KALEVALA

"Silver Fish" is very uptempo melodic opener, reminds a lot Bob Seger. Awesome guitar playing from Lido as throughout album. But musical greatness really starts in next "Lighthouse". This melodic ballad reminds me really much Family. A lot same in singer Leppänen´s voice as in Roger Chapman´s. Also very great moog playing from Raimo Karima. "Forever Train" goes in funk rhythm, but is all the way quite complex and great composition. But into real prog we go in the next, over six minutes two parted suite that has the title name of the album. Fist part is very sad and beautiful and there is something same as in "Where I´m From" of the first album. In second part intensity rises, but that awesome sadness continues. "Brown´ll Might Suit You" seems to got lots of influence from Zappa´s "Brown Shoes Don´t Make It". All the way it´s the most boring one in this album. In next "Highland Temple" melodic greatness comes back. There is somebody playing great sounding vibraphone that is not credited. "Playground" is quite straightforward and it could have been a hit in the UK in the begin of seventies, but not anymore in punk/new wave end of seventies. "Marketbox Street" goes more proggy direction with it´s quite complex structure. Ending "Panamanian Red" is again uptempo piece, but it has many parts and quite interesting atmosphere changes into it´s five minutes. This time Leppänen´s short vocals reminds Circle´s Mika Rättö!

Really this album is not even near of the genius of "People No Names", but it has more prog than second "Boogie Jungle". It is quite typical 1977 prog album, when old progbands had to softer their style. Comparing this album to 10cc albums is not unfair. I don´t quite understand why Kalevala has put into progrelated here just because "People No Names" is so fullblooded progalbum! They have really much in common with other Finnish band "Tabula Rasa" and it has put into symphonic prog! I think both really belongs into eclectic prog. Also Tabula Rasa´s second album goes towards mainstream rock just like these two other Kalevala´s albums. To me personally genres are just the same, but it´s sad, if people don´t listen this great band because it has put into prog related. Maybe four stars is little bit too much to this album, but because I gave 3 stars to "Boogie Jungle", this really is improvement of that. On the other hand this is really much better than many other 1977 prog albums, it comes right after Jethro Tull´s "Songs From the Wood", Floyd´s Animals, Wigwam´s Dark Album, Rush`s a Farewell To Kings, Renaissaince´s Novella, Can´s Saw Delight, Camel´s Rain Dance`s & Yes´s Going For the One.

In this gig Kalevala's line-up -- which never went into a recording studio -- features vocalist Harri Saksala, guitarist and the main composer Matti Kurkinen, bassist Juha Salonen, drummer Alf Forsman and sax/flute player Sakari Kukko who founded PIIRPAUKE a couple of years later. On two tracks he plays also electric piano. Kalevala had released their debut album People No Names (1972; expensive collector's item nowadays) which didn't feature Kukko. Another difference to the album is the language, ie. Finnish instead of English. Originally Harri Saksala had written all lyrics in Finnish, but for People No Names they were translated into English by Mats Huldén (ex-Wigwam bassist).

Two tracks are from the album, tight instrumental jazz-rocker 'Myrskyä pakoon' ('Escape from the Storm') and 'Verkossa' ('In the Net'), the most progressive track in which the vocal parts are rather scarse. The music is energetic jazz-rock à la TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI's Lambertland-era, and occasionally also Saksala's vocals resemble Eero Raittinen's. Songs 'Jokaiseen jokaiseen' and 'Antti' are slightly more vocal-oriented and melodic. Kukko's reeds are an excellent addition to the guitar-heavy sound. 'Tuulikannel' -- the poetic title means wind chimes -- is the slowest and most delicate song here, featuring very beautiful flute. 'Tiedon portaat' is also relatively calm, melodic song.

This well played and recorded live set is among the best releases of Kalevala, and its historical value is high, like is the case with most of the sets in the Pop Liisa series. Unless you prefer vinyls, it's warmly recommended to purchase the 74-minute CD when you'll have both Kalevala's and Nimbus' sets. Vintage Finnish prog!

Their second release issued 3 years later named Boogie jungle from 1975 is a diffrent affair, musicaly speaking. The band broke up after releasing their debut, but soon re formed in 1974 with new musicians, including a new voice, important is that the guitarist Matti Kurkinen remaning still, he was the driving force of the band for sure , sadly passed away in a traffic accident soon after releasing Boogie jungle in 1975. So, this album is far less spectacular then the first, being close to comercial hard rock , the progressive arrangements almost completly gone with exception the excellent ending 7 min plus piece named Jungle where Kurkinen shine all through, sounding like it was taken from their debut. The rest while to me is far from bad album, is far less exciting but pleasent for sure. Boogie jungle desearve 3 stars for sure from me, nice art work.

