Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Vladislav Delay @ The Wire




Berlin-based Finnish electronic artist Vladislav Delay (a.k.a. Sasu Ripatti a.k.a. Luomo a.k.a. Uusitalo) is featured on the cover story of February's issue of The Wire (#288), written by Philip Sherburne and titled "What makes today's Techno so different, so appealing?". The mag also features a stream of the track 'Lumi' from Vladislav Delay's latest album, Whistleblower.

---

As a bonus, I noticed The Wire Web archive includes an unedited transcript of the interview of Mad Mike Banks, the enigmatic frontman of Detroit's Underground Resistance label. (UR had a cover feature in the magazine's November 2007 issue.)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Angel: Kalmukia CD



Artist: Angel (a.k.a. Ilpo Väisänen of Pan sonic & Dirk Dresselhaus of Schneider TM)
Title: Kalmukia (CD with special booklet)
Cat.no: eMEGO 087
Label: Editions Mego (Vienna, Austria)
Release Date: 21 January 2008

Tracklist:

1. Bones In The Sand
2. Kalmukia - The Discovery, Wiring, Invasion
3. Effect Of Discovery, Test, Alarm, Catastrophy
4. Aftermath: The Mutation

[Total Time: 58:29]

Recorded 2006, Berlin
Mastered at Piethopraxis, Köln, October 2007
Story and drawings by Ilpo Väisänen
Layout by SOMA

Press release info:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

in co-operation with Editions Mego (who will release the CD version within a notebook designed by Stephen O'Malley), we proudly present Angel's first studio album: Kalmukia. The 320kbit download version comes with original notations and drawings by Ilpo Väisänen.

To preview or to buy the album, please go here.

Ilpo Väisänen (of Pan sonic) and Dirk Dresselhaus (of Schneider TM) have been playing freeform noise with a tendency to drone things out since 1999. The whole thing is quite a no man's landish affair: somewhere between and in the middle of industrial, dub, new music, indierock, blues and science fiction soundtracks. From 2004 on they were joined by Icelandic cellist/multi-instrumentalist Hildur Guðnadóttir (Lost in Hildurness, múm etc.) on a regular basis.

Kalmukia is vast epic sprawling through guitar riffs spanning deep electronic canyon overlooked by a melancholic grey sky. A journey leading to discovery and a final mutation. All players involved delicately playing off each other creating a mesmerising work that sounds like nothing they have done before yet still retaining the audio signatures they have become known for. Recorded 2006 in Berlin. Mastered at Piethopraxis, Köln, October 2007. Story and drawings by Ilpo Väisänen. CD packaged in a notebook style sleeve. Due to the nature of this recording, we offer Kalmukia as full album only.

  • Release info @ Mego Editions

  • Angel @ Discogs

    Listen:

  • Angel @ MySpace
  • Monday, January 21, 2008

    Sans Soleil (1983)


    Sans Soleil: intro


    Sans Soleil: Welcome to Tokyo


    Sans Soleil: Repair the web of time


    Sans Soleil: Collectivisation [les rêves]


    Sans Soleil: Year of the dog


    Sans Soleil: Teknoko


    Sans Soleil: fragment

    One of the films I'd like to see again... Sans Soleil ("Sunless", 1983) is Chris Marker's (born in 1921 and maybe best known for La Jetée) famous documentary/experimental film/travelogue/cinematic essay/meditation on human memory; somewhere in the borderlines of dream, surrealism and science fiction. Visiting Africa, San Francisco and having a special emphasis on Japan, that home of the hyperreal, taking the viewer to manga shops and a special shrine dedicated to cats.

