MISTY MOUNTAIN FOUNDATION

The opener 'EXP II' is four minutes of sonic, atonal experimentalism. Ambient meets Krautrock. One can recognize the howling of the seldom heard theremin from the ghostly soundscape. 'Brave New World' is a typical MMF song: the vintage heavy prog sound is dynamic and exciting, the biggest thank you going undisputedly to Esa Rantanen's colourful use of Hammond organ, synths and Mellotron. Now, I'm not sure if it's just the certain stuffiness of Kari Mitikka's vocals, or is the recording of them rather poor. This very same thing bothered me already with the debut. The third track 'Rare Wind' is half shorter and also more boring as a composition. The mighty Hammond à la Deep Purple or Uriah Heep is clearly the best feature in it. The downhill carries on to the hard rock song 'Blessed and Possessed' and a totally unnecessary, demo-like reprise of 'Rare Wind'.

The second side of the vinyl contains two long tracks. 'Starchild' gets the honour of being the highlight, which practically isn't a huge achievement at this point. The instrumental intro allows the listener to concentrate on the delicate sounds of Mellotron and other instruments, while the soon arriving vocals represent the rootsier rock approach on this track too. The slower part later on adds the progressive dynamics effectively. 'EXP I' (12:57) returns to the Krautrockish ambience of the opener. The early era of TANGERINE DREAM serves as a reference, but the piece can be hailed as a well-done and deeply inspired excercise on the spacey and psychedelic Kosmische Muzik, instead of being mere mockery.

I think it's respectable to see a band stretching their heavy rock based expression so boldly into the instrumental experimentalism, whether it is something to please the keen listener of the rock side. So, maybe this feature is exactly where the band took time to mature during the last few years. As a whole however, the album feels a little short of strong song material, since three of the five tracks with vocals are rather average.

Right from the first seconds it becomes very clear that they rock hard and use a lot of Hammond organ (compare early URIAH HEEP). Also the Mellotron sound - created by synths instead of the real thing - is present on the album (the group started in the late 90's as a King Crimson tribute band, and my guess is that they concentrated on KC's early phase). The first three tracks are roughly five minutes long and the least proggy portion of the album.

To me personally the negative side in their powerful sound are the vocals that operate very firmly in the hard rock attitude and taste sort of pushed and cruel. One reference could be the late Petri Walli of KINGSTON WALL. However the A side improves enormously with 'Cosmic Echoes (from the Modern Stone Age)' in which the deeply psychedelic, at times almost Krautrockish, keyboard-oriented playing leaves the vocals behind, though I also like the beginning featuring vocals and the Hammond-heavy march beat.

The B side has three tracks, the first one being in the same rocky field with the opening songs, and the two 8-9 minute tracks offering the gorgeous highlights alongside with 'Cosmic Echoes'. 'Garmish Park' gets also very spacey and dreamy as the tempo slows down. Wow! Equally strong and progressive 'Sleeping Prophet' finishes the album in high mark, leaving a good overall taste and lots of promises for their forthcoming second album. Even though I'm not too fond of their hardest-rocking songs and the vocals, I think their personal take on vintage psychedelic/hard rock deserves a good rating. Also the production by the band themselves is fine.