ALL IS TWO

- First review for this band - HUMINOITA was formed in the Northern Finnish town Oulu. Up till now (seeing the album info here) I thought this band was among those who prefer total anonymity, because neither of their albums have any line-up information. So, hopefully I'm not breaking a secret by saying where the name of guitar/flute/synth player is familiar from: I interviewed a couple of record company leaders for my upcoming book on Finnish prog, and Ville Mäkäräinen from the new record company Luova Records kindly shared his valuable thoughts. All the more respectable to find out he operates in the Finnish prog scene on both sides, so to speak.

This album is No. 1 in luova Records' very prog-oriented catalogue. Huminoita's eponymous debut (2010) was a self-financed release. I felt the debut to be slightly uncoherent and uneven in its spacey psychedelia seasoned with post-rock and metal. One reviewer called the group a missing link between ASH RA TEMPEL and SIGUR RÓS, which is well said. All Is Two is somewhat less bumpy ride, but very powerful 39-minute, 6-track album nevertheless. Otherwise totally instrumental - more so than the debut - but featuring wordless vocals here and there.

'The Sheriff' gradually increases the intensity. The slow beginning with wailing vocals perhaps nods towards the spaghetti western music of Ennio Morricone. After the climax with a guitar solo the music is still full of Pink Floyd -reminding passion, with some saxophone. The sounds on 'Hymn 23' make me think of another Finnish space-rock group MOONWAGON. By the time of the third track 'Goliath' it's evident that the rough-surfaced and edgy sound is the kind of thing one hears in post-rock. Surely Huminoita doesn't build the music with any ready-made genre boxes in mind; the blend of psychedelic space rock and post-rock is natural and makes this band worth checking out for friends of either sub-genre. The album as a whole may feel slightly depressed, some lighter shades of colour would make it even more impressive, but there's a good dose of dynamics and emotion. I bet seeing this band live would be a powerful event.