Bass & Beer Party, Friday 30 March 2007, Tampere

Bass & Beer Party
Friday 30 March 2007
@ Club Apple, Aleksanterinkatu 29 (upstairs of Café Europa), Tampere
free entry

Dubsteppers, minimal dub, dub, even more dub

DJs:
Mesa-Vatti & Miska Immanuel (Vaasa)
Jere P
Nilk (Bass & Beer)

Bass & Beer Party has been one of the few remaining torch-bearers of electro in Tampere, including in their nights also other styles of electronic dance music, such as drum'n'bass, dubstep and hip hop.

From the introduction on Bass & Beer Party MySpace site:

"Bass & Beer got started when Squash and Bob Ryynänen wanted to organize club where people could see proper lives supported by great DJs. Jere P soon came along as well. After about one year of some parties with various names, 11 September 2004 saw the first official Bass & Beer Party in Telakka, Tampere. Since then, there has been many memorable nights with lives like Huoratron, Dos Noun, Polytron and Blamstrain and some bad ass DJ action by Rikos Records collective, Resound, Sire and Kongocrew among others. When it comes to the residents, Jere P has mainly been playing the lousy slots, driving cars and arranging some women for the afterparties, as Squash and Bob have been doing the organizing and playing the better slots. It must be said that when the afterparties have occurred, it has been Jere to take care of the gals. In the winter of 2006 Bass & Beer did a little tour in Finland, co-operating for example with Ikahu posse from Lahti. 2006 also witnessed birth of Tammerforce club, the fruit of B&B's co-project with legendary Telex.

Always struggling but still there, Bass & Beer for your entertainment."

Dubstep in Tampere

Tammerforce/Bass and Beer Party club's Dubstep special last night at Yo-Talo presented Tes La Rok (a.k.a. Jani Niiranen from Helsinki) featuring MC Rogue Star from London. I checked this with some interest because I couldn't claim to have much idea what this dubstep thing -- supposedly the latest craze in UK's electronic dance music -- was all about.

Well, it turned out to be pretty intriguing: very growling and slow bone-shaking sub-bass sounds accompanied with abstract electronic excursions circling from one speaker to another. In fact, one could say it sounded much like a jungle 45 rpm vinyl record played at death-slow 33 rpm instead. So the tempo was that of dub reggae but the aggressive heaviness -- in fact, downright scary at times -- was clearly from those darker styles of drum'n'bass.

This sound made me somehow think of my old favourites Meat Beat Manifesto, Techno Animal (Kevin "The Bug" Martin's project with Justin Broadrick of Godflesh) or even one my all-time fave tracks, LFO's 'Tied-Up' (albeit as a slowed-down version). So I have to say I quite liked the dubstep sound: nice, dark and hard. (Heh, a comparison for the more rock-oriented people might be of grunge's slower Black Sabbath-like sounds to that of speed metal.)

The only problem with the performance for me was that maybe the BPM/tempo there remained a bit too same-y all through the set; for my own tastes accelerating the tempo and adding more rhythmical variation every once in a while might have probably made it more interesting, but perhaps this would have also lost the idea of what this style is all about. And perhaps it might have been interesting to hear it all as purely instrumental without the Cockney chants from this Brit MC who did his best, though, to lift the audience's emotions and even trying to make them raise their cigarette lighters for Tes La Rok (as they do at UK parties to show appreciation for the DJ; it seems Finnish audiences have not adopted this habit, at least not yet). After the set, Bass and Beer head honcho Bob Ryynänen played some cool electro, the way we haven't heard in ages in this Northern Mecca of milk-white junglists, Morrissey-worshippers and forest folkers; even causing one ol' pHinn to do some rare body movements on dancefloor; a considerable feat in itself these days.

Sakke Karipuro's photos from the event

More on dubstep:


Dubstep - MTV Base "About To Blow"


Dubstep documentary of BBC Collective

Tammerforce 25 August 2006 Images

Orgue Electronique's Brian Chinetti and Legowelt's Danny Wolfers


Sakke Karipuro, that ever-trusty court photographer of Tampere electronic dance music scene has photos he took of last night's Tammerforce event here:

http://sakarik.1g.fi/kuvat/Events/tammerforce-20060825-feat_legowelt_and_orgue_electronique/

Holland's Orgue Electronique and Legowelt were both amazing, and I (the guy in white Murdercapital T-shirt for those who were there) danced my ass off. Soundwise a lot of it made me think of 80s Chicago house à la Adonis' 'No Way Back', Sakke compared some Legowelt stuff to Leo Anibaldi and DJ Autobass raved to me about their 101.

And if you watch closely, you can also see the members of Kompleksi lurking somewhere there in the pics...

