Unirytmejä

These extracts are mostly translated from reviews originally in Finnish.

"Unirytmejä is the first full-length album by Manogurgeil from Helsinki. [...] Only rarely does one hear works this refined and carefully made and produced. These are no hastily woven cloths, but instead cross-stitched." "Make a note, folks, Manogurgeil is brilliant in its excellence!"

Tuhma, Tero Honkasalo, ****

Original review in finnish from Tuhma's netmagazine


"Unirytmejä is an elated and pleasant album. It brings good feelings!" "Strangely, I am occasionally reminded of the late Karkkiautomaatti. [...] In any case, Manogurgeil's lineup works brilliantly."

Sue, Jani Sipila, 8/10

Original clipping in Finnish


"The album starts on a track with guest vocalist Noora Tommila singing and one instantly feels this album warrants careful listening." "The sound is exquisite and the music has edginess." "It is a joy listening to serene and disciplined melodicity instead of all the urban-hectic noise out there."

Hifimaailma 3/07, Pirkka Ruishalme Music **** Sounds ****

Original clipping in Finnish


"Manogurgeil's debut is a welcome breath of old-fashion prog rock." "Recognising the Canterbury prog rock tradition, the soundscape is, what with its distorted organ and electric piano, delightfully far from today's turbocharged prog machismo." "From here, the band is in a good position to aim ever higher."

Soundi 3/07, Jaan Wessman ***

Original clipping in Finnish


Traditional prog rock from the late sixties

Freaky music like Manogurgeil was made back when sex and 4.7% beer were liberated and student politics started reddening along with the youth and [police narcotics officer] Torsti Koskinen's neck. Thus what we are talking about is Love-prog [Love Records was a legendary Finnish record company], where the 2000's can only be seen in the recording medium.

Unirytmejä is not achievement prog, rather it relies on impressionism instead of mathematics. The tracks are meandering, but the album, almost entirely instrumental, does not fall for showing off dexterity.

This sort of music is based on long arcs. The plot carries within the compositions, but unfortunately the album-wide dramatics does not work. The opening track is Alue, sung by Noora Tommila of Lowlife Rock'n Roll Philosophers. This decision is odd: placing the only piece with true vocals as the first song is as strange as wiping one's behind before defecating.

Rumba, Janne Flinkkilä, **


"All in all, Manogurgeil is an extremely promising act. Due to having two keyboardists, the sound arsenal is ample - at first, I thought the band includes a vibraphonist. The band plays firmly together, which leads one to expect rather any kind of collaborations from them in the future."

desibeli.net, Mikko Heimola ****

In Finnish from desibeli.net


"Unirytmejä glides and converses very nicely, sketching intracranial images." "In addition to young prog rock aficionados, Manogurgeil's music would certainly appeal to those Ostrobothnian proto-freaks who enjoyed Pekka Pohjola's 'B The Magpie'."

Karjalainen, Suonna Kononen

In Finnish from Verkkokarjalainen or original clipping


"The album was recorded at Studio Kuu in Helsinki, and sounds excellent in every way, and I've been enjoying it a lot." "[The band's] music is usually quite keyboard driven getting some influences from the early 70's prog a bit in the Canterbury spirit, but they still have a pretty personal style of their own. They don't fall for the 10 minute solos, and some of the tracks are actually quite short. To my great joy they nowadays also have some psychedelic elements." "I can warmly recommend this to all prog fans!"

Unimeri.com, Astro ****

Read the whole review in English: www.unimeri.com.com