KAIKKI ON HYVIN

RIUTTA (Finnish word for reef) comes from Oulu, Northern Finland, and the title of their debut album means "Everything is OK". The little dark squares on the front cover are windows and balconies of a huge house. I wanted to mention this as I sense some quiet urban desperation in the lyrics. Here are a couple of translated citations: "Should the spine break / so that I could see the colours of the city? / paralyzed on the spot / (...) / I grow towards inside / inside the wall of fear / inside blindness" ('Vihan sidon silmiini' = I tie hatred into my eyes). "And no one can / no one can / take away from me / the moment / I saw a light on your window" ('Kaupunki ennen talvea' = City before winter).

Riutta have named e.g. TOOL, RADIOHEAD and KING CRIMSON as their influences. Expectedly the music is edgy, angular and slightly depressed, dominated by distorted guitars and a powerful rhythm section. The first three songs are heavily oriented towards this angry bleakness, and the unprofessional-sounding production with some clumsy arty-farty details (especially on the vocal treatment) doesn't always hit the target. The saxophone on the opener is not convincing at all.

The brief title track is dark but serene Ambient. It is followed by a highlight song 'Hashima', in which the sincere guitar played on high register and the pulsative flavour of Electronic/Ambient, together with some poetic images in the sparse lyrics, form an emotionally effective, interlude-like moment in the middle of the album. 'Kaupunki ennen talvea' would nicely continue in that direction, but the use of vocoder is quite irritating. Luckily the last three songs work better than the early tracks, especially on the emotional level.

One Finnish critic said that this strong material would have really needed a finishing touch of a visionary producer. Partly I totally agree, but on the other hand the result could have become more clinical and have lost its personality. The finest song is the last one, 'Etsijä' (=The seeker), in which the ambience, melancholia and Post-Rock flavoured ed´giness blend in perfect balance.