Jaakko Eino Kalevi's Dreamzone Comes to North London
Published
With a performance as minimalistic as the venue in which it was hosted, Jaakko Eino Kalevi’s glorious synth-pop was a more than suitable tonic to the November drizzle.
The former tram-driver’s return to Islington was only one mile down the road from where he supported Unknown Mortal Orchestra a month ago, his Electrowerkz show being his biggest London solo performance to date.
With a slight frame and a quiet on-stage demeanour, the Helsinki-residing Kalevi’s approach to performing is similar to that of the Horror’s frontman, Farris Badwan. There were no frills and just minimal interaction with the audience - the focus was simply on squeezing as many songs into the hour as possible. The pair’s vocal delivery is also remarkably similar; slightly breathy and very much in the vein of “less is more” – no notes are dragged out and very little range is utilised.
Kalevi methodically worked through his material, the majority of his set based heavily around his self-titled second album that was released back in June.
The beautifully sleepy ‘Double Talk’ and Chic-esque ‘Hush Down’ were the evening’s standout tracks, showcasing Kalevi’s ability to infuse melodic pop-music with highly funky basslines. His hazy productions were occasionally broken by some obscure-but-fantastic use of woodwind; there being no better example of this than on ‘Deeper Shadows’.
The clapped beat and 1980s sci-fi synth is fractured by a clarinet riff as simple as it is defining – by far the best song on the new album.
An encore longer than Kalevi’s strawberry-blonde hair drew the evening to a close, with the six-song finale concluding on ‘Chamber of Love’ and the repeated lyrical chanting of “sex, torture”. Why not.
More information can be found at http://weirdworldrecordco.com/jek/.
Image courtesy of Pastizales Burning.
