Hitz from Finland vol. 14

[credoimprobus]

One for the emo* crowd: Disco Ensemble, the (mini-)Primer.


I really had several other themes slated to post before this one, but it got bumped up the queue because I finally heard the second single off Magic Recoveries the other week, and OH MY GOD.

If they'd made this the lead single instead of Bad Luck Charm, I wouldn't have taken two months to get the album, is all I say, ahaha. (Totes candidate for one of the singles of the year!)


That said, let's get digging into some history:



I'll leave the early history to wikipedia and go straight to their first full album, Viper Ethics. They had some modest chart success with single Videotapes:

For the mostpart they remained an underground phenom, though; the breakthrough came in 2005 with second album First Aid Kit, when they blasted their way into the Finnish public's (and my) consciousness with the hugest riff of the year:

(Crashing, towering early-...and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead-esque riffage? I was pretty much instantly sold. Distinct acquired taste-ness of the vocals in spite, haha.)

Anthemic second single Black Euro further solidified their success (and made me a professed fan):

It was rereleased in a new version the next year, in conjunction with an international career kick-off/deluxe rerelease of the album; said album rerelease resulted in a full doubling of First Aid Kit's chart history weeks. The band also saw extra exposure from two tracks off it getting picked to soundtrack a couple of high-profile video games.

They returned this spring with single Bad Luck Charm, which has seen considerable airplay on the more alt-friendly stations:

Attached album Magic Recoveries went in straight at no. 1, and only in the latest chart week finally dropped out of the top 30. Eleven weeks and still hanging on! One can only give a hearty "congrats" to the lads, innit.


BONUS: and to wrap it up, a few extra bits of album track awesome:

Dynamite Days (Viper Ethics)
Drop Dead Casanova (First Aid Kit) (seems to have actually been a promo single, a fact I had somehow totally missed until just now, WHUT)
Threat Letter Typewriter (Magic Recoveries)



---
*) Disclaimer: only call these guys emo if you want to watch Proper Fans have conniptions, haha. (Which I grant has its uses wrt entertainment value!) They def cross over to the emo demographic, though.

Comments

[koganbot]

I am not a proper fan, apparently. They are emo.

[credoimprobus]

Hee. The official umbrella they fall under is "post-hardcore", apparently; I reckon the main reason the fans don't want to call them emo (which, you know, is at the least technically post-harcore too) is that emo is perceived as too poppy/too For The Kidz, and god forbid anything they like be seen in that light, eh?

And to answer both comments in one: Threat Letter is one of my favourites as well (duh, and all, since I made the point of including it :)) -- greast hooks, incredible energy. Get it endlessly stuck in my head on a regular basis. And yeah, they are def a rather disgruntled lot (some of their lyrics, I swear; outright hilarious), but then, that's practically a genre requirement, heh.

[koganbot]

My favorite of all of these is "Threat Letter Typewriter" (how quaint! they still use typewriters!). What I wish Green Day had sounded like. Seem a bit grumpy though, what with throwing rocks through windows and such.