Tag: Jori Hulkkonen (Page 7 of 7)

VILLA NAH Interview

16 June 2010 /

One of the best electronic albums to have been released in 2010 is ‘Origin’ by Finland’s VILLA NAH.

Co-produced by Jori Hulkkonen, ‘Origin’ is a crisp balancing act that follows the journey of the classic synth album from days gone by but combines it with the freshness of new technologically oriented dance music.

With a number of positive reviews under their belt and interest from key people within the electro community, word is steadily getting around about VILLA NAH. Hailing from East Helsinki, Juho Paolosmaa and Tomi Hyyppä recently played a number of live dates in London to showcase their dreamily spacious pop.

As one of the first UK music websites to have reviewed ‘Origin’, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were extremely pleased when the duo’s singer / songwriter Juho took time to talk to us about VILLA NAH’s influences, equipment and plans for the future.

How did young guys like yourself get attracted to the beauty and enigma that is electronic pop music?

I think it’s a combination of two things we love: the warm distinct sound of dusty synthesisers together with classic pop sensibilities. The whole 80’s boom of recent years never really was a factor for us – we just appreciated the songwriting and the atmosphere which seemed to exist only in that era of music.

Your live set-up includes some vintage synths like a Korg MS10 and Roland Juno 106. How did you acquire these and are there any more interesting bits of kit sitting at home?

The Korg MS10 is an original that Tomi’s dad bought in the 70s. It pretty much kickstarted our love for synthesizers.

There’s a lot of other stuff we use as well; the SH-101, JX-8P, DX7 and the Poly-800 being some examples. As all of these are out of production, acquiring older synths means surfing through internet auction sites with fingers crossed for good luck.

OMD and Gary Numan appear to be two of your big influences. What is special to you about these two classic acts?

I have a special fondness for OMD simply because they’ve composed ageless pop music. A lot of their songs could be played without synthesizers and they’d be just as beautiful – ‘Souvenir’ is a great example of this… it’s a perfect pop song, OMD have a lovely ear for melody. I think that’s hugely important.

People often mention Gary Numan to us, but that might be because I’ve always been greatly inspired by David Bowie’s records. And I believe NUMAN was as well. That said though, I enjoy a lot of his songs. ‘We Have A Technical’ is probably my favourite.

Who are your other influences? Are there any that maybe electro fans wouldn’t expect?

I’m a big fan of YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA. Aside from the other obvious ones such as KRAFTWERK, we do love very different kinds of music, ranging from indie rock bands to IDM and old-school house etc. Film score composers are a big influence as well – favourites being Michael Nyman, Morricone, John Barry, Angelo Badalamenti and John Carpenter.

Can you briefly describe the collaborative dynamic within VILLA NAH?

It’s quite simple – my job is to compose the music and write the songs, and Tomi provides the technical and productional knowhow. It works well as I have no idea how most of these machines function. Tomi understands them, it really is quite crucial.

‘Origin’ is full of wonderful melancholy but with shades of light and optimism. Is this possibly a reflection of how you are as people?

I suppose so. That’s quite an accurate description of how I see the world – mostly cloudy with an occasional ray of sunshine coming through.

What songs are you most proud of on ‘Origin’?

Perhaps ‘Time For Tea’, the opening track. I never thought it’d go through! Other personal favourites are ‘Envelope’ and ‘Emerald Hills’ – they can take me to another place. And I know Tomi loves ‘Kiss And Tell’.

‘Daylight’ and ‘Benny’s Burning’ are in the tradition of great B-sides. Was it a conscious or difficult decision not to include them on the album?

It was a bit difficult – ‘Benny’s Burning’ was always meant to be a B-side, but ‘Daylight’ was something we did contemplate upon. In the end I think we made the right choice as the album might’ve dragged a little. But in digital format you can just make your own ‘Origin’ playlist and stick both tracks in there – it works quite well!

How are you finding all the critical acclaim you are receiving at the moment outside of Finland? Did you consider your first UK live dates recently a success?

We’re humbled by it and really thrilled to hear if people enjoy the album. Our UK shows were surprisingly nice – we had some fears of playing to completely empty crowds, but it was all lovely with lots of people really into it.

