YouTube: 1970s-1980s

As promised, here's more personal favourites from YouTube. I decided to lump 1970s and 1980s together, so this is a mixed bag, to say the least. 70s has been called the decade taste forgot and 80s was an age of blatant yuppie overkill. All in all, an era of bad haircuts, anyway.

Gladly there's more to this period of circa 20 years than just platform shoes and mullets. This was after all when music video emerged as an independent artform, so alongside my own musical favourites, I've also tried to include some videos that historians consider exemplary milestones in the evolution of this format. (Check A Guide to 1980s Music Video Directors if you want to do more searches on your own.) Thanks to Mr. Jani Hellén for some extra tips.

(And I've made some additions to the 1960s entries -- you might like to check out.)

Also, I'll keep updating this list, so keep hitting that "Reload" button!

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ABBA. I guess these days it's OK to say you like Abba, but there's still a silliness factor in their external outlook.

ABC: 'Look of Love'

Adam and the Ants were at the forefront of the early 80s "New Romantic" style.

Baltimora: 'Tarzan Boy'. Authentic Italo trash from the 80s!

Afrika Bambaataa: Planet Rock

Marc Almond

Alphaville:

'Big Japan'

'Forever Young'

'Sounds Like Melody'

Amon Düul II

Art of Noise

The Au-Pairs: 'Come Again'

Tony Basil: 'Mickey'

The B-52's: 'Rock Lobster'

Billy Idol:

Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols called Billy Idol the "Perry Como of punk", so this vocalist of the band Generation X who made it big with his solo career in America may not have been the most "street credible" names to emerge out of punk, but I was a big fan of his early-to-mid-80s Rebel Yell/Vital Idol era, and the guy was definitely one of the 80s pop icons like Madonna.

'Rebel Yell'

'Eyes Without a Face'

'Dancing With Myself' (a video directed by Tobe "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" Hooper, with a glimpse of Octobriana too!)

Black Sabbath

Blancmange: 'Blind Vision'

Blondie

Bootsy's Rubber Band: DC live, 1978

David Bowie ruled the 1970s almost single-handedly. As far as my own memories go, his 'Ashes To Ashes' (1981) was for me the first example representing the new style of music video art (looking quite strange and scary for a young kid). It's too bad music video declined pretty quickly as a bona fide artform, and became (in most cases) just glossy and shallow promotion for hit singles (just witness any bling-bling R&B videos on today's MTV).

Sarah Brightman: 'I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper' (feat. Hot Gossip. The appearance of Hot Gossip dance troupe (familiar from Kenny Everett Show) is what makes this one interesting.

Bronski Beat: 'Smalltown Boy'

The Buggles:

'I Am A Camera'

'Video Killed The Radio Star': the first-ever video shown on MTV, on the 1st of August, 1981!

Kate Bush

Butthole Surfers

Cabaret Voltaire

Cameo: 'Word Up' (1986)

Can: 'Paperhouse' (live on Beat Club)

Nick Cave

Neneh Cherry

Chrome:

'Meet You In The Subway' [2]

'New Age'

Classix Nouveaux: 'It's A Dream'

Alice Cooper

Julian Cope: Trampoline

The Cult: 'She Sells Sanctuary' (1985). The guilty pleasures dept...! The Cult was a band that started as a gothrock band called Southern Death Cult, then had a total makeover to pompous 60s/70s retro-style (stadium) rock. A must for the fans of unintentional humour, but I still think there's something endearing in their pseudo-mystical, quasi-psychedelic mid-80s stuff.

The Cure, who had some classic music videos in the 80s.

DAF: Liebe auf den ersten Blick'

The Damned: 'New Rose'

Danielle Dax: 'Big Hollow Man' (1988)

Dead Kennedys

Hazell Dean. UK Hi-NRG disco...

Deep Purple

Dire Straits: 'Money For Nothing'. Not my own favourite bands, but this 1985 video with its now amusing-looking early computer animation is considered a classic.

Depeche Mode.

Devo: those magnificent men in their red flowerpot hats...

Dinosaur Jr.: 'Freak Scene'

Divine:

'I'm So Beautiful'

'Love Reaction'

Dominatrix: 'The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight'. A cult dance hit from 1984. This video was banned on MTV.

Duran Duran:

'The Chauffeur' (their infamous black & white video with girls in lingerie, somehow reminiscing Helmut Newton -- and a great song!)

Echo & The Bunnymen: 'People Are Strange'

Einstürzende Neubauten: 'Sand'

Erasure

Roky Erickson, the legendary madcap front man of the 13th Floor Elevators.

Eurythmics

Fad Gadget: 'Collapsing New People'

Falco:

'Der Kommissar'

'Rock Me Amadeus'

'Vienna Calling'

The Fall:

'Cab It Up'

live on The Tube (1983)

'Totally Wired'

John Foxx

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Front 242

Funkadelic / Parliament

Peter Gabriel: 'Sledgehammer'. A classic music video with stop-motion animation.

Gloria Gaynor: 'I Will Survive'

Grandmaster Flash:

'The Message'

'White Lines'

Nina Hagen

Herbie Hancock: 'Rockit' (1983). Classic electro track and a classic video! + 'Rockit' - live at Grammy Awards 1984

Hawkwind

Paul Hardcastle:

'Don't Waste My Time'

'19'. This mid-80s UK hit about the Vietnam War introduced the technique of sampling to the audience at large.

Heaven 17:

'Let Me Go'

'This Is Mine'

Human League:

especially their pioneering 'Being Boiled' from 1978.

Hüsker Dü

Iggy Pop / The Stooges

Michael Jackson: 'Thriller'. I'm not a Jacko fan myself, but this 13:33 clip (or rather, a short film) is certainly a milestone in music video history. "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult", he points out in its beginning.

The Jam: 'Going Underground'

Japan:

'Cantonese Boy' (on Old Grey Whistle Test)

'Gentlemen Take Polaroids'

'Ghosts' (on Old Grey Whistle Test)

'Visions of China'

Grace Jones: some awesome classic music videos!

Howard Jones. Another 80s synthpop star who seems to have been forgotten now.

Kajagoogoo: 'Too Shy' (1983)

King Crimson

Kraftwerk

Landscape:

'Einstein a Go-Go'. They gave the name to a "New Romantic" disco in Helsinki!

'European Man'

Led Zeppelin

John Lennon

Liaisons Dangereuses: 'Los Niños Del Parque'

Lou Reed

Malaria!: 'Geld - Money'

Malcolm McLaren:

'Madame Butterfly (Un bel di vedremo)'. Opera meets disco.

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult: 'Kooler Than Jesus'

Mötley Crüe. Yes, more guilty pleasures...

Newcleus: 'Jam On It'. A New York electro classic from the early 80s.

New York Dolls

Nine Inch Nails: 'Head Like A Hole' (1989)

999: 'Emergency'

Nitzer Ebb

The Normal: 'TV OD' (1978). The Normal was the electronic one-man project of Daniel Miller who founded Mute record label.

Gary Numan

Philip Oakey: 'Together In Electric Dreams'

OMD:

'Telegraph'

Robert Palmer: 'Addicted To Love'. Robert Palmer and his "band" of supermodels.

Pet Shop Boys

Pink Floyd:

'Another Brick In The Wall'

'Any Colour You Like'

'Careful With That Axe, Eugene'

'Empty Spaces/What Shall We Do Now?' (animation from The Wall movie)

'Grandchester Meadows'

Live at Pompeii

Plastic Bertrand: 'Ca Plane Pour Moi'

Prince:

I am a huge fan of Prince's "Golden Age" (ca. 1979-88) music; a big early influence on me and my musical education, which was to open up for me whole worlds of rock, pop, soul, funk and psychedelia. Here was an artist who was a combination of Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, et al., and also played all instruments on many of his records and produced it all himself. It's a pity he couldn't keep up the promise of those days. Here are some videos and live performances from that era:

'Automatic'

'Bambi'

'Darling Nikki' (live, early 90s)

'Glam Slam'

'If I Was Your Girlfriend'

'I Wanna Be Your Lover' (on American Bandstand, 1980)

'I Wish U Heaven'

'Let's Go Crazy

'Little Red Corvette'

'Mountains'

'1999'

'Paisley Park'

'Party Up': "You gonna have to fight your own damn war 'cos we ain't gonna fight no more!"

