PUNAISEN KUNINGATTAREN PERIAATE

The steep difference between the vocalists makes it somewhat difficult to estimate how notably the musical style has really changed. No, I am willing to believe that in 2012 PKP was anxiously searching for its style and the result turned out to sound, more than anything else, painfully restless. The sax was too busy thickening the crowded sound and the wrong singer emphasized the sense of noisy pop. And anyway, why on earth would any rock band need nine members? Well, there are eight of them here, but the production is way better this time, there's no feeling of an overcrowded arrangement. The reeds and accordion are being dosed reasonably, and vibraphone (not too often heard in rock) is never a bad thing.

When there's a certain softer and hazier side to the sound, also the intense moments work more effectively. The individual songs feel very dynamic. My least fave track is 'Musta koira' (= Black dog) featuring a chorus too heavy for my taste. Couple of distorted vocal lines in the title track are slightly hideous but justified in the anguished narrative context. Songs like 'Elisabeth' and 'Punainen lanka' go under one's skin.

The album's atmosphere is mostly melancholic and slightly sort of psychedelic as in bands like PAATOS and PORCUPINE TREE. The cover drawing is perhaps a bit too naive, as if from a children's book (except for the skeleton of course), to accompany the music perfectly, but then again it underlines the unpredictable, dream-like world hidden in songs. The band's name meaning The Red Queen Principle is taken from the surreal fairytale world of Lewis Carroll. Maybe the language barrier loses a big part of PKP's appeal for non-Finnsh listeners, but I sincerely hope this band will continue making their unique slice of today's progressive/art rock.

The cover of this album is, well, not very encouraging, and frankly pretty unsuitable to the music. Looks like some obscure group of countryside amateurs making ethnic music with a humorous, theatrical attitude. On the back cover there's a smoking chap leaning on a balcony, eyes closed from the sunlight, and a town view behind him.

'Röyttä' -- whatever the word means -- starts softly with vibes but when the vocals appear there's an edginess I don't like. 'Maa ilman lapsia' is also rather restless with a hectic rhythm and wailing saxophones and synths on top of it. This is like a bad version of ULTRA BRA (which I liked as a band), with bad songwriting and a noisy, sax-heavy arrangement. 'Majakan vartija' (= Lighthouse guard) is better: still very much in a pop mould, it at least features a nice piano pattern and some trumpet. The final song on the first side has its finer, more delicate moments. When the basic songwriting is concerned, this music has quite a little to do with prog. The prog aspect comes mostly from the diverse instrumentation.

'Talvikaupunki' (= Winter town) starting the B side seems to continue in the same restless direction, perhaps with some extra twists and complexity in details, but personally I'm starting to get tired of the thick sound. 'Syyllisyys' (= Guilt) finally brings some sense of progressive depth when Veera is silent for change, but the last part of the song featuring accordion returns to the more-of-the-same feeling.

The 10½ -minute 'Oulu' is therefor easily the album's highlight. As a prog song it could be compared to some lengthy CMX tracks, except for the saxophone. Even a VDGG association is justified. All in all, I'm afraid I have to give a two-star rating to this debut. Not because it would lack substance and musical competence, but because a) I personally don't enjoy it that much, and b) the taste of the music is clearly closer to [admittedly ambitious] pop than prog per se. The second album "Kaksi suuntaa" (2015) is MUCH better, I can tell you.