Sudo — Caligula

Here’s a cd on Ektro Records, with ten tracks of spacey, prog-ish rock from Finland. It comes wrapped in an elegant sleeve and booklet, dominated by moody photographs of flora. From checking the label website, there would appear to be links between Sudo and Circle - a well-regarded Finnish band I have yet to hear. The label spiel mentions “primitive blues” and “swampy Beefheartian delta”; which is somewhat unfortunate…

Its unfortunate, because one of my eternal bugbears is bands claiming Beefheart as an influence and then sounding like slightly skewed rock: if your recording doesn’t attempt to negotiate the depths of “Trout Mask Replica”, then I’m not interested. As for “primitive blues”, well the first thing that strikes the listener about this album is how clean and shiny it is - to the point of unpleasantness. It uses a lot of guitar sounds that I’m really not a fan of. The playing too, is very ornate and intricate. I’m not suggesting that “primitive blues” is therefore badly recorded and primitively played; but you’d be hard pressed to justify it as a reference point for “Caligula”. There are tracks, “Phantom” and “Dog + Master”, for example, which clearly incorporate blues; but the addition of the prefix “primitive” never justifies itself. To cut to the quick, I think a better description would be a pastoral Television (as opposed to their urban tone); or indeed a “bluesy” Television. There is the same wandering, explorative guitar that makes “Marquee Moon” such a great album; but the spikiness and attitude is replaced by a more languid feel. Indeed, when I used the term “spacey” in my introduction, it was meant to signify expansiveness and an unhurried pace - not cosmic vibes.

Basically, this isn’t an album that sets me alight; but I do genuinely think that some will consider it a classic. As well as the layers of entangling, processed guitar, Sudo have a truly great rhythm section; though it is somewhat smothered by the lead-work. The singing may be a deciding-point for many - a strangely hushed gruff thats almost a more purposeful Flying Saucer Attack vocal: very much in the same spirit of US Maple’s Al Johnson. In fact, the aforementioned FSA seem to crop up a few times over the album; as incongruous as that might appear (mind you, so do Dire Straits). The strangest comparison I can give you, is actually my first thoughts on hearing “Caligula”: it sounds like some session musicians trying to recreate my memories of The Double U’s “Absurd Fjord” - and that isn’t meant to reflect badly on either Sudo or The Double U. As I said, this isn’t my cup of tea (“reviewing cliche no.2”), but its most definitely a well-played, interesting recording that you should check out for yourselves. After that, track down The Double U…