'Purple Rain' (film version)

'Purple Rain' (on American Music Awards, 1985)

'Raspberry Beret'

'When Doves Cry'

'Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad' (on American Bandstand, 1980)

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Live in 1983:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

VJ Jazz vs Prince A-U-T-O-Matic Edit. A video megamix!

(See also some Prince collaborators such as Sheila E, Morris Day & The Time, Vanity 6 & Apollonia 6 (girl groups which Prince dressed up in lingerie). Sinead O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares 2 U' was originally penned by Prince.)

Public Enemy: my all-time favourite hip-hop act.

Public Image Limited / PiL

The Ramones

The Residents:

'Medicine'

'Moisture'

(see also: Snakefinger: 'The Man In the Dark Sedan')

Run DMC

Queen -- I know there are some people who hate this band with a passion but some consider their 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (1976) one of the first modern-style music videos.

Rezillos

Roxy Music

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto + Kiyoshiro Imawano: 'IKENAI Rouge Magic' (1982)

The Screamers:

'122 Hours of Fear'

'Vertigo'

Scritti Politti

Sid Vicious: 'My Way'

Sigue Sigue Sputnik:

'Love Missile F1-11' (1986). SSS were basically a "cyberpunk meets glamrock" one-hit wonder who kept repeating the same simplistic song formula throughout their career, but I loved them as a sort of proto-techno, and especially their ultra-pop visual side, well represented on this video; referencing the sci-fi fantasies of Blade Runner, Clockwork Orange and Mad Max films with sex, (ultra-)violence and war.

Silicon Teens: 'Memphis Tennessee'

Siouxsie and the Banshees

The Sisters of Mercy

Skinny Puppy:

'Assimilate' (1988)

'The Choke' (live 1987)

'Worlock' (the original banned video from 1989)

The Slits

Patti Smith: 'Gloria'

The Smiths

Soft Cell:

'Sex Dwarf' (the banned version) (sorry, bad image quality)

(See also
Coil's version of 'Tainted Love')

Jimmy Somerville & Marc Almond: 'I Feel Love'/'Johnny Remember Me'

Sonic Youth with Lydia Lunch: 'Death Valley '69'

SPK: 'Metal Dance'. Industrial from 1984.

Bruce Springsteen. It may come as a surprise to some people that I'm a bit of a Springsteen fan (though my own knowledge of his albums ends somewhere in the mid-80s), but what appeals to me in his songs is the way he tells stories there.

Suicide: 'Ghost Rider'. The seminal electronic duo of Alan Vega and Martin Rev.

Donna Summer

Swell Maps

Tears For Fears

Television Personalities

Television: 'Foxhole'

Throbbing Gristle: 'Discipline'. The real pioneers of industrial. See also: Psychic TV.

Talking Heads

The Timelords: 'Doctorin' The Tardis'. A project of The KLF combining Dr Who theme to Gary Glitter's Rock'n'Roll.

Toyah. She may be forgotten now but the minuscule Toyah Willcox was one of the biggest stars of the late 70s/early 80s "New Romantic" UK scene.

T-Rex.

Ultravox

Van Der Graaf Generator

Visage:

I think with this "New Romantic" synthpop band headed by the costumeplay-loving Steve Strange there was a lot of "image over content", but they were combined together of some of the finest new wave era musicians such as Midge Ure and John McGeogh, so musically there were many memorable moments, 'Fade To Grey' perhaps the biggest classic of those. And this band was just made for music videos.

'Beat Boy'

'The Damned Don't Cry'

'Fade To Grey': their finest moment from 1981, and my all-time favourite in the whole synthpop genre.

'Mind of a Toy'

'Night Train'

'Pleasure Boys'

'Visage'

Tom Waits

Walker Brothers:

'No Regrets'

Scott Walker: 'Track 3'. "After a brief 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More" retro clip, Scott is subjected to a painfully brainless Scottish VJ's inane questions. Then, the "Lynchian" video for 'Track 3' off Climate of Hunter."

W.A.S.P. (yes, every little boy must go through a heavy metal period!):

'Animal (F**k Like A Beast)'

'I Wanna Be Somebody'

'L.O.V.E. Machine'

We've Got A Fuzzbox and We're Going To Use It: 'Love Is The Slug'. 80s girl power!

XTC

Yazoo. A short-lived synthpop duo of Vince (Depeche Mode/Erasure) Clarke and Alison Moyet.

Yellow Magic Orchestra / YMO

Zolar X. A glam rock era "house band" at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco in LA, who were dressed as aliens.

ZZ Top

Films and TV:

(As you can see, I'm especially a fan of bad retro sci-fi...)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984)

All In The Family: opening credits. This TV comedy about a conservative redneck Archie Bunker having to face more liberal times of the post-hippie era was a big hit in the 70s.

Apple Computers: a Ridley Scott-directed commercial from 1984.

Atari 80s TV commercial + Yar's Revenge + Atari Turmoil + Atari E.T. Christmas Ad (1982)

BBC Hip Hop Documentary (1984)

Beat Street: battle scene from the hip-hop movie.

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage by Dario Argento: trailer.

Blade Runner +
"Director's Cut" trailer + Roy Batty

Brazil (1985) by Terry Gilliam: trailer.

The Brood (1979) by David Cronenberg: trailer.

Buck Rogers: the TV series opening credits

Cannibal Holocaust: opening scene + more

Coca Cola ad of the Hilltop Campaign: (1971) "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke". A TV commercial.

Commodore 64 - More computer for less money. A TV commercial from the 80s.

Die Hard (1988) by John McTiernan: trailer.

The Equalizer. Opening credits to the 80s TV series starring Edward Woodward. Great title music too!

Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1983): trailer.

Flashdance (1983): dance intro.

Flash Gordon (1980): trailer

Exorcist. William Friedkin's 1973 horror flick which spawned a series of inferior sequels.

Fantastic Planet (1973) Rene Laloux's bizarre animation film adaptation of Stefan Wul's allegorical science-fiction novel, here in its entirety.

Bill Gates: "Macs are cool" (1983)

The Godfather: opening titles

"I Want My MTV!": an 80s commercial with Billy Idol, Cindy Lauper, David Bowie and Boy George.

Jaws: the trailer.

Juicy Fruit commercial from the 80s.

Knight Rider: opening credits. David Hasselhoff and his talking car: aargh...!

Liquid Sky: a short clip from the 1982 cult film by Slava Tsukerman.

Little House on the Prairie opening credits: OK, I confess -- I used to watch this when I was a kid.

Maniac (1980): trailer for a slasher film.

McDonald's training film, 1972

Miami Vice: opening credits + 'In The Air Tonight' pilot scene + more

Milk, It Does a Body Good. A TV commercial from the 80s.

Monty Python & Monty Python's Flying Circus. "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Masters of absurdist comedy.

Muppet Show

Phenomena by Dario Argento: trailer.

RCA Selectavision Videodisc Player (1983).

Robocop (1988): trailer.

Return of the Jedi (1983): trailer.

Scarface - the finale scene: "Say hello to my little friend!"

Space: 1999:

First season opening credits, Eagle crash, Explosion from 'Breakaway' and Second season opening credits.

Spiderman Toei: introduction to Japanese Spiderman show, 1978!

Starsky & Hutch: a beach buggy chase.

The Terminator: trailer.

THX 1138: a mash-up of George Lucas's early dystopian sci-fi film with Björk's music!

Two Evil Eyes by Dario Argento & George Romero: trailer.

UFO (1970): opening credits. Gerry Anderson's first live-action TV series he made before Space: 1999. Gotta love those purple wigs!

Vincent: Tim Burton's dark animated short-film from 1982 narrated by Vincent Price.

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more 1970s/80s TV show credentials

more 1980s movie trailers

more 1980s TV commercials

Coming up next: 1990s to the present...

Record Collection Rock: There Is No "New" Or "Now"

The acclaimed British music critic Simon Reynolds (who also came up with the term post-rock") has coined the term "record collection rock":

"And then came the deluge of retro culture and 'record collection rock' that holds sway to this day, and which propagated the cancers of irony, referentiality, a knowingness that unavoidably belittles everything."

