UNIRYTMEJÄ

Damn - I really wanted to just love this Canterbury-ish album from Finland.

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.