The visage of Kemialliset Ystavat is surely that of the manic. Their manner of organically seeding his slow-forming soundclouds makes the albums relentless flow attain the stupefying logic of a dream. That he digs into this rambunctious music with unrestrained glee is one thing – the players no doubt require ample stamina and sustained concentration to play these intricate scores in such a relaxed and playful manner – but the ability to also arrange these compositions, so far as they can be called that, such that they not only refrain from becoming a simple hodgepodge, but actually stick in your mind like a manic mantra is something else altogether.
An ethnopsychedelic throwdown, then, to be sure, but one deserving of some notoriety, as these loud, chaotic works revel in a distortion as much produced by the cacophony of instruments and electronics as by the toasted production. ‘Tulinen Kiihdytys’, as something more or less indicative of the album on a whole, works with rasping flute licks, slobbering guitar strums, and freestyle drums before ripping into an overdriven anthem of stomping feet and chanting voices.
It is certainly a work of an outwardgoing spirit, favoring exotic sound sources and scalding electronic processing, yet, both on headphones and in an open space, it is tastefully done, showing a litheness of harmonic control, and an ability to sow real progress, and not just spirit. Take ‘Superhimmeli’, for example, when the staccato patterns dovetail to funky perfection, or on ‘Himmelimenetelmä’ when the benign tones begin to snarl and wail. In each of these places, each subsection maintains its own distinctive weight and color. As such, the album packs quite the euphoric payoff.
Max Schafer
