Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Antonio Negri



Antonio Negri (b. 1933) is an Italian philosopher, who has been one of the most proponent members and inspiration for current anti-globalization movement. In the politically charged years of 1960s and 70s Negri was an original member of the Italian movements called Potere Operaio and Autonomia which succeeded it. Antonio Negri was jailed when his writings were claimed to have been inciting the 1978 kidnapping and murder of the Italian Christian Democrat party president Aldo Moro by the terrorist organisation Red Brigades.

The political developments after the "mad year" 1968 had radicalised European youth, and had worked as the platform in forming RAF and Baader-Meinhof groups in Germany, Italian Red Brigades, and also outside Europe, the Japanese Red Army, whose goal was the violent overthrowing of bourgeoisie society by the means of armed terrorism. Instead of the hoped-for revolution, the terrorists' actions only strengthened this society, by giving it an excuse for the police state-like actions and more tightened surveillance of its citizens (in a parallel to what was happening in the United States and the rest of the world post-9/11). This can be compared to body's natural immune system strengthened by the bacterial attacks; thus, terrorists only shot (and will shoot) themselves in the leg.

Antonio Negri left Italy for France to live in exile, living there for 14 years, and returning voluntarily in 1997. After spending some more years in prison, he's now a free man again, even though his public performances and political activities in Italy have been restricted.

Empire (2000), which Negri wrote with Michael Hardt, has already been called the Communist Manifesto for the 21st century, which takes information society into account when taking a look into the development of postmodern/postindustrial capitalist society. As Eric de Place writes, "Hardt and Negri maintain that Empire -- traditionally understood as military or capitalist might -- has embarked upon a new stage of historical development and is now better understood as a complex web of sociopolitical forces. They argue, with a neo-Marxist bent, that 'the multitude' will transcend and defeat the new empire on its own terms".

http://www.antonionegri.com/

Antonio Negri @ Generation Online

The Relevance of Antonio Negri to the Anti-Globalization Movement

"Postmodernisation, or The Informatisation of Production" from Empire

Download Empire for free

pHinnWeb's Conscience Links

Monday, May 30, 2005

What Was #1 UK Hit The Day You Were Born?

Here you can find what were the #1 singles and albums in UK the day you were born.

More On Transhumanism

Here you can find the article The most dangerous idea on earth? by Stephen Cave and Friederike von Tiesenhausen Cave:

"In a world at war with terrorism, divided by religious fundamentalism and haunted by racism, sexism and countless other prejudices, how is it that transhumanism has earned the hotly contested title of the most dangerous idea on earth?"

Earlier

An Individual In Confrontation With The World, Pt. 11

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10


11 - Number of years in the sunspot cycle. The general number of magic or sorcery -- or energy tending to change. Uranus. Daath (or Egyptian Duat, Tuat). This is the individual in confrontation with the world. Hence its the number of Justice and Balance. It is also the number of war and the battle with the demonic element.

- E.E. Rehmus: The Magician's Dictionary


Externalize chaos, internalize peace.

Sebastian knew that he had been damaged at some crucial early stage of development in his life. He might go undergo years and years of therapy and psychoanalysis but would he ever be totally repaired? His solitude was not only of personal nature but something of a fundamental universal scale. He knew life was only a game, and that was an ultimately frightening revelation, since it only deepened his detachment from other people. One might lose one's mind revelling in it too much. Again, the tightrope walker who should not gaze in the abyss but just keep on walking...

His friend Leo would say to this: "It's action which liberates us from our past. We define ourselves through our actions, and everything else is insignificant. In the end, we are only as good as our actions are, and they will liberate us from our unhappy childhoods and the overbearing feelings of being misunderstood". Sebastian found it hard to accept Leo's crude existentialism and his crushing vitalism of the "Act first, worry about the consequences of your actions later on" principle.

Nevertheless, Leo would go on: "There are so many weak people who in fact enjoy their being weak, because that's the way they beg for sympathy. They are like parasites sucking on other people's lifeforce. They are all the time in some sort of crisis because they secretly enjoy their indeterminacy and, yes, suffering. They keep whining to us: 'I'm so broke up', but they do nothing to fix themselves up, because that way they wouldn't be able to derive their masochistic pleasures any more, and most important, they wouldn't be able to suck up our energies we waste in trying to comfort them. Basically, they are people who are too much in love with their pain that they would like to give it up. Alcoholism, drug addiction, bulimia, anorexia, compulsory over-eating; those are only excuses not to give up that sweet pain".

Sometimes Sebastian would mock Leo and call him a "Nietzschean crypto-fascist". To which Leo would retort: "You just like to take the piss out of me because you know I'm right", and give one of his irritating, complacent grins.

Kompleksi Record Release Party Pics

Here you can see the pics from the release party of Kompleksi's first single at Eclectro Lounge #11, Apadana, Tampere, 18 May 2005.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Hawkwind In Tampere



(No, this pic is not from the Tampere gig.)

Last night I saw Hawkwind, the legendary UK spacerock band, who started their career in 1970, and have been together and touring, with constant line-up changes, all this time, like an old but still relentless warhorse. During their "classic era" of the early-to-mid-70s Hawkwind comprised of such people as Lemmy, later better known from his Motörhead (which got its name from a Hawkwind song), the late poet Robert Calvert, Nik Turner, and the well-known sci-fi/fantasy writer Michael Moorcock who provided some lyrics.

Not to forget their legendary onstage dancer, the 6 feet tall Stacia (pic above; did you think I would have had photos of some wrinkled old hippies here?) who was their gig mainstay during these years; something you won't see on Top of the Pops. Whatta woman.

Obviously, for their communal spirit, there are some comparisons being drawn between Hawkwind and their American hippie cousins Grateful Dead, but whereas The Dead has been known for some prolonged, laidback guitar jams, Hawkwind's music has been always grittier and more anarchic, even closer to the spirit of punk at times. Maybe of their contemporaries, Hawkwind's Ladbroke Grove mates Pink Fairies, or German musical genre of Krautrock would come closest.

Personally, Hawkwind in its current incarnation probably goes to the category "Well, now I've seen this band too", meaning the musical act in question has their meaningful place in history and therefore a "must-see at least once in a lifetime" -- even though their current shape would not live up to their legendary past reputation.

Of the original line-up there was left only Dave Brock, 63 years old at the time of writing, who looked exactly like an archetypal old hippy: a wrinkled, skinny man with a long, albeit slightly thinning hair and moustache, resembling one of the characters out of Asterix comic books.

The band, wearing white lab coats, started their set with one of their best known songs, 'Spirit of the Age', after which they played a set of tracks where their other classics such as 'Silver Machine' or 'Urban Guerilla' were sadly not included. Well, that's always a problem with these old bands, who don't want to be regarded just another nostalgia act playing a jukebox-like set of their "Greatest Hits", but instead concentrate on their newer material, unfortunately more unknown outside the circle of hardcore fans. (Dave Brock announced a couple of other songs as "golden oldies" but at least I did not recognize them).

