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#17
Avarus: Jättiläisrotta
CD
Available




REVIEWS:

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"Formed by various members of leftfield Finnish bands such as Maniac’s Dream and Pylon, Avarus have managed to achieve a reasonable amount of notoriety over the last year or so. Jättiläisrotta will do them no harm at all although it will confuse as many people as it will delight. Those of you not well versed in the more experimental or avant garde areas of music could find this album a total waste of time. However, if you can come to it with an open mind, then you might just have allowed yourself to enjoy a thoroughly trippy experience. Avarus have obviously drunk deep at the font of La Monte Young, and have created what can only really be described as a drone folk album. With repeated motifs, and an almost tribal rhythm Jättiläisrotta gets into your head and, if you were so inclined, it could take you on an almost spiritual journey. If you put enough into listening to this album, you will almost certainly get just as much out in return. In the wrong state of mind however, it could just sound like random meanderings.
This is an album whose title relates to stages of drunkenness, and at times when the drum patterns undulate in their timing, and the guitars slur endlessly the listener can feel quite disorientated. As we all know, getting drunk is always a 50/50 affair, it can be great fun, but you can also find yourself with your head down a toilet mumbling ‘Never Again.’ In the right circumstances Jättiläisrotta is an album that you can have great fun with, at other times (a particularly awful new age shop for example) you might find yourself swearing off of this kind of stuff forever. You’ll be back though; at the moment there isn’t an Avarus Anonymous."

- Sam Shepherd

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"There is a new global psychedelic underground, and one of its cultural centers is Finland. Now according to the CIA's World Factbook 2004, Finland transformed from a "farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy" since winning independence in 1917. I stress the words "farm," "forest," and "industrial" because they succinctly evoke the softly pulsating pastoral drones of Avarus -- one of the most productive of all Finnish psych groups (and there are dozens). Every one of these 10 patiently rippling folksy meditations, which last anywhere from two to five minutes, is a unique lo-fi weave of arcane string instrumentation, esoteric horns, unknown metallic percussion, and cryptic electronic processes. Mysterious isn't even the word for this because I can't decipher who in the hell is doing what and how. It actually sounds like both an ancient relic discovered far below the forest floor and a brief but intoxicating glimpse into some cyberfuture when humanity has finally established healthy commune with nature, technology, and itself."

- Justin F. Farrar