[-from "Independents Day: Post-Punk 1979-81"]

And:

"'Record collection rock' in my usage has a much more specific application than just 'the group has precedents' or 'they work within a tradition' or 'sounds familiar'. R-C-R is music where the listener's knowledge of prior rock music is integral to the full aesthetic appreciation of the record ('full' because the creator put the allusions there for you to spot with a smile). Prime exponents include Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, Primal Scream, and -- to a lesser degree but still part of the sensibility I think -- Stereolab; there's many many more. Oasis are the paradigm case: you get Beatles deja vu flashbacks from the melodies, the title 'Wonderwall' is sampled from a George Harrison album [...] Is it even 'retro'? Not in the sense of intentionally flashing us back to a specific era or lost golden age (e.g. The Cult circa 'Love Removal Machine,' any number of nouveau garage punk bands you care to list, et al), or being taggable to a single illustrious ancestor band."

[-from Blissout, Simon Reynolds's blog, 13 February 2006]

I think not so long ago this sort of approach was called... gulp... "postmodern", but I guess these days even this once-more-popular-than-Jesus word has become helplessly dated and unfashionable.

I can well think some off-hand examples of "record collection rock", such as The High Llamas, who base their musical expression on what Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys did during the "Good Vibrations"/Pet Sounds/Smile era. Japanese wah wah-loving and heavy-jamming neo-psychedelia bands such as Acid Mothers Temple seem to be founded in the late 60s and early 70s rock, such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath, Krautrock... Now fashionable "forest folk" people seem intent to go back to these same hirsute "glory days" of acoustic guitars, improvisation (yawn), campfires, being "down-to-earth", barefooted and bare-arsed in the nature, tree-hugging, the "good old ways" of our ancestors living in the woods, etc. Ever since he started in the late 70s, the "Modfather" Paul Weller has built the whole of his career on going back to the styles of the past. Lenny Kravitz thinks he's a combination of Jimi Hendrix, Smokey Robinson, Sly Stone and John Lennon. It's obviously more fun to create around oneself a sort of stylistic retro virtual reality fantasy of the world of legend and myth than to live in "now", in one's own environment and reality.

Modern rock in general is built on revivals (and revivals of revivals) and retro nostalgia styles of every imaginable sort. These days the ever-trendsetting British music media, especially magazines like NME, which rule the fashion-hungry fans of independent rock and pop world-wide, seem to be on an ongoing quest about finding another "Best New Band of 1979"; that is, for another "hot" act of good-looking young turks with their moppy hair hanging over their eyes, skinny ties and plural "s"-suffix in their names, who play spiky guitars in the late-70s/early 80s new wave/punk-funk styles.

History has already shown these NME-favoured bands are lucky if they can record three albums before they finally succumb slowly but guaranteedly into the oblivion created by the gargantuan consumption of champagne, cocaine, groupies, music industry bloodsuckers and their bullshit and six-month tours extending to Butthole, Arizona. Then it's time for drug rehab clinics, divorce lawyers, potbellies, bald patches and that dreaded "has-been" status. I doubt today's indie-pop generation even remembers such relatively recent yesteryear NME heroes as Menswear (always my favourite example about how swiftly glory will pass in the world of indie) or Shed Seven.

Then, there is nothing really peculiar about "record collection rock", since isn't this how our culture in general has always worked: by references, associations and tributes to earlier works, and recycling the old. I wonder if anything really "new" can be created in music; only at its best innovative variations of what once was. One can always hope to come up with "new" artist and genres, seemingly more hip, sexy and fresh (or harder, faster and more shocking) than anything created ever before but there must always be a precedent for everything in history. I have to admit I'm a fan of Stereolab.

YouTubes: 1960s

As promised, some personal pHavourites of pHinn found from the amazing YouTube video archives. We'll start from the 1960s... Enjoy!


Music (promo clips -- which were still relatively rare in the 60s -- and live cuts):

Amboy Dukes: 'Journey to the Center of the Mind'

The Animals: We Gotta Get Out of This Place

Brigitte Bardot: 'Harley Davidson' (1968). Hmmm... And here's more BB.

Syd Barrett / early Pink Floyd:

'Astronomy Domine' (live at Beat Club)

'Arnold Layne'

'Flaming'

'Jugband Blues'

'Scarecrow'

Syd Barrett/The Pink Floyd: London '66-'67. A 31:30 clip taken from Peter Whitehead's film Tonight Let's All Make Love In London: Syd and Floyd in studio, performing 'Interstellar Overdrive', some peeks into the Swinging London with mod/hippie underground action....

The Beatles:

'Strawberry Fields Forever'

'Penny Lane'

'A Day in the Life'

'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'

clips from Yellow Submarine

Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg: 'Je t'aime... moi non plus'. Gainsbourg was the enfant terrible of French pop (a pity this promo clip is quite not as hot as the often-banned song on it).

Blue Cheer: 'Summertime Blues' (live on Beat Club, 1968)

James Brown

Buffalo Springfield: 'For What It's Worth'

The Byrds

Johnny Cash

Count Five: Psychotic Reaction

The Creation: live 1966

Deep Purple: 'Hush' (live on Playboy After Dark, 1969, hosted by Hugh Hefner!)

The Doors:

'Not To Touch The Earth'

'Unknown Soldier'

Bob Dylan: 'Like A Rolling Stone'. A 1966 live rendition of the classic tune from Dylan's "Judas" period. Plus John Lennon & Bob Dylan in a taxi in '66

The Electric Prunes

Funkadelic

Jimi Hendrix

Jefferson Airplane: 'White Rabbit' ("Go ask Alice)

The Kinks:

'Dead End Street'

'Sunny Afternoon'

Love live on American Bandstand, 1967, featuring the songs 'Message To Pretty' and 'My Little Black Book'.

MC5: 'Kick Out The Jams' (live 1969).

The Monks:

'Cuckoo' and
'Boys Are Boys'. Live on Beat Club, 1966.

Motown

Nico: 'I'm Not Saying'

The Pretty Things: 'Midnight To Six Man' (on BBC, featuring a funny teen advice segment + 'Midnight To Six Man' @ Beat Club

Procol Harum: 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'

Question Mark & The Mysterians: '96 Tears' (live on Where The Action Is, 1965).

Otis Redding

The Rolling Stones:

'Jumping Jack Flash' (1968 promo clip)

Os Mutantes. The Brazilian "Tropicalia" band.

Nancy Sinatra: 'These Boots Are Made For Walking'

Sly and the Family Stone

The Small Faces:

'Green Circles' (Beat Club)

'Tin Soldier' (Beat Club)

'Whatcha Gonna Do About It'

The Smoke: 'My Friend Jack'. A notorious freakbeat song ("My friend Jack eats sugarlumps") on West German Beat Club TV show.

Soft Machine: 'We Know What You Mean'

Dusty Springfield

The Temptations:

'Ain't Too Proud To Beg'

'Cloud Nine'

'My Girl'

'Psychedelic Shack'

The 13th Floor Elevators: 'You're Gonna Miss Me'. Live on American Bandstand, 1966.

Velvet Underground: 'Sunday Morning'

The Who:

'Substitute'

The Yardbirds:

'I'm A Man'

'Train' Kept A-Rollin''. A version of a Johnny Burnette song.

'Stroll On'. This clip is taken from Michelangelo Antonioni's seminal "Swinging London" film Blow-Up (1966), with a rare line-up of Yardbirds featuring both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. 'Stroll On' was basically a version 'Train Kept A-Rollin' with new lyrics. Note how bar the lonely dancing couple, the crowd is strangely apathetic here (as if they are all stoned), only getting active when Jeff Beck wrecks his guitar, and throws its neck to the audience. Michelangelo Antonioni originally wanted to have The Who here, but they weren't available.

On French TV, 1967: setlist includes 'Train Kept A Rollin'', 'Dazed And Confused' (which Jimmy Page's later band Led Zeppelin would make their own), and 'Goodnight Sweet Josephine'.

'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago'. My favourite Yardbirds song.

Walker Brothers / Scott Walker. One of my all-time favourites.

Finally, some film and TV stuff from the 60s:

Barbarella trailer

Band of Outsiders by Jean-Luc Godard: a clip.

Batman: The Movie (1966). A clip from the movie made simultaneously with the popular TV show.

Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard. Scenes from the film accompanied by Stereolab's 'Miss Modular'.

Bullitt: the famous car chase scene.

Carnival of Souls by Herk Harvey: outtakes.

Ciao! Manhattan. Lost footage of Andy Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick.

Jan Svankmajer: The Flat. A 1968 short film from the Czech master of surreal animation.

J.S. Bach, Fantasia In G Minor. More Svankmajer from 1965.

Easy Rider (1969): a clip.

Fahrenheit 451. A short clip from Francois Truffaut's 1966 film version of Ray Bradbury's sci-fi novel.

Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, a trailer of Russ Meyer's 1966 cult flick.

Get Smart: the agent parody show; some episodes in their entirety.

Green Hornet: opening credits from the TV series featuring Bruce Lee.

Hammer Horror: the famous British studio specialising in horror flicks.

Journey to the Far Side of The Sun trailer, from Gerry Anderson-produced 1969 film.

Lampa. A diversion to the 1950s, with this 1959 short film by Roman Polanski.

Man From U.N.C.L.E.: a clip and opening credits.

The Monkees. Thought this was more appropriate in the TV category than in music... (The Monkees were a "manufactured" band created for the TV show, who were supposed to be hated by any "serious" rock fan, but I have to confess I've got a soft spot for them and their slapstick antics.)

Morderstwo. Another Roman Polanski short, from 1957.

Outer Limits: TV promo for the pilot episode "The Galaxy Being" of the horror/sci-fi anthology series.

Perversion For Profit. A classic 1964 anti-porn rant, starring George Putnam and financially backed by Charles Keating. Featuring some juicy magazine covers of the era.

The Planet of the Apes (1968): a clip.

Thunderbirds Are Go. Trailer from the 1966 Thunderbirds film produced by Gerry Anderson who later made Space: 1999.

Towers Open Fire. The 1963 short film by William S. Burroughs and Anthony Balch.

Twilight Zone - "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet": one of the best-known episodes (1963) of Rod Serling's classic horror anthology TV series in its entirety, starring pre-Captain Kirk William Shatner!

Twilight Zone - "Eye of the Beholder". Another classic episode from 1960.

Vivre sa vie by Jean-Luc Godard: a clip of Nana's dance.

And some psychedelic history for you:

Getting High: a documentary on LSD, a bit about Timothy Leary, and an LSD test on British soldiers (shiny happy fellows). See also Drug Abuse: The Chemical Tomb (1969) (a hilarious education film) and Sex, Drugs and the Cold War (1959-1972). And you must also see Pink Panther: "Psychedelic Pink" (1968), where everyone's favourite feline enters a psychedelic bookstore...

And another bit from 1950s: the infamous pin-up queen Betty Page!

Next: 1970s to 1980s

Parnasso and Blooks

The latest issue of Finnish literature magazine Parnasso has on its cover a photograph of the late Arto Salminen, with an obituary/feature story by Harri Haanpää, so I had to buy the mag for my archives. Haanpää's story was quite interesting and would shed some light to Salminen's correspondence with his literary editor and how his books were born. I'm sure we'll see more texts and studies on Salminen's work in the future, and I for one hope to do my best to keep this writer's name alive and in good memory.

It's funny because I've never considered myself as one fitting to the reader profile of a "high-brow" magazine like Parnasso, but to my surprise I found it interesting read from cover to cover. Now of course, in Finland Parnasso has the status of an established cultural institution, which means it is easy to put the magazine down in certain circles, but since I'm an outsider to literature circles myself (I used to study Comparative Literature at Tampere University, but because I liked books too much, I thought it was better to drop out, before the murky and dust-covered world of academia would make me hate and loathe them...), I can stay away from these little cultural wars, their backstabbing, etc., and judge it all with my little innocent (tee hee) eyes.

There was also Karri Kokko's story on poetry blogs (which you can read in Finnish here), and it's great talented writers will increasingly present their output on this electronic medium too. "Blooks" (blogs serialising books) are now on everyone's lips, and even people like The Who's (one of my all-time favourite bands) Pete Townshend (known as one of the most verbal and outspoken commentators working in the area of popular music) publish their own fictional texts on those. Perhaps "blook" is a good point of reference for my own dilettantish efforts here too...

Feb' 06 Dream III

[Mr. Sandman - a dangerous lunatic?]

If there ever was a dream to make one to demand refund, and to cast serious doubts on Mr. Sandman's sanity, this was definitely it.

This time my trip to Slumberland featured an imminent court case against me, and they had gathered together all my alter egos by subpoena as material and character witnesses. One after another they testified as to how ruthlessly I had brought them into existence, only to gratify and justify my narcissistic and petty ego. With a growing sense of anxiety I listened to these harrowing statements which could not but lead into one inevitable conclusion: that my character was totally false and rotten to the core, that I was no good: a Public Enemy Number One to all that was proper and decent in this society. Most of all I was accused that I had demanded the right to define my identity (or more accurately: identities) always according to the present situation. Nobody knew if I was animal, vegetable or mineral. I was more slippery than an eel on vaseline, more evasive than mercury on a slide.

The court adjourned; my sentence being the harshest and cruellest of them all: that my own conscience was to act as my jury, judge, bailiff and warden, and I was to pass my own judgment on myself. The sentence was to be carried out on lonely, sleepless nights; in the impenetrable gazes of people, meaningful silences and the conspicuous absentness. I already started to suspect that even my shadow was more real than me; my suspicions grimly confirmed when I was given a restraint order to stay not nearer than four blocks, three parked Japanese cars and one menopausal (and therefore constantly irascible) metermaid away from my shadow; for whom, additionally, I was to pay monthly maintenance (that is, to my shadow, not the metermaid).

YouTube Is Fantastic!

I sent some time a post about Bowie's 'Space Oddity' promo clip to this blog -- now check out the rest of YouTube, a home for tons and tons of music videos and clips! Click "search" for your favourites (I'm soon going to have a post of some of my own faves that I found there).

Feb '06 Dream II

It's funny how some of the most deep-seated realisations sometimes come to us only in dreams. During this dream I painfully understood that all my life I had been only myself and no-one else. Imagine the horror of finding yourself trapped in one and same body, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. No wonder if one starts to feel claustrophobic. To be able to see oneself one needs a mirror (which does only show one's reverse image, not what one really is) or having oneself photographed or filmed. Unless one being some sort of yogi, there is no chance to leave one's body behind, that clumsy prison of weak, crumbling flesh; one's eyes a 3-D TV camera inside one's skull, one's nose protruding between those; one's ears stereophonic microphones. Why not seeing through someone else's eyes, someone else's point of view, in someone else's body; with someone else's consciousness, experiences and memories? It was not fair. Only by absorbing oneself to a book, movie, music, alcohol, drugs, sex or physical exercise, one could have some sort of hope of forgetting oneself, if only momentarily. Or without a body entirely, only as some sort of uncorporeal mind observing. -- It felt like I was on the verge of being enlightened, or, finally losing my mind. Anything to forget one's solipsism.

I also saw you in my dream. You wanted to switch off your brain for a while by watching bad TV shows, any Hollywood blockbuster movies produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and political debates between presidential candidates, but my problem was that I felt I was never thinking enough.

There in my dream those with under-140 IQs were officially frowned upon by the mental hygiene eugenists. Demagogues and finger-pointers had a field day at the opportunists' sandbox called politics. Government held exhaustive recruitment campaigns to get more cops to the force, who would keep the suburban poor at bay. But no worry, they were kept pacified as long as the tax for alcohol was low. Sexual paranoia was tangible in the air (you've browsed through your Freud, so you are aware of what those snakes and spiders stand for).

So it was only suitable that there was also a poll in this dream of mine: "Under which category of these sexual deviants you fall: a) a fat schizophrenic cyberstalker who spreads his masturbation videos in the Net, b) a 65-year old photographer whose fetish are women's high heel shoes, c) an extreme right-wing nationalist bigot who fantasizes of saliromantic sodomy between different races and those who don't share his crypto-fascist political beliefs, d) a poor melancholic bastard believing in the dated notions of romantic relationships and eternal love."
I decided not to answer, but dastardly jumped into another era (as you know, transitions defying all logic are possible in dreams).

