DEAD COMBO DEAD COMBO ALBUM OUTPUT RELEASE: AUGUST 30, 2004 REVIEW: OCTOBER 19, 2004

The Dead Combo gig at Koneisto festival in Finland was excessively hyped in the media in advance. Apparently the two Finnish ex pats residing in New York showed the snotty club kids the true meaning of rock’n’roll, including inviting Nuutti Kataja’s mother on stage at one point. I felt sorry for missing the gig, but only when listening to their album do I realize just how sorry I ought to feel.
Vocalist Kataja and his partner Harri Kupiainen raise hell utilizing a simple but deadly array of weaponry: two guitars, one moog, a drum machine and a microphone. The ghosts of Suicide and The Jesus and Mary Chain rattle their chains fiercely in a glorious eruption of guitars blaring and screeching, while Kataja mans the microphone with a decadent New York attitude that defies description. Dead Combo possesses a certain weight in its slow, unrelenting furor that most of the other candidates for the feedback garage rock throne (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Raveonettes and so on into eternity…) are lacking.
All the evidence point to an amazing live experience. Repeated exposure to the studio album induces a certain numbness after the initial enthusiasm – such intensity cannot keep you engaged forever. Tracks like ”Tech Out” and ”2002” make clear that Dead Combo is not limited to rock mannerisms. Here the undercurrent of electronic beats gets to trickle out of the sewers and shine on its own, while Kataja can shut up and concentrate on twiddling the knobs of that Moog.
Dead Combo is at its best on ”Doxies Blanch”, with Kataja crooning like a devilish Iggy Pop and guitars clashing with synthesizer ditties.

MATTIAS HUSS