Tallinn Music Week
Tallinn, Estonia
26/03/2010 – 28/03/2010

Think of Estonian music and what comes to mind might be great hairy men of metal or even hideously bad Eurovision fodder, but wrong, wrong, wrong you are and Tallinn Music Week proves exactly that.

During three nights, the cobbled streets of Tallinn becomes home to a plethora of Estonian, Finnish, Lithuanian and Latvian musicians and music biz representatives from across the globe who come to sniff out the untapped talent. Tallinn has no record shops as such, and record labels are scarce, the result of which is an audience of 6,000 natives hungry for music and a line-up of brilliant bands waiting to be snaffled up via a foreign record deal.

Highlights of the Friday night include the nervous yet charismatic Maria Minerva, whose home-made electro pop sits somewhere between Saint Etienne and Electrelane, and also, in the same vein, Antonia, who have leotards that CSS’ Lovefoxx would happily die for. A heartfelt, simple and upfront indie act called Honey Power also tickle our fancy and Helsinki’s pride and the joyful Rubik really top the night off with their ambitious beards, trombones, clarinets and Flaming Lips-esque fun times.

Saturday night proves to be a refreshingly eclectic experience; opening with the gothic electro of Opium Flirt & Andres Loo followed by the ‘fire-folk’ of Ukraine/Estonian Viking five piece Svjata Vatra. A band called Badass Yuki who are heavily influenced by Joy Divison then add further flavours to the mix and the night ends with a blast of banging electro from Finnish duo Jesse and then some somewhat questionable electro pop from last year’s breakthrough act Malcolm Lincoln.

So forget the Eurovision and Stag Do stereotypes. With its free cloakrooms, designated smoking rooms, lack of queues, endlessly welcoming locals and relaxed last orders policy, Tallinn is the perfect place to experience new music and a savvy culture which is like a fresh breath of Baltic air to our English stuffiness. We will be back!

Jessica Hazel