THE DEFECT IN THAT ONE IS BLEACH / WE'RE HUNTING WOLVERINES

Keeping with post-rock tradition KAIRON; IRSE! was formed in Kaustinen, Finland in 2009 and conjured up a nonsensical name for itself followed by a debut album that featured a laboriously lengthy title THE DEFECT IN THAT ONE IS BLEACH / WE'RE HUNTING WOLVERINES. This band of Johannes Kohal (drums), Dmitry Melet (bass, violin, vocals), Lasse Luhta (guitar, synthesizers) and Niko Lehdontie (guitar) has pretty much written off this first release which has never been issued in a physical format but is at least available digitally for download.

The band made somewhat of a splash at least in the world of post-rock with its second album "Ujubasajuba" while this one has become somewhat forgotten. While implementing the same post-rock characteristics as other bands with an emphasis on timbre, texture and atmosphere, KAIRON; IRSE! mixed it's post-rock delivery system with Pink Floydian psychedelic rock and fuzzy My Bloody Valentine style shoegaze. This debut features seven tracks which run at about 40 minutes with lyrics primarily in the Finnish language. Dmitry Melet's vocals remind me of Sigur Ros at times with exaggerated falsettos but mostly they sound more like a typical indie rock band with a more gruff demeanor.

While the band's following albums offer a bit more complexity having been cited as comparable to acts as far ranging as Gentle Giant, Todd Rungren and the Flaming Lips, album #1 is more of a straight forward post-rock affair with emphasis on shoegazy atmosphere and psychedelic effects such as reverting vocals, trippy guitar tones and feedback and a laid back nonchalant procession of the tracks. The violin parts add a folky aspect to the mix while certain slow tempo tracks like "Cuscuspin" have a touch of Pink Floyd including a David Gilmour inspired guitar solo. The guitar distortion can be a bit gritty and heavy but often operates on clean lush arpeggiated motifs.

This album has been described as an immature hybrid of post-rock, shoegaze, psychedelic rock and dream pop and that's not far from the truth as the band would develop an energetic drive on its second release and become a lot more progressive. Basically this was a starting point for KAIRON; IRSE! which provided the proper warmup for finding its own voice in the crowded world of post-rock in the 21st century. While not unpleasant, THE DEFECT IN THAT ONE IS BLEACH / WE'RE HUNTING WOLVERINES also isn't very memorable. It's a nice mix of grungy guitar, shoegazy atmospheres and violin extras but the compositions are rather lackluster and obviously needed room for improvement. While the band clearly shouldn't write this off it is their weakest effort indeed.