Music for the hurting ears

While being busy in the studio with our band, working with producing 2 albums, I don't get a lot of free time for my ears. So when not recording and producing, I like to listen something soft and dreamlike.

Animal Collective's (see photo) new "Merriweather Post Pavilion" album has been a good thing to find for the quiet moments after a long day in the studio. I love what they've done with the master sound! It's distant, like it could've come from the 50s, but there are still those fresh synth sounds and modern production behind that all. The mastering was done by Joe Lambert, but the effect was propably made earlier, in the production stage already... cannot be sure though. But what I'm sure about is that the different and unique sound itself makes the record stand out from the masses. In an interview they don't want to call it "anti-internet sound", but it certainly is something against the brickwall loudness heard in modern music. The simply effective songs with great dynamics make me really envious, but then again, almost always listening to good music makes me think: "Why cannot I do that?!".

Upon researching (googling) more about their recording process, I came up with this part of the interview with the producer Ben Allen: 'Just prior to hitting Chase Park Transduction Studios to mix the Animal Collective record, Allen describes the highly creative recording and pre-mixing process. “To get the low end they wanted, we set up four different reamping stations in the studio—using a Fender spring reverb, an Ampeg Portaflex bass amp, a little Gibson guitar amp and the huge QSC P.A. system they use for their live shows,” describes Allen. “They’d record things straight out of their samplers through the Neve 80 Series desk into Pro Tools, and then we’d reamp the kick drum or the snare drum or 20 snare drums or bass synth parts through one of those stations, pick the sound we liked best and record that back into the computer.”

Putting up room mics and reamping these low-end elements gives the band the “live” sound they’re after, as Allen explains. “We’re using that setup to create ambience that didn’t exist in the samples themselves, which makes them sound like a band playing in a room.”' --- taken from: interesting mixing techniques website

That really sounds like what we've been doing and planning with Tuomas Henrikin Jeesuksen Kristuksen Bändi to get the electronic material sounding like it's been played and not just programmed - although we don't have expensive Neve desks or tons of plugins, we still try to be inventive in the studio and often change the working methods based on pure intuition. Usually it works :) Now upon reading about the techniques described above, I came up with tons of ideas. Tomorrow I will go to the library and get some material and then I will rethink our studio setup a bit.

Animal Collective's new EP "Fall Be Kind" is coming out in december. Check out their hit video, but first, listen to this:



The song is 'Maybes' by Mount Kimbie, followed by the whole EP.

'Maybes', the song, is a really nice combination of guitar sounds, organic percussion, tuned vocal snippets. While sounding a bit like burial, a unique soundscape is certainly achieved. The songs sound like they are just beginning a journey and could easily be stretched to be twice as long. 'Vertical' is definitely my favourite song from the EP and it almost sounds a little like Aphex Twin going to more organic directions.

Oh. I've been up all night, and it's 8 am, I should be going to sleep to be able to continue recording tomorrow. Catch you later!

Steve Moore and the landscapes of italian soundtracks through american motorways

Maybe a year ago, my friend Geoff recommended me some music by Zombi. From that moment on it's been one of my favourite 'when you are traveling alone on the floor' -listening music. But only a few months ago I discovered Steve Moore - the other half of the aforementioned group. His sounds send me through the floor into motorways and train tracks of 1985 with blinding natrium lamps illuminating the fluorescent motorway signs. He does something with synthesizers that makes kraftwerk meet blade runner smoking a cigarette on a balcony, watching the rainy city, which hums silently. In love.

This is his latest remix from soundcloud:

David Rubato - Circuit (Steve Moore Remix)

David Rubato - Circuit (Steve Moore Remix) by stevemoore2600

Let yourself sink deeper by listening to music from his Soundcloud page or from his blog. My latest favourites are his side project songs: Lovelock - Love Reaction and Majeure - Teleforce.

Unreleased song that's already seen some life

Here's a weird one I did a long while ago. It's a story about mixed feelings which emerged from a relationship breakdown. At the time of writing, I didn't know what had struck me. I remember having a party shortly after the shock that sent these feelings through me, and I was playing the song to the friends who arrived, and I remember Matsoni (Pus!) saying "Aki you are really mixed up!" upon hearing this. It was a demo version back then, which I finished when encountering sudden repeats of the initial emotional wave. In the second process I wanted to give it the direction I was really traveling towards: towards something better. The song starts deep in the gutter of things left unfinished but takes a direction later on, which lead to the thought of letting go all that. It's a story about getting away from the depths of oozy bryophyte to the start of climbing a good spirited mountain.

I have played the song live a few times. I would love to record a version of me practising it and putting it available here - when I have time to play a show I will do it! There are still stuff left to tell from this journey. But this is a beginning. Travel Safe!

Artificial Latvamäki - Äkta Smak Och Sprödhet

Äkta Smak Och Sprödhet  by  Latvamäki

(The title of the song is in swedish, and propably translatable)

The Dark Side Of My Music

If anyone ever wondered what I do besides organically orientated "Artificial Latvamäki" minimal trance/melodic techno mussic (typo intented) - here's a peek.

I do things for therapy. Music is one of the best things to get crap out of your system - in fact it all started for me because of that. Things that made me want to quit everything also made me work with music. Perhaps that is also one of the reasons that music business is so fundamentally flawed. Corporations just love to cash in on people's suffering. I've felt and seen that many times.

There's also a dark side of me - it's the light side. I would love to write songs with a vocalist, even poppy stuff, and show everyone that light can also be heavy and filled with emotion. This song here, is something I did with a girl, who at the same time helped me to get these feelings out of my system, and get myself out of the pit I was in. Therapy. That's it. We actually did a whole EP, 5 songs. We call ourselves Bibliotech (after atleast 6 months of pondering the name, this is what we came up with... it's sad actually. I wanted us to be "Mountains", or "Low mountains", but it was not good enough.) This is the first time the music is available and quite possibly the last time too, as nothing seems to happen on the "getting it anywhere" front... so here we go. Let me know what you think.

Bibliotech - Words Of Worries (Vaaleanpunainen)

Words Of Worries (Vaaleanpunainen)  by  akilatvamaki

Negotiating For A New Artificial Latvamäki 12"

While waiting for our band's singer/violin player to come and record with us, I thought I'd write a bit of my release plans.

There's an ongoing process with Skylax Records to release a 12" Artificial Latvamäki record + two songs on different compilations. The 12" would include songs: "Mandolin", "Super Jumi" and a re-release of "It Is Not Now Either" with hopefully better sounds, but still staying true to the original. It's a song which I get a lot of feedback from and now that the label that released previously (Mezzotinto Records) went out of business, I am able to licence it to Skylax Records. The compilation songs include a remix of It Is Not Now Either and Torture Chorder. I wanted to work with Skylax ever since I heard the next release they are putting out, which is Maximilian Skiba's EP. That's disco at it's finest. Check it out!

http://www.myspace.com/skylaxrecordsmusic