New Weird Finland and Fonal records
 

Have these people injested drugs that it is impossible to get your hands on?Bought the compilation 'Summer And Smiles Of Finland' and every track(rare thing to my ears)is the shit!

Total.
Meh.

Have you heard the Aallo Ja Aanet track(pardon me Finnish people for the missing punctuation)?How fucking beautiful is that?

I have not, but I have heard an awful lot of this Finnish stuff, and while some of it is indeed very good, I think a lot of it is getting accolades it doesn't really deserve, and what few of these bands I have seen were pretty disappointing live.

Edit:
I am being a little harsh I guess.
I just think this stuff is a little less mindblowing than the current scenemakers do. Maybe they're hearing something I am not.

Erm....why?

Directionless ramblings and a fuck-it attitude for 20 minutes are not the ingredients of a fabulous live experience to me, but there were people clapping and yelling for more.

I can't really assest if you have heard this stuff in the first place but it sounds fanstastic to me.I don't know where you are coming from with that.There is definately music on it that i'd find obviously derivative but the it still sounds and feel like the shit,my man.

Oh i see.It sounds fine to these ears.I suppose it's a live experience too.

I am more than willing to check out acts I have not heard before, but if I'm going Finnish I still prefer Circle to most of the beardo set.
There are one or two acts that I have written off, but certainly some of them have made recordings I enjoy.

I must have been suddenly bitten by the bug but this record hasn't got a single stinker on it.I'm really enjoying the Nina Olen Palasina at the moment and it feels like the best thing in the world.I haven't gone through all the other records i bought today so it might change,mind.

I haven't had the opportunity to see any of those bands live, nor have I heard the Summer and Smiles CD, but the few recording I have heard I have enjoyed quite alot. I've been listening to Kemialliset Ystavat and Avarus pretty consistently for the last year or so and have yet to be disappointed. Good drugs indeed.

I'll agree with Hat and Beard on the greatness of Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat, but I've yet to hear most of the other artists associated with the scene.

Fuck it!This album is the second record that i've heard since the start of the year(apart from Low's) and it feels real good.I'm in a rare good mood.

Hmmm, I got that Summer and Smiles comp (for free thankfully) and found it underwhelming. I have liked a lot of Kemialiset Ystavat and Avarus stuff I have heard but both of them, Avarus especially, have done some duff stuff. Also Tomutonttu is really good but that's one of the guys from KY so it doesn't really count as a seperate band really.

A lot of the other stuff has been guff. And I'm not counting Circle really because they aren't really in that whole 'scene' and I haven't heard much by them.

Can i ask why you found it underwhelming in the first place?

Indeed. They are a different thing entirely. My mention of them was simply to draw contrast. I like them quite a lot though.

Hang on as sec........

Are we saying that because Aurinkotuuleen and Lumottu Karkkipurkky share a scene they sound the same?That doesn't make sense from a critical point of view at all.Unless you care to elaborate.

but some of us enjoy hearing souls bared and it doesn't matter if they aren't standing there making rock poses/faces (like circle)

directionless to you is the sound of the cosmos to me.

I have a feeling that live, some of these groups can either bring on the Cosmic Vibe or be directionless and "fuck it" depending on the night.

Well,what bands DON'T DO that?

There are bands that are consistently good in a live or studio setting. I think the studio treats most of this music much better.

But,i'm sorry,how would you know?

For the ones I have seen, I know what I saw and heard, and it was not good. It was doubly disappointing considering I was looking forward to seeing them based on the quality of some recordings I have heard. I wanted to like it and I was excited at the beginning of the shows, but by the end I was somewhat disillusioned. I will still check out the recording though, because I know they are capable of making good albums.

Well,fair enough.Taste.There is obviously a number of bands on the album that i think sound good but might be a one-trick-pony but there are quite a few that i'll investigate further.Don't forget,fat queen,that i've discovered your music on such a type of compilation and there are duds on it too.Yeah?

this type of music depends a lot on what YOU bring to it, you know what i mean??

if you go with a chip on your shoulder expecting to be "entertained" according to your standards, you miss a lot of the subtlety and beauty while waiting for some lame-ass guitar solo or melody-line.

you know what i'm getting at?

