[MP3] Kommandomixes November 2005 Part III

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Note: NOTE: THESE MIXES HAVE BEEN REMOVED TO MAKE SPACE FOR NEW MIXES. See http://www.phinnweb.org/listen/ for updates.

Morjens!

pHinnWeb Kommandomixes are back. This time with some golden oldies from our archives: featuring a 1991 Miami Bass mix from Mike Not & Jasse's legendary radioshow Panic Zone on Tampere's Radio 957 + pHinn kommandomixing at Nokia's Lavatanssit party, one rainy July evening in 2004... and Sane & pHinn's all-Finnish Suomi Soundz sets, 19 November 2005 @ Bar Apadana, Tampere.

Note: these MP3s available online only for a limited now. Listen/download soon.

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Mike Not & Jasse: Miami Bass Mix @ Panic Zone, Radio 957, 27 February 1991 [MPA]

pHinn electro/retro-techno set @ Lavatanssit, Nokia, 10 July 2004 [MP3]

Cybotron: Techno City
Octagon Man: Vidd
Double Dutch: ?
Pan sonic: Kierto
New York City Survivors: Sirkkeli
Freddy Fresh: A Boy And His Moog Series 2
John Carpenter: Assault On Precinct 13 - Main Theme
Drexciya: You Don't Know
Front 242: Commandomix
Terence Fixmer: Warm
Club Telex Noise Ensemble: CTNE (Andrew Duke's Halifax
to Montreal mix)
I-f: Shadow of a Clown
Mono Junk: I Wanna Be (Electro Star)
Underground Resistance: Electronic Warfare (Voc)
Kraftwerk: Numbers
Aux 88: Electro/Techno (Microknox edit)
Model 500: Time Space Transmat
Adonis: No Way Back
Herbie Hancock: Rockit
DJ Nasty: Closet Freak
Imatran Voima: Quad City(?)
Dexter: Intruder
Tackhead: Mind at the End of the Tether
The VHF: Beethoven's Fifth (Street) Symphony

pHinn & Sane: Set I @ Suomi Soundz, 19 November 2005 [MP3]

Nu Science: My Star [pH]
Kemialliset Ystävät: Oulussa kirjastokorttina / Niin kutsuttu joo joo -paradoksi [pH]
Vaaralliset Lelut: Argentiinalaiset muurahaiset [pH]
Kemialliset Ystävät: Annika palvoo [pH]
Micragirls: Whatta Way To Die [pH]
Carola: The Flame [pH]
Blues Section: Anna suukko vain [pH]
Pekka Airaksinen: Sukirti [pH]
Laulurastas: Loputon [S]
Jukkapoika & Jenkkarekka: Taivas aukeaa [S]
Antti Szurawitzki: Mint Minus [S]
Mode Selector: A Bit Universe [S]
DJ Pataässä: Paussi [S]
Lasse Mårtenson: Herra, olet voittanut [S]
Kimarr: You Define Me So Well [S]
Ritarikunta: Maton alta [S]
Didier's Sound Spectrum: Route to the Brain [S]
Jaakko Eino Kalevi & Long Sam: ? [S]
Jaakko: ? [S]
Ilpo Väisänen: Liima Version 3 [S]
Yrjö Jyrinkoski: Katkelma Hymyilevästä Apollosta (Eino
Leino) [S]
Ceebrolistics: Aintie [S]
Didier & Roope K: Yli ojan [S]
Bläksim: 2 Wordz (Instrumental) [S]

pHinn & Sane: Set III @ Suomi Soundz, 19 November 2005 [MP3]

Bangkok Impact: Masters of the Universe [pH]
Op:l Bastards: Scorpius [pH]
Polytron: Disco Polytron [pH]
Regina: Olisitko sittenkin halunnut palata [pH]
M.A. Numminen: Älä peräänny 2006! [S]
Jimi Tenor: Caravan [S]
Mesak: Visiotec [S]
Rättö ja Lehtisalo: Föönattu kääretorttu [S]
Jimi Tenor: New World [S]
Repekka: Kyy [S]
Op:l Bastards: Funking [S]
Boys of Scandinavia: Worse Than A Girl [pH]
Jimi Tenor: Sugardaddy [pH]
TV-Resistori: Nään tanssivan sun uudestaan [pH]
Lightman: Shake Before Use [S]
Serkkupojat: Kolahtaa Krl [S]
Giant Robot: Real Simple [S]
Putsch '79: Kisses [S]
Ercola & PP: Karhupuisto [S]

*****

All soundfiles available @ pHinnWeb

In all our mixes we are committed to Kommandomix Manifesto

Good Dog, Bad Dog

Sometimes it feels we humans are virtually invisible in this society and its cogs of bureacracy. I just visited local welfare office, and received some flak from this cold fish, a bleak blonde woman who had been assigned as someone who makes decisions about the money I get monthly. It was about that one should either leave an application in paper form or have a personal appointment but not both overlapping.

