[click for large version]
Soon to be sent out to some selected TV channels... wish us luck.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Aleksi Eeben Three Times The Music
Aleksi Eeben is an electronic artist hailing from Tampere, Finland. His latest release on Monotonik can be downloaded from:
http://www.mono211.com/content/releases/mtkmp183.html.
Artist: Aleksi Eeben
Title: 'Three Times The Music'
Release ID: mtk.mp3.182
Date: 24/04/07
[8 tracks, 31 minutes, 53.3mb]
1. "Three Times The Music Part 1 - Clockwork"
2. "Three Times The Music Part 2 - Ocean"
3. "Three Times The Music Part 3 - Western Movement"
4. "The Drive"
5. "Quiet Place"
6. "Traffic Lights Are Tomato, Orange And Kiwi"
7. "Bright's Polka"
8. "To Climb A Tree, Remove Branches, And Reverse Gravity"
Links:
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Simon Reynolds On 1970s Synth Gods
Tangerine Dream: Bathtub Session (1969)
Here is an interesting Observer Music Monthly article (22 April 2007) by Simon Reynolds on the 1970s pre-punk synth heroes like Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, Steve Hillage/Miquette Giraudy, Vangelis, and so on.
Toiminto: Lost In Low Frequencies
I told you some time ago about Tampere's club and Net label Swaeg, run by Joonas Toivonen (born 1981) a.k.a. Toiminto and some friends. Now Toiminto has his new Net release out, an album of eight tracks; promising "adventures in dubstep-ish dimensions". You can download the whole album as MP3s or one ZIP file from http://www.swaeg.net/.
Artist: Toiminto
Title: Lost In Low Frequencies
Cat.No: SWG-005
Label: Swaeg
Length: 43 minutes
Date: April 2007
Track list:
01. Mondiw
02. Tuesday Flow
03. Bandpass Workshop
04. Drugged Monkeys
05. Wednesday Dubbin
06. Bared Out
07. Thursday Steppin
08. Tuesday Flow Dub
The whole album as ZIP file
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Nico, A Beautiful Liar
"Holy Popism, Nico!" -- Nico with Andy Warhol, one of her famous mentors.
I just read Nico: The Life and Lies of an Icon (1992) by Richard Witts. Nico (1938-1988), born as Christa Päffgen, was a German model turned iconic chanteuse, who appeared in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, gave birth to an unrecognised son of Alain Delon, flourished The Velvet Underground's legendary debut album with her Teutonic vocal stylings which were described as "an IBM computer doing an impression of Greta Garbo", created her own self-penned gloomy (if not to say proto-Goth) and 19th century Romantic poetry-inspired solo albums The Marble Index and Desertshore (both enjoying a considerable posthumous reputation and immortalising Nico as a musical artist in her own right, not merely as a footnote to the Velvets), sadly became a heroin addict in the 70s, and died a miserable death in Ibiza in 1988: after finally having managed to get rid of smack, she fell off bicycle and hit her head (some hospitals even refused to admit her first, thinking she was another beatnik that have occupied this island for decades).
Witts' excellent biography paints a picture of a woman both determined and confused, whose romantic ideals failed to meet reality; an incurable mythomaniac who compensated for her humble and traumatic origins without a father in the wartime Germany by creating endless fantasies and downright lies about her imaginary encounters with surrogate father figures like Ernest Hemingway. One can just wonder why because her real life in the world of fashion, cinema, music and art was not less than extraordinary: with people like Andy Warhol being her mentors; with romantic (albeit short-lived) affiliations with such luminaries of the 60s rock as Bob Dylan, Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, Jim Morrison of The Doors, Iggy Pop of The Stooges, Jackson Browne...
Nico: an Aryan Übermensch Moon Goddess of Teutonic gloom? More like a sad and confused woman, albeit one with a fast-burning talent going beyond her once photogenic features. The accounts of Nico's junkie escapades towards the end of Witts' book and her life are not exactly glorified reading, but nearly 20 years after her death, the blood and piss-stained details can hopefully be pushed aside as Nico gets her apothesis as one of the most original recorded voices of the 20th century music.
