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NBHAP Rating: 3,8/5
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[one_half last=”yes”]JAAKKOO EINO KALEVI
Jaakko Eino Kalevi
Release-Date: 15.06.2015
Label: Weird World Records
Tracklist:
01. J.E.K.
02. Double Talk
03. Deeper Shadows
04. Say
05. Mind Like Muscle
06. Night At The Field
07. Don’t Ask Me Why
08. Room
09. Hush Down
10. Ikuinen Purkautumaton Jännite
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Smooth and cinematic
Jaakko Eino Kalevi is a slick, well-oiled piece of pop. At no point is this truer than opening track JEK; easing in with a gentle reverberation of synthesiser and chorus that ebbs and woozes with aquatic splendour. It slides and shimmies, reflective like a gigantic lake summoning the moon. It’s the track that bubbles away with such ease, pressing repeat is a pleasure. It’s quite a dramatic record, sweeping and full, which gives it a cinematic vibe – begging for red velvet curtains, smoke machines and roving spotlights.
Skirting the pop fringe
Perhaps one of the most definitive characteristics of Jaakko Eino Kalevi is its sheer indefinability. It doesn’t care much for genre; rather, in similar fashion to mythical odd-pop unicorn ARIEL PINK, it tosses its long locks and turns its back on the expected. This blend of pop with the strange is refreshing. Almost-instrumental interlude towards the end of the record, Don’t Ask Me Why, meanders off into jazz territory while Hush Down well and truly belongs in the eighties with its greasy basslines.
Suave sophistication
The previous being said, Jaakko Eino Kalevi feels more polished (tracks such as Double Talk epitomise of this), and perhaps a little less playful than records like Modern Life and Ying Yang Theatre that preceded it. My favourite JAAKKO EINO KALEVI tracks remain those obscure experiments that defy my expectations (like Savu), but the glistening sheen that stretches across Jaakko Eino Kalevi does feel like a sort of blossoming and maturation, an increased porousness that will be fascinating to watch develop with future projects.
Jaakko Eino Kalevi’s self-titled record is a delicious dose of slick synaesthesia that, while loitering playfully on the fringes of the pop continent, shows a certain maturation. It’s a nocturnal beast that clings to your ear-hairs more tightly with each listen.
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