HOYRY KONE: Finland's Not Scandanavian?

Finland is not actually part of "Scandanavia." That noble distinction is reserved for Norway, Sweden and Denmark. We don't usually think of it that way but, no, Finland is not one of them. Is it right to think of Finland as the West Coast brothers of Russia? That doesn't feel quite right, either. So, neither here nor there it is!

Maybe it's the combination of alcohol from the East and social liberalism from the West and the deep, dark forests and snow-capped crests of both that have made Finland the idiosyncratic wonder it is. Whatever the case, the last decade has seen more than a fair share of tweaky, freaky, geeky stuff coming out of Finland. Circle's repetition-based, psychedelic hard rock, Magyar Posse's cinematic post-rock, Aaviko's "casio-core," Rotten Sound's brutally tight grind-core, Skepticism's ambient "funereal doom,"and dozens of freak and acid folk bands such Kemialliset Ystavat light their bonfires and commune with the fireflies and reindeer in the woods.



But the band that stands out for me was Hoyry Kone. And sadly that band is no more (several of the members becoming the Eastern European/gypsy-flavored rock band, Alamaillman Vasarat). While they were easily as weird and quirky as any band Finland has produced, they also added the virtues of compositional brilliance and instrumental virtuosity. God bless prog rock! Without it, we'd all devolve into lysergic drum circles and cluelessly strummed stringed instruments of various provenances (fun to do, perhaps. Fun to listen to? Not so much).

For those who do like prog rock (King Crimson, Magma, Yes, etc) and who have tried it all, this is a band for you. While drawing from plenty of sources (nothing coes from nothing, after all), Hoyry Kone has very few real peers. Maybe the Czech band, Uz Jsme Doma, with their ethnic melodies and manic instrumental skills has a similarly tweaked vibe, but that's one of very few. There's plenty to love: a vocalist of conservatory quality, a bass player to match the manic thump of Magma, two guitarists of metallic chunkiness and jazzy finesse, violin & cello to transmute some Eastern European/Gypsy melodies, and a drummer sharp enough to bridge to off-kilter, string-based, Balkan sections and symphonic prog passages. East, West, neither.

Mind you, this is off-center stuff, even for a prog band. The vocals are in Finnish (and Latin). The melodies are a little, um, foreign. The rhythms are rarely straightforward. The songs are rarely within galaxies of verse-chorus structure. Still, this is music. It's not oral surgery or even Albert Ayler. If you've been there with King Crimson and Magma, as well as their 90s progeny such as Anekdoten, Anglagard, and Deus Ex Machina, you're gonna be just fine. You might even find in Hoyry Kone your new, favorite, out-of-print prog rock heroes.



HOYRY KONE -- Karjunkaato (from Huono Parturi)
A good summary of their sound. Other tracks might be heavier or weirder, but this brings their aesthetic together: the strong vocals, the Eastern European (Finnish?) melodies, prominent rhythm section, wide dynamics, the whole nine.

HOYRY KONE -- Orn (from Hyonteisia Voi Rakastaa)
The first track from their first album. This was the song that made me pick up the cheap, used copy of this disc from Mellotronen, in Stockholm, 1997. A little funky to hear the new wave-style production here, but the chops and imagination were clearly already in place.