"Lethal Cowbell" -Rewiews from the Internet-

Progmatics album Vaarallinen Lehmänkello ("lethal cowbell") [Olarin Musiikki] seems to be in the bidding for the first spy-surf folk band to come out of Finland, with a CD jacket full of threatening cell-phone-armed musicians and smoking cows. And on the first track, they seem to get there, in a song full of cheesy organs and 40s soundtrack horns tripping over an otherwise Finnish folk theme. But from there on the band roars back into the tradition, with a fiery performance of lively tunes played out on strings, horns, free reeds (centering often around the harmonica of Jouko Kyhälä) and a smattering of percussion. Dance tunes, folk songs, a few interesting pop things are all played with guts and energy.
- Cliff Furnald/Rootsworld

From the cover cartoon of the Progmatics cd depicting a trenchcoated bovine, I guessed that the title Vaarallinen Lehmankello (OMCD) meant "secret agent cow," but the reality, "Lethal Cowbell," seemed equally cryptic--until I discovered it referred to the converted cowshed at the Sibelius Academy (what else) where these free-floating tunes were recorded. The performances are as tight as the teeth of a comb that the skin-headed three-quarters of this combo never need. The punk attitude isn't manifested as speed folk, however, since a good part of Finland's folk music cannon is already a blur. Instead, a crazy sense of repetition gives "Suite Orientale" a too-long-on-the-merry-go-round momentum, while the band injects a clockwork framework into the organ bubbles and sax of the furtive title cut. Plus, the flat-footed vocal to "Hannun Hambo" make presumed influence Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider into a golden throated virtuoso by comparison. Nothing earthshaking here, just your average musical geniuses cutting up their country's tradition, and the headless chicken riff of the plucky "Finn Reel" suggests the cover art for next time.
(Olarin Musiiki Oy, P.O. Box 20, FIN-02211 Espoo, Finland).
- Bob Tarte/The Beat magazine 1/96