4.5 from the debut plus 3 from second is 7.5 rounded up this time because i like a lot Kalevala, that is meaning 4 stars for this 2 in 1 compilation

I don't make mention for other tracks because they "runs out" in relation of most tracks from the album ! But I believe which this album deserves at least one audition !!! But, this above mentioned tracks make me concede to this álbum, 4 stars !!!

KALEVALA was formed in 1969 by bassist Juha "Lido" Salonen and the name actually came about by accident. When touring under the name Vietnam, one of the concert organizers objected to the name and forced them to change it. The band went through many line-up changes but it was the guitarist Matti Kurkinen who would steer the band into the progressive arenas of rock and wrote all of the tracks on PEOPLE NO NAMES, their debut album all by his lonesome. The original release was put out by Finnlevy Records but has since been remastered and is available on the Svart label.

The album was released in 1972 and many of the progressive rock influences of the day can be heard starting with the 9 minute title track which begins with a nice acoustic intro and turns into a nice hard bluesy rocker that has a Jethro Tull kind of riff with some of the frenetic energetic parts sounding like the intro to "Heart Of The Sunrise" from Yes' "Fragile" album. The highly energetic rockin' parts are pretty heavy for 1972, so this rightfully can be placed in the proto-metal camp as well alongside UFO, Uriah Heep, T2 and Led Zeppelin. On the prog side the compositions are much more varied and sophisticated than any contemporary hard rock bands of the day that still utilized blues scales as the basis for song structure. Harri Saksala does bring a deeper voiced Ian Anderson to mind in his vocal delivery at times but his styles vary as much as the tracks themselves.

After the frenetic title track, the second track "Where I'm From" is a light airy and breezy piano and acoustic guitar number with emphasis on a strong melodic development before bursting in a very Tullish sound complete with flute. The track despite the strong Tull influence manages to keep a couple steps away from diving too far in that direction especially as the piano part alternates to keep the piece unique. The third track "Waves" reminds more of Can rhythmically but with a nice symphonic keyboard embellishments and a beautiful guitar solo gives it the right amount of oomph. "In The Net" is probably one of the weaker tracks. Reminds a bit of Deep Purple. Maybe "Highway Star" type riffing. Vocals kind of weak but overall saved by an unexpected harmonica solo. "My Friend" is a short little piano ballad that is probably the least impressive track on the album. "Lady With The Veil" is a nice number that begins as a ballad but kicks into progressive heavy rock with excellent super fast drumming from Markku Luukkanen and excellent guitar work. One of my favorite tracks. "Escape From The Storm" is one of the most psychedelic tracks which incorporates acoustic and electric guitar codependencies and wah-wah splendor. Another excellent track. "Tamed Indians" is a strange little folky closer that sounds like a Finnish traditional complete with accordion and foot stompin' delight :)

This is a fairly obscure album even though it has been re-released and although it has been touted as a long lost masterpiece, i don't feel it quite reaches those lofty heights although i do find this to be a very welcome obscurity into my collection. The variation and Kurkinen's excellent guitar playing keep this album from ever drifting into mediocrity and although the band are master's of the cut, copy and paste approach to create a nice mix of ideas, they clearly hadn't quite sewn all the influences together to create a unique and totally original sound. Still an impressive early collection of heavy rockers mixed with nice mellower tracks. This album is available on CD despite there being no info that it exists (i found one by chance) but it is probably easiest to obtain as a two-fer-one with the second album "Boogie Jungle."

PEOPLE NO NAMES (1972).The title track is the longest one in the whole set (8:55). It starts with lonely acoustic guitar, but already after 30 seconds the vocalist and the band arrive to offer a tight piece of progressive hard rock. Harri Saksala (formerly of APOLLO; eponymous album from 1970) sings very roughly, sounding almost like Captain Beefheart. His original Finnish lyrics were translated by Mats Huldén who did the same for some WIGWAM albums too. Electric guitar is leading the way.

'Where I'm From' is much calmer track, processing for a couple of minutes as a dreamy instrumental featuring guest appearances of Olli Ahvenlahti's piano and Raimo Wallen's flute, before the faster vocal section kicks in to disappear again. 'Waves' and 'Escape from the Storm' are jazz-rock instrumentals, maybe slightly monotonous but quite good ones.

