THE MIDDLE-EARTH BAND

2.5 stars. This is more of a Raga album in my opinion. The leader of the band studied music in India but if it weren't for the prominent tanpura I don't think I would have mentioned Raga. Piano is often the focus but we also get bass, guitar, drums, sax and flute. The drummer is from the band PIIRPAUKE and the flute/sax player was in both TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI and Pekka Pohjola's solo project. Again the music here is nothing like any of those bands as we get slow moving music that is often quite sparse. This is a tough listen.

"Tears" for example is bass only throughout but I'm not into it at all. "Childhood" is laid back piano throughout. Same with "Old Age" except the piano does get almost energetic. The 9 1/2 minute opener is to me the most Indian sounding with the tanpura and piano both going so slow to start the album. Mellow flute and some relaxed beats too. Guitar before 5 minutes for a couple of minutes. Man a tough listen because it's so slow moving. "Cruisin" is drums only. "Faithful" is drums and tampura. The closer like the opener is both slow and long.

By the way this band is from Finland of all places. Wonder how long it took the keyboardist to adjust to the Indian climate. This was released in 1980 and it's the only recording the band released.