#Finland

NMR Indie Playlist

Introducing....'Dear Moon' with 'Queen of Silence' (single)

Andy Wors

Jan 22, 2020
1 min

Introducing....'Dear Moon' with 'Queen of Silence' (single)

I'm still really tempted to do a mammoth feature on all the stuff we missed in 2019, a no nonsense journey around the Nordic regions trying to capture as many different styles and genres as possible, because the reality is that there's just so much good stuff out there that I keep coming across even now. Finnish band 'Dear Moon' would certainly have been included in that feature, but actually they warrant just that bit of extra attention anyway, because their debut single 'De

‘Lauri Porra Flyover Ensemble' - 'Dust' (album)

Andy Wors

Dec 17, 2019
2 min

‘Lauri Porra Flyover Ensemble' - 'Dust' (album)

Well we’ve covered 'Steve Buscemi’s Dreamy Eyes', so it feels only right to move on to the equally brilliantly named ‘Lauri Porra Flyover Ensemble’, who’ve recently released a new instrumental based album ‘Dust’, including a single ‘Matter’, which particularly caught our attention. Finnish readers in particular may be aware of Lauri Porra, as he is a well established musician, composer and collaborator, with an extraordinary musical mix of musical experiences behind him. Not

'Cats of Transnistria' - 'Aligning' (album)

Andy Wors

Dec 7, 2019
2 min

'Cats of Transnistria' - 'Aligning' (album)

We have a list of about a dozen albums we want to write about before we wrap up for the Festivities (if we were clever, I guess we'd work out a special '12 Albums of Christmas' thing), so we'll continue with the approach of trying to keep things fairly brief. First up is 'Cats of Transnistria', a band we've written about a few times, but I still never quite think we've given them the time they really deserve. Since their debut EP 'Away' was released back in 2015, the duo base

'Mantaray' - new single 'On the Back of Your Hand'

Andy Wors

Dec 3, 2019
1 min

'Mantaray' - new single 'On the Back of Your Hand'

As regular readers know we'd be happy to feature a Post Rock band every day, and we're delighted to come back to Finnish band 'Mantaray', whom we first write about back in 2018 when they released their excellent album 'No More Sirens'. It was the 2nd album from the Jyväskylä based 6 piece outfit, following on from debut 'Atlantic' in 2016, and the good news is that a new album is due early 2020, and from it there is a new single - entitled 'On the Back of Your Hand'. 'Mantar

Andy Wors

Nov 30, 2019
2 min

'Treemer' - 'Meeting' (EP)

So i think it's only right that we get to write about our official new 'favourite' band given it's our 5th birthday, and 'Treemer' from Finland have really captured our hearts with a gorgeous release that blends 80/90s shoegaze and even gothic influences with a more modern indie and even post rock soundscape. Their debut EP 'Meeting' was released just over a week ago to a small fanfare, and we're delighted to do our bit to bring them to the attention of our lovely internation

Introducing.... 'Merriment and Dirt' with 'Final Boogie' (EP)

Andy Wors

Nov 12, 2019
2 min

Introducing.... 'Merriment and Dirt' with 'Final Boogie' (EP)

We were going to save this one for next week, but there's something so infectiously likeable about 'Merriment and Dirt', that I thought we should bump it up the queue - and anyway there's a whole stack of new releases on the list for next week already. So these guys are a 4 piece based between Helsinki and London, and they seem to have arrived there Belgrade and Berlin - or possibly the other way around, not that we really care that much anyway. So 'Merriment and Dirt', comp

In Short: 'Cats of Transnistria' - 'Born Again' (single)

Andy Wors

Nov 1, 2019
1 min

In Short: 'Cats of Transnistria' - 'Born Again' (single)

There's a flurry of albums due to be released in the next month, and one that we're particularly looking forward to is the new 'Cats of Transnistria' album 'Aligning', which is due to be released on 29th November by Soliti. This will be the third album for the Finnish duo, which follows on from 'Divine' (2016) and then Opium (2018), and from it they've released a new single 'Born Again', a typically atmospheric track, which mixes post rock, shoegaze and minimalist influences.

Andy Wors

Oct 29, 2019
1 min

In Short: 'The Stillwalkers' - 'Concrete Heart' (single)

Whilst we work on 'other things' this week we're getting straight to the point and bringing you up to date with some latest Nordic releases, and today it's the turn of our favourite Finnish melody makers 'The Stillwalkers' who have released a new single entitled 'Concrete Heart. Now we know we always enthusiastic about these guys, but their latest single is quite possibly their best release yet, an intense 6 minutes which builds to the most glorious vocal 'climax' just at pre

Andy Wors

Oct 24, 2019
2 min

Heikki Rasilo - 'Sea Songs' (EP)

Well we've covered some slightly over enthusiastic anime prog rock ('Moron Police'), pretty perfect indie pop ('The Sideways') and some interesting and unusual electronica ('raudur'), so today we will feature an artist with a more traditional approach to songwriting. Heikki Rasilo is from Finland and we wrote about him back in early 2018 after coming across his EP from the previous year 'Before I'm Covered', which we liked for both the music and the artwork, and it's great t

Introducing... 'STINAKO' with track 'Kun Viimein Saavuit'

Andy Wors

Sep 27, 2019
2 min

Introducing... 'STINAKO' with track 'Kun Viimein Saavuit'

We just have so many new releases and interesting artists to write about today, and we probably won't get through all 10 on the list, but we'll just start writing and see how far we can get. A couple of weeks back we introduced you to new Finnish band 'Pink Chameleons', and it's great to see another release on the same excellent Soliti label, this time 'STINAKO', with her debut release 'Kun Viimein Saavuit'. Behind the name 'STINAKO' is the songwriter 'Stina Koistinen', who

Introducing.... 'J. Ihminen' with single 'Hetken'

Andy Wors

Sep 25, 2019
1 min

Introducing.... 'J. Ihminen' with single 'Hetken'

Just a quick new artist introduction this morning, before we get on with this mornings important tasks, which really should involve trying to lock up a corrupt despotic Prime Minister*, but in reality probably involves spreadsheets. I say 'introduction', because actually 'J. Ihminen' is not exactly new to Nordic Music Review, because he was featured as part of that great little Finnish Indie band we like so much, 'Giant Giant', whom I was only thinking about the other week.

