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Höyry-kone - Hyönteisiä Voi Rakastaa

Artist:	Höyry-kone
Title:	Hyönteisiä Voi Rakastaa
Label:	Ad Perpetuam Memoriam APM9510AT
Length(s):	46 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1996
Month of review:	05/1997

Line up

Jukka Hannukainen - vocals on raskaana and hyonteiset, synths, programming
Teemu Hänninen - drums
Tuomas Hänninen - guitars
Jussi Kärkäinen - guitars, pump organ
Nina Lehos - oboe
Topi Lehtipuu - vocals, violin
Marko Manninen - cello
Jarno Sarkula - bass, pump organ

Tracks

1)	Orn	3.58
2)	Raskaana	3.10
3)	Hämärän Joutomaa	7.07
4)	Pannuhuoneesta	2.08
5)	Luottamus	4.30
6)	Kaivoonkatsoja	4.00
7)	Kosto	5.57
8)	Hätä	3.42
9)	Myrskynmusiikkia	6.46
10)	Hyönteiset	3.13

Summary

When I got into contact with this band I had already heard of the name, but in the correspondence I got the impression that his CD was only recently out. It turned out however that it was already released early last year. The title of the album translates to "it is possible to love insects", although for Fins, this can be very hard during the mosquito infested summer. What I thought was a spider in the booklet turned out to be an insect with its wings clipped. The dash in the name of the band is because of the fact that it should sound older (to people who know Finnish).

The music

To begin with Orn (Swedish for owl someone said to me, but a band member says it means eagle. Ah well) is rather a strange track with weird opera like vocals, but I do like it; the vocals on Raskaana are different and less good. The vocalist Topi has a very expressive voice, a bit like Demetrio Statos of Area, although the latter went a little over the top in his singing IMO. Especially the guitarwork on some of the tracks, but also the heavy music (Hamaran Joutomaa, Ha"ta") remind me of Fripp and KC. Pannuhuoneesta is a chaotic track that sounds industrial to me with sound samples and rather prominent percussion. Nice tension building there, but progressive music lovers will not easily like this I'm afraid.

With Luottamus we get into easier waters (jazzy restaurant music) with soft oboe and dito vocals. There's this weird break in the middle, but afterwards the jazzy guitar picks up where they left of before the break.

The next one up Kaivoonkatsoja is one I particularly like with good melodies, good tension building and nice violin. There's a rather classical sounding interlude here, but afterwards a mean guitar (well, two) takes over.

Kosto starts out softly, but becomes avant garde later on, and somewhat dissonant also. Avant-garde stuff.

Myrskynmusiikkia is opens heavy and has an middle eastern feel to it. The vocal part is almost a-capella, but then the song becomes more involved with some great instrumental work and even greater vocals. A great track.

The last track, refers a little to Spanish music (Flamenco?) and is sung with dark, low vocals of Jukka Hannukainen. Intense music.

While waiting for the ghost track, chaos comes out of my loudspeaker and as it turns out, this is the ghost track, because the last track itself contains only silence.

A compliment goes to the styleful artwork.

With thanks to my Finnish co-promotor Tero Harju for explaining the CD titles to me (although you can also find them on the web).

Conclusion

Transcending progressive boundaries is what counts it seems, or just playing the music that you like is maybe foremost in their minds. Strange titles, strange music, but all in all very appealing. The music can be chaotic, industrial, melodic and refers mostly to King Crimson but also to the avant garde of some of the Cuneiform releases, although enough new The band defies categorization and is able to deliver the goods as is made explicit by great tracks like Orn, Kaivoonkatsoja, Kosto I do wish, the vocalist would use this excellent vocals more, but I can recommend this album heartily ot anyone with a liking for any of the names I have just mentioned.