LAIKA & THE COSMONAUTS
Absurdistan (Yep Roc)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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At one time, Laika & The Cosmonauts were favorites of mine. I had (and still have) their first three full-length CDs and some vinyl stuff and I made a lot of people listen to them all the time. Then they were put on tour with Ministry (?!!) and then they changed labels and I lost track of them. I never heard another song until today. I heard a lot of doomsayer reports that the music had turned into something completely different from the exotic instrumental brand they had previously been masters of, and I wondered just what they might have become. HA! Absurdistan is exactly what I want from Laika & The Cosmonauts! The lads from Helsinki haven't lost their ears for the exotic or the hypnotic, and the musicianship has only improved -- something I find hard to fathom -- over the past few years. The power is still there, too, now embellished by the very occasional incidental audio sample or, as in the case of "Look! No Head!," a monstrous growl. All that power and all that beauty colliding into something that is hard to explain in single-word superlatives. If the mass audience had the personal depth to accept music more substantial than the latest offerings of the boy groups, Laika & The Cosmonauts would be gods.

© 2000 - DJ Johnson