Finland?s Uton keeps spitting out release after release. Next to releasing lots of impromptu recordings on his own Om Ha Sva Ha Ksha Ma La Va Ra Yam imprint, he also has releases on a number of other labels. Germany?s Dekorder has decided to put out his latest outing, mysteriously titled "Straight Edge XXS". Who knows whether Uton has turned Straight Edge, but his expansive, deeply transcendental and psychedelic music would probably not appeal to your average disciplined straight edge kid who likes his music structured and aggressive.

Anyhow, "Straight Edge XXS" deviates a bit from earlier Uton recordings in that it only features very few drone tracks and that it moves more into the slightly crazy territory that some of Uton?s peers such as Tomutonttu, Kuupuu or the Tolvi brothers have moved to recently. "Straight Edge XXS" consists of around 30 short tracks, almost none of which is a lot longer than a minute. There?s everything in those short snippets that has the potential of letting you think you?re in another world. There are slighly spooky high pitched voices, lots of echo, eastern-tinged percussion excursions and everything else that potentially makes out a great psychedelic record.

However, "Straight Edge XXS" has the same problem as so many other of Uton?s albums. You tend to forget them fairly quickly. Music by Uton is very fluid. There are no memorable moments, every single vocal or chord only sticks to mind for split seconds and then flies away again. That gives a good listening experience for a short time, but it leaves no emotions or good memories behind. 5/10 -- Stephan Bauer (27 August, 2008)