Jaakko Eino Kalevi – Dreamzone [EP]

BY MIKEY RUSH
TUESDAY, 17TH DECEMBER 2013

Ever since that beautiful Canadian bastard Ryan Gosling donned his scorpion adorned satin jacket and stared all sincere-like into the eyes of every young lady’s soul two years ago, 80’s nostalgia has been at an all time high. Everywhere you turn you’re greeted by hot pink typefaces, escalating synth arpeggios and funky bass line grooves. You’d have thought that by the end of 2013 we might have been growing out of our crush on ’85 era Miami, but it appears our modern times are just too droll for the inspiration of musicians.

Continuing the trend, the opening track of Jaakko Eino Kalevi’s new EP Dreamzone transports us back into that white Lamborghini Countach, resplendent in cream leather, driving down Miami’s streets at sunset. Now don’t get me wrong, this is nice, who wouldn’t want that feeling coursing through their headphones on a miserably cold day in Liverpool, but it’s such a tired location for music to locate itself that it may as well be it’s own genre by now.

The whole EP screams of night-time frolics with damsels in distress through the neon-lit streets, but with a toe dipped in the domain of super-white kids and their Casio keyboard lovers. No End has a sultry slow-dance in a see-through dress vibe running through it and the sax solo in When You Walk Through Them All will have you doing your best air-saxing (I Think that’s the term anyway…). The Dreamzone EP may not be bringing a unique beat to your ear canals, and it’s a sound Toro Y Moi currently has a stranglehold on, but with Kalevi’s new album touted for a spring 2014 release it appears we may have a new contender to the throne.