  • Full text of the film @ markertext
  • IMDB
  • A review by Henry Sheehan
  • Friday, January 18, 2008

    V/Vm @ YouTube


    V/Vm - Anal Acid


    V/Vm - Angels


    V/vm vs. Cartel Communique - Chris de Burger


    V/Vm -Imagine


    V/vm - The Right Eye of the Tiger


    V/Vm - Words

    More V/vm search results @ YouTube

    V/Vm Test Records, those crazy pig mask-wearing culture jammers of Blighty, can now be found also from YouTube! The label was started in 1996 by V/Vm a.k.a. Jim Kirby and Jansky Noise a.k.a. Andy "Animal" McGregor, a jovial nutter whom I met here in Tampere some years ago, by the way (last I've heard from Andy was when he was working on Homenaje, a compilation record dedicated to the victims of Madrid's 2004 Atocha terrorist strike). V/Vm has specialised among all in electronic (and totally illicit) noise rape versions of your favourite MOR hits, such as Chris de Burgh's 'Lady In Red'. V/Vm versions of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax' got the label angry calls from Frankie's lawyers. Nowadays Kirby is alone responsible for the operations of V/Vm.

  • V/Vm Test Records - the official site
  • V/VM Test Records @ Discogs
  • Thursday, January 17, 2008

    The Sweet Smell of Success?



    Daily Surrealism:

    A brand calling itself, erm, "Vulva" is apparently a new fragrance (of German origin, naturally), supposedly to smell like... well, draw your own conclusions. It's still unclear if it's a parodic take on Tom Ford aftershave, as seen below:



    At YouTube:


    Jonathan Ross


    The Young Turks

    More:

  • Adult Toy Guide
  • Boing Boing
  • Google image search

    [via Ballardian]
  • John Whitney, A Pioneer of Computer Animation


    John Whitney: "Catalog" (1961)


    John Whitney: "Arabesque" (1975)

    John Whitney (1917-1995) was an American pioneer of computer animation, who created his 1960s works (surprisingly looking a lot like 1990s rave videos -- nihil novum sub sole?) with a mechanical analogue computer, adapting a WWII M-5 Antiaircraft Gun Director and combined with multiple-axis rotating cameras. By the 1970s Whitney had already switched to digital processes. (Whitney was also responsible for the animated title sequence of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 Vertigo, after the design of Saul Bass.)

    [via Feuilleton]

    Tuesday, January 15, 2008

    Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds: Extended Mix 2008


    Joey Beltram: 'Energy Flash' (1990)

    We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to give you this commercial announcement...

    Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture by Simon Reynolds is rereleased next month in expanded and updated form.

    With six extra chapters and 40 thousand new words, the remixed Energy Flash--a.k.a. Generation Ecstasy--takes in developments in dance music in the decade since its original 1998 publication: the trance resurgence, 2step garage, the nu-Eighties electro sound, microhouse, grime, breakcore, dubstep...

    Further information: http://energyflashinfohype.blogspot.com/

    UK press enquiries and review copies: Dusty Miller, Picador/Macmillan
    d.miller@macmillan.co.uk

    Monday, January 14, 2008

    Ron Murphy, Detroit Techno's Legendary Mastering Engineering Dies




    Ron Murphy (3 March 1948 - 13 January 2008)


    Ron Murphy, the legendary mastering engineer of Detroit's NSC/Sound Enterprises has died of heart attack. Murphy was responsible for the mastering of some of the most respected Detroit techno vinyl releases, for such labels as Underground Resistance, KMS, Metroplex, Black Nation, Direct Beat, Axis, Planet E, Basic Channel (actually from Berlin but not without its Detroit connections) and many others.

    NSC articles:

  • Metro Times Detroit
  • SuenoMartino

    More obituaries:

  • Aaron-Carl
  • Dark Music: Electro - Underground - Film
  • Filter27
  • Infinitestatemachine
  • Jahsonic
  • Sunday, January 13, 2008

    Maila "Vampira" Nurmi R.I.P.


    Maila Nurmi interview

    Maila Nurmi (1921-2008) a.k.a. Vampira has passed away. Best known from Ed Wood Jr.'s Plan Nine From Outer Space, reputedly the worst film of all time, the Finnish-born Nurmi became a Gothic icon.

    Friday, January 11, 2008

    Tuomas Rantanen Live Podcast





    http://podcast.techno.fm/emissions/Emissions_-_2_-_Tuomas_Rantanen_-_Live_PA_2007.11.10_on_Techno.FM.mp3

    Exclusive live PA by Tuomas Rantanen performed at Sorsapuisto, Tampere, Finland, on 10 November 2007. This recording first premiered on Bring The Noise radio show that is hosted by Adrenalin and airs every Sunday at 12:00 EST on the Techno Channel.

