The dog days of summer always abound with UFO sightings and other strange phenomena, the hot temperatures obviously creating interesting things in people's brain activity. So, it's only too fitting that there is now this fresh article on the alleged connections between the latest hot pop sensation Lady Gaga (who to me seems merely re-hashing the electroclash craze of the early naughty noughties; in the footsteps of Peaches et al.) and the Illuminati, an ancient secret society supposedly pulling the strings of this world. And this is what the article claims:
The symbolism surrounding Lady Gaga is so blatant that one might wonder if it’s all a sick joke. Illuminati symbolism is becoming so clear that analyses like this one becomes a simple exercise of pointing out the obvious. Her whole persona (whether its an act or not) is a tribute to mind control, where being vacuous, incoherent and absent minded becomes a fashionable thing.
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).
Finnish music journalist Jyrki "Jyräys" Hämäläinen has died. Hämäläinen (27 July 1942 - 18 March 2008) was best known as the chief editor of pop music magazine Suosikki ("Favourite") from 1968 to 2003. He also wrote several music books, including artist biographies for such as Ilkka "Danny" Lipsanen and Olavi Virta, also a biography of magazine mogul Urpo Lahtinen. Hämäläinen was known for his flamboyant and flashy writing style, also as one of the primus motors of the celebrity club Dean Martin Boozing Society.
[NOTE: THIS COMPILATION HAS NOT BEEN OFFICIALLY RELEASED YET. PLEASE, DON'T SEND ME ANY ENQUIRIES ABOUT WHERE TO GET IT. Whenever I will receive information about the official release and label, I am going to add the info to this blog; before that, ALL ENQUIRIES WILL BE IGNORED.]
Some time ago I received from Euphonic, a Finnish record collector, this 2-CDR compilation which is now seeking for an official release. Suffice it to say I was very happily surprised and also truly flabbergasted by the contents here. You see, as old fans of this type of music, for some years me and some friends have been toying with the idea of a Finnish counterpart to the legendary compilation records Nuggets and Pebbles, consisting of garage rock, freakbeat and psychedelic pop of the 1960s.
The quest for similar Finnish bands and songs from the same era has been mind-boggling but not a little bit frustrating, especially with us not being heavy-duty vinyl-hunting record collectors ourselves but rather lazy dabblers usually happy with CD re-releases; it also often having felt there are scarcely a handful of local examples which would have even remotely fitted to this template. In that period between the early 60s Finnish rautalanka craze (instrumental guitar bands styled after The Ventures, The Shadows, et al.) and the progressive rock bands such as Wigwam and Tasavallan Presidentti emerging in the end of that same decade, as Euphonic expertly points out with his track choices, there was apparently quite a lot of "Nuggetish" music from local bands; many of them unfortunately lost in the mists of time. At least before their re-emergence here.
On the other hand, the question of what is exactly kosher and what is not for this type of compilation is of some dispute. It's good to remember even the variety of selections on countless Nuggets compilations and CD boxes can be quite heterogenous; varying from raunchier "proto-punk" of the bands like The Sonics to some more light and soft pop or ballads, even though of slightly psychedelic (or pseudo-psychedelic) flavour. Euphonic commented in the related thread at GaragePunk.com another similarly-themed (and also unofficial) compilation Pebbles from the Shores of Thousand Lakes, that the "comp was well meant and all that, but it really stretches the whole Nuggets concept into unrecognizability by including a lot of material that simply does not belong there". Likewise, following these same strict criteria, pHinnWeb's own tentative efforts to find a repertoire of representative songs here might be considered more or less misled, too... Personal tastes and preferences aside, I really think Euphonic (and his contributing record-collecting compadres) has done an amazing work here in digging up some of these little musical, erm, nuggets (or, perhaps in this case, frosty ice-covered pebbles).
The collection features a booklet of extensive liner notes by Euphonic; featuring a chockful of background information on Finnish rock scene of the day, detailed band biographies with information on respective line-ups and naturally of the original releases' record labels and catalogue numbers.
About the bands themselves, most of them hail from Helsinki, though represented too are such towns as Espoo, Tampere, Turku, Hämeenlinna, Jyväskylä, Porvoo, Kuusankoski, Somero (the pre-fame Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki on Chuck Berry), Tornio and Mariehamn; indicating that a vibrant beat scene was found all over the country, not only in its most obvious urban spots. The double-album also prominently features some bands who were not Finnish but instead recorded or enjoyed their biggest popularity here. The most notable of these is of course Birmingham's Renegades, who busted Finnish charts with their 'Cadillac'. Also Brummies were The Andicaps featured here. From Liverpool hailed The Kirkbys, and from Blackpool Reverend Black & The Rocking Vickers; the latter band featuring in its line-up one Ian Willis, later better known as Lemmy of Motörhead and Hawkwind! Such British expats as Jim Pembroke (The Pems, Blues Section) and Frank Robson (Mosaic) also have their important role here. The most curious foreign guest on the compilation must be, though, Petr Novák, appearing with George & The Beatovens, hailing from Communist Czechoslovakia, but enjoying a brief Finnish stint.
