Can Anyone Recognize This Video?

Via Jan Jahsonic:


unknown music video, early 1980s

From YouTube: "A very obscure early 80's video in the vein of The Residents. Does anyone know who the artist is and the name of the song? It has been driving me crazy for years!"

Update:

thanks for the swift answer, Superjohan! So, the track is 'B' by Colin Newman (of Wire fame), released as a 7" and on his album A-Z (both on Beggars Banquet) in 1980.

Colin Newman: 'B' video @ YouTube

Colin Newman: 'B' 7" @ Discogs

Colin Newman: A-Z LP @ Discogs

Matti Inkinen of SIG (1958 - 2009)

SIG: 'Leijailen' (1985)


SIG: 'Hyvää syntymäpäivää'


SIG: 'Sadan vuoden yksinäisyys' (1984)

SIG: 'Vuosisadan rakkaustarina' (audio only)

Matti Inkinen, the vocalist of Finnish electropop band SIG, was found drowned on Monday 25 May, after having disappeared from his home on 29 April 2009. Inkinen, 50, had been recovering from a brain surgery where a tumour was removed, and was allegedly suffering from depression. SIG was at the peak of its popularity in the early 1980s, known for such tunes as 'Tiina menee naimisiin' ("Tiina gets married"), 'Hyvää syntymäpäivää' ("Happy birthday"), 'Sadan vuoden yksinäisyys' ("One hundred years of solitude") and 'Vuosisadan rakkaustarina' ("The love story of the century").

Links in Finnish:

SIG videos @ Yle Elävä Arkisto

Helsingin Sanomat

Ilta-Sanomat

YLE

J.G. Ballard (1930 - 2009)

British writer J.G. Ballard died on Sunday 19 April 2009. Ballard, who had been diagnosed with prostrate cancer in June 2006, was 78 years old. Among his best-known novels are such as Crash, High-Rise, Empire of the Sun, and Super-Cannes.

Though usually cited as a science fiction writer (he was one of the vanguards of the "New Wave" of sci-fi coming into prominence in the 1960s with such celebrated magazines as New Worlds, which he also contributed), Ballard's main theme was the psychopathology of contemporary society. The writer inspired by French Surrealists of the early 20th century, Ballard's works usually were about the civilisation crumbling but also mutating into something else, creating its own beauty and serenity. His psycho-geographical landscapes were inhabitated by alienated but inquisitive characters obsessed by a combination of technology, celebrity cult, sex and violence; all of which they worshipped with a religious fervour and even some sort of strange dignity.

Crash (1973) is about a small cult of people sexually obsessed with becoming injured or even dying in car accidents, preferably featuring some celebrity figures such as Elizabeth Taylor. Concrete Island (1974) describes a modern-day Robinson Crusoe, who finds himself helplessly stranded on a traffic island in the abyss of a spaghetti junction, his pleas for help ignored by passing cars. As with film director Luis Buñuel, Ballard's works could often be seen as surreal satires of the "discreet charm of bourgeoisie", and High-Rise (1975) shows a group of people consisting of highly-paid professionals and inhabiting an ultra-modern tower block degenerate into a constant life of violent orgy. In The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) an aviator crashes his plane in a suburb town of the Thames Valley, becoming a sort of Messiah with supernatural powers in a tale which might be or not only a final fantasy of a dying man. Ballard's late quadrology Cocaine Nights (1996), Super-Cannes (2000) (these two being actually companion pieces, so similar they are in their themes), Millennium People (2003) and Kingdom Come (2006) also show these same upper-middle class people instigating absurd violence to alleviate the boredom and social friction in their tightly guarded resort communities, business parks and shopping malls.

In a perfect world, the Nobel Award for Literature would have been Ballard's, but science/speculative fiction has never really fitted the appetites of that venerable election committee, not to speak about the controversial nature of his works. It would perhaps be preposterous to call Ballard's works prophetical, but I'm quite sure in the years to come more and more resonance will be found with his works and how the world around us turns out to be. No, as it already is: Ballard's dystopias took place not in some far future or a faraway country, but here and now.

In popular culture, J.G. Ballard has been for years a hip name to throw around and his works have inspired countless other writers, film-makers, artists and musicians. Empire of The Sun, an autobiographical book on Ballard's childhood years in the Japanese-occupied Shanghai, was filmed by Steven Spielberg in 1987. The Crash film version by David Cronenberg (whose earlier works such as Videodrome had a definite Ballardian tone) stirred some controversy in 1996.