Now I was standing at Tampere's Keskustori square in 1905 where the cigarette-smoking working class President in his rollerskates gave the Red Declaration, and the advertising agency Bob Helsinki sang Marseillaise. Then the President shot Governor-General Bobrikoff with a waterpistol, while Lenin was strutting around wearing ladies' lingerie and Manolo Blahniks, handing out daffodils to the Imperial Guard. Mata Hari made a daring escape from SMERSH with her jetpak, only to be strangled to death when her scarf caught in the open-spoked wheel of Isadora Duncan's automobile. Affectations can be dangerous, indeed.

After this a spider hatched her eggs in my nostrils. I didn't suspect anything until baby spiders started crawling out of my nose and thought I was their mommy. At this moment I was shaken enough to open my eyes.

[previous dream]

Quote of the Day

"Finns have understood correctly the basics of Karl Marx's dialectical materialism: they have turned thesis and antithesis into prosthesis."

- Roman Schatz: Rakasta minut

Another Dream (In Four Parts)

1) She was power-dressed for the presidential erection and betatesting nuclear weapons: she said that whenever surrounded by her fellow conservatives, it would look good on her CV. Her horde came dressed for their party convention in expensive suit costumes, having haircuts that cost more than what a single mother from the suburbs made in a month; they flashed their predatory carnivore teeth between their wide and hungry blood-coloured lips.

2) Either having a low self-esteem or delusions of grandeur (which are both basically the same thing), we pursued our wild, haunting daydreams.

3) Fear was oozing from the walls of the school building as I walked down its deserted corridors. In this area the children were taught from the beginning by their teachers that they were nothing, would become nothing, and the biggest hope they could ever have in their lives would be as the slaves for the power-dressed carnivores. They were taught to lie but in such a way that they would not get caught, otherwise they would be in a for a harsh and humiliating punishment. A teacher would burst suddenly into unexplainable bursts of rage and without a warning attack the nearest unsuspecting child.

4) In the near future corporate executives would organise hunting expeditions in their Land Rovers, armed with laser-targeted night vision rifles, to the slum areas to prey on and kill the poor and unemployed.

[previous dream]

In Memoriam: Nam June Paik (1932-2006)

Nam June Paik, a pioneer of video art, has passed away.

Associated Press writes:

"The Korean-born Paik, who also coined the term "Electronic Super Highway" years before the information superhighway was invented, died Sunday night of natural causes at his Miami apartment. (...) Paik made his artistic debut in Wiesbaden, West Germany, in 1963 with a solo art exhibition titled "Exposition of Music-Electronic Television." He scattered 12 television sets throughout the exhibit space and used them to create unexpected effects in the images being received. Later exhibits included the use of magnets to manipulate or alter the image on TV sets and create patterns of light."

DAT Politics. Now.

A brand new promo pic of DAT Politics.

Joe Meek: Sounds From Beyond

Joe Meek was one strange cat. A pioneering record producer in the early 1960s, whose biggest hit was 'Telstar' by The Tornados in 1962 (allegedly Margaret Thatcher's favourite song!), and who developed studio techniques such as compressing, echo and reverb which he turned into outlandish sound effects for his productions for various solo artists and bands. Joe Meek's work was not all the less revolutionary considering he worked low-budget in his own home studio, a converted livingroom and bathroom combination in London.

Meek was heavily into the occult and a believer in extraterrestrial life (he is said to have seen a UFO once, which became an inspiration for 'Sky Men' single he produced for Geoff Goddard). Such Meek-produced songs as Joe Leyton's 'Johnny Remember Me' have an eerie air of supernatural, and he explored horror themes on The Moontrekkers' 'Night of the Vampire' and Screaming Lord Sutch's 'Jack The Ripper'. In 1960 he produced an outer space-themed concept album I Hear The New World with a band called The Blue Men. Meek's strange new worlds were populated by such races as Globbots, Saroos and Bribcots, whose Smurf-like weird chants -- along with tons of sci-fi sound effects and sounds oddly predating future's ambient music -- were heard on the album. This sort of audio quirkiness is not anything odd for the fans of Aphex Twin (who has namechecked Joe Meek as one of his influences), but apparently Meek's vision was too far ahead of its time, since bar some tracks published as an EP, this album was shelved for decades.

Joe Meek was a troubled soul, being a closet gay in a time when this was still considered a crime, and with a general paranoid mindset on the verge of schizophrenia, which his experiments with LSD probably did not make any easier.

Despite such later successes as the freakbeat classic 'Crawdaddy Simone' by The Syndicats (which can be found on Nuggets II 4-CD box), Meek's career was on the wane by the mid-1960s. Under circumstances still not totally clear, Joe Meek (who had become obsessed with black magic and Aleister Crowley) committed suicide on 3 February 1967 after having shot his landlady first.

Listen to Joe Meek's demo tracks

pHinnWeb Chart February 2006

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pHinnWeb's February 2006 Chart can be found here.

There is admittedly something worryingly indicative of obsessive-compulsive personality in this constant need to display one's monthly listening lists in public. (Then, everyone who has a need to maintain a personal blog must possess at least some of the traits of exhibitionist personality too.) These sort of transpotterish or even otaku-like behavioural patterns are something one gets so easily accustomed to among music fans (or computer/comics/sci-fi or any other nerd-sort of activity circles). Of course, this is just one (pathetic) way to define one's identity. -- But what is this obsession of (male) music aficionados with lists? High Fidelity, anyone? -- Anyway, for one who shuns all cliques favouring in-bred mentalities, keeping oneself constantly beyond other people's need for definitions and classifications must be a viable strategy -- though inevitably bound for a role conflict of one sort or another. Esoteric? Eclectic? Whimsical? Irritatingly chameleon-like? Conceited? Self-indulgent? Keep 'em guessing.

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Today's bonus: "Raw As Sushi", or the instructions to how to visit a Japanese sushi restaurant in an orthodox way.

Copy this link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-892542405730558424

Paste it here: http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php

Or, simply download it as .mov here:
http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/BK/05/1211/japanese_tradition_sushi.mov
-- quality's a bit better then.

Tron vs. Depeche Mode

The 1982 film Tron -- which was a pioneering work in using computer graphics extensively in mainstream cinema (and with Wendy Carlos' musical score too) -- is these days considered a proto-cyberpunk classic. Here is a mash-up video of Tron and Depeche Mode's 'Suffer Well'.

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an unrelated bonus via Juri's blog: see this hilarious clip from Japanese (what the heck?) Spiderman TV series.

Miss Le Bomb Talks To pHinnWeb

Read the interview here.

Catriona Shaw, a.k.a. Miss Le Bomb ("for all that's wrong"), is a mistress of many disguises. Originally hailing from Scotland, she's not only a talented visual artist, but also sings with the band Queen of Japan (who recently made waves with their cover version of 'I Was Made For Loving You' by Kiss). She has collaborated with such people as Electronicat, Hans Platzgumer, Gerhard Potuznik, Isabel Reiss, Kamerakino, current indie-pop favourites Franz Ferdinand, Bulent Kulkucu, and others. Now she also does her own solo material: her first underground electro pop release on Berlin's Careless Records is out early 2006.

This winter Miss Le Bomb has spent under artist residency in the small town of Rauma, Finland, where she has been working on a project called Freeze Frames, and it was this Finland connection that initially got her in contact with pHinnWeb.

Jack Kirby's 2001 Adaptation

Talking about Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, here you can see some images from Marvel Comics 1976 adaptation by the legendary Jack Kirby, best known for his proto-psychedelic imagery for the 1960s Fantastic Four superhero comics.

A Look at Jack Kirby's Controversial Adaptation

Grafitti On The Moon: Kirby Vs. Kubrick

A sketch for cover

Issue 4

Issue 5

Issue 6

Issue 7

Space: 1969

See here the cool original 1969 promo clip for David Bowie's breakthrough hit, 'Space Oddity'. Being a poor man's 2001: A Space Odyssey with hot stylophone action, this clip wouldn't be out of place on MTV's Alternative Nation today.

TV OD

The TV shows currently running in Finland that I keep following regularly:

Tuesday: The Shield (I relate very much to Vic Mackey ;), Deadwood

Wednesday: Starsky and Hutch reruns, Kingdom Hospital (Stephen King's adaptation of Lars von Trier's original Danish series)

Thursday: Lost starts in Finland tonight, and about what I've been reading about the show, I think I will keep following it.