I don't know if it's too purposeful to give any detailed reviews of every featured band here, but some personal highlights include, for example, The Beat Stones' 'V.I.P.', perhaps following somewhere in the footsteps of The Yardbirds; the legendary 'Kevät' ("Spring") by New Joys with its ultra-sharp, fuzzy band sound and somewhat gloomy lyrics (during long winter nights a guy dreams of spring so he could be with his girl -- so, spring finally comes but the girl won't be anywhere to be seen); 'Meditation' by Mariehamn's Hitch Hikers (a bluesy excursion featuring some protopsychedelic-sounding guitar modulations reminiscing of Indian music); Blues Section's hard-driving, sound FX-laden 'Hey Hey Hey' and The Islanders' wah-wah guitar and violin-flavoured arrangement of 'Beat The Clock' by The McCoys (UK), featuring as its vocalist Kirill "Kirka" Babitzin, who recently died (eerily, I received these records the very same day the news were widely spread in Finnish media of Kirka's passing). As an overview, all 66 tracks featured here give even a somewhat surprising image of the 60s Finnish band scene as extremely vivid and well aware of international trends of its day. (Even though the English language in some lyrics leaves something to be desired, to say the least.) Kudos to Mr. Euphonic for putting together this massive work.
Finnish Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from a Remote Northern Country, Vol. 1 (Disc One)
1. The Renegades (UK): Cadillac 2. The Needles: A Dying Man 3. Eero & The Boys: Route 66 4. Eddy & The Lightnings: Shut Up 5. Topmost: The "In" Crowd 6. Jim & The Beatmakers: My Only One 7. The Beat Stones: V.I.P. 8. Antti "Andy" Einiö & The Islanders: Farmer John 9. The Holders: I Only Want to Look at You 10. Rev. Black & The Rocking Vickers (UK): Zing! Went The Strings of My Heart 11. Eddy & The Lightnings: Olet paha! 12. Cay & The Scaffolds: Girls 13. The Savages: Hip Hop 14. The Renegades (UK): Far From It 15. Jormas: New Orleans 16. The Firestones: Can Anyone Be True 17. Jim Pembroke (UK) & The Pems: I Don't Mind, I Got Mine 18. The Mods: Tommy Jones 19. Silvery: There's No Other (Like My Baby) 20. New Joys: Kevät 21. The Kirkbys (UK): 'Cos My Baby's Gone 22. The Roosters: Hold Me 23. Cay & The Scaffolds: You 24. Jormas: Dance to the Locomotion 25. Topmost: I'll Go Crazy 26. The Needles: Where Can She Be 27. Buddy & The Wiremen: Shanghai 28. The Downwalkers: I Don't Believe You 29. The Esquires: Tunnen sen 30. The Coyotes: Angela 31. Eero & Jussi, with The Boys: Hello Josephine 32. Jormas: California Dreamin' 33. The Gregory Allan: Shape of Surprise
Finnish Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from a Remote Northern Country, Vol. 2 (Disc Two)
1. Blues Section: Call Me On Your Telephone 2. The Scaffolds: I Wanna Be 3. Eddy & The Lightnings: Any More 4. Eero & Jussi, with The Boys: I Just Wanna Make Love to You 5.The Renegades (UK): Take A Heart 6. The Andicaps (UK): You Make Me Happy 7. The Hitch Hikers: Meditation 8. King Albert & His Strolling Bones: The Octopus 9. The Sounds: Roll Over Bach 10. Jim & The Beatmakers: You Can't Go Away 11. Eero & The Boys: Sinä vain 12. The Scaffolds: You're Running Out of Money 13. The Islanders: Beat the Clock 14. The Kirkbys (UK): Don't You Want Me No More 15. The Roosters: What Have I Got of My Own 16. The Five Comets: I'm Coming 17. Blues Section: Hey, Hey, Hey 18. Harry & The Hound Dogs: You Better Be All Right 19. The Five Yes: Bye Bye Johnny 20. Ernos: Harha 21. The Renegades (UK): Thirteen Women 22. Jormas: I Can't Break The Habit 23. Johnny & The Sounds: I Can't Break The Habit 24. The Roosters: See See Rider 25. Topmost: I Keep Forgettin' 26. The Careless: Desolate Time 27. The Victors: I'm In Love With You 28. The Rondo Four: Get On The Road 29. The First: Olet mielessäin 30. The Tonics: Hey Mister Flowerman 31. Petr Novák, with George & The Beatovens (Czechoslovakia): Why Do You Leave Me 32. Frank Robson & Mosaic: Happier Man 33. Silvery: Free
Topmost, a band featured on this compilation, was probably best known in Finland for these translated cover versions, respectively, of 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' by Procol Harum and 'Black Is Black' by Los Bravos.
The Creatures (not to be confused with Siouxsie Sioux's UK project of the same name!) was a Finnish band featuring the talents of young Kirka Babitzin (only 15 at the time of this excerpt) and Henry "Remu" Aaltonen, later best known as the drummer of The Hurriganes [sic]. Sadly the band never got to record, so one of few remaining testimonies of their fierce energy is found in Mikko Niskanen's 1966 film Käpy selän alla, where this excerpt is taken from.
Today it's been exactly forty years since 'Strawberry Fields Forever', the most adventurous single of The Beatles, written by John Lennon (and also being my own personal favourite in the band's all recorded works), was published in the UK (in America it came out a couple of days later, 17 February 1967).
