Eleanoora Rosenholm are fish out of water. They make music that’s chirpy pop, martial themes for twee armies, kids tv show themes and death disco on a label known for being a documenter of Finlands ethereal folks. They are also a seven piece band using an individual moniker taken from a Finnish female serial killer whose suicide note (possibly never made) appears on their website.

Their first record from this year was generally well received as a slick, pop record in the mould of someone like Roisin Murphy. “Älä kysy..” still contains the touches of ice cold synth that gives the impression of the classier end of Euro pop but it also contains an odd mix of marching band rhythms and session muso licks. Case in point is the records high point “Bolly palkkionmetsastaja”. It starts like the guitar intro on “Welcome to the Jungle” jamming with Gary Numans android synths. Noora Tommilas vocals sound like orders issued through a loudspeaker and they are joined by some of the biggest, cleanest, most shameless drums ever heard on Fonal records (I would bet serious money on that being true.) It ends with these back up vocals that I can only compare to the backup vocals on “Hooked on a feeling.” Such a description may cause many of you to run miles away from this and this is pretty distant from the music tastes of most Foxy Digitalis readers but I came away from this listening experience baffled, challenged and amused. Mission Accomplished. 7/10 -- Alex Kakafikas (17 December, 2008)