Rättö & Lehtisalo mark 15 years of eccentric inventiveness with a greatest (non)hits compilation

Then there’s the duo’s separate activities in projects such as Pharaoh Overlord (whose typically hypnotic and strange new record Zero has just come out) and Kuusumun Profeetta. Picking the choicest cuts from the five albums and a handful of singles the twosome have issued during their 15 years of operations under the Rättö & Lehtisalo banner, Kovaa kamaa (‘tough stuff’) proves the twosome’s creative stamina stretches far enough to sustain a remarkable, idiosyncratic sideline as an electronically inclined, genre barrier-busting duo as well.

Picture frowning musicians frozen in deep concentration as they bravely explore the outer limits of musical expression. It's hard to think of anyone less adept at conforming to this stereotypical image of an experimental music auteur than Rättö & Lehtisalo. With Circle, the humour is in the spandex-clad, theatrical presentation of the often startlingly innovative and/or hard-punching music; see last year's pulverising, possibly career-best riff-fest Terminal for most recent evidence. In their duo output, Rättö & Lehtisalo let their outlandish imagination sprawl over the entire product.

The results are far from disposable joke music, however. The lyrics (in Finnish throughout) often reach for the unfiltered peaks of proudly eccentric WTF-ness. "Ihanan syyllinen pallokala" - 'wonderfully guilty puffer fish' - concerns the adventures of a marine detective who investigates the criminal activities of seafood, just to pick one particularly odd example. An unpredictably shifting palette of Can-originated motorik repetition, swirling synths, bubbling analogue keyboards, homespun electronic pulses, live instrumentation, Prog-derived madness and infectious sing-song melodies, the innovate sounds the peculiarly themed stories are welded to prove the duo's musical ambition and accomplishments are far from a laughing matter, however.

Presented non-chronically and available on vinyl and expanded CD edition, Kovaa kamaa allows for some startling yet somehow cohesive skips in mood, sound and style. Material from the early 00's sticks fairly consistently to an ethos of pop-savvy motorik minimalism. For evidence, see the seriously kosmische all-time classic "Valonnopeus" - incredibly hypnotic Neu!-pop groove married to lyrics seemingly borrowed from a science textbook - or "Saamari kantaa olympiasoihdun stadionille" ('Goddamn delivers the Olympic torch to the stadium'), which sounds not unlike Kraftwerk speeding down the Autobahn whilst crooning strangely haunting onomatopoetic nonsense. "Kaappikellon kummitus" ('ghost of a grandfather clock'), meanwhile, carries faint echoes of the minimalist pulses of Harmonia and Cluster.

The nearer to the present day we land, the less obviously indebted to any one source the proceedings become. As such, the electro-pop brilliance of "Nykyaika" melts into the epic "Soihdut nostakaa", which mixes strictly tongue-in-cheek medieval whimsy with an extended but thoroughly focused psych/krautrock jam that could be the outcome of Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia peeling off some quicksilver guitar noodles atop the hypnotic goings-on at Can's studio. Not far off lurks "Spiritismi": a gently vibrating slice of heavy-lidded hippie folk, the track's languid and lovely vibes get rudely disturbed as the couple the song's about decide to liven up a quiet Sunday by stirring up tormented souls frying forevermore in the netherworld via forbidden games.

Some might dismiss tracks such as the semi-operatic satire (or celebration?) of rigidly playlisted format radio and Finnish obsession with Metal "Rokkia radiosta" - imagine Sparks with a toddler's hyperactive energy and fathomless imagination - as disposable wackiness. They're missing the point. Whilst some of the more outlandishly themed tracks lose some of their charm if you can't follow the Finnish lyrics, enjoyment of Kovaa Kamaa is rarely dependant on a grasp of an obscure language or tolerance for humour in music. Warts and all, Kovaa kamaa is the sound of two musicians letting their imaginations run wild and free, crisscrossing across borderless tundra of esoteric influences and idiosyncratic points of reference. In less capable hands, such palpable lack of concern for whether other people might warm to the often startlingly inspired (and deeply bizarre) outcomes could lead to a fatally self-indulgent mess. Here, it makes for consistently compelling listening. Kovaa kamaa proves that Rättö & Lehtisalo sit proudly and defiantly in the middle of the reportedly faint borderline between genius and madness.