The first version of this article was originally published in the American fanzine The Skreem #11 in May 1995. I have made some updates (and will continue to do so -- just stay tuned!), but basically the text is the same as originally.

Unfortunately this text is a bit out of date. For all the latest news on what is happening in Finland, please join pHinnWeb Mailing List.

The Finnish rave scene has been blooming since the late 80's -- actually everything started in 1988 when the now-legendary Berlin club in Helsinki held its first acid house nights. Subsequently, the Hyperdelic Housers posse of the Turku town organised their first illegal techno parties in 1989, the same year when the MetalBassOrganisation (of the DJs Mr. Kirk and H2) had the first proper rave in Finland at the Helsinki Kaapelitehdas (Cable Factory).

However, the local rave culture has never really surfaced from the underground, despite the fact that the largest parties have received their fair share of publicity in the local media, and a following amongst those hip hordes of the Finnish trend-hoppers. So you can well ask if the whole thing is only much ado about nothing -- even despite all those recent claims in international press hailing "Finnish sub-arctic underground" led by such as Sähkö Recordings, Pan sonic and Jimi Tenor -- is there really such thing as Finnish techno scene?

There must be good reasons not to paint too rosy a picture. The Finnish airwaves and the chart programmes of local TV are still dominated by your average Pearl Jams, Ace of Bases and 2 Unlimiteds, as it must be everywhere over the MTV-gazing civilized Western world. As for the recording techno and dance acts, it's very easy to count them with the fingers on both hands, as the Finnish tastes are still orientated to the traditional melancholic soft pop music, or to the always so popular rock 'n'roll sounds, the biggest import act at the moment being the Leningrad Cowboys, who are -- somehow mercifully -- being taken as actual Russians outside these Northern shores. (For more information on Finnish rock and pop scene, see the extensive Finnish Rockdata pages maintained by Jarmo Latva-Äijö.) On the other hand, Finnish classic and avantgarde music is traditionally held in very high regard because of such composers as Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg, or orchestra conductors like Esa-Pekka Salonen; not to mention here such classic giants as Jean Sibelius.

The foreign chart acts, like the Prodigy being occasionally at the Top One in Finland don't really count -- as we reach the third millennium, punk rock is still considered something radical in Finnish music scene. For example, the internationally acclaimed Sähkö label must only remain in minority, as no one actually knows them in Finland, their records' distribution almost literally from hand to hand, at the same time as the word of their minimal electronic outcrop spreads rapidly in the international DJ and techno circles. If there's a "scene", it's not too visible in any case, many people say.

Finnish rock and pop media are usually not too interested in local underground electronic sounds, unless any of those acts gains international popularity, or there is a diluted pop chart version -- which is not too difficult to understand for an average trend-spotting music journalist worth his/her salt. There is still no Finnish special magazine dedicated to dance music culture in existence, either; however, for example the rock tabloid Rumba keeps its bi-weekly column on dance music.

One brave effort for a techno music magazine was had, though, in 1994, when three issues of a magazine called ex were published in Helsinki, but financing the publication proved too difficult in the end, and ex vanished quite soon. The same year saw also the publication of Tekno, a book edited by Sam Inkinen which -- though patchy at times and occasional over-enthusiasism taking over more critical content -- is still the only one of its kind written in Finnish.

Jori Kuusinen (a.k.a. George Spruce, now of Moodmusic Records fame) in Turku published a little underground house fanzine Speakeasy with his friend Jussi Uusitalo (DJ Newhouse) along with clubs of the same name and Kuusinen's own record store Groovy Beat. Only one issue of Speakeasy was released, along with a catalogue of Groovy Beat's new records. Groovy Beat was also the first Finnish store to export Sähkö Recordings releases to German distributors. Neither Groovy Beat Records nor Speakeasy exist any more as Jori Kuusinen moved to Germany in late 1999.

There was also a weekly dance music show Nousu at Helsinki's Moon TV cable channel which could be seen in all larger towns in Finland until Moon TV went bankrupt in summer 2003. Nousu featured live reports, artists and DJ interviews and music videos.

Gladly Finnish underground scene has found a place for itself from the ever-expanding Internet and World Wide Web, but the mailing lists in existence easily turn to battlegrounds of endless and pointless flame wars between adolescent ravers, arrogant "scene people", navel-gazing purists and so on, and judging by the standards of professional journalism, even the best Web sites usually suffer from the lack of continuity and maintenance and all too sporadic updates (including the humble and amateurish efforts of this site), or emphasize flashy Web design and latest technology at the expense of actual content.

