Disco Ensemble album stream

Speaking of Fullsteam Records, the label is also now streaming the new Disco Ensemble album "Warriors" in full via Soundcloud which I appreciate because it's not available on Spotify in the US yet.

NEØV - Windvane (+ Koralleven remix)

Presenting NEØV, the band once known as Neufvoin and now newly signed to Fullsteam Records. Look for the album "Orange morning" to be released this fall.

Disco Ensemble - Second soul

"Second soul" is the new single from Finland's Disco Ensemble. The band's new album "Warriors" will be out on September 21 via Fullsteam Records.

Lapko - Love is sick and wrong

"Love is sick and wrong" is the first sample tune from the forthcoming Lapko album "ΓΟΛΕ", officially confirmed for release on May 9 via Fullsteam Records.

New Downstairs now streaming

Fullsteam Records has added a couple new Downstairs tunes to SoundCloud from the Finnish noiserock band's upcoming cassette/download EP "Ekto the Firstborn", due out in May: http://soundcloud.com/fullsteam/sets/dwnstrs/
Apparently, said EP is the first of three due out in 2011.

Rubik - Laws of gravity

Stream a brand new track from Finnish act Rubik: http://soundcloud.com/fullsteam/rubik-laws-of-gravity
The band's next album "Solar", their third overall, will be released this spring via Fullsteam Records.

New Rotten Sound confirmed

The new Rotten Sound album "Cursed" is confirmed for release on March 16 in Finland via Fullsteam Records, everywhere else on March 15 via Relapse.

Sister Flo confirm new album for December

Finnish act Sister Flo will release their fifth album "Ystävyys / Friendship" on December 15 via Fullsteam Records. It will only be released on vinyl and will come with a free download code for mp3s/lossless files and is packaged in a "unique canvas bag".

Fullsteam gets Rotten Sound for Finland, confirms live DVD

Fullsteam Records will be handling the domestic Finnish release of Rotten Sound's new album "Cursed", due out early next year. They also report that the band will be recording their upcoming gig at Vastavirta in Tempere on November 12 for an eventual DVD release.

Rubik recording, touring

Finnish indie act Rubik are currently recording a new album at their home studio for release in early 2011 via Fullsteam Records. They'll also be doing a number of European dates starting at the end of the month:

10/29 - Kaserne, Basel (SWI)
10/30 - Merkker, Baden (SWI)
11/01 - Le Rocher Palmer, Bordeaux (FRA)
11/02 - Le Saint des Seins, Toulouse (FRA)
11/03 - Le Centrifugeuse, Pau (FRA)
11/08 - La Maroquinerie, Paris (FRA)
11/10 - Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers (FRA)
11/11 - Festival les Indisciplinés, Lorient (FRA)
11/12 - Festival les Boréales, Caen (FRA)
11/13 - Le 6 Par 4, Laval (FRA)
11/25 - Primavera Club, Madrid (ESP)
11/26 - Primavera Club, Madrid (ESP)
11/27 - Primavera Club, Barcelona (ESP)

Sweatmaster confirm new album, post new single

Finnish rockers Sweatmaster have confirmed that their long-awaited new album "Dig up the knife" will finally be released on August 25 via Fullsteam Records. Download the new single "Run run" at the band's website: http://www.sweatmaster.net/

Remix Disco Ensemble, win a phone

Basso, Nokia and Fullsteam Records are teaming up for a Disco Ensemble remix competition: http://basso.fi/discoensemble

New Disco Ensemble album gets release date

Fullsteam Records has confirmed May 26 as the release date for the new Disco Ensemble album "The island of Disco Ensemble".

Rubik
Dada bandits
Fullsteam Records/Paper Tiger AV

Critics are apt to hear "Dada bandits" opener "Goji berries" and label Rubik as frenzied pop auteurs, a sort of Scandinavian Animal Collective. And "Goji berries" does go from screamo-addled Beatles to punchy-drunk keys punctuated by Sufjan flutes, to a Dan Bejar saloon romp that segues into a typically eastern Beirut horn jam. While "Goji"'s schizoid scheme is certainly noteworthy -- it seamlessly switches gears and genres while never betraying its Nordic pop sensibility -- it's hardly metonymical of the album at large. Yes, Rubik's "Bandits" lifts considerably from all of the best in blog-ready sounds, but they do so with the canvases of entire songs. What results is not, strangely, a sugar-coated Scando take on guitar indie, but a rolodex of an album with a virtuoso aesthetic. Rarely is a musical contact called upon twice, and even after repeated listens, you're left reeling at the incredible scope of an album that's stacked like the Yankees.

"Goji berries" phantom-tempo midsection precedes the Canadian guitar battalion of "Radiants", "Wasteland" borrows Idioteque percussion before settling for an anthemic power pop chorus. "Fire Age" and "Richard Branson's crash landing" are album highlights, the former plotting Stars' vocals around a ska-synth breakdown, the latter a glimpse of Scandinavian twee perfection. Its swirling synths wash beneath upbeat melodies and falsetto-and-horns chorus to convince you that this is what Loney Dear's "Dear John" should have been. Rubik reloads and refires, each song an impressive foray into new sonic territory, strung together by catchy hooks and wiry guitars, underpinned by the astonishing depth of the arrangements. It's only on the fifth or six listen that you even hear the complex synth arpeggios buried under "Karhu junassa", or the jaunty riffs beneath "Fire age".

There's little bad to be said about this album. The mix occasionally favors layered instrumentation over Artturi Taira's vocals -- much of the album finds Taira swimming in his own arrangements. While that's likely a tactic to secure more Finnish listeners in their native country, it obscures the beauty of Taira's lyrics. His voice can adequately be characterized as "British Effeminate" indicative of all of those post-Radiohead mope-and-hope rockers that plagued the aughts in Western Europe. But Taira's falsetto exchanges their currency of faux-pathos for a well-placed sense of urgency, his yelps best on "Karhu junassa" and "Radiants" when buttressed by instrumental imitation.

So where is this album? It's tailored for the blogs in almost every way, it has registered heaps of e-praise, yet Rubik has no plans to return to North . Maybe this album will be saved from obscurity by a forward-thinking movie director or cell-phone marketing exec, and maybe it won't. I might just like it better if it remains a diamond in the rough -- quietly pretending to 2010's indie throne.
- Nathan Keegan

New Lapko now streaming

Stream Lapko's new record "A new bohemia" in full: http://www.levykauppax.fi/artist/lapko/a_new_bohemia/
Said album is officially released on March 10 via Fullsteam Records.