'The Stillwalkers' - new track 'Still Life'

Andy Wors

Sep 6, 2019
1 min

'The Stillwalkers' - new track 'Still Life'

We featured 2 Finnish bands new to Nordic Music Review yesterday, today we return to another 'old' favourite, none other than award winning 'The Stillwalkers' (ok, so it was our award...), who are well on their way towards completing their long awaited 2nd album. The Turku band, known for the warmth of their melodies and guitar sound, released 'Crystal Clear' a few months back, and have followed that up with a new song called 'Still Life'. This can only be described as 'epic

Introducing...'Pink Chameleons' with track 'Melting Face'

Andy Wors

Sep 5, 2019
1 min

Introducing...'Pink Chameleons' with track 'Melting Face'

We've already introduced one new Finnish band today ('Spring Teeth') and we might have time for some new 'Stillwalkers' later, but we've been really looking forward to introducing 'Pink Chameleons', because they're fronted by none other than Paltsa-Kai Salama, the lead vocalist from one of our favourite bands 'Black Lizard' - we've also written about his solo material previously too. In this new project, an interesting fusion of blues, garage and country he's joined with fell

Introducing...'Spring Teeth' with single 'Land of Bones'

Andy Wors

Sep 5, 2019
1 min

Introducing...'Spring Teeth' with single 'Land of Bones'

We have 2 Finnish indie introductions to bring you today, and we'll start with a trio who were formed back in 2017, but as these things can do it's taken a couple of years to release their first official single. 'Spring Teeth' are from Helsinki and they comprise 3 musicians, Hannu (Vocals / Guitar), Henri (Bass & Vocals) and Petri (Drums) and that debut single we refer to is called 'Land of Bones'. It was actually released back in July, and it's received some pretty cool cove

'Forwardman' - with new songs 'Sleepwalk' and 'Out of the Ballpark'

Andy Wors

Aug 2, 2019
1 min

'Forwardman' - with new songs 'Sleepwalk' and 'Out of the Ballpark'

There's an album review about to be published (and it's a particularly good one at that), but there's just time to slip in a songwriter we haven't featured previously. It's always been good to feature artists who write with a truly 'indie' spirit, and Finnish born (but frequently UK based) songwriter 'Forwardman' certainly does that, with music that somehow bridges the gap between artists as diverse as Neil Young and Flying Lotus. Over the course of his musical 'career', 'For

'Since November' - 'Airplane Astronaut' (single)

Andy Wors

Jul 2, 2019
1 min

'Since November' - 'Airplane Astronaut' (single)

We've featured 'Since November' a couple of times previously, firstly in 2017 when they released 'Star System', and the Finnish project which was founded by Tomi Mäkilä (previously 'The Crash', 'Magenta Skycode' and 'Montevideo') is back with a new song entitled 'Airplane Astronaut', about an astronaut who finds himself flying a commercial plane. It's rare that I like every song that an artist produces quite so quickly, but there's something about 'Since November' that always

'Ghosts on TV' - new single 'End All States' (In Brief)

Andy Wors

Jun 18, 2019
1 min

'Ghosts on TV' - new single 'End All States' (In Brief)

It's been a while since we featured a good Post Rock band, so here's a pretty cool track from Finnish outfit 'Ghosts on TV'. They've released a few tracks previously (check out their single 'Silo' from last year'), but they've returned now with the brooding and dark 'End All States'. It's a typically atmospheric track, almost entirely instrumental, and I think that's probably the set up that suits them best, and there's a great mix of intense guitar work (from the 3 guitaris

Andy Wors

May 15, 2019
1 min

Tyynyt - 'Lojun' (single)

It's pretty astonishing that we last wrote about Finnish band 'Tyynyt' approaching 5 years ago, but they were one of the first bands we ever featured ('New Band of the Day No 2') so it's great to catch up with them after all this time. However we have recently featured singer and songwriter Jari Oisalo from the band as part of his new project 'Salainen avaruusohjelma' (Secret Space Machine), and they have a new album out which we will try to get to at some point. Anyway TYYN

'Nothing but Sunshine' - 'White Lies' (EP)

Andy Wors

May 14, 2019
2 min

'Nothing but Sunshine' - 'White Lies' (EP)

We'll try to cover all the Nordic countries and all genres of music too today, so we'll head to Finland next and alternative rock band 'Nothing but Sunshine', a 5 piece outfit from Helsinki who we featured last year and were founded by Jaakko Suni – previously known as the drummer in Finnish indie band Murmansk and also including other members from the same band, as well as fellow indie band Mesmer. 'White Lies' is the debut EP from 'Nothing but Sunshine', and the plan is tha

The Stillwalkers - 'Crystal Clear' (single)

Andy Wors

May 7, 2019
2 min

The Stillwalkers - 'Crystal Clear' (single)

I remember first writing about 'The Stillwalkers' back in 2015, straight after spending a week completely bogged down on an album release by 'Of Monsters And Men', so it's kind of appropriate that they both have new singles out, and once again we'll choose to give the attention to our favourite Finnish band. So for those of you who haven't come across them before, they're a 5 piece band from Turku, and the first we heard about them was back in 2015 when they released a self t