Would you trade six years for two minutes?

People have been asking James Spectrum (AKA Pepe Deluxé’s Finnish

mainstay Jari Salo) why the band’s fourth album, ‘Queen of the Wave’,

has taken so long to appear.

“Well, it could only be completed when the Great Stalacpipe Organ

was mended,” he explains patiently, as if this were obvious, but then

ponders, “That is typical Pepe - to spend six years waiting to make a

track that’s two minutes long.”

The recently restored Stalacpipe Organ, it turns out, is the world’s
largest musical instrument. Built in 1956 in an underground cavern in

Luray, Virginia, it involves keyboards triggering rubber-tipped mallets

that strike stalactites to create music throughout a cave system. Salo’s
New York-based Swedish Pepe partner Paul Malmström turned up

there dressed in a white tuxedo and bow tie to lay down the lovely

instrumental ‘In The Cave’ in lulls between tourist parties tramping

through.

“It’s like a playing a mountain,” says Jari with a satisfied smile.

From Atlantis to Venus in one opera

The Stalacpipe Organ was the last part of the jigsaw, completing the
epic and epically funky “pop opera” that is ‘Queen of the Wave’. The

new album sums up why Pepe Deluxé are such a deliciously unique

proposition. For starters it’s thematically based around the mystical 19

th

Century novel ‘A Dweller On Two Planets’ which was supposedly

channelled by its American author, Frederick S Oliver, from a cosmic

entity called Phylos the Thibetan and concerns Atlantis, Venus, sci-fi

futurism and reincarnation.

“At a time when people are downloading single tunes I thought, ‘Let’s

make a concept album’,” says Jari, deadpan.

Concept album it may be but, although Jari recently produced the

Finnish No.1 album by prog siblings the Von Hertzen Brothers, his own

new long-player is definitely not prog rock.




“This is more pop, no noodling,” says Jari, “I don’t really listen to prog

except early Genesis – that’s some impossibly great British madness –

but I’m allergic to all overserious music.”

Instead, ‘Queen of the Wave’ runs rampant, from Hammond funk

ballad ‘ Queenswave’ to the Bassey Bond theme-esque ‘My Flaming

Thirst’, from the Duane Eddy big beat of ‘A Night And A Day’ to the

Wagnerian choral explosion of ‘The Storm’. And always hovering

nearby are luscious dollops of easy listening and folk.

“I’ve always loved acid folk from the late ‘60s, when the British hippies

started singing it,” says Jari, “but, being Pepe, you have to bring the big

drums in at some point.” As for the easy listening aspect, Paul is a good
looking Swedish guy with a penthouse in lower Manhattan – of course

he’s going to write things inspired by exotica , space age pop and

bachelor pad music – then I add Finnish nastiness and attitude.”

Pepe Deluxé: Time Machines and spirit guides

Paul Malmström is now a full time member of Pepe but Jari remains its

original beating heart. The son of an inventor, he founded the group in
the mid-‘90s. They bloomed from underground hip hop into bouncing

big-beat pop and ‘Before You Leave’, their first single on Catskills

Records, became a hit after being used in a Levi’s Jeans commercial.
The award winning albums “Super Sound”, “Beatitude” and “Spare

Time Machine” showcased a transition from music made with samples

to recordings that sound like samples, with an increasing dosage of
uproarious ‘60s psychedelia and without ever losing the upbeat party

vibe.

As well as being musically astonishing, the new album continues Jari’s

Heath Robinson-like journey into old and bizarre technologies including
an Edwardian amplifier (originally intended for early telephones), an

1890s invention ‘wire recorder’, a hidden “thunder” effect on a

baroque pipe organ and even a thing called “Psychical Predictor”: an

electric apparatus designed for contacting “the other side”! It seems
he is becoming a steam punk…who never understood steam punk was

supposed to be fiction.

“I’m more and more interested in the Victorian elements,” he admits,

“This incredible mixture of science and superstition.” To bring this vision
to life, the Pepe duo collaborated with a host of musicians such as

Samuli Kosminen of Múm, master metal drummer Kai Hahto, ArcAttack

and their lethal Tesla coil synthesizer and the Czech Film Orchestra, as
well as a panoply of vocalists from every conceivable background:

vocal group Club For Five, opera singer Kirsi Thum, Moomins actress

Sara Welling, Australian rocker Boi Crompton and Bostonian Chris Cote,




whose main band, The Upper Crust, perform dressed as 18

th

Century

aristocratic fops.

The art of creating a world

“For 99 out of 100 musicians their best album is their first, second or third
then it’s decline, decline, decline...” Jari sighs, “One of my most

important missions is to not be like that. People are always talking

about projects but projects have a beginning and an end. For me it’s

not like that, it’s a life’s work of creating a world. We participate in
everything ranging from researching and building studio tools to

creating artwork, coming up with ideas and material for videos and

web etc. Everything that is Pepe is either created or directed by
us.”Not just the singles but also the whole album has a must-see video

that revels in ‘60s B-movie flavours with joyous abandon and

eccentricity. “I don’t think MTV will be playing it, but you never know...
especially as they are not about music anymore,” Jari cackles, adding,

“Well, at least I don’t know because I don’t have a television.”

He is so passionate about music, vintage pop culture and the

wonderful and often strange technologies he uses that you can’t help

but be swept along. He doesn’t want to slip into cliché and he never

seems to.

‘Queen of the Wave’ is Pepe’s next big stride forward and it lives up to

the ideals of its makers. Jari Salo and Paul Malmström’s creation is

unlike anything else around and yet it isn’t difficult or wilfully avant-
garde; it’s likeable, approachable sunshine pop from another

dimension, lit bright with fabulous ideas, startling production and, most

importantly, songs that send you doolally.

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