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.

Nordic Visions

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of sharing a stage with Finland's Vixen vjs as part of a new venture in Norway by the name of Transplant Sessions. I spun records as part of the DO IT! collective, under my dj guise Uraki Riddim, and organized the event at Transplant's innovation and design center in Dale I Sunnfjord on the West coast of Norway. Transplant Sessions is a platform for electronic music and visual talent from Nordic countries to showcase themselves through live performance and documentation of their work online. Transplant Sessions' first guest, Badass Bambi from Vixen vjs, represented Finland and on the night provided a beautiful, colourful and abstract re-interpretation of the Transplant venue's idyllic surrounding landscape.

Vixen vjs are originally from Tampere, said to be Finland's equivalent to Manchester, where they have been performing with the local Plauge dj collective at their Off The Hook club night and their very own Pikku Sisko Disko parties (little Sister disco). Vixens are two female vjs, Pony Revenger and Badass Bambi aka Video-Jukka-Paula aka artist Paula Lehtonen. Their attitude and style is unique but, also representative of a significant number of smaller DIY club nights and parties sprouting up throughout the world. It was a pleasure working with the Vixens and it is certain that DO IT! and Vixen vjs will be colloborating again at some point later this year when their busy schedule allows. Before Vixens bring their visual venom to Scottish shores, or wherever else a future colaboration takes form, check out Paula Lehtonen's own personal artistic output on her website here.