Member:
Reginod
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by Reginod)
Date:
3/10/2003
Format:
CD (Album)
Ozone Player is the moniker given to the musical endeavors of one Otso Pakarinen, a Finnish producer of music for industrial videos, TV commercials, documentaries and the like. He also manages to find the time to produce albums of progressive music. Judging from his 2002 release E, his work would best fit into the sub-genre of electronic progressive, but the music has an eclectic compositional approach which better reveals itself upon repeated listens.
According to the CD insert Pakarinen plays keyboards, percussion, guitar, synth programming, loud objects and found sounds, and he is augmented by several other players: Esa Hyvonen (vocals on two cuts), Jouni Halmari (guitar on one cut), and Kimmo Kivela (Reaktor rhythm and/or "liquid piano" on two cuts).
My own take on this album is that it is a pleasing cruise through several different moods, from the spy thriller-esque opener "My Name Is Bond . . . Jeeves Bond" to the haunting "Platonaut" to the spacey closer "Saurus". It would probably appeal more to lovers of subtle melodic and rhythmic manipulations than fans of jagged, harsh, or dissonant music.
Ozone Player's website cites influences ranging from the heavy metal of bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, to the obvious "Big 5" influences of the classic era of prog, to the electronic music of Tangerine Dream, to the synth-pop produced in the early 80's by the likes of Devo (I personally hear a bit of an Oldfieldian approach). E seems to be an amalgam of all of those influences, and is therefore a few degrees outside the sphere of the standard norms of electronic music. It is not an immediate "rush" but should provide ample reward to the patient listener.
|
|
|
