Ø – Kantamoinen 6.4

              Think of Pan Sonic devoid of all the tension and violence which makes that project such a thrill. Essentially that summarizes what you have here: sure it is meticulously crafted; all Pan Sonic stuff possesses a certain level of skill. Unlike Mika Vainio’s other stuff, most of these tracks feel like sketches rather than fully-formed ideas.

                Ambiance is the aim here. Barely anything has any sort of distinct beat of any nature. Most of it feels empty, sparse, devoid of anything to sink your teeth into. Instead, this ought to function as some sort of elite music wallpaper. The craftsmanship of the pieces is admirable, but most of the music functions on an emotionless, bland level. It doesn’t experiment enough for this to be readily forgivable.

                Despite these limitations, there are two songs of note on it. “Monneista viimeinen” feels full bodied, with the drama and some of the intensity you might expect from him. The closer “Kotiin” is probably the most emotional the entire album gets, with a nice, wheezy organ sound. 

                Kantamoinen came out a year after the positively massive “Kesto” 4 disc set. Instead of immediately releasing this, he might have felt it would be better to hold off on it until some of the ideas down to a stronger degree. By releasing it so quickly, it feels sort of dashed-off.