You are playing ‘Back To The Phuture’ night at Bestival in September alongside HEAVEN 17 and Howard Jones. How does it feel to be sharing the bill with such company at this early stage of your career?

It’s surreal! No other way to describe it other than it’s truly an honour.

Why do you think the Nordic region is producing such great electronic music at the moment, is it those long cold nights that keep you hard at work indoors?

Probably – most of the time it’s so dark and cold outside you might as well just turn the synths on and stay inside…

So what next for VILLA NAH? Which countries are now falling under your spell and that you hope to visit soon?

Well this summer we’re playing a lot of festival dates, Portugal being our next overseas destination. We’d love to visit France and also return to the UK soon!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Juho Paolosmaa

Special thanks to Sandra Croft at Freeman PR

‘Origin’ is released in the UK via Keys Of Life

https://www.facebook.com/villanah/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Kimmo Virtanen
16th June 2010

JOHN FOXX Live at The Roundhouse

7 June 2010 /


Coinciding with the release of his latest 3CD collection ‘Metatronic’ and as part of Short Circuit 2010; an evening celebrating the best of British electronic music, JOHN FOXX headlined a special analogue synthesizer show to mark his 30th anniversary as a solo artist.

His solo debut ‘Metamatic’ was released in early 1980 and this mechanised electro classic has been acknowledged by artists such as APHEX TWIN, TIM SIMENON and THE KLAXONS as an inspiration. JOHN FOXX recently said himself: “There’s a great surge of interest in electronic music. I don’t know why that’s happened, but it’s fortunate for me because I did it a long time ago”

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK happened to be present for his first solo show at Hitchin Regal during October 1983. But on that occasion, JOHN FOXX appeared to have gone back to guitars, so much so that the entire ‘Metamatic’ album was omitted in a near Stalinist rewrite of history! He did however play songs from his ULTRAVOX repertoire, a body of work that influenced the young GARY NUMAN, contributing to his major success in 1979 with ‘Replicas’ and ‘The Pleasure Principle’.

But tonight couldn’t have been more different as Foxx and an ensemble of special guests: Benge (synthesizers, percussion and bass), Steve D’Agostino (synths); Serafina Steer (synths); Jean-Gabriel Becker (synths and bass); and Liam Hutton (drums and percussion) took to the stage to perform material from the ‘Metamatic’ era AND a selection of ULTRAVOX material.

Also featured in themed episodes were songs with LOUIS GORDON and new material under the moniker of JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS.

Prior to the main event, there was DJ sets by JORI HULKKONEN who finished his selection with his proteges VILLA NAH’s own ‘Ways To Be’ and Back to The Phuture’s Mark Jones who played a very electronic set ranging from THE NORMAL, CABARET VOLTAIRE and FAD GADGET to TUBEWAY ARMY, OMD and SOFT CELL. One pleasant surprise was the massive roar of approval that greeted the bleepy pulses of cult classic ‘Lawnchairs’ by OUR DAUGHTERS WEDDING, a sign that the crowd knew their synthesizer history.

To start the show, there was an overture consisting of ‘Parallel Lives’, a cut-up film of Alex Proyas’ ‘Groping’ soundtracked by a 21st Century take on ‘Underpass’ B-side ‘Film One’.

Using the machines that created the sound of the future such as the Minimoog, ARP Odyssey, Roland CR-78, Korg 700 and Roland System 100, the band took their positions but there was a lengthy silence before Foxx arrived on stage to open with ‘Plaza’. Sounding magnificent and full of body, its JG Ballard inspired line “I remember your face from some shattered windscreen” still resonates in this man machine love affair.

Accompanied by VJs Jonathan Barnbrook and Karborn stark filmic visuals throughout the show, B-side ‘This City’ comes next before an outstanding ‘Burning Car’. Taking on a hauntingly eerie significance, it recalls the autobiographical tale of an accident where everyone except the young Dennis Leigh was killed.

The analogue goodness continued with excellent run throughs of ‘No-One Driving’ and ‘He’s a Liquid’ before ending the first episode with ‘Underpass’. Unfortunately, this classic is ruined by heavy speaker distortion and is something that would intermittently ruin several tracks played this evening.

