Tag: Villa Nah (Page 6 of 6)

2010 END OF YEAR REVIEW

28 December 2010 /

The Year Of Transistors

“Synthesizers can be explored and explored, and the music that can be made with electronic instruments is infinite in its breadth. KRAFTWERK may have said ‘we are the robots’, but anyone need only listen to Trans-Europe Express and compare it to most of the turgid, boring guitar-based rock that has been produced over the last 30 years to realise that electronic music can be deeply emotional. And anyone who says electronic music is not real music is just too simple-minded for our patience I’m afraid!”: MIRRORS

2010 saw the return of the male synthpop act, smart boys with their toys and their nods towards the classic era of Synth Britannia. Leading the way were VILLA NAH and MIRRORS who both fused quality songs with vintage sounds and crisp contemporary percussive frameworks. The two units were obviously pressing the right buttons as both opened as special guests to OMD. As a continued sign of their undoubted potential, both were also were invited to support THE HUMAN LEAGUE; an opportunity which unfortunately neither act was able to fulfil due to prior scheduling commitments.

Coming from Finland, VILLA NAH released one of the best long players of the year in ‘Origin’, while closer to home, Brighton-based MIRRORS’ forthcoming album ‘Lights And Offerings’ is likely to be one of the musical highlights of 2011. Meanwhile HURTS, the enigmatic Mancunian duo who many predicted for major success in 2010, rattled the cages of the style over substance brigade.

Whilst the cinematic grandeur displayed in their best songs like ‘Wonderful Life’, ‘Stay’ and ‘Sunday’ was simply outstanding, they did occasionally walk a fine line with their milder paced material, sounding occasionally like TAKE THAT backed by ULTRAVOX. Despite confusing some listeners, their album ‘Happiness’ was an enormous grower and their live shows won over many new fans, especially on the continent where artful intelligence is a highly regarded attribute.

Interestingly, TAKE THAT themselves released their album ‘Progress’ with Stuart Price aka LES RYTHMES DIGITALES at the producer’s helm. Featuring a strong electronic flavour, there was also a song called ‘Eight Letters’ based on ‘Vienna’ which resulted in the rather unusual credit ‘written by Barlow / Donald / Orange / Owen / Williams / Ure / Cross / Cann / Currie’!

Attracting cult followings in 2010 were DELPHIC and CHEW LIPS. DELPHIC captured the Factory Records aesthetic of the mutant disco pioneered by NEW ORDER and A CERTAIN RATIO, but were unable to attract mainstream recognition probably due to their reliance on grooves and jams rather than actual songs… they can only get better with time.

CHEW LIPS are YEAH YEAH YEAHS with synths and while they had several brilliant numbers in their cannon, not all were included on their rather short debut album ‘Unicorn’. This didn’t allow them to play to their strengths on record although this was fully exploited in their live show. Again, they will learn.

And not wishing to get wholly involved in the main skirmish, THE SOUND OF ARROWS maintained a low profile while recording their debut album in London but delivered some impressive concert showcases of their lush Nordic musicality. Their optimistic and aspirational ‘Disney meets Brokeback Mountain’ tone may be the fresh approach to electropop in 2011.

Kookiness was the order of the day with the raven haired beauties MARINA & THE DIAMONDS and EMILIE SIMON. Marina Lambrini Diamandis kept the spirit of SPARKS alive with some fe-Mael intuition on her superb debut ‘The Family Jewels’ while EMILIE SIMON crossed the channel for some ‘one girl and her synth’ shows to fill the gap left by the absence of LITTLE BOOTS in 2010.

As could have been expected after the promotional lash of last year, Victoria Hesketh took a break before starting work on her new album. Hertfordshire’s SUNDAY GIRL could be the next lady-in-waiting providing she can expand on the very promising material like All The Songs and Stop Hey! that was premiered in the latter part of the year.

Meanwhile LA ROUX toured the world and recorded a ‘Stones cover ‘Under Your Thumb’ for the ‘Sidetracked’ influences DJ mix compilation before giving old mate SKREAM the iTunes bonus track Saviour for a dubstep rework as Finally and guesting with CHROMEO. However, Elly Jackson appears to have forgotten that No.1 rule of not biting the hand that feeds you by exclaiming “… I don’t want to make synth music for the rest of my f*cking life!” and declaring the electropop genre “over”!

In the battle of Synth Britannia, OMD released their first collection of new material for 14 years while THE HUMAN LEAGUE delayed their full album return until 2011. THE HUMAN LEAGUE have the backing of electronic music guru Mark Jones’ Wall Of Sound label and thus far have played a ‘less is more’ approach. Despite not having an official website until this year, some clever viral marketing sent interest in their single ‘Night People’ sky high and provided good business for their now almost traditional Christmas UK tour.

While OMD’s ‘History of Modern’ album had several outstanding tracks worthy of comparison with past glories, it was confusingly launched with an Aretha Franklin mash-up that wasn’t on the final tracklisting and a nauseating Britpop pastiche as lead single. Ironically one of the statements made in its sleeve notes was “Modern is not… Oasis”!

It was as if audiences who had traditionally been sceptical of the whole synthesizer axis were now being targeted.

However, electronic pop’s spiritual homeland of Germany welcomed OMD back like one of their own and respectable business for ‘History of Modern’ was generated.

