd. Unfortunately I also found out that both Mark & The Spies and The Madd have split up. But no need to worry, The Kik has just begun and they are pretty amazing. There’s a minor language barrier though, but pop is a rather universal language and songs like Simone below are incredibly catchy 60s influenced pop songs. Debut album out on the finest dutch label, Excelsior Recordings.

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

The Kik Website

MARTY GRAVEYARD

This next one is also Madd-related. Marty Graveyard was The Madd’s drummer who also wrote some of the songs. He recently released his solo debut Summer Holiday and based on quick previewing at spotify during the last half an hour, it seems to be a really good summery pop album. Maybe I’m not too thrilled about this video, but the song Do You Really Wanna Dance? is a great powerpop tune. And it’s not even the best song on the album.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1MG9dkuqfA]

Marty Graveyard Website