Diario

So.

In the beginning we have Bérurier Noir, who form in early 1980's and in line with the French trend, utilize a drum machine instead of a real drummer for their music. (For some reason French have always been very keen to use drum machines in punk, if compared to other countries - I wonder why.)

By late 1980's BxN have become a huge band and quit while still being at the top.

The vocalist of BxN, François, goes on to form Molodoï who first play pretty straight-forward punk, and later bring new influences (tango, reggae, you name it) to their music. They split up somewhere in late 1990's. François also writes a travel book during the mid-90's.

Meanwhile the guitarist of BxN, Loran, experiments in Ze6 which effectively continues the minimalistic drum-machine backed sound of early Bérurier Noir. Ze6 was featured in a live split-cassette release with Molodoï, but didn't release any studio recordings. (According to some sources, the band split up while in studio. Eh.)

With François still in Molodoï, Loran goes on to found Tromatism with some friends. Tromatism continue with the drum machine, but mix all kind of strange ethnic stuff into their punk; digeridoo, drums, flutes.. Somewhere around late 1990's Tromatism quits.

Before the short reformation of Bérurier Noir and after the disintegration of Molodoï, François releases an album as François Béru et les Anges Déchus. The music in the album is pretty straight punk-influenced rock.

Around the same time Loran is apparently connected to Ethnopaire, who play pretty weird trancepunk.

And then we come to the point where BxN reforms for a few years, which prolly is enough recent to be of common knowledge.

After BxN has quit again, Loran joins his latest group, Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs who mix folk songs (and instruments) from Bretagne with punk (and a drum machine, again!) This group is proving to be rather interesting, there's a definite influence of Tromatism in it, and the bagpipe and flute make it sound almost like a more organic version of Ethnopaire. Their first album features two cover songs: Nomades (from Ze6, Tromatism and Bérurier Noir played this as well) and Vive le feu (from Bérurier Noir) - I guess it pretty much tells you where the new band is coming from..

As for the latest news of what François is up to, I have no idea... And furthermore, feel free to correct any possible errors in my short run-down.

I've been slowly working some stuff concerning the punk band I play in, SA-int.

At the moment we have a nice page here at last.fm, with two 7" EPs for full-length listening. They're here: Maailma ilman rajoja and Valta & vastuu. Nice. I'll prolly add the rest of the albums at some point and perhaps make all of them for free download. Maybe. Meanwhile, those of you adept with Google can try to find them for download from the net, it isn't that hard - believe you me.. ;)

In addition I've uploaded some live material to Youtube, here we go:







They're all from the most excellent "Punk 30 years" party in Nosturi, Helsinki last February (3rd of February 2007, to be precise.)

Afro Celt Sound System (or Afro Celts as they are sometimes billed as) mix, as their name suggests, traditional celtic and african world music. The result is an easy-going combination, which sounds a lot less awkward than it might suggest on first impression. They've so far six albums for Peter Gabriel's Real World Records, and according to Wikipedia are by far the most succesful group of the label.

Mari Boine is a Norwegian sami artist, mixing rock and traditional sami music. The result sounds something akin to Angelin tytöt (or Angelit, as they're nowdadays known as.) Fairly ethreal and something which suits this overly dark period of year perfectly.

Masala (or Masala Sound System is like a meltingpot of reggae, hiphop and world music. I admit I've mostly listened to their Obywatele IV świata EP, which is a rather bizarre combination of something straight out of bollywood and rather tight hiphop. Most excellent, rest assured.

Transglobal Underground is pretty weird as well. Sounding like a combination of some jamaican beats, world music and modern dance music, this group isn't necessarily the easiest. I only have their Impossible Broadcasting which ranges from reggae-influenced slow songs to quite machine-oriented (akin to Banco De Gaia) floating. Fresh!

To be continued in part 3..

I've recently discovered a crapload of absolutely fantastic artists. Here are a few of them:

Tagada Jones are from France and play punk with some metal/nu-metal influences. While I generally absolutely loathe everything even remotely related to nu-metal (hey, it's just over-produced metal with rap overtones for white thrash gangster kids), Tagada Jones isn't luckily that much nu-metal. Just the part about low-tuned guitars (or alternatively 7-string guitars, I wouldn't know) and the rap/hiphop influences.

Lab° are a dub group from France. Apparently the "dub" part is for "dubious", as they seem to like to play tricks on the listener. While listening to one of their fine albums, a track suddenly launched into a full-fledged spacerock in vein of Hawkwind and the like just out of the blue. Imagine the surprise were I just chilling out to dub! Also, another of their tracks begins as a slow and chilly dub, but transforms into grindcore near the end. Wicked!

Amparanoia's La Vida Te Da has been in my powerplay rotation for quite some time now. It's essentially happyhappyjoyjoy world music, but not in a ridiculous way. Apparently Manu Chao appreciates Amparanoia as well. Personally I could't care less about the opinions of that sell-out major label whore, but I assume some might consider it as a strong recommendation.

To be continued in part two.

It's that time of the year again, and I find myself not only drifting deeper into dark sentiments, but also listening less happy music.

These things go hand in hand, if I ever feel down, it's completely impossible - somewhere totally even beyond the thought - to listen to any cheery music. (I'm somewhat inclined to consider wallowing in melacholy as a trait learnt from my Finnish upbringing.)

So, have a completely rotten holiday, whoever you might be.

A probably playlist for the holidays:

Elizium
LEGENDA
Spleen and Ideal
Sunyata
Nowa Aleksandria
Lumbago

I've noticed I've lately been sort of "going back" to the artist I used to listen some fifteen (or so) years ago.

Sure, I was nothing but a kid back then, but I've been a rather serious music fan from a very young age, I guess part of the blame must be put on my parents.. ;)

Anyway, while listening to something like Utah Saints, I don't feel like the music has dated a bit. And this sure isn't a nostalgia trip of any sort either.

I'm not sure, perhaps I'm just seeking subconsciously for a "sure" and "already tested" experience, by listening to The Shamen, 808 State, The Future Sound of London, Aphex Twin or shit. (Disclaimer: old Aphex Twin for me only, I basically can't stand anything he has done after Selected Ambient Works II.)

Prolly this has been just a rather insignificant observation, I've never really understood people who are stuck on listening to just one type of music (genres, you know), and currently I'm just going through an oldschool phase myself.. :)

To keep up with the latest cool shit, Koska vettä ei ole juotavaksi tyydymme hiekkaan, emme siksi ettei ole vaihtoehtoa vaan siksi ettemme ymmärrä eroa. is now available at last.fm for both listening and download.

It should be mentioned that last.fm got a bit puzzled by the numerous untitled tracks in the album and the tracklist isn't 100% correct. But all the essentials are there anyway.

In other related news, Uhreja Kuten Me Kaikki has finished recording all new tracks at the moment. More tracks are currently in process, to be released some time next year in a new album... Stay tuned.

A live version of Megadeth's new song waShInGtON iS NeXt can be found online from various places, and there's also a video available in the depths of Youtube (more specifically here.

The song itself is a political song in the vein of Megadeth's best and most critical works, and laden with references to the loss of spiritual values. While the lyrics make passing references that could be interpreted as shadows from Dave Mustaine's "recent" conversion to christianity, I wouldn't go as far as to call the song a religiously motivated song.

Should you disagree, I urge you to read the lyrics which are readily available at various sites (here, for example.)

Musically it seems to go along the lines of Megadeth's 1990's work, but I guess no-one expected them to go back to oldschool thrash metal anyway.

I like the song, and I have high hopes about their forthcoming "United Abominations" album, if Dave only manages to keep his pen as sharp on all songs.