DEEDS AND TALKS

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