Tuvalu & Angelica Kult, Helsinki 27th Aug 2010

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   Helsinki was celebrating annual The Night of Arts festival, and I decided to go check out Tuvalu’s concert to club Semifinal. This place is a smaller side club of Tavastia, and there was pleasantly large audience attending to the show. Group Angelica Kult started the evening with energetic indie rock, emphasizing the ass kicking approach with pleasant glam rock flavours and good compositions. The songs contained musically interesting progressions and arrangements in addition to more straightforward approach, and the stuff worked very well, especially as the collective self-confidence of the band boosted high. The audience was quite young as were the performers, who had girls doing singing, bass and keyboard playing, and guys smashing guitar and drums.
During the Angelica Kult set also the older space heads started to gather in, preparing for the close altitude orbit with Tuvalu. Their set started with the last track of the latest album, “Pakenevan veden voima”, opening with a hypnotic cosmic tunnel leading to various compositional elements, which build the vividly rich and yet solid sound of this group. This song choice also proves, that tensions used for the record ending can be reversed for beginning dynamics successfully. The main focus in song list was on the latest album “Tuvalu”, enriched with some more experimental tracks from their earlier albums, consolidating thematically logical flow of their music. Most memorable moments in the pleasant song repertoire were an older cut “Viimeiset hetket ovat käsillä”, and sensitive roller coaster rides of ”Pimeys on ystävä”, “Parahin Nikola” and ”Fantasmagoria”. The basic rock instrumental trio was enlarged with synth pedals operated by bass player, and the keyboards of Ms. Antinranta. I really liked the organ pedals, as they painted some very solemn pillars of sound to this cathedral of voices. In a smaller club it was easier to observe the professionalism and charm of the performers, uniting precise playing, deep emotional devotion and total participation, also not forgetting the humoristic approach. The visual experience was boosted with colour lights, graphic designed background carpet and spontaneous fog effects which at one phase consumed the performers totally. The glamour aspect was enhanced by group’s neat stage costumes, which were designed by Design Ateljee Illusion House. With aggressive emotional outbursts of the instrumentalists and glamour dramatics of the singer, I would claim all this stuff worked out really well. The volume was quite loud, which was pleasant from the rock assault perspective. Lyrics weren’t so clear to hear well, but this gave impression how this might sound if not understanding Finnish. Some other comparison to this issue could be some Polish neo prog records, which I have listened and liked really much, though the lyrics escaped me totally. I believe there is enough emotions and musical information in this music, not necessarily needing the lyrics for enjoyment, though this fine and thoughtful lyricism does bring extra value to the concept. 

The enthusiasm in both audience and band was evident. There was also album sales opportunity, which should be available internationally also from some web shops. I appreciated also the judgement in concert evening’s band selection, as there was a link within the boundaries of style elements associated with these groups. In various levels of success I think the fans of other bands may check the other group too, and a chance of gaining perspective to new concepts and attitudes has been evoked. Optimising this potential in both clubs and festivals is constructive attitude, though I also appreciate clubs with more defined genre focus used in group selections. I rejoiced the richness of events representing several approaches, kindly competing perfection and internal fulfilment, and the blessings of youthful energies, which were shared to the audiences trough this art of rock. Hopefully there will be more concerts and records released from these artists later, a live DVD or record would be lovely surprise also.

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Eetu Pellonpaa Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: June 17 2005 Location: Finland Status: Offline Points: 4828	Topic: Tuvalu & Angelica Kult, Helsinki 27th Aug 2010 Posted: September 19 2010 at 13:08
	Helsinki was celebrating annual The Night of Arts festival, and I decided to go check out Tuvalu’s concert to club Semifinal. This place is a smaller side club of Tavastia, and there was pleasantly large audience attending to the show. Group Angelica Kult started the evening with energetic indie rock, emphasizing the ass kicking approach with pleasant glam rock flavours and good compositions. The songs contained musically interesting progressions and arrangements in addition to more straightforward approach, and the stuff worked very well, especially as the collective self-confidence of the band boosted high. The audience was quite young as were the performers, who had girls doing singing, bass and keyboard playing, and guys smashing guitar and drums. During the Angelica Kult set also the older space heads started to gather in, preparing for the close altitude orbit with Tuvalu. Their set started with the last track of the latest album, “Pakenevan veden voima”, opening with a hypnotic cosmic tunnel leading to various compositional elements, which build the vividly rich and yet solid sound of this group. This song choice also proves, that tensions used for the record ending can be reversed for beginning dynamics successfully. The main focus in song list was on the latest album “Tuvalu”, enriched with some more experimental tracks from their earlier albums, consolidating thematically logical flow of their music. Most memorable moments in the pleasant song repertoire were an older cut “Viimeiset hetket ovat käsillä”, and sensitive roller coaster rides of ”Pimeys on ystävä”, “Parahin Nikola” and ”Fantasmagoria”. The basic rock instrumental trio was enlarged with synth pedals operated by bass player, and the keyboards of Ms. Antinranta. I really liked the organ pedals, as they painted some very solemn pillars of sound to this cathedral of voices. In a smaller club it was easier to observe the professionalism and charm of the performers, uniting precise playing, deep emotional devotion and total participation, also not forgetting the humoristic approach. The visual experience was boosted with colour lights, graphic designed background carpet and spontaneous fog effects which at one phase consumed the performers totally. The glamour aspect was enhanced by group’s neat stage costumes, which were designed by Design Ateljee Illusion House. With aggressive emotional outbursts of the instrumentalists and glamour dramatics of the singer, I would claim all this stuff worked out really well. The volume was quite loud, which was pleasant from the rock assault perspective. Lyrics weren’t so clear to hear well, but this gave impression how this might sound if not understanding Finnish. Some other comparison to this issue could be some Polish neo prog records, which I have listened and liked really much, though the lyrics escaped me totally. I believe there is enough emotions and musical information in this music, not necessarily needing the lyrics for enjoyment, though this fine and thoughtful lyricism does bring extra value to the concept. The enthusiasm in both audience and band was evident. There was also album sales opportunity, which should be available internationally also from some web shops. I appreciated also the judgement in concert evening’s band selection, as there was a link within the boundaries of style elements associated with these groups. In various levels of success I think the fans of other bands may check the other group too, and a chance of gaining perspective to new concepts and attitudes has been evoked. Optimising this potential in both clubs and festivals is constructive attitude, though I also appreciate clubs with more defined genre focus used in group selections. I rejoiced the richness of events representing several approaches, kindly competing perfection and internal fulfilment, and the blessings of youthful energies, which were shared to the audiences trough this art of rock. Hopefully there will be more concerts and records released from these artists later, a live DVD or record would be lovely surprise also.

jayem Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: June 21 2006 Location: Switzerland Status: Offline Points: 995	Posted: December 26 2010 at 16:39
	This is one of the rare heavy rock bands that doesn't lean on distorsion to pin the powerful thing down. Instead it has invested on colours, variety of timbres, use of tight harmonies...This music also reminds me of some (finnish?) folklike music. Watching them on videos may add to the wilderness of the project, a thing which feels good to me. Does anyone know why they always use the same not-so-organic synth phasing sound in every song...That must be a joke... Well ? Since the lyrics are online the translate tools will do.