Otso Pakarinen is a wonderfully talented performer and composer from Helsinki, Finland, who performs under the moniker Ozone Player. He has a new CD, Orange Apples, which leans in a solidly Prog angle with lots of guitar, bass, and drums, but is equally captivating and a delightful pair for his last CD, the synth heavy Frozen Paint On Boiling Canvas.
The song titles for Otso's tunes are actually as fun as the music, and the songs on Orange Apples are no exception: "Extrasenory Deprivation" features some wonderful talking/yelling synths with a mechano-Ponderosa feel.
"Orange Apples" brings back memories from last year's Different Skies when I had the pleasure of performing a preview of this tune with Otso and a cast of great musicians. It is a frenetic and smooth, and reminds me of something Zappa would have composed.
"Animal Pharm" starts very Tibetian and has a Wendy Carlos just tempered sound. As with all Otso's tunes, the soundstage is open and stunning, with plenty of space for the ambiance of the space the instruments are sitting in.
"Lemons And Lizards" brings in some nicely proggy counter-rhythms and lines into the percussion heavy proceedings. A great mix where all little melodies and buried sound design work can be heard clearly. Delicate and heavy.
"Two Completely Unprepared Pianos Under Attack" was also previewed live at the last Different Skies. Stately grand pianos are attacked as they saunter down the lane. But they refuse to yield and the battle that ensues is a hilarious as it is musical. The funniest neo-classical heavy metal this year!
"Escape Goat" ranges from a funky, bass heavy, prog tune, to a contemplative harp folk song, and back. Early Genesis via Finland without PG.
"A Turtle's Diary" is a lovely band tune featuring some nice piano work.
"Apocalypso Yo-Yo" starts with some vocorder admonishments and morphs into middle eastern flavored synth, then the band kicks in, jamming.
"Infer No. 21" begins with strings and piano and drums, then jumps into all manner of classic and modern prog antics. Otso is so good at making you feel like you've heard this music before on some classic album, but then takes it in a direction that is so new and modern. "Book Of Worms" continues this approach, adding a bit of progress fusion jazz into the mix (with Brian Good's wonderful soprano sax). As does "Dog-Matic".
"Helsinki" ends the CD with bang of electric guitar, female voice, synths, whistles, and acoustic strings.
Otso's last CD Frozen Paint On Boiling Canvas was a Best CD Of The Year Selection for many folks a couple of years ago and contained some of the most interesting and well produced electronic music I've heard in a long while. Both CDs can be found and listened to at CDBaby.com: Orange Apples and Frozen Paint. They are also on iTunes.
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