Well, it's not my fault if individual officers have different sort of policies; I only followed the instructions I'd received before from Eija S., an elderly woman and a wonderful welfare officer I had earlier on (so they are actually not all like cold, insensitive robots). I've whined even before here how shitty it is to be unemployed, and submit oneself to the control of state by having to fill all sorts of forms every month. If you're poor, society's pariah class, it seems they want to regulate every move you make. The rich just have a carte blanche.

(And if you Americans or any Finns voting for Kokoomus want to comment on this, please don't bother.)

---

In Finnish:

Harri Teikka: Huonot ihmiset -> Myönnetään normivaje

Love Records: Otto Donnerin ja M.A. Nummisen haastattelu

Löytyy täältä.

Previous

Regina Vs. OK Pop

Tampere's up-and-coming synthpop band Regina has already gained success on Finnish music papers and radio stations. Now Regina has released their first album Katso maisemaa (it means approximately "Look at the landscape"). The official record release party was on Saturday at Klubi; with Tanssikerho, an offshoot of Poppikerho, run among all by the Regina people.

The place was filled with all Tampere trendies and the local "In-crowd"; virtually "everyone" was there; I even talked with Minna Joenniemi of TV's Runoraati (and formerly of the Tampere lounge-pop band Super). I've seen Regina once before, when we arranged for them a gig at September's manSEDANse, and they were nice enough to send me the promo of their single 'Olisitko sittenkin halunnut palata' ("Would you have liked to return after all", or something like that), so I more or less knew what to expect.

The Regina show was nice, melodic synthpop with the girl vocalist Iisa; a friend of mine compared them to Stereo Total, though the lyrics about small everyday events made me even think about someone like Ultra Bra... only the sounds could have been better, I think, not having enough dimension and space in them.

Often the trouble with electronic acts is that they sound excellent on records, but their live sound leaves something to be desired with their dynamics and so (I'm not a tech sort of guy myself, so unfortunately I can't have further arguments to support this): is it because the guys behind the mixing desk usually don't quite understand what it takes to make an electronic act sound good live, having only experience with rock bands?

After the gig I headed to Yo-Talo, my traditional Saturday night watering hole. Tampere has been called "the largest village in Finland", and it was easy to see that at Yo-Talo, the club being half empty because "everyone" was at their rivalling Klubi to see Regina. You see, that Saturday night Yo-Talo hosted a disco night called OK Pop, hosted by DJs Antti Lähde and Antti Koivumäki (who also used to be in our Club Telex Noise Ensemble, playing keyboards and a vacuum cleaner!), but their normal trendy indiepop clientele I mentioned above had forsaken OK Pop for Tanssikerho. So, it was a question of bad coordination, should I say; there's no point to arrange two similar clubs in the same night for the same audience in a town size of this -- unless the competition in this case was intentional? We are living very interesting times...

Fennocentric

We Finns are little well-fed pigs living in our Scandinavian welfare state, inevitably limited by our Fennocentric / Scandicentric / Eurocentric / Westcentric views. We are as if automatically provided with food and shelter, are accustomed with all the high standards of living in our politically, economically, geologically and meteorologically safe and stable little country. Wars, natural disasters and people starving to death are something happening only somewhere far away, something we only watch on our TVs. We can only whine about the weather and winter-time light deprivation or any perceived threats that might endanger the sustenance of our cosy little welfare state. For someone coming from a Third World country, it might appear that we live in a sort of paradise. But is it really so?

There are some sociological theories claiming that when all basic needs, such as food, shelter and necessary monthly income, are provided, people will start to ponder if something else is still lacking in their lives. All material well-being proves not to be enough, something is still missing. Do we need more material things around us, or is the lack of some deeper, spiritual sort? This is the paradox of the so called high Western standards of living.

