Released on the 21st May 2021 via Soliti.
Peace & Love has 10 tracks that could loosely fit the genre of garage rock and perhaps a new one; artsy-psych. Heavy riffs mix with wailing sax and taught proto-punk to create a thrilling mix of often disparate elements. Peace & Love was recorded in a small warehouse studio at Roihupelto, Helsinki by Teemu Hietaniemi (FUN) during fall 2020 and early 2021. Pink Chameleons leader Paltsa-Kai Salama tells us of the album “I have always loved and played garage punk but the last five years or so I wanted to explore also a more mellow and arts-y sounds so in a way this is a kind of a return to my roots.Lyrically the album is dealing with a lot of frustration, anger and boredom. All those random feelings can be expressed quite easily with the aggressive sound of garage punk. I’m a lazy dude so it was quite an easy option”
Listen to PEACE & LOVE
Some Initial praise Peace & Love
“Pink Chameleon’s ambition has been rewarded with a fine and varied set of songs. In my opinion, “Spacedog” is a perfect update of ’60s garage rock/psychedelic nuggets genre. “Slow Me” seems to channel ’70s guitar hero psychedelic rock, while “Horsewalk” lets the band give free rein to their country stylings. I also am particularly fond of the robust, but more guitar pop-leaning closer, “Rainy Days”, and its twin sibling “Hot Dog”. Variety is good, and Peace & Love is very entertaining variety.” WYMA
“Peace and Love is an album of supreme 60s tinged enjoyment and one I would recommend to all you connoisseurs of Garage rock and all things 60s.” Monolith Cocktail
“Thirty minutes of buzz-saw electricity and harsh jingle-jangle juice.
Electrifying debut!” Turn Up The Volume! (album of the day)
“…you can’t run from those opening riffs! But, as evidenced by the brash strut of the saxophone and the effects of the vocals, you can tell the band aren’t here to rehash anything in particular; they’re building their own sound, something akin to what leader Paltsa-Kai calls “arty-psych.” ATH
“But ‘Slow Me’ is without question up there with anything I can remember, and unusually it mixes grunge rock with sax, which I can’t recollect many other bands trying either – although I’m more than happy to be corrected. It’s the quality of that solo that stands out too, which courtesy of Jussi Hurskainen is introduced just when you’d expect a guitar solo, and positively bellows out a sound that really puts the guitars firmly in their place.” Nordic Music Review
“This is something I should see live” HBL
“They’re gonna get you, you gotta see them”, they sing in Run and Hide – the same goes for Pink Chameleons.” Add To Wantlist
” Garage paukkaa tuttuun tapaan, eikä sinkulle kerry mittaa kuin hädin tuskin kaksi minuuttia, mutta oleellinen kyllä välittyy siinäkin ajassa.” 4/5 Desibeli.net
“However, there is a fair majority of the songs that end up on the plus side.” 3/5 Kulttuuritoimitus
“Helsinki based threesome who rumble through the inteNsity that the best of garage fuzz has to offer, whilst allowing the slightest melodic intent to just about permeate the surface. Glorious fuzz !” Jangle Pop Hub
“Rokkiosastolla aina mainio Pink Chameleons julkaisi ihanan kellarirallin Hot Dog” Päivän Biisit
Paltsa-Kai interviewed via @Radio Helsinki
Peace & Love (Soliti 089) Release date: 21/05/2021
Album sleeve by Honk!
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- 1. Death By Bliss
2. Dead End Life
3. Run And Hide
4. Spacedog
5. Hot Dog
6. Horsewalk
7. Pink Crush
8. Dog
9. Slow Me
10. Rainy Days
- 1. Death By Bliss
Paltsa-Kai Salama – Vocals, guitars, keyboards
Antti Sauli – Bass
Kimmo Godtfredsen – Drums, percussion
Backing vocals on “Run and Hide” by Tytti Roto
Saxophone on “Pink Crush” and “Slow Me” by Jussi Hurskainen
Backing vocals on “Hot Dog” by Joni Seppänen
Music/lyrics Paltsa-Kai Salama
Music arranged by Pink Chameleons
Recorded by Teemu Hietaniemi, overdubs by Harri Homi and Paltsa-Kai Salama
Mixed by: Paltsa-Kai Salama
Mastered by: Jari Suominen
Cover art by HONK!
Paltsa-Kai Salama discusses the new record
How do you think PC have progressed as a band since the first EP came out?
Our first EP took quite a long time to record, from early 2017 to late 2019. The line-up was changing a lot and as a result the EP came out as a bit of a mixed bag. Kimmo started as our new drummer in late 2019 and after that we kind of developed a sound that is this album. We are more of a band now than before.
The material sounds like it has more reverence toward puck-rock – is this true? What produced this change in energy?
I have always loved and played garage punk but the last five years or so I wanted to explore also a more mellow and arts-y sounds so in a way this is a kind of a return to my roots.
Lyrically the album is dealing with a lot of frustration, anger and boredom. All those random feelings can be expressed quite easily with the aggressive sound of garage punk. I’m a lazy dude so it was quite an easy option.
What music have you listened to that’s had an influence on the new PC material (if any)
The idea behind the Pink Chameleons has always been smashing all sorts of cool things, ideas and musical genres together and still try to maintain some sort of musical concept. A big inspiration behind this record was Paul McCartney’s work with Wings. He jumps from one genre to another but still it sounds like him. This encouraged us to keep us doing what we were doing. I have always loved records that have lots of different vibes, kind of like a good mixtape where you can have all sorts of things, but it still holds up as a concept. That’s pretty much what we are trying to do with Pink Chameleons. This mission is pretty hard but we are getting better at it all the time.
How was the recording process different this time around?
This time we went to a studio and actually spent some time trying to make it sound proper. We heard there was this small warehouse studio close to our rehearsal space run by Teemu Hietaniemi – from legendary noise-rock band FUN. I contacted Teemu and it seemed like an interesting idea to record with him. He’s quite a wizard with audio engineering so it was a really pleasant experience working with him. We recorded most of the material live in his studio.
Do you have any plans to promote the album?
We are looking forward to playing gigs, we had some lined up but of course they were cancelled. Hopefully we can do something very soon.’
Pink Chameleons 2021 Photo by Julia Brungs