There’s much to love about Soft Power, but one of my favorite qualities possessed by this Finnish sextet of jazz and psychedelic rockers is their mastery of the album format…of their ability to use two sides of vinyl, virtuosic musicianship, and kinetic groove intuition to sweep the mind and body away on imaginative journeys of magic, mystery, and drama. Following a live cassette and a 7” single, Soft Power released their first full length In a Brown Study in 2017, and it has fast become one of my favorite acid rock long players. The whole experience is bookended by cinematic stretches of ambiance, with aching brass and string melodies flowing from the heavens and dusty acoustic guitars wandering ghost towns…the effect not unlike the library folk of Hampshire & Foat. As well, tracks occasionally segue into each other, creating the sense of a mysterious sonic narrative. The A-side mixes 60s psychedelia and jazz and sees funky basslines and tight break and bop beats anchoring jangling acoustics, sky-seeking flute and sax solos, and sun-baked fuzz leads. And interspersed amongst these classical fusion journeys are cooing Broadcast-style cocktail vibe outs imbued with a sense of Iberian mysticism and fourth world forest ceremonials and spoken word enchantments referencing Finland's rich freakfolk lineage and also sounding remarkably similar to the works of Finis Africæ and Pablo Guerrero. The B-side, on the other hand, almost completely forgoes the jazz influences and instead sees the band giving over to flower power splendor, with hallucinogenic jams and pagan rituals evoking Pärson Sound, Dungen, and Feathers-era Dead Meadow and faux-Eastern hippie rock excursions featuring daydream vocal harmonies that reach towards the lysergic pop majesies of late-period Beatles, The Pretty Things circa S.F. Sorrow, or The Brian Jonestown Massacre at their most blissful.
As for their second album adventure Brink of Extinction, released earlier this year on RR GEMS, the presentation is even more cohesive and narrative-based, and though the seamless flow of In a Brown Study hinted at a loose story, this new LP makes its conceptual bent entirely explicit via the title and liner notes. Indeed, the phrase “brink of extinction” references the impending collapse of the Earth’s biodiversity, a catastrophic process that is well under way due to the ignorance and arrogance of human civilization. As well, an insert brings further attention to the issue via the poetry of Juhana Henrikki Harju and an essay that both outlines the problems and offers words of hope and encouragement. The album's music follows suit and features a sound at once similar to In a Brown Study, yet altogether more sorcerous and complex as it leans closer to the jazz fusion and prog rock experimentations of artists like Embryo, Soft Machine, and King Crimson (though it's all rendered with vintage engineering in the style of Rudy Van Gelder). Both sides are dominated by 10+ minute journeys that thrillingly transition between sections of shadowstorm fury dominated by evil fuzz solos, furious freakouts, and grooves of doom jazz intensity, and passages of aspirational radiance and pastoral dream psychedelia, wherein guitars shimmer and shine while sax and flute seek out the eternal spirits of the sky…the two compositions in some sense serving as musical reflections of ideas outlined in the liner notes...of the human capacity for beauty and compassion, even in the darkness of a dying planet. And to tie these pieces together, Soft Power use shorter compositions that explore ghostly piano balladry, celestial bebop, big band nostalgia, Floydian folk rock, and scorching blues and fusion, wherein jazzy psych guitar solos and follow-along vocal scats set the very air aflame.
Soft Power - Brink of Extinction (RR GEMS, 2020)
Opening the show is “Awakening,” a composition from drummer and multi-instrumentalist Mikael Jurmu seeing celestial ivory melodies sustaining through clouds of ghostly ambience, with the piano close mic’d and intimate as stool creaks and hushed breaths diffuse into the mix. And at some point, vocals swell in support...like the swoon of some mysterious choir of the dawn. A drum fill introduces “Brink of Extinction” and its irresistible jazz rock swing...lightly psychedelic and led by jangling tambourines...with Iiro Tulkki’s octave basslines dancing beneath gemstone Rhodes clusters from Staffan Södergård as cool and confident electric guitar phrases end in a chord splash. Lauri Vertanen’s tenor sax and Antti Vauhkonen’s alto descend upon the mix with refrains of radiant magic that surround the soul with uplifting waves of reed-generated sunshine…though there’s a slight air of melancholy as well. During an ascendent King Crimson style bridge, basslines slide, horns scream, and Jurmu’s drums splash and crash towards the sky before the mix reduces to silence, from which a wavering Rhodes performance emerges to sparkle alone in the moonlight. Returning to the jazz psych swing, horns wail in desperation and Tulkki’s bass alights on fantasy fusion fretboard cascades while tremolo guitar chords crash alongside the drumbeats. Then, following another dramatic cut towards ambiance, the mix sees wavering phaser hazes evoking alien landscapes and abstracted post-rock basslines blowing clouds of black smoke as echo-soaked saxophones snake through solar screams and galactic note clusters. Cymbals rain down blankets of muted metallic glimmer and voices speak mysterious poetries throughout the extra-terrestrial environments, but eventually, another drum fill rushes us back towards blazing jazz rock and pastoral psych folk perfection, with Vauhonen swapping his alto sax for flute, resulting in spellbinding explorations through prog rock paradises while solar brass themes swell in support. And eventually, the woodwind gives way to a muted e-piano solo...its glowing colorations struggling against the tremolo guitar bursts and the increasingly crazed bass and drums, which play off each even as they threaten to explode into free bombast.
