PORCELAIN MOON

Such case is the opener 'Lost in Haze', an intensive rocker, which happily has also an instrumental section, albeit a very jam-like, one that would feel more natural in a gig. (Now that the new band BLUES PILLS is the Next Big Thing internationally, I get some association to them musically. But Elin Larsson is in a league of her own.) Compared to the EP the whole album is less progressive in song structures and closer to classic Heavy Rock, favouring organ in the keys department. One could imagine Charlotta being changed to a male voice such as David Byron or David Coverdale to make songs more credible.

'Parts' begins very slowly and hazily. To this dreamy and "psychedelicate" context the female voice fits much better. This emotionally strong 6-minute song is a highlight, even if at times it loses the plot. 'Caught in a Dream' resembles a classic Hard Rock ballad with an edgy chorus, but again it's not totally credible with Charlotta's voice. Remember the French classic prog album by SANDROSE (1972)? I dislike the shouty female vocals in it, and the same unpleasant reaction comes with this music every time the vocals put a higher gear on. But of course this may be my personal problem, she's not a weak vocalist.

On 'Someone and Love' I at first kinda like the spoken parts and vocalese parts coming in turns, until she yells again unpleasantly. 'Markens grode' is the shortest and calmest track, instead of singing Charlotta just whispers. On this album the change is truly welcome, but on a great album this would obviously be a filler. The final track 'Vinden' is the proggiest and longest composition, starting with a repetition of a hard rocking riff and continuing with a melodic vocal section, with many more twists and turns along the way. The language is the group's mother tongue Swedish which somehow sounds better than English in Charlotta's mouth.

Maybe the band (called simply PORCELAIN) hadn't fully found their style, in addition to the band name, at this point. I was quite negative about the vocals, and also musically this wasn't quite up to my preferences, but to another listener this album may very well be a positive surprise.

The band sound is great, suitably powerful and even ballsy at times. The music has a retro feel, resembling vintage psych/hard rock -flavoured prog of the 70's. Not necessarily British, perhaps some Scandinavian bands come closer. This release is instrumentally oriented, and what's more important, male vocals are totally absent. Charlotta Kerbs's voice brings delicious contrast to the masculin and intense playing, and she's got the needed strength too. In fact I'd like to hear more of her singing here.

'Trädens talan' ("Tale of the tree") is a superb 9-minute prog composition full of life. Fast, organ-heavy intro is followed by a song section that starts very calmly with only piano and acoustic guitar backing Charlotta's slightly folky vocals, before the more powerful band sound takes over again. Nine minutes seem to pass all too soon! 'Magma', which hardly refers to the French Zeuhl legend, is a fast instrumental rooted in the repetition of a ballsy guitar riff. Synths howl to create a Space Rock atmosphere. The other instrumental (with a Finnish title meaning "a loop to the Moon's crescent") starts slowly in a PINK FLOYD style. The wordless singing may bring 'The Great Gig in the Sky' in mind, even though the tempo-increasing composition is quite different from it.

It's seamlessly followed by 'Castle' (hmmm, three various languages in track titles...), another meandering prog masterpiece with plenty of dynamic changes and vocal sections woven beautifully to the whole. Sadly this short release leaves me hungry for more, but frankly I don't remember hearing a better EP, probably ever (the one by Octopie is also very strong musically, but it's marred by not-so-good vocals). Warmly recommended!

Few surprises on this CD for those who have already heard the first Porcelain Moon release. We can quite easily recognize the style of the band in the "new" songs, even with two of them being instrumental. Some might say that it sounds like many things heard before, but they will have to admit that it is at least well executed by a talented bunch of young enthousiast musicians. The voice of Charlotta Kerbs is yet again delightful, may it be in Swedish (on "Trädens talan") or in English (on "Castle").

If you liked the band's first release, you should definitely get this EP!

As the other reviewers have noted they're is nothing startlingly new to be found here but what you quickly realise is this is music written and played by people who believe and love what they are doing and they deliver very well constructed and engaging songs with flare and passion. All the players seem, to my ears, to be very good but Charlotta Kerbs vocals are outstanding.

To label the predominant style as 70s prog would be broadly accurate but there are funky grooves, countryish slid guitars and bluesy hammond breaks as well as later influences that add textures to the music that fall outside that definition. Guitar and organ are the predominant instruments but piano, synths and violin add to the mix. Charlottas amazing voice allows her to vary her style with apparent ease, she goes from a dreamy English Folk Rock style on Parts to an incredible Gillianesque powerhouse performance on the mostly spoken Someone and Love.

The hippied up CND symbols on the back cover give a clue to the lyrics in store which some may find naive but I find refreshingly lacking in cynicism although Someone and Love and Markens grode both have a darker vibe that the other tracks. The one criticism is a few pronunciation issues, particularly on Caught in a dream, but these barely detract although it does highlight the issue of bands such as Porcelain feeling the need, or wanting, to sing in English. The last track, Vinden, is in Swedish (the band are from Finland but come from a Swedish speaking minority - thanks Niklas;) and to me as an English speaker it has a rich, mysterious, ethereal quality that, I'm not saying the other track lack but they perhaps have to strive for, while this song conjures these feelings with ease.

Anyway, that is a minor point which I wouldn't want to take away from the impression of a very enjoyable and satisfying debut which hints at more great things to come.

Hammond organ driven songs, full of energy (guitar solos - sometimes normal, harmonic stuff, but there are also disharmonic parts which are closer to jamming than to solos, Heavy parts) and there is 70s strong feeling (as usual, combined with some new elements).

Flaws would probably be good old quote "Hey, I have heard something like that before" (that I don't care about too much) and spoken parts (which aren't so enjoyable for me, rather annoying).

Datle's vocals (Datle means plural form of "Date Palm" in Czech, my language) aren't bad, maybe she shouts little too much (also not my liking in this case). Some parts are trying to be atmospheric and indeed, they're successful I have to say.

However, the biggest advantage here is that it will surprise you. Range of this album is very big and even everything has keyboards flavour, it still should be interesting for many people.

4(-), good one and unexpected hit from Finlandia.