Laika & The Cosmonauts
Laika Sex Machine
Yep Roc Records YEP 2024

by William Michael Smith

I knew a Swede who used to joke that during the winter when the snows drift so high the front doors to homes might be blocked for weeks at a time, Scandinavians stay warm and alive by "rubbing their bodies together." With the 75- minute instrumental CD Laika Sex Machine, the Helsinki, Finland rock band Laika & The Cosmonauts has provided background music to meet the strenuous demands of this "captive market," assuming that market prefers to accompany its amorous exertions with surf music and instrumental rock.

If your idea of a Scandinavian band is Abba, you may be shocked at what you find when you enter The Cosmonauts' space. Consisting of 26 tracks gleaned from ten live performances in Finland and Germany, Laika Sex Machine is an impressive tour de force cataloging a selection of Cosmonaut originals from their previous albums (many from their 1997 Warner Brothers release, Absurdistan) as well as covers of movie and television themes ("Mission Impossible," "Psycho," "Vertigo," "Get Carter") and classic blast-from-the-past instrumental chart-toppers like "Telstar."

Don't think for one minute that Laika's original material might not measure up to the more widely known work covered (or, more accurately, interpreted) on the album. With six albums under their belts, these are no amateurs or weekend hobbyists. The Cosmonauts' work compares favorably with the top US practitioners of the surf guitar art. Their twin guitar, spaghetti-western-toned surf romp, "Floating," is as good a guitar instrumental as we will ever hear, and their blistering interpretation of "Get Carter" is mind-expanding. Lead guitarist Mikko Lankinen and second guitarist Matti Pinsinki are true devotees of both the guitar and the surf instrumental style. Masters of minor chords and whammy bar vibrato, they can find work anywhere on the planet.

While The Cosmonauts are primarily a guitar band with a supremely accomplished and fluid rhythm section (Tom Nyman on bass and drummer Janne Haavisto), the Farfisa organ work of Pinsinki dominates a number of tracks. One listen to "Tantrum" and it becomes quite apparent Mr. Pinsinki knows how to make an organ play with a listener's head.

With 26 instrumental tracks, there may be a tendency to think this music might all tend to run together, the tracks become indistinguishable. Have no fear. The Cosmonauts are consummate musicians and their sound varies from full out, mile-a-minute, Dick Dale surf style ("Hi & Lo," "Look, No Head!") to the twangier, spaghetti-western, Ventures sound ("Café Equator," "Lands End") to tracks that border on jazz ("The Hypno-Wheel," "Syncophant"). When Pinsinki fires up his organ and gets playful, The Cosmonauts even indulge in a form that might best be described as theme music for Herman Munster's crowd ("Psyko," "Disconnected"). While their performance façade may be surf-rock, given their virtuosity and precision timing I suspect The Cosmonauts' private musical collections contain a fair share of jazz recordings. Pinsinki's certainly contains some Jimmy Smith.

Laika Sex Machine is not a great European record. It is simply a great record. Winter's upon us and I've got my copy. Now all I need is a Scandinavian partner, a 5-gallon can of oysters, and a freak tropical snowstorm.

* Laika Sex Machine is available from Yep Roc Records, www.yeproc.com Check out Laika at www.sjoki.uta.fi/~latvis/yhtyeet/Laika_And_The_Cosmonauts


Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
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