Daniel Miller, the founder of Mute Records, recorded in 1978 under the alias of The Normal 'Warm Leatherette', a song based on Ballard's Crash. The Normal's electronic contemporaries such as Gary Numan ('Down In The Park') and John Foxx (Metamatic) have read their Ballard, too. Joy Division's late frontman Ian Curtis took the name for one of their songs, 'The Atrocity Exhibition', from a short story collection of Ballard.


The Normal: 'Warm Leatherette' with film clips from Crash adaptation by David Cronenberg

Ballardian.com - a Website dedicated to all things J.G. Ballard

Obituaries & tributes:

BBC News

Feuilleton

Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish)

Michael Moorcock @ Ballardian

Salon (by Simon Reynolds)

Propaganda: A Secret Wish (1985)

Propaganda: 'p:Machinery'


Propaganda: 'Dr. Mabuse (Anton Corbijn)

'Dr. Mabuse' (Version 2)


Propaganda: 'Duel'


Propaganda: 'Dream Within A Dream'

Lately I've been re-listening to A Secret Wish by Propaganda, a German synthpop act, who released the album in 1985 on ZTT Records, the infamous UK "artpop" label of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Art of Noise and Grace Jones fame.

With the Cinemascope-size production by Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn (THE producer guru of the era), the album is a perfect example of the 1980s megalomania as personified by ZTT (short for Zang Tumb Tumb, a name taken from Marinetti's Futurist poem): melodramatic, pseudo-arty, overproduced and quite enchanting.

Stressi & Tyhjät Patterit: Finnish Synthpop Video Clips From 1981

Stressi: 'Go-Go Mod' (live at Hotel Presidentti, Helsinki, 1981)

Stressi @ pHinnWeb


Tyhjät Patterit: 'Jää-9' (live in Vammala, 1981)

Tyhjät Patterit info @ FinnArctic

1980s Finnish synthpop @ pHinnWeb

pHinnWeb Chart April 2009...

... can be found here. Sorry elitists, no cool limited edition 12"s this time, either; have no money, so again, it's just all old fart CDs from local library. Plus some cool promos; thanks, DC Rec.! And you know what, day by day I'm becoming more like Snake Plissken and don't really care.


John Carpenter with Alan Howarth: 'Theme from Escape From New York (1981)


Escape From New York trailer


"Call me Snake"

Escape From New York @ Wikipedia

+

April Fools Day Bonus Beats:

Skweee feature @ Spin magazine (Yes, it seems that's a legitimate story -- unlike this and this.)

Ricardo Montalbán, Khan of Star Trek (1920 - 2009)

An excerpt from The Wrath of Khan (1982)

American actor Ricardo Montalbán (1920 - 2009) has died. Montalbán is probably best remembered by many as the superhuman villain Khan Noonien Singh of the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed", the role which he reprised in 1982 in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, one of the best films in the otherwise uneven series. Montalbán was also known from many other TV roles and film appearances among all in the sequels of The Planet of the Apes.

Pekka Pohjola: 'Dancing in the Dark' (1981)

I recently wrote here about the death of bassist and multi-instrumentalist Pekka Pohjola, one of best known Finnish musicians internationally. Now YLE Elävä Arkisto presents a video clip of his 'Dancing in the Dark', taped in February 1981. The line-up is: Pekka Pohjola (bass), Seppo Tyni (guitar), Pekka Tyni (keyboards), Ismo Kätkä (drums), Esa "Nätsi" Rosvall (percussion).

Pekka Pohjola: 'Dancing in the Dark' - video link & background info in Finnish

Urgh! A Music War (1981)

Klaus Nomi: 'Total Eclipse' off Urgh! A Music War, 1981

Urgh! A Music War (1981), shown by YLE Teema yesterday, is a film that, instead of having a plot in a traditional sense, consists just of a series of live performances from some extremely diverse US and UK acts, with "post-punk" moniker as their common (and in many cases, the only) denominator. So many goodies: most acts were familiar to me, at least by name, but I have to admit I had never before heard of such as Skafish (quite brilliant, actually), Splodgenessabounds or Invisible Sex (whose bizarre performance made me roll with laughter).

