Thursday, May 18, 2006

What the hell, one more for today.


Oh boy, you're really in for a treat. You may also be in for a nightmare. Värttinä, from Finland, has that effect on people. I first heard of them from the 3 CD box set from Ellipsis Arts called, "Planet Soup." The concept of Planet Soup was to have Musicians from one culture play music of another. Like Tuvan throat singers doing a Blues tune or An American Musician doing an Indian Raga.....ON A BANJO! Some of the stuff worked and some of it didn't. The booklet described Värttinä as, "the Go-Go's on speed." The particular song, "Katariina" is a fair assessment. I saw this in the library and picked it up because, "Katariina" was on it. They had a few of their other CDs as well.
From AMG,
"It must be admitted that Värttinä is not for everyone. The quartet of high-pitched, rapidly singing Finnish women who front the group would be a migraine-sufferer's worst nightmare. But if you like vocal enthusiasm and precision, this album is for you.
Aitara prominently displays the band's secret weapon: its instrumentalists. These four men and one woman coax a big, rich, and varied song out of bouzouki, accordion, sax, Hammond organ, violin, drums, and Finland's traditional instrument, the kantele, a kind of zither. If the low, reedy sounds of the accordion and baritone sax on "Mie Tahon Tanssia" ("I Want to Dance") were not there to offset the ladies, then they would be pretty hard to take, even for a fan. On "Outona Omilla Mailla" ("Stranger in My Own Land"), the instruments set an almost gothic mood of alienation. At first, the singers reinforce this mood but then reverse it with one of those quick shifts at which they are experts."

Quick Stats
Värttinä Aitara
48 MB
160 kbps lame 3.96.1
http://rapidshare.de/files/20792382/CrapAitara.rar.html
pw = screay

Hey, what do you know? I found a video of a live performance by them. YAY!
Even if you don't like their music, their live performances are really worth checking out. Just watch and you'll see why. By the way, about halfway through this song, it sounds like they have been possessed by a Demon. Don't worry, it's in Finnish. It just kind of sounds that way :)
No offense to my Finnish visitor.
Värttinä, "Aijo"

2 Comments:

At 5/19/2006 12:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, I have this cd also. It is quite good. And I've seen the video on World Link TV. Also quite good.

 
At 5/19/2006 10:44 PM, Blogger Escape Goat said...

I've seen Vartinna on World Link too. They're highly entertaining. Maybe sometime in the future I'll put up another Vartinna.

 

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