The Velvet Underground & Nico: "A Symphony of Sound" (1966). Featuring Nico with her son Ari and the band doing an instrumental jam.
Nico: 'Frozen Warnings' (1969)
Nico: 'Evening of Light' (1969). An annoyingly brief excerpt of my favourite Nico solo track, also from The Marble Index. This clip features Iggy Pop and perhaps also other members of The Stooges, probably filmed during the time Nico spent with the band in Michigan.
Nico: 'Femme Fatale'. A 1972 "unplugged" version of The Velvet Underground song, accompanied by Lou Reed(?).
A 1972 Nico interview for French television (10:00). Featuring Nico playing her harmonium and performing 'Janitor of Lunacy' (off Desertshore, 1971) and 'You Forget To Answer' (off The End, 1974).
La Cicatrice Intérieure (1972) trailer. La Cicatrice Intérieure ("The Inner Scar") was a film directed by Philippe Garrel, another lover of hers; with Nico co-starring alongside the director. [Another clip from the film, again with 'Janitor of Lunacy'.]
Andy Warhol, William S. Burroughs & Nico at Chelsea Hotel, NYC, 1980. Warhol and Burroughs share a meal, and Nico (after heroin use had already had its toll on her) sings her 'Chelsea Girls', accompanied by Joe Bidewell.
Nico: 'Heroes'. A rendition of David Bowie's song, from a 1982 performance in England. Nico had supposedly shot some heroin just a moment before. It's some disturbing watching, to say the least.
Nico, Femme Fatale (41:36). An Italian documentary film by Gabriele Lunati.
Other clips:
Listen to Nico @ MySpace:
Monday, April 23, 2007
Regina: 'Paras Aika Vuodesta' Music Video
Regina: 'Paras aika vuodesta' (2007)
Finnish synthpop/indie act Regina has their new music video 'Paras aika vuodesta' ("The best time of the year") out now, directed by Iiro Hokkanen with Mikko Pykäri of Regina, and based on the original illustrations by Maija Louekari, who's also responsible for Regina's other visual design.
Vladislav Delay: Whistleblower, A New Album
Finnish minimal dub etc. artist Vladislav Delay (b. 1976), also known as Luomo, Sistol, Uusitalo and Conoco, born as Sasu Ripatti and now living in Berlin, has his new album Whistleblower out on his own Huume Recordings label. You can listen to the album track 'I Saw A Polysexual' as MP3 here.
Artist: Vladislav Delay
Title: Whistleblower
Label: Huume Recordings
Cat.No: HUUME13
Year: 2007
1. Whistleblower (9:44)
2. Wanted To (Kill) (12:20)
3. Stop Talking (9:12)
4. I Saw A Polysexual (9:19)
5. Lumi (5:24)
6. He Lived Deeply (12:54)
7. Recovery IDea (10:00)
Press release notes (PDF).
More info on album and how to purchase it.
Links:
Saturday, April 21, 2007
"Music Has Lost Its Futuristic Edge"
The Art of Noise: 'Beatbox' (1984)
A very interesting article from The Guardian (Friday 20 April 2007) (and Momus commenting it).
From the article:
... Music writer Jon Savage decides what of today's music to listen to by dividing it into two camps: the ersatz and the truly current. "My yardstick about modern records," he says, "is does it sound as though it could only have been recorded in 2007? If it does, great; if it doesn't, boring."
But Savage also feels that, especially when it comes to rock, "music has lost its futuristic edge". And his fellow music writer Paul Morley agrees. "Instead of music moving forward," Morley says, "there was a moment - which you could pin down to around Britpop, or even earlier - when it started to fold backwards on itself. Instead of music having an idealistic need to create a future, to change things and have enough optimism to believe that could happen, it has ground to a halt."
[...] the ideology that fired Morley in the 80s, when he was making music with the Art of Noise. "In a way we anticipated what was about to happen," he says. "We described it as raiding the 20th century: this century of incredible innovation technologically, emotionally, intellectually and aesthetically, which you could raid for influences, putting together a bit from here and a bit from there to create something astounding." Where Morley and Art of Noise differed from 21st-century bands, however, was in their lack of respect for the past. "Coming from a post-punk world, I was very committed to originality, to moving forward," he says. New production techniques had given rise to a new vision for music, and he was determined to be at the forefront. "Rock cliches were going to be buried in the past - even guitars. We were moving into the future: you could kind of believe that was true."
