Jun 8, 2014

Sundaze 1423

Hello, it's F1 weekend again and the Mercedes boys are duelling once more surprisingly Hamilton came in second. At almost 7 tenth of a second Vettel came in third he was 4 hundreds of a second faster then his team mate he was 6th, go figure how close is that ? Could be some race in Montreal tomorrow.

Today we descend back to our planet but we land in one of it's coldest countries, best known for it once world dominating mobile phone until Apple muscled itself in, Nokia. It's the source country for one of the worlds best operating systems (and free ) Linux. They produce coolheaded racing drivers.  Born 1985 in Finland, living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. "I try my best to capture moments and spaces. Subtle melodies and progression, sense of space, and warmth are close to my heart." .....N'Joy

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Blamstrain 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.

Blamstrain is Juho Hietala from 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, we got treated with Disfold, a mighty work of gritty, evolved ambient that is undoubtedly his most grown-up release yet. Hietala currently resides in The Netherlands.

Juho is a perfectionist and that's quiet a burdon in digital land to loosen up a little he occasianly creates a podcast for Redlightradio a local internet station broadcasting from the Amsterdam red light district. He's releasing his work himself and he would be helped if he had someone doing some decent PR for him because what the web coughs up is fragmented and mostly identical. Anyway this here is about his latest album with a word from the master himself...

"An enormous amount of care and attention has gone into For All The Dreamers In. Each track melds gracefully into the next and the wide variety of styles are well paced, providing atmospheric peaks and troughs that will pull you through to the end before demanding you rewind for another listen. Excellent stuff."

I've been working on this album for years but it's taken some personal growth to finish it. After Sunday Dub I found myself going back to the roots of enjoying playing music rather than be too cerebral about the process of creating it on a computer, and took a few hours worth of material I had laying around from earlier times and started making playlists. Eventually a few cogs turned and I was left with more time to put the album together as a cohesive whole. I've drawn inspiration from all around - music, movies, art but most importantly the people around me, and put it down into 66 minutes and 24 seconds of music for you all. Hopefully you will enjoy it - for me it is the best work I've ever done.

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Debut album by young Finnish lad by the name of Juho.  This album straddles the divide between IDM & techno, splatterfuck smooth electronic soundscapes. After several listens of the album, the beats aren't hugely abstract, but so cleverly subtly different to anything else you've ever heard before. It's one of those albums that takes several listens to get what the artist is on about but then once you are on the same page you realise how wonderful it is! It's somewhat dark but fairly ambient still and gives me the shivers every time I listen to it! And every track is good!
Droppin the science drops from word go with ‘Process’, a kind of backwards acid disgorges itself, while angelic tones paint a picture of the northern lights in deepest winter, then the bass and drums drop and man this rocks. ‘Batman’ ticks along, massive squelching bass detonations piercing the icy melodic palette, almost characterizing this fine release. Sky sized, almost symphonic keys and sfx, beefed up with the kind of percussive bangers we all hold so dear. Overall it is a most accomplished album, a masterpiece and this for a debut ! Blamstrain is easily on par with the likes of proem, bola, ochre, brothomstates, monolake etc. An absolute must have.



Blamstrain - Ensi  (flac 379mb)

01 Process 7:04
02 Batman 5:30
03 Etkno 76 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 7:50

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The tools with which we need to equip ourselves for the journey through Disfold are once again provided courtesy of the stunning artistic talents of Jeroen Advocaat. A publicity shot from the metropolis we are visiting adorns the front cover, that of a metro train at a station, the hazy orb ridden skies and towering buildings of the violet lit city looming in the background. The metro map of our journey has been provided on the reverse of the package, plotting our stops from “Diacedita” across the city to our eighth and final destination stop, “A Song for Jonas.” Simply insert your pre-printed ticket into the CD player and we are ready to depart.

Our train arrives at the station, and as the doors open, muffled conversation, the sound of cars and other trains, and the chime of a tnnoy greet us as we disembark and make our way to the exit. A gong heralds our emergence into “Diacedita:” ethnic wind chimes, insect chatter, and the muted sound of buskers echoing from some distant corridor. Prepare yourself for a journey through the hazy city from a possible future.
 “Sight of Field” reveals an awe inspiring vista of towering, violet hued offices, apartment blocks and sky-scrapers, their softened edges melding with the unmistakable shapes of impossibly vast caterpillars and vividly colored insects while alongside them impossibly gigantic plant life sprouts from their walls and the ground. The perfumes and dulled sounds of the city mingle with those of the flowers and insect life, an intoxicating yet familiar and relaxing experience.

