It’s just so enjoyable to see how bizarre these trios come in the end. Like this one of October: Paavoharju and Ulver go quite well together but then there is this German bastard ripping everything apart in the middle. And that’s how it must go: you always go through different phases, feelings and states of mind, but in the end everything is in their right place – and usually there is always a song or two to give a decent soundtrack to every moment. Therefore I’m quite satisfied with my music taste and my iPod, which gets me through my daily bus trips (40 minutes) to my workplace and back. It’s not maybe the right thing to strengthen especially negative feelings by listening music that fits that feeling before going to work but whatta hell – if there is a chance to fly in the air or dwell in the abyss, I’m ready for it. You can find me from the both ends of the line.
Ulver: Messe I.X-VI.X (Jester 2013)
These wolves seem to change their fur with every release. If the latest offering before this, The Childhood’s End was a dark hippy retrospective to the sixties, this time Ulver team up with Tromso chamber orchestra. Music is flowing from two different sides – electronic and classical – and they create a well-working dialogue where neither overshadows other. Vice versa, these sides hum and wave, like a sea or a mass (hence the title of the album?), with silence and a voice. Messe I.X-VI.X is mostly instrumental, which just adds the effect of this weird atmosphere, and there is also enough variation to keep things interesting. While a few tracks sound like modern classical music, you can also find nods to Tangerine Dream’s hypnotic monotony or Ulver’s own electronic pulses. Yes, this album is still an Ulver album despite all these new spices and solutions. Very good, atmospheric music for this autumn.
Shri Schneider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxwiotbnJUU
Beyond: Fatal Power of Flesh (Iron Bonehead 2013)
This German gruesome group flashed their potential on their demo and seven-inch earlier so it was only logical to create a full-length assault next. Beyond’s brutal, chaotic but still quite dynamic death metal worked very well in these smaller doses, so it was interesting to see how they managed to run through a longer amok. Well, don’t worry: although the album loses its focus now and then, the band combines quite well the traditional elements of death metal to the more twisted and darker sides of death. For example you can get messy bludgeon which crushes you totally with its power but then the band can also throw a very simple mid-tempo section after that. It’s like floating on a stormy sea: sometimes you’re helpless and almost drowning but then you find a piece of rope which gives a second to take breath – and then another leviathan strangles you with its tentacles. 49 minutes of this kind of struggle is a lot, but still Fatal Power of Flesh keeps its charm quite well and possesses you to come back to it time after time.
Appearance from Beyond: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcURYmVfMrg
Paavoharju: Joko sinä tulet tänne alas tai minä nousen sinne (Svart 2013)
Paavoharju was known as a lo-fi electro folk group, which had interest in lowlife lifestyle, death, God, Devil and so on. Especially their debut Yhä hämärää (2005) was a canvas of sounds, scratches, stitches, ether and so on. Now they are here again, but new things are crawling from the shadows of dirty shelters. Drum machines. Lazy beats. Hiphop. Triphop. Rap. Paavoharju has taken a daring step and created a monster that includes the organic and obscure main character of the band but also rhythmic touches, especially in the form of a performance of rapper Paperi T. Finnish verses full of biblical references, grotesque details and pure blunt depression give the whole thing a very interesting atmosphere which might sound a bit too “out there” at first but at least in my case the whole thing started to work better and better with time. And those lyrics… I think that the line “Lempi-ihmiset ovat alastomia tai kuolleita” / “(my) favourite people are either naked or dead” includes more evilness than countless preaches of black metal. Add a few really tender moments, a couple of performances from a long-time collaborator Joose Keskitalo and a hint of apocalypse, and you are there. Under everything.
Patsaatkin kuolevat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pzPiwNys08
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