LAL-39
CD, released in 2008

DIGITAL VERSION NOT AVAILABLE


All sounds played, recorded and mixed through 4-track In Turku, 2007.
All music by Fricara.

1 Winter Ambulance 4:40
2 Four Seasons Of Violins 3:07
3 Return Of The Rats 4:55
4 Detention Attention 2:27
5 Zombie Puppy Love 3:11
6 Possessed By Possebilities 3:51
7 Freaky Labyrinth 3:26
8 Jose Mirada Rip 2:46
9 Sky Helicopter 3:57
10 Heart Action 6:04
11 Physical Poison 2:55
12 Imbirth Is Repossible 2:54

"Heading west to Finland, we find Fricara Pacchu and their "Midnight Pyre" release. Starting his career as a rapper in The Backdoor Funkers, and moving his way through collaborations with Avarus, Rorererot, Slow Convulsion and others, he moved into psychedelia and free-form everything. Everything is actually a good term for his "Midnight Pyre" release as the guy throws in the kitchen sink into his music. Literally! Heavy elements of psychedelic sounds, some techno, rock, pop, experimental and noise are filtered through a tube of lo fidelity. What's amazing is how quirky these tunes are and how direct they are in getting their message across. Sure, it makes one wish there was a bit more focus, but then again, who cares. When the heart is in the right place, music can only come out as unabashedly honest as it does on "Midnight Pyre"." - Tom Sekowski / Gaz-Eta

"We were quite overwhelmed by one of these Finnish cats early cassette releases a few years back so it’s a pleasure to find them in the CD format. Not that I dislike tapes but for some reason I rarely tend to come back to them after those first few listening sessions, and this is indeed music that I want to come back to. We get groovy soul junk in the form of motorik krautrock, gurgling electronics, psychedelic techno and mind-puzzling polyrhythmic structures. It’s a grainy and buzzing mix of swirling thunderclouds and bubbly effects that oozes from corner to the corner of the room and really benefits from turning up loud late at night. Compared to the previous things I’ve heard from Fricara Pacchu this is a whole lot more electronically inclined and dare I say, extrovert and even catchy." - Mats Gustafsson / The Broken Face Blog

"Pacchu has a history of collaborating w/ fellow Finlanders such as Avarus and Anaksimandros, but his own vision differs a great deal from the afore-mentioned freaks. “Midnight Pyre” is more like psychelectro music that has more in common with Add N To X than any of those previous partners in crime. However, Pacchu is grittier, serves up more of that beloved basement aesthetic, with fewer outward pop aspirations.

The second track, “Four Seasons Of Violins,” carries out the aesthetic perfectly. What sounds like a rather pacified lo-fi ditty is intermittently buried under crumbling distortion, whereby the entire melody of the song is manhandled and discarded, only to stubbornly resurface until the song effortlessly and instantly segues into track 3. It's this sort of disrespect for the mundane that should win the hearts of a few. And rightly so.

All that said, there's much credit to be attributed to pop agonies on this record. The tension created by alternating those streamlined sensibilities against atonality, noise and entropy is what makes the record work, both as art and a semi-psychedelic mind fuck. “Possessed By Possibilities” is the kind of soaring psychedelia the Butthole Surfers scatted back and forth across in their heyday, complete with harebrained leads and an emphasis on leaden rhythms.

“Midnight Pyre” treads a line connecting techno, art sounds and psychedelic rock, and does it well. It'll be interesting to see where he goes with this. As it stands, it's pretty cool, but it doesn't take many risks and sometimes seems kind of undecided as to which route it will take. A little more definition and this has the potential to arrive, dahling. Arrive." - P. Somniferum / foxy digitalis

"From the sublime to the ridiculous, Krautrock freaks should search out the incredibly cinematic pacman themes of MIDNIGHT PYRE by Finland’s Fricara Pacchu. Released on Lal Lal Lal Records, this keyboard-driven teen trio look straighter than the early Undertones, but sport an overdriven and over-recorded lo-fi sound somewhat akin to side two of Joy Div.’s CLOSER at 45rpm through a single compressor mike. Digital distortion pervades, nay, invades their motorik single-note Winter Olympics themes (as though played by be-mittened primary schoolers), and the time just flashes past." - Julian Cope / Address Drudion

"Continuing with the Lal Lal Lal CD batch, we have a new one by Fricara Pacchu, a member of Maniacs Dream, and therefore 1/3 responsible for yesterday's Turku Hold 'Em endurance test, but this Midnight Pyre album, and his work in general (see the masterful 2005 Lal Lal Lal cassette Waydom) is definitely song-and-pulse-oriented compared to that endless MD blast-wallage. In fact, the Pacchu release after Waydom and before Pyre, another cassette called Space Puppet, saw him moving into what could be called dance/techno waters - this release keeps the techno vibe but makes something singular out of it, almost like high-speed computer-programmed surf-rock that unexpectedly plays when you open up your 4-year-old nephew's toy box. Yeah, maybe..."

"And speaking of back home, tonight's dinner music is this new Fricara Pacchu disc, which suddenly sounds about 200 times more mental than it did the first time I listened - this thing is like Martin Rev on 78RPM with all kinds of other genres bursting out of his drumbox - the expected noise/psych/spacerock melange but also cartoon/videogame/thrift-score/mood/lounge/tiki/surf/thrash/pop-punk/industrial/lo-fi. The second track is like a 1990s Roy Montgomery 4-track piece being interrupted by the actual footsteps of Godzilla, right outside." - Larry Dolman / BLOGSTITUDE