Holland's Legowelt & Orgue Electronique to Tampere

Tammerforce presents:

Legowelt (NL)
Orgue Electronique (NL)

Friday 25 August 2006
@ Yo-Talo, Tampere, Finland
2200-0400 hours
tickets 6€

LEGOWELT [Bunker Records, NL - LIVE!]
ORGUE ELECTRONIQUE [Bunker, Crème Organization, NL - LIVE!]
DJ BOB RYYNÄNEN [Tammerforce, Rikos] vs. DJ NAKS [Sewer Leak Records]
DJ mini [Tammerforce, Polytron] vs. DJ BAD PASSION [Rikos]
DJ ZURKKA [Rikos]
DJ JERE P [Bass&Beer]

Info & discussion at Platinum (in Finnish)



Listen:

Legowelt @ MySpace
Orgue Electronique @ MySpace

Watch:


Legowelt: 'Disco Rout'

All Legowelt search results @ YouTube

All Orgue Electronique search results @ YouTube

Read:

pHinnWeb's interview of Legowelt and Orgue Electronique in 2000

Legowelt @ Wikipedia

Tiedote 11.8.2006, julkaisuvapaa heti

Hollannin elektrodiskotähdet Legowelt ja Orgue Electronique kiertävät Suomea

Konemusiikin ystäviä hemmotellaan, kun Legowelt ja Orgue Electronique, eli Danny Wolfers ja Brian Chinetti, saapuvat pienoiskiertueelle Suomeen 24.-26. elokuuta. Helsingissä, Tampereella ja Turussa esiintyvä hollantilaiskaksikko kuuluu uuden aallon elektron huippunimiin.

Kiertueen elektrodiskojuna starttaa Kuudes linja -klubilta Helsingistä torstaina 24. elokuuta, eli Taiteiden yönä. Luvassa on yölliseen taidetapahtumaan sopiva suurtapaus, kun Legoweltiltä kuullaan ja nähdään iskevän tanssisetin ohella The Mysteries Of The World -show:n maailmanensi-ilta. Poikkitaiteellisessa esityksessä
Wolfers yhdistelee improvisoitua musiikkia valkokankaalle heijastettuihin otteisiin hänen omasta elokuvatuotannostaan ja suosikkielokuvistaan.

Perjantaina 25. elokuuta karavaani pysähtyy Telex-klubin kotipaikassa Tampereen Yo-talolla. Ohjelmassa on live- ja DJ-musiikin ohella Danny Wolfersin omaa elokuvatuotantoa. Kiertue saa päätöksensä lauantaina 26. elokuuta Turun tunnelmallisessa Päiväkoti-baarissa. Kiertueen takana ovat alkuvuodesta voimansa Tammerforce-klubin tiimoilta yhdistäneet tamperelaisklubit Telex ja Bass & Beer.

Legowelt (NL) & Orgue Electronique LIVE:

24.8. – Kuudes linja, HELSINKI
+ dj:t Bob Ryynänen, Erkko ja mini

25.8. – Yo-talo, TAMPERE
+ dj:t Bad Passion vs. mini, Naks vs. Bob Ryynänen, Jere P. ja Zurkka

26.8. – Päiväkoti, TURKU
+ dj:t Bob Ryynänen, Jere P ja mini

Lisätiedot: Mikko Niemelä 040 543 4441 / mpn[at]sci.fi

Tammerforce Pics

Here are some pictures taken by Sakke Karipuro on Tammerforce electro night in Tampere, Friday 24 February 2006. The live act was Mr Velcro Fastener.

Telex 150405 Playlist

Here's the list of records I spinned at last night's Telex:

Gary Numan: Down In The Park
Rhythim Is Rhythim: Strings
Analord: Steppingfilter 101
Cybotron: Alleys of Your Mind
I-f: Shadow of a Clown
The Emperor Machine: Pro Mars
Human: Evil Knevil
Drexciya: You Don't Know
Kraftwerk: Expo 2000 (Underground Resistance mix)
Underground Resistance: Codebreaker
Laite: Pain
Dynamix II: The Plastic Men
DJ Magic Mike: Check Out Dat Butt!
DJ Assault: Strictly For The Tricks
DJ Slugo: Back Da Fuck Up
DJ Nasty: Directions
Shamen: Ebeneezer Goode (Meat Beat Manifesto mix)
Jeff Mills: Black Is The Number
Sem: Area 5

Of the night's live acts, I liked the best my old favourite, VCS 2600 (of mighty Rikos Records and also appearing on Sweden's Stilleben, Luke Eargoggle's label), one Janne Heikkarainen who creates great analogue electro: harsh and bleak enough to my own tastes. J-P Parikka and Kalle M played a sort of German-style tech-house with some dubby flavour, à la Sami Koivikko; with Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly running as their backdrop on video screen.

Sakke took some pics of the event, which you can see here --
pHinn mercifully not appearing there! ;)

Telex Friday 15 April 2005

Official Telex Site

pHinnWeb's Telex Archives