    Tuomas Rantanen comes from Finland and his musical style is dark industrial techno. He has created a very unique music expression where strong driving percussion techno combines to cold and dark atmosphere and ambience elements. Prior to his own techno music productions he studied classical guitar and theory of music at Tampere Conservatory, and in 1995 he also started to make his own music productions. In 1999 he released his first release on Template Records (England) with support by British techno producer Glenn Wilson. After that Tuomas Rantanen has released several techno releases also on other labels including Fresh Grind (England), Audio Assault (The Netherlands), Submissions (The Netherlands), Unknown Forces (England), Electracom (England), KK Traxx (Belgium), Definition Records (Germany), Maracas Records (Sweden), Emergence Records (Sweden) and Fak Records (Finland). Tuomas Rantanen has studied Philosophy at Tampere University. He wrote his Master's Thesis about the philosophy of Martin Heidegger; especially Heidegger's concept of understanding, language and art. To find out more about Tuomas Rantanen, check out:

  • http://www.phinnweb.org/finndiscog/rantanen/
  • http://www.myspace.com/tuomasrantanen

  • EMISSIONS - The Techno Podcast of Techno.FM
  • Thursday, January 10, 2008

    VCS2600: 'The Future of Communication' 12"




    I'm a big fan of Tampere's electro act VCS2600, who has had for some time a new 12" out on Gothenburg, Sweden's Stilleben Records (run by Luke Eargoggle, who I interviewed for pHinnWeb in 2003).

    Artist: VCS2600
    Title: The Future of Communication
    Format: 12" (limited to 320 copies)
    Cat.no: Stilleben025
    Label: Stilleben Records
    Date: 1 November 2007

    Tracklisting:
    A1 Verilog Circuit Synthesis
    A2 Ion Teleportation
    A3 Aquarium Glass
    B1 Chinese Sector
    B2 Deep Sea Robotics
    B3 Cellular Machine

    Sound samples:
    Clone
    Flexx
    Vulcanoid

    Entry @ Discogs

    Listen to VCS2600 @ MySpace

    PS.

    'Faceless' (Crème Eclipse 07), a new 12" by Faceless Mind (a.k.a. Sweden's Johan Inkinen) is also out now on Holland's Crème Organization, featuring 'Science' remix by VCS2600. See Discogs for more info.

    Wednesday, January 09, 2008

    Andrey Budaev




    Andrey Budaev (born 1963 in Moscow) is a Russian artist familiar for his collages which carefully craft into some famous paintings of world art photographs of the politicians of our day, thus giving the new works some surprising juxtapositions with satirical and provocative meanings.

    In Finland Budaev's works are exhibited at Savonlinnan maakuntamuseo from 30 November 2007 to 27 January 2008.

    Mourning


    Six Feet Under finale (Warning: spoilers)

    I was really touched by this final episode of Six Feet Under in late December 2006, but little did I know how prophetic it would turn out to be for my own life in 2007...

    I've once vowed not to bother you any more with my pathetic personal stuff and trivial concerns in this blog, so forgive me if I do one exception here. Or maybe someone going or having gone through a similar situation can relate.

    Mourning is a strange thing, which easily seems to turn one into a sort of a zombie, who wanders through that period of sadness in some kind of a haze. Many everyday functions apparently happen as if on some "automatic" level. Then there seem to be some difficulties to concentrate properly on any task at hand. Maybe these are all some sort of symptoms of psyche's inherent self-preservation mechanisms. After all, mind now finds itself overloaded with all kinds of information which under a traumatic situation and duress seems to be partly erased. Or is all this somehow even related to what mentally fragile people go through while under psychosis? (I don't know how scientific all this actually is.) On the other hand, maintaining normal everyday routines seems to be important. One's own life goes on, after all; it has to. Of course, messy family situations can add their own burden to the mourning hard enough in itself. There might even be some fears of own's own survival, even though unrooted and irrational, but not any less hard-hitting in their poignancy. Parties, TV shows, celebrities and other games of lifestyle hedonism one's peers usually occupy their time with seem pointedly trivial now. Culture has a strange ambivalence about death: popular culture is filled with flashy murders, which one consumes every night while munching popcorn, but the drudgery of mundane real-life death of old age, heart failure and cancer remains a taboo, usually surrounded by a troubled silence and pushed away, so they won't bother our illusions of living eternal youthful immortality.

