In the last few years we’ve seen the “psych” tag used ever more and in time it began to denote something ambigious yet distinct in its own way. The blending of free-folk, noise and drone into seamless blocks of musical vista in the works of, say the Not Not Fun label or the Finnish giant Fonal has taken it out of its 1960’s context and built something new atop. Most of the new psychedelic music remains in the rock / folk tradition : long dark and drony moments dressed with earthy folk vibes, yet Finnish Shogun Kunitoki has managed to create its own brand of chaotic psychedelia.

I think I have to admit that I wasn’t really impressed with their 2006 debut, guess I wasn’t ready to “get it” then. After three years and being exposed to more and more music in this tradition, I’ve gotten more fun out of “Vinonamakasio” although it’s not perfect in that sense. I won’t be able to rate this against the first album since I don’t have it lying around, so I refrain from making any judgements (which I normally don’t do anyway).

The swirling organ-led music is not unlike Sagor & Swing or the solo work of Eric Malmberg himself, yet contrasting his calm and melodic pieces Shogun Kunitoki has more noise, more power resulting in more chaos. There are also hints of Silver Apples and of minimalism in the context of recurring motifs and hypnotic patterns and of course other Finnish artists like Lau Nau, Paavoharju and Hannu spring to mind. A 35 minute seamless piece cut into 9 parts, the one’s I share are tracks no.2 and no.8 so this is not really the best way to experience the LP, so if you like what you hear don’t hesitate to buy it.