MÄKKELÄ'S TRASH LOUNGE & MANO NELSON

Indeed a truly charming lofi-pop/singer/songwriter duo. One half of it is mäkkelä's trash lounge, solo-entertainer/songwriter/LoFi popster with finnish origins, who's widely acclaimed debut-album "Angelgold Pike's Jaw" has been released in Oct. 2003 on 9pm Records. An exceptional and utterly entertaining musical rollercoaster-ride. Singer/songwriter-stuff in classical storyteller-tradition but never afraid of breaking the rules/crossing the borders of the genre by using minimal electronica on stage, experimenting with noise/soundloops or even getting into an odd blues-cover like his version of "St. James Infirmary"... Accompanied by his long time tour-mate Mano Nelson on mandola/guitar his material becomes an outstanding blend of fractured popsongs and folk structures always embedded in great songmaterial. Recent reviews compared mäkkeläs works with the likes of Steve Harley, Elvis Costello or Nick Drake...
The other half of this exceptional duo is Mano Nelson. Highly creative singer/songwriter, mandola-player, drummer and guitarist with his roots in hardcore/punkrock. Nowadays his works can be

categorized as fragile, if not to say vulnerabe, songs performed with a both marvellous and touching voice. Nelson has been touring with Mäkkelä several times since they started working together in 2001 after being both part of the first tour of the Anglo German Low Stars and had several remarkable and highly acclaimed appearances together with Black Heart Procession, Granfaloon Bus and Willard Grant Conspiracy. Though being constantly quite busy in touring with either the Anglo German Low Stars or Solo throughout Europe over the last years Mäkkelä & Nelson decided to promote their forthcoming 9pm Records release on another European tour in early 2005.

...some mediaquotes

"this is folkmusic from the big towns...city-blues. [...] there is longing desire in his voice [...]"
Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung

"[...] as if Elvis Costello and Bob Geldof had met halfway down."
TAZ

"who wants to know how the future of the singer-/songwriter genre might sound should listen to "Angelgold Pike's Jaw" - it's worth it!"
www.rockpopnews.de , about mäkkelä's album "Angelgold Pike's Jaw"

"[...] Terwijl ik in het optreden nog enigszins een punkaanpak ten aanzien van het singer-songwritergenre meende te herkennen, blijkt dit album opvallend ingetogen en reflecterend te zijn. Eerder een country- en blues-geïnspireerde aanpak, zeg maar. [...]Het geheel deed me opvallend vaak denken aan de latere en vaak rustigere stukken van Neerlands stugge rockers Hallo Venray (vooral I´m Not a Senseless Person, at Least I Don't Want to Be) en hun zanger Henk Koorn. [...]"
www.kindamuzik.net

".warped blues, electronics and country-tinged soundscapes."
Time Out, UK