JAAKKO EINO KALEVI

Now, we like to think we keep our ears to the ground, but part-time tram driver, multi-instrumentalist and all round musical oddball Jaakko Eino Kalevi is one of those artists who seems to have snuck up out of nowhere. Having been beguiled by his debut EP Dreamzone, we got in touch to find out where he’d been hiding. He told us the simple truth: “I’ve been living my life here in Finland. Recording, playing shows and mobbing.” It seems not being in Jaakko’s native land, where he is already something of a cult hero, has put us at a slight disadvantage in this case. No matter, we still managed to get our ears around No End, his disco-powered debut single, and fell for it instantly. “It’s true, I love disco,” he confessed. “Having said that I have to add that, in principle, I can’t really name any genre I don’t like – except dubstep.” It’s fair to say Jaako’s intelligent, dreamy music represent a total antithesis to dubstep’s increasingly aggressive, jarring drops and stabs. The new EP is a perfectly smooth combination of swirling synths and gleefully strange instrumentation, where cloudy, textured tunes and peculiarly propulsive rhythms flirt with new-wave and lo-fi influences. So what next for Finland’s new king of wonky disco? Well Jaakko has “a small tour coming up in January and then possibly another EP coming early next year” but, he tells us, “the most important thing is to work on my next album.” Good news, because we don’t want to wait too long to hear it.