Five years on from their DIY-debut ‘Sugar Sermon’ Helsinki-based quintet Mesmer have their third full length effort on the shelves (the second is ‘Throwing Scissors’ from 2007), and this is another of those acts I’ve never heard before, but definitely will be digging further into after being kicked in the sack by ‘The Ghost Of A Tennis Court’.

With impeccable skills they storm you as a ferocious avalanche of post-punk, electro-rock, straight rock, at times even touching pop ever so slightly (U2 meets Editors gem ‘Teenage Dreams’), rockabilly, a little metal and seemingly sudden psychedelic urges they can’t but follow. Like children on a sugar rush in a candy store. Which makes the album a somewhat challenging experience, but once you’re in… Oh, yeah!

Like when they have Chris Isaak talked in to doing a little punk with Nick Cave in ‘The Exorcist’, get psych-funky in ‘Some Disney Scene’ with a beat worthy of Beastie Boys’ instrumental album ‘The In Sound From Way Out!’, or let it rip Grinderman-style in the evil ‘On Fire’. All making Mesmer’s ‘The Ghost Of A Tennis Court’ an album splendid at best – at worst good fun.

Genre: Rock
Who: Mesmer
Album: The Ghost Of A Tennis Court
Label: Around Your Neck
Year: 2009
Country: Finland
Language: English

Recommended tracks:
The Exorcist – Some Disney Scene – Teenage Dream – On Fire