Joe Martin wrote in the March 1997 issue of American dance music magazine XLR8R:

So if all us basement illuminati are finally pledging allegiance to the Finnish minimal nation. why is everyone involved so convinced that it doesn't exist? Even [Kim] Rapatti [a.k.a. Mono Junk of Dum Records], who freely admits his connection with the mono traxx image, denies the existence of an underlying scene. Jouni Alkio, who with his Aural Expansion ambient releases on SSR is one of the artists responsible for expanding the popular image of Finnish electronic music from repetitive pH-challenged bonks, assures the world that "there is no gang of 'intelligent techno' freaks here who break showroom windows to steal pocket calculators." [The whole article]

So it's better in any case not to exaggerate the volume of techno music scene in Finland, even though during the last few years some interesting new names and labels -- such as Function Recordings, Pulssi, Rikos, and so on -- have popped up from local soil. It reflects more the strength of international techno scene, spreading rapidly and knowing no borders, than the fact that Finnish climate (in all its bleakness) would be especially benevolent for electronic music.

Not that experimental electronics would not have some traditions even in Finland.

Already in the 1960's such Finnish pioneers as Erkki Kurenniemi were creating music with their self-made instruments (more info here), like Sähkökvartetti ("Electric Quartet") and Kurenniemi's DIM series synthesizers. These must have been more an interesting curiosity, though; reflecting the fact that Finnish people have always been watching closely international trends, such as the development of electronic music in the post-World War II decades. And maybe just because of the fact that people in a small and distant country like Finland -- in order to maintain their own cultural livelihood -- learn to follow closely what's happening everywhere else. Still, and this can't be repeated too often, Finnish "techno underground" remains as one of the tiniest subcultures there is.

Raves in Finland

The Finnish party scene really concentrates on the largest cities in the South of Finland: Helsinki, Turku and Tampere. Naturally there are many smaller scenes around the country, with the biggest parties still happening in Helsinki. (Actually, after writing this, some people have complained to me that I haven't included here the scenes in their own home towns outside this "Great Triangle", like for example Lahti or Vaasa, but maybe I'll get to feature them some time in the future...)

The Finnish raves usually vary from 100 to 1 500 people; with 2000 we would already be talking about a really massive happening; but as an average, 200 - 500 attending would be quite normal. The most important crews organizing the raves have been the (now defunct) Hyperdelic Housers of Turku, Eliot Ness's various organisations like Vision and Planet of Love, Entropy, Hytky and House Collective of Helsinki, Pumpkinhead Promotions and PETY of Tampere (neither in existence any more), and Niitty of Jyväskylä; not to mention many smaller 'posses' around Finland (see here).

The "grand old man" of the Finnish rave scene must be DJ Eliot Ness, who has been organizing and promoting parties since the early 90's. Other name DJs filling the Finnish dancefloors at the moment are Jori Hulkkonen, Sasse, Marko Laine, Ender, Jokke, Borzin, Orkidea and Angel; not to mention DJ Kaippa, whose dance act 3rd Nation reached 1994 the British charts with their 'I Believe'. (You can find a list on some Finnish DJs and the styles they are playing here.)

The most popular styles of the Finnish raves at the moment are monotrax, trance and acid, house (including garage, deep, NY house, etc.), and of course, techno. Ambient has also gained a strong foothold in Finland - in 1994 Radio City in Helsinki played continuously, all night and day, ambient music for the whole two weeks, which must have been an unique happening on the whole world scale -- although one rarely hears ambient music at the parties. Also Finnish jungle scene seems to be reality as of now, with such DJs as Infekto, Mekaanikko and Adder bringing the sounds of drum 'n' bass to unsuspecting clubbers and ravers. Naturally the purist technoids exist there, also the more enlightened people into the underground Detroit and minimalist sounds à la Jeff Mills and Underground Resistance. Also Goa trance genre seems to be pretty active in Finland, with such dedicated DJs as Yogi and Halo spinning records amidst the banners of ultraviolet-coated Indian gods and goddesses.

At the moment, trance in general seems to be the most popular style of electronic dance music at clubs, as it is all over the world, with house steadily following in its wake. Also hip hop scene has been steadily growing in Finland since the 1980's, and lately such Finnish rap acts as Fintelligens, Seremoniamestari, Petri Nygård, Nuera and Paleface have reached enormous popularity, hip hop being probably even bigger subculture in Finland than house or techno. [The FAM, a Finnish hip hop site.]

Finland had its activist counterpart to Reclaim The Streets, when the Street Party events were held in the biggest towns of Finland in between 1997 and 2000, just in the middle of the main streets, opposing car traffic and pollution.

Though there is not a heavy drug scene attached to the Finnish rave circles, the most consumed drugs among the party people are cannabis, LSD, ecstasy (a.k.a. MDMA; Finnish nicknames "nipsu", "esso"), amphetamines and cocaine -- alcohol not included, the absence of which would be a curiosity in the traditionally heavy-drinking Finnish culture. Still, compared to their continental European counterparts, the Finnish ravers must be relatively 'clean', even though local tabloids try to start rave-related drug scares every now and then.

