snobb The best funky fusion album ever recorded by Finnish musician,seriously!

Eero Koivistoinen have released some acoustic jazz albums before "Wahoo!", but there he switched to very intensive electric sound,influenced by American leading fusion musicians of that time.Eero plays electric soprano sax with support of groovy rhythm section (two bassists and two drummers), 4-pieces horn section, keyboardist,two guitarists and two percussionists! Solid,almost rock-heavy in a moments sound is full of funkiness.

Eero uses wah-wah pedal and Variton connected amplified soprano sax, and in combination with fuzzy bass,distorted Rhodes and wah-wah guitars growls album's music reminds all electric Miles,early McLaughlin and Weather Report music at the same time.

Absolutely exciting evidence of golden era early 70s fusion, this album was for years collectors wet dream, while released on vinyl only in Finland in 1973 (the original Lp issue was only 600 copies!). Re-released by Whatmusic on CD for the first time in 2000 only it became much more accessible, but still stays on the shade.

Highly recommended for every early fusion fan - this album is of the same musical quality as leading genre's album are!

Sean Trane The present album is a bit of an electric UFO is Koivistoinen’s generally acoustic discography, a bit of a one-shot, made from an sudden urge to investigate and the line-up assembled never played a single gig outside these studio sessions. Recorded on the tail end of 72 and released the following year on the Discophon label, the album features a double guitarist, double bassist, double Rhodes players, double drummers and double percussionist line-up with assorted horn players, on top of Eero’s own lead sax. This double everything was intently done to allow for complex compositions and funky interplay. Interestingly enough during these Wahoo! Recording sessions (lasting almost a month), another album was recorded and released (Third Version) and it was much more acoustic. An interesting semi-erotic but futuristic (for then) artwork also intrigues the eyes as well.

The huge majority of the album is a bit derived from a funk-rock-jazz that Miles developed with On The Corner and some of Traffic’s Low Spark Shootout longer numbers with slightly dissonant passages, but this Wahoo! is probably more accessible than Miles of Traffic jams, with better-drawn solo parts. The six instrumental tracks (three aside) are ranging from nearly 5 to almost 11-mins, and all features fairly up-tempoed rhythms, except for the slower 7 Up track which is more experimental and dissonant, a bit like an intro that never outroes and segues logically into 6 Down, which returns to the general album canvas. The album-longest Suite 19 opening the flipside starts opens gently on flutes and sax and takes its sweet time to slowly climb up the fusion ladder with a pulsing bass and funky guitar and wild traffic-styled congas, while the shorter Bells track is a slower reflective mood as well. The closing title tracks hovers sonically between some light Mwandishi and some pre-Head Hunters.

Quite an excellent one-shot album from a usually-acoustic jazzman, designed to please fusionheads, but it’s not like it’s anything essential to a discotheque, but it can be seen as a nice consolidation brick of your JR/F section.