pHinn 
All-Time Vs. Current Favourites Top Ten 

December 2000

(in alphabetic order)

1. Adult.: Pressure Suit (track, Ersatz Audio, US)
- nervous art electro with female vocals from Detroit's Ersatz
  Audio label
2. Atari Teenage Riot: Deutschland Must Die (7", Digital 
  Hardcore Recordings, GER)
- headrush d&b noisecore with screaming punk vocals which
  always puts a large smile on pHinn's face, though people
  are strongly divided by ATR's political sloganeering
3. Chicks On Speed: The Un-Releases (CD, Chicksonspeed 
  Records, US/AU/GER)
- amazing combination of hits, cut-ups and noise from the
  American-Australian-German electronic punk riot grrrls;
  pHinn's fave release of 2000
4. Drexciya: Living On The Edge (track, Underground Resistance, US)
- harsh electro with bleak vocals from Detroit's mysterious aqua men
5. Frontline Assembly: The Blade (track, Wax Trax, CAN/US)
- vocoder electro meets industrial techno; an anthemic track
6. I-f: Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass (12", Interdimensional
  Transmissions, NL/US)
- from the sewers of Hague; a big electro/synth crossover hit also
  at pHinn's resident venue Yo-Talo, Tampere, Finland
7. Merzbow: Routemaster (track, Avanto Recordings, JP/FIN)
- from the master of Japanese noise, featured in Ilppo
  Pohjola's short film Routemaster
8. Miss Kittin & The Hacker: Frank Sinatra (track, Gigolo Records, 
  FR/GER)
- from Grenoble, more electro grrl power with ironic and
  raunchy lyrics you won't forget
9. Suicide: Ghost Rider (track, Mute Records, US/UK)
- eerie proto-Pan sonic electro from NYC, '77
10. Visage: Fade To Grey (7", Polydor, UK)
- classic synthpop track, pHinn's all-time favourite

Bubbling under:

* Human League: Being Boiled (12")
- "Listen to the voice of Buddha / Saying stop your 
sericulture..." A sparse, moody synth classic
from 1978, which goes sound-wise to the bleak 
territory of Suicide and Kraftwerk of the same 
era.  

* Meat Beat Manifesto: Satyricon (LP)
- Jack Dangers is a pioneer of "industrial hip hop"
with his ingenious combination of nervous lyrics, 
breakbeats and analogue sounds which are spliced up 
with samples from old films, interviews, commercials 
and even some easy listening. Also an unhailed pioneer 
of triphop/big beat.

* Octagon Man: Assault (track)
- a.k.a. J Saul Kane (of Depth Charge fame); a version
of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 title track;
eerie analogue electro lo-fi dub. Another pioneer. 

* Tackhead: Mind at the End of Tether (12")
- "Our time is desperately short..." Heavy, mechanical
and banging drum sound was the trademark of this
team which consisted of the same musicians as on 
Adrian Sherwood's On U Sound label and Mark Stewart's
Maffia - among them such people as Keith LeBlanc, Doug
Wimbish, et al. This legendary industrial/electro/dub
12" includes sampled speeches from American right-wing 
religious politicians, with its unique doom-and-gloom
mode. Did you know that 'Mind at the End of Its
Tether' was H.G. Wells' essay compilation concerned
with the bleak visions for the future of mankind?