So, all there was left to do was to assess the band as themselves, and they were OK as raw "spacerock" with occasional synthesizer burps familiar from their records -- no elaborate guitar solos or other "virtuoso" showing-off, which I was grateful of -- which clearly had paved the way for even punk and metal. One song was fashionably anti-American, being against the US wars for oil, with the obligatory "fascist regime" mention. Well, you can't change an old anarcho-hippie. Hawkwind's grittiness, with such song titles as 'Agents of Death' or 'Assassins for Allah', reminds me of cheap, trashy sci-fi novels or Judge Dredd comic books: hard-hitting and entertaining despite the lack of higher virtuosity. If you are a neophyte to their music, I recommend checking one of their "Best of" collections first, though.

http://www.hawkwind.com/ - the official site

http://www.starfarer.net/ - an extensive fansite

Jørgen Angel's photos of Hawkwind with Stacia -- for obvious reasons, I would have liked to included some of these here but since Mr. Angel would probably have busted my ass for that, just check the site!

More Stacia

---

Hawkwind: The Spirit of the [R]Age

Friday, May 27, 2005

Finland Diary @ Washington Post



http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/finlanddiary/:

"Robert G. Kaiser and Lucian Perkins are touring Finland to find out why this rarely noticed little country has the world's best educational system, produces such talented musicians and architects and has more cell phones per capita than Japan and America."


I don't want to criticize this series of articles as such (after all, nationalist-patriotic Finns are always known for their special craving of international attention), but I'm afraid behind the hi-tech/high education facade you will find a very different Finland. A country where xenophobia, racism, militarism and intolerant stone-age machismo attitudes prevail under the veneer of cosy Social Democrat liberalism; partly caused by the age-old scare of the neighbouring Russia, who threatens to swallow this little country just any time, as many people constantly fear in Finland -- thus the continuing arm-wrestling over country's "neutrality" and the forceful pro-Nato lobbying campaign in certain segments of media and politicians' speeches. A country where there is at a time only one official truth, whether it was the Finlandization of Soviet era, or the predominance of economy in our own age. A country whose alleged high education system (or health care or taking care of the elderly) is all the time slowly eradicated by the crumbling of the traditional Scandinavian welfare state by the demands of the economic elite to increase "efficiency" and "competition" (thus the outsourcing and privatization of formerly public services). Which is in part caused the fear of globalisation and the fleeing of Finnish industry to such low-tax/low-cost labour countries as Estonia and China. A country which rarely recognizes its artistic talents until they gain an international reputation or are dead. A country which boasts of its hi-tech supremacy but which has never fully recovered from the early-90s recession, which left in its wake permanent soup kitchens and bread queues to the streets. A country where the rich keep getting richer and the poor getting poorer in the Social-Darwinist economy -- as they do all over the world. A country where people, instead of starting revolting against their worsening living conditions, just silently submit to their fates; at its most clenching their fists behind their backs.

Finland is like a little kid eagerly watching what big boys are up to now, doing his best to imitate them, and always standing on his toes, looking for those big guys' attention, and at the same time, constantly afraid of their slander or criticism of him.

Instead of clamouring Nokia's shining office buildings, just visit any corner pub in any Finnish suburb, where you can find a bunch of raggedy riff-raff of the local unemployed populace stinking of nicotine, stale sweat and old booze, crying to their pints while melancholic light pop blares in jukeboxes, and witness with your own eyes and ears what it is really like in this "model country". Visit unemployment and welfare offices, visit Salvation Army shelters. The truth is out there.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

A New Way To Mix...

... is here.

Mark Stewart: Kiss The Future compilation



From http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/index.php:

The end of the month (31 May) sees the release of Mark Stewart – Kiss The Future.

Mark Stewart, the man behind the legendary Pop Group, The Maffia and much more has compiled this album of his material. Ranging from the start of his career in The Pop Group (aged 16!) with tracks such as 'We Are All Prostitutes', 'She Is Beyond Good And Evil' through the 1980s with the epic 'Jerusalem' and classic cuts such as 'Hypnotized' right through to his current material with new tracks such as 'Radio Freedom', a collaboration with The Bug the CD and LP both come with a limited edition set of postcard graphics, designed by the man himself. Kiss The Future coincides with Mark Stewart headlining both All Tomorrows Parties at SEI, London on Thurs June 2nd and the VENN festival in Bristol on Fri June 3rd.

From http://www.skysaw.org/onu/discography/markstewartmaffiadiscog.html:

Artist: Mark Stewart
Title: 'Kiss The Future'
Label: Soul Jazz Records / May 2005
Format: DLP: SJR LP113 / CD: SJR CD113

Tracklist:

1. Radio Freedom
2. * Hypnotised
3. + She Is Beyond Good And Evil [The Pop Group]
4. Puppet Master
5. = Hysteria
6. # Jerusalem
7. @ We Are All Prostitutes [The Pop Group]
8. % High Ideals And Crazy Dreams
9. # Liberty City
10. < Dream Kitchen
11. > We Are Time [The Pop Group]
12. ? The Lunatics Are Taking Over The Asylum

Notes:

* [Rhythm 40] From LP36.
+ From the single of the same name.
= From LP51.
# From LP24.
@ From the single of the same name.
% [Rhythm 59] From LP24.
< From LP80.
> From the album of the same name.
? First released on LP1002.

See also:

http://www.thepopgroup.net

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Kompleksi 7" MP3 Excerpts



Now you can listen to the excerpts from the tracks of our first 7" on Lal Lal Lal label:

Kompleksi: (I Ain't No) Lovechild [MP3 excerpt]

Kompleksi: Moscow 1980 (with Polytron) [MP3 excerpt]

By the way, these 7" versions are taken directly from our first demo in 2003, so I think our new material (and my vocals, I hope ;) is a bit more redefined and not that raw -- though I'm aware that it's rawness and lo-fi/DIY aesthetics that attracted Lal Lal Lal enough to release them.

"Complete with jittery bubbling bass-synth lines and vocoder, these are 2 fine European retro-electronic-pop songs", Boa Melody Bar (UK) wrote about it.

Buy it, and make me a happy man! Here's more info. But who would release our forthcoming LP too...? Record moguls, take contact!

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

First Eclectro Lounge Mixes Now Online!



New MP3 mixes from pHinnWeb's own club Eclectro Lounge -- electro, IDM, synth, spacepop, weirdness -- live kommandomixing in various states of intoxication (sorry, all you beatmatching purists and other anal retentives)!

NOTE: these are online only for a limited time, so hurry...

http://www.phinnweb.org/eclectrolounge/mixes/mike_not_el_300405.mp3
(Mike Not @ Eclectro Lounge, 30 April 2005)

http://www.phinnweb.org/eclectrolounge/mixes/mikenot_el_01_040505.mp3
(Mike Not @ Eclectro Lounge, 4 May 2005)

http://www.phinnweb.org/eclectrolounge/mixes/phinn_el_040505.mp3
(pHinn @ Eclectro Lounge, 4 May 2005)

And more Eclectro Lounge mixes coming soon...

More info:
http://www.phinnweb.org/eclectrolounge/

All soundfiles to be heard currently through pHinnWeb:
http://www.phinnweb.org/listen/

And the next Eclectro Lounge will be on 1 June 2005: check the EL site for more.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Kenneth Anger



I just received the following e-mail from a person calling himself Rex Coronatus:

"It's over with for Kenneth Anger. Tax problems... His age... his dreams are of Byzantine proportions, but in reality, he is a pitiful, spiteful old man, who would have given anything to have traded places with Victor Neuburg."


