Finnish Independent Music Digest: July 2011

Welcome to my blog, in which I'll be trying to give some useful listening tips to those of you who want to hear what the Finnish independent music scene has to offer.

Why I've decided to set up this blog

Although I was active in Aberdeen (a city in Scotland)'s music scene before moving to Finland, primarily with the bands Dedalus and Hookers Green No. 1, I lost interest in music around 2006. For instance, I bought about four albums between summer 2006 and the end of 2010.

At the same time, I was only ever an avid music fan from around 1997 to 2000 – the years when I religiously bought Kerrang! (or read it in the newsagent's I worked at). Therefore, I have a pretty decent knowledge of loud music from the late 1990s as well as of rock history before that, but everything else is a bit of mystery to me.

In the summer of 2010, I got back some of the passion I used to have for music while reading Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991. During the following autumn this rekindling of interest in music was strengthened as I researched and wrote an article about straight edge in Finland:

http://sixdegrees.wm.fi/6d/index.php/society/39-society/320-out-of-step-with-the-world

Becoming acquainted with some of the individuals and bands involved in Helsinki's hardcore scene, as well as attending my first gigs in four years, inspired me to delve further into the Finnish independent music scene. What I found I liked, and I'd like others to benefit from the raking I'll be doing in the coming weeks, months and maybe even years.

Do I see myself as a music critic, then?

No! No! No!

The most negative thing I'll say about a band I encounter is that I'm not too keen on certain small details of their music; nearly everything else will be positive, and as such I don't think I can be called a (good) critic. If I don't like a band, I won't write anything about them. Local bands have a hard enough time trying to build up a following without middlemen putting potential fans off before the latter have even heard the music for themselves.

Of course, my blog could, if anybody ever ends up reading it, be accused of doing something similar, as my highlighting of the bands I like may sway readers in one direction and not another. However, I see my blog in "positive sum" rather than "zero sum" terms. In other words, if somebody comes across my blog, it's unlikely they'll be a Finn, as there are better sources of information about this topic written by Finns themselves. Instead, readers probably won't know much about Finnish independent music to begin with and anything I write will, at best, help them to find out more about a somewhat unknown and impenetrable music scene they wouldn't have found out too much about otherwise. Maybe I'll be proved wrong. Let's see what happens!

What is Finnish independent music?

I'm not too sure yet, as I've only listened to a handful of records thus far. I'm basically interested in bands that aren't signed to big labels and who play some sort of guitar music. Maybe, as I listen to more records, I'll have to widen my definition of "Finnish independent music", but it'll do for now. One thing I should say is that I won't be writing anything about really, really heavy bands, as I simply can't tell the difference between a poor super-heavy band and a great one. I'm not saying that this music isn't good; it's just not my thing.

Leading on from this point, I should also say that, as noted above, I'm no music expert, so something I find impressive and exciting in Finland's independent music scene may, in fact, be a complete rip-off of some band I've never heard of. At worst, though, I'll be recommending competent, generic bands.

Okay, I think that's all for now. Hope you benefit from what I have to say!

Al, Monday 17 January 2011

Saturday 23 July 2011

Am I being a hypocritical, self-righteous twat?

Just thought I'd share something that occurred to me yesterday while I was doing the dishes and planning a future post about the Finnish indie pop band Tv-resistori.

Is it complete nonsense to maintain a blog about independent music in Finland where I reference bands that have released albums on major labels and add links to corporate websites such as Myspace and YouTube? And lest I forget, who owns www.blogger.com?

Murmansk

Murmansk describe their music as perhaps being "shoegaze with aggressive edge", which is a far better way of putting it than what's said on the band's Finnish-language Wikipedia page – "Murmansk's music has been described as indie rock, alternative rock, krautrock, shoegaze, noise rock, stoner rock, psychedelic rock, post-punk, hardcore punk, goth rock, math rock and progressive rock."

While some of that is bollocks, it has to be said that Murmansk are somewhat eclectic. Maybe not when one considers all the different genres of music they could choose from, but you probably get my point.

On their latest LP, some of that eclecticism (i.e. the dictionary tells me that's a word) has been replaced by more consistency. Whether that's a result of them signing to a subsidiary of Universal Music International (embarrassingly called Spinefarm) is worth some consideration even if it's the completely wrong conclusion to come to.

I've had a listen to the two LPs of Murmansk's I was able to lay my hands on, but since this blog isn't interested in corporate releases, I'll just tell you about the first of these albums. Admittedly, though, you'll come across tracks from the former if you follow the links below, and some of it's definitely commendable.

The independent album in question is Chinese Locks, whose titular track is available on the band's Myspace page (www.myspace.com/murmansktheband) as is the sort of Tool-esque track "Pale", which I'm not so keen on. I can't seem to be able to track down anything else from the album, unfortunately. The songs "Vague Language" and "Shallow End" are worth a listen, especially if you come across better quality recordings of them than what's found here and here.

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