Prog4you.com - Progressive Rock Review - Kapa

: : Review : :

Sweden may now be ground zero of the Third Wave of Prog but during Prog’s Golden Age in the 70's it was little more than a backwater. Where Sweden now offers the prog world The Flower Kings, Ritual, Anglagard, Twin Age, Pain of Salvation and many more, back then there was only one: Kaipa.

Featuring a baby faced seventeen year old Roine Stolt on guitar (from its third album onward) and the keyboard talents of Hans Lundin, Kaipa produced five albums starting with their eponymous 1975 debut. While the vocals on nearly all of Kaipa’s older works are in Swedish, the sound of the band bore a distinctively Camel-like feel with tinges of Genesis and Yes thrown in for good measure. Brimming with Hammond organ riffs and dueling lead guitars, Kaipa produced a beautiful blend of classical music, Swedish folk, pop and hard rock.

In 2000, Lundin and Stolt brought Kaipa back from the dead after an eighteen year absence, releasing Notes From The Past, a powerhouse of classic prog which also featured the talents of Stolt’s Flower Kings’ mate Jonas Reingold on bass, former Zappa drummer Morgan Agren, Ritual’s remarkable vocalist (and guitarist) Patrik Lundstrom along with female vocalist Aleena. While Reingold, Agren, Aleena and Lundstrom were designated as guests on Notes From The Past, with Keyholder they are listed as full members of the band.

And the key difference between the two albums seems to stem from precisely that point. Whereas Notes From the Past bears the limitations of its birth as a solo album, Keyholder is truly much more of a group album. In addition to the fact that Roine Stolt shared far more of the writing duties on this effort, Aleena’s vocal tracks – particularly “A complex work of art” -- seem more organically related to the rest of the album then on Notes From the Past. Hearing Lundstrom and Aleena singing together on “Across the big uncertain” highlights the fact that Aleena sings, not because of Lundstrom’s unavailability, but because she adds a different feel.

Keyholder is also a far more guitar-driven album than Notes From the Past. Roine Stolt is all over the album, sounding so Brian May on “Lifetime of a Journey,” getting down and dirty on the excellent “End of a Rope,” and with his signature sound evident throughout. Also far more evident is Jonas Reingold who’s playing, while more restrained then with The Flower Kings, provides a warm grounding effect that ties together the disparate parts of this whole.

The album opens with “Lifetime of a Journey,” a classic Kaipa track that picks up right where Notes From the Past left off. One of the real pleasures of the reborn Kaipa is Patrik Lundstrom’s terrific voice. He is, quite simply, my favorite vocalist in rock. Full stop. His sound is, essentially, a cross between Freddie Mercury and INXS’s Michael Hutchence (of course, Lundstrom has one great advantage on the two of them: he’s alive!) “Lifetime of a Journey” takes full advantage of Lundstrom’s voice…and vocal style. Indeed the song opens with a cascade of Queen-like harmony and with Stolt employing a classic Brian May operatic guitar which perfectly segues into Lundstrom’s theatrical, story-telling vocals.

While most of the album bears the distinctive songwriting voice of Lundin – consistent from the earliest Kaipa material through Notes From the Past to this album – it is perhaps the collectiveness of this album that lends it a harder edge than prior outings. This is particularly so on the ballsy “End of the Rope” – a Stolt-penned effort and the great glory of this album. There is something strangely American about this song – the main theme might not have been out of place on a Bad Company album. Lundstrom’s voice is uncharacteristically edgy on this song, with an almost American grittiness. Stolt’s playing ranges from that same grittiness to a faux-jazzy sophistication. Lundin follows suit in his classic, lyrical style – though not so refined as to be above a good Hammond roll in the dirt. When the main refrain returns it serves as a reminder of how far the song had taken you – and yet how integral was that journey to the fabric of the piece.

But the comparisons between Notes From the Past and Keyholder do not all run entirely in favor of the new album. The new and different voices on Keyholder lead to a somewhat less coherent whole. Part of the reason that Aleena’s contributions to the earlier album stood out so starkly was that the remainder of Notes From the Past was so consistent, so marvelously homogenous that it was almost surprising the thing wasn’t a theme album. Similarly, Notes From the Past had the feel of a 70's prog album that was snuck into a time capsule. There was preciously close to nothing on Notes From the Past that might not have been done in Kaipa’s earlier heyday. Keyholder lacks that feeling. It seems every so slightly more a creature of today. That’s not altogether a bad thing; indeed there’s quite a lot to be said for it.

One last thing to be said about Keyholder: do yourself a favor – listen to it before the tangent’s “the music that died alone.” Do not do as I did and try to listen to the album of the month right after the album of the year. It doesn’t work very well that way.

9 stars out of 10. I might have given it 8…but what an amazing cover!
Reviewer: Michael A. Gardiner

: : Visit the artist website : :
Kaipa - http://kaipa.info/
Roine Stolt - The Flower Kings
Patrik Lundström - http://www.ritual.se/
Aleena - http://www.aleena.se/
Jonas Reingold - http://www.reingoldmusic.com/
Morgan Ågren - http://www.morganagren.com/

Check out the Kaipa MP3 " Lifetime of a journey "
available on our MP3 page

: : Discography : :
Kaipa - 1975
Inget Nytt Under Solen - 1976
Solo - 1978
Händer - 1980
Nattdjurstid - 1982
Stockholm Symphonie - 1993
Notes From The Past - 2002
Keyholder - 2003

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