Fffolk Vs. Electronicszzz, Part II

As a comment to Fffolk Vs. Electronicszzz, Mr. Juuso Paaso sent the following link:

http://datacide.c8.com/text/noise.html

Hymy perseeseen!

Lost Syd Barrett Recording Found

Interesting, but personally I don't hold my breath for this, Syd having badly lost his marbles already by 1972, so this might be of interest to hardcore Syd fans only.

From http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0511193.html

Last-Minute Put-Together Boogie Band tape

An incredibly rare recording of Syd Barrett, performing live on 27th January, 1972, with the Last-Minute Put-Together Boogie Band, at a show in Cambridge, has recently been unearthed, and plans are underway for a release!

Naturally, this news has spread like wildfire and anticipation is huge amongst the legions of Syd fans. Should the release of this show come to fruition (and the people behind it have outline permissions from all concerned to go ahead), it will be a fascinating, historical document for Pink Floyd fans.

The sound on the recording is uneven in parts and will require 'tweaking' in a studio before it will be suitable for release. Any release is therefore some months away.

The Last-Minute Put-Together Boogie Band's set consists of 5 blues songs before Syd comes on stage for a long jam ("Number Nine") followed by 3 blues songs/improvs ("Gotta Be A Reason", "Let's Roll" and "Sweet Little Angel"). The Hawkwind and Pink Fairies sets on the reel are also reported to be worth hearing.

Syd is on stage for 29 minutes in total - the jam "Number Nine" is around 9 minutes long but segues directly into "Gotta Be A Reason". None of the songs are Syd's or Pink Floyd's. Alan Barrett (Syd's brother who makes decisions on Syd's behalf) was pitched the story of the recording and the hopes to release it, and he has contacted PF Music Publishing to give them the "OK".

The story of this recording is interesting, and can be found by visiting: www.nsblog.co.uk/FraKcman and also www.spacewardstudios.ukf.net/stories.htm. The people behind the release are asking for as many people as possible to email them a one-liner stating 'I support this release', sent to: sydbarrettslostgig at hotmail.co.uk in order to exert extra leverage on the company that they are hoping will release it. Please note that emails will not be answered, and it's an inbox only facility. This could be a potentially historic release and your voice can help.

More news on this as we get it...

Date news posted: 19 November 2005

Syd Barrett @ pHinnWeb

New Additions to Finnsleaze

[Skip this entry if you are under 18 years of age.]



New additions to Finnsleaze... Again, some scans leave much to be desired, but hopefully these may give some sort of idea about the sordid pastimes of our fathers' generation.

Cocktail:

2/69 | 3/69 | 4/69 | 5/69 | 6/69 | 7/69 | 8/69 | 9/69 | 10/69 | 11/69 | 14/69 | X-Mas '69 | 1/70 | 2/70 | 3/70 | 6/70 | 8/70

Jallu:

12/67 | 9/69 | 4/70 | 7/81

Jermu:

4/71 | 11/75 | 12/75 | 3/76 | 4/77 | 9/77 | 12/77

Kalle:

3/73 | 8/73 | 2/74 | 3/74 | 6/74 | 8/74 | 11/74 | 1/75 | 2/75 | 4/75 | 5/75 | 6/75 | 7/75 | 8/75 | 9/75 | 1/76 | 3/76 | 4/76 | 5/76 | 6/76 | 7/76 | 8/76 | 9/76 | 11/76 | 12/76 | 9/77 | 3/78 | 4/78 | 7/78 | 9/78 | 11/79

Miesten Maailma:

2/71 | 11/70

Nyrkkiposti:

11/70 | 13/70 | 4/74 | 4/74 B | 11/76

Ratto:

11/74 | 4/75 | 11/75 | 12/75 | 4/76 | 2/78 | 7/78 | 8/79 | 1/82 | 3/80 | 5/80 | 7/80 | 10/80 | 10/81 | 5/83

Uusi Aatami:

1/70 | 9/70 | 4/71

End of November (*)

Half asleep most of the time, nearly dozing off. People armoured for winter move on as if in slow motion, their faces empty masks. Brief glimpses of grey daylight out of sub-arctic darkness devouring the frozen blocks of concrete. Sitting in a bus and watching distant necklaces of orangeish light, a man-made Milky Way. Moonscape as far as eyes can see. Students who speak in rural accents. Silent townspeople. Stoic teenagers hidden beneath their hooded jackets. Melancholia of these Norse latitudes is like some contagious disease for which there is no vaccination.

