You can’t go wrong with a record from the band which describes itself as playing “horny and punky secret agent brass music” and “kosher-kebab jazz”. Finnish Alamaailman Vasarat’s (that’s “The Hammers of the Underworld” to you!) debut album “Vasaraasia” is an insane mixture of ethnicky flavoured world music and distorted polka, raging pump organs and wild, untamed drumming. The whole thing has a rather brooding quality, building itself up slowly to a frenzy of energetic madness, deep, crunchy cellos working together with oriental sax and trombone keys, jazz drumming working together with tangoing brass instruments and, indeed, all sorts of other crazy stuff. There’s even some metal riffage strewn about for good measure, such as on the thrashing “Asuntovelka” although you shouldn’t be fooled to believe that it’s an electric guitar making its appearance in the midst of all this acoustic goodness - that’s a heavily distorted cello. Clearly, this is acoustic music that can rock!

Of course, you shouldn’t be put off by the eclectic array of instruments, fancy genreifications by the band themselves and lack of vocals - this is actually quite an accessible thing, probably because of its musical depth and pure energetic quality, an inherent ability in the group’s members to create a very strong sense of atmosphere. It’s quite difficult to make any comparisons to other groups because they seem to me to play their very own distinct breed of polka/tango/jazz/world/prog/funeral. Still, if you’re going to hear one track before buying it (as you should), I would reccommend the fiddler-on-the-roofish, sirupy yet rocking “Kebab tai henki!” (”The Kebab Thief!”), even featuring a goofy video where the band chase a kebab thief through the streets of a drab Finnish town, armed only with their instruments. Ah, not only do they play great music, they also have a sense of humour…

A highly recommended collection of innovative, hybrid whacko oddities. Some of the songs get a bit tedious, but for the most part “Vasaraasia” is quite, quite listenable.

Year Released: 2000
Label: Wolfgang Records
Related Link: Alamaailman Vasarat Official Website
Date Reviewed: 2003-01-06
Author: Andreas