Review: Love Is The Answer - Headreader

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." [Shakespeare] - sorry to get all cultural on yo ass but there is a point. I get quite a few emails each day with submissions for review and you can normally get a good idea of the music by the band/artist's name....for example, a submission from someone calling themselves Groove vs. Booty is not going to be filled with eye-watering riffs nor Nuclear Carnage likely to be ethereal dream pop. Anyway, an email arrived from a Finnish duo called 'Love Is The Answer' and I initially thought 'hmm...pop? R&B?' but I read the mail anyway (as I do with all emails) and I'm so fucking glad I did (they mentioned that they shorten their name to LIAR so I'm gonna stick with that...but what's in a name eh?). The duo are Kalle Sipilä (bass, guitars, voc, analog synth, piano, samples, loops, field-recordings, arrangements) and Jani-Petteri Olkkonen (witch drums, ritual percussion, kendang, cajon, bells & bones, voc, flutes, loops, didgeridoo) and they play "21st century ritual music" and I've gotta say that 'Headreader' is quite simply a stunning album which has pretty much all that I ask for in music these days.

The album opens with '7 Leaves of Toé',a short, drone based piece filled with skittering percussion that sounds uncommonly like bones and voices that flit between singing folky airs and garbled spoken words. Hot on it's heels comes 'Temple Song', which is magnificent! Cavernous, rumbling bass and tribal drums sit cheek by jowl with guitar that borders on the discordant and ominous vocal chants. The tempo ebbs and flows throughout the track giving it a fluid feeling but the intensity never waivers..brilliant stuff! 'A Place In The Sun' is stripped right back to electric, bluesy guitar and the merest hint of demonic vocals that haunt the background. For a track that is so sparse it evokes a heady atmosphere....whispered hints of folklore and ancient malevolence. The title track 'Headreader' takes the ritual aspect of the duo's music and places it firmly in the foreground; primitive drums and vague whispers and swirls of ethereal sounds. This segues neatly into 'Spirit Dance' which sees things move forward several centuries with programmed beats and swathes of ominous synths straight out of sci-fi. The dread laden, muted vocals are still present, incanting ritualistic prayers to a future god. 'Blue River Murders' is a gargantuan 21 minutes long and sees a dramatic sea change in proceedings....gone are the feelings of dread to be replaced with a more optimistic musical approach. The guitar veers between abstract noodlings and passages of pastoral beauty - verging on the Hawaiian - accompanied by the exotic sound of the kendang providing the percussion. Despite the title, it all has a very summery feel to it. Needless to say, as it progresses the darkness starts to pervade..deep drones and stabs of foreboding synths take over, changing the atmosphere completely. 'Lapis Lazuli' takes the sci-fi soundtrack hinted at in 'Spirit Dance' and expands it into a 9 minute paean to the art of the futuristic score...think a more experimental Vangelis. Drones and wavering synth lines sit on top of more tribalistic drums. 'Doing Good' brings things to a close with a return to the ritual - menacing guitar combines with the tinkling of bells and noises of the rain forest in a piece with lugubrious pace and laden with paganistic overtones.

'Headreader' is an album that ticks pretty much every box. It takes on the same form and ethos as much of the Italian Occult Psychedelia that I hold so dear. The ritualism is judged nicely - enough to give the tracks an undeniable, striking sound of its own but not so much as to make it 'gimmicky'. The instrumentation is a stroke of genius - the mix of exotic, indigenous instruments with modern electronic trickery but, again, all nicely balanced and it's all held together with true creativity and originality. An expansive, immersive work of art! This is the debut album from Love Is The Answer and I hope that they continue to mine this seam for many years. 'Headreader' is available as a download from their Bandcamp page here.