Continuing into today with Euro diary, this time in Turku, Finland... If you have heard the Noisecast report, I doubt I will offer much different of insight than they did. Still, we must press forward!
Rautakymi kicks off the evening with a reckless set after the artists enjoyed some surprisingly good pizza. Who would have thought the Finns make good pizza? Hah. Sorry, I needed to put that in somewhere, but back to noise!
What I mean by reckless is that the artist just had an air of "fuck you, I do what I want" attitude to his demeanor. Playing with the Nintendo 3DS, belting out these manic yells, swigging from some of the nastiest, bottom of the shelf vodka I have ever had (and if you are reading this, Rautakymi, I salute you for putting down as much as you did). It was all pretty glorious. Reminded me of more psychedelic moments of Masonna. As I understand, previous performances and recordings contain more use of junk or broken tape. If this is new direction for the project, I say bring it on.
Jazzhand played next. Having experienced his set in New York City previously, I had some idea of what to expect. The difference here though is that the man felt totally in control of his rig the entire time. No issues of borrowed gear or anything here. I watched from the side of the stage with awe as the confidence in material permeated into the audience. Jazzhand wrapped the audience in a blanket of cold embrace through his tape sound, bringing us for a march through the Finnish countryside. At the end, Jaakko stood up with wool socks in hand, pumping his free fist in defiance of those who oppose the sock. Hah! Nice. I just learned about all that nonsense with the socks, and if Jazzhand is really wool sock noise, then I guess I am a fan of wool sock noise. Oh well! Great set.
Invagination started his set off with a difficult battle between the PA monitors and intended sounds he aimed for. I saw some of the junk table start falling onto the ground, but knew that salvaging the set was possible. My instinct was right; after 5 minutes, the rest of the set took off without an issue. Searing harsh junk battles against the mutant mixer feedback and synth rays to produce a wild palette of psychedelic bliss. I was curious to see how this project would progress after the first disc, as it seemed like it was just a pretty blatant Merzbow-worship deal.
"Ah yes, the disc art looks like the Merzbow disc. Perhaps a fun jam session."
Well I'll be damned. I see this project has some staying power now. The set was a great deal of fun overall. My personal hope is that it maybe inverts its formula to make it a primarily junk-heavy project with some peppering of synths overtop.
Triptych were far more dialed in on this night than night 1 in Helsinki. Technical difficulties and pacing were figured out. The group delivered a pretty commanding set over the audience, which was a good thing to see before I had to step up onstage. I felt like we both had our trial by fire the night before, so rounding it out on night 2 seemed to be the move. While the show in Tampere would bring about my favorite Triptych performance, it is hard to deny that this night was probably the closest to what the project's mission statement is. Good stuff.
Similar to the Triptych crew, I feel like Turku proved to be the most "proficient" set for Dead Door Unit. Sound was firing on all fronts, the firemans helmet had me feeling a bit more confident than usual and the added surprise of tons of glass and metal junk proved to make the improv portion a violent one. The microphone I traveled over with ended up being busted, so it was a relief that Mr. Umpio was there with some of his contact mics, and was looking to settle a trade with me.
Fun time overall! The convent I slept in had Easter breakfast the next morning. I didn't realize how big Easter is over in Finland. I also didn't realize you guys eat cake that looks like poop for it. I've loved showing that photo to people back home. Hah!