    Sunday, January 06, 2008

    Pertti Rautio In Memoriam




    Pertti Kauko Juhani Rautio (8 May 1944 - 30 November 2007)



    Sinä elit hiljaa itseksesi
    maailmassa
    joka kerran oli pyhä
    mutta nyt oli tullut vanhaksi

    Mutta sinä rakastit sitä
    ja sitä me emme ymmärtäneet;
    sinä pidit sitä kunniassa,
    mutta sitä me emme ymmärtäneet.
    Siksi menit pois.
    Minne?

    - Henry Parland, 1927.
    Suomennos Brita Polttila.

    [Pertin kuolinilmoituksessa julkaistu runo]


    My father Pertti Rautio has died of cancer on the 30th of November 2007 at the Tampere University Hospital; only five months after his own father and our beloved "paappa" Aarne Rautio passed away. (For certain family reasons I can announce this only now; suffice it to say that after losing two close family members within six months, this has been the darkest Christmas time of my life.)

    Pertti Rautio was born on the 8th of May 1944 in Lapua, a rural town situated in the Southern Pohjanmaa region of Finland. As a youth he edited in Lapua a high school magazine called Neuroosi, the writings for which already revealed his sharp and inquisitive mind. This was also the era when he started to show an interest in arts, even doing some abstract paintings himself. Also having an interest in sociology, which was a particularly popular science in the 1960s, Pertti Rautio moved to study in Tampere where he received the Master of Social Sciences degree from the University of Tampere in 1973 (his master thesis was on the nascent Hervanta project, the "daughter town" of Tampere then still under construction) and the degree of Licentiate of Social Sciences in 1991. He worked at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tampere from 1973 onwards, moving in 1989 to work at the University of Kuopio. In Kuopio he initially worked as a lecturer and as a senior lecturer of Social Psychology from 2004 onwards.

    Alongside teaching, Pertti Rautio did his life's work as a researcher of Social Psychology and Sociology. His main interest were the emotions connected in morality and their biological basis. Being crucial to the maintenance of society, this topic connects both social philosophy and biology, and Pertti Rautio was all for the synthesis and dialogue of various social and humanist sciences. Here his attempt was to connect the ideas of Adam Smith, Rolf Lagerborg and Edward Westermarck all the way to António Damásio and the latest neuroscience. Pertti Rautio's last published work was Minuus ja identiteetti ("The self and identity", 2006), a collection of articles co-edited with Mikko Saastamoinen. Pertti Rautio's doctorate thesis on Antero Rinne, a Finnish pioneer in Social Psychology and the studies of the philosophy of cooperatives, was almost finished, bar the final chapter.

    Pertti Rautio participated in the administration of the University of Kuopio, working in 2004 - 2005 as the Head of the Department of Social Psychology and Sociology, and in 2001 - 2007 as the faculty council member of the Faculty of Social Science and from 2004 onwards as a member of University's well-being group. Among Finnish social psychologists Pertti Rautio was known as being active in organising the domestic professional studies of Social Psychology and in the activities of Finnish Society of Social Psychologists. Pertti Rautio was the Assistant Editor of Sosiologia magazine in 1976 - 77 and the secretary of Westermarck Society in 1981 - 82. He was also one of the founding members of Tampere's co-operative press Vastapaino.

    Having grown during the politically turbulent era of the 1960s and 70s, which also left its mark on the adademic world and heavily influenced him too, in his hometown Pertti Rautio kept actively participating in public discussion, defending Tampere's traditional milieu. He was involved in the campaign of preserving the town's old Office Building of the Market Hall in the late 1970s and early 80s. One of the important recent campaigns for him was saving the cultural landscapes of the gardens of Pispala/Tahmela district against some impending construction projects. Also an avid traveller, Pertti Rautio enjoyed during his last years trips to Lanzarote (the landscape of which always somehow reminisced him of his native Pohjanmaa) and Madeira in the Canary Islands, which always left him with many very fond memories and an extensive collection of slides he took during his travels.

