Kevin ‎– Ebb And Flow CD

Kevin ‎– Ebb And Flow CD

"Despite being six years old, Kevin’s third album continues roughly where his predecessor left off. Bad Dream Stone Mystery’s decoction of the sixties and seventies, the psyche and good-natured unrestraint has been refined into an even longer-arched and clearer-lined psychedelia at Ebb and Flow.

Offered as a first tasting, A Lonely Place immediately threw thoughts at Pink Floyd, somewhere between the Barrettess and the success season. There was something familiar about the song, but at the same time it felt distinctive, Kevin. A similar notion of pastisity is evoked by the whole record, but when one should define more precisely what it is, the finger goes to the side of the mouth. Familiar with this, too: you referred to the plural and alluded to Bad Dream. And it doesn't hurt, on the contrary.

Ebb and Flow is nice to listen to, it pampers itself, hovers easily from one song to another, and offers eight insights into the songs moving in different shades of psychedelia. The aforementioned Pink Floyd is, after all, not a very comprehensive reference, Kevin as he travels naturally from the English countryside to the west coast of America and back, showing that he knows his history extensively.

But there is more to the record than bongling. Ebb and Flow offers the opportunity to hum along; ear-catching melodies, beautiful stems, the aura of forced or accidental pop songs. But also solutions that prevent excessive ease, special adaptations, alienating elements. The roles have become clear with numerous listens: the record feels easy but offers chewable. The sub-areas are balanced, the whole rare success.

Kevin's best record is at hand, easily. Its strengths are its smoothness and surely versatile song material that avoids wear and tear. The scale is wide, from Standing On A Rubber Band’s in-song versatility through This Is Real’s space kite to The Uprising’s bright traditional psyche and Vermona’s rise-fall-and-end vibe, with the album effectively mapping crystallizing definitions. It’s that sun this, naturally and surprisingly.

It’s interesting, and also different, how little Kevin brings himself to him. The music is now marked to be composed by the whole band, and undeniably it comes from just one mouth, strangely without emphasizing any aspect of it. The same music and the unity of the issues raised by I seem to see it that appeared in the previous two album cover, the band has now shifted to the rear side of the cover. The same is, of course, true of the sharp-edged Trans-Atlantic Boogie moving from Puuhamaa to Africa and South America to Australia.

Would make sense to use (more) flatnesses: it’s easy when you know it; it is no stranger; when you know, no need to try. But there would be a danger that the record would be thought of as such. It's not, fine in front of you either." - Jani Ekblom