The band then vacated the stage for Foxx’s regular musical partner LOUIS GORDON to join him for three songs. Arriving to a big cheer, Gordon has to be the most enthusiastically intense synth player since Billy Currie. Bouncing around behind his keyboards, he was the total antithesis of FOXX’s largely static and cool stage persona. What they play is noisy and percussive; ‘Shadow Man’ is almost mutant EBM while ‘An Ocean We Can Breathe’ can only be described as metadelic, like an electronic version of The Fab Four’s ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.

The band returned to play THE MATHS set for what became a very hit ‘n’ miss section of the show. The best track was a song co-written with Mira Aroyo of LADYTRON called ‘Watching A Building On Fire’. Sung with Mira on the record but voiced totally by Foxx tonight, its chattering drum machine and accessible melodies make it stand out among the variable quality of new material that is showcased. Playing anything brand new live is difficult at the best of times but the crowd were beginning to get agitated, polite applause only greeting most of the finales. So when former ULTRAVOX guitarist Robin Simon took to the stage, everyone knew it was time for some more classic material and many who had slowly disappeared for a comfort break mid-show made a surge to the front.

The seminal songs from the ‘Systems Of Romance’ album ‘Dislocation’, ‘Quiet Men’ and a superb ‘Slow Motion’ got the gig back on track to provide the end to the evening and probably got the biggest receptions of the night. Two encores followed which included a tremendous GIORGIO MORODER-esque re-working of ‘The Man Who Dies Everyday’ and the wonderfully beautiful ‘Just For A Moment’.

The evening was concluded with a DJ set from GARY NUMAN and ADE FENTON. The pull of a celebrity DJ is for all to see as half the audience remain in The Roundhouse to see Numan on his iPad with Fenton rather than leaving to beat the rush! Mixing in sections of KRAFTWERK and DEPECHE MODE to a set that included NEW ORDER’s ‘Blue Monday’ and BASEMENT JAXX’s ‘M.E.’ sampling ‘Where’s Your Head At?’, this is a sideline that provokes interest and attention from the plethora of Numanoids that have gathered.

In all, an evening of mixed emotions but all due credit to JOHN FOXX for being willing to celebrate his history while still having the motivation and aptitude to produce new material that is still both innovative and challenging.

‘Metatronic’ is released by Edsel Records

www.metamatic.com

www.thequietman.co.uk

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
7th June 2010

VILLA NAH Live in London

8 May 2010 /

The highly rated VILLA NAH made an in-store live appearance at Urban Outfitters in Oxford Street.

It was part of a short British tour to support the imminent physical release of their excellent debut album ‘Origin’ which was made available in advance for the occasion. Consisting of Juho Paolosmaa and Tomi Hyyppä, their haunting crisp, uncluttered sound has already won a number of admirers.

These have included Sebastian Muravchix, singer of acclaimed electro-Italo act HEARTBREAK who was present to observe proceedings and BBC 6Music ‘Back To The Phture’ host Mark Jones who has been giving them airplay.

Hailing from East Helsinki and co-produced by Jori Hulkkonen, VILLA NAH have all the hallmarks of classic synthesizer pop. Tuneful and lively like early DEPECHE MODE, emotive like the best of OMD and occasionally detached like machine-era GARY NUMAN, they take the influence of ‘Synth Britannia’ and bring it into the 21st century with their own brand of Suomen Sähkö.

Opening their performance with the spacey ‘Running On’, a pleasant surprise is the store PA. Bog standard sound systems are often notorious for not being able to handle the frequency range of analogue synthesizers but the sound was not only powerful but clear. Next up was ‘Daylight’ from their first ‘Vn’ EP before the octave shift heaven of ‘Envelope’. Through their performance, Juho doubled between his melancholic mannered vocals and manual handling two vintage keyboards, a Korg MS10 and a Roland Juno 106.

