Holograf - Undeva Departe

Holograf - Undeva Departe

Today I'll be writing about a band that I'm fairly certain most of the people reading will not have heard of, but really should. The band in question is one of Romania's most popular and long lasting rock bands, Holograf.

Undeva Departe is sort of a hard album to talk about objectively, as it is first and foremost a best of album, with the traditional one bonus song. The thing is, most of the songs have been re-recorded or remastered (unfortunately, my grasp of Romanian is limited only to its similarities with Latin, Spanish, or French so I can't say which of those) More confusing still, some of the tracks are from previous best of compilation Banii Vorbesc. As a result of this, I'm going to try to just regard Undeva Departe as a separate entity entirely.

Holograf have been around since 1978, and were relatively prolific in that time. When this album was released in 1999, they had 6 LPs, 1 EP and a previous best of to draw from. The selections for this album leaned fairly heavily upon the mid '80s output from the band, which I frankly think was their best period stylistically, so the updated recording quality made for a good choice.

The reason why I prefer the period from which most of these songs were drawn from is because in their early days Holograf were a hard rock band, drawing somewhat on the style of the 1980s but not to excess. (As a dramatic comparison, listen to their most recent release, 2006's Taina which is closer to elevator pop than anything the band recorded prior to this release)

Because of the emphasis on the early middle period of the band's output, there is a decent amount of heavier songs, but the albums isn't all rockers. The band wasn't as well known for their slower, more ballad like tracks at this point, but the quieter songs contrast nicely with the heavier ones.

This was the first album that I heard from Holograf, and to date the only one that I've been able to find in hard copy, and I think it's an excellent introduction to the band and the sound that they carried forward up to this point. I'm not a huge fan of the band's two most recent LPs, but for those who like a sort of hard rock carried forward from the 1980s Holograf are an excellent listen.

8/10

Matthew Good Band - Last of the Ghetto Astronauts

After an unforgivably long delay, I’m back with some new reviews. I’m very sorry for the length of time this has taken, especially since I had promised new material back in early January, but this semester at school has proven to be a little more time consuming than I’d originally anticipated. That’s what I get for doing a History degree. However, that’s irrelevant to the topic at hand, which is the next review.

Matthew Good Band – Last of the Ghetto Astronauts
I’ve chosen to review today one of my all time favourite albums, and one which has been a constant fixture in my CD Player, then computer, now iPod for years. Naturally with an introductory sentence like that, it’s going to be a positive review, but hopefully it won’t prove to be too boring.
First, a little background. I bought this album almost by accident about 6 years ago. I had heard the singles from the MGB’s big album Beautiful Midnight a couple years earlier, as had almost any Canadian who listened to rock radio at the time, and I had gone out and picked the album up. At the time, it didn’t really click for me, and I kind of forgot about it aside from those aforementioned singles. When the band released their next (and last) album, The Audio of Being, I heard one of the new singles from that and I returned to Beautiful Midnight. This time, I was blown away, and I immediately set out to buy more from the band. As I was about to go on a 3 week road trip at the time, I thought I’d get the album before the one I had and the one after it. Imagine my surprise when I get to the store and see that the band’s first album is on sale for something like half price, and I naturally picked it up as well. It took me a while to get to this one, since I picked it up as an afterthought, but the first time I heard the track “Symbolistic White Walls” I was hooked.
Those familiar only with the band’s later work will find themselves with a drastically different album in LotGA, as it offers little of the melancholy ballads and harder rockers the MGB became famous for. Really, this early incarnation of the “band” was just Matthew Good with some backup players, and the sound is that of a young songwriter still finding his way. There is a lot of different influences to the album, from an early (this album was released in 1995) form of a sort of indie rock sound on opener “Alabama Motel Room,” to a distinct bluesy feel on follow up “Symbolistic White Walls.” There’s folk influences throughout, as that’s how Good started his career, and there’s an early foreshadowing of his later epic length tracks that have become common on his solo albums, in penultimate track “The War is Over.”
I suppose I should clarify something in that last paragraph, obviously the album itself was an independent record, recorded and released by Good [side note: LotGA went on to become the most successful independent record ever released in Canada] so when I say indie rock I of course mean the genre.
Of course since this was the most recent in a series of fairly low-fi recordings released by Good and the band, there is very little studio chicaneries. The guitars don’t sound very full, the bass is sometimes a little less noticeable, and the vocals are a little fuzzy at times, but to me this is all a part of the album’s charm. I should also point out that at times the lyrics are extremely good, and it contains what I think is my favourite Good line yet penned, from the fourth track on the album, “Native Son,” which goes: ”Can you spare me a quarter/Though I have no one to call/I just thought it might save my ass one day/If the sky or the free world were to fall”
Despite greatly enjoying the work of the later Matthew Good Band, I never really considered myself a true fan until I heard this album. Despite its flaws and obvious problems with recording quality, it is a truly great album that showcases many of the traits that would later make Matthew Good a major figure in the Canadian rock scene. Admittedly I have some bias when listening to this record, as I have so many great memories attached to the music now, but there are few flaws that I can really find in it. If a sort of folksy, bluesy based rock sound appeals to you, do yourself a favour and pick the album up. I sincerely doubt you’ll be disappointed.
8.5/10

