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Kairon irse ruination lp7/13/2023 ![]() It’s certainly difficult to re-create that recorded sound in the live environment, but now we can do that, even if there are a lot of instruments and we only have a limited amount of hands.” He adds of the numerous twists and tempo twitches, “We try to keep our songs interesting. “Yeah,” agrees Lehdontie, who regards his band’s music as “an accumulation of the ideas and overall mentality of 60s and 70s experimental pop, with a modern approach”. It’s just that you have to plough your way through a lot of dense playing to find them. Never fear: there are snatches of melody throughout Ruination’s six tracks. Which one? The flip character behind The Laughing Gnome, or the one who contrived Station to Station? It doesn’t take long to realise that, in the run-up to recording Ruination, Kairon IRSE! spent longer listening to the multipartite epics of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia than they did the pop Runt of I Saw the Light – the swirling, spiralling keyboard arpeggios of the 13-minute Sinister Waters II evoke blissful memories of passages from The Ikon. We knew we were going to like Ruination because one of the pieces of advanced press described it variously as “progressive shoegazing” and “music of the outer spheres” and in one particular standout line compared it to: “an irrevocably mentally unstable Gentle Giant and a severely alcoholic Todd Rundgren having a love child which, after being adopted to Russia, finds himself performing a rock opera in the Ural Mountains.” Todd Rundgren, you say? Ah, but which Todd? It’s like bands who say they’re influenced by David Bowie. For Ruination we didn’t do any gigs before we went into the studio – we were arranging and creating from the start, which is why the song structures are really strict.” “We did lots of gigs before we recorded it so the songs progressed through live jamming. “Our debut album had looser song structures,” explains guitarist Niko Lehdontie. Whereas Ujubasajuba was largely born out of improvisation and jam sessions, Ruination is the result of two years of careful composing, arranging and honing the chaos at Tonehaven Studios, with producer Juho Vanhanen at the helm and Tom Brooke recording and mixing. The band is heading for an extensive Finnish tour in February, and live appearances abroad are to be expected, as well.There are four of them, with assistance in the studio from Andreas Heino (saxophone, clarinet), and make no mistake, Ruination comes from intense, meticulous performing and assembling in the studio. “Juho shared our vision of how the album should sound,” comments guitarist Niko Lehdontie, “but he also gave us a much-needed outside view of the proceedings.” Svart Records is set to release both Ruination and the group’s first album, Ujubasajuba, on February 3, 2017 on CD/2LP/digital. Ruination was recorded in the summer of 2016 at Tonehaven Studios producer Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu, Grave Pleasures) at the helm and Tom Brooke recording and mixing. On Ruination, the curiously named quartet heads further, beyond the point of no return, into their own world of sound, where power chords, arpeggios, and quirky vocal harmonies flow. Though often bundled with the shoegazer movement, Kairon IRSE!’s music has, since the beginning, been a rare bird inside the scene: it rings out with a different tone, and already on the first album, the influence of classic progressive rock was evident. Whereas the debut album was largely born out of improvisation and jam sessions, Ruination is the fruit of two years of careful composing and arranging work, taking control of the chaos. The band describe their music as an appreciation of the ideas and overall mentality of experimental pop musicians of the ’60s and ’70s, combined with a modern approach and original musical vision. Titled Ruination, the album will be released by Svart Records in February 2017 on CD, double LP, and digital. Since then, the band has performed at various large festivals and meticulously written the new album. ![]() Despite the lack of a physical release, the album found itself on many a best-albums-of-the-year lists in 2014. Debut album Ujubasajuba already knocked the planet off its orbit, even though it was done as a DIY Bandcamp release. Progressive shoegazing? Music of the outer spheres? An irrevocably mentally unstable Gentle Giant and a severely alcoholic Todd Rundgren having a love child which, after being adopted to Russia, finds himself performing a rock opera in the Ural Mountains? It is typical of the human mind to try and classify things, but when confronted with Kairon IRSE!, many are at a loss for words.īehind the moniker Kairon IRSE! there are four inner space travelers from western Finland. ![]()
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