“The thing you hate me for is also a part of the rest of me you love” sees us catch another metro, this time a much more fraught, paranoid and oppressive experience, accompanied by the dull thudding of a heart beat as we are channeled through the underground tunnels like blood cells. The journey is accompanied by muffled clatters and clacks, the rushing of wind and more vinyl crackle, that press in upon us with ever increasing intensity until it practically pounds inside our heads.

Just as it seems we are in danger of losing consciousness, we are released into “Nyt Revisited.” On the streets again, the audible thudding of a nightclub close by is all but washed away by the heavy rainfall of a humid summer shower. After a number of minutes this abruptly cuts out, as a radio is re-tuned and a plane flies overhead. Light and fresh air flood in on a breeze of airy, atmospheric pads and crystalline, cascading synthesisers, leading directly into “Frame Math,” a more melodic than atmospheric experience that provides some welcome shelter from the intensity of the rest of Disfold.

After the slow, loping bass line thuds and heavily distorted, wowing synths that conclude the piece, “Revelation 21:1″ hits us, and our journey through Disfold reaches its atmospheric peak. All semblance of background rhythm and melody gone, we are thrust into the surging, blinking, whooshing heart of the city. The constant rumble of trains and cars, the sounds of light rainfall, the occasional blare of a horn in the distance, bleeps, whirs. The timbre and intensity changes throughout, slowly drowning out the muffled drones that form the backbone of the piece. “Revelation 21:1″ is a dense, atmosphere-transforming piece that sounds like it has taken forever to put together and perfect. It will transform your living room into the centre park of a sprawling and slightly alien futuristic metropolis.

“Spring/summer” follows as deep, booming undercurrents buoy up strange and muffled electrical chatter which is slowly subsumed by the sounds of more industrial screeching and debris that finally reveals itself as out final train arriving.

The final leg of our journey, “A Song for Jonas,” sees a haunting melody carried to us through the darkened tunnels of the underground along with the hypnotic and deep drones from some far off power source or machinery. We accelerate towards a speeding train, the melody lost in the sound of powerful engines firing, wheels clattering along rails and the rush of the wind that whips at us until, finally on top of the vehicle and with one final earth-shattering thump, we stop dead and the train is lost in the distance.

Disfold is a brilliant ambient creation, and its only real flaws are two instances of timing: “Sight of Field” is woefully short, given that it is once of the most driving and instantly recognizable pieces on Disfold, whilst the eventually rather numbing “The thing you have me for is also a part of the rest of me you love” is over-extended and far more oppressive than perhaps it should be. It does make a point; it’s just not a particularly pleasant one. Disfold has been a labor of love for Blamstrain, a project that has apparently taken Hietela four years to be happy enough with to release. This love is evident in every facet of the work, making this one of the most immersive and intense ambient albums released for some time. Essential.



Blamstrain - Disfold  (flac 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

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 "Lowblow" and 2009's "Exosphere" were both more or less just collections, touching on adopting technology to carry out human interaction. Listeners are highly encouraged to try and lose themselves as much as possible and even forget that the music is playing. The intended state of listening is close to another person, virtually or physically.



Blamstrain - Lowblow (flac  392mb)

01 050716 3:51
02 Kingdom Kittens 7:42
03 Take Two 3:59
04 041115 1:20
05 Shaken, Not Stirred 5:17
06 030410 1:45
07  Polyplex 9:07
08 Suitsetamine 5:32
09 Nuyersacidz 8:54
10 020700 1:37
11 SFS 400 4:04
12 Atlantic 5:54
13 On Future 7:47
14 Meowbye 3:28
15 17 Days (Blmstrnrmx) 4:25

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2 comments:

solpadeine said...

Would love it if you could re-up the Blamstrain. Kiitos paljon!

Josh said...

Hi Rho. I would love a reupload of Blamstrain. There is no way I missed this artist after listening to Monolake for so long.

Thank you,

Josh