ABSOLUUTTINEN NOLLAPISTE

Unfortunately the said b-sides as well as the two new tracks sound exactly like album leftovers, something hastily put together or excerpts of jams. Sometimes this kind of stuff can be brilliant, when you're forced to leave out an excellent song that just doesn't fit the album as a whole, or something you do in a hurry turns out a spontaneous masterpiece, or when you really get off the ground while jamming. Not this time, unfortunately, and as a fan of the band it really pains me to say it.

However, the remarkable thing here is inclusion of the bands rare and brilliant debut EP "Ei ilmestynyt", an unpolished diamond of their original brand of proggy pop/rock. This compilation is worth getting it just for that and who knows if you like the other tracks more than me.

The second CD is Suljettu live, recorded in 2001. It features the whole album with slightly different track order + an older track, a multi-part instrumental "Olen pahoillani" in encore. They have hired an extra session member for guitar and keyboards and manage to make these versions rather faithful to the originals. It's an excellent live recording, but doesn't really add anything to the original album.

Three stars. Two for b-sides and stuff, four for "Ei ilmestynyt" and three for "Suljettu" live rendition.

Their third album sees Absoluuttinen Nollapiste slightly more straightforward that their first two that were filled with curveballs to say the least. It's also less proggy that some of their later material, but still very interesting pop/rock with progressive rock elements thrown in. They've often been compared to to their compatriot pioneers Wigwam, especially their poppier side and that rings true here as well.

Lyrics are an especially important part of this band and especially how they work together with vocal melodies and song structures. For example the slight variation used in the chorus of the opening track "Silti". Of course you have to know the language to be able to fully appreciate it. Most of the tracks are very good oddball offbeat pop songs, but there are a couple of weaker ones towards the end, such as the country pastiche "Heitto-ovet". 10-minute closing track "Viittä vaille sadetta" is a beautiful melancholic epic.

Three stars. Finns can add half a star.

"Kerro Ketä Ajattelit" (=tell me who you were thinking) begins album really prog way and powerfully. There are calm, beautiful part in the middle of the song. Hast is playing hammond sounding organ very great way. Next "Viikon Perehtymisjakso" (=one week familiarizing period) has hewing beat, but very beautiful chorus with slide guitar playing. "Täytyy Muistaa" (=I have to remember) is funky piece that also has quite beautiful chorus. "Tyynyn Kääntöpuoli" (=the Other side of the pillow) is the strangest piece in this album, it reminds more Mew than Abso. "Parta"(=beard) is short instrumental industrial noise piece. Jarrutan (=I slow down) is also funky pieces, but has very Genesis-sounding guitars. "Käsitys Lastenlapsista" (=my idea of my grandchildren) is very beautiful song including only keyboards and violin behind vocals. "Mustaa Ei Ole" (=There is no black colour) has very great, quite dark atmosphere. There is also short solo piece that reminds Pekka Pohjola`s works. This longest song has also really prog ending where every member of the band does their best. But progmusic continues very great way in next "Kultainen Leikkaus" (=Golden Ratio). It has some Wigwam in it, that has given influences to Abso. Keyboards make great work in this piece. "Nummirock" (=Heathrock) is very melodic piece including again great keyboard playing from Hast. Instrumental ending "Sinetti" (=Seal) is one of the greatest piece in this album with its strong melody and female voice singing it.

You can´t say this totally prog album, but this album is just full of great music with prog elements. Really good works as a great opener to someone, who hasn´t heard anything from this band. Really hope we hear something about their coming albums soon.

"Matkustajakoti Lintukoto" = "guesthouse safe heaven" is quite boring piece, but has some prog rhytmic greatness. "Kivoja Kansioita" = "nice folders" has great melodic prog middle part. Album tittle song is really boring, but it has great guitar solo and ending. In "Laatikkohevonen" = "a boxhorse" they rock quite great way at the begin. "Paikallinen nimikauhu tulee ellei maissi lopu" = "local namehorror comes if corn isn´t ending" is one of the greatest songs in this album, it also has some Wigwam influences. "Ehdokkaat" = "candidates" is also quite good piece with little prog rhythms and funk. "Hallitsevien piirien vaatimukset" = "requirements of the dominant circuits" is really boring. Only think that makes it a little interesting, is that band members has told the strange vocal style in it´s chorus is borrowed from Wigwam´s Jim Pembroke in Being album. "Siibu Diibu..." is really horrible. In Finland these kind of "jokes" are called "teekkarihuumori", that means humor of the students of technical school that mostly nobody else understand. I am really happy Abso haven´t done this kind of "humour" after this album. "Pimeässä vietetty aika minuuteissa" = "time spend in the dark in minutes" is also one of the albums highlights, it includes progmelodies and -rhythms and has really many changes. But almost the last are albums two best songs: "Rarmos Ybrehtar" and "Valtani Viimeinen Päivä" = "the last day of my power". The first one is really catchy pop tune and the second one reminds Wigwam´s "Grass For Blades" from it´s atmosphere. It´s also the only one, where text support really great way the music, although Tommi is still mostly singing nonsense.

