Album Review: Skyjoggers, 12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse
Posted in Reviews on June 4th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The second-most dense object in the universe only to black holes, neutron stars are estimated to rotate over 700 times per second, driven by the incredible force of their own gravity. There are a couple reasons why this factoid comes to mind listening to “Huevos Rancheros/Rapid Round” leading off Skyjoggers‘ sixth-but-a-bunch-were-jam-releases album and first for Supernatural Cat (Ufomammut‘s label), 12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse, from the entrenched groove of the Tampere, Finland, trio’s boogie, to the fuzzed blowout that surrounds, the way they take Earthless-style instrumental ‘go’ and the spin of Alexi Belle‘s echoing solo.
Following up their 2024 split with Sula Bassana (review here), the Tampere-based Belle, bassist/vocalist Juan Rico (also synth) and drummer/vocalist Gabo Sabor offer four cuts across 36 minutes of earthly spacetime, with the opener as the longest of the bunch (immediate points) running an early gamut as if to tell the listener to buckle up for what’s coming, though by the time Skyjoggers get down to the last push in “Huevos Rancheros/Rapid Round,” with fervent energy and a solo that has a bit of Slayer‘s noisy impulse, they’ve showcased enough dynamic to cover an entire full-length.
Now, this might be called fortunate, since at 13:50, “Huevos Rancheros/Rapid Round” takes up such a significant portion of the record’s runtime, but it’s intended to be a major part of the thing and it is. In complement, the closing “Tessæil” stands at 12:19 and rushes through its post-punk intro to a driving, gloriously fuzzy riff, a crash-laden blowout in the spirit of neo-space metal, and a turn to progressive swing — in like the first minute. And yes, it continues to go from there, trading parts back and forth while not so much in a rush as working in its own definition of time and how the song unfolds.
The guitar and keys take some of the place of vocals, say, in the song’s midsection, with a kind of ringing-out, but the build is directed into a fuller wash that’s transcendent in the spirit of Skyjoggers‘ proggy countrymen in Polymoon, and the residual noise and feedback that end it on a long fade seem to emphasize the grand cosmic blink that has just taken place. In their moments of righteous abrasion, Skyjoggers are blinding and throwing elbows — see “Tessæil” from about six to seven minutes in, or “Huevos Rancheros/Rapid Round” throwing down the space-boogie gauntlet with its solo and echoing vocals around 11:30 — but as captured at Soundwell Studios by Janne Hakanen (Johannes Latva did additional recording, Niko Lehdontie mixed, Hanaken mastered), the sound is rich enough the underlying plan and structures at work are less the focus than the masterblaster fuzz and pickup shoving groove.
As though to emphasize the point, 12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse separates “Huevos Rancheros/Rapid Round” and “Tessæil” with two shorter pieces, “Newtonin Kanuuna” (3:58) and “Døpehølm” (6:26). The former ends side A of the vinyl and the latter starts side B; they are sandwiched between the two extended tracks. And as much as the album greets the listener with to-neck immersion on the quick in its opener, “Newtonin Kanuuna” condenses its rhythmic charge to follow the pattern of surfy-twists set by the guitar, an effects-laced solo either of guitar or synth blinding in how it cuts through the surroundings.
‘Kanuuna’ is ‘cannon’ in Finnish (also ‘hangover’ in slang, apparently), and the bass distortion around the two-minute mark might just be where that explosive aspect manifests, though I’m not going to take away from the nodder bridge that takes hold after en route back to the jabs of the verse before they’re done, a shorter encapsulation of their modus, inherently more structured-feeling than the longer songs, but a reminder not to hold doing more than one thing against the band and that the album is better for it heading into the side flip and the even-bassier roll of “Døpehølm,” where they seem to find the meeting point between space and stoner idolatry, lumbering through the six and a half minutes with distant-cast vocals and a heaping dose of noise besides.
There’s some flash in the guitar late in “Døpehølm” of more extreme progressive metal, and that might be telling of what Skyjoggers have in mind going forward, or frankly it might not, I have no idea. But it doesn’t feel in listening through 12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse that there’s a lot that would be ‘out of bounds’ for the band in terms of songwriting. True, the songs reside well within a heavy psychedelic framework, but the angle of approach they’ve taken is their own, and the brashness that comes through the production further defines the character of the record, whether a given song has vocals or not.
As noted earlier, immersion is a lot of the goal here, but Skyjoggers‘ songs aren’t just looking to be the backdrop while you go about your day, or to lull you out of consciousness with repetition. There’s movement in 12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse whether it’s the build-up near the midpoint in “Tessæil” or the scuffed-up shuffle in “Newtonin Kanuuna,” and that’s best served by an active listening process, repeat visits, and so on. Whether a given listener has that energy to give will be up to how desperately they’re looking to be thrust into exospheric space, but the band are ready to go when you are.
Skyjoggers are no strangers to creating narratives and settings in time and space around their work, and the title 12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse would seem to follow suit in evoking a sense of story. Is that a year? A person’s designation in some dystopian ID system? What does ‘post-electric’ mean in this context? Are humans without power, some solar flare or EMP horror scenario? The songs don’t really answer these questions or seem to try/want to, but in the atmosphere and consuming throbs meted out, the trio meet the apocalypse head-on with expanse and maybe a bit of escapism through the songs themselves. If you’ve got plot-thread questions, fine, but don’t get so wrapped up in it that “Huevos Rancheros/Rapid Round” passes by on its way to the Kuiper Belt to look for planet nine. There’s more here than terrestrial paper could hope to convey.
