Been quite busy in recent times and indeed all episodes listened, but didn't comment. Not that each episode would have to be commented separately by me each time, hah.. anyways, appreciated!
DDU episode, forum gets mentioned and strange noise mania of Finland gets discussed. There is question why Finland and how things happen here like they do.
I would say part of it is purely coincidence to start with, BUT, when it has started, there is certain energy and power of enabling further growth that is some sort of self feeding vortex.
To not go as deep as where things really start, we can see that noise scene here has advantage of often having more than one distributor. Even if FA may be old and notorious, there has always been also other dealers. Some place else, kaos kontrol and so on. Now most notably Satatuhatta, but also other smaller operations. Existence of distributors can be one thing. It encourages someone to make a tape, that goes beyond handing out copies to friends. Noise becomes visible and available due this opportunity. Abundance of gigs for last 20 years, not only it underlines one may have place to play this stuff, but also encourages other organizer that there indeed can be crowd who travels to another city to see good things. Forum(s), that have information available and reaching the right kind of people and also often contributes to the live culture enabling the casual discussion of the show, posting links or whatever. Can't imagine that IG reels would be good platform to comment on live shows with too many words..
So Finland has this all. Why it does, might be just purely coincidence. Back in 2009 when SI was opened, I knew as a fact, that global forum is needed. No question about it. I mean forum that is other things that trolling and bickering. I also was pretty convinced having large noise distribution in Finland would be mandatory. So it had to be done. Doing magazine(s) as well. At the time before dominance of internet, especially crucial. All these things can be done by one or couple guys. So basically someone in any country could kick things in motion and hope it goes somewhere. Of course often it doesn't.
So question can be rather in mystery how the scene itself was born, expanded and exists? Conditions mentioned above enables and gives reason. How many debut releases Finn labels put out? A LOT. There can be pure energy in the idea that something that you did, actually interests people, and in healthy way pushes forward. How many compilation invitations or invitations to play live? A lot. Artists nowadays may even be thinking that there is possibility to have album out and it goes somewhere. I don't consider this opportunist reason of doing something, but merely concretized meaning. Idea that noise really has a meaning and it is beyond just file you posted to bandcamp to show "you can do it too". Entire environment of the scene is uplifting in way that with this many great releases annually, it's purely pointless to do utter trash and people will also say it. There are some more "noise workshop" kind attitudes, but mostly orientation appears to be ... should one say Noise as true sound of love, hah.
None what is said really explains core question why Finland. There could be reason, some sort of hypothesis to give, but also other way to look at it, could be just conclude BECAUSE IT COULD. There has been groundwork done that made or makes it possible. This type of structure of scene appears to be missing from most countries. There may be individuals who are part of international network, but unable to do build something in their own cities or countries.
