There are anomalies, there are outliers, and there’s Älägator. A Finn-inspired quintet that was born in Edinburgh, U.K. (currently residing in NYC), specializing in a sort of slowcore dream pop that takes you to the outer reaches of imagination. While the instrumentation is tightly and deftly controlled, it belies a certain fragility, in that it feels like it can fall apart at any moment. If you’re looking for comparisons, keep looking. You’ll not find them here. Älägator doesn’t really require musical reference points to be enjoyed on its own terms. Simultaneously sinister and uplifting, it’s a self-contained world that they’ve mastered, ranging from classical guitar to Celtic folk to traditional slowcore and expansive dream pop. It is all of these things and none of them. It is what it is. We can’t tell you what it is. Watch and listen.
Their first single “Kuutamo Yö”, slow and contemplative, richly emotive, thoroughly engaging. The darker verse is only somewhat resolved by the more open chorus. Occasional haunted guitar provides lead lines that echo through the verses, adding a slight unease that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It’s a jewel that has to be heard and internalized to be believed. Once the warm, crashing waves of sound come for you in the latter half, you’re owned.
Our first single, probably this: “Mennyt Lapsuus”.
“Mennyt Lapsuus” is all motion and rhythm, each musical element tightly bound to the next, yet playing effortlessly off one another, bookended by richly reverbed chords. It’s a refreshing take on a dynamic sound, with a natural vocal sweetener on top. It’s a popsong that bears little in common with traditional pop songs, carefully crafted and served hot, but on their own terms.
We’ve been “about” älägator since 2019’s revelatory “ei tarvinnut kuin katsoa”, the debut single that’s remained in rotation ever since. It broke all the rules, and masterfully so. There’s another single we can’t explain, we can only point at it and say, “There! This!” And if you get it, that’s really enough, isn’t it?
Follow the Älägator squad on Bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter and Instagram. These folks aren’t on the cutting edge of the sound. They’re defining their own.
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