#ujubasajuba

Kairon; IRSE! x Ujubasajuba

Kairon; IRSE! - Ujubasajuba (2014)

Shoegaze, Post-Rock, Space Rock

Country: Finland

In 2013, My Bloody Valentine made their long anticipated return to the fray of the music world with their sudden release of ‘mbv’, which was fittingly heralded as one of the year’s best albums and a more than worthy return for the undisputed kings of shoegaze. ‘Ujubasajuba’ is better than ‘mbv’. Admittedly, this does seem to be an absurd suggestion – a band hailing from Kaustinen, Finland (population: 4,294) releasing an album with a nonsensical title (which seems to have no official translation – if indeed it can be translated) releasing a better shoegaze album than the very band which invented the genre? The need for questioning this, however, soon becomes irrelevant upon hearing the opening track ‘Valorians’ (which does derive the opening drumming from My Bloody Valentine song ‘Only Shallow). What Kairon; IRSE! offer is a harkening back to the early days of shoegaze, where ‘Loveless’ roamed as king, with a modern post-rock driven spin. However, it’s the ingenuity of the process behind the music which stands out most prominently – the blending of shoegaze and post-rock is an idea which has been shockingly relatively untouched despite the popularity of both genres and ‘Ujubasajuba’ is a perfect means of demonstrating the perfection the genres can achieve, where post-rock makes up for any subtle limitations of shoegaze and shoegaze provides an emphatic new aspect into post-rock by making a genre not normally known for being overtly active into one which is dynamic, enthusiastic and entrancing. What’s more, every track from ‘Ujubasajuba’ reaches incredibly diverse boulevards – ‘Valorians’ being more shoegaze heavy and post-rock insertions while the following track ‘Tzar Morei’ being post-rock with significant elements of shoegaze pedalling, to name but a few examples. ‘Ujubasajuba’ is an album which encompasses the glories of modern day music, that a band hailing from a small Finnish town is capable of unleashing upon the world an album of true unexpected splendour is akin to fairy tales – and it cannot be stressed enough (and has been suggested) that Kairon; IRSE! could very well currently be the worlds most underrated band.