Just got the Mika Vainio 2009 release "Vandal" 12". Recorded in Berlin in may 2009, 12" has pretty fucking heavy sound. It's 45rpm and 4 songs each clock about 4-5 mins, so cutting is very deep and strong.
"Vandals" has the deep bassy slow pulsating drum beat with layers of some electronics and grinding powertools (at least sounds like it) on top. During 4mins track grows busier. It is too slow to be "danced", but beat is certainly there making it less noisy sounding, connecting it to music.
"Teutons" has almost similar structure with high distorted more electronic beat, but also noisier and even more abstrack electronic noises on top. Sounds kind of out of sync at times, but then suddenly malforms as part of the main rhyth. Sounds nearly as variation of first track.
B-side starts with "goths" and perhaps it is indeed that. Drum beat is now basically just normal drum style. Bass, snare etc forming pretty normal rock beat, but it's very distorted and electric, and while beat slowly goes forward, on the back you hear reverbed metal plate (?) being smashed. No changes. Just minimalism, but with that little physical man made touch.
And side ends with "barbarians". Stompping tempo of bass pulse sounds promising at first, but then we proceed into such fast electro-hihat & synth hand-clap type of sounds, which are the kind of elements which always kept me away from "this kind" of music. While all the other tracks sounded, perhaps not Vainio's best, but at least somehow different, this in my ears sounds like capturing all those qualities I dislike in techno music.
For most part, this is more oppressing release compared to some of the Vainio's plussapiste "blib blop blib blob" type of electronics. But it is also more musical and less abstract. Last track really lowers down the points for this.
I'm a big fan of Pan Sonic and Mika Vainio's solo work. His work as Ø generally has a nice balance between minimalism, abstraction and rhythm. Some of it is closer to a pure techno sound, but that doesn't really bother me. I've always been a fan of electronic music.
Pan Sonic is more hit or miss for me, but there crystal clear drones bring to mind the stark white mental asylums with those cool fluorescent lights. Icy without sounding organic or naturalistic. The third and fourth disc on Kesto really show of that style. Very meditative and good for winter listening.
In old days I was always disturbed by fact, that you could read about Panasonic everywhere, but to get their stuff seemed impossible. I wrote to label, and no reply. I seeked stores, and nowhere to be seen. I'm sure they were, but not in shops I visited.
At some point you could go to just shop of Kiasma, modern art museum of Helsinki and buy lots of Sähkö records CD's there. Back in 90's I just got some tape dubs, nowadays I have pretty decent size collection of this stuff.
Just listened Pan Sonic "aaltopiiri" 2xLP. Or should it be 2x12"? Who slabs running at 45rpm, amazing tracks. Dates back to 2000, issued by one of MUTE's sublabels. For example most of side C is almost like pure industrial. Deep drones, percussive rhythmic metals with extensive reverb. Great sound. At the same time clinical, analogue, very pure and clear, but very distinctive. It's been said Mika used to member in TOPY and his mid 80's works documented in Aktinen Hysteria #2 seems like total Test Dept style metal beat orgy, just harsher and noisier. Anyways, "Aaltopiiri" has great deal of variation, from noisy and abstract to minimalist electronics and futuristic beats without being cheesy dancefloor stuff.
I normally don't distribute much of this type of stuff on mailorder, but few days ago put couple copies of old Pan Sonic CD on FA list due having too many for my retail shops needs..
I use to have a 12" & a cd with a pic of a typewriter (?) on the cover before they/he (?) had to change the name. Wasn't much about either rel. that was techo & I liked them but ended up selling/trading. Typerwriter cd cover was green & digi-gatefold, I think.
Some of the best Pan Sonic tracks definitely capture that rhythmic industrial vibe. A couple of the tracks on Katodivaihe really had that going on, almost with a 2-step type of shuffle. I think I like Kesto the best because each CD covers a different style of Pan Sonic, which at worst can make it a little monotonous, but it keeps the atmosphere consistent which I prefer.
I've never really collected much of their recorded output. I remember a couple of stunning live shows from way back, just overwhelming. And yes, the records seemed to be very difficult to get hold of in Finland. I just assumed that they mostly sold them to other countries (and maybe there were some specialist techno stores where you could get them, I dunno). A couple of years ago I saw them playing with Keiji Haino in Berlin. I thought it was good but not spectacular in any way.
