Looking back at Tallinn Music Week: five highlights

Tallinn Music Week celebrated its fifth birthday last week and marked its presence as one of the premier showcase events in the more discerning music fan’s calendar.

233 artists from 20 countries were present for the event, performing across a variety of bars, caves, pubs, clubs and even shopping centres. Since emerging from Soviet rule in 1991, Estonia has edged ever forward to its current status as a progressive, vibrant and highly developed nation. It’s known as one of the most wired countries in the world and enjoys a level of expressive freedom on a par with most of Scandinavia.

Recent years have seen Estonia make a small but significant mark overseas with bands like Ewert and the Two Dragons carrying the torch for quality indie folk with the chutzpah and tunes to challenge the Mumfords on an international level. President Toomas Hendrik Ilves (above, right with Seymour Stein) – a larger than life figure whose presence at the event and self-management of his own social media channels has earned him a “hipster president” reputation – is instrumental in encouraging the enterprise. We can’t exactly imagine David Cameron opening proceedings at Liverpool Music Week…

Best Fit spent the weekend trekking around Tallinn and here’s our pick of the more interesting bands we saw from all corners of the world.

Rangleklods (Denmark)

A highlight of last year’s Iceland Airwaves, where they stepped in at the last minute for Django Django on the Best Fit stage, the Danish duo proved to be a similar success at theirVon Krahl theatre show. The one-in/one-out policy was a testament to their engaging electro-techno hybrid.

Odd Hugo (Estonia)

A band that seem set to follow in the footsteps of their countrymen Ewert and the Two Dragons, Estonia five piece Odd Hugo offer an askew slant on indie folk, with tracks like ‘These Grey Fields’ carrying a sound that’s both familiar and new. Fans of Beirut will find something to enjoy from their brassed-up arrangements.

Traams (UK)

Fat Cat-signed Traams offer a fresh take on a classic indie punk sound. The Chichester trio hooked up with cool-kid producer Rory Attwell for their first recordings and peddle a sound that’s marked by a dominant motorik beat and some masterful guitar lines.

Eva & Manu (Finland)

Best Fit first met Eva & Manu at another showcase festival – Eursonic in the Netherlands – a few months back. The pair hooked up during their time studying music in Boston (at Berkley College) and describe themselves as a ‘travelling’ duo. They ran away together after two years of study, back to Manu’s homeland (France) and worked on farms while they gathered material for their debut album, which mixes folk and rock in a way that’s anything but backward looking. Their set at Kino Sõprus was truly magical.

Zebra Island (Estonia)

While Baltimore’s Beach House might be the most obvious reference point for the more textural elements of Zebra Island’s sound, the Estonian five-piece centred around vocalist Helina Risti and multi-instrumentalist Rasmus Lill meshes the dreamy sound through a more vibrant, perky electro-pop template. There some interesting eighties tinged phrasings in their music too, recalling the quality output of ABC or even A-ha.