Suomisaundi
Encyclopedia
Suomisaundi, also known as suomisoundi, suomistyge or spugedelic trance, is a style of freestyle psychedelic trance
that originated in Finland
around the mid 1990s. "Suomisaundi" literally means "Finnish sound" in Finnish
; music that features many of the characteristics of suomisaundi has gained global popularity. The term "spugedelic" is comically derived from "psychedelic" and "spuge", meaning "an alcoholic" in Helsinki slang
. The term "spugedelic" was likely first used by suomisaundi artist Huopatossu Mononen, releasing a track called "Kikapelaus (A Spugedelik Return To Monoverse)."
, New Zealand
, Japan
, Russia
and Eastern Europe
have resulted in producers creating Finnish style psytrance music around the world. The term “suomisaundi” is typically used only to describe music that is produced in Finland whereas music produced in the suomi tradition but outside of Finland is more loosely described as “freestyle psytrance.”
The genre is generally not as formulaic as most current psytrance, with artists having more freedom to explore their own individual sounds and styles. The most recognizable element of this style is that it has no set rules apart from basic trance elements such as the four-on-the-floor kick drum that has characterized the majority of electronic dance music styles to date. Suomisaundi tracks are usually very melodic, including heavy influences from early Goa
, tribal beats and acid trance
tracks, as well as funk
y guitar/keyboard loops and sounds from or reminiscent of 1980's video and computer games. Some artists such as Luomuhappo
and Tekniset have incorporated Finnish folk melodies into their tracks, giving their music a more distinct Finnish sound. Finnish nature has also played an important role in the direction of the Finnish sound, with suomisaundi parties frequently taking place in the forests of Finland and tracks and albums often referencing this aspect of the genre, for example Puoskari
’s album Open the Forest and Haltya
’s Forest Flavor and Book of Nature albums.
Songs frequently include distorted sampling, layers and combinations of effects, tricky drum fills and breaks, as well as speech samples in Finnish or in English. On many occasions there are forms of strange humor and/or self-irony in the music or in the track titles. Some even describe the suomi-style of psytrance as anarchistic
and almost punk
in the trance music scene, because the songs are usually very different and progressive compared to mainstream European psytrance tracks.
Some have criticized suomisaundi because early examples of the genre had inconsistent production quality and, due to the limited distribution of recorded albums, many tracks were not available in high-fidelity formats. These criticisms, however, have become increasingly inaccurate as the average production quality has improved significantly and the majority of releases are now distributed with a minimum quality of 320kbps MP3
.
Finnish acid, Goa and psychedelic trance has been produced in Finland throughout its existence, starting in the early 1990s when the Goa/acid trance culture began to form. Suomisaundi was originally born from a vehement hate of Tuubi, was a term used for everything that was not considered suomisoundi. There are many artists in Finland producing suomisaundi; notable artists that started the "suomisaundi-fuzz" include Haltya
and EvsY.
Texas Faggott, released by Australian Psy-Harmonics
label in 1999, is considered by many as one of the early relics of the weirder-edge suomisaundi. The popularity of Texas Faggott grew amongst the Finnish trance
scene with their second release, Petoman's Peflett in 2001. Group memberTim Thick has been an active promoter of Finnish psy-trance, as he established and operated Thixx'n'Dixx (http://thixxndixx.stc.cx/) in 2000, a site offering free MP3 downloads from almost all of the existing Finnish psy-trance artists including tracks from his own groups. After its initial opening, the Thixx'n'Dixx site grew, offering new MP3 albums from different suomisaundi artists and eventually became so popular that it was mentioned in a pop music program on Finnish national TV.
Pelinpala released his album My CD has landed on the nextdoor neighbours dog in October 1999 on legendary Demon Tea recordings (Australia). Pelinpala's album was a mixture of extreme psychedelia and considered one of the classic psychedelic suomi-sound albums. Pelinpala later became active in another well established Finnish old school psychedelic project: Haltya
.
So far Haltya has released three albums, Forest Flavor, Electric Help Elves and Book of Nature and a good number of other published works in their unique style of funky forest sound. Haltya is considered to be one of the psy originals in the world, due to their characteristic approach in music. They are one of Finland's most wanted live acts abroad. The main figure behind Pelinpala and Haltya is producer/composer Tommi Sirkia, who is responsible for a wide range of musical contributions in Finnish modern electronic dance music, and is one of Finland's most internationally acknowledged electronic music producers today.
