Show 63 - Baltimore to Finland, and back again....

[Methem]

Originally Posted by Rick and Roll

This CD (second one) is fantastic. Part fusion, some Middle-Eastern riffs, a bit of dance (the Donna Summer cover "I Feel Love" is nice!). Ther are some great instrumental jams on here by this power trio.

Don't look for a fourth, the guitarist/singer (Petri Walli) in no longer living.

They were always a trio, AFAIK. Walli died (obviously a suicide) some time after the band had stopped playing.

Methem, please throw in some more info about them.

The trio was originally founded in Helsinkin in the late 1980s. The music... well, you pretty much described it already... but a lot of it is quite loud with some proggish and/or psyish elements, eastern riffs, and so on. Some of their tracks have visiting artists: for example, Sakari Kukko of Piirpauke plays sax on a couple of pieces. They made the three albums and then disbanded/stopped playing in late 1994. They were never very popular but managed to achieve some sort of cult status in Finland.

At least Walli had formerly played in some punk band, which might explain why his singing, IMO, isn't the best part of their music.

As for some of the music being dancey (on the third album), Walli was obviously interested in some of the electronic dance music that was out there in the early 1990s.

Here are a couple of sites with more info about the band (both probably already familiar to you, Rick):

- http://www.aural-innovations.com/iss.../kingwall.html
An interview with the bassist. Take the hype in the beginning of the page with a grain of salt...

- http://www.kotiposti.net/akiko/mirrorlandv2/index.html
Claims to be the official site of the band.


-Methem