Went through the shelves and found Ø - Tulkinta cd. It's just as I remember, very good icy cold minimalist techno. Abstract enough not to remind me too much of the dancefloor. Some weird & noisy details here and there add to the attraction, very enjoyable.
I had kept away from this project because I had always associated it with techno. My introduction was the Kesto 4-album release. It impressed me; parts of it reminding me of early SPK, although more digital sounding.
Sähkö Recordings (& Jazzpuu, Keys of life + whatever other sub-labels they have) had a big sale on Sunday, I guess they have to vacate their office for some renovations. I picked up some of the more recent Ø releases on the cheap (along with some great Finnish night club jazz from the 60s + other stuff). Oleva cd is from 2008 and is very different kind of material compared to the early Ø stuff I've heard. Much more melodic and less abstract. Hints of romanticism and a more expansive, cinematic approach to sound. It has a Pink Floyd -cover, for crying out loud! It's still fairly clinical and cold but now there's a "post-something" feel to it. Maybe it's prog-influence, I dunno? Quite good at times, actually, but doesn't really work for a full album length. I would be slightly disppointed had I paid full price...
Ikuinen 12" is different. More of a club track, but one from a fucked up noir-film. Very stylish and dark-tinted, some murderously heavy bass action. Excellent but not at all like the early stuff.
I think they've had some sort of sale going on for more than a year?
I think one shop here in Lahti talked to me already 2+ years ago about getting good offer from label. And they reminded about the discount prices not many months ago.
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on February 22, 2010, 10:16:15 PM
I think they've had some sort of sale going on for more than a year?
Could be. On Sunday they had stuff priced between 1 - 7 euros for most part. The snazzy
North is Protected - box with 10" + book (Hauswolff, Elggren, Vainio etc.) was 10 euros.
MIKA VAINIO "aineen musta puhelin / black telephone of matter" CD
Touch
Came out 2009, pretty recent then. This is his more abstrack works, where techno feelings are pretty much abandoned in favor of just non rhythmic and frequently changing electronics and acoustic sounds. Dymanics variate greatly and so does frequencies. Sometimes annoyingly high picthed electronics test the endurance of listener. Sometimes it's loud that you might feel tempted to adjust the volume, but suddely it drops so quiet that you barely hear what's going on. One of the tracks is dedicated to John Duncan, but hardly know if it relates to music? I have a feeling that this is decent works, but just somehow lacks the direction. It's like the live gig I saw. Everytime things start to go somewhere, its abruptly cut into almost opposite direction. The constantly increasing amount of material what sounds like digital glitch isn't rising it too high in my books, but still consider it nice addition to Vainio collection since it offers different material to Pan Sonic, Ö and such.
I thought this was an interesting and inaccurate use of the term "power electronics"
http://boomkat.com/cds/305041-pan-sonic-gravitoni
Calling time on one of the most important electronic acts in existence, Pan Sonic bow out with their immense final album, 'Gravitoni'. It's a typical feat of overwhelming sonic physicality from a duo who've owned the rights to the 'Power Electronics' tag ever since 1994 and the release of the 'Panasonic EP'. Working together, Ilpo Väisänen and Mika Vainio opened the blackest vortex to a world of unadulterated electronics wrested from homemade and circuit bent hardware, creating an uncompromising vision of techno concrete that built monolithic structures in the shadow of their predecessors Einstürzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle and Pierre Henry. 'Gravitoni' feels like they've abandoned all hope, taunting an oncoming apocalypse with two fingers clutching an exposed 1/2" jack lead and a granite glazed look that tundra wolves wouldn't f*ck with. Whereas previous album 'Katodivaihe' offered some respite with Hildur Gudnadottir's arcing bows, here it's just two Finnish blokes with an arsenal of brutal beats and lucid tones. From the outset of 'Voltos Bolt' introductions are dispensed with in order to get down to business, a landslide of skull crushing bass hits and molten silicon slurry to encase your cochlea. Next 'Wanyugo' perhaps suggests they've spent time in Northern England, picking up the lingo and developing a bellicose attitude to match, swaggering with the darkest synthlines around and bristling with kinetic potential. Meanwhile, a false start in 'Corona' trips into a murderous noise and 200bpm gabber assault executed with