Tasavallan Presidentti - Tasavallan Presidentti II (1971)

Les recomiendo que no se pierdan este excelente trabajo. En nuesto recorrido por Finlandia, traemos otros disco de los TP para comenzar la semana, una banda que le gusta mucho a nuestra querida Vicky y que seguramente será del gusto de muchos cabezones. Ah! y nuestro paso por Finlandia no termina aquí ni mucho menos. Discazo!!!

Artista: Tasavallan Presidentti

Álbum: Tasavallan Presidentti II
Año: 1971
Género: Jazz Rock
Duración: 34:52
Nacionalidad: Finlandia

Lista de Temas:
1. Introduction 4:00
2. Deep Thinker 2:30
3. I Love You Teddy Bear 2:50
4. Struggling For Freedom 4:40
5. Tease Me, Tease You 1:54
6. Weather Brightly 3:15
7. Sinking 6:58
8. I'm Going Home Once Again 3:58
9. Tell Me More

Alineación:
- Jukka Tolonen / guitar, piano
- Pekka Pöyry / saxophones, flute
- Frank Robson / vocals, organ
- Måns Groundstroem / electric bass, organ
- Vesa Aaltonen / drums, percussion

Discazo peddo y reseñado por Vicky, que aquí nos deja el comentario del disco, mientras también lo vamos publicando en la lista de correo...

Otro gran disco de Tasavallan Presidentti!!! Esta vez con unos cambios en la formación: Juhani Aaltonen fue reemplazado por Pekka Pöyry en los vientos. Este segundo álbum tiene un sonido bastante similar al anterior, medio hard rock/blues, salpicado con mucho jazz y con unos toques jethrotullescos (si se me permite usar este término). De hecho, incluyeron una versión no muy distinta de “I Love You Teddy Bear” (ya grabada en el primer LP). No estoy muy segura del porqué de esta inclusión, tengo algunas conjeturas al respecto, pero no creo que sea importante detenerse en este detalle.
En resumen, es una muy buena continuación de su primer trabajo. Además, también es interesante verlo como una especie de disco de transición entre su impresionante debut y su obra maestra Lambertland, degustando la evolución musical del grupo.

Vicky

Bueno, vamos a buscar algún otro comentario a ver qué es lo que dice la gente de este gran disco:

Rara vez escuchamos rock que no sea británico o americano, lo que es una pena, pues hay una gran escena musical en países como Alemania, Italia, Escandinavia e incluso en España.
En este caso el grupo del que quiero escribir proviene de Finlandia, Tasavallan Presidentti (Presidente de la república), y tiene sobre todo dos grandes álbumes: Tasavallan Presidentti II y Lambertland, con sabor a rock británico, eso sí. Los trabajos a los que me refiero siguen la línea del rock progresivo y el jazz rock, y es que son dos de mis estilos favoritos, por lo que no puedo evitar caer casi siempre en la tentación de publicar referencias a estos géneros musicales.
Aunque a veces uno piense que hablo de discos que no conoce prácticamente nadie y pueden no parecer gran cosa, son trabajos de enorme calidad que me gustan y que tienen generalmente una calificación de cuatro o cinco estrellas en Allmusic y ProgArchives entre otros. En otras palabras, están considerados por la crítica especializada como joyas de la música.
Volviendo a Tasavallan Presidentti, su disco Lambertland es un poco mejor, pero prefiero publicarlos en orden cronológico. Tasavallan Presidentti II fue publicado en 1971 y está más bien orientado hacia el rock y el blues con un ligero toque jazz. Su música me evoca un tanto a los King Crimson de la época por la variación entre momentos más suaves y melódicos a otros rápidos y con mayores tintes rock, también a veces a los primeros Jethro Tull, por sus pasajes de flauta a medio camino entre el blues y el jazz, pero sobre todo esta banda finlandesa lo que tiene es un sabor propio y único.
La introducción que abre el álbum resulta idónea para hacerse una idea de por donde va su música. Percusiones rápidas y rítmicas sólidas. Flautas y saxophones a medio camino entre jazz, blues y folk, así como muy buenas guitarras blues. Por último resaltaría una voz que aprovecha bien sus recursos melódicos creando el contrapunto casi perfecto para unos temas principalmente rítmicos. Y digo casi perfecto, exagerando un poco, porque a veces puede sonar un poco discordante y demasiado pop con el resto de la banda.
Un gran banda, que seguramente habría llegado más lejos de ser británica o americana. Un disco para descubrir y que sirve como introducción al que editarían un año después. Este es uno de esos discos que gusta escuchar y tener, si puede ser, en vinilo.

Mingus

Y algunos comentarios en inglés, para derezar un poco más, y recuerden que los links estarán en la lista de correo, así que si los quieren no se pierdan el tren y anótense, no sean vagos que llevaremos todos los links para ahí.

The CD version of this very good and rare album is mastered from a vinyl, as the original tapes are still missing. But at least I can't hear any cracks or pops anywhere, so the transcribing has been done professionally. The album opens with fast and happy jazzy instrumental number, and the wonderful following tune "Deep Thinker" has been released previously as a single. "I Love You Teddy Bear" is another version of the same song featured in their first album, the version here doesn't differ much from the earlier version. "Tis Me Tis You" is a happy song accompanied with a flute, this resembles early JETHRO TULL quite much in my opinion. The other goodies are "Weather Brightly" and the beautiful and hazy "Sinking". This album is highly recommended by me along with their first album and the recent live disc!

