KAUHUKAKARA

From the prog genre one might mention bands such as MANEIGE, FLAIRCK and MALICORNE that have soundwise some faint similarities. One track ends with a noisy laughter - an association to Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Welcome to the Pleasure Dome' finale which otherwise is naturally as far from this music as it can be! The 8th track (= Butterfly in Autumn Frost) is the calmest one, sorrowful as Eetu puts it. I got some associations towards serene, modern chamber jazz of the ECM label.

Perhaps the light naivety (with vocalise in unisono) is too present throughout the album. A nice acquaintance anyway, and I'll hopefully manage to listen to their second album soon. 3½ stars.

The record opens with a "Fanfare for The Animals", driven by piano and saxophone. Klezmer-sounding melodies and jazzy rhythm variations pour playfully like spring's streams amidst a more pompous theme. Melancholic cello notes unite with piano arpeggios in classical manner, and presence of synthesizers reveal the characteristics of modern fusion. The coda has interesting fastening pace, and soon the cavalcade of different animals is brought on display. "Casinoseal" lounges with more relaxed and theme lead by wordless melodic vocals. Bass forms the rhythm with the vintage synthesizers and broad spectrum of percussions participating to the beat creation. Some saxophone lines here sounded slightly similar to early Frank Zappa recordings for my ears. The flow of instruments and themes entering and exiting the stage on these songs strengthen the association of animal parade, in addition of basic song continuum. From financial animals the moods alter towards more loving directions with the "Waltz of The Cowpond", an euphoric love song describing the wedding progression of adorable ruminants. Finnish lyrics sung by Ms. Egecioglu and supported by a male choir is really sweet. As I'm a devoted fan of "opera and other similar stoner music", I appreciated highly the trained classical vocal moments in the climax sequence.

"The Spinning Gazelle" whirls in Pacific-sounding glockenspiel party, where the complex rhythmic melodic passages ensure the enjoyment. As contrast to this party whirlwind, when there's "A Sloth in The City", evidently the vocals are very slow and weary, yawning upon the rhythm counting synths. On this song I also noted how adorable it is to hear originally Swedish speaking woman to sing in Finnish. The accent is somehow very special and very cute in my opinion. This sympathetic and loving feeling is consolidated with more vintage synthesizers and subtle saxophone lines. As the city adventures are proclaimed to be enough, cello, Islamic voices and wind instruments rhythmed by the bass take us to "Dromedary's Hurdy-Gurdy Cruising" through plains of Near East. Vocals and piano subtly replace the instruments from the oriental opening instruments, and the scenery changes to lighter impressions driven by piano. When the camel is going with its top speed, even the huge peninsula of Arabia is quickly left behind, and the song ends to tender tingling of bells.

Back in Europe, "The Tragedy of Badger Hill" is mourned as a minor-key post-romantic piece for piano, cello and saxophone. This is really beautiful classical European music, concluding mournfully to the church bells. Meanwhile in the absolute south, Arctic wings winds blow in a sound ambience with abstract noises and stalking piano chords, as the "March of The Penguins" is about to begin. The piano finds a minor key pair upon which the bass descends, concluding to a discovery of more hopeful synthesizer theme. Both cello and piano join to these melodic impressions, and are later accompanied by vocals and synths, forming a warm-hearted bolero, which eventually fades to the hollow vastness of myriad sounds from where it emerged. Then leaving Antarctica, a piano staccato announces the start of "Beaver's Mating Dance". Acoustic bass joins the logger on the heat by jumping on the peculiar swinging rhythm, creating playground for duet of human voice and saxophone, all this supported by cute keyboard yells. I was amazed by the details spotted from the fast tempo, and admired the ability to maintain still similarly pleasant and cozy fussing of this song. Later there is a solo for keyboards over rhythmic details of handclaps and even faster vocals and effects. The myriad and joyful passages for funny wood eaters return eventually to its beginning theme. The final "Squirrel's Life" has pleasant cross-rhythmic beat done with hand claps, neat bass melody soon joined by clarinet, singing and keyboards, drawing together all major tonal elements of the record. At the end there are some well-earned applauses and cattle's bellowing.

Though the lyrics are sung in Finnish, I would dare to recommend this music for global listeners, as the record's focus is directed to very sophisticated musical information, and there lyrics can be enjoyed also as a melodic instrument, missing their playful meanings should not hinder the listening enjoyment. There is a great variation on the use of instruments, and the compositions have very different principles. Yet these vivid variations create a solid and recognizable sound to the album. This sound has richened and matured to even lovelier directions from their fabulous debut record, and I liked the observation that all band members have composed songs on the album, strengthening the feeling of true friendly collaboration's end result. The musical education is evident through quality of arrangements, ideas and solutions, and still the end result is not difficult sounding elitist avant-garde music, but very emotional, accessible and human. Thus my grandest recommendations of this album from this very promisingly growing brat for You.

The album is circled around a short "Kauhukakara theme", giving a fun association of children's television program with a start and ending music. This impression is strengthened by tracks like "Intermission", and the logical flow of songs and moods streaming from toboggan slide sessions to the evening's snowdrift blankets, towards more scary horror movie themes and concluding to autumn's freezes and cheerful pikes trying to avoid the baits during fall's fishing season. The title of the album could be translated as "Battle Against Evil Clocks", and lyrics of this second song open this statement as an objection towards scheduled hurries of our industrial "welfare" culture. This song has also some rap lines concerning this subject, mingling with dense layer of percussions, and uniting modern pop culture flavors to the vivid musical palette of this fabulous group. Excluding the more frightful "Keskiajan kauhuelokuva" (Medieval Horror Movie) and sorrowful "Perhonen syyspakkasessa" (Butterfly in Autumn's Frost) the overall feeling of this album is very tender and playful. Therefore I wonder how young children would like this music; Maybe omitting by CD player programming these mentioned two tracks this album could work as nice music for playing or drawing with kids. For grownups there are interesting arrangements and intelligent music found, allowing relief from the troubling treadmills of general adulthood life.

Though playfulness and naivism are characteristics for this music, it is however evident that the musicians are very talented and have academic musical education. Most of the songs consist only from few composed themes, which often possess quite complex rhythms, long melodic lines and peculiar arrangements. The compositions often repeat such themes with slight variations, and the music sounds accessible when the ears are open to the basic sound pulsed by the heart of this lovely "Enfant Terrible". As there are no drums, the rhythm is mostly driven by melodic instruments, excluding some moments bombarded with percussions, handclaps and vintage synthesizer beats. Acoustic-oriented quartet offers the musicians a possibility to stretch out towards larger sonic territories with their instruments, talent and imagination. The musical precision is accompanied with total relaxation for playing (in all meanings of the word), and the band's concept is underlined with beautiful album artwork and costumes, which are also part of the live performances. I was privileged to see them perform at a lovely hippie park festival here in Finland, and got very happy of that occasion and gained awareness of this cheerful music.