Kuupuu ‎- 'Yökehrä' (Dekorder)

This is a compilation of earlier releases by Kuupuu and it hews closer to other Finnish underground music of its time than some of the later work by Kuupuu (Jonna Karanka) and related projects. There are many names from the Finnish scene of this time (2002-2005), some of which have dissipated into our distant memories (The Anaximandros, anyone?) and others which are still active, though quite different in today' s incarnations (Avarus, Kemiälliset Ystävät). All certainly bring to mind a certain vibe, and that vibe, to me, is 'small' - short form pieces, often just sketches, recorded and left to lie and marinate rather than be overworked. Kuupuu, at least in these earlier recordings, has a certain delicacy to her approach and I'm finding it perfect for this evening's imminent sunset. Acoustic sounds are prevalent and these compositions are more content to move forward slowly, if at all. There's a tendency towards space and texture, and the sequencing is well-chosen here, breaking up the running order from the original cd-r releases and reassembling here. The home-recorded nature of Karanka's work from this time sounds great when transfered to vinyl and I guess it's thanks to Dekorder doing a solid job with the mastering, as usual. When there's hiss and tape noise around the material, it somehow sounds grandiose and important on wax. When she uses her voice, especially on side 2 ('Pihlajapuu', 'Tuli Uni'), it's all breath and transference, mixing with the hiss to be wordless or essentially so. More recognisable melodies on squeezeboxes and keyboards peer out but don't overstay their welcome. In lesser hands this could come off as hackneyed goth music, but there's a really personal vision which seems to abstractly convey experience, which is all I could ever want from music. Her later work becomes a little denser, and more focused on motion in conjunction with texture, specifically the music's own internal ebb and flow. One could probably argue that Kuupuu recordings also become more distinct later on, and that the pieces on this record are more simple or somehow less developed. But there's a care evident here, a sculpting that isolates her from any traditional musical precedents while also situating her work as part of a movement. 

Animal Collective - 'Here Comes the Indian' (Paw Tracks)

The first record to be feature all four Animals was a pretty big deal in my world when it came out, though I don't think I listened to it nearly as much as I thought I would. More likely I decided it was brilliant and then shelved it and forgot about it under the mountain of other things coming in back then, cause listening now its like I've never heard it before. I mean, those were the days ... before these guys even had a Wikipedia page! The nervous energy from Danse Manatee is there, and there's also some vocal harmonies doubled with heavily processed sounds - the blueprint for Sung Tongs and all that followed. All the scraping and ringing is done in such earnest - it's all so fucking tightly composed and exact - and it really does feel like a 'statement' of sorts. The effects boxes might be a little more overt here, compared to their later (less sourceable) weirdness, being that you can actually recognise the digital delay that's all over this like yogurt on peacock feathers. Mid-00's impressionism can be such a beautiful thing: a million precedents of Other musics and a million refracted walks in the woods, through the glossy-eyed calibrations I and a million peers shared in 2003. Maybe when all is said and done this will be what I remember as their best album; that's often the case with the one just before the "breakthrough" (which usually just refers to terms commercial) for lots of artists. Course, I haven't heard their newest record, which people keep telling me "changes music forever". Even if it did, would I want that to happen? My breakthrough was Danse Manatee - after struggling for so long myself wanting to find pop music as fractured and extreme as what I imagined it could be, that record was it - but this one is no slouch, either.