such intent that you could even imagine them having a wry smirk to each other in the studio. With 'Radio Qurghonteppa' fear not, your speakers aren't about to cave in, they've simply managed to create a bass frequency that makes it sound like your cabs are coming apart from the cone. That's all. In 'Trepanation' they bust out the rusty iron and set about doing a Varg Vikernes on your life, sucking up elemental black metal power and stripping away all the camp sh*t, leaving a bloodied pile of still fizzing Euronymous at their feet, scalp (skull tip attached) in hand, still not smiling. The final section of the album presents three sublime visions of tonal darkness, from the pitch black electro-acoustic spaces of 'Väinämöinen Dreams' to the deliberate passage of 'Hades' where we mix our myths and Thor drops Atomic subbass bombs outside the gates while a choir of droning Gregorian sirens lure us inside. Then, we're treated to an extreme panning recital on 'Twinaskew' before finally being delivered at the death disco with the most astonishing moment on the album - 'Pan Finale', stretching a classic 1980 Cure tape loop to Zombiefied Paisley-concrete drum patterns and shuddering in the presence of an almighty buzzsawn synewave. Thankfully, we're quite certain we'll hear new material from both instigators in the future, but from now on we're just gonna have to dig out all our old Pan Sonic records and have a crywank with the X-Bass boost function turned on till kingdom come. Amazing music.
A nice interview about the origins of Pan Sonic, Sähkö, etc.
Sähkö 20 Years Anniversary Special Interview with Mika Vainio & Tommi Grönlund
http://cargocollective.com/mosaictheory/Sahko-20-Years-Anniversary-Special-Interview-with-Mika-Vainio-Tommi (http://cargocollective.com/mosaictheory/Sahko-20-Years-Anniversary-Special-Interview-with-Mika-Vainio-Tommi)
I just looked it up, "Kulma" was the cd I owned & liked but not enough to keep or follow their work.
The recently released double LP Konstellaatio has grown to be one of my absolute favourites from him. Really beautiful and mysterious minimalistic ambient soundscapes.
Not all of them have beats, but here's a track for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwvB8PZMH9M (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwvB8PZMH9M)
I listened to Kulma a few days ago. Some tracks of Pan Sonic I find a bit boring, although if I'm in the right mood or mindset, they work too. Their beats are always cool. Listened to a few tracks from Gravitoni this morning before going to work and they were awesome.
I'll have to check out that Konstellaatio album.
Of Vainio's solo works, I spun the split LP with Kouhei Matsunaga recently and it was good stuff. From memory it wasn't too different from Pan Sonic, although I think there were fewer beats.
I don't like 98% of anything involving rythm. I moved to noise oriented stuff partly as a reaction to underground dance oriented music. but when I think Knut from Inade taped me some Panasonic (old name) stuff, this vision was turned upside down.
I saw them several times back in the days and the way the shaped simple sounds into very powerful blocks of concrete.
One time they worked with exactly the same sound for approximately one hour, playing with frequencies and reaching bass peaks I never thought possible.
After a while i had to move out from the hall to catch breath. It happened to me only in another few occasion (TG in Turin... despite the hype and the clean sounds probably the loudest gig I ever attended to, also thanks to a massive pa uncommon to Industrial gigs) but I felt my diaphragm crushing my lungs. After that gig I was unable to listen again to the reocords that sounded weak in comparison.
Now that some time has passed, which of the recent records should I get?
O "Kulma" 12"
Don't remember when I found this and where exactly, but very much used condition copy of 2nd release of project. 1993 Sähkö recordings 002. Belongs to first 50 copies (?) with hand made holes in front. It curious that even vinyl crackles just contribute to this stuff. Rhythm beats and electronic signals actually benefit from steady surface noise sounds that appear here.
Seen Mika playing live couple of times in last few years and those gigs were A) really good, and B) loud.
I enjoy the stuff Pan Sonic made with Alan Vega. Somehow Vega's dry voice fits perfectly with their dry and unnatural electronic sound.
I listened to Vainio's Kilo CD twice today (quite unbelievably, they managed to misspell his surname as "Vanio" on the front cover). While it could just as well be a Pan Sonic album and doesn't have any new elements compared to PS, it's a very good album that anyone into Pan Sonic will surely enjoy. The sound, as usual, is massive and at loud volumes you can feel the music as much as hear it.