Perhaps, perhaps... but let's remember Kenneth Anger as what he once was: an innovative film-maker creating some of the most original works of avantgarde cinema. Too bad if he couldn't live up to it in his later years.

I met Mr. Anger personally in 1998 when he attended Tampere Short Film Festival, and my copy of Midnight Movies now wears his autograph. Instead of a demon in human disguise, in his pullover and wide American smile, he made me more an impression of a Hollywood senior citizen, albeit a slightly lecherous one.

Star Wars: Episode III And Politics



The new Star Wars movie, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, directed by the series' creator George Lucas, has caused a furore in the United States over the alleged parallels of the film and President George W. Bush's politics.

I have so far only seen the Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and that was on TV, and I'm probably going to wait for another few years for these latter two installments having their local TV premiere, since I haven't become exactly convinced that these new Star Wars movies are anything more that FX-heavy computer games disguising as some sort of weak excuses for a movie, at the expense of any proper plot or characters. (My own Star Wars episode is Empire Strikes Back where George Lucas had some writing help from such people as an old film veteran Leigh Brackett and the director Irwin Kershner who added some Zen Buddhism sort of touches.) Even though people have said that Episode III is a considerably better offering compared to the first two ones, I think these new Star Wars films will be remembered as examples of an era of film-making when technology took over and threw such old-fashioned things as a good story and memorable characters overboard, and replaced those with FX and CGI wizardry.

Anyway, some US conservatives have now been lacerating Lucas over the film's perceived jabs at President Bush -- as when Anakin Skywalker, on his way to becoming the evil Darth Vader, tells his one-time mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi: "If you're not with me, you're my enemy," in an echo of Mr. Bush's post-9/11 ultimatum: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

Commentators have also seen other parallels to the Bush administration in the film, such as the Sith plot where when seeking to strengthen security during wartime, Chancellor Palpatine persuades the Senate to give up civil liberties and elect him emperor for life. "So this is how liberty dies -— to thunderous applause," Senator Amidala laments. Compare this to the Bush plot: seeking to strengthen security after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush urged legislators to pass the Patriot Act, which opponents say infringes on civil liberties.

Or Sith's war: Palpatine starts a war to divert attention from his true political motives. In Bush's war Bush persuaded Congress to go to war with Iraq based on evidence that has now been largely dismissed.

A conservative film Website Pabaah.com ("Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood") added George Lucas to its list of boycotted entertainers, along with more than 200 others, including Michael Moore, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks.

The liberal advocacy group Move On was preparing to spend $150,000 to run advertisements on CNN over the next few days -- and to spread leaflets among audiences in line at multiplexes -- comparing Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, to the movie's power-grabbing, evil Chancellor Palpatine, for Dr. Frist's role in the Senate's showdown over the confirmation of federal judges.

Even the Drudge Report Website got into the act: beneath a picture of Darth Vader, it compared the White House press corps to the vengeful Sith, after reporters peppered a press secretary for pressing Newsweek magazine to "repair the damage" in the Muslim world caused by a
retracted report about desecration of the Koran.

The White House has declined to comment on the controversy.

There is nothing all that new or imaginative, of course, about politicians borrowing from popular movies to score points; witness Ronald Reagan's co-opting of the "evil empire" metaphor for use against the Soviet bloc, or his critics lampooning his missile defense ideas as something straight out of Star Wars. And Senator John McCain of Arizona compared his 2000 primary campaign to Luke Skywalker's fighting his way out of the Death Star.

But it is highly unusual for a mainstream Hollywood movie to wind up in the swirl of politics even before it has opened -- though that did occur with 20th Century Fox's Day After Tomorrow, with its apocalyptic vision of global warming's consequences, which advocates including Moveon.org and Al Gore used to protest the Bush administration's environmental policy.

As a rule, Hollywood studios go to great lengths to ensure that their projects -- both in the development stage and especially when they are positioned in the marketplace -- are free of messages that could be offensive to any great swath of the moviegoing public. Like, say, people who vote for one political party or the other.

Lucas told the audience at the Cannes Film Festival that he had not realised in plotting the film years ago that fact might so closely track his fiction.

Alluding to Michael Moore's remarks about Fahrenheit 9/11 at Cannes a year earlier, George Lucas joked, "Maybe the film will waken people to the situation."

Apparently in all seriousness, though, he went on to say that he had first devised the Star Wars story during the Vietnam War: "In terms of evil, one of the original concepts was how does a democracy turn itself into a dictatorship". Lucas told at the Cannes Film Festival that the movie was written before the Iraq war. "We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction," he said, adding, "The parallels between Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable." "On the personal level it was how does a good person turn into a bad person, and part of the observation of that is that most bad people think they are good people, they are doing it for the right reasons", Lucas added.

Peter Sealey, a former marketing chief at Columbia Pictures, said the partisan tug of war over the new Star Wars episode seemed absurd, likening the political interpretations of it to a Rorschach test. But he said Mr. Lucas was probably savvy in adding sizzle and relevance to a movie that otherwise might have earned publicity only by its effectiveness as entertainment.

"He could've come out and said, 'That's ridiculous -- this is the white hats and black hats of the 1950's in space,' and quashed it," said Mr. Sealey, who teaches entertainment marketing at the University of California, Berkeley. "Did he do that? No, and it was probably smart. If he can get Star Wars brought into the debate over unilateralism and the Iraq war, it just brings a current spin to it. And I don't think it's going to rule people out."

Indeed, it is extremely unlikely that all the online screeds and boycotts put together will leave so much as a dent in the movie's box office results. On its opening weekend the film scored the second-best three-day weekend of all time, selling an estimated $108.5 million worth of tickets for the Friday-to-Sunday period, taking its total to $158.5 million since it opened after midnight on Thursday.

But Mr. Sealey said other filmmakers and marketers might do well to inspect their pictures for latent political messaging before the public does it for them.

He noted that a Universal Pictures marketing executive had given a lecture to his marketing class about Peter Jackson's King Kong, which is coming out later this year. "Is there a political overtone to it?" Mr. Sealey said. "I suspect he's got to think that through today. The political sensitivities are so great that you have to take that calculus into consideration. Is somebody going to read into 'King Kong' that it's pro-Iraq, or it's going to get PETA upset?"

Well, as we know, any of these film boycotts (remember Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ?) only contribute to add the interest for the particular piece, so in any case, we may be only expecting George Lucas to laugh all the way to the bank.

pHinnWeb's Cinema Links

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Rude Food

http://www.seedlingshowcase.com/rudefood/rudefood3.html

Patience, loading may take for a while...

Venetian Snares: Horse and Goat artwork

[Skip this if you're under 18...]



Venetian Snares is an IDM artist, whose six-track mini-LP called Horse and Goat came out in September 2004 on a label called Hymen. I haven't heard it myself yet, but I saw its artwork at a local record store -- understandably hidden under a black plastic wrapper -- and it was, eh, memorable. One customer's reaction I found from the Net: "I can't imagine how my mum would react to finding that CD in my house!" Indeed.

