Lop U was a great party and WE made it happen

I need to get something of my chest. We had our last warehouse party last Saturday. It was the end scene in a long run of maybe 5 or so parties. Lots of the people involved from the beginning were back doing a gig or organizing and maybe even some of the crowd has been with us from the start. A reunion.

You do these things for many reasons but I think most of revolve around making a party happen for open-minded people who appreciate the freedom and no-rules-on-music approach. We, the organizers, take the risk to have artists who don't necessarily fit in at the music policies of clubs and the risk of trusting that the people we invite behave nicely even when there's no official bouncers around.

It's really a lot about trust. It takes idealism. Are you willing to trust that if you don't have official rules people who come together can have good fun and party their asses of?

That's what we believed.

Didn't exactly turn around that way. There were a small bunch of idiots who tried to ruin the party for everyone by bitching about, trying to pick up a fight, not paying their way in and tagging the walls.

But you know what? Even after this bunch of assholes took their best shot of fucking everyone's mood up, people still managed to have time of their lives. Just take a look of our photos. I see only smiley faces.

And here's something else: after the last live gig, me and dj Johnny D (who is very underrated as a dj) were starting to play some records back 2 back. Just after 4 songs we had to stop and cut the music, because of the aforementioned wankers. It just happened that I was playing bouncey stuff to re-start when I was told to stop. My last song pick - which will live to be the last of the whole Turku U -series - was a Top Billin' remix of Gil-Scott Heron's Willing.



I remember when I played this, Johnny D said he couldn't have picked a better last song. This morning I listened to it again. Just read the lyrics:

We've all come to think ourselves
as links in a chain - so much to gain
We are the ones that tie our fathers to our sons
Don't you know, that's how we grow

What my life really means is that the songs that I sing
Are just pieces in a dream that I've been building
And we can make a stand and hey, I'm reachin' out my hand
'Cause I know damn well we can if we are willing
But we gotta be...
Got to be willing.

You know what I'm after. We were willing and we made it happen. I'm pretty fucking proud about that. And so should you be, if you were one of the organizers, one of the good crowd, one of the performers or one of the good people who helped us along the way.

THANKS!

BTW. Here's a recording of our dj set, right from the start of the night. You can hear the audio engineers talking the whole way through and general noise, but the music comes through pretty clearly.

- Peffis

Happy international R. Kelly Day

Dunno, why it is today, but Facebook says so.



Man, can't even begin to describe all the things R. Kelly means to me. I actually got to review his latest album - which has been sort of a lifelong dream -, shame it was a bit of lame effort. We all know how bat shit amazing some of his songs are, and we all know about the "age ain't nuttin but a number" suspicions and accusations.

Here's three good ways to celebrate the day:

1. Listen to these two mixtapes of his songs by Vic Crezée: The first one. The second. Both of them are made just the way mixtapes should be made: good selection, great mixing, funny sound clips in between.

2. Read Mountain Goats' John Darnielle's 100 reasons why Ignition remix is "so damned great". Possibly while listening to Ignition remix on repeat.



3. Cop the old Real Talk bmore edit here. How dope can a very simple edit be, kudos to F*skars.

- Peffis

The kid's got talent

I like calling people kid, because I'm one foot deep in being crampy and old. Anyways, this Finnish kid - he is actually something around 15 - won a certain highly influential remix competition a while back.

Lenno is his name. He publishes via Soundcloud, which is nice. This one below is his best work for date. Go and grab yourself a playable copy of it here:

B.o.B feat. Bruno Mars - Nothin' On You (Lenno Electro House Remix) by Lenno

If anyone knows something of the same kind of new-ish or looped up modern dance music, plz recommend.

- P-Funk

Bounce Camp

This dude shouldn't really need any promo bumping, but people seem to sleep on him. Mr. Bounce Camp aka Sampo Hänninen was responsible for one of the biggest tunes of the year before last year (what, is that yesteryear?) - Big Dancing. Still, I haven't seen too many dj's feature these two killers:



Love the vocals. Dude has a good sense of style and humor.



Umm, maybe this didn't come out at all.

Good Beat should drop soon, with plenty of remixes. I got the promo version a while back, so it shouldn't be too long.

- P-Funk

Now, things are complicated

It's a weird thing, I spotted this great track from the excellent Top Billin vol. 13 mix. This is their third anniversary, and for you who don't know, they have risen in these three years to be THE club institution of Finland, who almost everyone is copying, musically and otherwise.

Here's the track in question (from the evergreat DFA):



Now, this dark, relentless and almost bleak track really goes again the grain of the party-breaksy, gun-sampladelic stuff Top Billin rise to fame with. (Of course, anyone who reads their blog knows their musical tastes run much, much deeper than the banger stuff they're famous for). It was also announced that this would be their last Top Billin-club for a while and that they might be looking for something else musically as well.

I don't know. Of course I'm reading much more to this than there really is, but are the clubbing trends changing here from the happy and not-so-serious happy days to something more darker and more disillusioned? Maybe the murky days with growing economic crisis, rising social tensions and corrupted government are changing the mood in the clubs as well?

Now, things really seem to be more complicated. Outside of the club as well.

- P-Funk