Viikate + Marraskuun lauluja I

Alright, so I'm going to try a slightly more ambitious review today. I'm writing up the first part of Viikate's recent album Marraskuun lauluja, but where the catch comes in is that it was released in two parts. Today I'm going to write up a brief introduction to the band, followed by the first half of the review. If I get a chance before work tomorrow night I will write up the second part, otherwise I will be introducing my new "Best of Deutschemusik.net" reviews, whereing I take a review from http://www.deutschemusik.net/ (I am one of the main reviewers for that site, focusing exclusively on German music). I'll try not to use that more than once or twice a week, but it'll depend on how busy I am between school and work.

For those who are familiar with the Finnish music scene, Viikate will undoubtedly be one of the first names they came across. Viikate are among a fairly small group of major Finnish rock bands. They are label mates with the band Kotiteollisuus (see my review of 7) and often tour with them, though they aren't particularly similar in sound. Other bands that are big within Finland include Turmion kätilöt, Ruoska, and the singer Timo Rautiainen.
Viikate are somewhat typical of modern heavy Finnish music, with a fairly heavy emphasis on melody. They are often classified as a metal band, although (aside from a few exceptions) I would strongly disagree with this assessent. They are another one of those bands that are impossible to neatly classify into a genre, as they incorporate elements of pop music, instrumental ballads, Finnish folk music, surf music, American rockabilly, schlager, etc.
I mentioned that they are influenced by pop music, but I should point out that possibly their single greatest influence would be the Finnish pop music from the '50s, and possibly the singer Reino Helismaa above anyone else. They do have a few individual trademarks, however, such as te aforementioned emphasis on melody, they also have an often rather melancholy tone; lots of interwoven picked guitar work; and extremely clever and beautiful lyrics. Unfortunately, I don't speak Finnish myself, but even the translations that I have read have been pretty amazing.
So there's a bit of background on the band, let's get on to the reviews themselves.

Marraskuun lauluja I (November chants I)
Marraskuun lauluja is not a debut album, it's not an early album, and it's not the work of a band still finding their voice. Viikate have been around for a little over a decade now, and it's been 9 years since they released their debut EP. Their sound has shifted somewhat over the years, but for the most part it had been a gradual, almost unnoticeable shift in sound. Their previous album, Unholan urut, had been generally regarded as their best work to date, and I guess the band must have asked themselves what they wanted to do in the future. This was only the second album with the two new members (second guitarist Arvo and bassist Ervo had only been a part of the touring band prior to this) and I'm sure that they had an influence now in the way that the new music would be recorded. I had only recently discovered Viikate when this album was released, and at the time I was a little nervous as to where the band would go after such a great work.
It was obvious from the first listen that Viikate had changed their sound more noticeably than between any other two albums. Unholan urut had spent a lot more time on slower paced, lower toned songs, and I is at first listen a remarkably fast paced album compared to their earlier work. In truth, I can't say that I was too impressed the first time I heard the album. Or the second, or the third. I don't quite know why it took so long to grow on me, maybe I just wasn't familiar enough with the whole of Viikate's catalogue and struggled with the change, I don't really know, but I was smart enough to persevere and keep listening to it (I had a similar, except even more pronounced, experience with Turmion kätilöt, but that's another review) It really came to me back in February when I was out of town for a couple days in Toronto, and I had a lot of time to listen to music without the chance to change what I had on my MP3 player. As a result, I spent most of three days listening to I and somehow it just suddenly worked for me. I hate to use the cliched expression, but it was like a light turning on in my head. Ever since then, I've had this feeling grow on me, and I would say now this is probably my favourite Viikate album.
I think I owe a little more information on this "dramatic change" between albums, because I suspect I'm giving off the wrong impression. They didn't really change their sound as much as I thought, I just wasn't very familiar with Viikate's earlier catalogue yet. I would frankly call their sound on I more of a consolidation of their strengths than any big change, because it's essentially a fusion of their early, heavier sound mixed with the slower and more melodic work of later albums, and as a result it's a lot more..well, fun than some of their other works in later albums.
I honestly doubt that any amount of ramblings could really do this album justice, so I'll stop here, with just a few last words (before part II) Marraskuun lauluja I is a geat consolidation of the band's musical strenghts, showcasing especially the talents of bandleader/lead guitarist/vocalist Kaale Virtaanen. His voice is perfectly suited to the music, his talent for playing is noticeable, and his lyrics are beautiful. I is the perfect introduction to the band, and is highly recommended to any interested parties.
8.5/10

As before, www.recordshopx.com/johanna is also highly recommended for hard copies of Finnish music.


Hope you've enjoyed this look at Viikate, tune in tomorrow for either part II or the first "Best of Deutschemusik.net"