SPRING

KAARNA is a promising Finnish psychedelic progressive / post rock band with Mikko Nurmi's matchless talent for composition, and deep bass, Mikko Iivanainen's fuzzy and dazzling guitar, Tatu's heavily and rigidly strict drumming. This album "Spring" is their brilliant debut album and simultaneously well-completed one.

We can feel their enthusiastic attitude for psychedelic progressive / post rock from the very beginning track "Twelve". Much complex codes, flexible plays, speedy ground-rumbling rhythm and kicks can knock and amaze us into their inner space. The next song "Four" notify us "two" Mikko's improvised and adrenalised guitar and bass solos, and delightful slow-tempo sound launch on a surrealistic Kaarnagarden. Let me emphasize that we can find in them certainly "North European delicate, smooth, matured aromatic soundscape like aurora". Dreamy, floating flowers are in "Montreaux", that sounds like their comfort or relaxation as if they be in the city named the same. Please let me know why especially Mikko Nurmi's deep bass solo can be so prominent and at the same time so graceful here. Not only bass but also guitar and percussion can be remarkably excellent - all instruments can construct such a beautiful city song. Contrary to previous one, "Scandal" sounds very unstable and carefully suspicious with sharp-edged steady plays by them. As if some life-threatened danger would come to us ... very exciting and curiosity-kickin' one.

From the fifth track we can join KAARNA's live stage. "Song" is an awesome song - with persistently repetitive heavy phrases by Mikko Iivanainen's calm but implicating guitar touches, and Mikko Nurmi's exaggerated loud bass, and Tatu's soft but terrifically rigid percussion. In "Motreaux (live version)" their plays (especially Mikko Iivanainen's guitar one) can get much louder and more psychedelic than the studio one - I love this more. Also the last "Four (live)" can let us feel strongly the atmosphere of their lively live, wonderfully.

This album is a mixture of four studio-recorded and there live-recorded songs, and it's absolutely amazing we imagine how their next "total" album will go ... so prospective.