Backed by Paul McCartney's 'Penny Lane', this "double A-side" single gave some foretaste of what was to come with the band's June 1967 album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Band, which is considered a landmark in the development of pop music in general, though many Beatles fans still argue whether as complete albums Rubber Soul (1965) or Revolver (1966) are even better ones. (Personally, I think none of these albums are totally immaculate works, each having their uneven parts and maybe some not-that-memorable songs alongside some undeniably classic tunes, so instead of naming just one album over the others, I'd just vaguely choose the band's general creative output somewhere in between 1965 and 1967 their best, of representing their "Golden Era".)
An important musical reference to The Beatles in these days was musique concrète; especially Paul McCartney was interested in the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen, and in 1968 Lennon would create, with assistance from Yoko Ono and George Harrison, his own (in)famous concrète piece 'Revolution No. 9' for the band's White Album. ('Carnival of Light', another experimental piece from the band still remains unpublished.) The Beatles and their producer George Martin had already experimented with the possibilities of "tape music" when creating for Revolver'Tomorrow Never Knows' (my second favourite Beatles track, probably), a baffling but also rhythmically grooving piece based on the adaptation of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" in a psychedelic tripping guide by Timothy Leary et al. The sonic achievements of the band and Martin were not less remarkable when remembering Abbey Road's studio still used four-track recording techniques, already primitive in comparison to Stateside studios having 16-track recording consoles at their use.
Starting with an an eerie flute-like mellotron phrase intro on the left channel and Lennon launching his drowsy-sounding reading, 'Strawberry Fields Forever' is sound-wise like a whole symphony condensed into four minutes. Accompanied by Ringo Starr's concise martial drumming breaks, a mêlée of pseudo-Indian music played with such instruments as swarmandel, trumpets, sawing cellos, guitars and bass stereo-panning in between the channels, this is rather a collage of sounds and music carefully assembled together in studio than any straightforward band "song". The eerie atmosphere in Lennon's vocals is not lessened by the fact that the released version of 'SFF' is put together from two different takes of the song, both in different tempos and keys, carefully joined as one by George Martin and recording engineer Geoff Emerick with elaborate tape playback speed changes, also pitch-shifting the vocals in the process.
The song which John Lennon wrote in Almeria, Spain -- while filming How I Won The War in late 1966 -- is lyrically as if a kaleidoscopic Zen riddle, full of psychedelic non sequiturs; a sort of existential search for an elusive identity, when reality is just a game through which we wander with our eyes closed, no one sharing exactly the same wavelength (or in Lennon's words, "my tree"), and all we see being but an illusion, though in the end it may all turn out well, with all "working out" -- so why worry? As Hassan-i-Sabah allegedly put it in 1124: "Nothing is real, everything is permitted". All said, your own interpretation of this song is as good as mine.
What makes this particular piece of music -- probably ancient history for today's hipper-than-thou clubbers, fanboys and DJs chasing after those latest rare pieces of vinyl of dubstep, grime and [here the name of any other fashionable here-today-gone-tomorrow genre of dance music] -- still relevant for the jaded "heard-it-all" ears of 2007, then? Technically, 'SFF' is one of the prime examples of pop's early era of "studio-as-an-instrument", paving way for all the later innovations in the techniques of electronic music and sampling; for such genres as dub reggae, disco, hip-hop, electro, techno/house, you-name-it, and the whole remixing culture. Of course, The Beatles were not the originators of these techniques but when popularizing these with their works, they influenced just through the sheer volume of their international mass appeal countless musicians and record producers around the world. It's an old cliché that if The Beatles had come into existence in our own days, they would have eagerly embraced the possibilities of synthesizers (they did include the Moog synth on their Abbey Road album of 1969), samplers and modern music software. Instead, creating their works in technically far less advanced 60s, they had to rely on the studio techniques of their own day, still very primitive from our post-Pro Tools perspective, and invent their own ways as they went along.
As to the band's cultural influence for the younger generation, today it's easy to deride The Beatles. When the nihilist mindset of such genres as goth, industrial and metal have made such dark subject matters as suicide, (mass) murder and self-mutilation appear "cool" and even appealing, the band and their naive era of flower power and universal love just appear laughable for today's "faster-harder-louder-darker" kids. And while The Beatles still keep making regular appearances on the covers of such "dadrock" magazines as Mojo and Uncut, assuring sales among the members of older pop generations getting nearer their pension days, it's just totally uncool to confess even any distant admiration for the band; a fact further confirmed by the band's record label EMI and their milking The Beatles' output to death with such cynical compilations as The Beatles 1 of 2000. (Love, the recent "mash-up" album of the band's songs -- "remixed" by combining together elements from different Beatles songs originally having nothing to do with each other -- could at its best called just "interesting", thinly disguising the fact of it being basically only another "Best of" record. Momus, a cult artist and an avid cultural commentator in his own right, was not as merciful as your present writer, though, instantly dismissing Love in his blog as "remasturbation".)
Anyway, even if we discount all that cultural burden created both by the nostalgia market and the drastically changed tastes and values in music and culture since the 60s, it's still hard to assess The Beatles as "just another" band or musical artist than as a wide cross-cultural "phenomenon"; the approach which probably does gross injustice to everyone involved.
