Tuesday, January 31, 2006

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'.

+

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

Monday, January 30, 2006

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.

Friday, January 27, 2006

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.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

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...
  • Tuesday, January 24, 2006

    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

    Monday, January 23, 2006

    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

    Saturday, January 21, 2006

    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
  • Friday, January 20, 2006

    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."

    Thursday, January 19, 2006

    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).

    Wednesday, January 18, 2006

    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

    Tuesday, January 17, 2006

    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.

    Monday, January 16, 2006

    [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!

    Friday, January 13, 2006

    [MP3] Kommandomixes January 2006

    l
    [large]

    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)

    *****

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

    *****

    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

    *****

    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


    *****

    All soundfiles @ pHinnWeb.

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

    Thursday, January 12, 2006

    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.

    Tuesday, January 10, 2006

    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.

    Thursday, January 05, 2006

    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).

    Monday, January 02, 2006

    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.