Jimi Tenor has been described as the Finnish Barry White, which isn't really far off, but he's a top-notch producer as well. Already celebrated in the U.K. for his critically-acclaimed 1997 debut Intervision, Organism is Tenor's first stateside release. Cooking up a sultry stew of disco, funk, and modern dance, including drum 'n' bass, is his specialty. But even that isn't enough to satisfy him, as he ventures into gospel and choral music with the able assistance of a 60 piece Finnish choral group. With its many different threads and influences, including the Sun Ra-esque "Total Devastation," Organism makes the case that Tenor is a truly international artist.

by Sarah Zupko
from Sound Affects

Second album, recorded in London, Berlin, Barcelona, New York and his home town, Lahti. When an album's opening track - Sly Stone funk with power chords - makes way for a second that resembles 1988 Detroit techno with harmonies from Mahler, then it's clear that the little Finn Jimi Tenor is big on eclectic.

He's nicely accessible too and, if Warp is willing to keep footing the bill, there could be a major maverick career in the making here: a clubland Beck, an Aphex Twin who could appear on Live & Kicking. It loses its marbles midway through with a useless instrumental, although there's some closing recompense in Year Of Apocalypse's operatic disco, while City Sleeps recalls Pulp's ironic urban sleaze re-located to Helsinki. Mad but for the most part far from bad.

by Stuart Maconie
from Q

The wonderfully warped retro Chicago disco funkiness of Finland’s answer to everything returns with his second long player. The ten new songs continue unbroken from where "Intervision" left off.

His unique interpretations of everything from Barry White to Parliament is happy and uplifting. At times it will warm up your handbag, and at others will have you blowing the dust off your old Afrika Bambaata and Kraftwerk classics.

Don’t be as square as Jimi’s glasses – lively up your speakers and tune right in.

from Freebase

Hey, look out. Finland’s Jimi Tenor has returned with more of his antics for Organism, his second album on the wacky Warp imprint.

Tenor is still putting his organ through the paces, but this time it sounds like he’s got Kraftwerk and Parliament as his backing bands, and he’s not afraid to put his foot down and house things up for the dancefloor either. The first single, “Year of the Apocalypse”, is a real raveup, complete with backing from a 60 member Finnish modern choral group. Out with a hip-moving Maurice Fulton remix in March, it will be followed by “Total Devastation” in April.

If you haven’t heard Tenor before, these song titles give you a good idea of his modus operandi: when the world is about to end, Tenor will be there in your local lounge swinging and singing about it. Lyrics with surface wit, subversiveness with a smirk paired with finger snappin’ grooves...it’s all good. Welcome back, Jimi.

by Andrew Duke
from Vice Magazine

Recorded in Berlin, London, New York and Finland, Organism is Jimi Tenor’s fourth album and his second for the UK electronic label. Although his musical direction could be perceived as more commercial than much of the label’s output, Tenor is more off-the-wall than the rest of the entire label roster in many respects, eschewing more serious worldly concerns for a lackadaisical irreverence that pursues its own unparalleled notions of warped hedonistic camp. Somewhere between swing orchestra and night club soul revue band, Tenor’s sound is live and dynamic, occasionally wandering into complex futuristic lounge-fusion territory on arrangements such as ‘Xinotepe Heat’. ‘Apocalyse’ is an international kamikaze hoe-down, infused with decadent disco, featuring a 60 piece Finnish choral group alongside Parliament-esque funky house grooves. ‘Muchmo’ is a more of a slow-burner, with Tenor’s deadpan vocal repeating, mantra-like, “Much more psychedelic than any other drugs” over a tight funk feel with shades of Afro melody played on sax and flute. ‘City Sleeps’ is all smokey sax and cod soul ballad, with Tenor in drunken soliloquy mode. Throwaway parody or deadly serious?

Organism is a feast of future funk from a man whose rider has been known to include a white stallion, on which he canters into his own gigs. Give this maverick a film to star in - he’s a natural.

by Pete Lawrence
from Top Magazine

More reviews at Pitchforkmedia, NME, The Guardian