Talmud Beach Announce Chief for March 18 Release on Svart
My reasons for posting about Talmud Beach‘s upcoming Svart debut are about as pure as motives get for this kind of thing: I checked it out and dug it. That’s about as far as it’s gone as yet. As I write this, I’m three songs into Chief, which is set to release on March 18, and very, very much into the vibe of its laid back, airy, naturalist blues. The PR wire talks about “quiet intensity” below and I can see where it’s coming from, but whether it’s the proggy background vocals in “Mountain Man” or the birdsong behind the start of “Forest,” there’s clearly more going on here than one genre might try to wall in. Looking forward to getting to know this one better, and I mean that.
The Helsinki-based band released their self-titled debut in 2013, but if you’d like to get introduced to Chief, they have a video for album-opener “Ain’t so Young” that you can check out below. I hope you’ll be as pleasantly surprised upon doing so as I was:
TALMUD BEACH set release date for SVART debut
Talmud Beach is a blues trio from the heartlands of Finland, releasing their second album, Chief, on March 18th via Svart Records. The new album carries with it the same praised spirit evoked on the debut: it puts a blues on your face, without pushing, pulling, or shouting. The boogie is still floating with the weight of a snowflake, but the colors and shades are more varied than on the vivid green debut. “Chinaman Blues” swamps; “Forest” is redolent and dark; “Mountain Man” is left in the white haze of the mountain top, and in the end, a chief’s hat awaits you in all the colors of the rainbow.
Talmud Beach is wandering the trails marked by artists like Robert and Blind Willie Johnson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Canned Heat, ZZ Top, J.J. Cale, and 22-Pistepirkko. During their five years of existence, apart from their eponymous first album, Talmud Beach has released a live album with Daniel Johnston and a motorik single, “Summertime Mother.” The biggest hit from the debut album, “Hobo Don’t Mind a Little Rain,” could be heard not only on the radio, surfing the waves for some time, but also as the theme for a hit comedy series, Napamiehet, on Finnish national television.
A Finnish proverb “calm is the loon’s field” is the motto of Chief. The loon is an aquatic bird also seen on the cover of the new album. Today, music is often played at loud volume, and it has intensively produced and massive sound. For Talmud Beach, the quest for intensity has always gone beyond the volume knob – a quiet, sensitive approach is more effective. With an open listener, the limpid surface will start to reveal the hidden depths: passing youth, a sweaty, shirtless “Kekkonen” (the former Finnish president), or endless flow of snow – all lie below.
For the opening title “Ain’t So Young,” Tuomo Tuovinen directed a music video that won the grand prize at the Oulu Music Video Festival in 2015, and which can be viewed in its entirety HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Talmud Beach’s Chief
1. Ain’t So Young
2. Pharmacy Blues
3. Mountain Man
4. Forest
5. Kekkonen
6. Snow Snow Snow
7. Chinaman Blues
8. Born With the Blues
9. Chief
www.facebook.com/talmud.beach1
http://talmudbeach.bandcamp.com/
http://www.svartrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/svartrecords
Damn, this band is completely unfair. To join you have to be a balding Finn. And how many are those in the NHL? None.