The opening title track on
Kõik Saab Korda, the debut album by Estonian septet
Wrupk Urei distributed by AltrOck in early 2014, begins with an intermittent deep staticky rumble that builds into a pulsing buzzsaw throb. Listeners familiar with the Milan, Italy-based imprint might expect an album's worth of knotty, complex avant-prog to follow, but
Kõik Saab Korda (Everything Will Be OK) instead provides some of the most grooving, rocking, and hooky music released to date under AltrOck's auspices. The album's sound suggests
Can and the funked-up side of
Talking Heads in a retro-futuristic meld with space and prog rock, psychedelia, jazz-rock, and contemporary electronica -- the label itself cites Norway's
Jaga Jazzist and earlier Estonian outfits
Phlox and
Kaseke as influences on the band. But the album cover's cartoony artwork -- featuring (among many other things) a skateboarding dog, tentacles emerging from a crevice in a pyramid, a giant mushroom sprouting TV antennae, a blaxploitation-era tornado-shaped pole dancer, and a bug-eyed, lobster-clawed critter sitting at the bar -- perhaps best represents the album's crazy spirit. "Kõik Saab Korda" is actually one of the heaviest tunes here, beginning with three emphatic chords and adding layer upon layer of instrumentation -- arpeggiated keys, surging electro noise oscillations, a huge marimba-like melody, and dramatic deep brass -- to create the album's massive and powerful introduction. Then the fun begins.