Uranus - Aamun hauta (1975)

This time the internet really left me helpless! I can't find any decent info about this band, so at the moment I can only rely on you to provide a background story behind this group and this sole LP they released.



Uranus cut their album "Aamun hauta" in 1975 for the BASF label, the same label that gave us Kummitus, and Lucjan Czaplicki (flute, sax, harmonica) who guested on Kummitus' "Kahdet kasvot" LP was a member of Uranus.



The other musicians were Eero Lyttinen on trumpet, Eero Raivio on guitar and vocals, Jari Unha on drums, Pertti Hurmalainen on bass and Edward Stytz on vocals and piano.



The music surprised me by being pretty good (for Finnish 1970's standards) funk rock. Cover material includes Stevie Wonder's "Living in the City", Otis Redding's "(Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay" and a personal favourite of mine, Kokomo's "I Can Understand It", which Uranus treat respectably well despite Polish (?)-born Stytz's lead vocals, which sound very slightly sped up on all the songs he sings. His pronounciation of the Finnish language isn't great, as an accent is clearly audible, but it's serviceable.



The inner sleeve is half-filled with quite insane ramblings about not very much in particular, except for frequent remarks like "URANUS shines... URANUS was the harmony... and the One and Only was URANUS... and URANUS shone... because in the beginning there was URANUS. And the World lives the age of URANUS. At last, said the Admiral!"



Definitely a worthy record to add to your collection, and one that should be re-discovered by this digital age.



1. Kun tulin stadiin (When I Arrived to the City)

- Living in the City -

2. Täältä ikuisuuteen (From Here to Eternity)

3. Svengikone (Swing Machine)

4. Hellyys rajaton (Boundless Tenderness)

5. Fantastinen nainen (Fantastic Woman)

- I Can Understand It -

6. Aamun hauta (Grave of the Morning)

- (Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay -

7. Malta en (lopettaa) (I Can't Make Myself (to Quit))

- I Can't Stop -

8. New Production

9. Pluto



http://finnishrock.blogspot.com/2009/01/uranus-aamun-hauta-1975.html