A-HA though are proof that consistently high quality new material is still a possiblity 25 years after your commercial heyday with the focus of their final album ‘Foot Of The Mountain’ very much on their synthesizer roots. In late 2010, they bid farewell with a final tour and a superb double CD compilation called ’25’ which featured not only their hits but the best of their much under valued album tracks.

Photo by Tracey Welch

Among the acts celebrating their legacies, HEAVEN 17 enhanced their reputation no-end by participating in a brilliant BBC6 Music collaboration with “the falsetto from the ghetto” LA ROUX. And if that wasn’t enough, they had not one but two BBC TV programmes featuring their highly regarded album ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ including their triumphant Sheffield Magna gig.

HOWARD JONES didn’t look a day older, proving that a vegetarian diet and a clean living spirituality was the key to eternal youth! He played ‘Human’s Lib’ and ‘Dream Into Action’ in full for the first time at Indigo2.

Former sparring partners ULTRAVOX and JOHN FOXX played very different types of live shows in 2010. ULTRAVOX almost went back to basics with the retrospective ‘Return To Eden 2’ tour while JOHN FOXX curated an audio/visual extravaganza at the Short Circuit Festival featuring a deluge of analogue synths and some new material to a mixed reception.

DEPECHE MODE completed their ‘Tour Of The Universe’ and capped it all with a special show at the Royal Albert Hall for The Teenage Cancer Trust where Alan Wilder was reunited with the band for the first time in 16 years during the encore of ‘Somebody’. It was an emotional night for many including the band. Does this lay out the foundations for, if not a reunion, at least some future work together?

GOLDFRAPP returned with ‘Head First’, a mid-Atlantic AOR styled electronic romp that had echoes of Laura Branigan and Olivia Newton-John. Some found it uninspiring but what could not be denied was the catchiness of the tunes. Given time, it will become a future guilty pleasure.

Meanwhile LADYTRON prepared a career spanning compilation Ladytron ’00-10′ to reinforce their reputation as one of the key electronic based acts of the last decade but they began the year contributing a pair of excellent bonus tracks to Christina Aguilera’s album ‘Bionic’ in ‘Birds Of Prey’ and ‘Little Dreamer’.

Swedish songstress Robyn continued her feisty independent spirit by releasing her ‘Body Talk’ trilogy and the excellent single ‘Dancing On My Own’, while both Lady Gaga and Kylie kept electronically produced pop in the mainstream consciousness.

Across the water, New York’s THE GOLDEN FILTER added a crisp vibe to the electronic dancefloor via some dreamy Scandinavian influences and frantic tribal percussion while their neighbours THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS brought a mechanised twist to new wave on their self-titled debut. And for the perfect after party soundtrack in the Big Apple, ARP provided some gorgeous modern day ambience with the album ‘The Soft Wave’. Meanwhile, another North American based duo LOLA DUTRONIC relaunched their brand of dreamy Gallic flavoured electro-lounge pop with the ‘Musique’ EP.

Elsewhere internationally, the vivacious SHH became the latest in a line of Argentine musicians basing themselves in London for an assault on the UK and European market while Texans HYPERBUBBLE brought their own ‘bionic bubblepunk’ with the impressive ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’. MARSHEAUX had a quiet year, only releasing a cover of BILLY IDOL’s Eyes Without a Face for an Amnesty International compilation.

Promising newcomers VILE ELECTRODES steadily gained fans on the London club circuit with their mix of fetish porn and analogue synths while following some line-up changes, THE VANITY CLAUSE finally released their first album ‘Fractured’. And the quirky Sheffield based duo THE CHANTEUSE & THE CLAW unleashed a superb debut single in ‘Are You One?’.

Overall in 2010, the spark generated by the new generation of synthesizer acts and the willingness of others to incorporate more electronic sounds into their work accounted for yet another productive year with the heritage acts also getting the cultural recognition they fully deserved. Ever supportive, The Guardian even featured a piece on the older incarnation entitled Forgive Us Our Synths which interestingly was almost two years after their prophetic Slaves To Synth article hit the public consciousness.

There were more quality albums and live shows of interest to the electro fan than in many years past with acts such as MIRRORS, VILLA NAH and HURTS fulfilling the role of worthy successors to the classic Synth Britanniageneration. Hopefully, other acts will be following in their footsteps. In fact, despite being ignored by the BBC Sound Of 2011 and New To Q listings which appear to have been locked into some evil parallel universe where good taste does not seem to reside, “… fey, gay, pseudo-intellectual synth b*llocks” still rules!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings Of 2010

STEVE GRAY

Best Album: TENEK On The Wire
Best Song: HURTS Unspoken
Best Gig: DEPECHE MODE at London Royal Albert Hall
Best Video: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS

CHI MING LAI

Best Album: VILLA NAH Origin
Best Song: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Best Gig: HEAVEN 17 at Sheffield Magna
Best Video: HURTS Wonderful Life
Most Promising New Act: THE SOUND OF ARROWS

RICHARD PRICE

Best Album: HURTS Happiness
Best Song: OMD History Of Modern (Part I)
Best Gig: THE HUMAN LEAGUE + HEAVEN 17 at Galway Festival
Best Video: HURTS Stay
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS

JOHAN WEJEDAL

Best Album: PAGE Nu
Best Song: POLAROID MILITIA Astana My Hero
Best Gig: PAGE at Gothenburg Synthklubben
Best Video: VILE ELECTRODES Deep Red
Most Promising New Act: THE GIRL & THE ROBOT

Text by Chi Ming Lai
28th December 2010

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

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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