James Reipas - This is not in fashion
During the last year the Finnish sound started to progress a bit more. Long gone the tongue in cheek samples and the silly attitude. The new attributes of sound are melody and well... pop orchestration! James Reipas is what seems like the pioneer of this sound. With this album he manages to re invent the Amiga spirit. Fast happy melodies made tears out of me (metaphorically speaking) as my mind drove back to the days I was a coder and musician for various demo groups. Those where the days... Anyway before I will carry away what I am trying to say here is that this album smells, feels and tastes Amiga.
The first track "Nailonsiima" is truly psychedelic material, crazy textures, mad leads, weird sounds and most of all, chaotic sequencing. Follower "Sodanmieli" kicks off with a pitched bass sound, a relaxed break and some eastern flavor texturing. Great atmosphere, great tune. By track three though the album goes a bit pop! 3/4 rhythms merge beautifully with the Amiga-like lead melodies and the result is a lovely piece of a tune that makes my day in every listen. The lead line is so uplifting that can turn a bad day into a beautiful ride in the higher states of happiness!
"Manish is Maniac" chooses a more free form approach. Leftfield drumming, mix and match sequencing and that jazz-like feeling define this track as a truly original piece of track. One of the more experimental kind of tracks out of this album. Next track "Holy Lola" is not exactly what the name funnily suggests. More over is one hell of a personal track that is a bit hard to get into its world. One of the tougher tunes and one of the strangest too.
Chameleon in style James Reipas decides to merge the progressive-like beats with his trademark sound. "Maalimanpyora" is the result of this effort, dunno about the intention but this track resembles some truly Greek elements, not to mention the obvious Greek influenced end line! Follower "Sata Kieta" greets us again in 3/4 rhythms. A more chill out piece of music but it has its dark moments too.
Monstrous track "Nature of Reipas" is one hell of a big tune. For 12 minutes hammers the listener with the strangest lead lines and the funkier bassline ever released from the land of the Fins (although Mr. Oizo can be spotted somewhere in the background). It divides it self into two parts merging the past and the future of Reipas, the past and the future of psychedelic music.
In this track "Midnight Jenkka" Reipas treats us again with some amazing Amiga inspired lead lines that have this nasty habit of sticking to your head for ages, resulting in a listener that whispers the melody all day (pissing off his mates) like he had good sex last night with the best of girlies around. This is probably my favorite tune out of this long player.
Last track "This is not in fashion" avoids to be an ambient track, as this is the fashion in the psychedelic trends, to put an ambient track as an epilogue to a long player. Cleverly Reipas delivers a quirky track that stays true to Reipas spirit. The ending piano line is very good although the quitar line is not that good but the piano line is so good (confused yet?) and uplifting that by time the albums reaches the end a permanent grin is going to follow you for the rest of your day.
Over all this is a fantastic piece of music. It makes your days and that’s what good music supposed to do, awaking the emotions good or bad. This particular piece awakens the good emotions and so better for us. There where ages that an album investing so much in melody managed to catch my intention so this must be good or at least I believe that it is good. Buy and marry your girlie (or vice versa for girlies) next due to the disability of controlling your happiness... Ahh well ex Amiga users buy with eyes shut ;-)
Track Listing :
1. Nailonsiima
2. Sodanmieli
3. Aljosa
4. Manish is Manic
5. Holy Lola
6. Maailmanpyora
7. Seta Kieta
8. Nature of Reipas
9. Midnight Jenka
10. This is not in Fashion
Demon Tea DMT CD08 © 2001.
Franny Demon Tea : Franny@demontea.com
Demon Tea Website : http://www.demontea.com
Other Demon Tea Reviews : PeLinPaLa Not My Cup Of Tea Odd Harmonic
Review by Sequential-X for Chaishop.gr
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