Squaremeat has created a unique "power disco" sound, releasing several well-received albums. Squaremeat's Pepe Kosminen is a long-time trance producer and important figure in the Finnish psychedelic trance movement, producing solo albums as well as collaborations with other artists within the genre. Projects that he has been a part of include F-Virus, Flying Scorpions, Gruuvit Muuvit, Midilitto, Nano Buds, Lightaman Jr. and Dirty Dreds.
, Ukraine
, Japan
and Australia
. The Japanese label, 6-Dimension Soundz, concentrates almost exclusively on releasing suomi-style trance.
Two of the most notable suomisaundi labels in Finland are Exogenic Records and Freakdance Records
, but many of the popular Finnish trance-artists might not have recorded, making their music only available as MP3
s on the Internet
. After site-hosting problems and excessive bandwidth usage, the Thixx'n'Dixx site operates nowadays merely as a suomisaundi link catalogue, offering links to individual suomisaundi artist pages at mikseri.net
, which is a Finnish MP3 community for unsigned/independent artists. Another popular MP3 download site for suomisaundi music is the Antiscarp-website, hosted by members of the Finnish psytrance group Salakavala
.
Psychedelic trance
Psychedelic trance, psytrance or just psy is a form of electronic music characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and complex layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. It appeared in the mainstream in 1995 as with reporting of the trend of Goa trance. The genre offers variety...
that originated in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
around the mid 1990s. "Suomisaundi" literally means "Finnish sound" in Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
; music that features many of the characteristics of suomisaundi has gained global popularity. The term "spugedelic" is comically derived from "psychedelic" and "spuge", meaning "an alcoholic" in Helsinki slang
Helsinki slang
Helsinki slang or stadin slangi is a local dialect and a sociolect of the Finnish language mainly used in the capital Helsinki...
. The term "spugedelic" was likely first used by suomisaundi artist Huopatossu Mononen, releasing a track called "Kikapelaus (A Spugedelik Return To Monoverse)."
Genre
Steady fan bases in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
have resulted in producers creating Finnish style psytrance music around the world. The term “suomisaundi” is typically used only to describe music that is produced in Finland whereas music produced in the suomi tradition but outside of Finland is more loosely described as “freestyle psytrance.”
The genre is generally not as formulaic as most current psytrance, with artists having more freedom to explore their own individual sounds and styles. The most recognizable element of this style is that it has no set rules apart from basic trance elements such as the four-on-the-floor kick drum that has characterized the majority of electronic dance music styles to date. Suomisaundi tracks are usually very melodic, including heavy influences from early Goa
Goa trance
Goa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM...
, tribal beats and acid trance
Acid trance
Acid trance is a style of trance music that emerged in the late '80s early '90s focusing on utilising the acid sound. The trademark sound of "acid" is produced with a Roland TB-303 by playing a sequenced melody while altering the instrument's filter cutoff frequency, resonance, envelope modulation,...
tracks, as well as funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
y guitar/keyboard loops and sounds from or reminiscent of 1980's video and computer games. Some artists such as Luomuhappo
Luomuhappo
Luomuhappo is Jere Häkkinen , a Suomisaundi producer from Finland. He is one of the original founders of Freakdance Records. He started his musical creations in the mid-90's using a tracker software and the Roland MC-505 groovebox. Häkkinen released his first self-made CDR demo, titled "Juotsen...
and Tekniset have incorporated Finnish folk melodies into their tracks, giving their music a more distinct Finnish sound. Finnish nature has also played an important role in the direction of the Finnish sound, with suomisaundi parties frequently taking place in the forests of Finland and tracks and albums often referencing this aspect of the genre, for example Puoskari
Puoskari
Puoskari is Oskari Nuotio, a Suomisaundi artist from Helsinki, Finland. His influences in psy-trance music come from old 80's video games to disco and funk, making his music a mixture of the past and the future - where psy-trance is combined to other genres - and all this in a groovy fashion...
’s album Open the Forest and Haltya
Haltya
Haltya are Jürgen Sachau and Tommi Sirkiä, a psychedelic trance project from Finland, founded in the mid-nineties. Jurgen has also released under the project name Outolintu, while Tommi has released under the project name Pelinpala. They have also been active under the pseudonyms Justin Space and...
