UNIRYTMEJÄ

Manogurgeil is a crazy mainly instrumental Finnish quintet that plays some wild JR/F with a Canterbury twist. So far this combo (formed in 02) has released in early 2007 a sole album called "Unirytmejä" (Circadian Rhythms) on their own mini-label. The quintet sports a double keyboard and guitarist attack over a fiery rhythm section.

Opening on a sung track Alue, the group presents a funky facet playing behind an inhabitual voice that could be a mix of Bjork and Luka Bloom. The lengthy Sydamesi that follows is much more representative of the general feel of the album, a fast driving jazz-rock with plenty of twist that sound like they came from the Kent County, somewhere in a Caravan placed on a Field of Hats that's ploughed by a Soft-natured Machine?. As the fuzzed-out organ tells us, but the Hopperian bass and a wild Fender Rhodes only add to that feeling. Excellent stuff and a 12- mins trip to the stratosphere. The collegially-penned Moursut is much in the same mould and while the following Vesikavelijat is a slow starter, it soon develops Kentish roots (listen to that Caravan-ian bass), but never reaches cosmic speeds, but consolidates the album's excellent stature and ends in a nuclear blast. After a short Poliisien that rose lke a phenix from its ashes, the album plunges in its second centrepiece, the immense 9-mins+ Hairitaeva track, which plunges into a solar-hot fusion and melt your speaker cones with hot lava spewing onto your carpet. This track is somewhat a bit closer to early Weather Report (the Vitous era) meeting Soft Machine's sixth album. The following Peikkotanssi is a broken down slightly dissonant piece that sounds improvised and it feels a bit like you're crossing a red star's heart aboard some interstellar ship and the rebuilding process sounding a bit like a Caravan trick. The closing Pikkalinnun is also dissonant and feels improvised

This group's incredible (and sole so far) debut album is one of the strongest of that year and can easily sit in my top 20 from the 00's. I suppose I must be glad that I only discovered this album some 10 months ago and already I can't wait for the next one, so I'm glad I didn't have to wait three years now for the second act.