It seems the 1960s were very different times compared to ours: the times when people still honestly believed in utopias, actually thinking that such things as the "world revolution" (or for those less politically inclined, not less than "heaven on Earth") were on their way. Despite the war in Vietnam, racial struggles or the threat of imminent nuclear war, for a lot of people everything just seemed to point to that direction: music, fashion, politics and the prevalence of mind-altering chemicals, opening new and unforeseen vistas. Experimentalism was considered a virtue everywhere. It all faded away very soon as the general disillusion set in and the world turned from day-glo to something even darker and grimmer than it had been in the monochrome pre-halcyon days of the 1950s and early 60s. Post-9/11, and it seems we are returning all the time closer to the dark ages of the medieval world of bigotry, zealotism, political and economical feudalism, even torture. More than ever, we must rediscover the seeds of hope, humanity and spiritual rebirth. Examine such works as 'Strawberry Fields Forever' -- really in some sphere of its own; outside of time, any time -- and you will constantly find those there.
Let me take you down, cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields Nothing is real And nothing to get hung about Strawberry Fields forever
Living is easy with eyes closed Misunderstanding all you see It's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out It doesn't matter much to me
Let me take you down, cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields Nothing is real And nothing to get hung about Strawberry Fields forever
No one, I think, is in my tree I mean, it must be high or low That is, you can't, you know, tune in, but it's alright That is, I think it's not too bad
Let me take you down, cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields Nothing is real And nothing to get hung about Strawberry Fields forever
Always, no, sometimes, think it's me But, you know, I know when it's a dream I think, er, no, I mean, er, yes, but it's all wrong That is, I think I disagree
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields Nothing is real And nothing to get hung about Strawberry Fields forever Strawberry Fields forever Strawberry Fields forever
Kirill "Kirka" Babitzin (born September 22, 1950 in Helsinki, Finland – died January 31, 2007) was one of Finland's most famous popular musicians.
Biography
This is a heavily condensed version of Kirka Babitzin's biography at Populaarimusiikin museo.
The third son of an immigrant family, Babitzin's musical career originally began at age 5 when his grandmother gave him an accordion. He later won an accordion competition at age 10, but left the accordion for rock and roll music. His first band was The Creatures, which he joined in 1964, under his artist name Kirka.
Babitzin got his breakthrough in 1967 when he joined the band The Islanders, originally led by Ilkka "Danny" Lipsanen, as the major vocalist, and began touring all over Finland. Kirka also recorded some singles with Blues Section.
In 1978 Babitzin released a duet album with his sister Anna, and in the next year their sister Muska joined them.
Kirka represented Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 1984, finishing a strong ninth with the song Hengaillaan.
Babitzin was awarded the Emma award for best male singer twice, first in 1981 and then in 2000. Before his death he promised he will keep on making music at least until his 60th birthday in 2010.
Kirka Babitzin died on the morning of January 31 2007 in his home.
Discography
Kirka Babitzin released 78 singles and almost 60 albums, including 15 collections. A complete discography (in Finnish) is available here. Kirka's album Surun pyyhit silmistäni (1988) is the third most sold Finnish album.
Klaxons, supposedly "Nu Rave" -- so how come I am not holding my breath...?
From Wikipedia:
New Rave (also spelt Neu Rave and Nu Rave), is a developing style of music fusing elements of electronic dance music and rock. It has similarities with US-led style Dance-punk. Music publication NME are largely responsible for popularising the term.
Nu-Rave can also refer to the resurgent breakbeat hardcore scene.
It can also be applied to a burgeoning fashion style, wherein 'rave' elements such as neon clothing, glow sticks, and baggy t-shirts teamed with leggings are re-appropriated.
Electronic dance music/rock crossovers are nothing new in itself: there are such examples in the early 90s indie heroes as Primal Scream (especially their Screamadelica of 1991), EMF and their hit 'Unbelievable', Pop Will Eat Itself, Jesus Jones... but does anyone remember Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine any more...? For the uninitiated (and someone who remembers the original Rave) the word combination (and personal fantasy concept) Nu Rave in itself just sounds great -- that silly but enchanting charm of acts like Altern-8 and early (pre-guitar) Prodigy updated for the new millennium and with new super sounds, perhaps? The return of warehouse parties in a totally fresh, smart and turbo-charged new generation version? -- but if this is just another cynical redressing for tinny-sounding NME indie guitar bands, then there's no reason to hold your breath. Maybe the problem with Nu Rave is that there is just not enough Rave in it.
Well, at least the Klaxons seem to have some decent reading habits: namechecking William S. Burroughs' Interzone and Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow in their songs. Perhaps they would just desperately need a Kompleksi remix [grin]...
I told you last August about Peter Watkins' 1967 film Privilege, lamenting the poor distribution status of this cult sci-fi film about the connections of pop music and fascism. Now one of those friendly YouTube pirates has brought this rare film online for everyone's watching pleasure, and this is what this person writes as accompaniment to the film:
"Privilege, a cruelly compelling, often brilliant film ... the real star ... is director Peter Watkins, only 31, who must get credit for this acidly anti-establishment film ... the quasi-documentary touches he mastered on BBC money are sharply and effectively in evidence. And in his first full-length film, he shows he can use color with startling success. No doubt about it: Watkins is on his way.' (Playboy)
'This is a bitter, uncompromising movie, and although it isn't quite successful it is fascinating and important. Watkins made a mistake in bringing the newsreel techniques of The War Game into a narrative film, where a director should be able to make his point with his story, the performances and the photography. Still the movie isn't a failure so much as an interesting episode in the career of a director who I think will eventually be ranked with Fellini and Bergman.' (Roger Ebert, Nov 1st, 1967)
The national cinema circuit in the UK, J. Arthur Rank, refused to show this "immoral and un-Christian picture which mocked the Church, defied authority and encouraged youth in lewd practices". Universal Pictures withdrew the film after brief screenings in a few countries, and the film has been rarely shown since - very occasionally on TV. Universal Pictures in Hollywood even refuse to let the director rent or buy a copy of this film, even on VHS.
