KAAMOS

Kaamos are a one album wonder band from Finland whose album, Deeds and Talks, is often compared to Jethro Tull without the flute. That's a rather apt comparison, but unfortunately after cribbing Tull's musical approach circa Benefit and ditching the flute Kaamos don't appear to have many compelling ideas of their own to bring to the table. Some sections of the album do show a mild funk and soul influence, but Kaamos struggle to integrate these with the unabashed Tull mimicry that they get up to. If you are particularly interested in the prog scene in Finland it might be worth a look, but otherwise I can't see compelling deeds or fine talk worthy of your attention here.

Kaamos from Turku, Finland is a forgotten band in prog circles, but quite better then many of their country fellows. They had a metheoric career , released one album in 1977 named Deeds and talks, disbanded in 1980 and then diseppered in the oblivion. The album is good , sounds most of the time like a cross between Jethro Tull (but without the flute) , Gentle Giant and even Fleetwood Mac but aswell with some funky elements here and there not far from Stevie Wonder. To this all arrangements I can trace some folk and even some blues in their repertoir. As a whole the album is very enjoyble, specialy the voice of Johnny Gustafsson and the keyboards of Kyösti Laihi are the cherry on the cake here. Very up tempo in places, and quite intristing to combine all those elements from diffrent bands of that period, but pieces like When Shall We Know or Are you turning with that funky/blues atmosphere bu melted with progressive overtones is a total pleasure to listen, Suite -case the longest piece from here is the most progressive one, that doesn't mean the rest are not, but this time they combine the symphonic prog to that special finish style of the '70's, great track in the end. So a good album, nothing close to a masterpiece but pleasent and as I said quite better then many finish albums of the '70's. Nor really recommended but worth investigated for sure if you like as I am , the '70's progressive rock movement, and specialy the one from Finland. 3-3.5 , good but non realy essential.

Kaamos was a short-lived group of journeyman musicians that recorded but a single studio album, the now-rare ‘Deeds & Talks’. The music here is not in the least groundbreaking, but there are flashes of guitar and moog brilliance that salvage what would otherwise be a completely forgotten blip on the musical landscape of the seventies.

One of the more unusual characteristics of the music is the fact that the band’s drummer Johnny Gustafsson was also their lead vocalist. Gustafsson’s range is rather limited, but his bluesy delivery and remind one of Paul Rodgers in his early Bad Company days. This is especially true on the first couple tracks (“Strife” and “Are You Turning”).

The band takes a noticeable turn of direction on the second half of the record, ratcheting down the tempo and shifting from a heavy guitar emphasis to piano and moog on the laconic “Isabelle Dandelion” and the almost Celtic-sounding “Barokki”. The Bad Company blues approach returns with the closing tracks “Moment (Now)” and “When Shall We Know”, the latter which features some of the funkiest guitar work on the album.

All the members of the band would go on to lengthy and varied music careers once the group folded (which I believe happened shortly after this album released); none of them pursued progressive music beyond their days with Kaamos. Drummer/vocalist Johnny Gustafsson would appear with the hard rock act Combination; the new wave groups Jimi Sumén Projekt and Arto Nuotio; the jazz duo Sini & Timo; and disco band Bogart Co., among others. Kyösti Laihi joined the rock band Boulevard and later toured with the funk act Pepe & Paradise. Guitarist Ilpo Murtojärvi released one album with the Finnish Karma and later a couple records with Tuula Amberla. And bassist Jakke Leivo toured for a couple of years as part of the longstanding collective the Islanders (aka Dannay & the Islanders) before joining the folk rock group Hector.

This is a pretty uneven album, and only a few tracks can really be considered progressive folk; for the most part this is fairly pedestrian rock with just enough moog and disjointed tempo shifts to convince some of their prog pedigree. No matter, it is an interesting collection of tunes that meld modern blues with keyboards and competent arrangements, and just this side of worthiness for three stars. Recommended mostly to heavy prog and Finnish music fans.

peace

Thanks Hugues for advicing! This is a very good, accessible jazz-rock album. I hope it's available. The composer-guitarist Ilpo Murtojärvi is a name that still pops up in Finnish pop/rock albums as he's an active session guitarist, but otherwise the band or its members - very young at the time; see keyboard player Kyösti Laiho's greeting - are not well-known. The music is quite balanced, almost a bit mild if you expect a sharp progressive edge. There are no big surprises. But that's not any fault, in fact I could call this album a faultless work. Maybe the closest band in style is Traffic. One could also say it's a distant, not-that- daring and reedless relative of Happy The Man. Clean jazzy playing also brought Wigwam to my mind here and there, and Johnny Gustafsson's voice could easily replace Jim Pembroke's. The only instrumental track is 'Barokki' (it has some Baroque influences, without sounding pretentious cross-over) but the whole album is highly musical and enjoyable if you like (especially Finnish 70's) jazz-rock. Perhaps a deeper emotion in music would have made it even better. (The band info talks about many styles from blues to symphonic... Well, maybe I hear them in later listenings. I was a bit hasty with this review.)

Hello musiclovers!

My name is Kyösti Laihi and I was a keyboardplayer, basicly Hammond B-3 (in Takomo-studios, Helsinki Hammond C-3), piano and Minimoog synthesizer, which I could say is quite familiar to me. I was lucky to join the group in the age of 15 allthough other members were more experiented as professional musicians. Mostly we played are own material and few versions of songs (works) of Yes, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Zappa, Todd Rundgren's Utopia and lots of other artists and bands we highly respected and loved. During the time of the recording of Deeds And Talks I was 17 of age, Ipe(Ilpo Murtojärvi), who composed the music was 22, Johnny Gustafsson 28, and Jakke Leivo 29. So the time has flown but each and every member are still musicians or involved to music in other ways. I had to retire on a pension because of MS, but I could say, that I'm happier, than ever. After Kaamos I formed a band of my own, what I can say was my lifework. It was named or titled The Boulevard and we were doing LOTS of different kind of projects in musicbusiness. TV-Shows, Nightclub performaces and thousands of groovy gigs... But anyway I sang to the same microfone than Celine Dion and Tommy Körberg, doesn't it make me a better man:) But still I think that winning the Finlands Eurovision Song Contest with Pepe Willbergs "Nauravat Silmät Muistetaan"1988 is propably THE thing that some people might remember. I personally refuse to remember...;-) Ipe (guit.&voc.) is working all the time as a topmusician everywhere in Finland (Recording, composing, arranging and been a session musician in recordings and TV-shows. Jakke Leivo (bass) had problems with his hearing and had to quit as a performig artist, and he is the most beloved and respected musicteacher in Oulunkylä Pop-Jazz conservatoire, Helsinki. What a fine man! Johnny Gustafsson (drums&voc.) was working as technician in studios and joined to the quite popular Disco&Dance styled pop-group named Bogart Co. and they did few records. Johnny is trying to get few earlier recordings pulished. Mabe this