HEL YES !
By Léo on Wednesday, May 19 2010, - Music - Permalink
The City of Helsinki will host a series of club nights reflecting the city's vibrant music scene with an amazing line-up. The jazz, metal and electronic clubs will take place in association with the events of Shanghai World Expo's Finland Day on the 27th May in various venues across the city.
Hel YES - Dada, Logo and Anar 27th of May
The after party to the Expo’s Finland day 27th of May will be organized at at Xingfu Road clubs Dada, Anar where the reasons behind the current hype experienced by the Finnish electronic music scene can be witnessed first-hand and Logo in the company of Jimi Tenor, Villa Nah, Top Billin, Renaissance Man, Jori Hulkkonen, Clouds and Desto.
The flamboyant figure of Jimi Tenor blends influences from psychedelic soul, jazz, experimental rock, Afro-American music and electronica to create an unexpected mixture of funky pop fusion. Jori Hulkkonen has been spreading his distinctive blend of house and techno since the debut 12" in 1993, more recently with hit 'Sunglasses at Night' featuring Tiga. Top Billin crew's energetic and loud live shows have filled dancefloors from Paris to New York and Villa Nah synthpop embraces both the cold sound of the synthesizer and the romantic sentiments of the vocals with Clouds and Desto adding their distinctive brands of dubstep to the evenings versatile line-up. Hel Yes is produced in collaboration with Antidote.
The Artists
Musician and composer Jimi Tenor has never settled for the traditional role of a pop artist. He is known as a productive musician whose work lies beyond current trends, and also as a performer who combines the finest elements of afro-american music, spontaneous silliness and shameless glamour in an original way. Besides being a professional musician for almost 20 years, Jimi Tenor (born Lassi Lehto, 1965, Lahti, Finland) has also practised photography, directed short films and designed clothes and musical instruments. Tenor's music, along with his design and technical innovations, springs from experimental rock. His first
recording band Jimi Tenor & His Shamans (1986-1992) was influenced by the early 80s industrial rock, where instruments were made out of scrap metal and plastic. Later during the 90s Tenor moved first towards electronic music, but soon got closer to his roots: 60s and 70s jazz, psychedelic soul and African funk. Although Tenor spent all of the 90s in Berlin, New York, London and Barcelona, his artistic approach was typically Finnish: technically practical, but saturated with black humour and a national romantic tone. So he was quite at home all over Europe in front of a crowd gone wild, wearing a glittering self-designed costume and
a flowing cape, holding a noise-producing device the main components of which were a walkman made in Hong Kong and an East-German bicycle dynamo, performing a song about ancient Finnish forest gods, sounding like a mixture of Gil Evans, Jimi Hendrix and Fela Kuti.
Today Jimi Tenor is an established European artist who operates outside the mainstream. His audience consists of clubbers and alternative rock enthusiasts looking for new perspective, but also of jazz and funk rebels. Those who understand that even unconventional pop music can move your body and heart.
Breakout stars of 2009, duo Renaissance Man's style of minimal house music that mixes ethnic/world samples has been wowing the crowds at clubs and festivals around the world. Band members Jaxxon and Downtown began their musical collaboration in 2008 with a monthly club night NOW! in Helsinki and since late 2008 have released their own material and several remixes for other acts.
Debut Spraycan was released on Switch’s Dubsided in early 2009, followed by Rhythm on the Kitsuné Maison 7 compilation. A subsequent EP on Parisian label Sound Pellegrino launched title track What Is Guru as one of the year’s underground hits, making Renaissance Man highly sought-after remixers for the likes of Brodinski, Crystal Fighters, Health, Le Corps Mince de Françoise… Original tracks and remixes have seen support from fellow DJ’s including Diplo, Annie Mac, Claude Von Stroke, Tiga, Jesse Rose…
This rollercoaster success has led to some serious thumbing of Renaissance Man passports with gigs across four continents in major clubs (Social Club/Paris, Hive/Zurich, WMF/Berlin) and festivals (Stereosonic/Australia, Les Transardentes/Belgium, Igloofest/Montreal). The mayhem looks set to continue in 2010 with at least two new records, including an EP on the Made to Play Label, remixes for The Very Best, Solo and The Crookers, plus numerous international shows in prestigious venues including Fabric and Panorama Bar. Who knows, that elusive Renaissance Man album might even make its appearance…
Taking their inspiration from 3000 years of art and science, Renaissance Man prove that you can think out of the box, but that it’s even better to think outside the walls. Or make that borders.
Finland's Jori Hulkkonen has never been the one to paint himself in the corner. With releases in the last two decades exploring 360 degrees on the musical radar, he's been hailed as "the most underrated producer in the world", "living legend of electronic composition" and "music's best kept secret".
Since the debut 12" in 1993, ten artist albums for F communications and more recently Turbo recordings, collaborations with people as verstaile as John Foxx, Jose Gonzales, Jesper Dahlbäck (as Kebacid) and Phonogenic (as Discemi), dozens of 12" singles on some of the world's hottest labels, and close to a hundred remixes for artists as diverse as Chromeo, Kid Cudi, Robyn, and Lydia Lunch, followed by producing albums for the bands Sister Flo and Villa Nah, and naturally the writing and production work on both Tiga -albums, all qualify as self-explanatory efforts of a passionate music aficionado. And that's excluding the sideprojects.
