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Have you ever felt like owning the entire Terveet Kädet discography from the classic lineup in one handy package? This is it. We’ve compiled every single thing the band ever recorded in the studio between the years 1980 and 1989 into this five disc set. There’s all LPs, all EPs, all compilation tracks, everything. On top of that there’s a full disc, approved by Läjä, of unreleased or otherwise impossibly rare tracks such as the unreleased third Ikbal EP.
This is the second edition, limited to 500 copies in a heavy slipcase and with a large 40 page booklet.
Our take: This five-LP box set compiles everything the legendary Finnish hardcore band Terveet Kädet (translation: Healthy Hands) recorded between 1980 and 1989. Most people credit Terveet Kädet as the first hardcore band in Finland, and they continued to carry the hardcore torch when so many other early hardcore bands put it down in favor of being more melodic, commercial, and/or artistically adventurous. For me, their first three EPs are essential 80s hardcore punk records, and they’re still my favorite Terveet Kädet records. Those records have the same joy of discovery you hear in the early Dischord and Touch and Go records, and as with bands like Minor Threat and the Fix, they grew into their chops and became a great fucking band. For me, they peak with their 3rd EP, Ääretön Joulu. After that, their music takes a definitive turn away from snotty punk and more toward the Discharge-inspired hardcore of bands like Bastards and Rattus. That’s hardly a bad thing… if you like records like Bastards’ Järjetön Maailma and Rattus’s Uskonto On Vaara, it’s hard to imagine you wouldn’t like Terveet Kädet’s first album or The Horse too, and I do. I hadn’t listened to the late 80s EPs collected on the box set’s 4th LP, but it turns out I like those too, maybe even better than the first two albums. They’re still hardcore records, but they don’t feel as monochromatic as the first two albums, and they get back some of that spirit of discovery I liked on the early EPs. The fifth LP in the box features unreleased and rare tracks from the era of the first three EPs, and they are crucial, ranging from primitive rehearsal recordings to blistering live-on-the-radio sets to an entire unreleased EP that would have come out between TKII and Ääretön Joulu. The music collected here is excellent, but as I listened to TK Pop in its entirety twice over the last couple of weeks, I thought a lot about how I impressed I am with how TK Pop is put together. It’s a comprehensive collection, presenting the band’s discography during this period as a coherent body of work, much the same way many CD anthology releases did in the 90s and 00s. However, where I found so many of those CD anthologies exhausting to listen to, it’s clear the folks at Svart thought a lot about how people would experienceTK Pop. They cut each record loud at 45rpm and they sound great. Rather than proceeding strictly chronologically, they give care to making sure each record (or, with the EPs, each LP side) is a coherent and complete thought. And while you’re listening, you can look at the comprehensive insert book with a wealth of archival photos and fanzine interviews and a detailed discography. I just really enjoyed this box. It takes a bunch of records that are excellent in their own right and makes them work as something bigger, more impressive, more demanding, but ultimately more rewarding. If only every reissue could be this good.
This is the second edition, limited to 500 copies in a heavy slipcase and with a large 40 page booklet.
Our take: This five-LP box set compiles everything the legendary Finnish hardcore band Terveet Kädet (translation: Healthy Hands) recorded between 1980 and 1989. Most people credit Terveet Kädet as the first hardcore band in Finland, and they continued to carry the hardcore torch when so many other early hardcore bands put it down in favor of being more melodic, commercial, and/or artistically adventurous. For me, their first three EPs are essential 80s hardcore punk records, and they’re still my favorite Terveet Kädet records. Those records have the same joy of discovery you hear in the early Dischord and Touch and Go records, and as with bands like Minor Threat and the Fix, they grew into their chops and became a great fucking band. For me, they peak with their 3rd EP, Ääretön Joulu. After that, their music takes a definitive turn away from snotty punk and more toward the Discharge-inspired hardcore of bands like Bastards and Rattus. That’s hardly a bad thing… if you like records like Bastards’ Järjetön Maailma and Rattus’s Uskonto On Vaara, it’s hard to imagine you wouldn’t like Terveet Kädet’s first album or The Horse too, and I do. I hadn’t listened to the late 80s EPs collected on the box set’s 4th LP, but it turns out I like those too, maybe even better than the first two albums. They’re still hardcore records, but they don’t feel as monochromatic as the first two albums, and they get back some of that spirit of discovery I liked on the early EPs. The fifth LP in the box features unreleased and rare tracks from the era of the first three EPs, and they are crucial, ranging from primitive rehearsal recordings to blistering live-on-the-radio sets to an entire unreleased EP that would have come out between TKII and Ääretön Joulu. The music collected here is excellent, but as I listened to TK Pop in its entirety twice over the last couple of weeks, I thought a lot about how I impressed I am with how TK Pop is put together. It’s a comprehensive collection, presenting the band’s discography during this period as a coherent body of work, much the same way many CD anthology releases did in the 90s and 00s. However, where I found so many of those CD anthologies exhausting to listen to, it’s clear the folks at Svart thought a lot about how people would experienceTK Pop. They cut each record loud at 45rpm and they sound great. Rather than proceeding strictly chronologically, they give care to making sure each record (or, with the EPs, each LP side) is a coherent and complete thought. And while you’re listening, you can look at the comprehensive insert book with a wealth of archival photos and fanzine interviews and a detailed discography. I just really enjoyed this box. It takes a bunch of records that are excellent in their own right and makes them work as something bigger, more impressive, more demanding, but ultimately more rewarding. If only every reissue could be this good.