Humba Tätärä

Albenrezension

"Funpunk" is not a word, but Humba Tätärä makes it worth inserting it into Webster's — if only as a handwritten side note (the band would surely appreciate the gesture). In essence, this is just a ska-punk record, with all the questionable trappings that come with the style — zero novelty and the occasional bout of extreme franticness that detracts from the music. But it also has all the benefits of the style, which are as obnoxious as they are fun, namely, adrenaline-fueled, gloriously primitive punk hooks and a horn section whose members toot their hearts out — there is a reason the album's credited in full to QL and Pepe Lienhard Horns, after all. The "funpunk" label and the band's past — QL got their start by doing punk covers of children's songs — get the better of them sometimes, but for the most part, QL remember the simple rule: they are rock musicians first, and clowns second. Some of the fooling around is actually entertaining, as in the yodeling in "Schigolo," but the real reason to love Humba Tätärä and mosh and jam to it is provided by tunes such as "Hie Bin I Deheim" — dynamic, catchy, full of groove, and packing more positive mood than all the Jamaica beaches (well, maybe on a cloudy day). Sometimes the band even dips into old-school hard rock, also tempering it with a happy-go-lucky attitude and plenty of horns, and the outcome is perfect party music — provided no one in attendance cares much for musical fads, but can appreciate a record with enough good-natured rowdiness and rock power to last for several CDs by many other charting bands.