Aavikko

Monday, 29 January 2007

I like demos. There is almost always something that gets lost in the process of perfecting a song. I have heard many great demos turned in soulless records, that were made by people that I happened to know. And also have I heard quite a few great demos of records that I couldn’t care less for as a record. I think that sounds are composed of many things that we don’t have names for. The word soul is a good example: soul is not something that can be pinned down or measured with instruments. But it is an, no, it is the most important element of a recording for me. That makes it a mystery to me why so many people prefer to create and listen to overproduced, soulless music. I bet that 90% of the songs that are played on average mainstream radio stations would sound better if it were the demo versions.
Even bands whose records I like, get caught in the recording studio trap. What began as exiting, lively music ends up as dead sounds, buried under too much studio production. As an example for this statement (well, it is more an opinion, and I am not going to start discussions about it), I picked the first demo that Aavikko recorded.
It is on their CD History of music, on which they selected some non-album material from the period 1995-2003.
Aavikko is a Finish band, that plays music that Kari Heikonen describes as something between surfhouse and maniacal monkey-jazz, delicate faux lounge and avantgarde screetch, ethnic rhythms and quasi disco-boogie. In plain English I would say that Aavikko is the working class dance version of Kraftwerk. Their music is thoroughly okay, but for me nothing that they recorded comes close to Sibiri, a rompingstomping electrobouncer that was recorded during their first rehearsal.