LAMBERTLAND

After TP's second album (not the one with Pekka Streng), it became clear that their vocalist Frank Robson would not continue as the leading vocalist. This eventually lead to the fact, that Eero Raittinen joined the band. While I still don't quite understand why - his voice is considerably more suitable for a blues outfit - it did help this album to become a totally unique item. His voice is generally seen as the worst part of this album, but nowadays it's pretty much impossible for me to imagine anyone else singing here. As for the music, well, it's mostly brilliant. Jukka Tolonen was at the top of his game in 1971-1973, his inspired guitar playing is nothing short of spectacular. It's futile and pointless trying to compare Tasavallan Presidentti to anyone, but it seems I'm doing it anyway. Imagine Soft Machine on stage with the guys from Colosseum joining in, and add a rough, bluesy vocalist singing with a bizarre accent to the mix, and you'll have a slight idea of what this sounds like. Pekka Pöyry on flute & sax gives his own special touch to the album - his flute playing is often soft and gentle, but the man is no slouch with the saxophone either. Don't get me wrong though, Lambertland is ultimately a pretty raw and wild album - you won't find anything similar to the "slicker" and slightly over-produced approach of Return To Forever and Weather Report. All in all, when it comes to "primitive" jazz-rock, it rarely gets any better than this. Lambertland is not a perfect album by any means, but it's more than worthy of the price tag. 4,5 stars

Just a quick note to say that TP's other albums are very dramatically different to this effort - not as progressive, not as good.