’s Forest Flavor and Book of Nature albums.
Songs frequently include distorted sampling, layers and combinations of effects, tricky drum fills and breaks, as well as speech samples in Finnish or in English. On many occasions there are forms of strange humor and/or self-irony in the music or in the track titles. Some even describe the suomi-style of psytrance as anarchistic
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and almost punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
in the trance music scene, because the songs are usually very different and progressive compared to mainstream European psytrance tracks.
Some have criticized suomisaundi because early examples of the genre had inconsistent production quality and, due to the limited distribution of recorded albums, many tracks were not available in high-fidelity formats. These criticisms, however, have become increasingly inaccurate as the average production quality has improved significantly and the majority of releases are now distributed with a minimum quality of 320kbps MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
.
Finnish acid, Goa and psychedelic trance has been produced in Finland throughout its existence, starting in the early 1990s when the Goa/acid trance culture began to form. Suomisaundi was originally born from a vehement hate of Tuubi, was a term used for everything that was not considered suomisoundi. There are many artists in Finland producing suomisaundi; notable artists that started the "suomisaundi-fuzz" include Haltya
Haltya
Haltya are Jürgen Sachau and Tommi Sirkiä, a psychedelic trance project from Finland, founded in the mid-nineties. Jurgen has also released under the project name Outolintu, while Tommi has released under the project name Pelinpala. They have also been active under the pseudonyms Justin Space and...
and EvsY.
Texas Faggott, released by Australian Psy-Harmonics
Psy-Harmonics
Psy-Harmonics is an Australian independent record label specialising in electronic music.When Psy-Harmonics began in 1993 it was the first local label to explore the sonic possibilities of the techno / trance sound...
label in 1999, is considered by many as one of the early relics of the weirder-edge suomisaundi. The popularity of Texas Faggott grew amongst the Finnish trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
scene with their second release, Petoman's Peflett in 2001. Group memberTim Thick has been an active promoter of Finnish psy-trance, as he established and operated Thixx'n'Dixx (http://thixxndixx.stc.cx/) in 2000, a site offering free MP3 downloads from almost all of the existing Finnish psy-trance artists including tracks from his own groups. After its initial opening, the Thixx'n'Dixx site grew, offering new MP3 albums from different suomisaundi artists and eventually became so popular that it was mentioned in a pop music program on Finnish national TV.
Pelinpala released his album My CD has landed on the nextdoor neighbours dog in October 1999 on legendary Demon Tea recordings (Australia). Pelinpala's album was a mixture of extreme psychedelia and considered one of the classic psychedelic suomi-sound albums. Pelinpala later became active in another well established Finnish old school psychedelic project: Haltya
Haltya
Haltya are Jürgen Sachau and Tommi Sirkiä, a psychedelic trance project from Finland, founded in the mid-nineties. Jurgen has also released under the project name Outolintu, while Tommi has released under the project name Pelinpala. They have also been active under the pseudonyms Justin Space and...
.
So far Haltya has released three albums, Forest Flavor, Electric Help Elves and Book of Nature and a good number of other published works in their unique style of funky forest sound. Haltya is considered to be one of the psy originals in the world, due to their characteristic approach in music. They are one of Finland's most wanted live acts abroad. The main figure behind Pelinpala and Haltya is producer/composer Tommi Sirkia, who is responsible for a wide range of musical contributions in Finnish modern electronic dance music, and is one of Finland's most internationally acknowledged electronic music producers today.
Squaremeat has created a unique "power disco" sound, releasing several well-received albums. Squaremeat's Pepe Kosminen is a long-time trance producer and important figure in the Finnish psychedelic trance movement, producing solo albums as well as collaborations with other artists within the genre. Projects that he has been a part of include F-Virus, Flying Scorpions, Gruuvit Muuvit, Midilitto, Nano Buds, Lightaman Jr. and Dirty Dreds.
2000s
Since 2000, the global interest in Finnish trance has grown significantly, with many Finnish groups touring internationally and performing to a growing global fan base. However, usually outside Finland, the Suomi-style is still considered an eccentricity within the context of the psytrance genre. Most notable suomisaundi audiences outside Finland are in RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The Japanese label, 6-Dimension Soundz, concentrates almost exclusively on releasing suomi-style trance.