[...] "I cannot help but marvel at how peculiar that is," says Morley. "Something that was meant to be a radical music has become truly conservative, in that it conserves: it's recreating shapes and riffs and sounds that have happened before."
He's not the only one troubled by this. "I cannot stand the fact that so much rock music is ridiculously retro," says Savage.
[...] Another crucial change in the consumption of music has, says Morley, made it harder than ever for the truly original to be heard. "The coverage of music has been democratically spread into the broadsheets, radio and television; pop music seems to be everywhere. But in a funny way that means there's more interference to finding new music. So much that is familiar is being declared the 'new' thing by the record industry, the advertising industry and the mainstream media, anything that is truly unfamiliar and moving forward is more neglected than ever before."
[...] "There is a world," [Morley] suggests, "where, when people say, 'Where are the new Beatles?' the answer is the internet. We've got the new thing - we just haven't been looking in the right place for it."
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Suicide: 'Ghost Rider' (1977)
Original album version (2:34) dubbed to the Nicolas Cage movie trailer by a fan
Suicide is one those acts that in the annals of popular music are usually called with the clichéd epithet "seminal". A proto-electronic duo of the vocalist Alan Vega and keyboardist Martin Rev from New York City, they came into prominence when punk rock emerged in the late 1970s, though they were closer to such other pioneering electronic duos as Silver Apples of the late 60s (also from NYC) than The Ramones or Television. Taking their own cues from Elvis, Question Mark and The Mysterians, The Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop & The Stooges, they were to inspire everyone from Sigue Sigue Sputnik to Finland's own Pan sonic (who even got to record with their hero Alan Vega). 'Ghost Rider' is one of the best-known songs from their eponymous debut album of 1977.
This year's Ghost Rider film, based on the same Marvel Comics character which inspired Suicide's song, didn't actually include their track, and got negative reviews anyway. (However, Henry Rollins' cover version was heard in 1994's The Crow.)
The original track was also Alan Vega's comment on the Vietnam war ("America is killin' its youth"), and hasn't dated a bit in these days of Iraq. (And it was somehow ominous that I heard about the Virginia Tech shootings as I was writing this entry...)
TV performance (2:27)
Live performance from 1977/78 (5:12)
Ghost Rider, motorcycle hero
bebebebebebebe he's lookin' so cute
sneakin' round round round in a blue jumpsuit
Ghost Rider, motorcycle hero
bebebebebebebe he's a-blazin' away
Like stars stars stars in the universe
Ghost Rider motorcycle hero
bebebebebebebe he's a-screamin' the truth
America America is killin' its youth
Bebebebebebebe he's a-screamin' away
America America is killin' its youth
America America is killin' its youth
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider
Monday, April 16, 2007
Mesak: Yksin
Mesak will have a new album, Yksin ("Alone") out on 19 May 2007, the label will be Stars-Music.
Press text:
"Finnish producer Mesak is also known from his Mr Velcro Fastener electro band.
Mesak has been releasing his solo material deep tech-electronica 12"s out on Klakson Records - one of the legendary Dutch labels run by Dexter & Dj Steffi.
Yksin presents the high quality instrumental bliss of Mesak at its best. This is his long lost debut album which was due to be released on the Finnish psychedelic underground label Rikos Records back in 2004. But alas, the masters were lost in the Finnish security polices anti-terrorist raid to the label headquarters and the release had to be delayed until now. Dusty original tapes (evidence no. 36) were given back after the trial came to nothing. Now the tracks are carefully re-mastered and finally brought to daylight!
All tracks are made by Mesak alone - 'yksin' in Finnish, as the artist usually uses his native language for track titles, and here expresses this is a solo album. The only featuring artist appears on 'Itikat'. It has wind instrumets arranged and performed by Finnish glitch-jazz musician Pekka Tuppurainen.
'Polypunk Bile' & 'Biosyntaksi' are guaranteed pounding-in-yer-face electro groove while 'Fake It Easy' and 'Universal Ending' dive deep into slumber melancholy in a rather downtempo feel. 'Tupajumi' stays tight somewhere in between. 'Unhola' and 'Supo' gives more uplifting soundscapes. Far out, alone."