One pretends being immune, trying to think cheerful thoughts, to remember that summer was a dead bore anyway. This time of the year makes one look inward when there are no external objects to concentrate upon in darkness. Dreams come, and they come in abundance like a carnival projected inside one's eyelids. Dream people, dream buildings, dream towns, dream situations. People long passed away are there like they were never gone, doing absurd things. A strange play unfolds, full of hidden meanings posted on the walls of subconscious, and something one can't really decipher. Don't try to understand a dream, it always flees away from you. It is a kaleidoscope made of the fragments of your mind Mr. Sandman eagerly twists around into ever-changing new positions.

Hibernating citizens fed by TV's blue milk. Watching TV, reading newspapers, checking the glaring tabloid headlines while picking up one's groceries in a supermarket filled with other November zombies. Everywhere propaganda: war propaganda, economy propaganda, the EU propaganda, propaganda propaganda; who was dropped from the Idols or Big Brother, who cheated whom; an alcoholic ex-skijumper has beaten up his wife again, a has-been singer has divorced once more; another sex scandal, drug scandal -- a fest for voyeurist hypocrites.

A month before Christmas, the darkest time of the year. The annual consumer hysteria is just beginning; little children are taught, conditioned, that their happiness depends on all sort of useless stuff they will receive if they play along the rules. Every year Christmas will be burdened with guilt, angst and loneliness; the most tragic time of the year. Memories of broken families and lost loves always loom there over Yuletide. One wants to ignore it all, forget, spit that fat pig Santa Claus in the face and set his miserable beard to flames, desecrate Christmas. Vomit out all that greasy, fattening junk they want to stuff one with.

Better not to think about it now. After all, it's just three days out of 365. Let it pass like a flu or a teenage acne. Try to think Positive Thoughts [TM], though it might be hard as hell when you're dead tired all the time. One would only like to hibernate like they let all the other mammals do, don't they? Only humans have to force themselves to spend their winters awake. Unlike bears who can comfortably curl up in some cosy and warm cave after having eaten their bellies full. No, we have to wake up every dark winter morning and violently tear ourselves off from our warm, womb-like beds to the angry artificial light and head for our jobs and schools and kindergartens and prison workshops and whatever, only to get back home when it's dark again. We have to keep fit and do our exercises, aerobics and whatever even in the middle of the darkest wintertime when the only natural thing to do was to eat ourselves out of shape and sleep, sleep, sleep. Life is not fair. Yawn.


(*) This does not concern any of you lucky bastards living in Australia and other sunny, warm places like that; only us sub-arctic dwellers of the frozen, dark Northern hemisphere in this weary, dreary time of the year.

On Factionalism

Let's investigate further the concept of "gathering the tribes".

In all actions one should avoid factionalism; that is, favouring one group at the expense of the other. This being easier said than done, finding one's way honourably means having to do concessions every now and then.

How to maintain good relations with all parties concerned, and how to avoid conflicts which seem inevitable when strong minds want to stick to their own ideas and opinions, without giving up an inch and unwilling to do any compromises?

One must be honest and answer oneself the questions: am I willing to take on this for the benefit of all people, or am I only doing this opportunistically to strengthen my own position, to gratify my own ego? (Not to speak about the financial gain, of course.) It is sometimes hard to remember that one is only one drop in the ocean, only one link in the chain.

Sometimes the best option seem to say nothing, do nothing. For an ambitious (and probably unpatient) person this is extremely frustrating. It may feel like this will only lead one into isolation. Then, one should ask, how great that isolation would eventually be if one would let oneself be fooled into a full-scale conflict.

Going solo altogether seems sometimes to be the best way to maintain one's freedom, but when gains some, one loses some.

From I Ching:

Hexagram 13. T'ung Jên / Fellowship with Men

...

THE JUDGMENT

FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN in the open.
Success.
It furthers one to cross the great water.
The perseverance of the superior man furthers.

