LUNAR JETMAN

For me the finnish group PHARAOH OVERLORD is quite difficult to get into. Their instrumental and psychedelic stoner rock usually comes in long track forms, which together with a minimal progression within compositions may result as a boring and frustrated listening experience. This far I have listened to only three albums; in my opinion this one's clearly better than the heavier Horn, or the three-tracked Siluurikaudella.

'Rodent' (10:43) is more or less built on one riff, but the intensity grows gradually. The brighter sounding 'Palmyra Cali' reminds me of EKTROVERDE, which - just as Pharaoh Ovelord also (and several other acts, not all included in ProgArchives) - is blood-related to CIRCLE, one of the longest living of Finnish prog-minded bands and a household name in Finland's psychedelic field. Of these P. O. is the least suitable to my personal taste, being rather dryly and monotonously guitar dominated. On this album however there's Hans-Joachim Irmler (from the German legend FAUST) on keyboards, making the sound richer and more... cultivated, if you like.

'Cardinal' (4:09) is atypically not a second too long. It is spacey, dreamy, freely flowing (ie. non-rhythmical) music full of ambience. 'Black Horse' starts with a 4½-minute intro of hectic drumming and improvisational sound making that doesn't in itself seem to be going anywhere, followed by painfully overstretched slice of riff-based stoner rock. Interestingly the problem of getting bored is less present on the massive, nearly a half an hour closing track 'Cave of Hair'. Like 'Cardinal', it is free flowing, and very meditative. Once it takes the listener into a hypnotic state, the question of length becomes irrelevant. Here Irmler's contribution is at its most valuable while also the electric guitars play long spacey notes with a feeling. This is like vintage Kosmische Musik almost at its finest.

Pharaoh Overlord is not going to enter the long list of my regular listening, but I do believe that this particular album has much better chances to raise some interest among new listeners than P. O. music in general.