“Orange Red Yellow” begins in a pastoral Floydian mode, with basslines slinking around the fretboard and electric guitars twiddling and twirling over summery strummed acoustics. Layered flutes enter and push the vibe even more towards laid back acid folk and soul jazz romance and as saloon pianos hover in the distance, the flute breaks free for paradisiacal explorations. At some point, we transition into a bridge that sees crystalline Rhodes chords repurposed for smokey lounge blues and filmic horn themes evoking drunken glides through infinite flower fields, and as we return to the stoned Pink Floyd-style groove out, crazed clouds of tremolo picked guitar hover in the distance and a lone flute purrs out themes of cinematic radiance. After a heart wrenching saxophone solo, we fall again into a sad and stormy bridge seeing sparkling piano chords moving through rustic blues progressions while saxophones wail across the sky. Then, during another breathtaking fantasy flute journey, smoldering horn layers slowly grow in strength as the track increasingly transitions into a funereal dirge, with snare led drum shuffles breaking into anthemic fills, Tulkki’s bass guitar alighting on shadowy adventures, saxophones generating layers of purring warmth, and clean guitars dueling towards the horizon…the whole thing evoking for me the epic conclusion of “Blue Tomb” by Comets on Fire. “The Water Room” closes side A with fried piano chords bouncing and a snare fill introducing a blues-soaked fusion vamp, with hard-panned drums smashing in one ear and mesmerizing piano riffs circulating in the other. Smokey jazz riffs move in counterpoint and sloppy saxophones play moaning blues leads that are barely discernible through layers of free jazz skronk. And eventually, we land on one of the best musical moments of 2020, which features a completely jaw-dropping eruption of unison voice and guitar scatting. It’s one of my absolute favorite things, but so rarely heard due to the considerable skill involved. Yet here, Soft Power completely nail the effect, and it is beyond thrilling to hear Kyrklund journey the length of the fretboard while hushed vocalisms track the playing at every step.
B-side centerpiece “Window of Opportunity” opens with the sounds of traffic and howling winds as an electro piano generates layers of romantic delirium. Then comes a spiritual explosion seeing percussive stormfronts, glowing keys, and glimmering bell tones supporting the sky-bound screams of flute and saxophone…all before the song transitions towards a swooning and swaying heroin jazz shuffle anchored by thundering bass and featuring woodwind and reed themes reaching into the noir night. E-piano starscapes spread outwards as a cavernous fuzz guitar solo from Kyrklund erupts over the mix, with the vibes of darkness and doom reminding me as much of early Opeth and Candlemass as of late-era Soft Machine and the shadowprog of Espers’ II. Then we cut into a pastoral jazz jam out, with airs of Eastern European traditional music touching the flower fairy flutes while reverb-soaked chord bursts and smokey guitars converse over uptempo forest folk drumming. After another menacing prog descent across every instrument, the mix breaks down completely and out of the silence, hypnotizing Rhodes riffs emerge to anchor a blazing acoustic psych freakout, with flutes darting and dashing, piano chords banging away, and manic funk breakbeats bashing and crashing like Terry Cox at his wildest. Sinister fuzz solos launch the track into the heart of the sun and bring a sense of glam rock intensity, and, returning to the energetic freak beat jamming, blues guitars skronk wildly while the drums fade and flow in intensity. Elsewhere, after another storming fuzz lead climax, things devolve again, this time seeing Södergård’s Rhodes locking into a “Riders on the Storm” style progression while cosmic winds generated by Mika Hyytiä’s Moog intermingle with swelling cymbals. Tribal toms pulsate, guitars smear, rimshots and hi-hats dance together, and kicks tap off the beat as sax and flute moan together above subtle funk bass flourishes and crystalline e-piano tapestries. Then, after a slamming and explosive passage where shakers and tambourines move like snake tails beneath trilling flutes, wailing horns, and anthemic piano chords, we alight on a final and climactic journey of stoner funk and shades-drawn prog, wherein circular flute and sax cycles lead a joyous sunshine bounce comprised of ultra-tight breakbeats, smooth blues piano chords, springy slap basslines, and golden tambourine jangles. And towards the end, the sax breaks free to alight on reverb-soaked solo runs as the mix is increasingly intercut by cinematic breakdowns and birdsong flute trills.
The epic, and at times unsettling adventure that is “Window of Opportunity” is bookended by two cuts of dream jazz mesmerism, though each track reaches towards and references vastly different eras of the sound. “New Beginning” begins with sustaining piano chords that call back to A-side opener “Awakening,” but are now worked into a upbeat and magical swing that eventually anchors a cool bebop and spiritual jazz exploration, one pulling my mind to classics such as McCoy Tyner and Sun Ra, as well as aligning with the contemporaneous work of Greg Foat. Sax and flute melt over the mix, cool jazz drumbeats are led by sparkling ride taps, and acoustic pianos splash through glowing liquid puddles before alighting on dreamy solos backed by guitar chord shimmer. The atmosphere is airy and it all lands like a daydream, with tenor and alto sax swimming through the mix via sexual breaths and filmic runs while the rhythm section is imbued with a sense of classical 60s wonderment, resulting in a wondrous jazz workout seemingly beamed in from a different era entirely. On the other side of “Window of Opportunity” sits the old world jazz ambiance of “Final Blow,” another composition from Jurmu that sees the wind sextet Viskiveikot mimicking some big band horn section–only as if drunk out of its mind. Martial trumpets play to the setting sun as rays of orange and gold fight through corrosive clouds of industrial smoke generated by the animalistic howls of tubas and trombones, and the whole thing is funereal and falling apart in real time, though it's also hauntingly beautiful…like the faintest glimmers of hope fighting against a requiem for the death of the Earth.
(images from my personal copy)