True fellowship among men must be based upon a concern that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual that create lasting fellowship among men, but rather the goals of humanity. That is why it is said that fellowship with men in the open succeeds. If unity of this kind prevails, even difficult and dangerous tasks, such as crossing the great water, can be accomplished. But in order to bring about this sort of fellowship, a persevering and enlightened leader is needed--a man with clear, convincing, and inspiring aims and the strength to carry them out. (The inner trigram means clarity; the outer, strength.)

THE IMAGE

Heaven together with fire:
The image of FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN.
Thus the superior man organizes the clans
And makes distinctions between things.

Heaven has the same direction of movement as fire, yet it is different from fire. Just as the luminaries in the sky serve for the systematic division and arrangement of time, so human society and all things that really belong together must be organically arranged. Fellowship should not be a mere mingling of individuals or of things--that would be chaos, not fellowship. If fellowship is to lead to order, there must be organization within diversity.

THE LINES

Nine at the beginning means:
Fellowship with men at the gate.
No blame.

The beginning of union among people should take place before the door. All are equally close to one another. No divergent aims have yet arisen, and one makes not mistakes. The basic principles of any kind of union must be equally accessible to all concerned. Secret agreements bring misfortune.

° Six in the second place means:
Fellowship with men in the clan.
Humiliation.

There is danger here of formation of a separate faction on the basis of personal and egotistic interests. Such factions, which are exclusive and, instead of welcoming all men, must condemn one group in order to unite the others, originate from low motives and therefore lead in the course of time to humiliation.

Nine in the third place means:
He hides weapons in the thicket;
He climbs the high hill in front of it.
For three years he does not rise up.

Here fellowship has changed about to mistrust. Each man distrusts the other, plans a secret ambush, and seeks to spy on his fellow form afar. We are dealing with an obstinate opponent whom we cannot come at by this method. Obstacles standing in the way of fellowship with others are shown here. One has mental reservations for one's own part and seeks to take his opponent by surprise. This very fact makes one mistrustful, suspecting the same wiles in his opponent and trying to ferret them out. The result is that one departs further and further from true fellowship. The longer this goes on, the more alienated one becomes.

And:

Hexagram 6. Sung / Conflict

above CH'IEN THE CREATIVE, HEAVEN
below K'AN THE ABYSMAL, WATER

The upper trigram, whose image is heaven, has an upward movement; the lower trigram, water, in accordance with its nature tends downward. Thus the two halves move away from each other, giving rise to the idea of conflict. The attribute of the Creative is strength, that of the Abysmal is danger, guile. Where cunning has force before it, there is conflict.

A third indication of conflict, in terms of character, is presented by the combination of deep cunning within and fixed determination outwardly. A person of this character will certainly be quarrelsome.

THE JUDGMENT

CONFLICT. You are sincere
And are being obstructed.
A cautious halt halfway brings good fortune.
Going through to the end brings misfortune.
It furthers one to see the great man.
It does not further one to cross the great water.

Conflict develops when one feels himself to be in the right and runs into opposition. If one is not convinced of being in the right, opposition leads to craftiness or high-handed encroachment but not to open conflict.

If a man is entangled in a conflict, his only salvation lies in being so clear-headed and inwardly strong that he is always ready to come to terms by meeting the opponent halfway. To carry one the conflict to the bitter end has evil effects even when one is the right, because the enmity is then perpetuated. It is important to see the great man, that is, an impartial man whose authority is great enough to terminate the conflict amicably or assure a just decision. In times of strife, crossing the great water is to be avoided, that is, dangerous enterprises are not to be begun, because in order to be successful they require concerted unity of focus. Conflict within weakens the power to conquer danger without.

THE IMAGE

Heaven and water go their opposite ways:
The image of CONFLICT.
Thus in all his transactions the superior man
Carefully considers the beginning.

The image indicates that the causes of conflict are latent in the opposing tendencies of the two trigrams. Once these opposing tendencies appear, conflict is inevitable. To avoid it, therefore, everything must be taken carefully into consideration in the very beginning. If rights and duties are exactly defined, or if, in a group, the spiritual trends of the individuals harmonize, the cause of conflict is removed in advance.

THE LINES

Six at the beginning means:
If one does not perpetuate the affair,
There is a little gossip.
In the end, good fortune comes.

While a conflict is in the incipient stage, the best thing to do is to drop the issue. Especially when the adversary is stronger, it is not advisable to risk pushing the conflict to a decision. It may come to a slight dispute, but in the end all goes well.

