Myttys – Sloggilukio

“I first heard Myttys via the enthusiastic raving of Julian Murray (Munnen/Tvde) and Peter Larsson (yeah that guy) who’d heard their first tape Paksotal and loved it. After a listen I was in full agreement but seeing them perform at H2Ö festival in Turku last summer was a jaw dropping experience. Certainly my favourite set amongst a damn fine line up and I demanded to release something of theirs before they’d even packed away their stuff.

I’d known Heta for years via Olimpia Splendid who’d I’d booked a couple of times and had met Samuli when he came to play with another of her bands Toblerones, and then later performed with Clouds, and Heta projected visuals. The idea of them as a duo had gold stars written all over it but the results are far beyond my already high expectations.

This is one of the best tapes I’ll ever put out.

Delving in to the music and attempting to describe what I hear was quite a daunting task and my notes got kinda fun in the process.

For example Lenak and Street Person made me think of Drunken Fist Kung Fu. Heta’s effortlessly cool vocals (and the occasionally perfectly placed scream) echoed by either an imaginary twin sister or the weirdo boy next door.

Ekkä Ota comes across like an off kilter hip hop soundtrack for a Sci-Fi film.

Kallupää, Pamsypak and some of the interlude tracks sound, to my ears, beautifully close to the Broadcast and The Focus Group experiments of the “Witch Cults of the Radio Age” album and I hear traces of early Múm stuff in Paksotal.

Another favourite Foliojakku holds its own unique beauty, quite different from the other tracks. Its machine music with heart and grace which builds and builds until waves of submarine echo’s and rapid morse code sequences wash over you.

Oh and the title track Sloggilukio is the bees knees!

Certain parts of some of these tunes veer into territory only Finns seem to get away with. I find this hard to explain but there is a certain kind of relaxedness I often hear amongst my favourite Finnish bands which oozes either tons of self confidence or a massive indifference to not fitting into any kind of musical category. Or both. This unpindownable quality is what makes me instinctively trust most of the music which comes my way from there, in whatever form, yet I’m also aware of how blessed I am to have got to know the Fonal/Avarus etc crew so early on.

The experiments they all create help make that country shine to me and I’m dead proud to finally be able to play a small part in that great history

133 jelly green tapes with white body printing will be made available from Feb 27th. Cover beautifully designed by the band themselves and risograph printed by Jan Matthé at Het Bos in Antwerp.”