America thank you for your gallant attempt at bringing post-punk back now it's time to hand things off to Northern Europe. Svart Records is branching out to bring you this Helsinki based band Kesa who has a wide range of sounds at their command to pay homage to 80s post-punk. From the first song it's bass propelled and slightly militant, the album cover looks like a joke but these guys are serious as all hell. "Tuuli kaantyy" they show they are able to balance out the cold stark march with some groove and atmosphere. The vocals stay in the hard chanting.
Synths slowly begin to play a larger role and the vocals become slightly more sung which becomes increasingly apparent by "Sade". It's even bordering on cold wave on " Sul on" which is an interlude just leading up to the stomping Devo like groove of "Sotilaan mieli". The vocals curl their upper lip back up into a more punk shout. The female vocals chime in to help out and adds yet another dimension to their sound and really makes the dynamics pop off more on this one. The guitar playing finds it's way into a ore melodic strum on ""Harju" which gives it a more Iceage mentality except for the new romantic elements in the synths and backing vocals . Something to the song also reminds me of "Leader of the Pack". So these guys are far from becoming another band that wants to be Killing Joke.
They veer to the left of a more new wave direction. The groove and synth melodies work well with the vocals , the band's grasp of electronics is pretty impressive. There is a slight hint of industrial to the closing "Paaskyvuori" . The band doesn't take the song in the direction you assume it's headed in and continues to toy with you. The joke is "What do you call some one who only speaks one language"..."an American" , but those of you who are stateside and expect your music delivered to you in English might balk at this album and that's fine you can miss out. I'll give this album a 9.5 and see how it sits with me for the rest of the year. I look forward to hearing more from this band.
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