Nine in the second place means:
One cannot engage in conflict;
One returns home, gives way.
The people of his town,
Three hundred households,
Remain free of guilt.

In a struggle with an enemy of superior strength, retreat is no disgrace. Timely withdrawal prevents bad consequences. If, out of a false sense of honour, a man allowed himself to be tempted into an unequal conflict, he would be drawing down disaster upon himself. In such a case a wise and conciliatory attitude benefits the whole community, which will then not be drawn into the conflict.

Six in the third place means:
To nourish oneself on ancient virtue induces perseverance.
Danger. In the end, good fortune comes.
If by chance you are in the service of a king,
Seek not works.

This is a warning of the danger that goes with an expansive disposition. Only that which has been honestly acquired through merit remains a permanent possession. It can happen that such a possession may be contested, but since it is really one's own, one cannot be robbed of it. Whatever a man possesses through the strength of his own nature cannot be lost. If one enters the service of a superior, one can avoid conflict only by not seeking works for the sake of prestige. It is enough if the work is done: let the honour go to the other.

Suomi Soundz Playlists...

... can be found here. Some of these sets may be available online in the future as MP3s.

There were two black-clad goth-girls who came to us to have a record request. I thought they wanted to hear some gothrock or some gloomy synthpop, but it was DJ Proteus (progressive house/trance) that they requested! O tempora, o mores...

IXTHULUH, Another Obscure Krautrock Band

Ernst Matscheko wrote to me from Austria and requested me to add this band to pHinnWeb's Krautrock links, additionally informing me that:

IXTHULUH was a psychedelic Krautrock band from Austria. Starting with jazz rock, the band soon switched to their own direction, called "near Siberia". Founded 1975, the group was named Ixthuluh since spring 1976. At the beginning enhanced by bands like Can, Gato Barbieri or Gong, they started early looking for their own sound far off from music business. The group bought an old farmhouse in 1977 and changed from the band Ixthuluh to the Kollektiv Ixthuluh. Totally five discs document their work history.
Today the band maybe would be characterized as a jam band. The group disbanded at the end of 1981.

Discography:

1976/77: Yes We Are A Jazzband
1978/79: No Money For A Radio
1980: Tea At Two
1981: What's The Name

The best album is Tea At Two.

(Excerpt of an review) Two very long tracks dominate the disc. "Forbidden Fruits" is a song in best old Krautrock tradition, reminiscent of Berlin's Ash Ra Tempel, with a pinch of Pink Floyd. "The Long Trail To Gila Bridge" is a song without a pattern, the band calls this sound "off-road rock" -- that's right! "Sittin On My Lonely Chair": only played by drums and electric guitar seems to be a rumbling song of the exercise room at the beginning and evolves to a song full of urgency and expression. There is no feeble song on this album.

SUOMI SOUNDZ, Saturday 19 November 2005

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SUOMI SOUNDZ
All-Finnish Music Night @ Apadana, Tampere
Saturday 19 November 2005.

DJs:
Sane (M.A. Numminen Band)
pHinn (Kompleksi, pHinnWeb)

Paco Rabanne

"I know that the sensible thing to do would to follow the common thinking but that is what an artist is unable to do. The intention of Picasso and Dalí was to always create something new, to go even further. Artists always strive for discovering something else, always to reach the outer limits of their abilities. It is not a question of futurism or avantgardism. I don't know what avantgarde is. I suppose it is living in one's time, in the present. It is enormously difficult, because even if some fantastic techniques do exist, everyone still remains almost 20 years behind their time. People are afraid of adopting new ideas." - Paco Rabanne

Arto Salminen In Memoriam

Finnish author Arto Salminen has died at the age of 46 in his native Hausjärvi. The cause of death was sudden seizure. Salminen was born on 22 November 1959 in Helsinki. He penned six novels which earned him a cult reputation in Finland. Those were Turvapaikka (1995), Varasto (1998), Paskateoria (2001), Ei-kuori (2003), Lahti (2004) and Kalavale (2005). Salminen's books were biting social satires spiced with morbid black humour and ugly characters; criticizing life in modern Finland with its increasingly neo-liberalist politics, the growing power of yellow press, sleazy gossip media and reality-TV. Arto Salminen's death is a serious blow to Finnish literature.

