Heikki Hautala

Album Title: 
Pyövelin Vaatteet
Release Date: 
Friday, January 31, 2014
Distribution: 
Review Type: 

Heikki Hautala is a visual artist (with apparently quite a few exhibitions to his name – check some of his work at (www.) heikkihautala.wordpress.com) whom is also the frontman of the Finish blind-rage noisy Punk band Sokea Piste, who thus far released one 7-inch single (July 2011's Oire), and two 12-inch albums (July 2011's Ajatus Karkaa, released a day prior to the single; and Jan. 2013's Vätikäsi), the latter of which was also released on CD by Ektro.

All members of that band are also active in other bands: drummer Jukka is a member of Vapaamaa (whom released an album on Ektro last year, if memory doesn't fail me), bassist Seppo also plays with Aortaorta, and Heikki joins second guitarist Juhana (whose other bans are Käppi/ Nyrhinen, Kyplooppien Sulupuuto, and PO/NY) in the band Kuollot Muisto. However, while all of those bands play music of a more “excited” type, what we get here on Hautala's debut solo release Pyövelin Vaatteet (roughly translated as “executioner's clothes”), is merely a man-and-his-acoustic-guitar set which was recorded “some years back” on a 4-track recorder, somewhere in the woods of Kuru. According to the info sheet which accompanies the promo download of the album, the lyrics represent “...a brute uncanny mixture of sociological stand pouring out with almost revelatory statues of our habits and nature...”, but basically whatever message exists is completely lost on me, seeing as I don't understand the Finish language one bit!

Which kinda dampens any possible excitement on my part about the album, seeing as Hautala also uses a very unilateral calmer type of singing, in which I frequently find a somewhat nagging undertone. End conclusion/ I'm not too happy about this 10-track, 25,5-minute album, but you're of course free to make up your own mind, and in order to be able to do so both Ektro and Future Lunch (who release the CD as a joint venture) have different posted songs on the Internet. For the Ektro posting, check out the label's homepage (www.) ektrorecords.com, for the other, surf to (http://) soundcloud.com/future-lunch.

79/100