Follow us on Twitter
Freak Kitchen - Land of the Freaks
Music
Written by Rahul Chacko   
Wednesday, 27 January 2010 17:12

freakkitchen-landofthefreaksFreak Kitchen has always pushed the right buttons with me. The irreverent, self-deprecating feel, IA's guitar wizardry, the pains taken to push humour through a language barrier - all those were well worth applauding. So much so that I didn't really mind the misstep that was Organic. Sure, it was under par, considering their previous work, but not something that really chafed you for listening to it.

Anyway, the good news is that they've stepped it up for Land of the Freaks. The 3 year break in between albums seems to have helped, as IA brings some new ideas to the plate, thanks to his stint with Jonas Hellborg on Art Metal. This comes good most clearly on Teargas Jazz, which is easily the highlight of the album for me. Not for any jingoistic reasons. Really. The song recounts the tale of FK's visit to India while playing for GIR, and how they were skulking around trying to be inconspicuous, since at that time, Muslims worldwide were pissed off at the Danes for penning those Mohammed cartoons, and supposedly liable to take it out on just about any gringo they came across. Teaming up with Art Metal cohort Selvaganesh and Neyveli S Radhakrishnan, they belt out some of that good ol' hypercarnatic metal and really clean up the floor with it. Selvaganesh also returns to add percussion for Murder Groupie, lending that song some great character it may have lacked otherwise.

As for the rest of the songs, well, diversity is the name of the game here. God Save The Spleen and Honey You're A Nazi are upbeat, aggro and catchy, a lot like the earlier stuff. Hip Hip Hooray's got a bumping dance beat on it. The Smell of Time has a chorus that makes it sound like a N-Sync number. OK is a sort of fusion ballad. Do Not Disturb makes for a sweet acoustic closer. Actually, it's not the album closer, though it probably should have been. The humour's still around too, and not just in the lyrics. Murder Groupie, for example, starts with a heart beating in the odd time signature that the song employs.
Really not much need to get into describing the playing - you know what their chops are like by now. IA is pretty much the same freak he always was. His leads sound a bit more intelligently planned, and there's the occasional carnatic flourish here and there. His tone sounds improved as well - a bit dirty for the chunky parts, but the leads are still as clean as ever. Björn is solid behind the kit and he needs to be, with all the different styles the band blaze through. Chris mostly sticks to the basic bass plan, but he has some pretty quirky outings, like at the end of The Smell of Time.

Land of the Freaks does sound like the most complete album that FK have ever done. But even at 50 minutes, it does seem a mite too long. Wasn't entirely convinced by Clean it Up and One Last Dance - if you took those two out, you'd have an ideal album at 42 minutes. Still, better too many songs than not enough good songs. That's what's cooking.
rating4
Label: Thunderstruck, Proper Music, Bonnier Amigo, Universal, Rockweiler Ltd, Roadrunner
Year of release: 2009

Tags:
< Prev   Next >
 

Our valuable member Rahul Chacko has been with us since Wednesday, 07 February 2007.

Show Other Articles Of This Author

More where this came from:

You need to login or register to post comments.
Discuss...
Discuss (3 posts)

HathyaSaiBaba
Re:Freak Kitchen - Land of the Freaks
Jan 28 2010 09:33:17
Great review of a very entertaining album Chax. Only quibble I have is I don't consider Organic a drop in form/quality or anything. It could be the first album by the group syndrome at work here (for instance, I love No Prayer for the Dying while most other Maiden fans say its the weakest Dickinson album), but I thought Organic was just great. Is an interview happening? Could you ask IA why he/his label make it so hard to get Freak Kitchen unpirated? Land of the Freaks is already out of stock most places including the official site. The less said about the back catalogue the better.
 #14560

Srikanth Panaman
Re:Freak Kitchen - Land of the Freaks
Jan 28 2010 10:16:02
@Ravi: I was supposed to interview, and I passed the job on to Chax. Tell you what, you guys could all post questions and we'll compile and send them over to IA.

For my money, this is the best FK album till date. Bang on review by all means.
 #14561

Rahul Chacko
Re:Freak Kitchen - Land of the Freaks
Jan 28 2010 14:47:46
Regarding Organic, I've never really pegged down the reasons why it didn't click with me as much as the rest. Speak When Spoken To is certainly a great opener. But around midway through the album, I've always switched off. Only other songs I remember are Mussolini Mind, Rights To You and Chest Pain Waltz. I guess, melodically it was more stripped down and maybe less catchy than the stuff that came before and it didn't have the layers/additional quirky elements of the new one.

But I like No Prayer For The Dying too - only Dickinson album I didn't get into totally was Fear of the Dark.
 #14563
Home Reviews Music Freak Kitchen - Land of the Freaks