Another proof why this is among my favourite musical eras: the original punk of 1976-77 was in many ways a purist putsch kicking out those musical styles and artists that had become outdated ("classic rock" millionaires WhoZeppelinStones with their Learjets and cocaine), choking under their colossal weight (prog-rock), thoroughly commercialized and -- to use the favourite expression of the era -- boring, but personally, bar some exceptions (Ramones, Pistols, Buzzcocks), most of those first wave's three-chord wonders with buzzsaw guitars and their simplistic slogans leave me cold, and more interesting things started only happen in the second, "post-" (or "new wave") phase of punk when artists widened their musical palettes to include, e.g., such things as keyboards and synths (in the most purist Year Zero punk phase only Satan's, Prog-Rock's and Big Commerce's despicable tool nothing to do with Pure, True, Authentic and Genuine Street Expression), more complicated song structures with that fourth chord (and more), more thought-out lyrics, even dance music and (terror, terror!) disco (reggae was a big influence to it all), and so on, but still retaining punk's original DIY ethos.

Of course, it was all very art-school (as had prog been its very beginnings) and artsy-fartsy, and not without certain pretentiousness (though a lot of it was interesting pretension) and by the 1980s corporate rock era it had all died away (some of these acts like Police and Sting solo eventually became corporate rock themselves), but just by witnessing the amazing variety of music in Urgh!, at least for a couple of years, extremely lively things were happening. To see and hear yourself, check Urgh! A Music War search results @ YouTube.

The complete list of all acts heard in Urgh! A Music War:

The Police – "Driven to Tears"
Wall of Voodoo – "Back in Flesh"
Toyah Willcox – "Dance"
John Cooper Clarke – "Health Fanatic"
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – "Enola Gay"
Chelsea – "I’m on Fire"
Oingo Boingo – "Ain’t This the Life"
Echo & the Bunnymen – "The Puppet"
Jools Holland – "Foolish I Know"
XTC – "Respectable Street"
Klaus Nomi – "Total Eclipse"
Athletico Spizz 80 – "Where’s Captain Kirk?"
The Go-Go's – "We Got the Beat"
Dead Kennedys – "Bleed for Me"
Steel Pulse – "Ku Klux Klan"
Gary Numan – "Down in the Park"
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – "Bad Reputation"
Magazine – "Model Worker"
Surf Punks – "My Beach"
The Members – "Offshore Banking Business"
Au Pairs – "Come Again"
The Cramps – "Tear It Up"
Invisible Sex – "Valium"
Pere Ubu – "Birdies"
Devo – "Uncontrollable Urge"
The Alley Cats – "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore"
John Otway – "Cheryl’s Going Home"
Gang of Four – "He’d Send in the Army"
999 – "Homicide"
The Fleshtones – "Shadowline"
X – "Beyond and Back"
Skafish – "Sign of the Cross"
Splodgenessabounds – "Two Little Boys"
UB40 – "Madame Medusa"
The Police – "Roxanne"
The Police – "So Lonely"

Momus Gives His Creation Albums As Free Downloads

Momus: 'Hairstyle of the Devil' (1989)


Momus: 'Cibachrome Blue' (1992)


Momus: 'Rhetoric' (1994)

Talking about favourite blogs: if I didn't have such a short attention span and if I didn't hate reading long texts off computer screen (especially here in a local free Net café amidst the clamour of 10 - 15-year old boys coming to play RuneQuest and shoot-'em-up games after the school), I would pay more attention to the Web diary of Momus where the Scottish-originated artist and writer -- born as Nick Currie in 1960 -- gives his regular views on art, culture, politics and naturally music, his own and of the others.

Anyway, I try to give at least a brief daily glance to what Mr. Currie is saying, so I recently noticed he's going to give for free (or for a voluntary donation) six Momus albums recorded for the legendary Creation Records, according to certain fans some of his best. In his own words from the blog:

"Six Momus albums -- the ones I recorded for Alan McGee's Creation label between 1987 and 1993 -- are out of print. Creation doesn't exist any more, and in theory Sony owns the rights to these albums, but isn't doing anything with them and probably never will. In the meantime, only Russian pirates are profiting, charging punters for illegal downloads.

So, during the rest of December, I've decided to release mp3s of my six Creation albums here on Click Opera, for free. Think of it as a sort of Creation Advent Calendar, with a new old Momus album every couple of days. If you're the sort of person who likes to donate to the artist when you download, do it here. But it's not really necessary; these albums paid for themselves long ago. Think of this as a Christmas present. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!"

All six albums are now online:

The Poison Boyfriend (1988)

The Tender Pervert (1988)

Don't Stop The Night (1989)

Hippopotamus (1991)

Voyager (1992)

Timelord (1993)

(Momus also added a post-script on Alan McGee of Creation Records.)

