Eclectic and strange. Amusing and fascinating. That's how I describe Human Games, the fourth album recorded by the Finnish band Jeavestone. Since their last album, the band has lost flautist Angelina Galactique, thus becoming a quartet of Jim Goldworth, Mikey Maniac, Tommy Glorioso and Kingo. Yes, these guys use weird, badass stage names; and I love it! Nevertheless, this is just the core part in a long list of participants, which counts 13 musicians (or groups of musicians) involved as guests.
It is very difficult to label Jeavestone's music in a specific category. Throughout the album we find prog rock in a 70s style, plus pop, reggae, psychedelic, rap, space rock and post-rock. Basically you can love one song and hate the following one, but personally I had no troubles in finding something cool, interesting and peculiar in each of them. And that's why I really appreciate this band. In a modern progressive rock panorama, where many bands are trying to emulate music masterpieces of 40 years ago, it is a relief to know that some are still doing PROgressive Rock instead of REgressive Rock music.
Coming back to Human Games, Jeavestone welcomes the listeners with Another, a calm and intimistic song, mostly dominated by piano and voice. This is just an opening track leading to Repiphany, one of the best fragments of the whole record. The vocal lines are stuck in my head and the music is also very interesting. On the podium we also find Human Games and Nuclear Superblast, impressive for the choice of sounds, effects and composition.
However, I'd really like to draw your attention to Aurora Borealis Man, by far the most peculiar composition here. Indeed, we can spot four totally different but well interconnected styles, that are combined to create an amazing result. We begin with an interesting "progressive reggae" section, before breaking into a Finnish rap intrusion, thanks to the contribution of Dave Maijanen. This part might sound super strange for a non-Finnish listener who has listened to English lyrics through the whole album to this point (and also for Finnish listeners I dare to say). However, it's part of the peculiarity of the song and it is well connected with the rest of the track. In fact, this Finnish flow of words gently merges into the refrain, characterised by an interesting overlap of voices and melodies.
But we're not done with Aurora Borealis Man! Rap becomes reggae and reggae finally dies into a series of calm and psychedelic sounds. This is the beginning of an awesome oneiric crescendo, which explodes into a powerful progressive rock ending, reminding me of King Crimson (or Steven Wilson).
The album comes in a digipack made by Velvet Beat, depicting a psychedelic universe, with clouds towering over our planet. Lyrics (by Goldworth) are touching a range of topics such as social/human conditions, invented stories and ridiculous situations. From: https://www.dprp.net/reviews/2016/069