Meanwhile Tomi pensively tapped percussive fills on his Roland MIDI controller, occasionally fingering away on a red Korg Kaossilator. Like all the best synthpop duos, it was the perfect combination of electronics and humanity, Ying and Yang if you will. In Juho’s own words: “VILLA NAH exists mostly because of this balance – Tomi knows the tech… I just work the pop”

‘Some Kind Of Dream’ possesses that wonderful four chord progression a la ‘Enola Gay’ and features those crystalline melodics and dramatic sweeps that would do OMD proud. The closing three numbers in their short set B-side ‘Benny’s Burning’, ‘Ways To Be’ and ‘Remains Of Love’ expose VILLA NAH’s other obvious main influence.

Retaining the sort of arrangements that will be familiar to those who own ‘The Pleasure Principle’ or ‘Telekon’, while they possess their own Nordic chill, these songs are actually bright and uplifting. In fact, they come over a bit like danceable GARY NUMAN on Prozac! Despite the heavily lit surroundings next to a women’s clothing section, it was an impressively confident performance that had many curious bystanders stop to watch and then buy copies of their CD. Hopefully, many more curious listeners will now do the same.

‘Origin’ is released as a CD in the UK via Keys Of Life on 17th May 2010

https://www.facebook.com/villanah/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
8th May 2010

VILLA NAH Origin

17 April 2010 /

VILLA NAH are a brilliant new duo hailing from Finland.

Juho Paalosmaa and Tomi Hyyppä took their name from the East Helsinki suburbs where they lived and deliver a form of dreamy synthesizer pop that conjures up aural paintings of snow, fjords and glaciers.

Like their Nordic neighbours KLEERUP and A-HA, the soundtrack they construct has a melancholic edge with uplifting pop melodies. The sadness of Juho’s vocals is often offset by Tomi’s gorgeous vintage sound textures and crisp electronic experimentation.

The single ‘Running On’ is superb octave shift driven pop, sparse and coated with haunting piano. Meanwhile its flipside ‘Ways To Be’ was crowned ‘Song Of The Year’ at Finland’s Dance Awards and at times sounds like Gary Numan produced by Daniel Miller.

But the debut album ‘Origin’ is actually co-produced with Jori Hulkkonen, hailed by some as ‘the most underrated producer in the world’. As ZYNTHERIUS (and not as an F1 driver!) with TIGA, he had a Top 30 hit with an electroclash cover of ‘Sunglasses At Night’ in 2002. He has also since worked with John Foxx and CLIENT as well as a variety of other electronic projects. He keeps ‘Origin’ uncluttered and maintains a body to the sound without having to refer to dirty distortion.

It’s VILLA NAH’s potential to enter the big league. ‘Origin’ also follows the journey of the classic electronic pop album from days gone by featuring the tasteful instrumental interludes ‘Time For Tea’ and ‘Way Of The Future’ in the set.

Of the songs, big percussive claps and analogue soloing really do make ‘Some Kind Of Dream’  and ‘Envelope’, while ‘Autumn Gone’ recalls early BLANCMANGE and is a close cousin to their ‘Wasted’; but halfway though, the track stops and enters into a segment that does exactly what the title says on the tin. Accompanied by sweeping synth patches with steady attack, you can literally see the leaves turning a beautiful brown in your mind.

‘Kiss And Tell’ provides winter chills but is driven by an incessant machine beat. But have you ever heard Gary Numan almost jaunty? With previous single ‘Remains Of Love’, you now can on the poppiest thing that the former Gary Webb never recorded. Juho is next to crying in the wonderful chorus over Tomi’s sharp crystal melodies.

VILLA NAH can be very danceable when the mood takes them and on ‘All The Days’, they effectively rework Giorgio Moroder’s ‘The Chase’ and put their own raved up stamp on it. ‘Rainmaker’ is also quite housey, with echoey, treated piano effects to keep counter the blissful effect of the pulsing bassline.

‘Origin’ is synth dominated and romantic, where dance and pop meet in the middle. The soundscapes and tunes will satisfy those who hark back to a classic blueprint of the male synth duo but want a true 21st Century take on it. Fresh and vibrant while still having an emotive core, VILLA NAH do the job on ‘Origin’.

‘Origin’ is released worldwide as a CD or digital download via Keys Of Life

https://www.facebook.com/villanah/

https://twitter.com/villanah

Text by Chi Ming Lai
17th April 2010

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