TANSSI I

It's been a long time, nearly a decade actually, since my previous dedicated Siinai listenings which was with their 2014 album Supermarket. The Finnish, instrumentally oriented and Krautrock influenced band Siinai made a comeback this year after a lengthy interim. I almost attended the album release gig in my hometown Tampere, but I didn't, due to the late timing and my work obligations and another gig the following day. Now I'm catching up by listening to their two latest albums. Sykli (2017) marked a shift to the more extended track forms. Some of the five pieces on it are rather spatial and ambientish electro music with no drums, while the rhythm is central on other pieces.

Tanssi I, released digitally and on vinyl (with a round label-sized hole on both sides of the cover), continues in the extended track length direction, containing only two pieces on each side. Tanssi means dance. 'Vihreään laaksoon' (= To a green valley) is a hypnotic, trippy trance piece that colours the basic groove with gradually evolving arrangement details. Trumpet is cool near the end.

'Kirjokansi' featuring wordless female voice approaches the tighter song structure of Supermarket, it only lasts longer (7 minutes). The brisk beat with a disco flavour is enjoyable, and again the nuanced sonic details justify the extension that emphasizes the trippy, trance-like atmosphere.

'Käsi kädessä' is even 18 minutes long! In the beginning the percussion sovereignly rules, but pretty soon the soundscape is full of fascinating things. The piece has both very organic jazziness especially on the spatial keyboard chords, and a hypnotic trance/ambient minimalism. Arguably it could be more effective in a slightly more economic form, but without a question it earns the status as the album's mighty central opus.

'Satakieli' (= Mockingbird) combines the tribal-like percussive orientation and a New Agey, spacey electronic music flavour. My friend attended the gig and praised it to be impressive. Listening to the album, I truly believe there must have been a special atmosphere. As a casual home listening this music may not function equally strongly, but this truly could be the finest achievement of Siinai. The 'I' in the album title hints that they ate going to folow this dance inspired path further.

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