a blunt hour of finntango.

Finland is a country of many great and rather eccentric musicians, like the Mieskuoro Huutajat (the choir of screaming men, which is just what the name suggests) and Eläkeläiset (the pensioners, hardest working and drinking Humppa-Band in Showbiz).
Among those brilliant musicians of Finland, you will find Mr. Mauri Antero Numminen, who has done pretty much anything from pioneering electronic music with a “singing machine”, playing rock’n roll for children shows in animals suits, singing marriage counseling books and composing classical music based on the writing of Wittgenstein. He also is a expert on Finnish tango and has publish a fictional book entitled “Tango is my Passion”, his own best-selling Tango “Ich Mit Meiner Braut Im Parlamentspark” (which by the way is sung in German) is part of this mix.

Tango is quite a big thing in Finland, every year one of the countries biggest musical events, with about 130,000 attendants, is the “Tango-Market” in Seinäjoki, a huge festival for all things tango, with competitions in tango dance, singing and composing. “Satumaa” (Dreamland) is often referred to as the unofficial Finnish national anthem and to this day still makes it into the most frequently performed songs top ten each year. How and why did that happen?

The Tango arrived in Finland in 1913 and it was back then, first and foremost a dance trend for the rich and famous, nothing much happened with it until the second world war. As with most countries situated between Germany and Russia, the consequence of the the war were extremely grim for Finland, you had ruthless insanity bordering and invading from the east and from the west. At that time Toivo Kärki, the most important Finnish tango composer, wrote a couple of his most melancholic and touching tangos, like “Siks oon mä suruinen” (That’s why I’m feeling sad). These songs revolve mainly around the topics of lost and parting, and became very important to the people in war ridden Finland, this is where it is said Finnish tango gained it’s soul.

The second stage to Finnish tango craze came in 1961, with the recording of before mentioned “Satumaa” by Reijo Taipale. 1961 was the first year where foreign (mostly English) record sales surpassed Finnish production. The Finnish people would not take another invasion, this time by The Beatles “All my loving”, and rallied behind “Satumaa”. From then on Finland was caught in the sinister claws of tango. Finally I quickly have to mention Mr. Olavi Virta, the greatest of all Finnish tango singers, the Carlos Gardel of Finland.

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Next Blunt Hour will be on the 15th of May, it is called “Red Wave” and will deal with Russian Underground music from 1980.

Filed under: blunt hour of ..., music

Herr Rossi sucht das Glück…

…and all he found was this lousy t-shirt.

evening all,
upon returning with mild headache from my job today I had in my mail something from the honorable Sir. Wowser MBE (or St Wooster di Wowsea as he calls himself nowadays). All this week the two of us have been closely monitoring the Stamboul Train-like journey of my first ever to be delivered t-shirt. And today it had reached the shores of England, after a short inspection for foot-and-mouth, it was handed over to our english fellow.

Here is what he had to say:
“Speedy arrival, and it came to the UK, which has amazed me no end. Although it’s quite thin, and the transfer makes the t-shirt feel a bit ‘crispy’, it’s quite a nice fit, so bravo Spreadshirt. Next time I think I’ll get a different colour, as I can see my skin through this one. But not bad at all.
Strangely, Spreadshirt included a free packet of sunflower seeds with the garment. I do not understand the thinking behind this, but I applaud their generosity/ability to form odd promotional partnerships.”

So, hurrah. All is well. Not sure about the sunflower seeds, if it’s an old german tradition, it is not one known to me. I thought about de-moisturizing effects of seeds, but on second thought considered it unlikely. And they don’t look at all tasty.

Now since I haven’t whored the links for my shops for at least a week:

Spreadshop Europe: http://347424.spreadshirt.net/
Spreadshop USA: http://197704.spreadshirt.com/
cafePress(bah!) USA: http://www.cafepress.com/stumpferg

So congratulations to:
– Wowser for being thee true shopping pioneer
– John for the opportunity to feel extra special once again
– Me because I can get myself an aspirin now
– Everyone else for there are pictures:

Filed under: t-shirt

a blunt hour of unsampled soul.

There are two ways you can do a sample compilation a) you do a novelty mix, where you put Rick James “Super Freak” (the main “inspiration” from MC Hammers “Can’t Touch This”) right next to Gian Franco & Gian Piero Reverberi’s “Nel cimitero di Tucson” (main sample in Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”). Or b) you try to make a through-listenable soul & funk mix. This is my try at alternative (b).

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Next “Blunt Hour” will be on the 30th and deals with “finish tango”, those are tangos from finnland or suomi (which is how the finns call their country).

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a blunt hour of anadolu rock.

In 1965 turkeys biggest national newspaper the “Hürriyet” held a contest, called the Altin Mikrofon (The Golden Microphone), in which amateur bands had to write and perform a song based on traditional turkish melodies, but played with western electric instrumentation and in a western style. The winner was promised a nationwide tour and a record pressing with all profits going towards the band. These contest were held from 65-68.

This forever changed the face of turkish rock music, what started as a heavy-handed covering of “The Shadows” hits (by the way a band that has never gotten full credit for what they actually did to further rock music all over the world) turned in a short time into a very interesting an unique musical movement, who’s greatest artists: Cem Karaca, Barış Manço and Erkin Koray are not only national heroes in turkey, but are being now heard all over the world.

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The Next “blunt hour of…” will be posted on the 15th of April and is called “Unsampled Soul”, it will feature some of the most heavily sampled soul records in history.

Filed under: blunt hour of ..., music