[previous]
Friday, April 13, 2007
pHinn, The Best DJ In Tampere???
I was truly awestruck this morning when I opened the Valo weekend supplement of local Aamulehti newspaper. They had decided to choose "The Best Three" from various areas of culture (80s heavy metal singers included) here in Tampere and around the world. I thought someone had dropped some hallucinogen to my morning coffee without my knowing, when I browsed the article and my eyes ended up in this little part there...
You see, there was also a section "Tiskijukat" ("disc jockeys"), and as the three best DJs they had chosen as number three Sami Koivikko (a local minimal house man, who has released an album for Berlin's Shitkatapult, and done tons of gigs in Europe and Russia); the second place justifiedly belonged to DJ Infekto (a.k.a. Riku Pentti), the real workhorse of Tampere's drum'n'bass/breakbeat scene, another DJ with countless gigs around the world and a recording artist too. Also familiar from The Skillsters and Bomfunk MCs.
And here's the strangest thing: in the first place there was one pHinn, whom they described with the words: "The underground man Erkki Rautio prefers kommandomixing in the punk spirit to technical superiority. A good gig comes about with some personal ideas and a large record collection." Wheeeeeeew. I'm speechless.
(Well, the funny thing really is that I haven't done DJ gigs in ages; the last one was at Swaeg's two years party in June 2006. After that it's been complete silence as far as my "DJing" goes.)
Thursday, April 12, 2007
I'm Mad As Hell, And I'm Not Going To Take This Any More!
A scene from Network (1976)
Another scene from Network (1976)
From Sidney Lumet's film Network (1976).
Kurt Vonnegut In Memoriam
Kurt Vonnegut (small image from the 1972 film adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five, with Valerie Perrine)
Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922–April 11, 2007)
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Chicks On Speed: 'Art Rules'
Chicks On Speed will have their new single Art Rules out soon. The single was already out last year as a promo version, the artwork of which you can see above (the final release may have a different artwork).
Artist: Chicks On Speed
Title: Art Rules
Cat.No: COSR35CD
Label: Chicks On Speed Records (Germany)
Year: 2006 (promo) / 2007
Tracklist:
1. Art Rules
2. Art Rules (Rock Mix)
Remix - A Scholar And A Physician
Remix [With] - Anat Ben-David, COS, Douglas Gordon
3. Art Rules (Christopher Just's Hard One)
Featuring - Douglas Gordon
Remix - Christopher Just
Voice [Guest Dealer] - Olivier Belot
Credits: Guitar [Guest] - Martin Philadelphy
Written by - Murray-Leslie, Just, Moorse, Logan
Notes: Sold at Chicks On Speed concert / art performance Art Rules, held with Douglas Gordon and Christopher Just at leading art centres worldwide (Centre Pompidou, Paris - MoMa, New York - Moda Fad, Barcelona - Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo).
Links:
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Star You Star Me: 'Simple Things Remixed'
[First, I seem to have troubles all the time trying to save any messages to this blog, when only the entry subject is saved but not the actual content of the entry. Anyone else experiencing the same? Very annoying.]
Star You Star Me is an electronic duo of Tatu "Mesak" Metsätähti (also familiar from Mr Velcro Fastener and his own labels Huge Bass, Harmönia -- the home of skweee --- and Stars-Music) and Jani Lehto, hailing from Turku, Finland. Here's info on their latest release.
Artist: STAR YOU STAR ME
Title: SIMPLE THINGS REMIXED
Catalogue number: STARS-010
Release date: 4 May 2007
Tracklisting:
Perfect Day - SATOSHI FUMI CHASER MIX
Perfect Day - SATOSHI FUMI THE MILKY WAY MIX
Perfect Day - ACOS COOLKAS MIX
Burden - 80 LETTERS FROM ITALY REMIX
Perfect Day - MESAK MIX
Sweet Things - AUREOLE MIX
Press release:
"One year ago the debut album of Star You Star Me was released in Finland and made us happy when it was received like 'powerplay of the week' in YleX (national radio channel) and 'one of the best Finnish house albums ever' (Rumba Magazine). When 2006 turned into 2007 the extended version of the album was released worldwide on Force Tracks. Now Stars-Music is proud to present a wide variety of remixes of the album tracks.
