VOODOO BOOGIE

Have you ever thought to yourself: I need a brand new fox, that I can talk to! I want some new hamstrings - with mustard and cubes? Why are there so many lamps? 456 peanuts and what? Why shouldn´t I - they´re round and all?. Jenny Garth from Beverly Hills is really an ok saxophone player - she´s just too involved with fingers and salmon residue - well I only liked her on that Miles Davis album, so whatever... Bazookas in my pocket could clear that cold! Then you - YES YOU!!! You should go get this album!

Take Beefheart, Samla Mammas Manna, Henry Cow, punk attitude mixed with blues rock from a merry go round and some Zappaesque Swedish humour on top of that - pop it in the blender along with some coffee and go faster stripes - and you´re nearly there......well nearly.

These guys sound like patients from your nearest mental institution. They´ve just drunken 20 cups of coffee(which oddly enough is the name of one of the tracks: Tjugo koppar kaffe), put on some flowery dresses and then headed over to the studio for a good jam. Man, this sounds completely absurd!! I dare anyone to listen to this album, without having a good laugh. First time I tried it, I was nearly in tears. I laughed out loud - climbed the walls like a schizophrenic lemur - started talking to plants, and forgot everything around me. Everything just dissolved.

Voodoo Boogie is like a deconstruction of blues and rock n´ roll - paired up with the most outrageous speed. It´s like going too fast in a car, but you´re nowhere near the steering wheel. Sometimes it´s obvious - Oh yeah, there´s the blues chords with the big fat bass going bum bum bum, and then, out of the blue, an insane drum-roll cuts through the music - the guitars start running like some fearful runner out of Kenya - and you´re now far far far away from where you started. Some times the instruments just part ways - See Ya!! each of them off in their own direction, or maybe the song lasts 45 seconds and includes a guy yelling Swedish profanities. There´s even one track that seems to be playing 2 different songs at the same time. Sheer madness!

Just to paint a better picture of this bizarre musical universe, then let me dictate what front man Michael Maksymenko is up to here. First of all, this guy, who also handles the compositions - is in fact sitting behind the drum-kit and sounds like Animal from the Muppet Show. He does the vocals, plays a vacuum-cleaner, and what I find the most ridiculous and sure as eels on the front lawn, made me laugh like a village idiot, is the fact that he´s in charge of the coaching! Trust me, if you´d heard this album, then something like coaching would sound truly bizarre.

Mumbling guitar excursions, toddler in the kitchen, a skilled Syd Vicious on the bass after he´s injected himself with a kilo of instant coffee - and somehow this album works. I like to listen to this while I´m cooking dinner. Dancing like a drunk penguin - throwing myself around the kitchen like an insane person, I must say that Voodoo Boogie suddenly takes on another dimension. One could state, that the more likely you are to go completely mad - and revel in it to boot, the more likely it is, that you´ll appreciate this album.

If you´re interested in hearing the rejected soundtrack to Milos Forman´s masterpiece One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest performed by Swedish mental patients, then by all means - go invest in this piece of pacing insanity. Approach with extreme caution. 3.5 stars.