TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI II

This is one of the best records made in the 70's - it is not prog in the Yes or Elp Vain, but a record with superb songs played by agreat musicians - its TP best album, and can be use as a sure bet for people, like myself, that are on a search for beautiful records from the 70's. i sould note that all lyrics are in english and are all sang in a raw and beautiful way - some very powerful and emotinal way - most highly recommended !

Yeah! I loved this record from the first listening and I get really strong vibes from this one. Tasavallan Presidentti took a huge step musically, directionally and professionally from their first record Tasavallan Presidentti(Love records) to here. The music is very beautiful indeed and the band has given amuch more clear thought to the constructs of the pieces. I have no bad thing to say, highly recommended to any one who fancies beautiful music also with a good groove in strong progrock vein with elements of jazz, blues and some from eastern music also. Fantastic.

The CD version of this very good and rare album is mastered from a vinyl, as the original tapes are still missing. But at least I can't hear any cracks or pops anywhere, so the transcribing has been done professionally. The album opens with fast and happy jazzy instrumental number, and the wonderful following tune "Deep Thinker" has been released previously as a single. "I Love You Teddy Bear" is another version of the same song featured in their first album, the version here doesn't differ much from the earlier version. "Tis Me Tis You" is a happy song accompanied with a flute, this resembles early JETHRO TULL quite much in my opinion. The other goodies are "Weather Brightly" and the beautiful and hazy "Sinking". This album is highly recommended by me along with their first album and the recent live disc!

This is one of the most classic Finnish prog rock albums. Roughly speaking, half of the music - featuring organ, saxophone and flute in addition to a basic rock combo - is edgy progressive jazz rock, and the other half is easier and mellower pieces. This dicotomy makes me think of King Crimson of the time, and also Procol Harum comes to mind especially when the organ has a big role. Frank Robson is a strong vocalist (slightly reminding of Harum's Gary Brooker) who seems to be equally at home with bluesy or rough numbers and the soft ones, which I enjoy more.

The music doesn't have the clear trademarks of (symphonic/epic) prog, and most of the tracks remain short or in normal length, though they have a lot of potential to be extended in a 'jazzy' way when played live, and I presume they have done so in their concerts. The longest track 'Sinking' (7 minutes) reminds a lot of Pekka Streng album Magneettimiehen kuolema, which TP did with him soon afterwards. Slow tempo, Eastern-ish flute and percussion... It is Pekka Pöyry's beautiful flute that I love the best on this album. While many listeners probably have greater respect for edgier numbers on which the skill of the players may shine brighter, I prefer ballads like 'I Love You Teddy Bear' and 'I'm Going Home Once Again'. The leaflet includes a detailed text on the album and its making, and the lyrics.

This is really an aristic band and not a jazz rock one exactly...Blending mostly jazz with rock and symphonic elements we have a very interesting result that only as art rock can be defined...Of course the main influences of the band comes from jazz and that fact can be noticed to most of the tracks as to the great ''Introduction'', a unique piece of music, an excellent blend of rock with trompet and sax omprovisations,you've got to listen to this...But there are also some symphonic-like tracks as ''I love you Teddy bear'' and ''I'm going home once again'', very close to the 70's-era FOCUS (although this disc was released before FOCUS' great albums)...But there are also some a couple of weak tracks (''Struggling for freedom'' for example) where the style of music goes the eclectic away but doesn't reach the high standards of the other tracks...

My opinion is that TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTI were trully a groundbreaking band with a unique jazzy/rock sound and if there weren't the weak tracks we could talk about almost a masterpiece of prog music...Now the fair rating for me is 3.5 stars and I recommend you to enjoy this original Finish act...

Take classic-era Procol Harum, make the keyboards less dominant, and switch out the classical influences for jazz and Hendrix and you might end up with something a bit like Tasavallan Presidentti's sound on their second album. The Procol Harum influence is particularly notable in Frank Robson's vocals, but also comes to the fore regularly in the music too - I Love You Teddy Bear could be a lost track from Procol's debut. Jukka Tolonen's guitar work is clearly technically skilled but at the same time doesn't seem very creative - his solo on Introduction, for example, is pretty damn tight, but at the same time it's also kind of predictable.

So, a jazzy Procol Harum without a guitarist quite on the level of Robin Trower, keyboardists less willing to completely dominate proceedings, and meaty sax interventions from Pekka Pöyry - a fun enough combination, but not quite anything to set the world on fire. It's a good album, but not much more than a good album; three stars.

The rather rare second album of TP, the one that never got released in their homeland, but in the neighbouring Sweden, and only very recently received a legit (I think) reissue on Walhalla Records. Recorded in the summer of 70, TP2 is a mix of tracks from their debut album (the embarrassing Teddy Bear and Once Again) and tracks that are proper to this album, but already very reminiscent of the upcoming Lambertland. TP was by then in a transitory state with first singer Robson still in the fold, but not for much longer, but windman Poyry has already replaced Aaltonen.

While the album still features some of the embarrassing moments of their debut album (the afore-mentioned tracks) including the Beatles/Traffic semi-lift-off Weather Brightly. The album suffers from a very average quality (not to say amateurish) production, Tolonen's guitar is in full flight, as can be heard in Introduction, Thinker, Freedom or Tease Me. But you can see that the group still hadn't fully matured by then, as evidenced in the slightly Indian-inspired (tabla- like drumming, and sitar-like guitar strumming) 7-mins track of Sinking. The album's highlights are the near-excellent opening rapid-fire instrumental Introduction, the pleasant flute-drenched Deep Thinker, the slow Struggling For Freedom and the closing choppy descending Tell Me More, all hinting at the upcoming Lambertland album.

The Walhalla CD reissue comes with the full Lambertland album as a bonus, but doesn't feature the splendid artwork, so you're left with a rather average brown and white double picture artwork, with just enough space for the other album's track list. Sooooo, since this second album is rather over-rated, your interest in having this unofficial 2on1 is of rather limited interest. I'd rather advise you to search for the proper Lambertland release, which is easily their best album, and IMHO the only thing you really need from them, unless you'd want to make a CD-r compilation of their other three albums.

Tasavallan Presidentti from Finland recorded a progressive rock must-have called 'Lambertland' (with a slightly different line-up), but not before releasing this charmer of an album in 1971 (only in their neighboring country of Sweden) . The band sounds surprisingly English and lead-singer Frank Robson actually grew up in England and is therefor a native speaker. This is type of progressive rock that has a blues rock basis enhanced with prog, jazz- rock and folkrock. The sound of Tasavallan Presidentti could be compared to bands like Colosseum (use of saxophone), Patto (jazz-rock guitar by Tolonen), Spooky Tooth (songwriting), early Focus, Edgar Broughton Band (vocal expression) and Procol Harum (mainly the vocals). This is just one of those albums that hits the right vibe, full of enthusiasm and pleasant songy' rock melodies. The sound of the productions is quite good and my only complaint is that the vocals of Frank Robson - though often very charming and inciting - do have their false notes here and there. This is most problematic on the song 'I'm Going Home Again'. The guitars of Jukka Tolonen are among the best of early seventies rock. Still a very pleasant little album from the golden age of rock deserving a small four star rating. Currently available on vinyl on the Svart label.