To be fair, I think that you could say the above of anyone. Everyone has pecidillos [sp?], everyone has preferences which we bring prior to listening. From what I can gather about Mr Clone, he's pretty open to a lot of things. Some people like things, some people don't. After a certain point, it's not that important which way they care. The bottom line (please bear in mind I'm hammered) is that Mr Clone doesn't deserve the 'open mind' lecture.

Oh c'mon,of course he doesn't!I happen to(by now) adore this record and he has a contrasting opinion on it.He's a fat queen and i still love this record.It's a minor.

Well, I was going to say something along those lines... I think that this kind of music can depend a lot on mood. I have listened to Kemialiset Ystavat records (for example) and really not been into it and put the same record on at a later date and thought it the greatest thing since sliced bread. Obviously this can be the case with all music but more so with 'this kind of thing' whatever the hell that means.

As for why I found the comp underwhelming...well, I can't really remember to be honest. I just remember listening to it when I got it and thinking 'meh' and filing it away. The KY tracks were all good but I think I had them anyway

Yeah, I know what you're getting at. I said I liked the records and was looking forward to the shows. I happened to be disappointed. I had an open mind, even a receptive one, to start with.

i've seen a handful of those bands live and i've been disappointed in varying degrees by each one. they're like the improvised music equivalent of an army of deliberatly inept sub-K records type stuff. Free Twee.
for finnish music i prefer the likes of can can heads, circle, liimanarina. where's young phlegm-o-scope? he put me on to a website that has dozens of mp3s of finnish music.

Still,what has this got to do with the record that i bought and enjoyed?I wasn't exactly asking for your opinion on finnish underground but thanks anyway.

if you don't want to hear people's opinions don't start a thread about something. or would that be too easy for you, marras?

I went to a Fonal evening/thing at St Giles church (down the end of Denmark Street) early last year. I remember free licorice vodka shots on the door.. and erm.. the Four Tet bloke was there.

Is it bad that I don't know who I saw? there were three acts on.. all from Finland.. i only saw the first two, though.. went outside for a smoke during the intermission and sort of wandered off into Soho to find something to eat and never made it back.

what I heard sounded quite nice, though.

i'm not saying that you're closed minded.....

it's just that alot of times on this board, i see you dismissing bands like magick markers and such because something about them bothers you.

sometimes, ya just have to lay back, spread your ears and get your mind fucked.

I did have a bad reaction to the first Magik Markers performance I saw, but I was also pretty effusive in my love for the Smegma show and the whole End Times fest this past year. I like a mindfuck just fine.
I went and saw Magik Markers again after the first time because I recognize the improvisational aspect means inevitable peaks and valleys. They were very good the second time.
I like seeing a band at least care about their set, though. I definitely do not require "precision" for enjoyment.

Edit:
I'm just a guy with an opinion in any case, and it's not even all that negative of an opinion. Obviously a lot of people are into this stuff and it's all personal taste. I guess in that sense it's not really even my place to make guesses on whether or not a band wasn't giving all they could on a particular night. I do like some of this stuff, just not all of it.

Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?

That Shogun Kunitoki CD ("Tasanokokaiku") was a blast, my favourite record of 2006 !!!

i have never seen any of those people live, but i really liked what i've heard from Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus on record (KY always, Avarus most of the time)... i have a heard a bit of Es and Islaja, but not enough to form an opinion...

strangely i haven't been able to get into Circle... i don't why, because somehow it would "make sense" that i like this band. i will keep trying, though... so maybe one day i will eventually fall in love with their music...

when i first saw circle i wasnt as interested in them and found it hard to get into them but now i love them. avarus too.

been listening to some of the supersilent stuff recently. runegramafon do some pretty ace stuff.