XIII

The first release from this Finnish trio. For a debut EP from a new group the sound and production is good, but as they show on future releases they only get better. Their sound is fairly diverse and it's hard to pigeon-hole them into any one sub-genre. The EP begins with "Iscream" which sounds very influenced by Robert Fripp. The instrumental sounds like a cross between Crimson's "Red" and Fripp's "Breathless" from his Exposure album. It's derivitive but it's still a good song.

"Dome" is more mainstream rock sounding. The bass and organ here is good. A little marching snare drum was a nice touch. Some cool guitar effects after halfway for a bit. Great synth at the end. "Alone" is even more mainstream sounding than the last song. An easy going, laid-back radio-friendly song. "Between" is the most interesting song on the EP. Sustained organ notes dominates for awhile as some spacey guitar joins it. At 2 1/2 minutes it changes to symph prog territory with whispered singing. Later some arpeggiated guitars join the party. The backup harmony vocals sound weird and creepy, I like 'em!

"Madness" is more 'heavy prog' like the first song. Cool altered vocals here; I think the vocals are filtered through a Leslie speaker cabinet but I may be wrong. Some cool synth out of nowhere at the end. The last song, "Archie" for some reason sounds more polished and produced than the other songs. Through the entire song you can hear a clock ticking. The music is basically mellow alt-rockish type stuff. What sounds like Mellotron in the middle followed by cool overdubbed voices talking. A nice beginning for this trio. Deserves at least 3 stars.