METAZOON

This sampler contains music by six Finnish bands of Psychedelic / Space Rock, at the early stages of their careers. I borrowed the CD from Vantaa Library, I have no idea how difficult it is to find elsewhere, 16 years after the release. Dark Sun, Moon Fog Prophet and Circle are to be found in the ProgArchives, The Spiralothropes, Transparents and Lotus are not. I appreciate the way the leaflet introduces the bands. The musicians & instruments are also listed, and even the contact information is given for each act. Nice cover art too.

In their own album reviews DARK SUN is said to be a Hawkwind follower, and they have also played Hawkwind in their gigs, but happily the chosen track here is not so derivative. 9-minute 'TimeSpace Continuum' is mostly melodic electronic music with a steady beat and synth layers. Halfway a bright flute joins the trip. Very good track!

THE SPIRALOTHROPES perform two short songs reminiscent of the original psychedelic rock era around 1968. The John Cale-ish vocals are lazy and a bit monotonous. TRANSPARENTS play upbeat psychedelic, jazzy electronica that has some distilled Ozric Tentacles -vibe. Also the terms NuJazz and Chill-Out fit well. Maybe there could be more progress within both seven minute-tracks to avoid slight boredom.

MOON FOG PROPHET (who later translated their name into Kuusumun Profeetta and sung in Finnish) had at the time released only an EP, and frankly they are not yet mature here, but surely promising. Mika Rättö mocks the vocal frenzy of Peter Hammill - which he did much better a bit later - and neither the threateningly dark music is as convincing as their later works.

LOTUS' only album The Totuus wasn't yet released, but the relatively peaceful and spacey instrumental 'Mesqualito' appeared on it too. It's among the best tracks on this sampler. The short-lived, probably Gong and Ozric -influenced group's mastermind (?) Ville Juvonen has released a solo album (of electronic music) a couple of years back, by the way.

And finally CIRCLE who have a very large discography. Having started in 1991, at this point (1998) they already were clearly the most experienced of these bands. Hypnotically rhythmic 'Talking Drum' could be by CAN, and 'Friitalan nahka' (nearly 11 minutes) is more ambient experimental music. -- Sadly it seems that this kind of Various Artists samplers introducing marginal bands have become all too rare especially in Finland.