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Mika Vainio: Life (...it eats you up)

  Tobias Fischer

Nihilistic. Broken. And although music, track titles and cover artwork all seem to point in the direction of some sort of hidden programmatics, Vainio has refrained from arty conceptual adornment.

Instead, these pieces seem to stem from a moment of personal intoxication, possibly from a state of mind corresponding to the dark, negative force exuded by the music. The rest of the material may have been added at a later stage, from an emotional distance, for better measure.

I could easily write plenty more about the music. About its incredible sound, the artwork with its precise positioning of the titles and the truly chilling imagery. But in terms of a review, it suffices to day that this is broken to the bone, downright dirty and brutal. That its main sound source is a distorted electric guitar. That its all but entirely made up of drone and noise, with no more than the occasional appearance of one of Vainio's trademark-beats. And that the album includes a sceletised and destroyed Stooges-cover-version.

An utterly persuasive statement. Try 1 / 3 / 10 to convince yourself. Perfect.

By Hellmut Neidhardt

Homepage: Mika Vainio
Homepage: Editions Mego