I am glad I didn´t hear this album first from Absoluuttinen Nollapiste, because I propably wouldn´t want to hear them more. My first Abso-album was the next "Muovi Antaa periksi". It has a lot of common with this first one, but their compositions just have become a lot better, also there are much more prog. I think Abso succeed much better with their first e.p. "Ei Ilmestynyt" than this first full cd. If this had been also e.p with just the good songs, it would have been much better. I remembered before today´s listening that this album deserves three stars, but not even the greatness of "Valtani Viimeinen Päivä" can make me to give it. Really hope, nobody listens this at first Abso album. So it is two stars.

These albums causes many questions. Of course there can´t be just good without bad, because with bad you also know what´s good, but how about the planet where is no good? Are we going into that direction? Also in this album shepherd can´t pass his destiny, also not the lady. So if you believe in destiny, is there any reasons to try to change it?

Absoluuttinen Nollapiste really made the albums with lots of thoughts. But is the reason the albums have not been very much in the front that people today doesn´t want to think these kind of thoughts? With this kind of world as today I think we should. It´s of course always possible the plays of the ancient Greek, that handle the good and the bad and the unconscious of the mankind didn´t make their society better. Anyway I think we need the bands like Absoluuttinen. They´ve said they will make more albums, even another concept album in the future, but at least this year they have been very quiet.

The lyricist Tommi Liimatta started to make this entity already in 2003. Lots of thinking really shows, because in this album he goes deeper than anywhere else in his lyrics. Even this is scifi-story, there are elements from the ancient greek, even Bible. This is a story from the good and the evil. Unlike Adam and Eve, the "evil" sheep can´t choose, the evil was put into it. Also it´s interesting the evil is sheep which is symbol of innocence in the Bible. You can also make a connection to the Gosbels although in this album the evil is born in unnatural way. There are also elements from the trilogy drama of the Greek tragedy. With all these mythologigal elements the story is very easy to connect also these days. I haven´t listened very much prog music after seventies outside Finland, but at least in Finland there are really few these kind of concept albums made. Also even seventies prog I think only Peter Gabriel was capable to connect the fantasy and myths world into the present time. Of course it´s possible Tommi got some influences from Magma´s world when making his story.

I try to tell the story of the albums. There comes "planet good" near the earth. Representer of the planet is bored, because there is not anything evil in the planet. All the bad has put into one drop and he decided to send it to earth. Meanwhile beautiful lady, who seems to have some magic talents leaves her home and meets shephard. The drop falls into the neck of one shephard´s sheep. Shephard sees the dream that tells he should look all his sheep`s necks and put away the sheep which have a sign. He finds the sign and imprisons the sheep. But sheep changes to a man and seduce the lady and she´s get pregnant. Meanwhile shephard has just been in the near of his dying mother´s bed where mother warn him. The evil sheep wants to go to the "planet good" and they let it go. After that earth starts to die and shephard and lady goes also to planet good. Sheep has caused a lot of bad in a planet good and it will be executed. A child of lady and sheep is born, when lady understand what it is, she jumps from the balcony and will be pierced to a candelabra. Shephard looks to his "son" and son makes the other sheep run him down. And story ends.

Music has build into these albums to give a support to the story. So there are very little normal songstructures and without knowing lyrics it could be sometimes difficult to understand the directions where music goes. Anyway there are lots of great melodies, so the album can be enjoyed also just as music. To me this album sound and some parts also music reminds late seventies and early eighties Genesis. The sound world in this first album has something from the eighties, but not in a bad way. "Alkusoitto" (=prelude) brings some of the album themes as instrumental and in the end there is sung prelude of the story. "Planeetta Hyvä" (=planet good) is a slow sad piece. But the next "Juhlija" (=party animal) and "Nainen Lentää" (=lady flies) are true celebration of the melodic prog music friends with their really many parts. "Kohtaaminen" (=meeting) is one of the greatest songs in this whole entity, it´s quite bombastic at first, but changes quiet in the end. In a "Pisara" (=drop) sheep gets the drop and the song is very dramatic. In "Paimenen Uni" (=dream of shephard), "Lampolan Aamu" (= the morning of sheep shelter), "Lammas Näkee Naisen" (=sheep sees the lady) the music direction goes to the more ordinary. But the great prog elements comes back in "Lampaan Etsintä" (=seeking the sheep). In the end of this piece comes again the sung prelude theme, so the first part is almost in the end...but there is yet one left: "Lammas Saa Vainun" (=sheep gets the scent). Album ends in a very dramatic way, when sheep changes to a man and gets the scent that he can seduce the lady. After this end I really waited the next part...