SATOSHI FUMI (Yoshitoshi, Urbantorque, etc.) first fulfills all needs for more aggressive dancefloor sound with his 'Chaser mix' and then charms with his silky and melodic 'Milky Way mix'.
ACOS COOLKAS (Theomatic, Force Tracks) gives warm feelings with harmonic chords and disco basslines that funk in a very cool way...
JUSSI-PEKKA & KALLE-M (Frozen North etc.) rock in a very different way with their '80 Letters From Italy mix'. Stomp & vocode!
Then the tracks encountered two of the local names of our dear home Turku, Finland: MESAK (Klakson) went deep with his instrumental version of Perfect Day and AUREOLE (Moodmusic) stayed somewhere between 80's Italy and outer space..."
"Hope you'll enjoy!
Sincerely Yours
Stars-music"
Links:
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Space: 1999 Season One -- This Episode
Space: 1999: Season One -- This Episode
Space: 1999 ("Avaruusasema Alfa" here in Finland) was the most lavish British science fiction TV show in the 70s, produced in between 1973 and 1976. Starring Martin Landau (later also an Academy Award winner) and Barbara Bain, both known from TV's original Mission: Impossible series, the show featured also such guest stars as Christopher Lee (known from countless horror movies and also Star Wars and Lord of the Rings franchises), Joan Collins (of Dynasty) and Ian McShane (of Lovejoy and Deadwood). The producer was Gerry Anderson with his wife at the time, Sylvia Anderson: the Andersons had already been responsible for the popular 60s sci-fi puppet shows such as Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Captain Scarlet and others. Space: 1999 was preceded by another sci-fi live action series, U.F.O. (1970).
Each Space: 1999 episode had in its opening credits a rapidly edited intro sequence of all key events. Now a fan called Trekkiedane has edited all the intro sequences of the series' Season One into one clip of 7:37, which you can see by clicking here.
Konemetsä 2007 Festival
Konemetsä 2005 @ YLE Kulttuuriuutiset
LEHDISTÖTIEDOTE 26.03.2007
Julkaisuun välittömästi.
KONEMETSÄ 2007 – OPEN AIR FOREST FESTIVAL
6-8 July 2007
Ollila, Marttila, Finland
http://www.konemetsa.net (check for info in English)
Suomen kovimmassa kasvussa oleva kesäfestivaali Konemetsä järjestetään tänä vuonna neljännen kerran 6.–8. heinäkuuta. Festivaalin tapahtumapaikka on sama kuin edellisinä vuosina: Ollila, Marttilan kunnassa.
Innovatiivisuudestaan tunnettu tapahtuma tulee olemaan kansainvälisempi kuin koskaan sekä artistien että yleisön osalta. Ulkomaiset ja kotimaiset elektronisen musiikin huippuartistit tuodaan yhteen esiintymään uusien nousujohteessa olevien artistien kanssa.
Esiintyjälista julkaistaan 1. toukokuuta ja tätä ennen ennakkolippuja saa ostaa hintaan 32 euroa. Tämän jälkeen ennakkolipun hinta on 38 euroa ja festivaaliportilta 45 euroa. Hinnat sisältävät välityspalkkion ja ovat voimassa koko festivaalin ajan. Lippuja myyvät mm. Tiketti, Lippupalvelu, Streat Beat ja Blanko. Viime vuonna loppuunmyytyyn Konemetsään myydään tänä vuonna enintään 3000 lippua.
Festivaalin yleisilmeestä ja infosta kiinnostuneet voivat tutustua tarjontaan etukäteen esim. YLE:n Kulttuuriuutisten klipistä 8.7.2005 ("Metsä todellakin on nasta mesta") osoitteessa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gajd4o0lIos sekä tietysti festivaalin omalta kotisivulta http://www.konemetsa.net. Ulkopuolisen arvostelun festivaalista tarjoaa esim. arvostettu englantilainen elektronisen musiikin erikoislehti iDJ Magazine (September 2006 Issue 78), joka piti Konemetsää viime vuonna heinäkuun parhaimpana tapahtumana yhdessä Glade-festivaalin (UK) kanssa.
