SPICES, SPECIES AND POETRY PETROL

Have your ankles being swankled?

When a band is a blend of being entertaining, powerful and humoristic at the same time, you tell your friends quickly. I got excited at this band because I'm looking for a Gentle Giant-Sugar- Twin-kinda-band. I did find something a bit more complicated than this...

Jeavestone is a band that goes full throttle in what they do. There is no filling and there's very few idea repetition, but you won't get bored. They are skilled musicians (although kinda young) and they have a fondness for bands like Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant but mainly Beardfish or Frank Zappa. The songs are short, packed with punch, features lots and lots of hooks, despite the heavy amount of jazz-folk and a good dose of auto-derision. There is a lot of humor, even in the way they are playing, especially in the fake infomercial about a device that removes and polishes ankles. I laughed very hard, and again, people were staring at me for the wrong reasons.

So fans of Beardfish, please drop whatever you are doing and get this album. A gem.

The follower to Jeavestone's promising debut is a clear improvement. Also the cover art is better, but the drawn texts are hard to read. The additional booklet is a humorous 7-page cartoon "The Seek of a Lost Musician" by Heidi Vierimaa. Judged on the opening tracks, the group's energetic, US reminding prog rock shows no hint of slowing down or losing the humorous spirit. 'Liquera Puente!' wastes no time in adding colourful details into the boogie- flavoured rock'n'roll. 'The Plastic Landscaper' sounds like FRANK ZAPPA's amusing vocal prog, while the Shop TV satire 'The Power of Swankle' is extremely Zappa-esque; a merry jazz-rock tune accompanied by cheesy advertising speeches.

'I'd Be Your Weakness' starts calmly with acoustic guitar.The slow-paced vocal harmonies are in the style of e.g. CROSBY, STILLS & NASH. This beautiful track brings the needed balance, and also the first half of the next, two-part track avoids the overdose of energy and offers relaxing, richly arranged prog with plenty of flute. 'Rapist's Tango' returns to the hectic and satirical style familiar from earlier tracks. On the long run I find it tiresome. Another breath of fresh air is offered by a tiny, pretty instrumental 'Erg'. 'Your Turn to Run' keeps shifting between delicate jazzy textures and edgier, slightly aggressive sections à la KANSAS.

As a crowning epitaph the album closes with a 10-minute composition with lots of dreamy softness. Indeed this album fulfills the hopes for more mature stylistic spectre that I got from the restless debut. Warmly recommended!

Finland's enigmatic (we call it "eclectic") band of sophisticated quirk is back with its sophomore effort three years after the very interesting Mind the Soup.

1. "¡Quela Puente!" (2:42) clever, sophisticated lyrics delivered over a fairly straightforward hard rock motif. (8.75/10)

2. "The Plastic Landscaper" (3:07) more standard rock 'n' roll with very clever lyrics and impressive vocal delivery. (8.75/10)

3. "The Power of Swankle(tm)" (4:11) quirky rock-jazz fusion with made-up television/radio game show samples employed in the lyrics slots." Quite a little Frank Zappa imitation here. (9/10)

4. "I'd Be Your Weakness" (5:05) effecting a huge change in directions with this slow, melodic CSN&Y/MOON SAFARI-like tune. Vocals being delivered totally with a harmonized multi-voice choral approach. (8.875/10)

5. "Daytime Escape / Veijo the Rattlesnake" (8:37) acoustic guitar and flute-based rock music with a rather Stephen Stills/Dave Mason-like vocal delivery. Big shift at 4:50 into a heavier motif as distortion-filled electric guitars take over with their KANSAS-like sophisticated power chord progressions. Big props to the rhythm section for keeping it spicy throughout. Vocals rejoin in a choral form in the seventh minute: they sound poppy, almost like THE COWSILLS or FIFTH DIMENSION before the lead guitar starts to rip up the soundscape with its shredding. Interesting song. (17.5/20)

6. "Rapist's Tango" (3:37) starts out sounding like sounds RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS--on many levels (especially vocally)--with some jazzy ZAPPA-like bridges and codas. Jime Goldworth's vocal performance is very theatric, using multiple voice stylings to express different "characters."(?) A QUEEN-like motif starts at 2:40 and plays out to the song's finish. (8.75/10)

7. "Erg" (0:39) a little interlude of classical chamber music. Perfect! The spirit of Gentle Giant lives on! (5/5)

8. "Your Turn to Run" (5:24) back to the sophisticated vocal-oriented rock music from the album's opening two songs. Clever flute and jazzy guitar instrumental bridges between the vocal passages. Such a clever, well-composed song. As I said above: the spirit of Gentle Giant lives on! (And Frank!) (And Punk!) (9.125/10)

9. (1.) "Innocence" orchestral strings and female voices counter Jim's gives this a very MOODY BLUES and feel. Brillliant and beautiful! (9/10) (2.) "Voices of the Shadows" moving from pastoral into rock 'n' roll, this one takes on a 1960s WHO and early QUEEN feel with its multi-voice harmonized vocals and heavily effected psychedelic instruments. Ends with 20 seconds of chords of pure NEKTAR! PINK FLOYD! (8.875/10) (3.) "The Relief" (10:07) clarinet provides the lead over this Southern Rock-feeling acoustic start. As solid as ever with the rhythm section's support. The final 30 seconds sees the stripped down strumming of barely-amplified, untreated electric guitars as the clarinet finishes and fades. (8.75/10)

Total Time 43:29

Clever, witty, lyrcs-driven rock that reminds me a lot of 1970s bands FRANK ZAPPA, GENTLE GIANT, as well as THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, URIAH HEEP, BLACK SABBATH, KANSAS, and QUEEN. A much more mature and polished collection of songs than their 2005 debut.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of sophisticated retro-prog rock. Highly recommended to all prog lovers--especially if you loved the quirky parts of "classic prog rock."