CD: K-X-P - K-X-P

This is the most gorgeous Finnish Krautrock album I've heard in ages. Yeah, I know, how wacky, how alternative, how off-piste – but bear with me. If you associate Krautrock with over-serious record collectors it might sound like damning with faint praise, but yes, this mostly instrumental record is made by a trio of demented Finns; yes, it is rooted in the psychedelic repetitions of mid-1970s German hairies; and yes, it is really, really gorgeous.

Or, OK, parts of it are gorgeous: there are rather darker tracks too, like “New World” which sounds pretty much like a lost Joy Division instrumental, like “Epilogue” which sounds like Hawkwind docking with the mothership, and like “18 Hours (of Love)” which sounds like an electronically enhanced Jesus and Mary Chain covering Gary Glitter (oh God, how long have I waited to describe a record thus?).

But what really makes this album is the beautiful repetitions of “Mehu Moments” and “Labirynth” [sic] – these chug along over real drum patterns with very simple buzzing synthesiser riffs building up, out of which the occasional melodic twiddle rises up. It's incredibly simple in principle, like a kind of organic techno, but everything is in the execution, and particularly in the selection of sounds: every buzz and hum, every swoosh and swoop is fundamentally sensual.

Like in a fine dining dish, the arrangement layers and contrasts these ingredients to dazzling effect, and indeed these are grooves you almost feel you might want to sink your teeth into and let the flavours unfold. Making tracks like this is a hard trick to pull off, and the effect sneaks up on you subtly, but it really works – and with these tunes bringing light and shade to the album, it throws everything into relief, making the whole experience... well... gorgeous – and quite addictive to boot.

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Watch the video for "Mehu Moments"