MOON FOG PROPHET

With a name like MOON FOG PROPHET you had to know this Finnish band played Psychedelic music right ? The majority of their fans feel that this is their best album. It clocks in at over 72 minutes.

"Appearance" features some heavy guitar throughout as synths, bass and drums help out. Sounds echo before 4 1/2 minutes. One of the best tracks for me and a top three. "The Duke Meets The Regretting Bishop" is a track I just can't get into. It changes several times but none of these climates work form me. The third track has a title as long as my arm. It's a short tune that you'd swear was a Syd Barrett composed and played song. "A Meaningless Discussion In The House Of Red Love" opens with sounds that pulse. Vocals before 1 1/2 minutes sounding like Peter Hammill.They get passionate before 4 minutes. Guitar follows. Nice. Good tune.

"Morning Evening" is a mellow guitar / piano led tune. Vocals 3 minutes. I can't get into this one at all. "Baker's Wife Is Talking In Her Sleep" is mainly guitar, reserved vocals and piano. "Wagons Wagons Screeeching Wheels" is uptempo with drums and piano leading. "Apocalypse On Schedule" has a relaxing beat with vocals. Guitar 5 minutes in. I like this one. "Triumph Of Oppression" is a top three. Violin is prominant throughout. It turns haunting after 6 1/2 minutes. A calm follows then it kicks in with drums 10 1/2 minutes in. Some huge bass too. "When The Day Broke, The Parks" is a relaxed tune with vocals. It's ok. "The Council Never Ends" is the other top three. This sounds like a VDGG song. Just a great sound with Hammill-like vocals and raw guitar.

This album has it's moments but not nearly enough of them.

Band info is missing for this band... Well, my knowledge is limited. What I've heard before from these guys is a couple of Finnish-language albums under the name KUUSUMUN PROFEETTA (= Moon Fog Prophet). It seems these two bands have some other stylistic differences besides language. The most striking of them is the way Mika Rättö (who plays also keyboards) uses his voice. In Finnish he sings in a frail falsetto voice sounding very much like Robert Wyatt, and here he ridiculously pushes his voice from his throat using thick vibrato, as if he's mocking someone like David Byron or Peter Hammill. Unfortunately that is a major fault in my opinion; as an instrumental or better sung this would be much better album. Probably Rättö's falsetto style wouldn't fit either, because Kuusumun Profeetta is also in music more ethereal and calm - at least the ones I now recall.

Categorized under Psychedelic/ Space Rock, Moon Fog Prophet is likely to appeal to the listeners of slightly experimental modern bands who mix psychedelia and jazzy elements. Better not mention band names as this field is not so common to me... The instrumental parts - luckily there are many - often extend themselves using repetition and thus creating a hypnotic and jazz-like improvisatory feeling. Especially I like the instrumental ending halves of 'A Liar in 602' with clockenspiel and 'Starling' with piano. A Finnish band called Husky Rescue has some similarities (they also have a good female singer, so you can guess which band I prefer!).

Though there are some very good moments, this album is somehow half baked. With less singing (or a better singer) and perhaps with more various instruments - for example flute or sax - they could have made a wonderful, highly original album. But they didn't. As for my rating, I try to ignore my distaste for the vocals and round it up to three stars, because this is worth checking out.

OK, I thought that I couldn't be surprised anymore. BUT!!!! Here comes Moon Fog Prophet's "Taunting Tin Bells Thought The Mammal Void." Wow, what an unusual album. As Greg Walker from Syn-phonic Music describes them - "Unclassifiable."

I haven't heard their other albums (can't find them!) but this one is a wonderful blend of progressive, hippie (although I think they're youngsters), powerful, hypnotic, and slightly (and this is what keeps all good bands interesting) naive.

Finland just continues to bring forth creativity and originality. How lucky to share such magical music. Get this one!

This first full length album of this productive band from Pori has some interesting music in it, which is molded by using the aesthetics of the 80's music, a rare choice in the world of progressive rock. The hometown of this group is known in Finland as a town with a strong scene of underground music, and this band makes no exception to this phenomena. The singing is the least pleasant element in this album in my opinion, but some arrangements and feelings associate strongly with David Bowie's albums from the early 80's. Some acoustic elements also predict the sound of the forthcoming incarnation of this band with name Kuusumun Profeetta, which is the same name just been translated to Finnish. The best songs for me here were the tracks "Amusement Park" and "Planet for One Man". There are some good emotional moments with humor here too, and the funny homemade album covers are sympathetic. Music is done with a strong songwriting style, and there's no much of jamming here sadly. The atmosphere of this record is strong, and stylistic choices make it as a quite unique entity. Though not groundbreaking but still being an entertaining album, this could be recommended for those fans of eccentric music, who don't loathe the sounds of the 80's. Worthy to give a listen, but not the best target to spend your last money for.

This album starts with "Appearance", A song of incredible power and hypnotic rhythms, made with guitar riffs, organs and strong orchestral percussion. A fantastic choir part ends this masterpiece thats power can be only compared to Orff's O'Fortuna. The following "The Duke Meets The Regretting Bishop" offers beautiful female choirs and strong, harsh vocals. The song grows slowly following the previous song's hypnotic rhythm theme. Then there's suddenly a psychedelic song in a style of Syd Barrett! Surprisingly it serves greatly the overall. I'll left the rest for everybody to listen him/herself, but I promise, It won't let you down. This band is fullfilled with new ideas and yet their music varies greatly and is impossible to compare to anything.

This is a truly unique masterpiece, go get it!