(I apologize for the godawful picture quality, it's the only version of the film I got, since Universal still refuses to give this film a PROPER DVD-release... So please see this as a chance to watch this rare film!) ..."
Before the current Tempest vs. Timbaland case, claims of plagiarism go a long way back in music. Here are some (and more or less random) brief examples from the history of popular music, though these are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg of all the cases where an artist or his/her record label has claimed someone else has stolen his/her music... In the current day of "postmodern", "retro" type of pastiche pop where "ironic" references and "appropriations" (or "homages") abound everywhere, maybe it's harder to speak about plagiarism in any traditional terms, so it's interesting to see how our ideas about this will change in time.
The Kinks successfully sued The Doors for plagiarizing their 'All Day and All of the Night' to 'Hello, I Love You' in 1968.
'Black Knight' (1970) by Deep Purple sounds very much like 'We Ain't Got Nothing Yet' by The Blues Magoos (of Nuggets) fame. Actually, Wikipedia says: "The riff to Deep Purple's 1970 'Black Night' single was closely based off the riff to Ricky Nelson's 1962 'Summertime' (Deep Purple have said this themselves). In fact, the riff is a popular one to borrow. In 1966/67 the Blue Magoos had 'We Ain't Got Nothing Yet' around the same time that Status Quo had own their version. But the riff seems to stem back to Ricky Nelson's 1962 rock version re-working of the old George Gershwin standard 'Summertime'".
George Harrison was sued for plagiarizing 'He's So Fine' by The Chiffons for his song 'My Sweet Lord' in a long-lasting law suit which started in 1971. Harrison was ordered to pay $587,000 to Bright Tunes Music (the owners of the song's copyright) in 1976, after a judge found him guilty of "subconscious" plagiarism. The Chiffons would later record 'My Sweet Lord' to capitalize on the publicity generated by the lawsuit.
Led Zeppelin used a riff from 'Taurus' by Spirit for their best-known song, 'Stairway to Heaven'. Spirit's guitarist Randy California was reportedly just happy to let Zeppelin to use the riff. Led Zeppelin was often also accused of using old blues songs uncredited as the basis of their own tracks. Also Bob Dylan has been accused along the years of "appropriating" old songs for his own tracks.
All unsold copies of 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?), the 1987 debut album of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (a.k.a. The KLF) were ordered to be destroyed by the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, following a complaint from ABBA; the JAMS having sampled large portions of ABBA's 'Dancing Queen' for the track 'Queen and I'.
De La Soul was sued by The Turtles members for featuring an uncredited sample (the intro to The Turtles' 'You Showed Me') in the song 'Transmitting Live from Mars' on De La Soul's 1989 debut album. This was one of the first court cases over sampling music.
Negativland issued in 1991 a single called 'U2', featuring parodies of the group U2's well-known song 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For', including kazoos and extensive sampling of the original song. U2's label Island Records sued Negativland and most copies of the single were recalled and destroyed.
For their 1997 track 'Bittersweet Symphony' -- using a licensed sample from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra's version of 'The Last Time' by The Rolling Stones (1965) -- The Verve (UK) was sued by ABKCO Records of Allen Klein, which owns the rights to The Stones' 60s recordings. ABCKO claimed The Verve had used "too much" of the sample. The matter was eventually settled out of court, with copyright of the song (which lyrics were written entirely by The Verve vocalist, Richard Ashcroft) reverting to ABKCO and songwriting credits to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Stones.
Splank of Zombie Nation had to pay an undisclosed amount to David Whittaker, the programmer who wrote the original music riff to 80s Commodore-64 computer game 'Lazy Jones', which was used as the basis of Zombie Nation's 1999 hit 'Kernkraft 400'.
It is now claimed that Janne Suni a.k.a. Tempest a.k.a. Damage, a Finnish demoscene musician/graphic artist (who has also done cover art for Jyväskylä's Rikos Records), has had 'Acid Jazzed Evening', one of his tracks, blatantly ripped by the well-known hip-hop/R&B producer Timbaland on Nelly Furtado's song 'Do It' for her album Loose.
The said track is from a Commodore 64 conversion of an Amiga .mod file made by the Finnish demoscener Janne Suni. The track was entered into a music competition at Assembly 2000, a demo party held in Helsinki, Finland in the year 2000. Tempest's entry 'Acid Jazzed Evening', a 4-channel Amiga .mod won first place in the "Oldskool Music" competition. According to Scene.org the song was uploaded to their servers in 2000, long before the release of the song by Furtado. A video which claims to show proof of the theft was posted to YouTube on January 12, 2007. It's yet unknown whether Janne Suni will ever be able take the case to the court, the prospects of winning a court case against a major record label-backed international celebrity artist being very slight; not to talk about any astronomical expenses involved in losing a case like that.