    Pertti Rautio is survived by wife and two sons from his first marriage. Pertti Rautio's funeral took place on the 5th of January 2008 at the Kalevankangas Cemetery of Tampere, after which family members, friends and colleagues gathered to reminisce Pertti and share their personal memories of him.

    This "official" part of the obituary is heavily indebted to the original Finnish text (which you can find below) by Pertti Rautio's colleague Vilma Hänninen, the Professor of Social Psychology in Kuopio, who characterised him as a well-appreciated and dedicated member of academic community, well-liked by his students who took the news of his passing with a great shock. Most revealing of Pertti Rautio's vast encyclopedic knowledge is the oft-repeated story which his colleagues always told each other, that if one doesn't know an answer to a particular question, one should just "ask Pertti, he knows".

    As to some personal memories of my father, the most important heritage Pertti Rautio left me probably is the life-long interest in culture and arts, which I absorbed at home as a child and teenager. He taught me to read when I was only four, and I think it was also essential to my own later activities in music that I was exposed at a crucial age to the records of classical music and jazz (I especially remember Miles Davis as one of father's favourites) which he kept playing all the time. Being a bit of a bibliophile, and naturally because of his studies and work, father also had a vast library, which always raised an endless curiosity in me as a child, though I might have been too young to understand its classics of world literature, sociology, psychology, philosophy and so on; not to talk about countless art books which were always around. My plan now would be to start to pHinnWeb a sub-page dedicated to my father's life's work, including a sort of biography, bibliography and so on but given the extensive amount of Pertti's publications, studies and scientific papers, this project might well be an undertaking for years. Happy journey, father.

    ---

    Pertti Rautio in memoriam

    Kuopion yliopiston sosiaalipsykologian lehtori, YTL Pertti Rautio menehtyi 30.11.2007 Tampereen yliopistollisessa sairaalassa nopeasti edenneen sairauden uuvuttamana.

    Rautio oli syntynyt 8.5.1944 Lapualla. Hän suoritti Tampereen yliopistossa yhteiskuntatieteiden maisterin ja lisensiaatin tutkinnot vuosina 1973 ja 1991. Yliopistotyön hän aloitti Tampereen yliopiston yhteiskuntatieteiden tutkimuslaitoksella vuonna 1973 ja työskenteli Tampereen yliopistossa tutkijana sekä opetustehtävissä. Vuonna 1989 hän siirtyi Kuopion yliopistoon.

    Opetustyö oli Pertti Rautiolle sydämenasia. Niin paljon kuin hän pitkän opetusuransa aikana ehtikin luennoimaan ja ohjaamaan opiskelijoiden töitä, hän ei koskaan tuntunut väsyneen tai kadottaneen kiinnostustaan opettamiseen. Hänen laaja sivistyneisyytensä, rauhallinen luennointitapansa ja aidosti opiskelijoista välittävä asenteensa tekivät hänestä suuresti arvostetun ja pidetyn opettajan. Tästä kertoo koskettavasti toisen vuoden opiskelijan viesti tämän kuultua Pertin kuolemasta: "Pertti oli aivan ihana meidän opiskelijoiden ymmärtäjänä, ja mikä merkitys meille onkaan että opintojen alussa menetämme niin suurenmoisen ihmisen elämästämme. Ajattelin aina, että Pertillä on paljon sanottavaa ja ihailin häntä niin ihmisenä kuin opettajana, suloinen ihana Pertti".