Friday: Battlestar Galactica (2003 remake): I wasn't quite convinced with the first episode but some people say it will get better. We'll see.

Sunday: Firefly

I'm also a big fan of HBO's other quality series like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Carnivàle and The Wire. And I have to check out any sci-fi/space operas they show whether they were quality stuff or not. Firefly (a "space western") is OK, though I think a bit pedestrian. It's a pity Farscape was cancelled and they didn't show any more episodes of Lexx in Finland. And it was nice to see the original Star Trek series again last year.

I never go to movies these days (tickets are too expensive, and I can't stand the idiots who keep making noise in movie theatres, spoiling it for others). Therefore I wait a couple of years until they show them on TV. For example, of the older films I've never seen before, I was quite impressed with Ang Lee's Ice Storm (1997) which was on local TV some time ago. Then I have to confess I watch old Westerns they show on TV2 on Saturdays: there's something that fascinates me in the 1950s Hollywood's Technicolor vision of the 19th century American west. It's interesting how those films reflect the attitudes of their own period of making (the "clean-cut" Eisenhowerian Cold War era), and the haircuts (pompadours, crewcuts etc.) of actors and actresses are more 50s styles than "actual" 19th century (droopy moustaches, lambchop sideburns etc. we've seen in old photographs), and with their "cleaned-up" Hayes Code depiction of any sex and violence -- in that respect, a series such as Deadwood apparently gives a more "realistic" image of what it was like.

What I don't watch on TV: I hate reality-TV and most current sitcoms don't excite me. I have also done my best to avoid watching anything connected to the forthcoming Finnish Presidential Election. Talk show is another format I don't have much interest in, though I have to admit I've given now some sidelong glances to Conan O'Brien and even laughed at some of the jokes (there goes my street cred -- if I ever had one).

A vision for the future: everyone creating their own little TV "shows" with small digicams and releasing them at blogs. Keep watching this space for pHinn's own talk show/(sur)reality-TV...

Charlie Manson's Philosophy of Fear

Let it be made clear that I'm not a Mansonite myself but one quote allegedly from him has really haunted me for years:

One aspect of Manson's philosophy especially puzzled me: his strange attitude toward fear. He not only preached that fear was beautiful, he often told the Family that they should live in a constant state of fear. What did he mean by that? [ ... ]

To Charlie fear was the same thing as awareness [ ... ] The more fear you have, the more awareness, hence the more love. When you're really afraid, you come to "Now". And when you are at Now, you are totally conscious.

Manson claimed that children were more aware than adults, because they were naturally afraid. But animals were even more aware than people, he said, because they always live at Now. The coyote was the most aware creature there was, Manson maintained, because he was completely paranoid. Being frightened of everything he missed nothing.

- Vincent Bugliosi: Helter Skelter, p. 320

Tropicália and Cultural Cannibalism

[Os Mutantes]

Brazilian modernist poet, artist and nationalist Oswald de Andrade published in 1928 his Anthropophagic Manifesto. Andrade's main ideal that he suggested here was a sort of cultural "cannibalism" which was based on artists devouring and absorbing, rather than imitating, foreign ideas and modern influences, thus creating original Brazilian work. After all, Brazilian nation itself is a fascinating outcome of racial and cultural miscegenation -- not to mention its religious syncretism -- where African, Native South American and European cultures all mix together.

In a larger context, Andrade's ideas marked a progress in passing the threshold between the conservative isolationist-minded nationalism and more free-thinking cosmopolitan internationalism. One should keep in mind that this was the same period when in Finland such people as the writer Olavi Paavolainen and the Tulenkantajat group would come up with some very similar ideas.

Forty years after his cannibalist manifesto, Andrade's ideas worked as an inspiration and were applied by the founders of Brazilian Tropicália movement in music and arts. Among these were the musicians Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, Rogerio Duprat, the rock band Os Mutantes ("The Mutants") and the visual artist Hélio Oiticica. Musically Tropicália movement would mix together traditional Brazilian music genres with international influences: bossa nova, Portuguese fado, pop, rock and psychedelia; with a good amount of Dadaism and social satire thrown in. A collaborative album Tropicália: O Panis Et Circensis, where most artists mentioned above appeared, came out on Polygram in 1968. Politically aware Tropicálists who dressed in hippie style were not exactly in favour of Brazil's ruling military government which subsequently drove these artists underground; Veloso and Gil were imprisoned and exiled to England, returning back to Brazil only in 1972. The Tropicalia movement finally evolved into MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira).

Tropicálists eventually had their retribution when Brazilian military junta was ousted in 1985. Testament to their lasting influence must be that these days Gilberto Gil works as the Brazilian Minister of Culture. Tropicália has also been an influence on musicians outside Brazil: David Byrne has re-released on his Luaka Bop label among all the works of Os Mutantes and Tom Zé. Also Beck, Nelly Furtado and even Kurt Cobain have paid their respects to the Tropicália movement.

---
Tropicália: a revolution in Brazilian culture. A unique festival of art, music, theatre, dance and film @ Barbican Gallery, London, 16 Feb - 21 May 2006


Tropicália documentary trailer


Bread and Circuses: Os Mutantes documentary trailer

Gal Costa search results @ YouTube

Gilberto Gil search results @ YouTube

Os Mutantes search results @ YouTube

Caetano Veloso search results @ YouTube

Tropicalia search results @ YouTube

Aux 88: New Album

The masters of Detroit Techno Bass are back!

AUX 88 WEB SITE REVAMPED AND LAUNCHED
The 2006 launch of the official Aux 88 website, designed by Optic Studios, is now up for viewing. The site will be a concise glimpse into the world of Aux 88. High resolution pictures, MP3s, fan downloads, up to date info on live dates, video footage and much more. Go to the site to catch a rare glimpse into one of Aux 88's studios by downloading the first of many free screen savers. Also catch a rare video of the Aux 88 video 'Play It Loud' in the media section. Don't forget to sign up for the Aux 88 mail list located at the bottom for all serious fans and friends.

AUX 88 NEW CD OUT NOW

Original – (orig*i*nal)
a: Unique creation from which copies can be made
b: being the first instance or source from which a copy, reproduction, or translation is or can be made

Tommy Hamilton (aka Tom Tom) and Keith Tucker (aka DJ K-1) have again combined their AUX minds to reform and create their latest 13 track LP entitled AUX 88. After a long stint in the Aux Quadrant, Reconfiguration of the two entities known as Aux 88 was imminent! Many have been and were confused about the now defunct Auxmen led by Tucker to re-cloak the return of the original Aux 88.

Are you interested NOW!

The LP starts off with a classic Vocoder style voice interlude from Tom Tom stating 'We R the Future', followed up by the song and statement 'We Make Beats'. The track is the equivalent to the early soul sonic force sound produced by Posatronix. This LP is a statement of the past and present with vocals from Tucker and Hamilton on tracks like 'The K-1 Theme', 'Clones', 'We are The Future', 'Step into the Light', 'Lost in Outer Space' (Model 500 Style), and ending with a 2005 remix of techno classic 'AUX MIND'.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that AUX 88 is above creating street funk style grooves. "RATED AUX" will be the next style in the ghetto tech genre. On the Euro inspired acid bass line track 'Tom Tom Beats', Tom Tom plainly lets the fans know: "I have Returned..."

AUX 88 CD Entitled AUX 88
Out Now Exclusively in Japan Submerge Recordings

Purchase here: http://www.undergroundgallery.jp

313ctr0 @ pHinnWeb

4AD announces Scott Walker album!

(Via http://www.brainwashed.com:)

The legendary Scott Walker has finished his first complete album in over ten years, due for release on 4AD of all places, in May. The Drift is the name of the album and 30 Century Man is the name of the documentary of Scott Walker, directed by Stephen Kijak, also scheduled for release in 2006.

---

As every aspiring pHinnologist must know by now, I'm a huge fan of Scott Walker. This news is quite extraordinary, since he publishes new albums ever so rarely: the last one, Tilt came out already in 1995; the one before that, Climate of the Hunter in 1983. These both are more experimental Scott, so for beginners I recommend to check out the Boychild compilation which puts together the best from his classic late-1960s albums Scott 1-4 and 1970's 'Til The Band Comes In.