I remember the Jaguar case caused a very angry response in dance music community towards Sony/BMG and generated lots of negative publicity, so similarly I think now only a massive media exposure and pressure from fellow musicians/music fans/journalists etc. all over the world might help Tempest/Janne Suni getting his due compensation here.
As it was pointed out in media articles above, any court case against Timbaland and his multinational record label (with their mighty army of highly-paid corporate lawyers; just remember the OJ Simpson case...) would probably be lost (as said, not to talk about another additional injury caused by the case's expenses) by Tempest or anyone representing him. So it seems to me some sort of out-of-court settlement would be the only realistic outcome here.
Caetano Veloso -- one of the most important names behind the late-60s Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo (a.k.a. Tropicália) -- writes in his 2002 autobiography Tropical Truth: A Story of Music & Revolution in Brazil (originally Verdade Tropical, 1997) about avantgarde and its problematic connection with popular music:
"In 1968, Augusto [de Campos, a 'concretist' poet friend of Veloso since the 1960s] was impressed with Paul McCartney's declared enthusiasm for Stockhausen. Yet in the years that followed, as he was listening to the sweet and spineless pop produced by Paul -- music whose transgression was totally programmatic and digestible following the spectacular growth of the pop market after the Beatles -- a man like Augusto, one can only imagine, must have been filled with boredom and distaste. He must have felt the same toward pop music, MPB, and the tropicalistas. Sooner or later we, the tropicalistas, in more or less noble ways, depending on the individual case, would show signs of the essence of our chosen activity, which has always consisted in producing banal songs to compete in the market. (And in Brazil the growth of this market means an advance on the national scale.) Augusto keeps on fighting for unpopular music: Boulez, Stockhausen, Berio, Varèse, and Cage -- and also Giacinto Scelsi, Luigi Nono, Ustvolskaya, etc. The stubborn unpopularity of the most inventive contemporary music is truly a mystery. Augusto's flash of euphoria when he heard of McCartney's (ultimately undeveloped) interest in Stockhausen in 1968 represented a fleeting hope of deciphering this enigma. Produssumo, as I said earlier, was a word invented by another concretist poet, Décio Pignatari, to define a period in which avant-garde ideas had a place at the top of the pop-rock charts. One of the most stimulating problems of the avant-garde, and a problem that makes some of the most stimulating artists run from it like the Devil from the cross -- is its dubious position with regard to its intrinsic ambition to become the norm. I have recently heard Arto Lindsay say that the musicians and producers of the trendiest vogue in dance music (techno) are voracious consumers of precisely the kind of music heroically defended by Augusto. These young people are listening to Varèse and Cage, to Boulez and Berio. And, says Arto, they don't talk about anything else. What should we make of this? In the seventies, there was already an outcry of very conservative (and very useful) voices protesting 'modernism in the streets.' But will the collective ear adjust itself to postserialist or postdodecaphonic music? And what kind of world will it be, when such music sounds like music to 'everyone's' ears? I myself can't say exactly why Webern's music (especially the most radical pieces) has always seemed to me indisputably beautiful. Might the techno-dance kids be an embryonic minority? What will happen to the tonal ear as we know it if unpopular music's failure with the public at large is overcome? When I first saw MTV in New York, I wrote an article entitled 'Vendo canções' (See and Sell Things), in which I ask more or less superficial questions but still point in the same direction. The procedures of avant-garde film, which were trashed by serious and commercial cinema alike, had finally found refuge in those snippets of rock 'n' roll film, which were at once erratic illustrations of the songs and ads for the corresponding records. Now I can't stand to watch rock videos for very long: the excess of images labouring to seem bizarre bores me, especially at the speed the editing presents them. But the question remains: don't the references to Un chien andalou, to Metropolis -- and the undying kinship with Cocteau's Blood of a Poet -- appear in a rock video exactly as Mondrian's designs flash across the skirt of a prostitute? Are 'modernisms' and 'avantgardes' only now beginning to lose their right to such labels?"
I was just lazily channel-surfing one night when I spotted this video by a UK band called Kasabian, supposedly one of those fashionable post-Britpop acts now championed by England's indierock Bible NME.
This song sounded to me like a sort of combination of early 70s glamrock's stomping boogie beat with the pyrotechnics guitar psychedelia of late 60s; with even some organ sounds in the middle eight reminiscing of Pink Floyd's 'One of These Days'. The Kasabian video itself could be called quite Beatle-esque, with its rotoscope animation and UV light/day-glo colours reminiscing of the 1968 cartoon film Yellow Submarine, and the singer even wearing a sort of 19th century military jacket donned by The Beatles members (and Jimi Hendrix, too) during their Sergeant Pepper era. Add to this some Jackson Pollock abstract expressionism paint splashes also favoured by The Stone Roses.
My ongoing gripe has been for a long time that rock these days seems to be merely some retroist nostalgia pastiche trip whereas once that genre of music could even be called genuinely futuristic. Not futuristic in the science fiction sense of having such imagery as robots (the number one cliché in electro), faster-than-light spaceships and so on, but being futuristic music in the sense that it looked joyously into the future and tried to create something totally new by the very way it was conceived, arranged and produced. 'Strawberry Fields Forever' by The Beatles in 1967 or Giorgio Moroder's production for Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' about ten years later were in this sense futuristic music for their own eras. Whereas a band or a musical act in 2007 trying to emulate the sounds of George Martin's productions for The Beatles or Moroder's proto-Italodisco would be helplessly retroist. So, even if I could enjoy a track by a current band like Kasabian as a clever and well-executed retroist pastiche of my favourite yesteryear bands, my enjoyment can't be totally and thoroughly honest and unreserved. Well, I'm totally aware that my personal quest for that genuine futurism in today's music is just completely naïve and not a little bit Quixotic.
