Images: Ana Ventura . My thumb is embarking on a great adventure. 'Don't go, please,' say the fingers. They try to hold him down. Here comes a black limousine with a velied woman in the back seat, but noone at the wheel. When it stops, she takes a pair of gold scissors out of her purse and snips the thumb off. We are off to Chicago with her using the bloody stump of my thumb to paint her lips. - Charles Simic, excerpt from 'The world doesn't end'. Giacinto [...]

paavoharju sumuvirsi 2008 (française version) Derrière les volets, dans la nuit, encore la pluie. Encore. Encore un billet qui ne décrira rien. N'offrira, sur la musique de paavoharju, pas le moindre indice que je pourrais oublier demain. Mon cerveau se vide à la vitesse d'un cheval au galop. Demain, donc, je ré-écouterai paavoharju et cela me semblera nouveau. Chaque jour, j'écoute des disques pour la première fois. Pour toujours. [...]

As with almost any of the Fonal stable, Paavoharju are entrenched in a dissonant experimentalism. Unlike the rest though, they do have shining moments of Pop amongst the clatter of bells and hiss of static. The band's second album, Laulu Laakson Kukista continues on the same track they'd blazed with their debut; an equally varied collection of otherworldly Finnish folkisms and stuttered electronic charm. The collective weave classical, almost religious orchestral pieces, humid leftfield beats and intangible world music together like the northern shadows of Sun City Girls. Looping like lost broadcasts echoed off wayward weather patterns, the [...]

paavoharju Laulu Laakson Kukista is the stunning new LP from Finland 's Paavoharju . I've only begun to digest this thing, but like their last album , it's pretty out there. Much of it sounds like a distant AM radio transmission, fading in and out from some hazy, psychedelic ether. Here's what the band has to say about it (presumably translated from Finnish): " Sounds of raindrops falling on sheet metal roof melted together with old television's random-dot-pattern-noise. Leena Uotila's soft voice [...]
There's something funny about Finland. I've never been in any other country where someone has buttonholed me in a pub and asked me "what are you doing here? This country is terrible". He bought me something to drink – well I think I was supposed to drink it, it was actually confectionery dissolved in alcohol [...]

Photo: Hideaway by Roger Ballen . Prints available here . Today's mix is a surrealistic, collage-like exploration of the grey area between fact and fiction. An adventurous mix in which fantasy and reality seem fully entwined. The basis for this mix is provided by the above shown photograph Hideaway by Roger Ballen from Johannesburg, South Africa. I find this to be a very powerful photograph that, due to its abstract nature, can take on different meanings depending on the observer. The first thing that might strike you when seeing this photo [...]
Artiste : Paavoharju Album : Yhä Hämäraä Pays : Finlande Genre : Freak folk, new weird Imaginez un coin oublié de tout le monde, un endroit que nul ne penserait un jour fouler d'un pas allègre. Il en est de même pour les contrées musicales : certains abordent, décomplexés de tous scrupules, [...]

We left Nicholas and Carla with the smell of romance driving through the Paris night. Since then events have accelerated. After weeks of rumour, they outed themselves during a walkabout in Disneyland Paris where Nicolas held Tigger's hand and Carla danced with Minnie. Marriage quickly followed and Carla moved into the Palais de l' Elysées with a small amount of pomp and a lot of furniture. However, although Nicolas loves Carla, a corner of his mind is uneasy; it's the things he'll find her whispering on the edge of hearing and the startled look she sometimes [...]

So I intended to harp on the many splendors of the Coachella Valley earlier on in the week, but I got taken down very hard by a bout of postpardumb depression that came complete with some world destroying illness. I spent most of the week indiscriminately wafting in and out of some sticky fusion of halfsleep and delerium, with the most tangible moments involving violent lungfuls of Indio's finest. But I did have fun at the time. I just couldn't wring any enthusiasm out of my vacant ass self until right around now... Anyway, quick rundown because I [...]
My dear friend (and industry insider!) Nat was kind enough to share with me the final artwork for the forthcoming Alejandro Jorodowsky DVD boxed set , which will include Fando YLis , El Topo , and Holy Mountain . For a full-sized view, just click the image: Also, it's Sunday. Time for a new compilation. RULES for uninitiated noobs : With 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or Zunes or [...]
The Things That Make My Heart Beat Faster, vTwo, Part Two Some nights dissolve softly, slowly like honey poured into a bowl of tea. Download: Paavoharju - Kuu Lohduttaa Huolestuneita / Lähtö - Descent / SubtractiveLAD & Bitcrush - Denouement / Marsen Jules - Couer SaignantBuy the Album: Paavoharju - Yhä Hämärää / Lähtö - Departure (Free Download [...]
Well, I'm still in a hurry and can't devote enough time to undomondo, but I don't want to finish 2006 without mentioning all who deserve to be mentioned. I've got around 30 albums/bands to mention here in my list, but uploading one song for all takes some time. Here are some notable mentions in random brain order mode to be continued and concluded hopefully tomorrow. Aceyalone And RJD2 - Magnificent City Not everything is great on this one but the first part's not to be missed. [...]
Syyskauden toinen Kuningasklubi pidetään Tavastialla lauantaina 28.10.. Illan musiikista vastaavat tällä kertaa: Loney, Dear (SWE) Paavoharju Dj:t Makelove (Uusi Aalto) ja ODJ Saimi (Stupido, Tku) Liput totuttuun tapaan 10 euroa tai jäsenkortilla 8 euroa. Ennakkolippuja myy Tiketti . Seuraavien iltojen vierailijoiksi on huhujen mukaan tulossa muun muassa Services , Ratatat ja Serena-Maneesh . [...]

01 squarepusher_welcome to europe 02 venetian snares_hospitality 03 hifana_tanglang 04 drop the lime & mathhead_slamdance 05 lusine_weaver 06 takagi masakatsu_brightershade 07 dntel_rock my boat (feat. mia doi todd) 08 paavoharju_yllään on aamu, korennot ja kesä

... Finally, it must be clear that it is our business not to supply reality but to invent allusions to the conveivable which cannot be presented. And it is not to be expected that this task will effect the last reconciliation between language games (which, under the name of faculties, Kant knew to be seperated by a cashm), and that only the transcendental illusion (that of Hegel) can hope to totalize them into a real unity. ... - Jean-Francois Lyotard , What Is Postmodernism? [...]