Lately, there has been reports of increasing drug use in the raves, but it's really hard to say how the situation actually is, as the recent membership of European Union and the opening of the borders of ex-Soviet Union countries have had their effect on narcotics trafficking and use in any case. The latest newcomer of party drugs has been GHB (in Finland simply called "gamma"), which has already created its share of tabloid horror stories in Finnish press. So far there has been only one reported ecstasy and techno party related death in Finland, when an 18-year old girl died in Tampere, August 2000 (and that was reportedly in connection with other medication), but fake Mitsubishi (a popular form of MDMA) pills have been also found in Finland.

As Finnish rave scene is on the constant move all the time, it's totally impossible to keep all updates on these pages, so I warmly recommend you to check out for for information on all the latest and upcoming parties and happenings in Finland the following sites: Accesss.Org, Klubit.Com, Klubitus and The Club Calendar of Rumba Magazine. Info on the parties of recent years (and on Finnish rave culture in general) can be found from Finland Rave Info page, maintained by Johannes Grönvall.

Some tips from the Finnish scene - watch out for these guys!

* First of all, read histories on Sähkö Recordings for info on the already legendary Finnish label, and Pan sonic, about their most popular act; and also on Jimi Tenor, who became famous for his easy listening/Hammond records for Sähkö's sublabel Puu, but who has already made a long career here in Finland.

Luckily the Finnish electronic music scene is not limited only to the Sähkö avantgarde minimalisms. There is an active industrial and synthpop music scene, in connection with the ever so lively (if that's the right word) local goth-rock scene (for more info, see Cyberware Productions and Prospective magazine) in Finland, influenced by Kraftwerk (and who in their real senses wouldn't be influenced by them?), Front242, Skinny Puppy, Depeche Mode, et al., but there are also people interested in more modern sounds than those of all these gloomy acts dressed in black, whose role models were left somewhere in the angstful 80's... Here are some people from whom you should hear more in the near future:

* Marko Laine, who signed a deal with the Dutch Djax-Up Beats label, recording also for Drop Bass Network as Goio. Marko's "Mosaic" was released on Djax-Up February 1996, with follow-ups and international DJ gigs to come. These releases were mostly hardish monotrax. Marko has also gained some success as the head of his import record store and label Mind Records, which during early 1997 started as an umbrella and distributor to some smaller Finnish labels like Sävel, Pulssi and Moodmusic. These days Marko concentrates mostly on Mind Records, though plays occasionally some DJ gigs, where his style has shifted from harsh monotrax mayhem to house; with even some added samba and Latino flavour.

* The Oksanen Brothers aka Jörg Mager aka SCI aka... Intelligent analogue music.

* Kimmo Rapatti (picture on the right) aka Mono Junk aka Detroit Diesel - the man behind the Dum label, steadily on a Detroit/Chicago tip. With the Sähkö guys somewhat a veteran of the Finnish techno underground. Now runs a duo called New York City Survivors, with Irwin Berg on vocals. See the Dum Records discography.

* Sasse Lindblad, who released his first double EP as Freestyle Man for Sähkö sub label Puu in 1996: a house man to the bone. Best known for his dubby deep house productions and now living in Frankfurt, Germany, producing for local i220 label and running his own Moodmusic. Also used to play with the fast doom-gabba monsters Amalgam V (featuring Irwin, a gonzo DJ legend and the owner of his now-legendary Wartburg Gabba Mobile...): for those more into the 200 BPM, Rotterdam style, bone-crunching soccer hooligan sounds...

* Jori Hulkkonen, from Kemi in the north of Finland, one of the founders of Lumi Records; recording deep house for the French F-Communications label and the Swedish Hybrid and Plumphouse, and the Italian ACV. The house ambassador of Finland, with his own radio show on Radiomafia station.

* Jouni Alkio aka Aural Expansion, churning out IDM and electronic listening music. Has been keeping quiet since his excellent Surreal Sheep album for Belgian SSR, but hopefully re-surfaces one day.

* Op:l Bastards - consisting of Timo Kaukolampi, Vilunki 3000 and Tuamo Puranen - from Helsinki combine in their music old school electro and disco to analogue synth sounds, with a sense of eccentrity, and have already reached an international cult reputation. They are also behind the enormously popular Helsinki Turbo electro parties. Op:l Bastards now do occasional gigs and recordings as Kilogram.

* Mr. Velcro Fastener have already toured Germany with such international luminaries as Carl Craig and Dave Clarke. Their debut album Lucky Bastards Living Up North has been released on German i220 Records, with sleeve designed by legendary Designers Republic. Mr. Velcro Fastener's musical output is electro, in the style of Detroit Bass and old school artists such as Kraftwerk and Afrika Bambaataa.

