Description
2016 re-release on green vinyl with gatefold cover and new liner notes
Kaamos from Turku, Finland is a forgotten band in prog circles, but quite better then many of their country fellows. They had a meteoric career , released one album in 1977 named Deeds And Talks, disbanded in 1980 and then disappeared in the oblivion. The album is good , sounds most of the time like a cross between Jethro Tull (but without the flute) , Gentle Giant and even Fleetwood Mac but it also comes with some funky elements here and there not far from Stevie Wonder. To this all arrangements I can trace some folk and even some blues in their repertoire. As a whole the album is very enjoyable not in the least groundbreaking, but there are flashes of guitar and moog brilliance and very up tempo in places that makes it quite interesting. All the members of the band would go on to lengthy and varied music careers once the group folded (which I believe happened shortly after this album released); none of them pursued progressive music beyond their days with Kaamos. Drummer/vocalist Johnny Gustafsson would appear with the hard rock act Combination; the new wave groups Jimi Sumen Projekt and Arto Nuotio; the jazz duo Sini And Timo; and disco band Bogart Co., among others. Kyosti Laihi joined the rock band Boulevard and later toured with the funk act Pepe And Paradise. Guitarist Ilpo Murtojarvi released one album with the Finnish Karma and later a couple records with Tuula Amberla. And bassist Jakke Leivo toured for a couple of years as part of the longstanding collective the Islanders (aka Dannay And the Islanders) before joining the folk rock group Hector. This is a pretty uneven album, and only a few tracks can really be considered progressive folk; for the most part this is fairly pedestrian rock with just enough moog and disjointed tempo shifts to convince some of their prog pedigree. No matter, it is an interesting collection of tunes that meld modern blues with keyboards and competent arrangements and in the end its still better than many other Finish albums of the 70’s.
Track listing:
1. Strife
2. Are you Turining
3. Delightful
4. Barokki
5. Isabelle Dandelion
6. Moment (Now)
7. When Shall We Know
8. Suit-Case