This is the era when Momus (the name borrowed from the Greek god of satire and mockery) took cues, alongside the more obvious Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Scott Walker and David Bowie influences, also from such contemporary electronic artists as Pet Shop Boys, to his witty, ironic and bittersweet songs of literary style, wry commentary and "tender perversion" not unfamiliar with controversy. As is found from Wikipedia entry, in his time he has managed to anger both the trans-gender electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos and Michelin Tyres (comparing the famous Michelin Man to a blow-up doll), not to forget songs mentioning paedophilia, necrophilia, adultery and Tamagotchis.

I have to say my own knowledge of Momus' music is more sporadic and limited to owning some albums from this era of the late 80s and early 90s. Though the artist himself comments the album in question: "This is really just a funky book-end, pleasant enough as a mood piece, but not really essential", my own favourite Momus record is the futuristic-themed Voyager of 1992 (where 'Cibachrome Blue' video seen here is taken from) -- and he even had a gig at Yo-Talo in our measly Tampere during those days, which I remember witnessing.

The other connection Momus has to this country is the Man of Letters documentary film made of him in 1994 by Finnish director Hannu Puttonen (who also created the videos for 'Pornography', 'Marquise of Sadness' and 'Rhetoric' by Momus) -- the film is available as a DVD with extra material on Cherry Red Records.

Momus @ Discogs

"One Night In Bangkok Makes A Hard Man Humble..."

Murray Head: 'One Night In Bangkok' (1984)

Especially if you're a Western tourist trapped in Suvarnabhumi airport... Continuing with the 80s theme: I remember having been not so fond of this ditty back in the day (yes kiddoes, uncle pHinn is old enough to remember the yuppie decade, sigh), but now I find it kind of catchy...

From Chess, the musical of ABBA men Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. The lyrics ("...the queens we use would not excite you /
So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
parlours") annoyed Thai authorities -- worried about Bangkok's seedy reputation as a safe haven for sex tourists -- so much that the song is banned in Thailand (though unofficially gets many plays there).

Belaboris: 'Rakkauden jälkeen' (1985)

Belaboris: 'Rakkauden jälkeen' (1985, off "Hittimittari" TV show)

The haunting synthpop rendition by Belaboris of 'Rakkauden jälkeen' ("After love"), a song originally performed in 1968 by Finnish chanteuse Carola (1941 - 1997). The song is a Finnish translation of 'Was ich dir sagen will' by Udo Jürgens. Carola's original @ YouTube.

From Minimal Wave:

Belaboris was a Finnish all female group featuring Minna Soisalo on vocals, best known as the lead in Mika Kaurismäki's film Klaani ("The Clan - Tale of the Frogs"). The band moniker is taken from a combination of the names of the two famed horror film actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Belaboris was produced by famed Finnish indie producer and punk journalist Miettinen and left behind only a couple of singles released between 1982-1984 featuring, among others, a cover version of the 60's Scandinavian pop hit 'Rakkauden jälkeen' and Serge Gainsbourg's 'Babypop'.

Belaboris @ FinnArctic

Belaboris @ Discogs

FinnScene - The Early Years: Synthpop @ pHinnWeb

Adolf Hitler, The Father of Reality-TV

Mel Brooks: 'Hitler Rap' (1983)

This news has been online for a couple of weeks, though I only found it now and, to be honest, it sounds like some misplaced and morbid April Fools prank. Anyway, as it is known, Nazi Germany was one of the pioneers in the first steps of TV broadcasting, and it transpires Adolf Hitler was the father of reality-TV, planning a "Big Brother" type of show on the domestic life of an ideal Aryan couple. And naturally broadcasting as prime time entertainment executions of traitors to Nazis. There's indeed something in current reality-TV's "survival of the fittest" ethos, which undoubtedly would have pleased Der Führer and his brown-shirt cohorts. Check the article @ Telegraph (UK). [Also @ Daily Mail.]

Finnhits

A Finnhits TV commercial from the 1970s

There's a new blog dedicated to Finnhits, popular Finnish iskelmä compilations in the 1970s and early 80s, today campy retro-pop nostalgia. Some Finnhits artists: Fredi, Danny & Armi (also responsible for the worst music video of all time), Freeman, Katri Helena, Frederik, Kirka, Irwin Goodman...

Music of Finland @ Wikipedia

A nice video clips collection of the 60s/70s (and earlier decades) Finnish pop -- "Finnhits" and more -- from TV and movie performances of the era

Neil Young: Trans (1982)

The heroes of the late 70s/early 80s futu-pop: Kraftwerk, Ultravox, John Foxx, The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Gary Numan, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Soft Cell, Visage, Depeche Mode... and Neil Young? Yes, so it seemed when Young released in 1982 Trans, a synth and vocoder-laden (Moog 16-Channel MBVO Vocoder, to be exact) album featuring futuristic paeans to electronic age in general.

