Consisting of singer-electronic craftsman Timo Kukolampi, bassist-keyboardist Tuomo Puranen and alternating drummers Tomi Leppanen and Anssi Nykanen, Finland’s K-X-P compellingly harness strands of prog, Kraut, space rock and heavy rock along with post-punk sensibility.
III is the title of the epic work which started in early 2015 with Part 1, all recorded in the same sessions on the fortified island of Suomenlinna, which is only reachable by boat from Helsinki. If Part 1 mapped out the sonic terrain with bolts of dark, seething tension, the second part climbs to the grand finale. Sometimes the juddering signals which Kukolampi deploys to kick off tracks such as Winner or the motorik hell-cruise of Freeway sound barely containable, as their rolling black clouds congeal into tangible riffs. Sub Goblin uses martial drums to ignite a furious techno/space rock hybrid that piles into deep prog vistas aboard mysterioso monster-chords. Transuranic Heavy Elements takes the album out on a radioactive shudder, decaying into the ether while bringing down the curtain on an impressive future rampage of unbridled questing and furious emotion. Sinister, complex and well worth a dip.
