Musti Laiton: Megacity Chillout

Roope Seppälä, Ville Pitkänen and Reima Tuovinen from Helsinki are the experimental/electronic/ambient act Musti Laiton (translates as "Blackie Lawless", as with the vocalist of the 1980s notorious glam-metal act W.A.S.P.), who have released a new album, Megacity Chillout. Responsible for the album's cover art is the legendary Läjä Äijälä (of Terveet Kädet/Billy Boys/Leo Bugariloves/Sultans fame). The album is released under Creative Commons licence 2.5. and is available as a free of charge Web release and CD release (TEMMI-0005).

Tracklist:

01 Expanding fintelligent design
02 Crazy snake
03 In this cave we have lived
04 Megacity nights
05 Now gimme vocals
06 Megacity chillout
07 Tunnelma pilalla

Listen to Musti Laiton @ MySpace

Dipoli Art Event 1968

YLE Elävä Arkisto features some black & white video clips on Dipoli's art event in March 1968, which took place at Dipoli Conference Centre in Otaniemi, Espoo. Featuring underground culture of the day and performance art, the controversial "sex space", Swedish underground rock band Baby Grandmothers, and more.

http://www.yle.fi/elavaarkisto/?s=s&g=4&ag=30&t=&a=5262

"They Must Have Come To A Secret Understanding"

Magazine: 'Shot By Both Sides' (1978)


Magazine: 'Shot By Both Sides' (live at The Top of the Pops) (1978)

[lyrics]

Magazine -- what a band. But I said that before.

MANASYt (Italy) to Finland

MANASYt interview by Simulacron

Italian electro act MANASYt will hit Finland soon...

Finnish dates:

11 April 2008 - SUPERGUT @ HTC, OULU

http://www.supergut.fi
http://www.myspace.com/supergut

12 April 2008 - HORNY PARADISE @ PLACE X, TURKU

http://www.x-rust.org
http://www.myspace.com/xrust

MANASYt @ Discogs

More MANASYt search results @ YouTube

The Vladislav Delay Quartet feat. Mika Vainio / Desert Planet Tour Film

Desert Planet: 'Return of the Ninja Droids' (2005)

Assorted Finnish artists news:

1) Mika Vainio to join The Vladislav Delay Quartet

Berlin-based Finnish artist Vladislav Delay (a.k.a. Sasu Ripatti) launches an ensemble called The Vladislav Delay Quartet; featuring Mika Vainio of Pan sonic on electronics, Derek Shirley on double bass, Lucio Capece on saxophones & bass clarinet and Vladislav Delay himself on drums.

The debut performance of The Vladislav Delay Quartet will take place on Friday 11 April 2008 at My Favourite Thing festival at Radialsystem, Berlin, Germany.

More info @ Vladislav Delay site

2) Short tour movie by Desert Planet

See it at:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4rg4e_short-tour-movie-by-desert-planet_music

Desert Planet is an electronica/micromusic/space_punk/video_game_ pop band from Finland. "Short Tour Movie" presents live tracks 'Aska-Osaka Virtual Highway' and 'Opponent' shot 2006-07 on their tours in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Finland. Also including 'Green Fireballs' music video taken from the upcoming album Moonrocks (release date in G/A/S 25. April 08 by 9pm-Records).
(Movie length about 18 mins)

See also:

Kioski.De (German online shop for Finnish music)
Stupido Records (Desert Planet's record label in Finland)

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - 2008)

Sir Arthur C. Clarke: 90th birthday reflections (December 2007)

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke

British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke has passed away. Clarke (16 December 1917 - 19 March 2008) was best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the basis of which was in his 1948 short story 'The Sentinel', speculating on an alien intelligence being involved in early human evolution. Clarke also worked in close collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on the novel's film version of the same year: the book and the film created, in fact, in tandem. Other well-known novels by Clarke were among all Childhood's End (1953) and Rendezvous with Rama (1972). Clarke liked to quote the first Indian Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru: "Politics and religion are obsolete; the time has come for science and spirituality. I regard that as my guiding light," he said.

