Friday, December 14, 2018

Jimi Tenor - Sähkömies (1994)


Minimal, downtempo electro-jazz from Finnish multi-instrumentalist Jimi Tenor. Synth pads, simple drum loops, chilled-out basslines, bleeps and bloops, lounge-y organ, smooth sax, and budget-cosmic vibes. Then there's "Take Me Baby", which sounds like a sexed-up, lo-fi New Order. The kind of explorative, idiosyncratic record that really can only be made by a solo artist.

Track listing:
1. Theme Sax
2. Crazy Hammond
3. Union Ave
4. Take Me Baby
5. Matti B
6. Teräsmies
7. Voimamies
8. Travelin Dem Spaceways
9. Union Ave III

Love me on the way to the dark star

You might also like:
A Small Good Thing -
Cool Cool Water (1996)
Richard Thomas -
Shoes and Radios Attract Paint (1998)

3 comments:

  1. I received a promotional copy of Sähkömies before it was released, thanks to a friend of mine who was working at (Mondo) Kim's Video on St. Mark's Place in the Village/NYC at the time. God I miss those days.

    Jimi Tenor is my second favorite Finn after Jean Sibelius, the great symphonist. JT also happens to be the funkiest Scandinavian in the world as far as I'm concerned ;) And talented AF.

    Now I want to dig out my Jimi Tenor & His Shamans stuff - haven't listened to any of his earlier stuff since the mid 90s! I still cannot believe how underrated he is - even since his signing with Warp in the late 90's, I think it was 97... he remains one of their lesser known artists. Or so it seems to me.

    Take Me Baby is similar to "Total Devastation", from the Organism lp, it's a tad bumpier & catchier.
    Ever see the video for it? It's fucking great, it's on Warp's dvd release "WarpVision - The Videos 1989-2004". There's also a video for "Midsummernight", and while JT's vocals are not strong, it's good enough and still one of the "sexiest" tracks I know of. WarpVisions is one of my most beloved dvds as it also features several Aphex vids (the Chris Cunningham dir. of course & others) as well as Autechre, Squarepusher, LFO, Plaid and so on... if you already own it sorry for blabbin.

    -I do have a small request as well (been breakin out all my JT discs again since ur post!) -is there any chance you have Jimi Tenor's 4-track Venera EP? It contains Midsummernight and is the only JT that I never bought..

    Cheers

    Tz

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Delayed response, but here ya go:
      https://mega.nz/#!5HQ0TAYK!ui6XXFxHoAdGk8im1ADTkvOoss9PkjEU1GwhxLwll-s

      And agreed, Tenor doesn't have the strongest voice but given the minimal, almost raw-sounding instrumentation, I think his thin singing couldn't be more appropriate. Happy to hear from another fan, definitely don't hear enough people talking about him.

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    2. D_S thanks so much my man!! My JT collection is now complete :) I could be wrong but I don't think Jimi has ever done any gigs in the States. Would love to see him, in fact I'm sick of the States if I could afford it I'd be in Europe anyhow - an extended vacation at least. There's more quality shows taking place in EU within a week's time than a couple months at any given time here (and I'm not far from NYC - great venues but what matters is who is filling them!) Seriously the last decent show I saw was Death Grips (w Ministry) in 2017..

      Curious, have you had a chance to listen to the edIT, Boom Bip, or Karsten Pflum albums I sent ya? I know your'e busy so maybe you haven't but wanted to check bc I'm interested to know what you think! Also I do always have a ton of shit I can send you, but I feel as if you are almost drowning in quality music as it is hehe..

      Tz

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