Festivaaliterveisin,
Peter Gerkman,
promoottori
puh: 040-768 7513
email: info@konemetsa.net
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Jimi Tenor's New Album, Joystone
Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu: 'Sunrise' (2007)
Jimi Tenor -- that legendary Finnish combination of Sun Ra, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, Prince and Brains of Thunderbirds -- will have a new album out soon, as a joint release of Californian Ubiquity Records and Finland's Sähkö Recordings.
Artist: Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu
Title: Joystone
Format: CD/LP
Label: Ubiquity Records/Sähkö Recordings
Cat.No: URCD/LP210
Date: 24 April 2007
Tracklisting:
01. Anywhere, Anytime
02. Green Grass
03. I Wanna Hook Up...
04. Hot Baby
05. Bedroom Eyes
06. Hermetic Man
07. Love Is The Only God
08. Ariane
09. Smoking
10. Horror Water
11. Sunrise
12. Dede
Press Release:
"Joystone is the latest musical excursion by the ever-inventive arranger, composer and musician Jimi Tenor. On Joystone the super-eccentric Finn teams up with Kabu Kabu, a trio of West-African musicians and ex-Fela Kuti sidemen lead by Nicholas Addo Nettey. The result is an exceptionally unique and inspired album that joins the dots between dance music, Afrobeat, funk, and pop."
"Despite its cosmic overtones, Joystone was conceived in Tenor's tiny garage in the city of Lahti in Finland and recorded, mixed and produced entirely by Didier Selin in Helsinki. Selin is the mastermind behind the award winning 2006 album Keep Reachin' Up by Tenor's wife Nicole Willis And The Soul Investigators. Adding spice are the leading players in the budding Finnish jazz scene including trumpeter Jukka Eskola and saxophonist Timo Lassy. The resulting mash of Scandinavian jazz and polyrhythmic Afro-Beat and Funk is reminiscent of legendary Euro-eccentrics Marc Moulin and Placebo. However, it is Tenor's captivating melodies, quirky humor, and genre-defying playfulness that are at the forefront of Joystone."
"On 'Sunrise', for which there is a video of Tenor and band running around a forest, he murmurs his sources of inspiration: 'Sunrise oh sunrise, my favorite time of the day. I wake up, make some coffee. Look at the garden and start making some music. Everyday pretty much the same, and yet so different'. 'Hermetic Man' is classic Tenor with loping melodic passages and subtle hints of 1970's prog jazz. The sly spacey funk of 'Smoking' contrasts the playful uptempo 'I Wanna Hook Up With You', and the album closes with 'Dede', a cinematic 7-minute opus showcasing the halkofon, a one-of-a-kind instrument invented and built by Tenor from sticks of wood used to heat up the Finnish sauna.
Jimi Tenor, was born as Lassi Lehto. His band Jimi Tenor & His Shamans released it's first album in 1988, with Tenor's first solo album dropping in 1994 and delivering 'Take Me Baby', his first big hit. He has released albums on Sähkö Recordings, Warp Records and the Kitty-Yo label. He has recorded with a 55-piece Polish Orchestra and most recently appeared on the Keep Reachin' Up album for his wife Nicole Willis. Curiously he has been called the 'Elton John of jazz' and the 'Barry White of Finland', but we like to think of this mad musical genius, having fun while searching for the missing link between Sun Ra and Fela Kuti. Joystone finds Jimi Tenor reuniting with the legendary Sähkö Recordings, the label that kickstarted his career back in 1994, and releasing through Ubiquity in North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand."
---
Also from jimitenor.com:
"A Jimi Tenor live album will soon be out on Kitty-Yo. The refreshingly spontaneous nature of Jimi Tenor's live performance is captured on Live in Berlin, recorded during the 'Beyond The Stars' tour on 27 May 2004 in Berlin's Club Maria. The album is released digitally on April 20."
Links:
(not updated any more -- I guess it started to feel unnecessary to keep an unofficial site when more professionally maintained jimitenor.com came along.)
