Finnish label Ikuisuus is becoming a major player in the field of contemporary psychedelic music. All of their releases are somehow interesting. They’re on the right path to become a household name in this genre. But choosing to release tapes is a hard decision, especially if you use the medium as an exposure for lesser-known bands. Making it a split release is also a bold move. Let’s just say that I found Color Rabbit worthy of a full-length release, while Tretetam was well-served by this short excerpt of their music.

It took me a long time to review this. At first I was eager to dismiss it as some other generic freak-folk jam bands, but things turned out otherwise. Color Rabbit is in fact quite brilliant, and the Tretetam side became after a few listening sessions something close to sound poetry. Color Rabbit and Tretetam share a similar approach of music, but I was less interested in the latter, being less melodic and a bit more abstract. Both bands delve into crude folk music, lo-fi recording technique and incorporating sound samples, either voices or field recordings. Actually at one point I thought that most of the Tretetam side was basically some sound collages, made out of different field recordings, except maybe for the pounding rhythm.

Color Rabbit were definitely more interesting. Using an array of instruments, they created an interesting ethno-folk universe that’s been already discovered and explored thoroughly by other bands such as Sunburned Hand of the Man. We can say that this genre is becoming a bit saturated, and unless you explore different venues, it’s easy to fall in the cliches. They do follow familiar paths at some point, but they manage to keep it interesting with electronics, sparse vocals, and by throwing in a fair bit of free clarinet playing. 7/10 -- Frédérick Galbrun (8 September, 2010)