You can see the artwork by Trevor Brown (which also inspired the music) in its full size here.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Setbacks

Our ultimate strength as human beings is not measured by our success but by our ability to endure setbacks and loss. And I've had my share of those, though I understand in many respects I've been luckier than some others. However, to remain stoical in the face of adversities has never been my forte. I wish sometimes I was of more phlegmatic temperament than of my choleric one, that is, quick-tempered and of very strong emotional reactions, with an unability to remain detached and abstracted, but that's the price I have to pay for being involved and an active participant. In other words: bite the bullet, baby.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Eclectro Lounge #11

This was supposed to be Kompleksi's 7" release party, and as guest DJs we had Sakke, Arttu and Matias. Who all played great stuff, as Mika too, nothing to be complained about that, but we should have seen beforehand that there were bad signs in the air. First, Mika's car got broken, which meant that this time we couldn't carry CD players with us to Apadana (they've got only a pair of Technics SL-1200s), had to take the vinyl only option this time, and had to reduce the amount of records we usually carry with us. (And later on, I found out at home I had messed up the recording of our final set and the MD was blank, but I guess we'll have
more chances to record those Cerrone/Moroder hit sets, and let's not get ahead of things.) And the worse was yet to come.

Well, what with the audience attendance, this was the worst Eclectro Lounge we've ever had, and as a "record release night" a bit of a fiasco (gladly the record itself seems to have had a bit better local success than the party for it); at the end of the night the place was like a graveyard. There are always many factors to why a party is successful or not, such as the propensity of other similar parties, if the students have money in their use or not, weather, and things like that. This time these factors were not on our side. A reggae artist called Lord Est had simultaneously with our party his own record release night at some other venue, so that one probably ate up all our potential punters, and tonight there'll be another Swäg night in Pispala, so you see the circumstances were not the best for us.

I don't know, sometimes I wonder why should I bother at all with DJing (and to be honest, I've got more records than skills needed there) and organising these events if it's mostly kicking against the pricks like this. Or maybe I should give up with electro altogether, grow dreadlocks, start smoking ganja, and go with the flow of the current popular mainstream in Finnish "underground" music scene. Or become another of those clueless white B-boys. Well, maybe not, though. I'd like to be a childish asshole again and say that people are such clueless shitheads, and quote my own recent blog entry: "During my 'career' in music I have seen more than my share of self-serving and greedy egotists, who only want to get paid, get laid and get stoned, and clueless partygoers enjoying their ephemeral pleasures. These people are lazy, self-indulgent and selfish bastards; a bunch of unindependent herd animals who only chase after the latest trend or what is deemed fashionable in media at the time.
People are freeloaders who only want to enjoy the fruits of other people's labour but are not themselves willing to work or make sacrifices themselves to gain the end result. So why should I care or see the trouble for little shits like these?" But since I'm a jovial and sensible, grown-up man and the cornerstone of the "scene" and the support of the weak and blaah blah, of course I won't say this.

Whatever, we have reserved two more Eclectro Lounge nights, for Wednesdays of the 1st of June and the 15th of June, and those will decide if we should go on, or just call it quits and try not to fight against destiny.

Well, fuck it. Life goes on.

Here's the tracklist.

And here are some pics from the event

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Finnish And American Presidents Tie A Knot

Kompleksi 7" Release Party @ Eclectro Lounge



EcLECTRO LOUNGE #11
Kompleksi record release party

Wednesday 18 May 2005
@ Apadana, Suvantokatu 7-9, Tampere
20:00-01:30 h
free entry!

NU&OLDELECTROIDMDETROITTECHNO
SYNTHRETRODISCOOLDSKOOLHIPHOP
WEIRDACIDITALOAMBIENTKRAUTMOOG
GLITCHPSYCHEDELIASPACEPOP

Eclectro Lounge celebrates the release of Kompleksi's first 7" '(I Ain't No) Lovechild'/'Moscow 1980' (with Polytron) on Lal Lal Lal label. (You can ask the record from: Tampere - Voltti, Jukeboss, Swamp Music, Platta; Helsinki - Myymälä2... or directly from Lal Lal Lal... and other retailers to be announced!)

Alongside the resident Eclectro Lounge/Kompleksi DJs Mike Not and pHinn, also:

- Sakke
(Detroit/electro, familiar from the previous Café Valo and Green Grass/Apadana DJ nights)
- Art Barf-Uncle
(cosmic freak-out(?), Lal Lal Lal/Mental Alaska/Avarus)
- Matias
(IDM, Slavic Walkmen hang-around)

Tutkiessaan mustaan aukkoon kadonneiden Lego-taikonauttien tapausta, intergalaktinen etsivä Rick Random eksyi Eclectro Loungeen juuri kun reaktori oli alkamassa sulaa. Elektroninen kiima oli vallannut heimorituaaleissa hurjasti vääntelehtivät mekanoidit, joiden led-silmät alkoivat jo sumeta ylijumala 808:n takoessa mielipuolisena. Löytäisikö sankarimme tien elektronirvanaan, vai estäisivätkö kiksudemonit hänen kosmisen odysseiansa? Jatkuu...

Monday, May 16, 2005

Dobatsu Bancho by Alexander's Dark Band

Recently I told you about The Emperor Machine's 'Vertical Tones & Horizontal Noise ' 12"s I received as a DC Recordings promo. Now DC has delighted me with another promo of their forthcoming releases, Dobatsu Bancho album by Alexander's Dark Band, a.k.a. the mighty and prolific J Saul Kane of UK. Here's the press release notes for this one:


Artist: Alexander's Dark Band
Title: Dobutsu Bancho
Label: DC Recordings (UK)
Cat. No: DC54LP/CD
Format: 2LP/CD
Release Date: 11 July 2005

1. 3,000 Dancing Bears
2. Dead Metal Dyno Rock
3. The Creature
4. Animal Love
5. The Immortal Squirrel
6. Animal Leader
7. Baka Monkey Doll
8. Space Donkeys on Crack
9. Menage A Trois
10. Scratch The Pussy
11. Farmyard Battle Weapon

12. Eh o400 *
13. Tram Ride *
14. Hell Chase *
15. Strange Man *
16. Colour *

* bonus CD only tracks

From the disturbed mind of Depth Charge and The Octagon Man comes Dobatsu Bancho, the new album from Alexander's Dark Band, released 11th July 2005, on DC Recordings.

J Saul Kane reaches new levels of audio lunacy with this third Alexander's Dark Band album, following previous album offerings Beat Vortex (1998) and Lord Calrec (2000). With track titles like 'Animal Love' and 'Space Donkeys on Crack', and a sleeve artwork featuring a one-eyed dog and a roadkill squirrel, this West London-based animal leader hints at the depraved dementia that lies within.

Dobutsu Bancho is a traditional Kane-style production that surges through Go Go tendencies of album opener '3,000 Dancing Bears', the P-funk/disco mutation of 'The Immortal Squirrel', the dark tribal rhythms of 'Baka Monkey Doll' and the all-out break-induced mayhem of 'Space Donkey's on Crack'. Kane embarks on an unconventional voyage into the unknown where sea lions roar, rattle snakes rattle and elephants trump, trump, trump over a varied array of beastly beasts.

