Anyone who owns any of Finland’s musical innovators Pepe Deluxé’s music, knows that every new album is an event worth waiting for, and an experience to savour. It’s been 4 long years since their last studio opus ‘Beatitude,’ a free-wheeling, genre-hopping sonic assault of styles that was in-turn a clear 180 degree shift in sound from their innovative 1999 debut ‘Super Sound.’ The new album ‘Spare Time Machine’ is another left-turn, taking the groups sound into tripped-out, uncharted waters. So, start up the ‘Spare Time Machine’ and set the controls for the heart of a bold new musical frontier! The story of Pepe Deluxe is as simple as the music is multifaceted. Kicked into existence in the mid-‘90s by Finnish turntablist DJ Slow and his associate JA-Jazz (AKA Tomi Paajaanen), their early underground hip hop adventures achieved a unique individuality when third member James Spectrum joined. Signing to Catskills in 1998, their debut album, ‘Super Sound’, was so notoriously sample-laden that three versions were eventually created, each ‘cleaner’ than the last as it grew in stature and was licensed to Sony. The culmination of this era was the use of their song ‘Woman In Blue’ on the Levi’s Jeans ‘Twisted’ commercial (“Levi’s was sort of a second prize,” reveals Spectrum, “We missed Wonderbra because we were on a vacation.”). Paul Heaton of The Beautiful South has since claimed ‘Super Sound’ as a particular favourite, a secret weapon he brings out for post-pub dancing round his living room. In 2003 the group’s next album, ‘Beatitude’ appeared and Pepe Deluxe, minus DJ Slow who’d left, showcased less reliance on samples without losing a jot of the upbeat party spirit that infuses their sound. Now ‘Spare Time Machine’ has arrived, taking things up yet another level. It has all the funk of their best material but doused in the spirit of uproarious ‘60s psychedelic and ‘70s prog-rock. What’s more it’s entirely sample-free! Happily, both studio experimentation and lyrical flights of fancy are still present and correct, tethered to red-blooded funk-rock from a future-past dimension where King Crimson are led by Clyde Stubblefield and get down with prime-time Lee Hazelwood. With ‘Spare Time Machine’ they come close to achieving this nigh-on-impossible goal but that still doesn’t explain where the album’s bizarre title came from. “It's started as ‘Spare Time Bottling Machine’,” laughs James Spectrum, “but it got shortened. I had the original idea when I realized the only thing that I don't really have is spare time. I figured what we need is a machine that brews spare time for you to enjoy when you need it the most. Then, during a recent trip to New York I suddenly realized we actually do already have that elixir of spare time - good music that takes you to other times and places.” A heady cocktail indeed but music lovers of 2007 would be wise to drink deeply of Pepe Deluxe’s latest recipe.