ANNA MULLE LOVEE

This boxed set draws together the history of famous Finnish record company Love Records, offering both rare archive material and also some good picks from their famous releases. The first CD "Losing Hold" is the disc for the prog enthusiasts, and the other CD's have mostly non prog stuff in them. The prog disc titled "Losing Hold" starts with BLUES SECTION's "Hey Hey Hey" from year 1967, and this sounds very much like The JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE's music. This band was a cradle for both two big Finnish progressive rock bands, whose material follows this track. WIGWAM is presented here with a wonderful live capture of "Losing Hold", where they fusion JEN SIBELIUS's "Finlandia" (Finnish national hymn). TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI has even more material, "Falling Deeper" is an awesome early version of their song "The Bargain" from "Labertland" album. This is exceptionally better version, as it has a long, impressionistic intro, and the vocals are from FRANK ROBSON and not EERO RAITTINEN! The later mentioned sings on track "Lennosta Kii", which is a live version of their song "The Bargain" with Finnish lyrics. This too is an awesome version, [YLE] the alternative lyrics are done by a famous Finnish lyricist JARKKO LAINE [YLE Äänilevystö]. PEKKA POHJOLA's solo works are introduced with the dynamic "Oivallettu matkalyhty", and TABULA RASA's "Gryf" is truly very beautiful ballad, sounding like the power ballads of URIAH HEEP.

The second CD "Keskellä kapinaa" has few prog related tracks on it, VESA-MATTI LOIRI's "Syyslaulu" is WIGWAM's "Tombstone Valentine" from the same named album, only the vocals have been recorded with new lyrics, also written by JIM PEMBOKE. PEKKA STRENG's song "Perhonen" is from his seond album, on which TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI wasn't involved. UNDERGROUND ROCK's "Tehtaan Vahtimestarit" is a silly psychedelic rock song from a humorous Finnish marginal album. The singer on that song is M.A.NUMMINEN, and we can also find his "Joulupukki puree ja lyö" (Father Christmas bites and hits), which is surely funniest Christmas carol I have yet heard. M.A.NUMMINEN also performed with ERKKI KURENIEMI's Electronic Ensemble, which produced "The Dance of The Anhtropoids" on WIGWAM's "Tombstone Valentine". On fourth CD "Say Mama" there are three tracks from the Finnish rock'n'roll group HURRIGANES, which has a tiny prog relation, as it's drummer REMU AALTONEN played in early line-up of KALEVALA. There's also a solo track "Goddammaddog (The Horse)" from JIM PEMBROKE here.

As the majority of the material on this box set is not progressive rock, this is worthy mostly to the fans of TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI and WIGWAM. Also if one wants to have a comprehensive overlook of this Finnish cult record label, this is a good box set for that purpose. I found this from a library, which was neat as I got to hear the few great new track here without losing much money. The box set is designed wonderfully, and there's a very informative and neat booklet included with it [Most of the detailed information here are from that booklet].

Very rarely a record company stands out as a defining factor when I talk of an album, but I've noticed that when I review some Finnish vintage prog, it's difficult NOT to mention LOVE RECORDS (if it's the label of the album - as it is very often). I don't know how largely its reputation has travelled abroad, maybe the international fame concerns more likely certain artists individually. In prog there's of course TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI and WIGWAM, both well represented in this 4-cd compilation. Eetu has done a decent job summarizing the box from prog's point of view, so I try to give a broader picture. Seeing thru the name list makes one wonder if ALL notable Finnish rock of the 70's had that LR label! (Of course not, but it's hard to think of a 'big' name who didn't.)

Finnish rock/pop history's outstanding names include e.g. JUICE LESKINEN - who was the key figure in bringing Finnish language into rock, and who died this winter - ; singer/songwriter HECTOR; PIIRPAUKE who made 'World Music' before the term was used; HURRIGANES from the traditional rock'n'roll school; PELLE MILJOONA, the key figure in Finnish punk era; popular singers such as KIRKA - who also died recently -, RAULI "Baddind" SOMERJOKI and PEPE WILLBERG; plus dozens of other bands and artists ranging from numerous styles of rock and vocal music. Some made instrumental arty rock/ jazz-rock, such as PEKKA POHJOLA or FINNFOREST, some concentrated completely in Finnish language (classic songs like 'Salty Dog', 'The Boxer', 'Streets of London' or Carole King's 'Child of Mine' are here sung in Finnish) and some recorded English language songs.

So, I see this box as a very very big slice of the Finnish popular music history of the late 60's and the whole 70's, almost like "Who-Is-Who in Finnish Rock" encyclopedia. If you want to concentrate on the prog side of it, there are also "LOVE PROGE" compilations.