Saturday, August 15, 2009

Lähdemmekö nyt!?


Just got back from a 48 hour express trip to Helsinki with 4/5 of the DO IT! collective where we performed for the Cheap Tricks night at a former tram factory turned cultural center called Korjaamo. Cheap Tricks is one of a plethora of lo-fi and independent nights sprouting out through Helsinki with a mixture of young and old, girls and boys stearing them all. Cheap Tricks is the work of busy Helsinki-ite Lani Nordlund, who while studying in Helsinki manages to run this electronica themed club night (Cheap Tricks) and a more indie and band friendly night called Säpinää at the same time. Helsinki was cool, more so thanks to our tram active and bar alert host, and threw up some very interesting new music acts and moods.

The city in general had a strange mixed feeling between Soviet Eastern Bloc and little traces of distant Swedish rule hidden amongst the abstract blocks. I aim to be back to visit Finland and Helsinki soon when I will be able to write more in detail. Meantime, Helsinki's answer to Glasgow's Jackmaster (so called busiest man in music) Lauri Soini should be the first port of call for music reference in Finland's capital. With hands in many pies, as a live act, dj, promoter, producer and director of progamming for the uber swish Nolla bar it wouldn't go amiss to check out some of the many traces of his work. Lani's tip for a local band Fotoshop weren't hard to leave on at a high volume and we will be hoping to bring them over to an Aberdeen DO IT! night at some point soon alongside some of the other interesting acts we met and listened to. A couple of exciting and better known acts we came across in this Scandic/Soviet middle patch were the Cure-esque Villa Nah, the bizzarely titled and tropically charged Le Corps Mince de Francoise and last but possibly most bizzarely the genre defying Jaakko Eino Kalevi. Special thanks to our host Lani Nordlund, photographer Juho Lähdesmäki and Vixen Vj Paula!
Poster: by Cheap Tricks graphic designer Johannes Pokkinen.

1 comment:

  1. And thank you for coming and DOing it! And also takk så mycket for the Projector! I keep it in safe.

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