[Hannulelauri]

Fresh into my digital mailbox comes a sweet treat. The debut 12" "Glittering Night EP" from Finnish duo Hannulelauri! While it may be a new name to many, Hannulelauri has a solid dance music pedigree dating back to the halcyon days of Acid House's first surge of popularity in Helsinki in the late 80's, where DJ Ender (aka Hannu) was one of the first DJ's in Finland championing the sound. Ender's long musical history has led him many places including deep club collaborations with Pépé Deluxe and as co-founder of jazz-dance collective Nuspirit Helsinki. Joining up with new jack Lauri Soini, the two have forged ahead as Hannulelauri, embracing 80's style, italo disco and spaced-out rock grooves, giving it their own Finnish twist for 2009.

First up is "Glittering Night", conjuring visions of 8-bit videogame soundtracks applied to the dancefloor, or an alternative theme to the movie Robocop (which Lauri seems to have a strong affinity for), with shimmering electric synth chords washing over a Commodore 64 groove before a Peter Hook soundalike drops a lovely bassline, making New Order comparisons inevitable (a good thing!). Perfect late-night machine funk.

Hannulelauri - Glittering Night

Next is "Sally 2000", a more introspective piece with insistent digital strings providing the foundation for a childlike toy chime melody, pulsating bass and more as layer upon layer builds to a fuzzed-out, pixelated yet beatless climax.

Hannulelauri - Sally 2000

Finally, the late-night vibe continues as "Sally 2000" gets a version from Finland's techno/house master Jori Hulkkonen (needing no introduction nor explanation) who works the track's pleading strings into a more dancefloor-friendly mix, adding perfectly tuned drums and a nice, fat kick but keeping the synth melodies intact and the tempo slower than your normal electrohouse jam.

Hannulelauri - Sally 2000 (Jori Hulkkonen Version)

This release is strictly limited to 400 copies. So if you like what you hear, and I don't know how you couldn't, scrape your Pennies, Euros, Yen, Wooden Nickels, or Wampum together and grab it up via Flexx Digital. Ok they may not take Wampum, and you may be one of those "I already have it...you just posted it dude" type of dude givin' me sass, but who can resist a limited TANGABLE copy!?

Either way stop in and visit their Myspace, which is pretty bad ass might I add, and give a proper shout out.