    Opetustyön ohessa Pertti Rautio teki myös tutkimusta. Hänen keskeisin kiinnostuksen kohteensa oli yhteiskunnan säilymisen kannalta keskeiset moraalitunteet ja niiden biologinen perusta. Aihe muodostaa jännevälin yhteiskuntafilosofiasta biologiaan, ja Pertti puhuikin paljon ihmistieteiden välisen synteesin ja vuoropuhelun puolesta. Moraalitunteiden tarkastelussa hän pyrki luomaan siltaa Adam Smithistä Rolf Lagerborgin ja Edward Westermarckin kautta Antonio Damasioon ja muuhun uusimpaan neurotieteeseen. Pertti Raution viimeiseksi julkaisuksi jäi hänen yhdessä Mikko Saastamoisen kanssa toimittamansa artikkelikokoelma Minuus ja identiteetti. Sosiaalipsykologian ja osuustoimintaopin uranuurtajaa Antero Rinnettä koskeva väitöskirja oli yhtä lukua vaille valmis.

    Pertti Rautio osallistui Kuopion yliopiston hallinnollisiin tehtäviin toimimalla vuosina 2004 – 2005 sosiaalipsykologian ja sosiologian laitoksen johtajana, vuosina 2001 - 2007 yhteiskuntatieteellisen tiedekunnan tiedekuntaneuvoston jäsenenä sekä vuodesta 2004 alkaen yliopiston hyvinvointityöryhmän jäsenenä. Suomalaisten sosiaalipsykologien keskuudessa Pertti Rautio tunnetaan aktiivisuudestaan sosiaalipsykologian valtakunnallisen ammatillisen opetuksen järjestämisessä sekä Suomen sosiaalipsykologit ry:n toiminnassa.

    Työyhteisön jäsenenä Pertti nautti kaikkien vilpitöntä arvostusta. Hän oli rauhallinen, vastuullinen, viisaasti asioita punnitseva, vaatimaton ja vankkumattoman hyväntahtoinen. Yliopisto oli hänelle enemmän kuin työpaikka, se oli viisauden harjoittamisen yhteisö. Niin ikään sosiaalipsykologia oli hänelle enemmän kuin tieteenala, se oli elävää elämää – kuten eräs hänen vanha ystävänsä toteaa, hän oli "oikea sosiaalipsykologi myös ihmisenä".

    Kotikaupungissaan Tampereella Pertti Rautio oli aktiivinen kansalaiskeskustelija. Hän oli mukana muun muassa kauppahallin virastotaloa suojelevassa liikkeessä 1980-luvulla sekä 1990-luvulta toimineessa Kurpitsa-liikkeessä, jonka tavoitteena on Pispalan-Tahmelan vanhojen kasvimaiden suojelu.

    Pertti Rautio pyrki kaikessa toiminnassaan vaalimaan kestäviä arvoja, olipa sitten kyseessä historiallinen kaupunkikuva, sosiaalitieteen klassikot, sivistysyliopiston idea tai perinteinen hyvän ihmisen ihanne.

    Vilma Hänninen
    Pertti Raution työtoveri
    Kuopion yliopisto
    (Sosiaalipsykologian professori
    Sosiaalipolitiikan ja sosiaalipsykologian laitoksen johtaja)

    [Julkaistu kirjoittajan luvalla.]


    Some photographs from Rautio Family Album -


    Pertti Rautio, ca. 1946 in Lapua


    Pertti Rautio, winter 1962/63 in Lapua

    Pertti Rautio's 1960s-70s artworks

    Some texts by Pertti Rautio found from the Net (in Finnish):

  • Sosiaalisen ja biologisen suhde moraalisessa käyttäytymisessä (2003) (PDF)
  • Tuottavatko psykologiset testit tieteellistä vai myyttistä tietoa? (1999)
  • Työpaikkakonflikti identiteettisotana (1999) (PDF)
  • Yhteisöllisyys ja verkostoituminen osana opiskelijan hyvinvointia (2005) (PDF)

    Related:

  • Pauli Välimäki ja Kauppahallin virastotalon valtaus 5 August 1981
  • Thursday, January 03, 2008

    pHinnWeb "The Best Culture Blog of 2007"




    The internet on mobiili blog on Internet mobile services has chosen pHinnWeb's blog as the "Best Culture Blog of 2007", telling that "One could subscribe pHinnWeb's newsfeed to one's e-mail already 12 years ago, and even though the technology has changed along the years, its content has remained in the underground of the Net" [this clumsy translation from Finnish my own]. Thanks & cheers, mates!

    Wednesday, January 02, 2008