In addition to the tracks, Mr Kane very kindly provides the 'Farmyard Battle Weapon' for all you bored and lonely turntablists out there, to do with as you please. With more animal soundbites than you can shake a dead ferret at, this tasty little morsel will keep you entertained, should your life be totally lost and empty. The CD also contains 5 additional paw-picked tracks taken from the 2 previous ADB albums (all of which are previously unavailable on CD).

J Saul Kane has been creating his unique brand of innovative music since the release of his debut self-titled 'Depth Charge' single in 1989. Since then he has gone onto release albums and singles under various guises, including The Octagon Man, T.E.T., Grim Death and Mr Selfish, as well as Alexander's Dark Band.

If the charts were based on level of insanity and inventiveness over units sold, surely J Saul Kane and his Dark Band would be Number 1... for at least a week or two, anyway.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

The Bellrays: Maximum Rock'N'Soul!



Last night I checked out at Yo-Talo the tour package of The Bellrays (US), The Flaming Sideburns (FIN) and The Cool Kleps (FRA), promising a no-holds-barred rock'n'roll jamboree.

The night was kicked off by the Cool Kleps from France; looking to me first like a boy-girl duo à la White Stripes: a guy strumming guitar and a lady on drums, except in this particular case she played a combo of keyboards and kick drum. Not bad, all in all, though the first "warming-up" act's slot is always ungrateful. They played among all Gene Vincent's 'Be Bop-A-Lula' and Van Morrison/Them's 'Gloria'.

Then it was time for The Flaming Sideburns, whose earlier gigs I always remember as near-religious events in the spirit of The Stooges, MC5 and 60s garage rock, so I was pretty interested to see in what shape they were today. Being also here in Finland the most well-known of evening's acts, they had managed to draw in their regular hefty bunch of people and fans wearing The Flaming Sideburns T-shirts. The band henchman, tiny Eduardo Martinez had grown a beard, which emphasized his status as an Iggy Pop-style of rock'n'roll wildman. And The Flaming Sideburns rawk'n'rawlled pretty nicely this time too, doing again their old audience-to-their-knees-routine, though perhaps this time the band did not get my sideburns flaming quite in the same amount as some of their yesteryear gigs did. -- After the gig, I dropped by in the backroom and gave Kompleksi's 7" to the band's drummer Jay Burnside (a.k.a. Jarkko Jokelainen, working as a music journalist as his day job).

The Bellrays were awesome! I didn't know beforehand anything about the band, so I have to say I was positively surprised by their music they call "maximum rock'n'soul", taking their cues from MC5, Parliament, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, The Stooges, 60's R&B, and The Who: sounding like a combination that just can't miss, huh?

A band consisted of a bespectacled bass player Bob Vennum, looking like the guy out of REM, guitarist Tony Fate, and a drummer whose name I'm yet to find out but who was, with another big afro of the night, a lookalike of MC5's Rob Tyner.

Very first, though, my attention was caught by the black woman vocalist, not too tall but wearing stiletto heels and the most absurdly hugest afro I've ever seen. And we found out this mama is not someone to mess with. A foul-mouthed scary African voodoo queen, who was a powerhouse of energy; bringing in the welcomed soul element that is usually missing from your normal punk bands of snotty white-ass boys. Now I understand why all these suburban white 200-miles-per-hour rock acts normally leave me cold: you can pogo like a Mexican bean on amphetamine, scream and shout your ass off about anarchy, self-destruction, how society sucks and whatever, but your act will remain ultimately bland if you miss that soul, that "blackness" (hoping not to fall into these racial stereotypes but I can't find a better word now).

She -- called Lisa Kekaula as I found later on from the band's website -- worked the room with the intensity I've only seen with someone like Peaches. No wonder it was she who substituted for the late Rob Tyner when the remaining MC5 members were gigging lately. (The picture above is not from the Yo-Talo gig, but it gives you an impression of how she looked like.)

"ARE YOU READY?", she kept asking us white-motherfuckers-with-no-clue, again and again. Hell if we knew if we were ready or not, but she probably wouldn't have taken "no" as an answer. A combination we see unfortunately so rarely, a black diva on punk, Lady Lisa Kekaula ruled supreme; if she would have asked me to kiss her feet, I would have done that without hesitation. At one moment, one poor white rawk'n'rawl boy jumped up and stagedived, only to be scolded by the mistress immediately: "Never, NEVER do that again!" You'd have been a suicidal fool not to believe her. She also kept whipping up the coolly observing back-row audience, who were probably scared out of their wits subsequently: you had to participate or leave.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Risto Jarva's Ruusujen aika on DVD



Risto Jarva (1934-1977) was one of Finland's most gifted film directors whose career was sadly cut short by his death in a car accident. Jarva, who was influenced among all by French "New Wave", was one of the first directors to take Finnish cinema out of its formerly provincial status. I saw Jarva's science fiction Ruusujen aika ("A Time of Roses", 1969) in 1990 when it was shown on local TV, and as an old fan of sci-fi cinema, have for years wanted to see it again, even though some current critics have called the film badly dated. So, the film is probably not the best one Risto Jarva ever made, but it nevertheless holds great curiosity value as a rare example of Finnish science fiction cinema. The film has been finally released as a DVD. -- Now, if I only owned a DVD player...

Finnish Apteekki! Finnish Huumaava!



This is pure poetry! From http://www.finnishapteekki.com/.
(Sorry, the Dadaism of this may not open up to you unless you have some knowledge of Finnish language.)


Finnish Apteekki!
Suomi , Hankkia Viagra Alenema Xenical Pianiino Suihkukäyttöinen ja enemmän!
VAPAUTTAA Kuljettava!! Vapauttaa Konsultaatio , Vapauttaa Lääkemääräys! Helppo , ainoa pienen pieni online konsultaatio avulla meidän luotettava hoitaa ja sinun huumaava aari model after elämäntapa lähinnä aika!

Dieetti huumaava & jyvittää hukka pilleri! Kipeys apu & Allergia lääkehoito! Seksuaalinen kohottaa , erota polttava ja haiven hukka hoito. Huumaava ajaksi aivan nyt kuluva ja enemmän kotona meidän online apteekki!

Meidän apteekki esittää alimmainen hinta model after usea huumaava kuin : Viagra , Alenema Xenical Nasonex , Pianiino , Suihkukäyttöinen Vioxx , Hummata , Valtrex Havainnollisuus Zyrtec Zyban ja enemmän!!

See also http://www.suomiapteekki.com/:


Asento : Joskin me alus globaali , me hinta sinun karstata kotona EU Euro-obligaatio. Haluta apu nyt kuluva Käypäisyys Muuttaa.

Hankkia Viagra Alenema Keveys Cialis Pianiino Xenical ja enemmän online kotona Suomi. Me aari enimmät luotettava Finnish apteekki.

100's -lta lääkemääräys huumaava saatavana , globaali : VERES ALENTAA Hinta! VALIKOIDA HEDELMÄ Kas noin!

VAPAUTTAA " ei HASSLE " Koe

EI TOINEN PIILEVÄ Kustannukset.

Paastota ~ Ajattelevainen Kuljettava Globaali

EI ESTÄMINEN HOITAA Käynti

Johon ajaa me antaa?

