‘New York is about the relationship and connections between the `new` and the `old` world and about our different views on many things, the war on Iraq for example. In Pigeons I sing, and Hossni joins in Arabic, in a way about all the Mediterranean countries, the whole historical heritage of Phoenicia - the Pigeons!’ – quote of an interview published on the Waltari website.

Where the first part of this statement about two of the songs on ‘Blood Sample’ seems to give some note of reasonable intelligence or might even be considered really bright, the reference to the pigeons is a bit unclear if not plain ridiculous: while these animals were frequently sacrificed in the Phoenic Empire, it was far from a common practice and went largely down with the demise of the Carthaginians – so how this should describe the whole Mediterranean is a bit of a mystery if you ask me… The statement however does pose a striking analogy for the music of Waltari: while a lot of their output is actually carefully considered and straightforward, a fair part can better be described as idiosyncratic, crazy and almost uncontrolled.

Waltari produce a kind of crossover that is hard to qualify and is clearly not intended to be so either. As their starting point I’d name bands like The Red Hot Chilly Peppers, The Smashing Pumpkins or early Faith No More.

I could image other people hearing quite another thing however, as they throw an incredible amount of other styles into the mix: cheesy rock, rap, 80’s pop, Death Metal, oriental meoldies, hardcore dance music and things I even cannot really tag. The general mood leans towards quite accessible mid- to fast paced rock with a lot of electronic elements, heavy riffs, funky beats, psychedelic keyboard solos and voice experiments: vocals resembling everything from David Lee Roth to Looney Tunes, which are sung, screamed or grunted, and I even believe I heard some ducks quack. To best describe their music I’d have to take on each individual track however and I’m not going to do that, if only because there are just too much of them.

In as far as I can judge this album – it wavers away from my favorite musical styles about every two minutes – I’m absolutely convinced that Waltari have something to offer. They clearly posses a good feeling of melody and write catchy songs that are absolutely pretentionless and perfectly timed: no too long, not too short. Recommended for everyone with a healthy appreciation for experimental and mad guitar music. This is genuine and refreshing music to listen to, which is a welcome theme for this hot summer.