Peace, love and death metal

Itkevä Tyttö - “Yö kylpyammeessa” mp3
Itkevä Tyttö - “Blur (live)” mp3

* Itkevä Tyttö means “a crying girl”. They’re labelled as art rock. Oh well. They are art and they rock (and they mention Slayer in their lyrics, that’s hell yeah!), but they definitely are not art rock for the sake of being art. Even if they just said in a recent interview that if they are art rock they are it just for the sake of being art rock. Or was it so? Anyways, they are good. A breeze of fresh air.

* Four tracks available for streaming from Audrey’s debut album Visible Forms at Tenderversion’s website. via It’s A Trap!

I’m not only going to tell my grandchildren about the Saturday evening in May 2006 when Finland scored 12 points in Eurovision Song Contest from all over the Europe, I’m going to tell them also about the fever this nation has had since.

If you would’ve showed me this picture from Finnish parliament a week ago, I would have wondered what the hell. Now I know that our prime minister Matti Vanhanen (on the left) is just showing to member of parliament Tennilä how to do the devil horns. You see, Vanhanen already knows how to do it since he practised it (Vanhanen is second from the right) at Lordi’s press conference on Monday.

I’m enjoying this ride.

Grails - “Stray Dog” mp3

Taken from Black Tar Prophecies Vol 1, Grails’ 12″ split release with Red Sparowes.

Tides - “The Sight” mp3

From Tides’ new From Silence EP, out on Teenage Disco Bloodbath. “Instru-metal” or not quite; beautiful and serene it is, however.

Enter My Silence - “Thin Red Line” mp3
Enter My Silence - “Spin” mp3
Enter My Silence - “Coordinate Disaster” mp3
Enter My Silence - “9mms To Deliverance” mp3

Oh well. Most likely the best melodic death metal band in Finland, Enter My Silence is once again without a record deal. Their second album Coordinate Disaster, breaking a silence of mere five years, was released just few months ago and the band was having a good second start for a career. You can read band’s press release on the news here.

To get ready for label shopping the band uploaded three new full mp3s from the new album. Four out of nine songs on the album are now available. They are good proof of band’s talent.

Dauntless - “Four Walls United” mp3

Now it’s true. Hell has frozen over. And I don’t mean the Eurovision triumph this time.

Finnish death/thrash metal band Dauntless have finally signed a record deal and I’m happy that it’s with Firebox Records. Dauntless have showed so huge talent on their latest releases that it’ve been hard to understand why they stayed so long unsigned. I hope their first full-lenght will be the kick-ass record it should be.

Oh, I’m just recovering from the Eurovision Song Contest victory: the thing that was never meant to happen;a time in the life of man when it was necessary to pinch/punch oneself everytime a line “Finland, twelve points” was heard (especially when it came from Sweden - you can keep you hockey gold(s) for all I care, cheers!). When Finland won ice hockey World Cup eleven years ago, it fueled this country for years on. Now this - it’ll bankcrupt our broadcasting company, but so what - another national achievement (you can add ” ” if you like) done. Now, maybe in twelve years time Finnish football team will may get to attend World Cup final or at least Euro Cup final. I’m waiting that miracle to happen next…

But to the music (Edit: Honestly, that came spontaneously). Some ten days ago I ended up at 12rec’s site. 12rec is an internet label from Germany and so far what I’ve heard, they release rather interesting and definitely quality music.

I’ve checked out El Senior Ciuf Ciuf’s album As Seen From Above (#029). El Senior Ciuf Ciuf is an Italian musician who likes to be identified by the sound of a steam train - so it can’t be bad. It’s introverted pop music. First track “I Feel Like A Clean Blackbroad” is a hit - you can check that seperately at Archive.org site.

Then there are post-rock. Just today I gave two rounds for Milhaven’s Bars Closing Down (#014) and it have good overall feeling and sound. Also the latest release Junique Fois Pi/ Hermelin split (#030) sounded okayish on the first listen.

I’m definitely downloading some more of the releases, counting on it that they share the same quality standards. Really nice label this 12rec - support.

Because Of Ghosts
1: “You Fool” mp3
The Samuel Jackson Five
2: “Skinflick Dress Rehearsal” mp3
This Is A Process Of A Still Life
3: “No Memory Of The Airshow” mp3
The Seven Mile Journey
4: “Through The Alter Ego Justifications” mp3
Don’t Mess With Texas
5: “Sound Of One Lung Filling With Water” mp3
65 Days Of Static
6: “I Swallowed Hard Like I Understood” mp3
Saxon Shore
7: “The Revolution Will Be Streaming” mp3
Foxhole
8: “End Of Dying” mp3
Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson
9: “Yet We Continued To Build There, The Structure” mp3
Sickoakes
10: “Wedding Rings & Bullets in the Same Golden Shrine” mp3
Esmerine
11: “Merrick” mp3

Spending few days all alone gives a good chance for making a post-rock/ instrumental mixtape. These bands just never end, there’s always more (of the same), it seems. But if you have never listened to any post-rock bands before, this will be a revolution nevertheless.

I started from last.fm’s post-rock forum, googled the bands named in there, followed some more links, add some bands I’ve had in mind for several months already (like the brilliant SJ5), followed some more links, ended up at After the postrock forum - and the needed 80 minutes were filled.

I’ve listened through the tracks in this given order for a couple of times. They are quality-checked. Not that many surprises there since I like my post-rock to stay in the background. Less noisy, more quiet. Even if the outcome is expectable, it’s enjoyable.

I Was A Teenage Satan Worshipper - “Tampere Kicks” mp3

Tampere-based darker synth-pop (?) band I Was A Teenage Satan Worshipper (if they ever make a breakthrough, I guess their name might grow to be some kind of cross to bear - upside down cross, perhaps) played last night at their hometown Tampere together with Regina and Tigerbombs. Show was partly organised by local newspaper, which asked all three bands to write a song about their hometown (asking something like that is very much normal behaviour for that newspaper, I think).

“Me oltiin että “onx pakko?! ja järjestäjät oli että “joo kyllä nyt ois vähän niinku pakko.” Ja me sit oltiin että ” voi v***u..” ja tällanen biisi siitä sitten tuli.”

IWATSW’s result is already online, “Tampere Kicks”, having references to Tigerbombs and Regina, a band name which apparently rhymes well with vag… oh well, you know with what.

More IWATSW’s music at Mikseri.net.

Thee More Shallows - “I Can’t Get Next To You” mp3

Good example of how to turn an upbeat, supposedly happy song into beautiful, downbeat version. Original version is by Al Green/ Temptations, I don’t know about them - nor about Thee More Shallows. This is just a nice version.

This is the first post with WordPress 2.0.2. For the past coupled of weeks I’ve been plagued by massive spam comments. That problem should be solved now and real comments may get through as they are supposed to. I’ll change my theme as well soon.