* Vladislav Delay aka Sasu Ripatti, recording minimal techno for such labels as Finnish Huume and German Max Ernst & Freunde and Chain Reaction. Many people have even called Vladislav Delay the biggest new artist coming from Finland after Pan sonic. He has also published records with such aliases as Luomo and Uusitalo.

* Ovuca, a.k.a. Aleksi Perälä, who records for the legendary British RepHlex record label, the home of Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, et al. Ovuca's music could be described as drill'n'bass meets old school breakbeat, with added eccentrity and "anything goes" attitude.

* Lackluster, a.k.a. Esa Ruoho, whose IDM-style music has raised interest among the international fan circles.

* Rikos Records. Electro and IDM from Jyväskylä from the hot new cult label. Has already released Dr. Robotnik's electro, Tero's Commodore 64 sounds, Lackluster's IDM excursions and Puola's genre-splitting freakery.

The future of the Finnish scene?

The new generation of the Finnish ravers understands the meaning of being widely orientated: house, trip hop, acid jazz, jungle, electro, anything goes. In summer 1998, Helsinki clubs such as Kerma (which means "Cream" in Finnish, by the way) gained mention in such international trend magazines as The Face, so it seems local scene gets a bit more coverage than earlier. Also such international "super clubs" as Gatecrasher have visited in Finland.

Also, as the Russian and Estonian techno and rave scenes will get bigger, maybe Finland will soon act as an important gateway for the international artists and DJ's en route to the Eastern dance floors. Some foretaste of this was had back in 1992, when the Finnish DJ's Pixy and Chill visited the Planetarium raves of St. Petersburg, Russia - the rave scene is rapidly blooming in the East of the Finnish border, too. Russian DJ's like Lena Popova have, in their turn, frequented Finnish parties, and Russian techno acts such as New Composers have been recording for Finnish record labels like Sauna Connections.

Furthermore, The Finnish Institute in London has organised, under the guidance of Jali Wahlsten, some parties around Jimi Tenor and Pan sonic, which have been received well in British media.

The early 21st century has seen Finnish dance music also making commercial inroads with such acts as Bomfunk MCs, rising on European charts with their combination of hip hop, electro and house sounds, and their producer Jaakko Salovaara, a.k.a. JS16, on his own right. Salovaara's "discovery" Darude has already hit the British club charts with his take on ever so popular trance techno. 2000 also saw the first Finnish electronic music festival, Koneisto ("Machinery"), August in Turku, which was covered by such British music magazines as NME and The Wire.

Helsinki's Avanto festival in November of the same year was dedicated to more experimental acts, such as Rehberg, Fennesz, Hecker and Skot of Austria's Mego label, Merzbow, Scanner, Pan sonic, Kaffe Matthews, et al.; with glowing reviews in such prestigious magazines as The Wire to follow. As all over the world, the traditional visual arts and electronic music scenes have been getting closer each other also in Finland. International art galleries have seen and heard installations from the people of Sähkö Recordings and Pan sonic, and such Finnish multimedia societies as Katastro.Fi have been in close collaboration with electronic artists and events.

Alex Needham wrote in the February 2001 issue of UK's The Face magazine:

... Finland's youth culture has never been more alive. There is, believe it or not, a thriving hip hop scene, excellent clubs, and - aided by cultural committee Helsinki 2000 - festivals showcasing everything from avant-garde noise to light-based art installations situated around the Finland concert hall, conceived to chase the winter away.

... In the classic way of an emerging pop culture, many Finns are discovering their own identity through the music and style of peoples that seem, on the face of it, completely opposite. Older Finns like to dance the tango. Twentysomethings hang around beautifully designed record shops, digging through crates of dub, soul and Latin vinyl.

... It's the confidence of of a new generation streching out in directions their parents hadn't considered, whether into black music, dance culture or avant-garde art. They might not get it 'right', but that's the story of pop culture; instead they end up with a fascinating hybrid that is peculiarly Finnish. The people are shy, but they're hungry for ideas; go there and participate in a hugely entertaining cultural exhange.

But despite all said and done, the fate of Finnish scene may eventually just be to remain left in the marginal; as of interest only to those most dedicated connoisseurs looking for the more obscure and exotic sounds.

pHinn
(comments, corrections, updates, etc. welcome)

See also:

Music of Finland @ Wikipedia


Thanks to DJ Entox (a.k.a. Massaccesi who asked me to write the first version of this text back in 1995), Henrik Huhtinen, Joe Martin of XLR8R magazine, Petri Salonen of Analog Clinic, and especially to Samu Mielonen, without whom, etc.

Copyright © 1995-2012 Erkki Rautio (for the text)

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