And http://www.kansainvalinenapteekki.eu.com/:


Viagra Suomi: Kansainvälinen Apteekki: Kaupata lääkemääräys huumaava online kotona Suomi. Hankkia Viagra Alenema Reductil Xenical Cialis Pianiino Uprima ja ENEMMÄN online kotona Suomi.

Finnish online apteekki avulla alimmainen hinta Suihkukäyttöinen Zyban ja enemmän.

Viagra ainoa € 56

Eheä model after - asettaa riviin Hoito Hankkia ostokset elinympäristö Paastota Delievry kotona Suomi ja 31 kreivikunta!
Alimmainen Hinta Ei Hämmennys Ei Piilevä Kustannukset Vapauttaa online hoitaa Koe Paikalla on EI hinta tokko te ei hyväksytty!

Meidän Hedelmä:
Lopettaa haluttaa : Click Tähän!
Ei Lääkemääräys Tarvittaessa

Me antaa Viagra jotta usea kreivikunta!

Jokin -lta meidän ammua hinta:
Viagra ainoa € 56
Amoxicillin ainoa € 9
DHEA ainoa € 25
Reductil ainoa € 97
Melatonin ainoa € 15

jokin mainita -lta tavaramerkki kaima model after nyt kuluva kudos on valmis ainoastaan jotta kertoa hedelmä ajaksi ale. tavaramerkki jäädä kiinteistö -lta heidän eri elämäntoveri ja meidän kudos on ei liitetty avulla huumaava elämäntoveri eli nämä lailliset oikeudet omaava kansainvälinen apteekkari kotona jokin elämäntapa ,. Haluta olla harkittu että me ajaa ei kaupata jokin -lta nämä lääkehoito , ei myöskään ajaa me hankkia yhteys avulla jokin apteekkari eli lääkäri. Me aari ainoastaan by ilmoittava agentuuri joka ehkäistä ilmianto model after johon jotta ammentaa lääketieteellinen jklle sukua oleva huolto. Jahka te click model after kytkeä jotta hankkia lääkehoito te aari eroten meidän asema. Edelleen , meidän firma on ei jklle sukua oleva kotona jokin elämäntapa jotta firma te jälkisäädös olla hankkiva nämä lääkehoito polveutua. Me ajaa ei osata omistaja eli koneenhoitaja -lta liitetty websites ei myöskään kanisteri me olla edesvastuullinen ajaksi heidän tyytyväinen , ammatti esikuvallinen , eli kanne.

(Thanks for the tip to Juri.)

Thursday, May 12, 2005

pHinnWeb.Org A-OK (For Now)



Hallelujah! I can stop hyperventilating now and my heart rate can return back to normal. pHinnWeb.Org is running properly again, and I am back in business as usual.

(This glitch was caused by Nebula.fi having forgotten to renew my domain name, which should have happened automatically.) So, expect more foul-mouthed anti-establishment statements at this wavelength, and all that jazz.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

pHinnWeb.Org A-OK Soon?

So, now I contacted nebula.fi, and they told me that phinnweb.org had expired momentarily, but it had been renewed now, so the site should be running OK soon again...

Meanwhile, have a look at this. Yes, if you are in Tampere, you can already buy our first 7" from Voltti Records, Jukeboss, Swamp Music or Platta.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Something Wrong With pHinnWeb.Org Now...



"Something's happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear..."

If you have received errors now when trying to browse any pages at phinnweb.org, I'm as mystified with this as you are...

It's strange since some pages there load OK, but with some others I get an error page as you can see below. "The domain name does not exist" -- what the #@%*...? Goddamn, I've paid my bills!

This also means that you may not see some of the images on this blog.

I'm now trying to contact my service provider, nebula.fi, to find out what the hell is happening. So, patience, please.

I hate it every time when something like this happens, and for some reason it's always May when these server mess-ups happen to me.

Or try the mirror site at http://phinnweb.bombsquad.org/, but I'm afraid those pages are not as updated...


Yritettäessä hakea URL-osoitetta: http://www.phinnweb.org/early/

Ilmeni seuraava virhe:

Nimelle www.phinnweb.org ei voitu määrittää IP-osoitetta.
DNS-palvelin palautti viestin:

Name Error: The domain name does not exist.
Tämä tarkoittaa, että

Välityspalvelin ei voinut selvittää URL:ssä esitettyä palvelinnimeä.
Tarkista, että osoite on oikein.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Alex Garland: The Beach




"There's this saying: in an all-blue world, colour doesn't exist. It makes a lot of sense to me. If something seems strange, you question it: but if the outside world is too distant to use as a comparison, then nothing seems strange. Why would I question it anyway? Assimilating myself was the most natural thing in the world. I'd been doing it ever since I became a traveller. Another saying: when in Rome, do as the Romans. In the traveller's ten commandments, that's commandment number one. You don't march into Hindu temples and start saying, 'Why are you worshipping a cow?' You look around, take on board, adjust, accept."

- Alex Garland: The Beach, p. 116


Alex Garland's book The Beach (1997) has been compared to William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now is quoted there too. Young Richard is a traveller obsessed by video games and Vietnam movies who hears while in Thailand from a man who calls himself Daffy Duck (and who soon after commits suicide) of a perfect beach, yet unspoiled by tourists. Together with his new companions, French Étienne and his girlfriend Françoise, Richard embarks on a journey to this hidden seaside paradise, which we gradually find out, hosts more snakes that one would like first to believe... the other side of island is inhabited by a rogue gang of armed criminals who tend a plantation of marijuana there; and hiding behind a waterfall there is a hippie-like commune of travellers from around the world who want to keep their resort secret at any cost possible. Richard, Étienne and Françoise make home in the commune and new friends with black British Keaty, the cook Unhygienix and the mysterious Jed, to find eventually out the place has its dark secrets. Daffy Duck returns to haunt Richard as a ghost/hallucination/figment of his imagination/fantasy/dream, and violence finally roars its ugly head. Before that nature has also shown its scary power, with deadly shark attacks on the dwellers of camp.

It's obvious that Alex Garland is a gifted writer of great promise, even though I found the middle section of book too prolonged, and the events there unfolding a bit too slow for my tastes, with too much pedestrian material left in, but the devastating ending of the book was gladly more than rewarding. Richard is one complex and ambiguous piece of work, who seems live more than half in the world of fantasy of his own head, and more often than once the reader stops to wonder if he's just plain schizophrenic.

There's also a watered-down film version (2000) of this book by Danny "Trainspotting" Boyle, which was turned into a Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle I recommend you to gracefully forget: a pity since this book has all the makings of great film, perhaps in the style of John Boorman's Deliverance. The producers messed up with the book's structure all the way, turning the British Richard into a Yank (DiCaprio), and making the book's baddies, a scheming couple Sal and Bugs who head the commune, in their turn, from Americans in the book to the film's British. Richard's romance with Françoise is never actually consummated in the book, but with the romantic roles Leonardo DiCaprio is known, this happens in the film, Richard/DiCaprio also having briefly an illicit flung with Sal (in the film played by Tilda Swinton). (And the silliest of all, Keaty's obsession has been turned from Nintendo to cricket!) Also the film's ending is far less dramatic and gory than in the original book, and many important characters and scenes are dropped away. Read the book, skip the biopic.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

[listen] Club Telex Noise Ensemble




"They were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, naturally they became heroes."
- Princess Leia


It all started with the Yo-Talo staff Christmas party in December 2000. Club Telex Noise Ensemble, the (anti)musical "electro-primitivist" side project of our Club Telex events, took its first flight. There was your humble narrator playing a three-octave Yamaha Portasound, DJ mini on electronics, Antti Koivumäki on vacuum cleaner, Olli Sotamaa playing cornet, Kaitsu Mäkelä fiddling with cymbals, and Antti Vuorio projecting films all over us. We played this track. In the drunken whirl of silly comedy rock acts, our art terrorism must have felt totally outlandish.

