Felix Kubin vs. Aavikko on Diskono label + September 2001 UK dates

Diskono
High fever.savage values.the fight against fate.

Subject: Special Announcement : New Diskono produckt

Felix Kubin & Aavikko - Super Lake Beat / Antarktis Slow Beat 7" (Diskono 014)

Release: 4th week in September 2001

For the first time on record, the talents of Hamburg's "Bela Bartok of swinging organpop" Felix Kubin and manic Finnish Casio surf-punk trio Aavikko are combined. The result is accurately described by Herr Kubin as "drinking evergreen post punk psychosis".

Driven by the incredible swinging syncopations of Aavikko's 'human metronome' Tomi Leppänen and twin Casio attack of Paul Staufenbiel and Tomi Kosonen, "Super Lake Beat", was composed by the dear AA's with Kubin working feverishly in his Hamburg laboratory to add his trademark organ 'whiskey melodies' and the swaying voices of a Russian Sailor choir. "Antarktis Slow Beat" is Aavikko's "hardcore version" of Kubin's B-movie lament "Antarktis Slow Rock". Heavier than Charles Bukowski and ten times as sleazy. Be warned! This is not 'electronic' listening music or mindless entertainment, but music to drink and destroy or fuck with violent tenderness.

AAVIKKO
http://www.lut.fi/~tinkala/paasivu.html

Aavikko are Paul Staufenbiel, Tomi Kosonen, and Tomi Leppänen (two synthplayers and one drummer). They play all-instrumental semi-psychedelic music in the spirit of 60's Italo-westerns with (gasp) Slavic pop melodies and a definite hard noise edge. "Manic twin Casio's wiggle out catchy tunes that could easily come from Martin Denny, if he had been composing for 60's spy thrillers. While T. Leppänen propels the madness with pseudo disco syncopations and hyper-active breakbeats" (Aquarius Records)

FELIX KUBIN
http://www.onoksid.freeserve.co.uk/kub.html

Also known as Friedel Kern, Falk Klennert, Frietjof Klausner, Ferdinand Kosak, Felix Knoth. Half of 80's 'German New Wave' duo Die Egozentrischen Zwei ("The Egocentric Two"), leading member (92-94) of Hamburg militant Dada-Socialist party Kommunistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (KED) ("Communist Unification Party of Germany"), member (since 1987) of 'futurist ' noise group Klangkrieg ("Sonic War"), founder and ambassador of the 'Syndicate For Counter Noise' (since 1999). Currently exploring the strange world of sci-fi pop, psychedelic carpentry and gardening machines.

DISKONO
http://www.onoksid.freeserve.co.uk

"Formed in 1998 and described as "a multi-media cabal masquerading as a Scottish record label", the Diskono cadre continue to deprogram the "techno generation" from their collective state of cultural conditioning and depoliticisation. A loose collective of artists from provincial towns within Scotland's Central belt, Diskono adopt neo-avant pop tactics to both plunder the music industry and savage it's media lap-dogs." (Frances Lengel)

Logistical details: 1000 copies. Design & layout by Tomi Leppänen.

-Action Tirage!!!!-

AAVIKKO (supporting OP:L Bastards)
07.09.2001 Brighton, The Hanbury Arms Ballroom
08.09.2001 London, Cargo www.cargo-london.com/
09.09.2001 Glasgow, Optimo www.optimo.co.uk

FELIX KUBIN
09.09.2001 Nouveau Casino@Cafe Charbon, Paris + Kid 606, Martin NG

"Diskono does not exist to amuse people or to make money. It exists to wage a political fight. Thus it is a political instrument which, for practical reasons, has the character of a record label, not a record label which for political reasons, deals with politics" Klaus Oldanburg on BBC Radio Scotland 11/99.

Music that's not suitable For Restaurants.

Brian Beady interviews Felix Kubin.

(N.B.: this interview took place on 29th March 2001, the day after Felix's concert at 13th Note Club in Glasgow. Originally published in 'Clubbers Guide')

Berlin and Cologne are renowned as centres for experiments in music, art and ways of life. Thanks to Felix Kubin and his Gagarin label, Hamburg should soon be joining them on the map. Kubin began his career in Futurist noise bands like Die Egozentrischen Zwei and Klangkrieg, before setting out on his own to explore the possibilities of psycho sci-fi pop. A Kubin live performance is awe-inspiring, as (with or without his pet plastic skull) he teases twisted rhythms and squelchy beats out of his array of antique synths, while haranguing his audience to join him in freaky dancing and buy him glasses of whisky. When electronic music has largely become the province of bald guys nodding their heads over laptops, Kubin's style and charisma come as a blast of fresh air. His madness has a purpose though. "I make no compromises with my music so I do a trick where I combine me as a person on stage with a strong appearance with music that is quite manic. By this combination I lead the audience to trust me. A good appearance on stage can make it possible to transport quite difficult music to people".

In person Kubin is quite a serious type, passionately committed to music and challenging aesthetic and political orthodoxies. One minute he's playing records by his label mates Electric Helgoland and enthusing over the vibrancy of the Hamburg scene, the next digging out obscure German tape-loop experiments and lamenting the conformity of contemporary music. His background is in contemporary classical music, his first passion electro-acoustic tape music. "The first thing I did (as Kubin) was film music for animations that contained lots of violence, pornography and cold social relations, by Mariola Brillowska, who makes my records covers. I made the music quite laidback, rather melancholy, some clear melodies but not quite accessible. People were already seeing me in this easy listening, eerie listening type of music. If something gets too easy for me - I have a kind of timebomb go off in my body and I do something else."

That something else would prove to be a deranged series of electro classics called things like "Babelfish Swing Ballet" and "I Lost My Heart In Reykjavik". These records matched extreme strangeness with maximum danceability, but have real depth. Again, Kubin credits this to classical background. "One of my favourite composers is Bartok, and the way I play organ, or the way I use harmonies for rhythms goes back to Bartok." Another historical figure who's influenced Kubin is Ludwig II of Bavaria, a King who created a lake complete with foliage and swans in his castle , whose regal attire Kubin has assumed in recent photos. "Someone sent me a picture, commenting on the resemblance. Ludwig II was like a perfect Dadaist without knowing it, but he lost his mind, I hope I will not. When I dress as him it is not totally arbitrary, though. It is important to include things from your daily life into music, because there are so many shallow personalities in music."

His distaste for the narcissicism of pop reaches hilarious heights in his cover of Lionel Richie's "Hello", which he turns into an autistic parody of one of the most horrible songs ever written. Kubin laments a lost golden age when "in the 50s and 60s tape music was so new and popular it was played on the radio. Pierre Henry carried it far because he was not afraid of pop music. 'Psyche Rock' was a perfect mix of psychedelic tape loops and pop melodies. I would like to re-create this type of music."

But how can the shock of the new be recreated in a world where electronic music is so commonplace it's used to advertise everything from cars to condoms? I leave Kubin to point the way forward. "There has been really good electronic music that you could easily play in a restaurant, it can be taken out of it's context and abused for that. That should be a new maxim for electronic music: Music That's Not Suitable For Restaurants."


http://www.felixkubin.de/
http://www.lut.fi/~tinkala/aavikko.html
http://www.spinefarm.fi/pop/aavikko/aavikko.html