Freak Kitchen
Appetizer

THE REVIEW

1994 - The death of Kurt Cobain is for the masses the death of grunge. Meanwhile, other realities are emerging in rock music: the commercial potential of punk revival is discovered; the britpop wave explodes; metal (in part) tends to open up to a wider audience thanks to a thematic shift. All of this is fueled by MTV, which limits itself to airing music videos of those it considers its golden geese. In this musical landscape, the debut album of the Swedish band Freak Kitchen goes almost entirely unnoticed.

The album presents as its lowest common denominator fun and silliness. The tracks are delivered with high technical and compositional prowess, bolstered by a guitarist/singer who could be described as a guitar "playful jester" (the real cornerstone of the lineup), a rhythmic machine on the drums, and a bassist who hits just the right way to make the sound truly "solid." One of the important features of the album is precisely this: the technique (often extremely high) is never an end in itself, but always spills over into irony, so much so that Freak Kitchen seem not to take themselves even a bit seriously. Many elements are employed (odd times, pop vocals bordering on questionable paired with "drunken" refrains, etc...), but the tracks are always easy to absorb, they are fun and make the album incredibly cohesive. It's not the genre of music that is original, nor the presence of particular elements, but it is the way the work is presented that distinguishes the album among many.

In their career, the appetizer has so far been the best dish to come out of the crazy kitchen that is Freak Kitchen. Only with "Move" in 2002 will they offer (with a different lineup except for the guitarist/singer) something fun and well-crafted similar to their debut, but that’s another story.