AHMOO

Jupu Group was a Jazz Fusion band from Finland. They were centered around violinist and percussionist Juhani "Jupu" Poutanen (Hence the name) and released their first and last album (for around 50 years) "Ahmoo," in 1975. This album gives off very heavy Jean Luc-Ponty vibes, with the violin style very similar to his. The technique is pretty advanced and typical for Jazz Fusion of this style with lots of fast soloing coupled with occasional melodicism.

The album opens with "The Seeker," which is a quintessential Jazz Fusion number. Very funky chords, and synth from Jukka Linkola. The guitarist (Janne Louhivuor) has some really good solos on this track. I actually quite like the soul interludes during the song where the horns come in and they show off their melody more. Overall one of the better songs on the album and a good extended jam for an opener. From the beginning you can tell "Ennystymätön" is gonna be an interesting one. The song starts with some high-intensity clav and bass backbeat over assorted violin and electric piano solos. Janne Louhivuor has another pretty nice solo here in an odd signature as the beat picks up. Towards the end, the song has a buildup back into the bass and clav undertones as the song comes to an end. Definitely not my favorite but not horrible. Side 1 closes on the 10-minute "epic" "Ahmoo," which is hella disappointing. The song opens very ambiently before eventually going into a really nice piano part around the 2:00 mark. This section actually sounds beautiful, but the band does absolutely nothing with it and the song goes into a 5-minute drum solo before ending mediocrely. This track had the most potential on the album but alas, it underperformed.

The second side opens with my personal favorite track, "Moment." This is easily Jupu's best violin work on the album and gives off total Mahavishnu Vibes. The song opens on an upbeat note with screeching guitars and high octave phased Wurlitzer. The song is another one of those jams that this band does often, except this one actually has character, musicianship, and variation opposed to some of the less bright songs on here. After the highlight we get, "Two for Eeva." The song opens with heavy upright bass, and ambient violin. Around the 4:30 mark the song takes a much needed turn for a more upbeat sound after 4-minutes of nothingness. This song is by far the jazziest on the album and during the second half it seamlessly switches from awesome Fusion, to melancholy piano interludes. The last track on the album, "Drops of Rain," opens with classical violin that set the mood. After about a minute, the drums begin to build up along with phased keys and bass. Unfortunately, the band doesn't actually drop the beat for minutes, so the song is stuck in a perpetual buildup with mediocre ambience. Finally at the 6:00 minute mark of the 7:00 minute song, the band introduces the beat which makes for by far the best sequence on the entire album that only lasts for 45 seconds, before the album ends.

To be honest, this album had so much potential to be a 4-star if the band had cut on some things. For example, the title track is by far the weakest due to it pretty much being a drum solo for 10 minutes. If the band had just developed the song instead of getting lazy I believe that track alone could've at least pushed the album from a 3 stars to a 3.5. Jupu Group actually released their first work in decades in 2016 (which was a little live album), but in 2022 they came back with their first full length studio effort in half a century (Which is quite good). Over all, I would recommend tracks such as "The Seeker," "Movement," and possibly "Two for Eeva," to fans of jazz fusion but not too much else.