Aktor
Paranoia
(High Roller Records)
If you’re already familiar with Circle, then you already know what kind of music to expect from this collaboration between Chris “The Professor” Black and Finnish experimental rockers Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppanen. These two men alone have dazzled my mind with their many shades and colors experienced through Circle and paired with The Professor, they manage to once again dazzle me and leave me on the floor begging for more. There’s a classic rock feel to Aktor and it’s one that comes laden with keyboard symphonics and clean vocals in the vein of popular bands like Ghost. But unlike Ghost, the band doesn’t seem focused mainly on Satanic subjects and seems to deal with oddly symbolic and truly weird song concepts, like those of “Never Ending No” and “Six Silver Suns.” Adding to these bizarre lyrical patterns come the awesome brevity of alien transmissions reminiscent of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind which makes the performance a truly experimental effort in the rock category and more proof that I enjoy listening to weird music. But Aktor is not just weird, it’s weirdly catchy. The Professor does think of the band as a sort of pop band, but let’s not compare this one of a kind performance to anything you might have seen on the Grammy stage this year (with the exception of Aussie rock legends ACDC of course) as this is definitely forward thinking, and quite psychedelic rock that actually deserves it’s day in the sun once again. It takes me back to those days of bands like Led Zeppelin and The Eagles, when you got really excited by the structure and lyrical matter of a song. It’s been decades since “Hotel California” released, yet people are still trying to figure out exactly what it means. Some have said it was about hell, while others say it’s about drug abuse and the same kind of symbolism is uttered forth within this release. Aktor make forward-thinking rock music that makes you think. To extremely religious people, this is the sound of the devil tapping at your brain cells, but I think I’ll have the devil in for a cup of tea while I engorge myself on such a musical buffet as has been captured within this release. Paranoia is the kind of record that I could play over and over again, because it recalls the sound of rock music at it’s very peak, and keeps me optimistic about the future of humanity. Sure, songs about bass, butts and bitches might sell millions of albums and propel people to fame; but music like this is something that you just cannot put a price tag on. As the next media trend bears forth and everyone proceeds to put their underwear on their heads, you can take comfort in knowing that bands like these are where the true spirit of musical intelligence lies. To be honest, I actually think I felt my IQ raise a few points after listening to this record. (Eric May)
