HUMINOITA

Finnish band Huminoita plays instrumental psychedelic rock with some Post-Rock and jazzy ingredients. 369, officially released just few days ago, is their third album. I rated All Is Two (2015) with four stars (actually 3½ rounded up) and this time rounding down seems more suitable, but I'm not suggesting 369 to be musically weaker. In fact my main complaints have nothing to do with the music itself: the CD could have just as well been wrapped in a simple cardboard sleeve without the plastic disc holder, since the inner side has no graphics at all. Why the band members are - again - unnamed? Hardly because one of them is also the leader of the record label (he's mentioned for recording & mixing). I'm not fond of a "less is more" attitude in the covers of albums. BTW, the tracks are numbered as A1, A2, ..., B1,... which is unappropriate on a CD, and there are accidentally two A3's.

No idea what the numeral album title is referring to. Most of the track titles are made-up words such as 'Maalismoon' (mixing Finnish and English around the third month) or 'Marsvolga'. The music is pleasant, slightly melancholic and introspective psychedelic space rock, more on the calm and dreamy side than on hard rocking edginess. All of the eight tracks are under 8 minutes. The previous album had a bit more variety on track lengths, and also on the arrangements. It featured some wordless singing on the background and more reeds; I spotted no human voice here, and only 'Sandmare' seems to have saxophone in a bigger role. Another reason why I personally prefer their second album is that it feels spacier, or Krautrock-ish if you like, compared to the more structured feel of 369. But this album is equally worth listening to if you enjoy melancholic, instrumental psychedelic rock.

Finnish band HUMINOITA was formed back in 2009, and released their debut album the following year. They describe themselves as a band consisting of five musicians (and sometimes more), and appears to be more prolific as a live band than as a recording one. "All Is Two" is their second full length album, and was released through Finnish label Luova Records at the start of 2015.

It is easy to hear that this is a band with a fascination for many aspect of music, but they have chosen to hone in on what might be described as a psychedelic stoner rock sound of the vintage variety, as in more psychedelic than most stoner bands. Not in a flamboyant or dramatic manner, but carefully and with subtle ease.

Hard, booming vintage era guitar riffs is a key and prominent feature in most compositions, as are delicate echoing guitar details, gnarly but brittle riffs and psychedelic tinged and soaked guitar solo runs. A nervous electric piano finds it's way into the proceedings here and there, as do careful organ textures and nonverbal, layered backing vocals either soft or with a more chant-like expression. The saxophone makes some occasional visits too, and in one instance the flute is brought in to add an earthy, folky vibe to the proceedings.

Expanding the stylistic landscapes ever so slightly are textured guitar layers that adds a slight touch of post-rock to the proceedings, here and there some jazz-oriented instrument details will be tossed in too. The ebb and flow in intensity that is a clear tendency throughout also makes me suspect that these compositions does feature some improvised tendencies. Either de facto, or material developed in improvised runs that have later been developed and recorded proper.

It's difficult for me to define this album in a more precise manner than vintage, stoner-oriented psychedelic rock. Mainly instrumental at that, with occasional post-rock and jazz flavors brought to the table, and with an organic flow that does inspire associations towards material of at least a partially improvised nature. Those who find this description to be interesting are well advised to give it a spin.

- First review for this band - HUMINOITA was formed in the Northern Finnish town Oulu. Up till now (seeing the album info here) I thought this band was among those who prefer total anonymity, because neither of their albums have any line-up information. So, hopefully I'm not breaking a secret by saying where the name of guitar/flute/synth player is familiar from: I interviewed a couple of record company leaders for my upcoming book on Finnish prog, and Ville Mäkäräinen from the new record company Luova Records kindly shared his valuable thoughts. All the more respectable to find out he operates in the Finnish prog scene on both sides, so to speak.

This album is No. 1 in luova Records' very prog-oriented catalogue. Huminoita's eponymous debut (2010) was a self-financed release. I felt the debut to be slightly uncoherent and uneven in its spacey psychedelia seasoned with post-rock and metal. One reviewer called the group a missing link between ASH RA TEMPEL and SIGUR RÓS, which is well said. All Is Two is somewhat less bumpy ride, but very powerful 39-minute, 6-track album nevertheless. Otherwise totally instrumental - more so than the debut - but featuring wordless vocals here and there.

'The Sheriff' gradually increases the intensity. The slow beginning with wailing vocals perhaps nods towards the spaghetti western music of Ennio Morricone. After the climax with a guitar solo the music is still full of Pink Floyd -reminding passion, with some saxophone. The sounds on 'Hymn 23' make me think of another Finnish space-rock group MOONWAGON. By the time of the third track 'Goliath' it's evident that the rough-surfaced and edgy sound is the kind of thing one hears in post-rock. Surely Huminoita doesn't build the music with any ready-made genre boxes in mind; the blend of psychedelic space rock and post-rock is natural and makes this band worth checking out for friends of either sub-genre. The album as a whole may feel slightly depressed, some lighter shades of colour would make it even more impressive, but there's a good dose of dynamics and emotion. I bet seeing this band live would be a powerful event.