Arto Salminen @ pHinnWeb

Fffolk Vs. Electronicszzz

On his blog Voltage, Max Clarke a.k.a. Maxx Klaxon raises some interesting points about the current folk revival.

As someone who subscribes to ooooo mailing list (the home of Finnish marginal and eclectic music, among all with most of those folk(s) belonging to the "New Weird of Finland" movement lauded in The Wire and international zines) and has followed what people like Kemialliset Ystävät are doing, I find this quite interesting. I might argue that what I find myself attracted to in this sort of music (often called "psychedelic folk" or "New Weird of...") is not the fact that it is created with acoustic instruments but the overall spirit of experimentation that is found there: all those weird sounds and otherworldy ambience. Those are not exactly traditional strumming acoustic guitar by campfire sounds, but something totally creating a world one can call its own. Then, I'm not familiar myself with most of the other artists belonging to this alleged "new folk" genre, e.g. Devandra Banhart, so I can't really comment this style in general.

Musical "fashions" repeat themselves in cycles and have a tendency to reflect the general Zeitgeist: in unsure times people obviously have a need to return to the "roots", to what is "safe", "tried and true". Even then, musical experimentation and seeking for what is "new" is bound to go on somewhere in the margins.

To throw more gasoline in the flames: how much there is that is actually "new" in current electro(nic) music, and how much of that is only recycling what was already done in the 1980s?

Anyway, this seems to me to be another revival of the age-old confrontation between "authentic", "natural", "down-to-Earth" acoustic/rock music and the "artificial", "unnatural", "unauthentic" electronic (dance/listening) music; of which I grew up tired years ago after countless "it is/it isn't" type of arguments which proved totally unfruitful and counterproductive in the end. Doesn't it only boil down to subjective tastes, personal likes and dislikes? An artist tries to make most of those instruments and resources at his/her disposal, whether they were acoustic or electric guitars, violins, flutes, kazoos, washboards, Moog synths, Roland's x0x series, MAX/MSP, empty oil barrels or rubber bands. In the end it's creativity that counts, not the means to reach that end result.

[Video] Amon Düul II: 'Eye-Shaking King'

You can see those furry Krauts, Amon Düül II, in action here (48MB wmv file). The track is 'Eye-Shaking King' from one of their best albums, Yeti. A clip from the Beat Club TV show in 1971, with psychedelic video effects and Blitzkrieg edits. Jawohl, baby!

Krautrock @ pHinnWeb

More Arctic Hysteria / Son of Arctic Hysteria / Love Records History

More Arctic Hysteria / Son of Arctic Hysteria is a new 2-CD compilation on Siboney label about the history of Finnish avantgarde music of the 1970s and 80s, which is a continuation to the 2001 CD Arktinen hysteria - Suomi-avantgarden esipuutarhureita (which I reviewed here). Featuring Jimi Tenor, Läjä Äijälä and early Mika Vainio (Pan sonic), The Sperm activists Mattijuhani Koponen and Pekka Airaksinen, Edward Vesala at his wildest, Kari Peitsamo, Kauko Röyhkä and Sleepy Sleepers at their most experimental and many other musical alchemists from Pekka Streng to Reinin Myrkky -- as a bonus some no-holds-barred sound experiments of Kaj Chydenius and M.A. Numminen from the 60s.

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[Love Records: their logo was somehow suggestive, eh?]

There is also a new book on the history of the legendary Finnish label Love Records -- Siboney is the label which re-releases on CD the works of this label which went bankrupt in 1979. The author, Miska Rantanen, has his own blog (in Finnish) concerning the book here.

Chicks on Speed 2005 US Tour

Those crazy Chix again on tour in the Bushland! You can see the tour poster here.

"Reading Between The Lines" US Tour 2005:
CoS appearing with Our Aura Hour starring Kevin Blechdom & Planningtorock (except at shows marked with **):

10.11. USA-West Hollywood, CA - Key Club
11.11. USA-San Francisco, CA - The Independent
12.11. USA-Portland, OR - Holocene
14.11. USA-Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
17.11. USA-Chicago, IL - Abbey Pub
18.11. USA-Washington, DC - Nation
19.11. USA-New York, NY - Knitting Factory
21.11. CAN-Edmonton, AB - New City Compound **
22.11. CAN-Calgary, AB - Broken City
26.11. USA-Miami, FL - Bang!Music Festival, Bugged Out Tent **