MANOGURGEIL

If you could lop off the short opening track and the two short closing tracks, I'd be tempted to give this album a solid 5 stars despite the 37-minute length of the remaining album. But we're rating the whole album, right? 3.5 stars for me. Sorry.

The opening song is the only one with vocals, and I don't like the woman's voice. The song itself is sort of out of character with the rest of the album, sounding a little more commercial. The last two tracks are more dissonant and sound like improvised noodling to me. Skip...

But, but, but...if you enjoy Canterbury prog/fusion in the vein of Camel, Caravan, Hatfield and even a little Soft Machine, then the middle 5 tracks of this album are simply phenomenal! From the band bio here, it looks like it took them awhile to settle on a drummer, and he does a great job of leading these instrumental excursions. (The same feeling I get listening to Needlepoint and their great drummer.) Lots of keyboards driving these songs as well, especially electric piano and some dirty organ thrown in. These five songs just have some great instrumental jazzy/jammy grooves that hit all my buttons.

So, I'll round up to 4 stars for publication purposes, but read a 3.5.

Still, a very worthy endeavor for sure.

Opening on a sung track Alue, the group presents a funky facet playing behind an inhabitual voice that could be a mix of Bjork and Luka Bloom. The lengthy Sydamesi that follows is much more representative of the general feel of the album, a fast driving jazz-rock with plenty of twist that sound like they came from the Kent County, somewhere in a Caravan placed on a Field of Hats that's ploughed by a Soft-natured Machine?. As the fuzzed-out organ tells us, but the Hopperian bass and a wild Fender Rhodes only add to that feeling. Excellent stuff and a 12- mins trip to the stratosphere. The collegially-penned Moursut is much in the same mould and while the following Vesikavelijat is a slow starter, it soon develops Kentish roots (listen to that Caravan-ian bass), but never reaches cosmic speeds, but consolidates the album's excellent stature and ends in a nuclear blast. After a short Poliisien that rose lke a phenix from its ashes, the album plunges in its second centrepiece, the immense 9-mins+ Hairitaeva track, which plunges into a solar-hot fusion and melt your speaker cones with hot lava spewing onto your carpet. This track is somewhat a bit closer to early Weather Report (the Vitous era) meeting Soft Machine's sixth album. The following Peikkotanssi is a broken down slightly dissonant piece that sounds improvised and it feels a bit like you're crossing a red star's heart aboard some interstellar ship and the rebuilding process sounding a bit like a Caravan trick. The closing Pikkalinnun is also dissonant and feels improvised

This group's incredible (and sole so far) debut album is one of the strongest of that year and can easily sit in my top 20 from the 00's. I suppose I must be glad that I only discovered this album some 10 months ago and already I can't wait for the next one, so I'm glad I didn't have to wait three years now for the second act.

Highlights of the album include the second track Sydämen suljettu yrttitarha, which is a long, sort of mirage-era-camelish instrumental jam travelling through many moods and landscapes. Very good performance by the keyboardist Hannu Kuosmanen, whose composition the song is. Another standout track and my personal favorite is Poliisien kesäkoti, an upbeat, almost funny soundtrack to an inner sleeve childlike drawing of a summer home to policemen (the song title in English). Again some strong camelish melodies, it just comes to an end too soon, being only three and a half minutes long.

With a few more songs of that standard the album could be a great one, but rest of the tracks seem to lack some character these two have. Vesikävelijät valtaavat altaat and Häiritsevä kaktus are fine compositions, the latter especially having some very good moments, but both drag on a bit too long, while the opening track Alue, containing some English lyrics despite its Finnish title, feels a bit out of place with it's quirky grooves and to my ears somehow unpleasant vocal delivery. The free form tracks resemble some of the Absoluuttinen Nollapiste's improvisation stuff found on their single b-sides.

A good and promising start from this young band, but I believe they're up to bigger things in the future. After seeing a couple of great gigs I'm pretty sure they are.

Opening track Alue is a bit of an anomaly being somewhat different in style to the rest of the album. It's also the only track to feature vocals by guest Noora Tommila who has an excellent voice. It's a catchy song with a more commercial style than the rest of the album though the underlying vibe of the song still has a jazzy feel.

Sydämesi Suljettu Yrttitarha starting with a jazz feel develops into something more along the lines of Caravan and at almost 12 minutes there's plenty of opportunity to develop these musical stylings whilst not losing sight of a strong melody.

Noursut starts with an ambient synth which fades to the background giving way to jazzy electric piano, guitar and subtle ride cymbal dominated drumming before building into something more powerful with a harsh synth sound coming well to the fore but it's all over in a few minutes. I enjoyed the vibe of this track and it's a shame they didn't develop it further into something longer which it would have easily leant itself to. They do with Vesikävelijät Saltaavat Altaat however on this atmospheric instrumental which keeps up the high standard so far.

As I already mentioned they remind me of Camel at times, none more so than on Poliisien Kesäkoti though lacking Andy Latimer's searing guitar. Häiritsevä Kaktus is one of the longer tracks, once again a strong jazz feel is present with a haunting spacey vibe courtesy of the electric piano.

They get more experimental on Peikkotanssi which strange as it sounds starts off in a more ambient vein almost developing into a ramshackle reggae style..I stress almost. Unfortunately it doesn't really work and ends up being the least satisfying track on the album. Pikkalinnun kuolema, the final track is also an ambient piece though short at only 2 minutes and whilst marginally more interesting than Peikkotanssi is not a great way to end this excellent album.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the album and with reference to the strength of opening track Alue it would have been nice to have vocals featuring on a couple more tracks. A look at their website reveals that a full-time vocalist has now been recruited and listening to a few new songs on their myspace page suggests that Pop influences are more to the fore on their next release though hopefully not losing the Jazz and Prog along the way.