Can Anyone Recognize This Video?

Via Jan Jahsonic:


unknown music video, early 1980s

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

Update:

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

Colin Newman: 'B' video @ YouTube

Colin Newman: 'B' 7" @ Discogs

Colin Newman: A-Z LP @ Discogs

Matti Inkinen of SIG (1958 - 2009)

SIG: 'Leijailen' (1985)


SIG: 'Hyvää syntymäpäivää'


SIG: 'Sadan vuoden yksinäisyys' (1984)

SIG: 'Vuosisadan rakkaustarina' (audio only)

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

Links in Finnish:

SIG videos @ Yle Elävä Arkisto

Helsingin Sanomat

Ilta-Sanomat

YLE

Propaganda: A Secret Wish (1985)

Propaganda: 'p:Machinery'


Propaganda: 'Dr. Mabuse (Anton Corbijn)

'Dr. Mabuse' (Version 2)


Propaganda: 'Duel'


Propaganda: 'Dream Within A Dream'

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

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

Stressi & Tyhjät Patterit: Finnish Synthpop Video Clips From 1981

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

Stressi @ pHinnWeb


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

Tyhjät Patterit info @ FinnArctic

1980s Finnish synthpop @ pHinnWeb

Villa Nah: VN EP (Keys of Life/Sähkö Recordings)

Keys of Life, a sublabel of Helsinki's Sähkö Recordings announces a new release by Villa Nah, an electronic duo by of Juho Paalosmaa and Tomi Hyyppä; comparing them to such early-80s synthpop luminaries as Heaven 17 and New Order. Also Jori Hulkkonen lends his production skills. More info at press releases notes @ Sähkö Recordings.

Artist: Villa Nah
Title: VN EP
Format: 12"/CD/digital download
Label: Keys of Life/Sähkö Recordings (Finland)
Cat.no.: LIFE-18
Date: April 2009

Tracklist:

A. Ways To Be
B1. Envelope
B2. Daylight

Credits:

All songs written & produced by Villa Nah.
Co-produced by Jori Hulkkonen.
Mixed by Villa Nah & Jori Hulkkonen @ alppIVhouz, 2009.
Mastered by Pete Salone @ Silencio.
Graphic design by Antti Uotila.

Villa Nah will appear this Satuday at Vanha Yo-Talo (the Old Student House) in Helsinki:

>>>>>
IHME Club: Op:l Bastards, Villa Nah, Association of Experimental Electronics & DJ Esko Routamaa

9 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Saturday night, 4 April.

The club takes place in the Bar of the Old Student House (Helsinki) and features a rare performance from the pioneer of Finnish electronic music, Op:l Bastards - who made an impressive return at the 2007 Flow Festival - as well as the retro-tinged, warm synth electro of the duo Villa Nah. DJ Esko Routamaa will be spinning records during the night.

In addition to the live music and the DJ, the IHME Club programme includes a visual dimension in the form of a cross-artistic performance executed by the Association of experimental electronics, who create musical machines from electronic junk and walk the tightrope between chaos and order. The IHME Club programme is designed by the artist Tommi Grönlund, the founder of the record label Sähkö Recordings.

Admission to the IHME Club is free. Tickets are limited - ensure your admission to the club by picking up your tickets beforehand between 30 March and 3 April at the location of Antony Gormley´s Clay and the Collective Body; the Kaisaniemi field, Kaisaniementie street 1-3. Once the IHME Days are underway on Friday, 3 April, tickets can be collected at the information desk of the Old Student House. Two tickets per person.
<<<<<

Keys of Life @ pHinnWeb (not updated)

Aavikko: Novo Atlantis

Aavikko: 'The Making of Novo Atlantis' (directed by Peter Connery, 2009)

Aavikko, the eclectic Finnish electropop-meets-lounge trio of Tomi Kosonen, Paul Staufenbiel and Tomi Leppänen, have the long-awaited fourth album out now.



Artist: Aavikko
Title: Novo Atlantis
Format: CD
Label: Stupido Records (Finland)
Cat.no.: TWIN 100
Date: 25 March 2009

Tracklist:

1. Syntaksis (3:37)
2. Specto Supernus (4:36)
3. Computopia (4:29)
4. Dies Irae Discodelico (4:15)
5. Hypatia (5:38)
6. Novo Atlantis I (3:32)
7. Novo Atlantis II (15:04)

Aavikko - official site

Aavikko @ Wikipedia

Aavikko @ Discogs

TV Off: 'I Mind Now'

TV Off: 'I Mind Now' (2009)

TV Off is a Finnish electropop act featuring members Sara and Markku. Check the links for more info.

TV Off - official site

TV Off @ MySpace

Neil Young: Trans (1982)

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

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

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

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

Some fan-made videos of Trans songs at YouTube:

'Computer Cowboy'

'We R In Control'

'Sample and Hold'

'Computer Age'

Links:

Trans @ Rolling Stone Reviews

Trans @ Shelf Life

Trans @ Line Out

1983 reviews in Finnish by Markku Into and Pekka Koskivaara

Mad Lindell: 'Grandmaster Klaus' (1988)

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

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

Written by Tommi Lindell.

Links:

The official Tommi Lindell site

Tommi Lindell @ FinnArctic

Lindellandia @ YouTube

Tommi Lindell @ Discogs

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

Tommi Lindell @ Riffi 2/2002 (in Finnish)

BadFrench (GER): 'My Parisian Friend' video + The Debut Gig

Bad French: 'My Parisian Friend' (2008)

News from BadFrench, the new project of Germany's Kiki Moorse (ex-Chicks on Speed) with Andreas (Kreidler) Reihse:

The Institut im Glaspavillon (@ Volksbühne Berlin, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, Germany) is glad to welcome BadFrench at 9 pm on Saturday, July 12, 2008, for their premier performance, a lecture and a video presentation.

BadFrench is a new music project by Kiki Moorse, former member of Chicks on Speed, and Andreas Reihse, member of the Düsseldorf band Kreidler. The duo's music is electronic, inspired by French chanson, Kiki invents herself as a D.I.Y.-diseuse. The work of BadFrench is characterized by a commitment to style, but also by a certain melancholy. The duo's first single, "My Parisian Friend", will appear in September 2008, including remixes by Jason Forrest and Toffeetronic.

At the Institut Kiki and Andreas will introduce the project, talk about their concept and give a small concert. They will also introduce their first video (directed by Elsa Okazaki).

--

And talking about Chicks on Speed, there's a new songstream called "The Feminasty Factor", created for Sonar '08, with tracks selected by Alex Murray-Leslie and Melissa Logan; also featuring a new CoS track 'Vibrator' (with Fred Schneider of The B-52s):

http://media.sonar.es/alacarta08/lista8_es.html

Le Corps Mince de Françoise: 'Cool and Bored'

Le Corps Mince de Françoise: 'Cool and Bored' (directed by Miikka Lommi, 2008)


Le Corps Mince de Françoise @ Redrum, Helsinki, 1 May 2008

Le Corps Mince de Françoise @ Blogspot

Le Corps Mince de Françoise @ MySpace

Le Corps Mince de Françoise @ Last.FM