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COZHE

Crossover Prog • Finland


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Cozhe biography
In the late 90's Janne NEVALAINEN and some friends had a loose jam-session type of band in Espoo, Finland. Janne was living in old soon-to-be-demolished house that was a commune type of household with three residents, and 30 friends. They played many jam-sessions, and called themselves COSMIC HAZE BLUES BAND, and from these sessions they also created a ska/reggae band called RAGABLASTER. Although Janne wanted to move away from cover versions to original material, but the rest of the guys weren't so interested so he started looking for other players.

When Janne first heard Harri KOKKONEN play drums he knew that they needed to work together, and from 2002- 2004 they played a few times but life got in the way. It was about this time that they started using the name COZHE, looking back to the name of Janne's previous band in many ways, but generally the word doesn't have a meaning.

But then in 2009 Harri said that it was time for them to take it seriously and they started looking for a guitarist, which they found in Joni SEPPÄLÄ. Joni started rehearsing with the guys in 2010, and it soon became apparent that he fitted in perfectly, and was given a free rein as Janne didn't have any guitar lines in mind when he was composing. Soon, Harri started bringing in material as well, and they all worked on it together.

Rude ROTHSTÉN joined on bass, having previously played with Janne in RAGABLASTER, but it soon became apparent that time constraints would be an issue. One day, in 2010 Harri met someone he knew as a kid brother of one of his close friends who told himAll music sucks. I was just listening your old recordings, and they were great. Harri told that actually he has started to play again, and was looking for a bass player. So, Sami JÄRVINEN came along to the next rehearsal, and although he was a multi-instrumentalist and not a bassist he soon impressed everyone that he was the right person. At last, COZHE was a band

Biography provided by artist and used with permission

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COZHE discography


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2.98 | 3 ratings
Pressure Fractures
2012

COZHE Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

COZHE Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

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COZHE Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Pressure Fractures by COZHE album cover Studio Album, 2012
2.98 | 3 ratings

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Pressure Fractures
Cozhe Crossover Prog

Review by Matti
Prog Reviewer

3 stars Nice review by Kev for this Finnish debut album. On the informative side I won't have much to add, I'll concentrate on my own reception. Yes, the sound is very 70's style and with some similarities to vintage, guitar oriented heavy/hard rock such as LED ZEPPELIN. But it also has a unique, distinctive personality. This band doesn't sound exactly like anyone else, nor would anyone think this music came from the 70's. There are some Neo Prog elements especially on keyboards and guitars. Kev mentions DISCIPLINE, I could add TWELFTH NIGHT (Geoff Mann era) and ARENA in the spirit, even though Cozhe aren't quite that Neo-ish, they're much more earthly and hard rocking. The degree of progness varies a lot, some tracks are rather straight-forward. The synths seem to increase here and there after the guitar-heavy beginning, but Joni Seppälä's ballsy guitar work is constantly in the centre.

The music is written by keyboardist-vocalist Janne Nevalainen (except drummer Harri Kokkonen's 'Backstabber'). His slightly stuffy vocals are indeed a bit off-key and rough, but they fit pretty well to the powerful music. Lyrics are strong in their angst. The album contains (among others) three parts of 'Pressure Fractures'. The dealing with ill things of the past is distantly related to Pink Floyd's The Wall, without actual musical resemblance. The satirical 'Music School' part of the title work (which is miming a nightmarish auditioning situation with the teacher shouting "mistake!", "boring" etc. to the poor young pianist) is eventually the track that gets the most reserved reception. It probably wears off soon to most listeners, especially as it's placed questionably in the end. The 45-minute album doesn't include any totally boring tracks, therefore the "joke" would have functioned better somewhere in the middle in my opinion.

The cover art is really cool. Not a bad album at all, best of luck for the follow-up!

 Pressure Fractures by COZHE album cover Studio Album, 2012
2.98 | 3 ratings

BUY
Pressure Fractures
Cozhe Crossover Prog

Review by kev rowland
Special Collaborator Honorary Reviewer

3 stars This Finnish band can trace its' beginning back to more than twelve years ago, when singer and keyboard player Janne Nevalainen first came across drummer Harri Kokkonen. They started playing together in 2002 and over the years other musicians have come and gone, but they stuck it out and the result is this their debut album which was released in 2012. At the time the line-up was completed by Joni Seppälä (guitars) and Sami Järvinen (bass), although Joni moved to Sweden not long after the album was completed. In many ways this is an album of the Seventies, as it has been heavily influenced by the likes of Family from that era and also more recently by Discipline, and while crossover prog is obviously the correct genre, that is because it hits so many different musical areas including that of hard rock.

This isn't a gentle melodic prog album, but something that has rough angular edges that contrast strongly with the fluidity of Joni's wonderful guitars. Although the keyboards are an important part, the use of piano is more direct and powerful, while special mention should also be made of Harri's drumming as there are times when he is working incredibly hard, with a far more rock bent than the rest of the band which also provides wonderful dynamics. It is the fractured nature of the music that makes this such a compelling album, although it does also have it's weaknesses, most notably in that the lyrics don't always work as well in English as they should and Janne's vocals do sometimes go off key. But, both of these are fairly small issues that I am sure will be resolved with the next release, which apparently they are planning at present. Personally I would not have included the final song on the album, as joke pieces only really work once and although I found this fairly amusing the first time I played it, the novelty soon wore off.

An interesting album, quite at odds with most of the current scene, and I look forward with interest to the next one. www.cozhe.com

Thanks to kev rowland for the artist addition.

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