In general, it is best to avoid any musician dubbed "the Hendrix of" their instrument. They usually turn out to be men with cheesy grins and dubious haircuts, dressed in crushed velvet, playing flashy solos on inappropriate instruments fed through expensive FX presets. In this case, however, the instrumentalist in question is Finnish accordionist virtuoso Kimmo Pohjonen, a player who can genuinely claim to be extending the range of his instrument both technically and technologically and who has proved his worth as a composer and improviser of real originality on albums like 1999's Kielo. He is supported here by an ensemble that includes the duo of Pat Mastelotto on acoustic and electronic drums and Trey Gunn, the Warr guitar maestro (It's a relative of the Chapman stick, since you ask.) These two are best known as the rhythm section behind the current version of Prog heavyweights King Crimson.

In fact, while Pohjonen is clearly the star of 8 Armed Monkey, the album is a close stylistic relative of the duo's 2003 release TU, which beefed up the lunging polyrhythmic momentum of Crimson and added layers of loops, samples and knife-edge improvised interplay. Also featured here is samplist Samuli Kosminen, whose role seems to be to ensure that any remaining space in the music  - of which, believe me, there is precious little  - is crammed full of sound.

The result is dense, angular and exhausting Prog/improve, tremendously impressive on first listen but difficult to live with subsequently. "Absinthe" typifies the album. Everything about it is awesome. Its bludgeoning Magma-style bassline, its odd-metre riffology from Pohjonen's massive accordion are awesome. Gunn's solo, recalling Pat Metheny on Song X, is awesome. Mastelotto's overlapping bell patterns are awesome. But in the silence that follows, as you stare slack-jawed at your speakers and you find yourself marveling "Awesome" in moronic wonder, you'll understand the damage that's been done.