Friday, February 20, 2009

Transistori Plays Toppilan Tehdas, The Factory of Toppila

The following was recently sent to me by an artist in Finland, Aki Latvamäki (visit), whom I will be interviewing for LWE in the near future. Aki Latvamäki's new record on Curle is a monster, and I was interested to know more about the man behind the music.

Embedded below is Part 1 of Transistori's performance at The Factory of Toppila, which I assume to be located somewhere in Finland, as well as info from the Youtube page.



Transistori is a percussion group from Oulu, Finland. Specialized in self-made instruments built from scrap and recycled material. Transistori's music is improvisation, which requires listening to the other group members and knowing their playing style by heart.

The Shooting took place in a closed power plant at the Toppila cellulose factory built in the 1930's
Transistori was challenged to play the old factory hall and utilize the sounds found there, as well as their own instruments.

The documentary is divided into three parts. Each part consists of one set. The sets were recorded on six cameras and twenty microphones. No overdubs have been made.

The documentary uses visual means to explore the true essence of Transistori behind the soundscapes and rhythms.

Director: Ilmari Huttu-Hiltunen

Performers: Otto Byström, Jouni Haapakoski, Pekka Heinonen, Jaakko Jokipii, Aki Latvamäki, Olli Miettinen, Lauri Sallamo

http://www.trank.fi/transistori


All four parts are definitely worth checking out if you enjoy Part 1 of the "sound documentary." Visit the full playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6DDF9AAB1DC665F2

More on Aki Latvamäki (aka Artificial Latvamäki) can be found at his personal site and Facebook artist page.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Nike Dunks: Twin Peaks Edition



http://www.simplysneakers.com/nike-sb-dunk-high-premium-owl-twin-peaks/


Inspired by the popular 90’s TV drama, Twin Peaks, Nike presents this upcoming Nike SB Dunk High Premium for release in 2009. This SB Dunk High features a mixture of black suede on the lacing area/toe/heel, leather on the toebox, and crackled leather on the side panels with green stitching outlining the entire upper. A blue owl is placed on the ankle which represents one of the three murder mystery clues from the show, “the owls are not what they seem”. There’s also some red materiel covering the inner lining and zig-zag designs on the insoles that represent key details taken from the “Red Room” in the Black Lodge that also appears in “Twin Peaks”. No release date information in currently available, but they’re expected to drop in-stores Spring 2009.


Do want.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Mix news

Trying to re-create the magic from a near-empty Cafe Lura on Thursday. The finished mix will serve as demo #2. Here's the list so far:

Carl Craig, "Movement 8 (ReComposed Remixes c2 version)" [Deutsche Grammaphon]
Wireman, "Armour" [Prime Numbers]
Ben Klock, "Before One" [Ostgut Tontrager]
Artificial Latvamäki, "Ratts Leaving The Sinking Ship In Nortt" [Curle]
Kassem Mosse, "Untitled (A)" [Workshop]
Yoshio Maeda, "Flip-Flop" [Eukatech]
Reboot, "Vandong" [Below]
Sophie Nixdorf, "Yokohama Nights" [Overdrive]
Surgeon, "Untitled B2 (Dry)" [Dynamic Tension]

Interesting how this compares (on the fly) to the live setlist; the space between the Yoshio Maeda track and Reboot was probably necessary. Looking forward to having a finished mix (clocking in at about 2x the length of this) within the week.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day!



DOWNLOAD
50m35s, 69mb

Fela Kuti, "Lady"
Quiet Village, "Too High To Move"
Slowdive, "Crazy For You"
Gary Ogan & Bill Lamb, "I Want To Live"
Sibylle Baier, "Forget About"
Life Without Buildings, "Daylighting"
The Wedding Present, "Suck"
The Clientele, "Monday's Rain"
Pluramon, "Irene's Angel"
Tim Hecker, "Chimeras"
Julee Cruise, "The Voice of Love"
AC, "It's You"

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Hopefully the tracklist / sound is a better indication of intent than the 'cover' photo is.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Let's Go Deep #1 Setlists



Pretty good night, despite low turnout. We talked in the past about splitting up into rotating 40 min sets, and as we planned to do so for the launch of the night (with a name), I pitched the idea of doing (generally) a house and a techno set each. Of course there would be overlap, and of course I hated the idea as soon as the words left my mouth. That said, we all had fun with the challenge, offering up our own interpretations on the theme. No recordings were made of the sets, but I compiled the following lists thanks to my finicky crate organization.

James Kartsaklis - Set #1 (House)
1. Soul Center, "Can I Ask You?" [W.v.B.]
2. Makam, "The Hague Soul" (Soweso)
3. Melchior Productions, "Let's Go Deep" (Playhouse)
4. Tom Ellis, "Concentrate" (Hartchef Discos)
5. Burnski, "Schizophrenia" (Morris Audio)
6. Todd Sines, "Never Again" (Morris Audio Citysport Edition)
7. Miss Fitz, "Colici (Sascha Dive's Dark Beat Mix)" (Raum)
8. Andomat 3000, "Vertical Smile" (Cecille)

James Kartsaklis - Set #2 (Techno)
(out of Jason's last track, Ricardo Villalobos, "Enfants" [Sei Es Drum])
1. Mateo Murphy, "Contact" (Uppercut)
2. Artificial Latvamäki, "Ratts Leaving The Sinking Ship In Nortt" (Curle)
3. Kassem Mosse, "Untitled (A)" (Workshop)
4. Yoshio Maeda, "Flip-Flop" (Eukatech)
5. Ben Klock, "Before One" (Ostgut Tontrager)
6. Gimmik, "Untitled (A)" (Toytronic)
7. Levon Vincent, "Invisible Bitchslap" (Deconstruct)
8. Reboot, "Vandong" (Below)

(All vinyl, as always)

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Writer, DJ, and a few other things surrounded by scare quotes.

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