DIMI Synthesizer by Erkki Kurenniemi

YLE Elävä Arkisto features some videoclips of DIMI, perhaps one of the first digital synthesizers in the world, which was designed in 1970 by Finnish electronic music pioneer Erkki Kurenniemi. Also part of the DIMI series was the "video organ" DIMI-O, guided with a video camera, which converted the real-time movements of performers into sounds and music. In an English-language demonstration film dancer Riitta Vainio shows off the possibilities of DIMI-O in 1971. DIMI-S (a.k.a. The Sexophone) registered through electrodes attached to performer's skin any emotional changes in him or her.

http://www.yle.fi/elavaarkisto/?s=s&g=4&ag=26&t=&a=5251

Erkki Kurenniemi @ Wikipedia

Jyrki Hämäläinen (1942 - 2008)

Jyrki Hämäläinen interview (1997)

Finnish music journalist Jyrki "Jyräys" Hämäläinen has died. Hämäläinen (27 July 1942 - 18 March 2008) was best known as the chief editor of pop music magazine Suosikki ("Favourite") from 1968 to 2003. He also wrote several music books, including artist biographies for such as Ilkka "Danny" Lipsanen and Olavi Virta, also a biography of magazine mogul Urpo Lahtinen. Hämäläinen was known for his flamboyant and flashy writing style, also as one of the primus motors of the celebrity club Dean Martin Boozing Society.

Jyrki Hämäläinen @ Finnish Wikipedia

Jyrki Hämäläinen videoclips @ YLE Elävä Arkisto

Jyrki Hämäläinen epitaph by Danny (in Finnish)

Erikoisdance 8

"Hey man, I'm not the official artwork of this release, but get it now, or you'll have to deal with me!"

More from Erikoismies whose Erikoisdance 7 was featured here some time ago...

----- Forwarded Message ----

ERIKOISDANCE 8
DIABOLUS IN MUSICA — THE ERIKOISDANCE COMPILATION (CDR)

RELEASE DATE
March 14, 2008

FILE UNDER
reductionist musical output methods, occult electronics, creative automation, techno esoterica, outsider dance, sound experiments, electro, ambient

BUY IT
from the Myymälä 2 gallery shop in Helsinki or order a copy by sending us a message via the myspace page --> http://www.myspace.com/erikoismies

FROM THE PRESS RELEASE
"[...] The Method, involving phases familiar to no other musical theory or practice, differs from most every more widely known technique of creative audio production in the highest degree, and is used for the sole purpose of summoning forth what could easiest be described as The Spirit of The Apparatus. Anyone utilising The Method is forced to willingly deny themselves many privileges — such as human control over the process or the right to personally be tributed as the creator of the final recorded work — and subject themselves to the position of being a tool of The Apparatus."

SOUND CLIPS

ELEKTRISK BYDÅRE: Hin onde

TEKOKUU: Vantaalaisprinsessa

CHRIS ANGEL: Mind Freak

JUHANA HERTTUA: Kuonojen sota

BERNARDO WASHINGTON: Uutinen Suomen ydinsaastumisesta

RÖTT HOT: Homage to Jan Johansson

My Family Album

To commemorate my family, especially those members who are not among us any more, I created a virtual family album, which you can see here.

About the etymology of the word "Rautio": it's an ancient Finnish word which means "blacksmith", some of my ancestors allegedly having been members of that trade.

Kompleksi interview @ FACT (UK)

FACT magazine (UK) publishes a brand new Kompleksi interview by Kek (of Kid Shirt blog fame):

http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=432&Itemid=52

Life Moving Too Fast For pHinnWeb (At Least, For Now)

My life seems to be in transition now, so I just don't have as much time and energy for pHinnWeb or the "scene" as I used to have. (Don't ask, a lot of it is not a bunch of fun and relates to things post my father's death, but I also started at a new job now.) Anyway, I still try to do some updates when I can. For example, Sakke Karipuro announces that his pics from MARry (the people who brought you manSEDANse) Festival are now online at:

http://sakarik.1g.fi/kuvat/Events/2008/marry_festival_night-2008-03-07/

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

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

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

More info @ pHinnWeb:

FinnScene: The Early Years - Synthpop

FinnScene: The Early Years

pHinnWeb Chart March 2008...

... can be found here.