Aug 25, 2013

Sundaze 1334

Hello, as the Vuelta (Tour of Spain) started today with a team time trial which shook up the classifications before going all out tomorrow with the first of 11 ascend finishes. These last years the Vuelta has been a more entertaining spectacle than the Tour De France which btw did have an excellent 100th tour. There's two spanish favorites and a clever Italian, Nibali, who won the Giro earlier this year-he's my tip. Tipping who will win tomorrow's F1 Grand Prix at the grandiose Spa circuit could be easy, if Hamilton's Mercedes will run to specs he will win, if not Vettel will be right in his trail.

So tonight we dwell under the northern lights courtsey by a Finnish artist who meanwhile has found a scene in Amsterdam that inspires him to make the next step in his musical footprint. ... N'Joy

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The Finnish artist Blamstrain (Juho Hietala) has been named an up-and-coming force in the local underground scene of Helsinki for a number of years. Well respected among his artist peers, his endearing ability to nonchalantly cross genres and try out new things has also caused debate among his listeners, wondering where he will go next. His trademark sound is very immersive; analog, warm, with a high concentration on ambience and space. Praised by The Wire, XLR8R, Mary Anne Hobbs (plus other Radio 1 DJs) and a favorite of many well-established artists, the Finn has a lot of diverse material to offer to a wide range of listeners.

Finland, a country that is home to so many talented electronic music artists that find their work respected all over the world. Blamstrain is one of these artists. Via his debut cd Ensi and a 12″ on the USA-based Merck Records and a killer 12″ collaboration with Brothomstates on Merck’s sublabel Narita,  subsequently we got treated with Disfold (06), a mighty work of gritty, evolved ambient that is undoubtedly his most grown-up release yet. 2007 saw the release of Lowblow a more techno orientated album as was its 2008 follow up Exosphere. In 2009 he released the ambient Tundra I-VII under the moniker OSC , a year later he released a collection of his ambient work, Selected Ambient Dub Works 06-09  . There was a techno release that year as well, Red Green Blue. Followed by Keeping Up Appearances in 2011.

In 2012 he released a drone, dark ambient, musique concrète album "Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep" under the moniker of Invisible Hands. His latest a mini-album released last month is Sunday Dub " The first album to be completed fully after I left Finland for the Netherlands. I was living in the more rural parts of Holland for a while, spending a lot of my time bicycling and foraging in the woods at night. I discovered that the man-made nature of this country is both beautiful and frightening in equal amounts; at some times seeming like a kafkaesque tale of ecological horrors, and others a poetic struggle against the forces of nature by the will of the settlers."

Meanwhile Juro is living in Amsterdam and is immersed in it's trippy music scene you'll be able to hear him spinning @
 Redlightradio live from the notorious Amsterdam district. He tends to make a lot freely available at Soundcloud and keeps up his facebook you can buy directly at his shop.

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Debut album by young Finnish lad by the name of Juho under his moniker of Blamstrain. Ensi was released Apr 10, 2004 on the Merck label. This is the first album by Blamstrain, a young Finnish lad by the name of Juho. Heavily influenced by other notable Finnish acts like Brothomstates, Lackluster and Vladislav Delay; his album straddles the divide between idm and techno. We like to describe the music as splatterfuck smooth electronic soundscapes, with harsh melodies and crisp percussion.9 tracks with a running time around an hour, this is a solid cd for dark nights and early mornings flying down the expressway, or whiling out in a field in the Finnish highlands watching the sky shift.



Blamstrain - Ensi (379mb)

01 Process 7:03
02 Batman 5:30
03 Etkno76 6:30
04 List 6:00
05 Linja 5:18
06 Goodbye P10 6:22
07 Alive In Arms 6:34
08 Turn Back 8:41
09 Hello A16 7:49

Blamstrain - Ensi (ogg 137mb)

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"Disfold" is a journey of muffled, dubbed ambient pieces, all aligned nicely on one underlying environmental track that carries the whole album further, like a train, evergoing and gently pulsing, almost progressive. The concept of the electric train is omnipresent, even in the artwork, and provides lots of subtle samples crafted into things like singing steel wheels, buzzing electricity interfering with the sound of a needle cruising on black curves, distant city sounds and voices hushed by electromagnetic engines, dancing power lines and of course lots of whooshing turned into purified noise. Fans of Echospace/DeepChord and Basic Channel will certainly enjoy in this release. Everything that has a scent of dub and techno seems to be condemned as a sort of repetition of the work done by BC/Echospace, but "Disfold" has to offer something in addition - echoing ambient pieces blurred into dark city noise. Obviously all this doesn’t result in a cheery walk on the seaside, but despite all this gloomy roaring activity, the album manages to provide enough positivism and soul to make it plain fascinating.



Blamstrain - Disfold (365mb)

01 Diacedita 6:43
02 Sight Of Field 4:30
03 The Thing You Hate Me For Is Also A Part Of The Rest Of Me You Love 7:59
04 Nyt Revisited 11:56
05 Frame Math 10:44
06 Revelation 21:1 8:10
07 Spring/Summer 10:15
08 A Song For Jonas 8:47

Blamstrain - Disfold   (ogg 156mb)

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A collection of selected ambient and dub works from 2006-2009.

I've kept some of these under wraps for a long time waiting for the right moment to be put together into an album, and here it is! The contained music itself is as warm and analog as you'd expect, with every track's placement carefully considered to fit for the big picture. If you liked my 2006 album "Disfold" you will like this too.

 I sincerely hope you enjoy the listen from start to finish!  -Juho



Blamstrain - Selected Ambient Dub Works 06-09 (345mb)

01 Missing You 11:57
02 Night Became 8:12
03 Miuh (Dedicated To The Memory Of W.W.) 3:51
04 Stream 1:57
05 Pride Pigs (Live With Esa Ruoho) 6:14
06 Laulu Maapallolle / A Song For The Earth 8:11
07 Inari 8:22
08 Keplatzoo (Live With Lassi Nikko) 9:01
09 Missing You (Dub) 5:47

Blamstrain - Selected Ambient Dub Works 06-09 (ogg 137mb)

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think that some of the albums posted here (Sundanze 1334) were also uploaded in Sundaze 1423, which was reupped last weekend in RhoDeo 1925 Re-Up 194, so I just ask for a reup of Blamstrain - Selected Ambient Dub Works as this is the only album that has not been reupped.