Octupus Syng is a psychedelic rock/pop and folk band from Helsinki, Finland. Originally it was a one-man project from Jaire Pätäri that released two albums on Nasoni records, Beyond The Karmadelic Coldness There's The Lovedelic Warmth (2004) and Birds Of Morning Are Never Late (2007). Since 2009 Octopus Syng became a band. Reverberating Garden Number 7 is the third album and the first made as a quartet. Featuring Jaire on vocals and guitar, Joni on guitar and backing vocals, Antti on bass and Jukka on drums. The music is very inspired by the London underground scene from the 1960s. There are echoes of Pink Floyd's Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967) and Syd Barrett's solo work and some of the West coast psychedelic music. The mix sounds very “flat”, the bass and drums sound in the background and also the vocals are sometimes hard to understand. The mix has little dynamic and I assume they did this on purpose to give it a real sixties sound. In those days the recording equipment was limited and they didn't have 24 or more tracks to record all the instruments separately. I suppose it is a matter of taste. Octopus Syng fits in a movement to revive the sound and looks of the 1960s, together with bands like Temples. But sound and music alone don't revive the feeling. The world was so much different in that time. Nostalgia can be a warm feeling, but one can get trapped in too much nostalgia. ** Erik Gibbels (edited by Astrid de Ronde) Where to buy? |