The next time we hit as the encore of the Chicks on Speed gig we had arranged for Club Telex. Melissa of CoS annouced us, we did our thing, then the ladies -- Alex, Kiki, Melissa -- joined us in the maelstrom, jumping and shouting: "Never go home! Never go home! Never go home!" What the hell was that? Before you had a chance to realize what had happened, it was over. And it sounded like this.

Finally, the last gig of Club Telex Noise Ensemble, and our swansong in late April 2001. Kotka is a small port town on the South coast of Finland. We arrived there to play at an event called Omituisten otusten yö ("The Night of Strange Creatures"), and the rest is history(?). We played the following tracks: CTNE, 96T, OKST, ISO, and KVY. Tuukka Vartiainen, who organized the event, called us "the twisted bastard sons of Op:l Bastards".

I was anxious to do more gigs, but the other members did not warm up to the idea, probably preferring to bury it with as little sound and fury as possible. However, CTNE's live recordings were a start to pHinnWeb's CDR micro label, pHinnMlk Recordings, which released them in June 2001.

Club Telex Noise Ensemble died but was resurrected in the form of remixes: Legowelt, Luke Eargoggle, 8-Bit Rockers, Andrew Duke, Gater, Kemialliset Ystävät, Unidentified Sound Objects, and the first appearance of our new project, Kompleksi. The first four of these appeared on a 12" vinyl in UK, which was praised by Dave Clarke, Andy Weatherall and Mark Moore. I kid you not. Though that's another story. The second remix album is on its way.


All soundfiles you can hear through pHinnWeb at the moment

Friday, May 06, 2005

Eclectro Lounge 10: White Rastas and Broken Glass

Eclectro Lounge 10 went OK, and even my unpredictable MiniDisc player was working this time. By the way, I'm damn glad I don't own a car or driver's licence (this may sound strange to you 'Merkins, but here in the socialist hellhole of Finland we still have working public transport services with which you can get nearly everywhere): before we got to the club, we had to get petrol (and that's "gas" for you U.S. citizens) for Mika's Lada at a service station in Ratina, and had to pay 10 euros for 8.38 litres of fuel -- I never realized that stuff is so expensive these days! Makes me glad to be a pedestrian, who doesn't even have to use buses too often.

I had told Mika I never do the same mistakes twice, only new mistakes. So, it happened that this time I had remembered to take anything with me -- almost -- both my headphones and its club adapter; I only had forgotten about the RCA cord for my MD player... thus again, a walk back home to fetch that missing item. One should always see the comical side in these seemingly Sysuphus-like efforts.

It seemed quiet in the early evening, but this time the place gradually filled up as the night grew older. I just don't get people's musical tastes: the dancefloor remained empty when I spinned all those golden electro classics, and filled up only when I played some reggae, which many people had asked during that night (one hapless punter even requested me to play Children of Bodom, another of those Finnish export whatever-fucking-metal bands). Now, I don't have anything against reggae. I've got some of that stuff in my record collection (your basic Marley, Trojan, Max Romeo) and I love dub, but since there is some sort of reggae boom going on now in this country and every other pale white kid (that is, if they don't follow another fashionable youth culture trend, goth), especially if they are art school students, seem to have turned their Scandinavian light locks into rasta braids, I feel that reggae has become -- just like hiphop -- the sort of "mainstream alternative" music you can hear just everywhere.

Well, you know I'm not a purist in my musical tastes, and it's nice to play something different every time, but basically, as a DJ I want to play something which is not that much adopted by the multitudes, and you know it's electro that is my own passion, and I want to do everything I can to spread its message to the people. I'm glad I always carry with me some hiphop or in this case, reggae, "just in case", but I call it "whoring" every time when I have to take these diversions into the musical agenda that is currently popular but not exactly "my own thing".

As an entertainer of people, you don't want to send anyone home unhappy, but still feel uneasy if you let your agenda gradually slip and start to make too many compromises. Because in the first place it's not something you started playing records for, and that's why I quit playing as a guest DJ at Yo-Talo's Alternative Nights: I felt it was not my vocation to spin Britpop and current hits year after after for the drunken wannabe indie students, so that I could perhaps sneak in some my own favourite music if I get lucky. (I remember particularly one occasion with this fucking drunken "I pee perfume because I'm so high and mighty" bitch who came to whine to me as I spinned Aux 88 there, that: "I've been asking for that Suede record for two hours now, and you haven't still played it, you should play more quality music instead of this". To which I commented to the indiepop hussy: "I start to play more quality music, when our punters will have more quality in them." As you might remember, I call this DJ disease with the name discophrenia).

Well, after the reggae tune I even played The Clash's 'This Is Radio Clash', since I had that with me on some collection and I felt it would fit nicely in, and it was OK just for once. And this one guy was ecstatic when I had played Jaakko Salo's music from Professori Uuno D.G. Turhapuro, a funky variation of the theme music of Uuno Turhapuro movies...

Some people seemed to be restless this night. Someone had broken the men's room mirror (and gained himself seven years' misfortune), and there was this lad sitting in a table almost next to the DJ booth, who seemed to have a drunken primitive reaction and smashed his glass pint to the floor. Gladly nothing worse happened this time.

Here's the tracklist.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

EcLECTRO LOUNGE 10: Is There Life After Vappu?



EcLECTROLOUNGE 10: Is There Life After Vappu?
Wednesday 4 May 2005
Apadana, Suvantokatu 7, Tampere, Finland
20:00 ->
free entry!
K-18

Searching for life after Mayday... Has Tampere turned into a town of zombies, or are there still some sentient beings alive somewhere in the underground after the Vappu holocaust? Join the expedition of Omega People as the electro probes are launched into the vast unknown...

Nu & old electro, IDM, disco, retro techno, old skool,synth, spacepop, etc., with Kompleksi-DJs Mike Not & pHinn.

The Emperor Machine: Vertical Tones & Horizontal Noise Parts 1 & 2

I just received in mail these two promo records from DC Recordings, the UK record label of J. Saul Kane, a.k.a. Depth Charge, a.k.a. The Octagon Man. Below are the press release notes that followed with the records.

The Emperor Machine's music is a combination of Dr. Who type of BBC Radiophonic Workshop analogue vintage synth sounds with added live bass and percussion -- which might appeal also to the fans of DFA, LCD Soundsystem, Playgroup, The Rupture and that ilk? I've spinned The Emperor Machine at our Eclectro Lounge nights every time as possible...


