Hot Sox - Das Kapital

For a long time I was interested in a band called Hot Sox, who cut their only LP "Das Kapital" in 1981. I had read the slaughtering review of "Das Kapital" in music magazine Soundi, but still I wanted to check out what kind of music the band played. Apparently something new wavey and experimental, with synths...



One day I checked out my regular site for ordering foreign vinyl, MusicStack, and noticed that a Norwegian record store had a copy of "Das Kapital" in stock, so I rescued the record back to its home country :)



The first time I listened to the record, I was a little puzzled. Hmm, weird, tacky... but in a way, interesting.



Hot Sox were a four-man unit with Teemu Näppilä on vocals, rhythm guitar and keyboards, Tuomas Hämeen-Anttila on lead guitar, Jari Tomperi on drums and percussion and Tauno Railo on bass. Co-producer Upi Sorvali played exotic instruments called kalimba and yang-qin on a couple of songs.



The boys certainly had their own style - they even managed to turn Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" into something completely different. Hot Sox didn't meet any commercial success, and it's easy to see why, because the music is too contrived and cold to make a great impression. But if you have a taste for experimental new wave, try it. You might even find some message in some of their lyrics, like "Le Mutant", which Hot Sox should have taken literally: don't try to be something you're not, don't try constantly changing your style and appearance if you don't know what you want to be.



Tauno Railo is the only member who's had a career in music since, as the bassist of Piirpauke! The other guys vanished completely from the music business.



Besides this LP, the singles "Isn't That Right / Bats" (1980), "Plastic Twist / Purple Haze" (1981, taken from the LP) and "Plaster Force / The Tube" (1981) also exist.



Das Kapital:



1. Die Arbeit

2. Bats

3. The Pope Can't Love Jazz

4. Moon

5. Plastic Twist

6. Bubbles

7. Le Mutant

8. Purple Haze

9. It's the Drum

10. Sad Streets

11. Artificial Incitements

12. The Tube



http://finnishrock.blogspot.com/2008/08/hot-sox-das-kapital-1981.html