In his introduction to the new edition of David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest' , Dave Eggers marvels at this vast novel's complexities describing it as a unique work of modern fiction that defies standard literary definition, saying that: "If you could somehow smash it into smaller pieces, there would certainly be no way to put it back together again. It simply is".
This same resistance to de-constructivism is also true of the music of Finland's Kemialliset Ystavat (which roughly translates as 'The Chemical Friends'). These are a troupe of new weird free folk revellers led by Jan Anderzan. who on this their , by my count, fourth full length, prove themselves an unstoppable force for good . They add to the already hugely impressive Fonal catalogue a work which is sophisticated, multi-faceted yet refreshingly accessible.
While Eggers compared the components of Wallace's literary masterpiece to the rivets and bolts of a shiny spaceship, an equivalent analogy for Kemialliset Ystavat would have to be more earthbound and organic in scope.
Fonal aptly describe the album as a "merry beast" a term which captures well its untamed carnival-like qualities. Theirs is a sound that references traditional folk acoustics, chants and chimes, Krautrock samples, electronic noodling, noise experimentation and free jazz yet manages to sound like all and none of these elements.
Although there are no decipherable words, the undercurrent of voices, breathing, gurgling water and acoustic instrumentation ensures that it is humanistic in scope rather than a commentary on the machine age. If it is mechanical it is so in the manner of the elaborate madcap creations of Heath Robinson style mad professors . All 12 tracks, for all the clever studio trickery at work, have a tenuous quality of being bound together by scotch tape rather than blended with digitalised finesse.
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A prime example comes at the album's midway point with the trippy energy of a track entitled 'Superhimmeli' .This announces itself with a thumping drum and acoustic strumming before spiralling into hypnotic rhythms that are reminiscent of Can in their inspirational heyday. The momentum of this piece is disorientating to the point that it seems to be hurtling towards self destruction. Elsewhere the join between the slick nowness and ragged primitivism is evident in the off sounding fairground organ sound that underpins Himmelimenetelm or the hymnal chanting in the closing track 'Himmeli kutsuu minua'
In short, the album is in equal measure resoundingly modern and resolutely tribal. It is thrillingly alive with inventiveness and absolutely ablaze with ideas. Jan Anderzan and his chemical friends have crafted an album of abstract experimental music with a spiritual dimension that both creates and exists within a bright and glimmering world of their own making.
It is quite simply a work of genius.
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