This long-living Finnish band is for me among the most difficult ones to write about to an international prog community. Why? 1) They haven't gained much attention abroad, as far as I know, and understandably so for having Finnish lyrics in a central role. 2) They have a stable cult status here and they have been described as Finland's most even-quality band; each new album gets favourable reviews by critics who can mostly just circulate the same old phrases as the style stays pretty much the same album after album. And 3), I'm a relatively new listener of Abso. But this time there's at least something new to say.

This album and Pisara ja Lammas 2 (2014) form some sort of a rock opera with an obscure SciFi content quite hard to get into. The title means A Drop and a Sheep, and the characters are the Sheep (performed by Erkki Seppänen), the Woman (Paula Vesala of popular mainstream rock group PMMP), the Shepherd (Olavi Uusivirta, a popular solo pop artist), and a choir in the tradition of Greek tragedy. The Abso's main writer and vocalist Tommi Liimatta is the narrator, whose portion is at least 75 % of the whole. Everybody knows his limited, stiff vocal expression, a complete opposite to Roger Daltrey's fantastic multi-role contribution in THE WHO's legendary Tommy. This narrator-centred structure sadly decreases the operatic nature of the work; the guest vocals naturally bring some extra - especially the choir - but in the end not very radically.

But that, and the difficulty to understand the story, are not preventing this music to be Abso at their most inspired and exciting. The synths and guitars are used effectively in the very carefully constructed soundscape. Also from this point of view Pisara ja Lammas 1-2 is Abso at their most progressive. There are even some (mock-) orchestral nuances, and everything works very well. The music is both rather accessible and unpredictably interesting. The second album - which I may review sometime later - is stronger musically, but also this one is pretty rewarding - for all the old listeners and a bunch of new ones too, hopefully.

The 7-minute 'Valvoja-aika' is graced with a mighty guitar solo that leads to the general distortion of sound in a dramatic way. The next synth-based song resembles earlier pop-oriented material and may feel a bit boring to a prog-minded listener. (All in all, it can be said that AN's potential for international following is rather limited, and this is obviously reflected in the very small amount of PA reviews.) 'Teikäläisen taivas' a nice, powerful pop song full of clever rhymes; the poppiest output of CMX comes to my mind. The next track gives the emphasis on beautiful guitar textures.

The slight sense of mystery and Science Fiction of the beginning is to some degree present on e.g. 'Musta viisari', but the compositions get rather simple and vocal-oriented, turning the whole into a relatively typical AN album on the long run. I'm not yet so deeply into their output to say whether this is really among their best, but at least it contains some delightful freshness among the more-of-the-same feeling. Production is good all the way, and no doubt the lyrics offer a lot to think about, as always. Surely not a let-down album to a follower of this band. 3½ stars (rounded down due to the faint international prog appeal).

This third album by the Finnish long-lived group is not among their best. Proggy elements are very few here, though A.N. have never been an unquestionable prog band. The album represents their laconic, personal style quite faithfully but remains rather forgettable compared to the better albums. Most songs are simple indie pop-rock with a strong emphasis on Tommi Liimatta's stiff vocals, even featuring regular chorus structures. Often the low-key manner in singing brings some sense of monotony; happily the playing is more up-beat and relaxed. As a lyricist Liimatta is always original. For example on 'Ajoratamaalaus' the protagonist is the painted line on the highway. In all the lyrics there are peculiar observations of everyday life, from an unusual point of view, and it's really hard to figure out what these persons are up to.

I may have to rate this album low in this prog environment, but it must be said that at the same time this is very easy one to have a listening pleasure in smaller scale. I mean it's harmless and fairly sympathetic pop-rock with a good dose of identifiable personality. Guitar is the leading instrument and it often plays good melodies. The pop sensibility here is easy to like, mostly free of commercial taste, and there's also much more variation and complexity in rhythm patterns than in mainstream pop/rock. For a newcomer who comes from the pop side of music rather than the prog side, this is a good aperitif after which it's good to continue into other, better and perhaps a bit more demanding albums.

It's not an easy task to describe the music. It has some stint of avant garde, for example odd rhythmic structures, but it also remains quite painless to get into. The central element is the vocals (which are relatively close to normal speaking), and very interesting odd lyrics of Tommi Liimatta. In fact, the lyrics seem to form some sort of hazy narrational unity here. Some track titles translated: What Will Happen? When Will The Influence of These Stop? What's Wrong With Us? Shall I Swallow The Evidence? The Lost Berry-Picker. Has There Been Noise from Our Flat? Mr. Liimatta has published also poetry, prose and comics. A real Renaissance man, comparable to his countryman Mika Rättö (Circle, Kuusumun Profeetta, etc).

I believe this album suits fine to start listening to this band, as it did for me. I'm afraid for non- speakers of Finnish this band has not that much to offer.