Eetu Pellonpää

This is one of the most classic Finnish prog rock albums. Roughly speaking, half of the music - featuring organ, saxophone and flute in addition to a basic rock combo - is edgy progressive jazz rock, and the other half is easier and mellower pieces. This dicotomy makes me think of King Crimson of the time, and also Procol Harum comes to mind especially when the organ has a big role. Frank Robson is a strong vocalist (slightly reminding of Harum's Gary Brooker) who seems to be equally at home with bluesy or rough numbers and the soft ones, which I enjoy more.
The music doesn't have the clear trademarks of (symphonic/epic) prog, and most of the tracks remain short or in normal length, though they have a lot of potential to be extended in a 'jazzy' way when played live, and I presume they have done so in their concerts. The longest track 'Sinking' (7 minutes) reminds a lot of Pekka Streng album Magneettimiehen kuolema, which TP did with him soon afterwards. Slow tempo, Eastern-ish flute and percussion... It is Pekka Pöyry's beautiful flute that I love the best on this album. While many listeners probably have greater respect for edgier numbers on which the skill of the players may shine brighter, I prefer ballads like 'I Love You Teddy Bear' and 'I'm Going Home Once Again'. The leaflet includes a detailed text on the album and its making, and the lyrics.

Matti

This is really an aristic band and not a jazz rock one exactly...Blending mostly jazz with rock and symphonic elements we have a very interesting result that only as art rock can be defined...Of course the main influences of the band comes from jazz and that fact can be noticed to most of the tracks as to the great ''Introduction'', a unique piece of music, an excellent blend of rock with trompet and sax omprovisations,you've got to listen to this...But there are also some symphonic-like tracks as ''I love you Teddy bear'' and ''I'm going home once again'', very close to the 70's-era FOCUS (although this disc was released before FOCUS' great albums)...But there are also some a couple of weak tracks (''Struggling for freedom'' for example) where the style of music goes the eclectic away but doesn't reach the high standards of the other tracks...
My opinion is that TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTI were trully a groundbreaking band with a unique jazzy/rock sound and if there weren't the weak tracks we could talk about almost a masterpiece of prog music...Now the fair rating for me is 3.5 stars and I recommend you to enjoy this original Finish act...

apps79

Take classic-era Procol Harum, make the keyboards less dominant, and switch out the classical influences for jazz and Hendrix and you might end up with something a bit like Tasavallan Presidentti's sound on their second album. The Procol Harum influence is particularly notable in Frank Robson's vocals, but also comes to the fore regularly in the music too - I Love You Teddy Bear could be a lost track from Procol's debut. Jukka Tolonen's guitar work is clearly technically skilled but at the same time doesn't seem very creative - his solo on Introduction, for example, is pretty damn tight, but at the same time it's also kind of predictable.
So, a jazzy Procol Harum without a guitarist quite on the level of Robin Trower, keyboardists less willing to completely dominate proceedings, and meaty sax interventions from Pekka Pöyry - a fun enough combination, but not quite anything to set the world on fire. It's a good album, but not much more than a good album; three stars.

W. Arthur

The rather rare second album of TP, the one that never got released in their homeland, but in the neighbouring Sweden, and only very recently received a legit (I think) reissue on Walhalla Records. Recorded in the summer of 70, TP2 is a mix of tracks from their debut album (the embarrassing Teddy Bear and Once Again) and tracks that are proper to this album, but already very reminiscent of the upcoming Lambertland. TP was by then in a transitory state with first singer Robson still in the fold, but not for much longer, but windman Poyry has already replaced Aaltonen.
While the album still features some of the embarrassing moments of their debut album (the afore-mentioned tracks) including the Beatles/Traffic semi-lift-off Weather Brightly. The album suffers from a very average quality (not to say amateurish) production, Tolonen's guitar is in full flight, as can be heard in Introduction, Thinker, Freedom or Tease Me. But you can see that the group still hadn't fully matured by then, as evidenced in the slightly Indian-inspired (tabla- like drumming, and sitar-like guitar strumming) 7-mins track of Sinking. The album's highlights are the near-excellent opening rapid-fire instrumental Introduction, the pleasant flute-drenched Deep Thinker, the slow Struggling For Freedom and the closing choppy descending Tell Me More, all hinting at the upcoming Lambertland album.
The Walhalla CD reissue comes with the full Lambertland album as a bonus, but doesn't feature the splendid artwork, so you're left with a rather average brown and white double picture artwork, with just enough space for the other album's track list. Sooooo, since this second album is rather over-rated, your interest in having this unofficial 2on1 is of rather limited interest. I'd rather advise you to search for the proper Lambertland release, which is easily their best album, and IMHO the only thing you really need from them, unless you'd want to make a CD-r compilation of their other three albums.

Sean Trane

Yeah! I loved this record from the first listening and I get really strong vibes from this one. Tasavallan Presidentti took a huge step musically, directionally and professionally from their first record Tasavallan Presidentti(Love records) to here. The music is very beautiful indeed and the band has given amuch more clear thought to the constructs of the pieces. I have no bad thing to say, highly recommended to any one who fancies beautiful music also with a good groove in strong progrock vein with elements of jazz, blues and some from eastern music also. Fantastic.

juus0_s

This is one of the best records made in the 70's - it is not prog in the Yes or Elp Vain, but a record with superb songs played by agreat musicians - its TP best album, and can be use as a sure bet for people, like myself, that are on a search for beautiful records from the 70's. i sould note that all lyrics are in english and are all sang in a raw and beautiful way - some very powerful and emotinal way - most highly recommended!

boaz

No se pierdan éste disco!!!