There's this interview of his at Secret Thirteen, in which he states that their old industrial recordings will be released at some point. I really hope the project is carried to the end.
QuoteYou were involved in experimental/industrial scene since the early 80's. What were the key changes since those times you started making music? Do you miss those pre-Pan Sonic times?
I don't really miss them. But there was some interesting things happening. From the year 1983 to 1985 I was a member of industrial noise group called Gagarin Kombinaatti. We were using all kind of metal objects like shape metal, springs and tools, hammers and drills, also radios, tape loops, synthesizers and drum machines. I like that group a lot.
I have actually now all the cassettes, all the recordings we made in our rehearsals and I will start combining them and they will be released at some point. It's been quite funny to listen to those things.
What do you think about it?
I'm surprised how much I liked them. They are very lo-fi, recorded with a small cassette player, but there are many tapes, over 20 cassettes, a lot of editing to do.
--
http://secretthirteen.org/secret-thirteen-interview-mika-vainio-pan-sonic/
(http://secretthirteen.org/secret-thirteen-interview-mika-vainio-pan-sonic/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm_qnf9_YKQ
ø "Metri" 2xLP
Sähkö
This was first album what I got from label or artists. Back then, it was on dubbed tape, and many years later got the re-issue CD version. Found reissue vinyl edition later on too. It's odd album. Original vinyl has 4 tracks. This re-issue vinyl has 10 tracks. But CD versions always had 15 tracks. So in the end, which format to favor? If you need vinyl as excuse to listen good music, then by all means, this is fairly good purchase. Unfortunately the utterly delicate & crystallic sound of original recordings do sound so clean on vinyl. Some songs like JS-CSG 1 crackles like hell compared to how hard and intense those electronic tones are on CD. Some hi-hat on muuntaja have utterly hard sibilance in them. Being originally studio-live recordings directly to DAT, one could perhaps say that CD is THE format for this stuff after all?!
But being my first experience with project, it still remains sort of important piece I like to have different versions against all reasonings I could have about not falling into collecting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKajiS-e-SI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyQlB0di5hQ
Very sad news:
QuoteFollowing a long and prolific career, experimental-music groundbreaker Mika Vainio, best known as one half of Pan Sonic, has died. Reps for the Finnish musician confirmed to the media that Vainio passed away in France on Wednesday (April 12), though his cause of death remains unknown. He was 53.
Mika was a great artist. Relistening some favourite works of his today.
Pan Sonic - Kesto (2004)I usually relisten the 1st CD of this huge box set, since it contains the most dynamic material in the vein of rhythmic noise done right, but actually I'm quite positive about the whole style-shifting scheme of this diverse release, dwelling into various areas of Vainio's interests. It sort of moves from dynamic to static, starting with high-voltage energy blasts from the 1st CD which I've mentioned, then cooling down to a quite robotic and mechanically lifeless take on 80s electro-funk (partytime-feeling totally removed), and moving further into cold abstraction territory afterwards, getting rid of the rhythm and finally freezing into the motionless glassy drone present on the 4th CD. I like the concept and enjoy many of Vainio's laid-back, texture-based minimal works, but on this particular release his thunderous Tesla-blasting on the 1st disc steals the show for me. Powerful energy-sparkling synth-riffs, urban beats with heavyweight groove, some experiments with wall-of-sound production... By the way, there are some tribute-tracks which point to Vainio's diverse sources of inspiration, respectful nods to the artists whose work he enjoys and with whom he eventually collaborated with - japanese guitar terrorist Keiji Haino and Alan Vega from Suicide, for example. Of course, Vainio doesn't merely replicate their style, he rather recreates certain qualities of their music with his own instrumentation and working methods. "Centralforce", tribute to Haino, morphs this cult artist's trademark string noisestorm into Vainio's peculiar idea to combine minimal echo-heavy beats with contrasting explosions of synth-wailing madness, which sounds like some kind of surreal railway carousel with a multiton train going off tracks. Close by the overall effect to Hainio's wall-of-noise punishment? Probably, in some way. Mere copy without imaginative approach? Directly the opposite.