Description of these: imagine a young guy in a 60s style of moptop hairdo (more fitting to some teenybopper idol of the day) singing in a classic American "crooner" voice (à la Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra) and accompanied by orchestrations reminiscent of John Barry (who provived music for all the 60s James Bond movies) some gloriously melancholic songs with part-existential, part-surreal/psychedelic lyrics inspired by (or being even translation versions of) Jacques Brel, Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal, and British "kitchen sink" realism (perhaps someone like Morrissey of The Smiths might be a similar character, even though I'm not such a fanatic for Mozzer like some people seem to be...) Such people as David Bowie, Nick Cave, Julian Cope, Brett Anderson of Suede, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp and Marc Almond of Soft Cell have also been inspired by or taking their cues from Scott. Oh yes, extremely cultish stuff and probably not exactly to everyone's tastes: as said, I worship though.

The Drift @ Discogs.com

Scott Walker @ Wikipedia

pHinnWeb Mailing List

In case you checked this blog to get some no-nonsense info about Finnish electronic music, only to find some non-related weird images and pHinn's borderline rants here... Have no fear, because pHinnWeb's mailing list at Yahoo! Groups is exactly what you were looking for! We've got now about 525 members from all over the world, and rising. No bullshit, no weirdness, no naughtiness; just some cold facts, news and info. So, what are you waiting for -- subscribe today!

"The mailing list of pHinnWeb (http://www.phinnweb.org) concerning all topics of (pH)in(n)terest: not only electronic and non-electronic music and arts in Finland and around the world, but also visual arts, popular and fringe culture, etc. (See http://www.phinnweb.org/FAQ/ for some clues.) In English.

Possible topics: Pan sonic, Mika Vainio, Sähkö Recordings, Jimi Tenor, Mono Junk/New York City Survivors, Dum Records, Jori Hulkkonen, Vladislav Delay/Luomo, Lackluster, Ovuca, Rikos Records, Polytron, Tero, Dr. Robotnik, Itäväylä, Brothom States, Nuspirit Helsinki, Op:l Bastards/And the Lefthanded, Nu Science/Huoratron, Aavikko, Ural 13 Diktators, Mr Velcro Fastener, Imatran Voima, 8-Bit Rockers/Bangkok Impact/Putsch '79, Unidentified Sound Objects, Circle, Ektro Records, Fonal Records, Es, Kemialliset Ystävät, Avarus, Kuusumun Profeetta, Kimmo Pohjonen, Eero Koivistoinen, Love Records, Pekka Airaksinen, Sperm, Erkki Kurenniemi... and new Finnish artists and record labels; related Finnish music news; parties, events, festivals; electro, techno, house, IDM, ambient, minimal, dub, postrock, industrial, noise, jazz, improvisation and experimental/avantgarde music in Finland and elsewhere (this is not a purist list, though, so if it's of any genre and any good, it will be discussed here)... If you have any questions on any of the above, this is probably the best place to ask!

Quite a lot of traffic from time to time, so digest and no email/read messages through the Website options available too. People sending non-related ad spam will be banned immediately."

Out of the Unknown

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Out of the Unknown was a sci-fi/horror anthology series on BBC 2 between 1965 and 1971. The "Saul Bass on acid" title design (above) was by Bernard Lodge (who also did a design for Dr Who).

Weird and Idiosyncratic Habits

[Kenny Everett as Cupid Stunt]

I seem to have been challenged by Tiedemies into this meme about one's five idiosyncratic or weird habits.

1. I like to invent these stupid and/or obscene sayings or even little chants, like some sort of mantras, after which I keep repeating them aloud to myself when I'm alone at home. Then I giggle deliriously at my own stupidity.

2. I like to waste my time on inventing these pairs of Finnish words that turn into something obscene when you switch the first syllables of them. Examples: "Pirun tumput", "lelli mäntää", "pippuri hyllyllä", "mustetta nenässä", "kuiskaajan ralli", "kunnollinen tullimies, joka vaati nurkuen passia, tarkasti passit ja tiketit", "silliä kullekin", "Ollin arkut", "Reginan vangit"... (I don't really know so many examples of these in English -- perhaps Finnish language is more flexible here -- except perhaps "cunning stunts" and "Cupid Stunt" (a character of the late great Kenny Everett on his early 80s TV show -- remember Hot Gossip...? Aah.)

3. I like to create in my mind imaginary new spectacular, big-budget widescreen installments and/or sequels to such television sci-fi shows as Space: 1999 or Star Trek with added psychedelic and mind-blowing scenes. Quite nerdish, eh...?

4. I have to check out daily my horoscope (Leo) from Ilta-Sanomat every day when I pass through some department store, even if I don't have any intention to buy the paper.

5. When I get my trash out, I always have to check the bins to find out if people have thrown away any glossy magazines (I avoid using stuff from daily newspapers because those pics became quite dim when scanning) where I could scavenge some great clippings for my pHinnMilk Comics collages (where I live, judging by their trash, people seem to read just boring women's magazines and gossip rags like Seitsemän päivää, so you rarely find any great stuff). At my mother's place I also check out if she has any old mags which I could have as raw material for my "art".

[Juri also listed his own weird habits here.]

OK, your turn...?


[Hot Gossip] -- one major reason why they should rerun Kenny Everett Video Show...

Recalling Germany Calling and Deutsch Rock: Part 2

David McConnell has written an article commenting the late Ian MacDonald's negative Krautrock writings in NME, 1973. The first part of McConnell's article was published at pHinnWeb last year, and you can find the second part here.


Krautrock @ pHinnWeb

My Dream about Russian Lady Cops

I just had the strangest dream. I was sexually harassed by these Russian women cops fresh out of Academy. They wanted to know if I was a t*rrorist and if I had any secret information about Finland's plans to join NATO in the near future. I tried to tell them that I was just a poor boy from Tampere with not a nickel in my pocket and didn't know about such things, but suffice it to say I was not believed.

I don't want to tell you the harrowing details of how exactly I was tortured but it involved a contraption of ostrich feathers, gearwheels and some everyday kitchen utensils, with a considerable amount of margarine. After my ordeals at the hands of Czar Vladimir's finest, the 101st Cheesecake Brigade, I was both physically and mentally exhausted. Their staff sergeant, a thick-set middle-aged matron in dark blue uniform shouted instructions to her troops: "Davay davay! Fork him, pork him, Peter Tork him!"

"Please, don't pull my Rod Stewart so hard!" I cried in anguish. Needless to say, my pleas went unheeded. Gladly I was saved just in the nick of time by the near-divine intervention of the Montgolfier Brothers who took me to their Chantilly lace balloon hovering over the Red Square. Barely dodging Russian anti-aircraft artillery our Mathias Rusty vehicle took us to our asylum in the sky. We saw ten thousand karate nuns ascending, Saint Peter saluting them with a Masonic hand signal. All the archangels were there with their trombones, playing Dixieland jazz. Buddha gave us the OK sign and winked. Suddenly the archangels shouted in unison to me: "Duck, you schmuck!" but it was too late, and the asteroid which killed the dinosaurs hit me to my gulliver. Exactly that moment I woke up and found myself lying on the floor.

[MP3] Cock Rock Disco 2006

Bored with the smell of stale old fart music media tries to offer us as "new music"...? Download this amazing compilation for free here! The real sound of underground in 2006: demented glitchbreakcore madness all over; with perverse versions of Erik Satie and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring to boot!

[MP3] Kommandomixes January 2006

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First Kommandomixes of 2006... again with some golden oldies (or "mouldies"?) from our archives. Inept (except with Mike Not & Jazzy-O) and drunken mixing (if mixed at all) but (hopefully) with some neat-o tracks.

These mixes available only for a limited time, so listen/download soon.

