c o n r a d

This album's opening track gives a misleading impression of the band. Despite the fact that the instrumentation is typical of Uzva, consisting most notably of guitar, violin and clarinet, it is in a fairly sedate 4/4 time and played very much as written, with little more dynamic variation than the average MIDI file. In fact, the only musician not playing completely straight here is the drummer, whose ability to play around the beat provides some sort of clue as to what the rest of the album is about. The remaining tracks don't really get too much louder, but the playing is more spirited, the tempo is faster and the time signature rarely gets back into 4/4 (it actually spends an inordinate amount of time in 5/4). The electric guitar is barely distorted, and does a fair job of adding a little more bite to the chamber music sound of the group, without unbalancing it. The acoustic guitar is usually present for the quieter moments and blends beautifully, particularly on the soporific first half of "III." This album shows a goup with two gears. The first is slow, somnolent and pleasant, and the second is upbeat and quirky, though rarely approaching loud. The musicianship is of a high quality, but remarkably is even better on Nittoaika, the band's sophomore album; the songwriting is always solid and sometimes inspired. For me, this is an inferior album to Uzva's two subsequent releases, but is perhaps the most consistant stylistically. Not that it's easy to put a stylistic label to it. I am not sure if this is jazz or chamber-prog, but it is a relaxing, beautiful and quirky instrumental album which provided Uzva a wonderful foundation on which to build. review by Conrad Leviston — 5-3-07 —

b r a n d o n

Although members of Höyry-kone guest on this album, don't come into this expecting a balls-out, wild, heavy, rollicking ride: Uzva's an entirely different thing. This group plays a very melodic, sunny brand of "chamber-rock"; strings and woodwinds carry mostly slow, lazy melodies over an active but very relaxed rhythm section. The sounds are very classical, with some very evident folk influences permeating it all (especially on "I", where the phrase "Finnish accordion masters" comes to my mind unbidden), especially in some of bouncier bass lines. Overall, Tammikuinen Tammela is a very pretty album with a cheerful, open feel to it. There is some electric guitar here and there, but this and the electric bass are the only non-acoustic elements of the music, and they never get loud. If I had a complaint, it would be that the mood stays too stable, and the band never really kicks it into the next gear - but that's probably not the style they're looking for anyway. I also wish some of themes were developed more fully (especially in "II", which stumbles upon some brilliant melodies only to promptly leave them behind entirely), and that the acoustic guitar played a more prominent role. These are fairly minor complaints, though, and for those of you looking for a change from the more oppressive, aggressive prog out there, this could be just the thing. review by Brandon Wu — 2-2-01 —