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.

Mika Vainio – Vandals EP 7.7

This EP is truly a celebration for those who took down the Roman Empire. The Vandals are fully represented here, with each track representing another Germanic tribe as well (Teutons, Barbarians, and the popular Goths).

If any of those tribes had IPODs, they might have been blasting these ultra-aggressive tracks. Each one comes between a mix of power electronics and Suicide. Respect is due to those wonderful people at Raster Noton who released this intense, beat-driven music.

While Mika is also a part of Pan Sonic, his solo stuff tends to be slightly more abstract. Abstraction is not present at all here. This is pure beat joy. “Barbarians” is the biggest shock of them all. Here it is a 4/4 beat, probably the first one Mika’s ever used. Oh, and just because the beat is so simple, he can focus on making it as overwhelming as possible. Panning disorients the listener as it zooms by.

Really, releases like this make me appreciate the collapse of the Roman Empire even more. Also, Mika should lay to rest the false accusation that the Finns are wimps.