Eversince the mid 90's Jori has travelled across the globe and played hundreds of clubs and festivals from Australia to Zurich -and every alphabet inbetween -spreading the vibe with his unique blend of house and techno, fuelled by insatiable curiosity about the music's future and profound understanding of its past.
Clouds is a Finnish electronic music production team consisting of Tommi Liikka and Samuli Tanner. Championed by people like Joe Nice, Geiom, Skream, N-Type, L-Wiz, Dj/Rupture, Mary Anne Hobbs and Tes La Rok, The Clouds sound is like a soundtrack to the invasion of earth by little and green, but dubwise, aliens. It’s a fresh take on the standards of dubstep, combining elements from video games, experimental music and hip-hop with deep melodic meditations and dancefloor-shredding basslines. Always keeping it fresh, Clouds tracks rarely tread a path they’ve previously stepped on. “Under The Dancing Feet” has been an absolute phenomenon in the dubstep scene, tearing it up in the dance worldwide, garnering support from all the top DJ’s from a variety of genres, including plays on Radio 1 experimental. With catchy vocals, melodic rhythms and pummelling bass this is surely the kind of tune to propel dubstep further into the mainstream.
Fifteen thousand screaming fans, speakers banging loud as thunder, fireworks and pyrotechnics flying in the air like it’s new year’s eve. Four dudes in tight leather pants, stroking power chords from stratocasters and blasting double bass drums… Oh wait, that was Van Halen at the San Diego Sports Arena in 1981. Never mind that…
But Top Billin are equally hot. In fact – the DJ collective consisting of guys named Sir Nenis, Fiskars and Flipperi, Anonymous, J-Laini & Tane Lee, Top Billin is the closest thing to club phenomenon ever to come from Finland. Ask anybody. While others talk the talk, they walk the damn walk. In 2006 Top Billin made themselves a household name in Helsinki with bootleg remixes, hot mixtapes and a monthly club night that was packed every single time from the beginning. Then came the first 12” ep and after that nothing was the same. That record became the number one selling item at Turntablelab.com, and favored by club dj’s and party music lovers around the world.
Top Billin has become a well oiled party machine, rocking shows around the globe from Paris to Berlin and Moscow to New York, with the likes of Justice, Sany Pitbull,Feadz and countless other club favorites. In 2008 they even made their first big tour supporting M.I.A. in
Canada Their hometown club night in Helsinki has hosted international guests like Scottie B, DJ Sega, DJ Ayres, Tittsworth, Cosmo Baker, Paul Devro and many others.
The key to Top Billin’s success is not rocket science. They are just six guys who love music and like to have good time. All the time. While they’re very serious about their music, Top Billin are definitely no genre-stuck. With their roots deep in house, hip hop, dancehall, boogie and even rock, Top Billin likes to keep their music up-to-date and cutting-edge, both in the shows they play and the records they put out. That’s why you can pretty much count on the latest Top Billin release to always provide you with fresh sounding party breaks,
remixes and /or original productions, anything that they feel like at the time being.
Beside being club goers favorites, Top Billin have made fans among big name dj’s like Sinden, Tittsworth, DJ Funk, Scottie B, Diplo, The Rub DJ’s, Trouble & Bass, Laidback Luke and countless more. They’ve done remixes for artists and labels like Unruly, Trouble & Bass and Stretch Armstrong’s Plant Music. Beside their own label, Top Billin has also produced tracks for T&A Records’ releases. If you like your club music energetic, loud and nasty and you haven’t checked out Top Billin yet – get on with the friggin’ program already. Or, as R. Kelly puts it, “Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce.”
NME: "Reigniting electropop's romantic flame" VICE: Villa Nah's timeless take on romance, synthesisers and melancholy is hard to resist" DAZED & CONFUSED: "Villa Nah make the kind of pure electronic pop that current chart acts could only dream of." DJ MAG: "Dreamy Scandinavian disco from this hotlytipped duo & There's sure to be a few tears on the dancefloor." 4/5 review for 'Rainmaker' - single
The duo consisting of Juho Paalosmaa and Tomi Hyyppä, the newcomerVilla Nah has already acquired a following among electronic music lovers with soundscapes that recall the haunting synthpop of the eighties and embrace both the cold sound of the synthesizer and the romantic sentiments of the vocals. One of the most eagerly awaited debut albums of 2010, Villa Nah's 'Origin' was released in March.
No real bio available, the up and coming Finnish dubstep producer internationally
Desto makes music. Desto is currently supported by DJ's like Tes La Rok (Noppa, Helsinki), Kode9 (Hyperdub,London) Joe Nice & Dave Q (Dubwar NYC), Blackdown + Dusk (Keysound/Rinse FM, London), Oneman (Rinse FM, London), Joker (Kapsize, Bristol), Dead-O (Clouds/Channel Zero/Deep Medi, Helsinki) and more.
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Dont stop believing. Hold on to that feeling.