I’ve been in the heat (not on heat, it’s too hot for that) this last few days as the UK frazzles in a very rare spot of ‘summer’ which is why this acknowledgement of Spotless Souls has taken so long. It’s been so hot that I hallucinated that I walked past Sydney Poitier last night.
They are a bunch of late teenagers it seems out of Helsinki, and who have recently signed to the highly respected Soliti label by way of a recommendation from one of their fathers, himself a top musician there.
They say ‘In the heat’ “tells the story of two women who meet on the dance floor and feel an instant electrifying attraction to each other. It also describes a secret passage into an underground world that some would describe as a ‘freak show’, but on the contrary, here such a term is praised. A party that’s all about people, freedom and desire.”
What struck me immediately about that is how much the world has changed since Dad was strutting his stuff. Such a concept, of an instantaneous same sex relationship coupled with an immediate foray into Berlin’s Berghain for a night of debauchery wouldn’t even have entered the consciousness in his day.
But then I recalled a British TV advert that has been doing the rounds for over a year now in which a couple of young businesswomen catch each other’s eye in a rail carriage and before you know it the laptops are packed away, they’re disembarking at the first station they come to and thereafter they’re cavorting hand in hand from bar to street to bookie (with apologies to Squeeze).
I can’t even remember what the product is that they are selling. A new brand of coffee, I think.
So in reality Spotless Souls may be merely conforming to the zeitgeist. And it’s one that I have to question the longevity of, with compassion fatigue quickly setting as Pride Days become Pride months while parades, celebrations and shows are threatened by the rapid exit of sponsors for whom it is no longer considered an automatic part of the promotional budget.
I’m not saying that a new era of Victorian values is waiting around the corner; just that nothing lasts forever. So make hay while the sun shines.
But enough of this philosophising already. What about the song?
From the very first guitar played bars it has a slightly moody, dirty, ethereal 1980s feel about it (as opposed to the fresh-faced stuff that is longest remembered); more Joy Division, The Cure, The Smiths, and even Tanita Tikaram than Haircut 100.
There’s melody a-plenty over a simple repeating riff that stays the course for the entirety of the song while Alina Kolehmainen, who has mesmerising eyes, strikes the perfect note, replete with suggestion.
You’re easily enveloped by that heat. It’s quickly a conflagration.
There are some smart lines, too. “Green eyes in the corner”. “Let the men stare” (although I doubt two women getting it off on the dance floor should be any big surprise by now).
And “Burn first; find me last”, which I guess is a comment on the easy come/easy go nature of such encounters. (In the lyric video, I misread “Bum first”. I’ll leave that to your imagination).
All in all it’s an impressive debut performance from a band which sounds like it’s been recording for a decade already.
The band consists of Alina Kolehmainen (vocals), Aarni Artemjeff (guitars), Onerva Rantanen (bass) and Luukas Niskanen (drums).
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573284929057
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spotless.souls/
