-C-

My third and final experience with the band Nurkostam is also the most disappointing. It is clear that these mellow Finns have always been trying to change up their sound, but what this has resulted in is a string of releases that often hint at great things, but come out sounding incoherent and- as a friend and fellow reviewer put it- 'muddled'. Things are no different with their third release and second EP '-C-'. 'XIII' impressed me with its vintage sounds and even 'III Of Dreamers' was something of a melancholic trip into the dream world, but '-C-' seems to lack most of the things I found myself really liking about those ones.

Chief among my concerns is the fact that Nurkostam makes some much more optimistic music here. Of course, musicians should not necessarily be admonished for being happy, but I did feel that Nurkostam's sombre feeling of sadness in their music was one of the things I could enjoy most about it. Here, the music is still generally mellow and hodge- podge, but there lacks the emotional adhesive to tie it all together. The album starts out with a fired-up bass groove, although like other Nurkostam albums, they seem to have a while at hinting at one sound, before going off in the opposite direction. Most of the 28 minutes on '- C-' is devoted to soft vocals and keyboards; sometimes acoustic guitars even pop in. One thing that I can say to '-C-'s credit is that the vocals here are significantly better than they were before; although the music is not nearly as powerful as even 'III Of Dreamers', I will say that the band is improving their act in some areas.

While the actual music here is fairly mediocre, it is not painful to listen to, just perhaps scattered and aimless. The album takes a beating when it comes to flow however. Like 'III Of Dreamers', it never feels like the album is going anywhere, and as a result, the album ends rather suddenly; on first listen, I thought the disc was malfunctioning when it ended without warning. The Sigur Ros-like vocals and acoustic guitars are the best thing about the music here, although the songwriting feels incredibly scattered and not particularly inviting. The ambient sections of garbled air terminal dialogue also don't help.

Hopefully Nurkostam will tap into the good sounds of their music and work on their album structure, because as it stands, I find myself rather underwhelmed by the music here.

Share this NURKOSTAM review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Conor Fynes
• Report this review (#485771)
• Buy NURKOSTAM music online with PA partners
• Show all NURKOSTAM MP3/Stream
• Go to NURKOSTAM page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to -C- page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for NURKOSTAM related discussions