I haven't been scrobbling for about a year, but now the fun with the statistics begins again. Lots of stuff listened to in the meantime, loads of OCRemixes, but also stuff like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Specimen, the new KTU album.. oh damn my charts are just WRONG now!!!

–Eino

It seems like ages I've been to watch a gig, so I'm thrilled that within a few weeks I'll be seeing some kick-ass live music action! I also was at this year's QStock. I was working there 12 hours on saturday in the vincinity of the Rockpolis stage, so I sort of caught a good bunch of bands, but couldn't really concentrate on them obviously. It was great to hear Dian's Sunshine Eventide, anyway! I also watched a bit of Punaisen Kuningattaren Periaate on my lunch break. I was a bit underwhelmed - I enjoyed it, but…

Here are some of my initial thoughts about Voices of the Lifestream. This game music rearrangement/remix album totals 4 CDs worth of material, and the originals are from Final Fantasy 7.

I have given it a few listen-throughs as background music and a few pieces have caught my attention and got more focused listens. So it's got some gems. The album is also nicely segued, so a lot of transitions between the tracks have musical quality in themselves and add to the whole. And the overall quality is good. Often I feel many rearrangements are overproduced - I like more…

Sisäfestari Läsnä Rock tapahtui lauantaina. Odotukset olivat viimevuotisen nappitapahtuman jälkeen korkealla, eivätkä ne pettyneetkään, huolimatta siitä että turhan paljon tuli jännättyä meidän omaa esiintymistämme. ;) Noh, sehän meni sitten loppujen lopuksi oikein hyvin. Päätimme esiintyä liki täysakustistisesti pientä basson ja laulun vahvistusta lukuunottamatta ja NUKU:n näyttelytila olikin mainio tila meille. Claudius sai toivottavasti uusiakin ystäviä - festarilla oli sikälikin kiva soittaa että uusia tuttavuuksia tuli odotetusti katsastamaan että mikäs se tämä tämmöinen on, ja hyvin näytti kelpaavan. Yay! Lisäksi julisteessa oli oikein hauskasti kuvattu bändiämme Läsnän "kaunismusiikkisimmaksi ja meluttomimmaksi".

No, tuli niitä muitakin bändjä onneksi nähtyä. Omaa rämpyttelyä ennen saatiin…

Näin kuukausi tapahtuneen jälkeen on hyvä kirjoitella edellisestä keikasta, eiks je. Ja hyvinhän tämä meidän Claudius siitä selvisi, niin mikäs on kirjoitellessa. Fiilis oli kohdallaan ja yleisö vastaanottavaista, soitimme ja lauloimme suurinpiirtein niin hyvin kuin osasimme ja settilista oli onnistunut. Kohtuukokoinen yleisö oli vissiin tullut kuuntelemaan eikä esimerkiksi tanssimaan ja vähän tuntui että sellaisia kuuntelubiisejä olisi voinut olla vaikka yksi enemmänkin, mutta reipas matsku toimi kyllä myös hyvin.

Suoraan miksauspöydästä otettu keikkatallenne kuulostaa soundiltaan hitusen hassulta, alussa kaikua on reippaasti (Sana soin delay-kikat ovat kyllä aika kewlejä) ja varsinkin cajonin soundi on jotenkin pyöreä ja tuhnu. Suoraan linjasta…

Another enjoyable Super Retro Party! This was the third in the series of evenings of classic videogames and live videogame music by Blanko, our proud student organization. The atmosphere was quite relaxed, Pong and Vectrex courtesy of LudoCraft were rather popular, but so were Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros. and Metal Slug 3 on Mame (and X-Arcade double joystick, again courtesy of LudoCraft).

Axes Denied were responsible for the live music once again and did not disappoint. It was arguably not nearly as wild a gig as some AD events have been. I think the venue is/was a bit…

This was the third and final gig of the short Finnish tour from KTU, which includes Pat Mastelotto and Trey Gunn, my favourite King Crimson rhythm section (also known as the duo TU) and Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen (who form the duo Kluster in their own right), although Samuli is inactive until summer.

I dubbed the KTU gig of Tavastia the best gig I'd ever been to. Was this gig good? Yes it was good, good, good!

Setlist was the same as the previous nights. The boombastic opener began it's buildup through blue lights and smoke. When…

Oh boy, what a gig. This was the best live gig I've ever been to.

If you miss this band it's going to be the best show you've ever missed.

All these guys are monsters. Not the evil kind. Mastelotto especially was very sympathetic, with his little waves hello and thank yous to individual audience members during bows. Also his long announcement before the final encore was very nice and funny, as he explained why Samuli (who was present at the gig) is not playing this tour ((paraphrasing) "he has his solo career.. he'll be back when it flops"…

Yesterday's gig with Claudius was a bit difficult, but ultimately it went alright.

The "stage" was a bit cramped for us, a piece of floor at the other end of the first floor of Teekkaritalo. We had no monitoring, just an otherwise sufficient small PA, and had to orient ourselves so we couldn't all see each other.

If we were an electric outfit with amps, this wouldn't have been such a problem, amps could have provided enough monitoring. But we play acoustic and there was a lot of background noise from the partying. It was really, really hard to hear…

Sometimes the music you're listening to really fits into your situation. It becomes impossible to separate the music from how you are feeling. A "soundtrack moment" - this is your life and this is how it sounds.

I've had a few musical epiphanies. Some recent that I can recall: this summer, a sunny day, trying out the new cheap portable CD player, old bicycle, just setting out to town and Dark Side of The Moon in the player, the intro and first bars of Breathe uncannily crystallizing the moment like a soundtrack to life. Or feeling particularly worn out by…