Could such genres currently in vogue as grime or dubstep offer me that elusive sense of being honestly "future music", then? There was a time when even the most blatant chart pop bands could at least pretend they had some sort of social agenda in their music, but these days it's very hard to find anything like that in the psychopathic drive-by shooting fantasies of hip-hop and the empty bling-bling hedonism of R&B: for example, Lethal Bizzle's grime classic 'Forward Riddim' includes such lyrical strokes of genius as: "Killa killa real deal/Niggas know the real deal/Don't care how you feel/I will be cockin' back my steel straight/Bullets bullets run run/Fire fire bun/If you don't like killa killa/Nigga you can suck your mum". But well, you can't really blame the mirror for only reflecting its environment, can you? (Probably with grime and dubstep I would be more interested in sounds and production, anyway, than whatever lyrical content they might claim to have.) Once people actually thought they can change the world with music. From a traditional leftist-Marxist point of view there seems not to be much room for any social commentary in the early 21st century music, which is rather emphasizing the instant emotional gratification than creating any uneasy questions in a listener.
Diskosusi ("Disco Wolf") was a magazine (or maybe "fanzine" would be a more appropriate description for this pocket-size amateur publication) that was published in Tampere from 1979 to 1982, as its sole purpose to unite Finnish DJs, disco music fans and clubbers of the day. In its heyday Diskosusi was distributed in Finnish discos and clubs, at its best reaching an edition of 10.000 copies. The primus motor behind Discosusi was Pentti "DJ Pena" Teräväinen (b. 1956), one of the veterans of Finnish disco culture and an organiser of the union of DJs who started his record-spinning career in 1972. Diskosusi did its share in contributing to local DJ/disco culture with charts, background histories of artists, DJ interviews and naturally record reviews. The magazine covered all popular styles of disco and dance music, but also some artists performing 50s style of rock'n'roll and rockabilly revival, extremely popular in the late 70s Finland, would find their way to the pages of Diskosusi.
The DJ culture has undergone many changes since the original disco days. Whereas today's "star" DJs mostly remain just silent and technical masters of record beatmatching, the yesteryear DJs were often hyper-talkative and flamboyant "masters of ceremony", not only spinning records but also introducing them to audiences and raising their spirits the best they could; sometimes also wearing outlandish costumes to add to the rockstar-like appearance. Finnish discotheque culture celebrates this year its 40th birthday, though the actual heyday of disco was had in the late 70s when blockbuster films like Saturday Night Fever kicked off the dancefloor mania also in these Northern latitudes.
One of the Discosusi interviewees was Tapani "DJ Beaver" Ripatti (b. 1950), who had became a small celebrity in the late 70s by being a regular face in TV's popular "jukebox jury" show called Levyraati, and through his own radio shows -- such as Ocsid (read that backwards) -- in 80s and 90s gained a legendary position in Finland playing Hi-NRG disco and Italo, and later on even moving to rave techno. (I had an honour myself to DJ in 2004 as a warm-up to Mr. Ripatti in Helsinki's Kerma -- during my own set, punters were content to stay sitting down sipping their beers, but when Don Ripatti started to work the room with his classic 80s and 90s tracks and did his famous speaks over the records, the same people just went nuts on the dancefoor!)
DJ Pena, still going strong these days (though playing for more mature audiences now) with his Discopress and Hitit magazine, is also instrumental in establishing the Finnish DJ Hall of Fame, the gallery of DJs who have behind them a career of at least 25 years (and now found also exhibited at Tampere's Tabu Wine Bar). There are now over 30 members in the DJ Hall of Fame, including such disc-spinning veterans as Tapani "Beaver" Ripatti, Markku "DJ Edward" Vesala, Jyrki "Jyräys" Hämäläinen, Pekka "Takku" Kotilainen, Kari "Nite" Niiranen, Pentti "Poppamies" Kemppainen, Esko "Eemu" Riihelä, and Johnny-Kai "Johnny" Forssell; many of these familiar names also in Finnish music media and radio.
Pentti "DJ Pena" Teräväinen in 1979 Tapani "Beaver" Ripatti, also 1979. Alongside the obligatory aviator glasses, apparently moustaches and folk-style cardigans were also "the must" those days...
The icon of Finnish popular music has passed away. To be honest, I had been expecting this to happen for some time now, knowing Juice's well-publicised and all the time increasing health problems, caused by his decades of unhealthy living habits. The guy was a non-conformist bohemian to the bone but unfortunately that took place at the expense of his own health.
