Kellari Juniversumi

Many are the rumors that revolve round the Tamperean tribe called Kemialliset Ystävät (Chemical Friends), regarding for instance the recipe for their brand of magic potion and their ethnic background. Contradicting the common beliefs, this group, which is now, depending on how you count, releasing its first or tenth album, does not consist of elves, gnomes or some lesser known folk of the forest, but is mainly the product of one human risen from the rotten ditch of Nekala (a Tampere suburb). With his vast set of allies he has by the power of his spirit carved a whole multitude of caves into the cellar of an otherwise unsuspect looking house. From that Cellar Yuniversum (a rough translation of the disc's name) originates this record, which I myself regard rather as the first, as its many predecessors have been either halves of a long player, virtually unobtainable or partial rereleases. Now, at last, as we venture deeper into the cellar than ever before, we see the aforementioned elves and gnomes in their festivities, as the urbanization process has cut down the Tampere backwoods and has thus forced them to flee into the caves of Kemialliset Ystävät, who naturally are in good terms with all tiny earthlings with pointed ears. (Allow me to return to the subject magic potion: I've heard that in order to compensate the Lebensraum, the forest tribes have provided for Kemialliset Ystävät an unlimited supply of bottled fairy's pee, which is the strongest nordic hallucinogen known to man. Whether it ends up being sold at schoolyards and potato markets or to inspire this music, to that information I've got no acces.) By the time one has sunk deep enough into the world of the record, it isn't any more a question of seeing, but knowing in the sense of Plato's anamnesis, re-remembering. The same bearded chap, the Fostex left to the cave by higher powers and a varied selection of nearly broken instruments guarantee that this certainly psychedelic avant folk which stutters just as much as it should makes me remember myself once more at the mountains, naked, as the only human in the whole world. Alone, but still in unity with the world. A mysteriosly long trip across the stars too, and the smell of a Lettish fish factory and, yes, the Cellar Yuniversum is foggy. Kellari Juniversumi fills my head with all this, and countless other things as well, and all I can do is to Quote Janne Porkka (a slightly retarded Finnish TV quiz personality) and state: "It is correct!"

Ralf Normaali

The Wire August 2002

Kemialliset Ystävät - literally Chemical Friends - are a vaguely cultish, communal psych group from Finland, and their first 'official' album (after numerous extremely limited edition cassettes and lathe cuts), Kellari Juniversumi, ranks alongside recent releases by Joshua, Floating Flower and Fursaxa (see Outer Limits) as a prime example of outsider music beamed from nowhere. It comes in a foldout card sleeve adorned with the kind of hypnotically ornate folk patterns that used to mesmerise archivist Harry Smith. Inside the gatefold, various aura-adorned hippy heads float above the star field to complete a spread that references the various albums cut by 70s Krautrock supergroup The Cosmic Couriers. Indeed, snatches of this album actually sound like outtakes from Timothy Leary's acid tests in the swiss mountains, with spoken vocals over deep pools of reverb and flashy acid guitar. Elsewhere, simplistic piano parts and Asian percussion combine with enveloping drones that mirror Popol Vuh's soundtrack work or the Velvets-inspired minimalism of Sweden's International Harvester. Meanwhile, their short instrumental workouts bring to mind Japan's Maher Shalal Hash Baz at their most elegial.

David Keenan