Artist: The Emperor Machine
Title: Vertical Tones & Horizontal Noise Part 1
Label: DC Recordings (UK)
Cat. No: DC59
Format: 12"
Release Date: 6 June 2005

A: Yes No Egg
B: Front Man (Version Idjut - Girthius Maximus)

The debut Emperor Machine album Aimee Tallulah Is Hypnotised (DC56LP/CD) was released on DC Recordings in October 2004. The increasingly prolific Andy Meechham now makes a swift return following
an Emperor Machine remix of Markus Kienzl's 'Dundy Lion' (Klein Records) with Vertical Tones & Horizontal Noise Part 1, the first installment of a two 12" set.

Diving deeper into the Alpha Centauri disco boom with 'Yes No Egg' Meecham makes use of his childhood recorder and prized synth collection as heavy drum & percussion rhythms collide with a jerky live bass line and an unearthly assortment of sound effects. On the flip side the Idjut Boys step up with a 13-minute mutation of 'Front Man', re-editing and remixing the original into a psychedelic percussion-drenched dub disco epic.


Artist: The Emperor Machine
Title: Vertical Tones & Horizontal Noise Part 2
Label: DC Recordings (UK)
Cat. No: DC61
Format: 12"
Release Date: 6 June 2005

A: Tropical Waste
B: Roller Daddy

Andy Meecham (Chicken Lips/Big Two Hundred) presents the second phase of Vertical Tones & Horizontal Noise under his Emperor Machine guise.

'Tropical Waste' is a trip into classic Emperor Machine territory, a mesmerizing synth-laden spin into lustrous analogue tones, hard drums & a dominating sense of menace, all enhanced by Meecham's exemplary production technique.

'Roller Daddy' is a mind-bending update of the Krautrock sound pioneered by the liked of Can and Neu! Full of the psychedelic ingredients, this progressive pastiche is a potent invocation of the past as well as a portal to the future.

The Emperor Machine has attracted a varied selection of supporters. Emperor Machine tracks have appeared on Andrew Weatherall's Fabric 19 compilation and Snow Patrol's The Trip album, and there's forthcoming Emperor Machine remixes of Soulwax 'Compute' (PIAS) and The Departure 'All Mapped Out' (Parlophone).


See also: The Exciting World of J. Saul Kane

Philip K. Dick's Scanner Darkly as a movie



Philip K. Dick is probably my favourite sci-fi writer, and Scanner Darkly (1977) one of his best books. Now the book has been filmed by Richard Linklater -- as an animation film (it seems the animation has been added over filmed sequences of live actors).

Here's the plot synopsis: "Some day in the future, there will be a new highly addictive drug called Substance D, and the main side effect is that it causes split personalities in all who use it. Drug cop Fred (Keanu Reeves) is working undercover to catch Bob, a big-time drug dealer. Little does he realise that he is chasing himself, as Bob is really just one of Fred's many personalities".

Well, bar Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (one of my Top Ten favourite films), film adaptations of Dick's reality-bending and hallucinatory books have not usually fared so well -- never underestimate Hollywood's talent to turn gold into shit -- so at this stage it's better I don't say anything about Linklater's take, though it seems interesting. And don't you think Keanu Reeves always gets typecast to these similar sci-fi roles? Anyway, you can see the Scanner Darkly trailer here or here.

More:

IMDB entry
A blog dedicated to the film

Sex Art by Mister

[Pass this entry if you're under 18 years old...]

A person called Mister sent me this link to the Website of his erotic art. It promises "hardcore", but I think instead his works -- on the verge of naivistic painting style -- are kind of cute, providing stylistically a counterpoint to the glaring style usually used in porn.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Eclectro Lounge 9: Die Elektronische Walpurgisnacht

After 7.30 pm on Saturday we had finally loaded records to Mika's red Lada, and headed for Apadana that is situated by the Sori Square near the Orthodox Church of Tampere. As we drove through the city, we witnessed the squares and streets filled with people celebrating the eve of Mayday ("Vappu" in Finnish); drunken teenagers, clusters of shiny tinfoil-covered balloons in the air, and the overall carnival atmosphere everywhere.

With the usually bleak Finnish spring weather, I've always found something perverse, if not downright masochistic, in Finnish ways to celebrate their Vappu festivities like it was some extreme sports. You see, it may be as cold as possible, even sleeting (if not snowing), but that doesn't prevent locals anyway to get out their funny hats, carnival masks and do some serious outside boozing and partying every year. In the northern climate that requires some serious sportsman spirit.

When we got to Apadana, and Mika started to set up his CD players, I found out that this time I had remembered to take my headphones, but had left the adapter home. AARGH! So again, a stroll for pHinn back home to fetch that damn adapter. Well, I can't ever have too much physical exercise... While en route, I checked out people's festivities on the streets, and it looked as chaotic as ever. I was thinking of The Who's 'Baba O'Riley' and its unforgettable lines: "It's the teenage wasteland". I thought it would be a suitable night to play that tune, but alas, I never got to do it.

Back to Apadana about 30 minutes later. We had decided to tape our mix sets to MiniDisc, and perhaps put them to the Web later on. Unfortunately, it turned out that my MD player was happy to record properly only one set from each, then it started to cut off power on its own, in the middle of recording. Aargh again. I've found out that my MiniDisc player is something of a diva, meaning it has its own moods and whims. Sometimes it records and plays music quite OK, but there are days when you get these unexplainable stops and breaks. Well, I decided to give the MD player a rest for the rest of the night. Because of all fuck-ups, I felt quite tense for the whole early night, but it seemed gradually the whole place filled up with people, and we managed to get even some action to the dance floor. It seemed 1.30 am, when the club was supposed to end, was quite a bit early for the party people, and Abbas, the manager, let us play one more tune.

We were invited by Ville and Alex of Slavic Walkmen to an afterparty in Pispala. Matias came along to show us the way, and we found out the place was a loft in an old industrial building, furnished into a lounge-like apartment. They had arranged a set of decks there, so we did both a bit of extra DJing in turns. That saved the night for me, since I always find these so called afterparties a dead bore: sitting on the sofa or floor at someone's home filled with a bunch of unknown people you don't have anything to say to, dull music playing, and everyone on the brink of passing out (or actually doing so) after a night of heavy partying. And usually never the lady action you were always looking forward to... Ahem. GIMME SOME ACTION! Otherwise let me go home. As said, I had this time my fun by DJing and some people there dancing to the stuff I played. Nothing unusual; some early-80s electropop to Bowie's 'Aladdin Sane' and 'Baby Please Don't Go' by Amboy Dukes on the Nuggets compilation. Mika played a bit more noisier and eclectic stuff: Aphex Twin mixed to Virtalähde mixed to some scratchy old M.A. Numminen 7"s. About 6 am, we felt ready to leave, Mika left me and my records to my place at Näsilinnankatu, and Sunday I spent mostly sleeping. I've never cared about the official Mayday action, people curing their hangovers with salty herring breakfasts, political marches and speeches, and all that crap. I have to say, though, that it was nicer this year to spend my Vappu by playing records; usually I'd have just been hanging around at Yo-talo, drinking beer and getting bored.

And here's the Eclectro Lounge 9: Die Elektronische Walpurgisnacht tracklist.

Pics:

DJ pHinn at Pispala afterparty

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pHinnWeb Chart May 2005



Well well well, it seems we have survived the cruelest of months and entered the month of May, so here is the latest pHinnWeb Chart of home listening. Mostly library records again.