Kemialliset Ystävät, Kellari Juniversumi (side A)

The earliest work I've heard of Finland's Kemialliset Ystävät is a 7" from 2000—they'd amazingly already been releasing work for 4 years, but still employed a more aggressive, Swell Maps-like approach.  By 2002, when they made Kellari Juniversumi, the folk-electronic approach had moved to the foreground.  Kemialliset Ystävät utilize odd tonalities and acoustic instruments that seem to come from Finnish traditional music, and it differentiates the results from their American counterparts in the Tower Recordings and Jeweled Antler axes.  The music is surprisingly light and sometimes even extroverted, both of which seem atypical in the folk-psych underground.  The tracks on Kellari Juniversumi are short, and some even have melodies.  In subtle ways, the post-punk influence has not completely disappeared.  The vinyl mastering of this 2005 reissue has emphasized bright high-end, but the vocals often retain the recognizable proximity effect from the recordings—it's an odd creative approach to mastering a fairly lo-fi recording.  The excellent packaging has a nice glossy inner sleeve with patterned abstract paintings that match the style of the front cover.