Two of the most notable suomisaundi labels in Finland are Exogenic Records and Freakdance Records
Freakdance Records
Freakdance Records is an Espoo, Finland based record label. They release suomisaundi music. They have CD releases from such artists as Huopatossu Mononen, Puoskari and Luomuhappo....
, but many of the popular Finnish trance-artists might not have recorded, making their music only available as MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
s on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. After site-hosting problems and excessive bandwidth usage, the Thixx'n'Dixx site operates nowadays merely as a suomisaundi link catalogue, offering links to individual suomisaundi artist pages at mikseri.net
Mikseri.net
Mikseri.net is a free Finnish music-sharing service created by Arto Aaltonen with the help of Miikka Koivuniemi. Independent musicians are allowed to upload their work on their accounts from which other users can download their music for free. Registered users can also review other artists' works....
, which is a Finnish MP3 community for unsigned/independent artists. Another popular MP3 download site for suomisaundi music is the Antiscarp-website, hosted by members of the Finnish psytrance group Salakavala
Salakavala
Salakavala is a Suomisoundi-style psychedelic trance group from Finland. It consists of Tommy Lauhiala, Ville Ruoho and Toni Sorsa. Their debut album Fractal Fishing was released in September, 2006 by Australian record label Faerie Dragon Records....
.
Notable music names in this genre
- DDADDADDA may stand for:*Danish Design Award*Data Dump & Analysis*Delhi Development Authority, the Planning Agency for Delhi, the capital of India.*Dda , a DNA helicase....
- Eraser vs YöjalkaEraser vs YöjalkaEraser vs Yöjalka are Julius Lehmuskallio and Simo Ojala , a Suomisaundi-style psytrance project from Helsinki, Finland. Both studied music and classical instruments, went to goa parties since 1994 and started making music together in 2000...
- HaltyaHaltyaHaltya are Jürgen Sachau and Tommi Sirkiä, a psychedelic trance project from Finland, founded in the mid-nineties. Jurgen has also released under the project name Outolintu, while Tommi has released under the project name Pelinpala. They have also been active under the pseudonyms Justin Space and...
- James ReipasJames ReipasJames Reipas is an electronica trio from Helsinki, Finland. They combine psychedelic trance with electro and many different genres as well as live instruments...
- LuomuhappoLuomuhappoLuomuhappo is Jere Häkkinen , a Suomisaundi producer from Finland. He is one of the original founders of Freakdance Records. He started his musical creations in the mid-90's using a tracker software and the Roland MC-505 groovebox. Häkkinen released his first self-made CDR demo, titled "Juotsen...
- NBRNBRNBR is an abbreviation with several meanings:In rail:* New Brunswick Railway, a former Canadian railway company absorbed by the Canadian Pacific Railway* North Bay Railway, a light railway system for tourists in Scarborough, North Yorkshire...
- OktaOktaIn meteorology, an okta is a unit of measurement used to describe cloud cover. Sky conditions are estimated in terms of how many eighths of the sky are obscured by cloud, ranging from completely clear, 0 oktas, through to completely overcast, 8 oktas...
- PuoskariPuoskariPuoskari is Oskari Nuotio, a Suomisaundi artist from Helsinki, Finland. His influences in psy-trance music come from old 80's video games to disco and funk, making his music a mixture of the past and the future - where psy-trance is combined to other genres - and all this in a groovy fashion...
- SalakavalaSalakavalaSalakavala is a Suomisoundi-style psychedelic trance group from Finland. It consists of Tommy Lauhiala, Ville Ruoho and Toni Sorsa. Their debut album Fractal Fishing was released in September, 2006 by Australian record label Faerie Dragon Records....
- Shiwa 2000Shiwa 2000Shiwa 2000 is a Suomisoundi-style psychedelic trance group from Finland. The regular members of the assemblage are Rick Timebees and Tim Thick, who is also familiar from Texas Faggott and Mandalavandalz...
- Texas Faggott
External links
- PsyUniverse - Psytrance Social Network.
- Finnish psy-trance forum Elixiria
- http://www.antiscarp.com
- http://www.freakdancerecords.net
- http://www.6d-soundz.org/
- http://www.hippiekillerproductions.net/
- http://www.adama-records.com/
- http://community.livejournal.com/suomisaundi/