Monday, April 02, 2007
[video clips] Sähkökvartetti & Those Lovely Hulahands
Sähkökvartetti in action
Those Lovely Hulahands
YLE, Finnish Broadcasting Company, runs these days on their Website a huge archive of old video and soundclips, spanning the last hundred years of news events, politics, culture, entertainment, education and popular culture in Finland and around the world from a Finnish point of view. Called Elävä Arkisto ("The Living Archive"), at the time of writing this, 2618 audiofiles and 2343 videofiles can be found there. (Unfortunately for you non-Finns, most of it is in Finnish language only.)
Some excerpts from Elävä Arkisto (thanks for the tip to Jukka Lindfors):
Sähkökvartetti ("The Electric Quartet") was a late-60s electronic instrument for multiple players, built by Erkki Kurenniemi, an undisputed pioneer of electronic music in Finland. During live performances Sähkökvartetti was operated by the underground luminaries Tommi Parko, Peter Widén and Arto Koskinen, and as the vocalist was the legendary M. A. Numminen. Sähkökvartetti appeared at an international youth festival in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1968, created quite a havoc with their sonic anarchy ill-fitting to the official agenda of Socialist youth culture, and were subsequently banned from the festival. There is in existence only one remaining Sähkökvartetti song, 'Kaukana väijyy ystäviä' ("Far away lurk friends"), which has been featured on various compilations and M.A. Numminen's retrospective albums. Elävä Arkisto has here Sähkökvartetti's only performance on TV and also M.A. Numminen reminiscing this project in an audio interview.
Also representing Finnish underground culture of the day, Those Lovely Hulahands were quite a different entity from Sähkökvartetti, an arty and deliberately naivistic quintet with aspiring hippie spirit; playing recorders, violins, acoustic guitars, bass, kazoo and so on. Consisting of Timo Aarniala (best known as the court artist of Finnish underground with several comic books, record sleeve illustrations etc.), Meri Vennamo, Anne-Maj Aarniala, Raisa Vennamo and Tuomas Korvenoja (the last three only 13 to 14 years old at the time), the Hulahands songs were often thematic pieces, deriving their inspiration from Francois Truffaut's Jules et Jim, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan books and comics to Korean and Chinese flute tunes. Here is a video excerpt of Those Lovely Hulahands performing their "chamber music" in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki. (Those Lovely Hulahands were also featured on the 2006 compilation Psychedelic Phinland - Finnish Hippie & Underground Music 1967-1974.)
More 60s underground @ Elävä Arkisto
The Early Years of FinnScene @ pHinnWeb
[videos] Karri O.: 'To Breathe Air'
Karri O.: 'To Breathe Air' (2007)
Karri O. (b. 1974) is a minimal techno/house musician from Helsinki, formerly of Tampere: here he used to run his own record shop Mono Records, DJ and also organise parties, which I often attended too (I remember a couple of those with not too many people present, so I'm glad he has found a better success later on). This is his new video. From the official Karri O. biography:
"Karri Ojanen, who hails from Helsinki, Finland, started his career as an electronic musician and deejay in 1992, after first producing music with a friend of his on a pair of Commodore Amigas. Since then he has performed throughout North America, Japan and Europe, in cities including Detroit, Berlin, Toronto, Tokyo, Kyoto, Paris, Budapest, Stockholm, and St. Petersburg."
"Over the past decade his preoccupation with electronic music has led him in many directions, including event promotion and vinyl vending. Nowadays Karri runs a small audiovisual record label, Abflug, and concentrates on producing his own music."
"Karri's sound is a mix of deep techno and microhouse. The results of Karri's recent producing efforts can be heard on a 12" called "The Hits" recently released on the Berlin-based label Resopal and on a new 12" called "Mysore", which has just come out on the Cologne-based imprint Plong! More releases are due to come out this fall/winter on the Berlin-based Lebensfreude Records, for instance."
Listen:
How Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex Made Me Think I Could Levitate, and Raped Me Mid-Air
[large image]
"How Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex Made Me Think I Could Levitate, and Raped Me Mid-Air" [30 March 2007]
© pHinn 2007
[pHinnMilk Comics] (not for children)
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