Kemialliset Ystävät - Self Titled

Kemialliset Ystävät
Kemialliset Ystävät
(05.2007, Fonal)
9.0/10

I don't know how my favourite childhood movie, The Labyrinth, has made it into another one of my reviews, but it is really making me wonder what kind of long term damage David Bowie's tight pants may have had on me. Anyway, childhood scarring aside, Kemialliset Ystävät's untitled (and if Wikipedia can be trusted) 40th release baring the band's name seems to be continually conjuring the goblins of Jim Henson's creation. In fact, I am absolutely certain that if they weren't lead by David Bowie (Jarath to you believers), those catchy tunes, glorious in their own right, would quickly turn in to this ramshackle catastrophe. This is a good thing. Kemialliset Ystävät have created an absolutely mind blowing catastrophe. With a veritable circus of instruments and a virtually unlimited amount of musical ideas, Kemialliset Ystävät are, quite simply, the most wonderful thing since, well, The Labyrinth. The unpronounceable Finnish band's name translates to "the chemical friends" which carries its own apt allusions as the band does seem somewhat friendly and certainly have an air of something chemically induced. The effect of the music might take the form of the Boredoms as chopped up and spewed out by an early Animal Collective and then rearranged by Black Dice. That may sound like a complicated description and it probably should be more complicated. When listening, I can't stop thinking about that battle at the end of The Labyrinth when Ludo summons the rocks to battle the goblin hordes. This album would probably be a fitting soundtrack to that scene as well. This is probably a garbled mess of a review but, if so, it is a telling effect of the music. Embarrassingly ambitious and astoundingly rewarding, Kemialliset Ystävät is the party album of the century. In fact, put this Disc/LP/Cassette on at your next party and just see if all the characters from The Labyrinth don't spontaneously appear just like they do for Jennifer Connelly at the end of the movie when Hoggle lovingly offers "…if you need us..."; trust me, you need this!

-Mr. Thistle

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