Anyone unfamiliar with Finders Keepers’ previous Czech soundtrack release, Valerie & Her Week Of Wonders, may want to start here to ease their way into an idiosyncratic way of going about things. Since Daisies the film seems, on the surface, more a loose string of events than Valerie, it’s unsurprising that the soundtrack is a compilation-like grab-bag of all manner of mini scores, as opposed to its predecessor’s “journey”-like progression.
From vaudeville to 60s surf (and in Czechoslovakia, don’t forget!), Wagner, trad Czech processions and musical typewriters, it’s a piecemeal sensory push. Sadly, that’s also the record’s flaw as, without a visual reference, you’re left somewhat adrift in a rapid succession of sounds. Those familiar with the film, however, will more easily revel in the way this record pulls you in one direction, only to throw you in the opposite one; just like the sisters of the story, Jezinka and Jarmila, an uncontrollable pair rebelling against patriarchy, one minute causing uproar in a nightclub, the next cutting each others’ heads off.
Though not their most challenging listen, it all amounts to making Daisies probably Finders Keepers’ most difficult-to-place release, finding a home in the most intrepid listener’s record box.
