Mandalavandalz - Chapora Nightlife

While I must admit I am generally lacking when it comes to knowledge of the whole sub-genre of psy generally known as "Finnish", I must say I found Mandalavandalz - Chapora Nightlife, on Japan's 6D Soundz, to be an excellent piece of music from front to back.

While many of the tracks are rather short, there is little fuss involved here, only slamming tracks from front to back. Laced with a heavy dose of old school psy-sounds, this albums true strong point is its bass. Fans of today's full on 16th note bass action should pay attention because here is some serious bass action that is not only low, but has some serious freakin' GROOVE happening (anyone else ere remember groove?). Couple that with a serious dose of purely crazy noise, some ethnic fun and a dase of plain old fun humor and you have a winner of a cd.

While the whole abum is most excellent, for me, the second track, Chandrakant, sums up everything right and true about this disc. Starting off with little fuss (i.e. no long intros, although I do normally like big intros) this track features some monsterously funky bass grooves that grab you and refuse to let go. Add to it some nice ethnic percussion work, a mess of fly by noises and some good vocal sample work that is both ethnic and a hair tongue in cheek and you have a wonderful sonic battlezone (although most definately not of the typical full on variety). Chandrakant alone makes this CD worth the price of admission, but the rest of the CD is just as good, making this one of my best little discoveries of the year.

The end result - Definately a recommended work, especially for people who prefer groove over an endless 16th note bass assault. 8.5/10