When Team Poule visited Helsinki for Flow Festival last month, we also had the chance to meet up with the fine lads of Satellite Stories who were playing a gig in town that week. If you have already caught them live, you’ll know that they’re quite an energetic bunch. High speed, guitar-led indie-pop at its finest – which is somewhat surprising given the boys are from the more Northern part of Finland, more precisely the adorable town of Oulu, sixth largest in Finland, with an average summer temperature of 15C (59F) and a winter longer and colder than anyone would ever really want. It’s ice over ice over ice, over ice, they said.
Their debut album titled Phrases To Break The Ice isn’t just a nice double entendre though. And according to extensive online research (read: Wikipedia) Oulu is one of Europe’s “living labs” – “where residents experiment with new technology (such as NFC tags and ubi-screens) at a community-wide scale.” who knew!
So, bred in this “living lab” Phrases To Break The Ice is stuffed with brilliant party/dance indie-pop tracks that just make you jump around and are made to sing along to. Let’s Go To Mexico! Admittedly, their approach is not groundbreakingly new but who needs experiments when you just master what is already out there. Truly fantastic debut album from start to finish – out now on Berlin’s XYZ, and up on Spotify too.
They also shared the first single Anti-Lover for Poule d’Or 10 – which you can still download for free, from the left sidebar. Satellite Stories are best to be consumed live though and as luck would have it, the quartet is currently touring Europe with this album, check their dates here – highly recommended.
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Pure bliss coming our way from quintet FI/SHE/S whose members hail from all over the place: France, Belgium, China and Cameroon – truly a global group. The five lads met in a Parisian suburb and while Parisian suburbs usually call images of burning cars into your mind, these fine chaps are indiepop’ing the shitz out of Kavinsky’s Nightcall. Epic cover.
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So Reeperbahn Festival happened last weekend. Team Poule spent three memorable days running up and down Reeperbahn trying not to miss one show. It was a rather good line-up this year. Cheers to that Reeperbahn Festival! And cheers to the Hamburg audience – you seem to have a rather good taste in music. Rising acts like Dante from Stockholm or Denmark’s Indians and Asbjörn all played in basically sold-out venues with people waiting on the street to get in (they didn’t get in).
Pictured above are Dial M For Murder – who played an energetic set at Grüner Jäger on Friday night. Again, the place was packed! The duo recently switched from a drum machine and added a live drummer. The festival booklet (which btw was the most useless thing on Planet Earth because it didn’t feature a time table – what the hell) had concerns the new drummer might be a Menschmaschine – I can’t tell if he was, but he was furious!
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Berlin-based techno/electro kid Kopfklang has a new EP out on Cologne’s Fjellsmug Records. Tanzen und Schlafen (Dancing and Sleeping) has four songs Tanzen, Schlafen, Tanzen und Schlafen and Schlafen und Tanzen. You still with me? Shit that’s usually not up my alley is techno but this EP has a special ambient feel to it. I can get into it – possibly busting a move. Tanzen und Schlafen is up on Soundcloud, purchase on bandcamp.
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Reeperbahn Festival starts today and Team Poule has been flapping around impatiently all week. So here goes the final pick, Asbjørn. One s. Very important. Was tipped off to him by the one and only, the über-amazing Nordic by Nature – who you should follow regularly. Asbjørn hails from Denmark’s Aarhus and according to his press kit, the 19-year-old (!) grew up “in the footsteps of Britney, Destiny’s Child and Spice Girls”. With that in mind, he released his debut album earlier this year. Electronic pop goodness.
He will play Indra on Saturday at 21h10.
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All Poule d’Or picks for Reeperbahn Festival here.
Glass Animals have been floating around the internet since 2010 – and it seems like they have been up to something. Equipped with a new EP titled Leaflings and new label, the Poule is tempted to believe the hype. Crisp minimal electronic production and soothing vocals. Should be really fun to see them live – and they haven’t played that many shows yet in their current line-up, so it’ll all have that new car smell as well. Stream Leaflings on Soundcloud, it’s out now on Kaya Kaya Recordings.
Glass Animals will play Prinzenbar on Thursday at 21h10.
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All Poule d’Or picks for Reeperbahn Festival here.
