There is no internet. No mobile phones. No satellite TV. The only decent music station is over the border. Records you want cost 50 to 70. Your mother earns about 100 a month. This is the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. Life is good. 1966-1982. Maybe you were born too late or too far away to experience the Brezhnev Era, but, listening to these exciting little tracks, you hopefully still wonder, why the hell did they call it the Great Stagnation.
Umblu founder Raul Saaremets spent the last winter in the vaults of Estonian Broadcasting Company, emerging with an armful of dusty reel-to-reels, some still sealed and stamped ages ago. Some of the found treasures were Raul’s long time favourites. Like Els Himma’s rare disco covers of Aphrodite’s Child (”Keskööl”) and Uno Loop (possibly the most beautiful Estonian pop-song ever, “Mis värvi on armastus?”). Jaw-dropping inventiveness of Väntorel – THE cult band of the 70s – incidentally written and sung by Umblu artist Tallinn 73’s own father. And of course, “Sein on ees” – a gutsy Stanley Clarke cover by Vitamiin that had become an unlikely staple in Raul’s DJ sets.
There was also one popular favourite, “Kosmos-Maa”. Rock archivist Avo Adami remembers Anu Anton as an exceptionally liberal-minded music teacher, who, in the early 60s, didn’t hesitate playing her class the Beatles records some pupils with foreign relatives had brought to school.
And of course, some of these tunes Raul had never heard before. Funky-jazz fusion of Vitamiin’s spin-off group Uus Generatsioon (featuring composer Peeter Vähi). Heartbreaking harmonies of “the Estonian Beatles”, Virmalised. The tasteful restaurant vibes by Nemo. The more swinging side of popular crooners Uno Loop and Jaak Joala. Who knew that Finnish jazz maestro Olli Ahvenlahti once recorded a whole song cycle with an Estonian orchestra? And how on earth does Rein Tuus suddenly sound OK?