'In the Net' is a return to harder rocking and bluesy expression; here Saksala and the band sound a bit like the rougher side of Frank Robson and TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI. Gritty harmonica solo is played by Saksala. 'My Friend' is another instrumental, similarily tender and piano-oriented as the most of 'Where I'm From' was. 'Lady With the Veil' has deep atmosphere with its whisper-approaching vocals and lots of acoustic guitar, even if the song is rather fast. 'Tamed Indians' seems like a joke, a brief, hilarious and fast instrumental featuring accordion.

BOOGIE JUNGLE (1975). Some line-up changes had occurred: Saksala was replaced by Limousine Leppänen. All lyrics are by WIGWAM's Jim Pembroke who also provides background vocals on four tracks. The opener 'Mind the Fly Hunter' is rooty, bluesy rock'n'roll song, quite uninteresting to me. The second track is even more boring. Also Leppänen's vocals have bluesy roughness but they miss Saksala's strong presence. 'If We Found the Time' is better, calmer song, where the use of vibrato reminds me of FAMILY's Roger Chapman. 'While the Fire's Warm' is a blues-rocker and features WIGWAM's Jukka Gustavson on clavinet.

'Boogie' is a personal bland of fast, jazzy rock'n'roll, hard rock elements and a drum solo. 'Rockin Fish' is another rough, hard rocking song that I have no any interest for. It has become very clear by now that this album is much worse than the debut, at least for a prog listener. Friends of honest rock'n'roll naturally think the other way round. The album's best track is obviously the long, closing instrumental 'Jungle', where especially electric guitar and Moog do some nice things.

The leaflet features credits information, nothing more. Maybe together these albums are worth three stars as I would rate the debut separately too.

Liner notes (mainly by Lido Salonen, bassist/guitarist and the only all-time member) give a picture of the group's history, but for this set of music there are no information. I first listed the tracks of the three studio albums (1972, 1975, 1977) in order to see how this set relates to the output. My first surprise was that there seemed to be nothing at all from the debut People No Names. Then I found out that the whole CD 1 consists of live recordings. I hate this kind of lack of information.

Earliest recordings (1970) feature Remu Aaltonen on drums, who chose to form the legendary rock'n'roll band Hurriganes. 'Made in Sweden' (something to do with the future group of that name?) and 'Shaking All Over' as openers raised questions of what the hell is this anthology all about? OK, live, why no-one told that in advance? Third track 'Antti' is a short and nicely structured song in which Harri Saksala's (formerly of APOLLO) vocals work excellently. First I thought it was some separate studio recording, until the applause and speech in the end revealed the live nature. The next few tracks are energetic, instrumentally oriented jazz-rock featuring saxophone of Sakari Kukko, known from PIIRPAUKE. The rest of the first disc are some 1977 live takes of material from the albums Jungle Boogie and Abraham's Blue Refrain. The sonic level is not very bad, and probably Kalevala were at the time primarily a live band.

The CD 2 then seems to consist of the whole Abraham's... album plus five new tracks recorded in 1995. Again, it would be nice to be told. Prog is not very present in the band's style, this is slightly bluesy rock, but still several songs have that something to make them all right even for my ears. The vocals of Zape Leppänen remind me of FAMILY's Roger Chapman without the eccentric vibrato. As I mentioned above, five final tracks date from 1995. Kalevala never officially made a comeback. Salonen tells how the question became harder and harder as many members passed away. The reunion studio line-up features a wider group of players than ever before (e.g. Pekka Pohjola on bass) and the production is pretty good. As this review already has so many references to the Finnish (prog)rock scene, let's add that WIGWAM's Jim Pembroke wrote many of the lyrics! Especially I enjoyed 'The Song' of the five new tracks; 'Turkish Pepper' had some hilarious mock-orientalism, and 'Icebear Walk' has a strong and delicious bass line.

Although this set is terribly edited (with the lack of proper information being the biggest fault), there are at least some interesting stuff outside of the albums. The title Anthology is perhaps a bit misleading: this does not serve as a good introduction to Kalevala's output. Collectors/fans' stuff mostly. 2½ stars.

In fact, there are only traces of prog left, but the music is in general of very high quality. It's a pleasant and very enjoyable album if you are into the funkier side of rock. Matti Kurkinen was a very capable guitarist, and it's tragic that he passed away soon after this album was made. Salonen on second guitar fulfills his duties and brings some beef to the sound. The rhythm section is tight, and even if Leppänen is a bit generic in the vocals, he has a pleasant voice. The star of the album is really Matti Kurkinen, this is a guitar album.

3 stars, it is a very good album, but in no way essential. Better than the debut, and one that will stay on my playlist for a long time.