Alamaailman Vasarat

(Originally published in Spring 2009)

Sometimes music becomes so obscured by the genre it inhabits that its original identity is lost. Everyone knows that “Kind of Blue” is an important, brilliant jazz album, but most people can’t identify the musicians on the record or even what instrument Miles Davis plays. “Classical” music has become linked to the cut-and-try music theory that pervaded most of its early works, and so many people assume that all classical consists of soft string quartets and cadential six-fours, ignoring the wild atonality of John Cage and the demented grooves of Stravinsky. With so many sub-genres of music – hard-bop jazz, post-punk, math-rock, alternative fusion, etc… the title seems to encapsulate the music more than its content.

Alamaailman Vasarat, or “Hammers of the Underworld,” as they are known in their native Finland, defy the label of genre by embracing several of them. They describe their style as “kebab-kosher-jazz-film-traffic-punk-music.” To better illustrate their music’s sound, they write “A poor Chinese immigrant moved to Calcutta for a better life, but finds all the rumours he heard about the graceland to be something else than true. Now he's stuck in a traffic jam in between a million rickshas.”

AV consists of six-members, each playing various instruments. Jarno Sarkula plays saxes and clarinets, Erno Haukkala plays trombone and tuba, Miikka Huttanen plays pump organ and other keyboards, Tuukka Helminen and Marko Manninen play cellos, and Teemu Hanninen plays drums and other percussion. With the exception of the cellos, AV’s instrumentation seems to most closely resemble a modern jazz combo, but the roles of the instruments are more closely linked to klezmer music. Sarkula utilizes the shrieking quality of reeds to slicing effect, and Haukkala (the only conservatory trained member of the group) harnesses the power of brass instruments in wails reminiscent of Shostakovitch symphonies. The basslines are usually carried by Huttanen’s keyboards and Helminen and Manninen’s cellos, the latter adding harsh, heavy jabs to the figures. Hanninen supports the five separate elements with a solid sense of time and a sensitivity that can range from screaming heavy metal to warm jazz ballad.

Although AV certainly borrows from and hints at many different styles of music, they truly have created their own sound. Ostinatos (repeating basslines) and odd meters are their specialty. Songs may start with a throbbing prog-rock riff in electronically amplified cellos before transitioning to an intricate Balkan-tinged melody from the sax and bone, or they may begin with a tender piano solo that gradually builds into a rising and eventually abrasive wall of sound. The music is intense, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Songs switch from slow to fast, happy to angry, rhythmic to ambient, like channels switching on a TV. The most impressive thing about these abrupt switches is that they do not sound like interruptions. The compositions flow in dramatic rises and falls, and are careful to tell stories – with characters and motifs reappearing in unexpected permutations throughout the course of the songs. Improvisation is hinted at but never fully expressed.

On top of the emotional intensity and catchy quality of AV’s songs, the parts are pretty damn difficult. Dissonant harmonies, insanely technical melodic figures, and unusual bar forms dominate the compositions. In almost every song that AV plays, the time signature will change subtly at some point. As well as more obvious sections in 11/4, 5/4, or 7/4 (drawing influence from Balkan music once again) songs may start out on 4 and every so often skip or add a beat at unexpected times, creating a suspenseful delay or abrupt leap forward in the melodies. It’s as if AV is tricking the listener by switching the emphasis of the groove, a predominant technique in prog-rock.

This is certainly not a band for everyone, but they amass such a wide range of styles and present such a unique musical sound-scape that they seem to have attracted a significant fan-base outside of Finland, stretching to the US. Metalheads will love the grungy power chord cellos, jazz fans will dig on the swinging melodies, and just about anyone will appreciate the cinematic quality of AV’s music. Perhaps one of the best things about AV is that it is so evocative, and the way people appreciate it varies in so many ways. I have a friend who will always ask me to play “that creepy circus clown music,” and another who loves “that weird polka shit.” Alamaailman Vasarat is certainly not a conventional band, but in defying conventions it rises above them and creates a category all for itself that can be enjoyed purely for what it is – very strange, very catchy, and very, very tightly-performed.

-Josiah Reibstein