Actually, it has to be said I've never become a big fan of his music myself -- he was a very clever lyricist (though sometimes the style was admittedly lapsing too when he tried to be too clever for his own good and when, for example, a romantic couplet was followed by some obscene rhyme) but unfortunately musically most of his stuff leaves me quite cold -- even though living in Finland you really can't avoid hearing his songs all the time. So, though I've never bothered to get any of his albums, through radio and TV I too became familiar with most popular ditties (and OK, even learned to like) that have by now gained an evergreen status, and always enjoyed his Lennon-like quick and acerbic wit of those songs and his interviews. (A lot of those songs are comical or satirical, even though there is also a lot of typical Finnish melancholy with songs like 'Syksyn sävel' or 'Viidestoista yö'). Therefore, it could well be said I found myself quite sad on hearing the news of Juice's passing. I remember a comment from someone in 2001 when film-maker and comedian Spede Pasanen (another famous Finnish humourist also hailing from Savo province) died, that it's hard to imagine the world without Spede because it feels like he has always been around. I think this is also very much the case with Juice.
Juice Leskinen's creative output is undeniably a cornerstone in the history of all recorded Finnish music. I suppose Juice's (pronounced in Finnish way, "yoo-ee-seh") importance as a domestic Finnish institution is quite hard to explain to non-Finns because his work was based so much on the mastery and wordplays of Finnish language (he also published several volumes of prose and poetry).
One of my all-time favourites is this 1998 "retro-futuristic" song from Roy Vedas (imagine a typical 1964 beat group taken through a time warp by abducting aliens into record-producing). I don't know anything else about this act except that they were two guys called Frank Di Mauro and Maxi Trusso; Trusso's vocals being manipulated here with a vocoderish effect called autotuner, which became more famous with Cher's Believe (the song which was famously parodied in South Park). Roy Vedas, apparently another act in the endless list of one-hit wonders, disappeared as soon as they emerged, but I prefer their(auto)tune to that of the queen of plastic surgery.
Title: Psychedelic Phinland - Finnish Hippie & Underground Music 1967-1974 Format: 2CD Label: LOVE RECORDS Date: 15 November 2006 Cat.No: LXCD 651
From press release notes (translation from Finnish and all ensuing errors by pHinn):
The hippie ideals and that fiercer underground arrived to Finland in the mental turmoil of the end of the 1960s. Their blooming was cut short, but both left their permanent mark on pop culture. The 2-CD Psychedelic Phinland collects together the nation's first hippie troubadours, pioneers of psychedelic prog, vanguard warriors of anarcho rock, acoustic tribal musicians and the extreme daredevils of the arctic avantgarde. The album presents the mashers of the fringes of consciousness from Blues Section to Tylympi Kohtalo ("The Grimmer Fate"), the wanderers of stellar spheres from Pekka Streng to Jukka Kuoppamäki, the gravediggers for the Establishment from Suomen Talvisota 1939-40 ("The Finnish Winter War 1939-40") to Apollo, those who grasped the meaning of the holy simplicity from Those Lovely Hula Hands to Kruununhaan Dynamo ("Kruununhaka's Dynamo") and the midwives of sonic revolution from The Sperm to Sähkökvartetti ("The Electric Quartet"). It's a unique sound documentary of the alternative music of the turn of the 1960s and 70s. For those already familiar with Suomen Talvisota and The Sperm are offered some curiosities which amaze by their sheer existence. Everything essential concerning the topic is presented here -- from Jorma Ikävalko's no-holds-barred hippie comedy to the flute meditation reaching for the world spirit by Sikiöt ("The Foetuses"). This compilation produced by Jukka Lindfors includes 29 tracks from 20 different artists or bands, including self-releases, radio and TV performances and live recordings. The sleeve illustration is provided by Timo Aarniala, the court artist of Finnish underground. The whole it can be best described by the words of the poet Markku Into: "Everyone does their own thing. A symphony for every member of the family, for everyone their own alienation".
CD1:
1. Topmost: The End 2. Hector & Oscar: Savu 3. Jukka Kuoppamäki: Kukkasen valta 4. Jorma Ikävalko: Hippijortsut pöhkölässä 5. Blues Section: Cherry-Cup Cake Twist 6. Wigwam: Must Be The Devil 7. Baby Grandmothers: Being Is More Than Life 8. Eero Koivistoinen: Pientä peliä urbaanissa limousinessa 9. Charlies: Taiteen kriitikistä 10. Apollo: Ajatuksia 11. Suomen Talvisota 1939-40: Kasvoton kuolema ja Sirhan Sirhan 12. Suomen Talvisota 1939-40: Tehtaan vahtimestarit 13. Suomen Talvisota 1939-40: Flaggorna fladdrade i gentlemannens WC 14. Tylympi Kohtalo: Näkemiin, voi hyvin ystäväni 15. Pekka Streng: Olen erilainen 16. Juice Leskinen & Coitus Int: Zeppeliini 17. Hector: Meiran Laulu 18. Jukka Kuoppamäki: Aurinkomaa 19. Markku Into: Olen puhunut utopiaa
CD2:
1. Those Lovely Hula Hands: Tarzan apornas apa / Tarzan gregah / Jane Porter sivistyksen muurilla 2. Those Lovely Hula Hands: Menevät miehet 3. Pekka Airaksinen: Fos 2 4. The Sperm: Heinäsirkat I 5. Sähkökvartetti: Kaukana väijyy ystäviä 6. Kruununhaan Dynamo: Simple Things 7. Sikiöt: Side One 8. Sikiöt: Trippin' Together 9. Those Lovely Hula Hands: Missä on Marilyn? 10. J.O. Mallander: Degnahc Ev'uoY