This happened way before ZZ Top added synthetic sounds to their own boogie rock on albums like Afterburner (1985). Old Young fans more accustomed to his earthy singer-songwriter style were baffled, to say the least, the reviews were mixed and this remained Young's only foray into electronic pop. Young's interest to vocoder may have originated when he found out using this device it was easier for him to communicate with his son who had a cerebral palsy. Also hearing Kraftwerk's now-classic Computer World (1981) seems to have inspired Young to explore this sort of sound.

Tracks such as 'Computer Cowboy' preceded the mid-80s cyberpunk craze: "Ride along computer cowboy / To the city just in time / To bring another system down / And leave your alias behind: Computer syscrusher". (I think some echoes of the part-utopian/part-dystopian songs of Trans can be found on the postrock band Trans Am's 1999 album Futureworld -- Young also has a track called 'Trans Am' on 1994's Sleeps With Angels.)

Some commentators tell Neil Young later disowned this record, though a page at Human Highway dedicated to the album claims: "Contrary to most people's opinion, Neil Young says that this is the one of his best two albums. The other was Everybody's Rockin'". Anyway, something about the difficult reception to the album is revealed by the fact that Trans has never been re-released on CD in the US. Nevertheless, as an electronic curio diversion to its creator's usual output and representing the era of early home-computers and futuristic dreams still prevalent in pop those days, I find the album quite enjoyable: Neil Young, the original cyberpunk cowboy?

Some fan-made videos of Trans songs at YouTube:

'Computer Cowboy'

'We R In Control'

'Sample and Hold'

'Computer Age'

Links:

Trans @ Rolling Stone Reviews

Trans @ Shelf Life

Trans @ Line Out

1983 reviews in Finnish by Markku Into and Pekka Koskivaara

Mad Lindell: 'Grandmaster Klaus' (1988)

An addition to the 80s synthpop dept. of pHinnWeb... Tommi Lindell was one of Finnish electro pioneers with 'Grandmaster Klaus', a humorous electro-funk take on Klaus Järvinen, the über-critical musical educator member of TV's Levyraati (Finnish version of Jukebox Jury) in the 1980s, sampling the show's jazzy theme music to the comments of Mr. Järvinen on sundry musical performances seen at Levyraati. You can hear the track and see its video at YouTube.

Mad Lindell
Grandmaster Klaus (7")
KRÄKS 138
Kräk
1988
A. Grandmaster Klaus (3:32)
B. Karjala (3:04)

Written by Tommi Lindell.

Links:

The official Tommi Lindell site

Tommi Lindell @ FinnArctic

Lindellandia @ YouTube

Tommi Lindell @ Discogs

Tommi Lindell interview @ Selvis 1/2001 (in Finnish)

Tommi Lindell @ Riffi 2/2002 (in Finnish)

Prince 50 Years

Prince obviously doesn't like Websites featuring his images, videos, lyrics or music, so here instead some pics of his early-80s protégés, a girl group Vanity 6, which later became Apollonia 6.

Prince just got 50 -- pHinnWeb congratulates. I am a huge fan of his 80s output, Prince's "Golden Age" with the winning series of albums like Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), 1999 (1982), Purple Rain (1984), Around the World in a Day (1985), Parade (1986) and Sign 'O' The Times (1987). Perhaps I'll give a closer dissemination of these one day. Anywhere, it was Lovesexy (1988) which started 2 leave me cold and after which I didn't have 2 collect from him just everything I could get into my hands. Anyway, thank U 4 the memories, influence and inspiration -- may U still live 2 see The Dawn (and hopefully a return 2 the form one day).

"I'm Blinded By The Daisies In Your Yard..."

Prince & The Revolution: 'Condition of the Heart' (1985)

From the album Around the World in a Day.

[lyrics]

Finnish Futu-Pop & Goth-Rock Video Clips of the Early 80s

Yle Elävä Arkisto has compiled some video clips of Finnish "futu" synthpop, goth-rock bands and clubs of the early 1980s, featuring such acts as Tyhjät Patterit ("Empty Batteries"; of which I've never heard before, I have to admit), Stressi, Jimi Sumén, Hefty Load, Musta Paraati and Helsinki's Bela Lugosi club:

http://www.yle.fi/elavaarkisto/?s=s&g=4&ag=26&t=446

More info @ pHinnWeb:

FinnScene: The Early Years - Synthpop

FinnScene: The Early Years

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