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Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Tasavallan Presidentti — Tasavallan Presidentti
(Love Records LRCD 7, 1969/2003, CD)

Tasavallan Presidentti — Lambertland
(Love Records LRCD 60, 1972/2010, CD)

Tasavallan Presidentti — Milky Way Moses
(Love Records LRCD 102, 1974/2010, CD)

by Roel Steverink, Published 2005-03-01

Tasavallan Presidentti Cover artLambertland Cover artMilky Way Moses Cover art

The first eponymous album Finnish band Tasavallan Presidentti recorded was a cross between folk, blues, and jazz-rock with pop influences. A really diverse album with an immaculate rendition of the “Ancient Mariner” from Coleridge. They excel in fast, raw guitar or sax improvised pieces as well as almost dreamlike excursions a la Procol Harum which feel like a stroll through the countryside thanks too the flute.

On Lambertland the band plays pure complex jazz-rock with lesser folk, full of improvisations on peeping sax and wah-wah guitar. Gone is the blues side. “Dance,” which has the most emotional wah-wah riffs I have ever heard, deserves special mention.

Milky Way Moses, their last, is their improvisational tour de force with duelling guitar and Turkish sounding sax (title track) and freaky electric piano and organ (“Caught from the Air”) to name just two highlights. The jazz-rock sometimes is more sophisticated, bearing off to Canterbury. Jukka Tolonen is the nucleus of talent here, besides the incredible sax hooks from Pekka Pöyry that is, his guitar playing is sometimes stunning, only surpassed, I think by his chops and melodies on his solo albums. These albums all come recommended.

Filed under: Reissues, Issue 31, 2003 releases, 1969 recordings, 2010 releases, 1972 recordings, 1974 recordings

Related artist(s): Tasavallan Presidentti, Jukka Tolonen

 

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