Ta-dah:

Mike Not & Jazzy-O: West Coast Hip Hop Mix, Panic Zone @ Radio 957, 1991 (no tracklist available)

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Mike Not & Jazzy-O: Miami Bass Mix, Panic Zone @ Radio 957, 1991 (no tracklist available)

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pHinn @ Electronic Therapy, Päiväkoti, Turku, 24 October 2003

X-Ray: Let's Go
Cybotron: Clear
Brothers Fuck & Friend: Minimal Fuck
Dexter: Intruder
Chaos: Afrogermanic
Aux 88: Electro/Techno (Microknox remix)
DJ Dijital: Cyborg Power
Atomic Nation: Atomic Nation
Dynamix II: The Plastic Men
LFO: Tied Up
The Octagon Man vs. Depth Charge: The Toy Boxx
Club Telex Noise Ensemble feat. CoS: KVYCHX (Luke Eargoggle mix)
Doubledutch: Hit & Run
Dominatrix: The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight
Liaisons Dangereuses: Los niños del parque
Front 242: Quite Unusual
New York City Survivors: World of Madness
Dave Clarke: No One's Driving
DJ Slugo: Back Da Fuck Up

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pHinn @ Entropy 10 Years, VR-Makasiinit, Helsinki, 1 November 2003

Drexciya: Welcome To Drexciya
As One: The Message In Herbie's Shirts
Trans Am: Cologne
Depth Charge: Robotomo
Doubledutch: Surface On Fire
Legowelt vs. Orgue Electronique: Putney vs. ARP2500
Legowelt vs. Orgue Electronique: ARP Groove
A Credible Eye-Witness: Episode 4
Autechre: Basscadet (BDCTMIX) [33 rpm]
Cessna: Time Ticks Away (Nu Science remix)
Perspects: Desire and Efficiency
Ectomorph: The Haunting (version) (Adult. mix)
Mandroid: Android
Deflektorz: Deflektor

+ speaks & some Finnhits Disco tracks by DJ Kuuro Kädetön Paisti


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All soundfiles @ pHinnWeb.

In all our mixes we are committed to the Kommandomix Manifesto.

Boys of Scandinavia Interview...

... can be found here.

Alongside Adult.'s Gimmie Trouble, Kill The Party, the debut by Boys of Scandinavia was my favourite album of 2005, released as a collaboration between Manchester's Mate Recordings and Helsinki's If Society. Bleak and lovely: dark new-wavish guitar noir disco about and for no-hopers, underachievers, pessimists, hopeless romantics, losers and people who will never score. Some names to possibly draw comparisons from: Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths, Interpol, DFA, LCD Soundsystem...

The Boys of Scandinavia track 'Worse Than A Girl' was hailed by the critics as the best thing on the 2004 compilation Music is Better Volume One (Manchester vs Helsinki) (Mate Recordings). The new BoS single 'Why Do You Love Me?' is a story about a modern "Man Without Qualities", à la Robert Musil.

pHinnWeb talked via e-mail to the Boys of Scandinavia members, Teemu Metsälä (familiar also from Roger, which pHinnWeb interviewed in July 2003), Juhana Lahtinen and the vocalist Tuomo Kuusi.

Read Between The Lines

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"Candy says I'd like to know completely
What others so discretely talk about..."

In the old days of Cold War there used to be a science called "Kremlinology" which studied and intended to decrypt the mysterious politics of Soviet Union, a Communist superpower shunning the kind of media publicity we have accustomed to here in the West. Using such sources as the Communist party ultimatums, the pages of Pravda, even official photographs, Kremlinology was a continuous exercise in detective work for Western political commentators who desperately were looking for any hints about what was happening inside the byzantine corridors of the Kremlin, which Soviet politician currently found himself in favour or disfavour, and so on. This was the art of reading between the lines.

And indeed, one tries to read between the lines, to interpret all the clues available. Even silence might be a meaningful clue (or then, not). What people leave unsaid might mean even more than what is actually said: trying to read their faces, gestures, gaps in conversations, quips, possible Freudian slips. There is an unspoken vocabulary, human cryptography.

After 9/11 had taken place, there were some people who claimed they had thought there had been proverbially "something in the air", even for months preceding the events, but one couldn't exactly put one's finger on it until it had happened. Only with hindsight they could realise they had sensed or foreseen something. Or detecting from a photograph a person who is going to die soon, but not really understanding this intuitive feeling until the person in question is gone.

A person with intuition can be a barometer of people and situations. There are also people with narcissistic personalities who are as if managing to control the weather around them by their moods and whims: which way the wind blows today?

In all walks of life, politics and arts, envy seems to be an endlessly renewable natural resource. One may done one's best to rise above it all but suspicion still remains. When one does not fit to people's more or less accepted and regulated schemes and pecking orders, a social exclusion might await behind every corner. So called friends suddenly turn their backs. A sensitive person might not be able to stand it. We all know this logic already from our schoolyards.

"Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?"

A paranoia-inclined person can see one's whole life as one vast Kafkaesque conspiracy theory. "Everyone is against me, constantly plotting against me". Having a creeping suspicion that your loved one is cheating you. Why does the conversation suddenly stop when one enters the room? Meaningful gazes, hesitating answers, never getting straight answers to questions. Accidentally catching a glimpse of secret handshakes between conspirators. David Hemmings finding a corpse in an enlarged photograph in Blow-Up. Gothic monsters perched on Notre Dame silently following these little games of us for centuries. -- Watch out, though: unless one wants to become a paranoid schizophrenic, some possible omens and auguries are better left just unnoticed. Sometimes filtering things out of one's mind is the best solution.

[MP3] Polytron X-Mas Promo '05 Still Available

This was not exactly in time for Christmas, but you can well check this out even now.

Finnish electro act Polytron (tracks for such labels as Rikos, Kostamus, Stilleben and Invasion Planete) has put to the Web as MP3s their five-track Joulupromo 2005 ("Christmas Promo 2005") which you can download here. Electro with some melodic Italodisco flavour.

Our own project Kompleksi has two collaboration tracks with Polytron, 'Porno Tampere' and 'Moscow 1980', which are based on their original instrumentals. We hope to include these both on our forthcoming debut album. Polytron's Mikko "mini" Niemelä was also a member of another project of ours, Club Telex Noise Ensemble (click the link for free MP3s). Moreover, mini who lives these days in Helsinki has helped me out a lot with pHinnWeb during the Website's first years.

Masks

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"Even the greatest stars discover themselves in the looking glass..."
-Kraftwerk: 'The Hall of Mirrors'

One's face is a mask under which there is hidden another mask, and ad infinitum. One can keep on as long as the masks won't fail one. Sometimes a mask can be the very thing which only will keep one together: once it's gone, everything is lost. The masks are silent, they don't talk or reveal their real meanings, or then they hide themselves behind small talk, chit-chat or conversations about weather. Sometimes people may not be that comfortable with the masks they're wearing. Then their own eyes may deceive them and ruin everything. Alcohol will also dissolve masks, if only temporarily, but beware: you may not like what you see. Not everyone is a skilled and experienced actor or actress, well-versed in masquerades and games. Masks will also start at one point to have lives of their own and gradually dissolve the original identity (if there was one).

Music and Consciousness

An interesting text by Earl Vickers can be found here.

Including "Dreams and Dreaming", "Hypnotic States", "Surrealism", "Shamanism and Psychedelia", "Psychoacoustic Effects" ("Polyphony", "Spatial Effects", "Repetitive Sounds", "Rhythm and Auditory Entrainment", "Timbre and Overtones")... With a bibliography. Since I'm just a layman and not actually an expert on these fields, I can't comment on how accurate this text is scientifically; the only problem for me was that it was just too brief and a cursory glance into the mood-enhancing and mind-altering possibilities of music: this being a subject about which I'd surely like to know more.

pHinnWeb Chart January 2005...

... can be found here.

Also, I'd like to compile for the same page pHinnWeb's readers' and friends' Best of 2005 charts (records, but also films, books, whatever), so if you want to contribute with your chart, please send me private mail to phinnweb[at]sci.fi -- I was too skint to buy that many records myself (so mostly I listened to a lot of oldies from library), but if I had to name the best records for pHinn, I'd say Adult.'s Gimmie Trouble and Boys of Scandinavia's Kill The Party. The best tracks for me were Galaktlan's 'Zolushka' (off the album Constance) and Paavoharju's 'Valo tihkuu kaiken läpi' (off the album Yhä hämärää). The best book was Arto Salminen's (R.I.P.) Kalavale. As for the best films of 2005, ask me in a couple of years, when they're on local TV [grin]...

Personally, for me the most important event in 2005 must have been the release of the first 7" single of our own Kompleksi project on Lal Lal Lal label in May.