Sahko Finland 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Sahko continues to deliver new vinyl pressings of lauded, in-demand items from the bulging back catalogue of sadly departed Finnish experimentalist Mika Vaino. The latest to get the treatment is Vaino's 2008 set Oleva, his fifth solo outing under the alternative O alias. The album remains one of Vaino's most magical, in part because it counters his usual icy, creepy and sometimes intense experimental sound with ambient, IDM and rhythm-driven pieces that variously draw on electro and industrial sounds. It contains some genuinely stunning moments of both darkness and light, including a number of widescreen epics that sound like they were tailor-made for black and white, European art-house movies.

Review: The thing about early synthesiser music is that there's always a new mad scientist to discover. Take Osmo Lindeman, for example. While the real electronic sonic historians will likely be familiar with this Finnish experimental pioneer and master film scorer, most other people probably won't be. Thankfully, then, this collection of his most plugged-in works can set the record straight. A package that celebrates his avant garde approach to marrying gadgets and gizmos with the brassy seduction of jazz. So although the tracks here may not be his most renowned contributions to the pantheons - see the soundtracks to Rakas, Totuus on armoton, and Tulipunainen kyyhkynen - the Electronic Works gathered by the Sahko Finland team are certainly among his most groundbreaking and boundary pushing. Like listening to what outer space may have sounded like if it put on a concert in the late-1960s featuring trumpet and sax maestros, prepare for a series of fascinating audio adventures and juxtapositions.

Review: After briefly appearing as one of those enigmatic Sahko white labels, we weren't sure if Konstellaatio would be pressed up for a general release, but thankfully, our Finnish friends are wary of our electronic needs...This LP is Classic Mika under his O guise - one saved primarily for his most contemplative works - and it's one of those releases that will capture you from the start and make you want some therapy at the end of it. Rich, textural drones running the whole way through and accompanied by sparse, doomed melodies and fluttering beats. It's a spectacular ordeal of harmonic delight. Don't wait around because these won't last for very long...

Review: Wow. When you're writing about music releases it's often tempting to present difficult to describe tunes as unique. That's not always factually accurate, though, as is clear when you come across something like this seven-way bag of the wonderfully bizarre. Half the stuff on here, at least, really does defy categorisation, although we can probably lump it all together as experimental, industrial-leaning electronic music with avant-garde tendencies. And a libido. What that describes varies wildly. Nuke Watch's 'NWPJS Perc' interprets the term as a kind of slow build, low BPM workout made up of what could well be the noise of various tools, pipes and taps being struck. Umfang delivers a dark and menacing hip hop-electro instrumental, packed with atmosphere and pent up energy. Ana Fosca goes for shrill refrains and drones. Egg Meat serves a dominatrix of off-time weirdo-techno tones with mind melting percussive cacophonies.