Tinyhawk & Bizzarro had a good run in NMC in 2022-3 with three singles reviewed but we hadn’t heard much from them more recently and I only chanced on this latest release by accident.
This also marks three successive Finnish artist reviews in NMC for the first time (and there are more waiting in the wings).
Tinyhawk & Bizzarro is a collaboration between Jenni Kinnunen (Tinyhawk) and Bizzarro, which comprises Markus Väisänen (guitar), Teemu Aho (bass), Jaakko Pöyhönen (drums) and Juuso Kolho.
We’ve previously noted the level of experimentation in their work. Reviewing their single/album track ‘Yorokobi’ we observed there was so much of it going on that it switched between a Japanese sound, a Caribbean feel and what could be something from The Tornados or The Shadows in the 1960s and that was just in the opening bars.
‘Ramen Break’ is the third and final single from their second album, ‘Neko-A-Sekai’, coming up on October 3rd. It was released on August 15th and is one of Jenni Kinnunen’s earliest compositions, from a decade ago.
She says it came to her during a road trip and when the song was arranged years later she got the idea of “playing the Amen Break of your own life” (it being a drum break that has been widely sampled in popular music, from the song ‘Amen, Brother’ by The Winstons). You’ll know it as soon as you hear it.
Then guitarist Markus Väisänen suggested adding the letter R in front, connecting it to all things Japanese, which is their ‘trademark’.
It has been referred to as a ‘firework’ by the band’s own drummer and one that takes on a life of its own when played live.
It’s straight out of the early 60s, just pre-Beatles, like The Tornados (again) on fuzzy steroids. Then a jam kicks in and it shifts up a few gears in tempo and BPMs and then back down again.
Then it seems to somnambulate for a few moments but comes straight back at you and kicks you hard in the crotch for the outro.
It’s quite remarkable and ‘tour-de-force’, my usual go-to phrase for something like this is barely adequate.
The only little reservation I have about fast-played pieces like this is that they can sometimes seem like the band is showboating a bit, bragging about how good they are at playing their instruments.
You know you must have thought that about Pom Poko for example, with their ‘Crazy Energy Night’ for example, or Gungfly’s epic ‘Rumbling Boxes’ if you’ve heard them.
But I don’t believe for a second that’s the case here. It’s just a bunch of friends taking a quick break after all.
I have to see this live.
Find them on:
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