Mika Vainio – Revitty

So you’re immersed in a five thousand gallon sensory deprivation tank with a hammerhead shark, Natalie Imbruglia and a handheld power sander, what do you do? If you’re Pan Sonic’s Mika Vainio you make an album whose title translates as Torn. Perhaps Miss Imbruglia’s involvement is more figurative than actual, but the albums focus does interpose actual shark attacks with more existential ennui. Three shorter pieces concerning “hampaat,” or teeth, introduce short bursts of electronic violence separated by lulls that become less frequent and silent as blood clouds the water. Each piece increases the menace with more graphic colour and sweeping passes of noise. The emotional elements of the album are given ample space on “yksinäisyys, suru, katkeruus,” or loneliness, sorrow, bitterness; a track that plunges us in a vast metallic enclosure with a mournfully grating cymbal as our only friend. “Raatelu,” or mauling, follows with a compression of themes that culminates in post-Neubaten grind of distorted guitar and bass pulses shot through with digital noise. At its core Revitty fulfills a horror-story narrative with twists and tensions that suggest fantasy before unleashing real gut-churning terror… and of course a last second shock as the album ends. Vainio will be indispensible should the Saw movie goons every remake Jaws.

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