Ø - Olento (1996)An example of minimalistic and subtle side of Vainio's work which I enjoy. The peculiar thing about Vainio's music is that it often gives an impression of something totally opposed to "human" or "organic" by nature, something cold, strict and technologically sterile, but if we look through the interviews with Vainio - he never bothered to create some sort of "man-machine" image and admitted the emotional backing of his music. In the material itself sometimes it's hard to get that feeling, and sometimes I actually prefer the "mechanical" aesthetic, but a hint of melancholy which shows itself in "Ø" more clearly than in other Vainio's projects can also be an enjoyable aesthetic component. It never gets a strong emphasis, no dramatic shit here, but some feeling of urban weariness and confusion is indeed conveyed. All the sound textures / subtle ambience layers are cold, bleak and slightly unnerving, the hypnosis of the monotonous kick-drum pulsation doesn't create any dancefloor-feeling at all, sample choices are directed at escalating tension - quickened "danger-reacting" heartbeat for example, some beatless texture-based tracks dwell into isolationist ambient territory and envoke some paralyzing, dizzy feeling. On a rare occasion syntwork gives a hint of melancholic melody, but it almost never gets a significant development and rests in "more of a texture" zone. The image I get from this music is a sleepy pre-dawn megapolis, a short hour of quietness before the next urban life cycle starts to gain momentum.
RIP!
PAN SONIC "Kesto 234.48:4" 4xCD box
Blast First
Already from 2004. I don't know how long since I last listened this, but now seemed to be good time. It's perfect proof how Mika Vainio or Pan Sonic really works for CD format. I don't know how really to get rid of the "obsession" to end up picking up LP instead of CD, while in many cases it really makes sense to take CD.
First of all, this album couldn't be published as it is, on vinyl. One reason is that 4th disc, which is utterly icy and cold electronic ambient piece, is 60+ minutes long. One can hear 15 min fragment of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdx25H1cSoc
To suggest as good idea to press something like this on modern day crackling vinyl and cut it over 3 sides of vinyl would be merely totally retard. While other 3 discs contain wide variety of shorter tracks. From heavy bounding techno to minimalist signals and echoing hums. Each of them benefit from clarity and purity of CD sound. So much of air and space in sound of Pan Sonic, one doesn't really need DMM lathe rotation sound humming on the back of everything. This CD box has so much variety and is well done, that listening 4 hours in one continuous session doesn't get boring at all.
In Finland you could watch Mika Taanila's (see Special Interests #6 for interview) Atomin Paluu document in TV. It is always somehow mindblowing to hear stuff like this in normal mainstream broadcasting. Experimental film about utterly complex process of building new nuclear power plant in Finland. How everything what can go wrong, goes wrong. Except, the utmost disaster of course. Maybe that'll expected when plant is finally properly up & running!
Pan Sonic did soundtrack for the document, and since Taanila is not your typical document maker, but approaches his films as pieces of art, to have footage of intense building process and huge magnitude of failures combined with hard hitting electric signals or cold inhuman sounds of Pan Sonic blasting louder than you'd expect from mere background music - it works out really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAIdMFKXvqI
Mika's death was truly a loss.
I don't think this has been mentioned on this forum before, so... The book has lots of good photos and texts from friends and collaborators. The CD is great. Released in June 2019. Contents below:
Quoteblastfirstpetite's 'Psychopomp for M.T.V.' a 260 page, full colour, hardback book.
[a psychopomp is a 'guide of souls', whose purpose is to escort deceased souls from Earth to The Afterlife]
A Limited Edition of 1,000 copies containing:
~ A heart-wrenching collection of photographs from the Vainio family archive.
~ A broad range of artistic contributions (text, photographic and visual remembrances) from Mika's artist friends and collaborators.
~ An Updated and exhaustive Mika discography.
~ Jennifer Lucy Allen's unedited transcript for her The Wire magazine 2013 'Invisible Jukebox' ' one of Mika's most animated media responses.
~ A variety of Pansonic ephemera from Paul Smith's own Blast First archives.
+++ an album length exclusive CD of previously unreleased Pansonic performance recordings - 'Turku Moai - live on Rapa Nui'.
WARNING Ð THIS IS NOT A MIKA VAINIO BIOGRAPHY OR MONOGRAPH