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Pekko Käppi Meet the new primitivism, same as the old primitivism? It's hard to say. Unlike Pekko Käppi, I haven't spent years studying old Fenno-Ugric shamans, or gone around Siberia and other parts of Russia looking for hard-hitting riffs, or found the connection between the Grateful Dead and punk rock. I'm just a retired journalist who hasn't been inspired to review records for years, but this year I fell for Pekko Käppi and his electric jouhikko in a big way. Rammat jumalat ("Lame Gods") has been out for most of 2013, so it's about time to declare it one of my albums of the year. Would I do it justice by calling it brutal? It's not half as brutal as his Vuonna '86 from 2010, which among other things contains a list of significant events in 17th Century Finland, including an all-time record in fish-trawling in 1686. "Don't be fooled, this is a full-on, fucked-up, inspired, deeply innovative record with its teeth firmly in noise, sound-sculpture, improvisation and great songwriting," says a comment on Käppi's web site. Rammat jumalat has actual song structures and not that much of a sense of musique concrete. It holds nine fine examples of Finnish neo-primitivism. (Some of you might have heard some of them played on RootsWorld Radio, whose host also seems to be crazy about Käppi - and no wonder, since both of them are slightly crazy.)
Käppi is also appreciated by selected neo-traditionalists, some elderly punk rockers and even a few metal heads looking for something new and non-traditional (in the metal way of thinking). In recent years, an increasing number of Finnish, Estonian and Nordic metal bands have been leaning towards all kinds of imagined "ancient influences from olden, heathen times." But Pekko Käppi is the real deal when it comes to sounding like a toadstool-eating shaman in a trance. That description applies especially to his on-stage persona, with him hunched over his jouhikko, an ancient Finnish version of bowed lyre. I have witnessed his wild flailing as a soloist, in duets with the "Nubian bluesman" Faarao Pirttikangas and recently as a trio with brilliant guitarist Tommi Laine and bassist Nuutti Vapaavuori. High intensity levels are always guaranteed, belying his mild manners and a voice that is really quite sweet. The lyrical elements of Rammat jumalat are very traditional, including typical ballad topics like hangings, slaves howling at the moon or naughty wenches. You will be excused for thinking this is actually quite punk. To me, it sounds very bluesy. Metal influences raise their ugly heads only very occasionally, so I can safely say that this is one hell of a "mad trad" album. - Waldemar Wallenius CD available from the artist Guest writer Waldemar Wallenius is a veteran of Finnish music journalism and an occasional broadcaster, active since the late 1960s. He was founder and editor of Blues News, Musa, Soundi, Fanzine and WUM magazines, among other projects. We dragged him out of retirement.
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