HYÖNTEISIÄ VOI RAKASTAA

Hyönteisiä voi Rakastaa is the debut album from avant garde rock act Höyry-Kone from Finland. This album has been a hard one for me to get into. I knew right away that I was fascinated by the music but I couldn´t label it and I had a hard time with the change of style between every song. I´ve come to realise that the album is cohesive even though it´s as diverse as it is though and that Hyönteisiä voi Rakastaa is a great unique album.

The music takes it´s influences from many genres and I hear both avant garde, enthnic folk and jazz in the music while there is an occasional touch of opera in the vocals. The songs are very energetic but there are time for some more emotional and beautiful moments in songs like Hämärän joutomaa and Luottamus. There are lots of challenging and complex time signatures but generally the music comes out being very memorable and pretty easy to digest avant garde rock. The lyrics are in Finish but don´t worry the vocals sound great anyway.

The musicianship is excellent. This is an eight piece band and during the playing time of this album we´re presented with lots of different instruments. I personally love the sporadic keyboards but both the guitar playing and especially the bass playing are also excellent. Fortunately the band has also put emphasis on more organinc instruments like Oboe, Violin and Cello.

The production is very good. A real joy. Listen to the bass sound it´s just fantastic.

I had to listen to this album many, many times before reviewing it because it´s so diverse and every time I reached the end there was something I felt I had missed. I´ve come to a conclusion now though and I think Hyönteisiä voi Rakastaa deserves 4 stars. It´s a very original and unique album. There is just such a great will to experiment on the album and you can´t give musicians enough credit for that. After all that´s what progressive music is all about now isn´t it ? This album is recommended to people who wants to hear something they have never heard before. I dare you: Challenge yourself !