Customer Reviews

Vakio

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Vakio" is Pan Sonic's debut album, way back when they went by the name 'Panasonic' and Sami Salo was a member of the group. "Vakio" seems to get some of the most mixed reviews with some embracing its nod towards experimental techno, and others hearing it as noisy hacking. Having heard every album, single, EP, and available live recording, I put rank it in the middle of their output. It's not their finest hour, but it has more going for it than some of their more stripped down EPs. There's more going on here than on the "B EP" and there's greater variety than on "Osasto." It's no "Kesto", but it's still pretty great.

I can't really express how perfect the opening track is. "Alku", the first track on Pan Sonic's first album, is the most basic sound in existence - a pure sine wave. The sine wave plays for about 30 seconds before another sine wave in the sub-audio frequency band begins to rhythmically modulate it. The first thing listeners tend to complain about is this opening track. If you're not prepared for it, I suppose it could be annoying like an alarm clock or a hearing test. But if John Cage has taught us anything, music is much larger than what we find in quiet concert halls. Maybe this isn't your idea of music, and that's a reasonable position to take. It IS music to me though, and to many people.

From there, things pick up quickly with "Radiokemia", an up-tempo number with lots of 808 bass drum, noisy bursts of sound, and rhythmical synth patterns. The tracks are not big on melody or anything close. They deal with rhythm and texture. There's always a distinctive ambience surrounding the music, whether it's some sort of endless dub delay or a reverb drenched electronic snare sound. Periodically, we get a sustained sound, but it's usually some sort of filtered noise generator, rather than a tone with a clear pitch center. Once in a great while, a fragment of melody wafts up from the depths to great effect.

There is much more challenging music out there. Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda come to mind, as do noise artists like Merzbow or Masonna. Compared to some things I've heard, "Vakio" is practically a 'dance' album. Actually, you could dance to some of this, if you were in a club with a DJ crazy enough to mix it in his set. Miss Kittin used "Hapatus" on her "Radio Caroline Vol. 1" mix CD.

Who will enjoy this? The presence of powerful beats will probably make this a little more palatable than an album such as "A", but that doesn't mean it will appeal to every techno fan. The most interesting element of Pan Sonic's music is always the amazing and unique sounds they get from their custom-built analog gear. Yeah, there's a lot of 808 kick drum, but all the other sounds are from another planet. It's an aural treat, perfect for headphone listeners who enjoy subtlety.

Open-minded techno fans should give this a shot. I would recommend "Kulma" or "Kesto" over "Vakio" as an introduction to Pan Sonic, but since this has a stronger connection to techno, it would be a fine place to start. It is, of course, highly recommended to fans of experimental electronic music. This is seriously weird, but rewarding music, for those that enjoy music from the fringe. Industrial fans will also probably appreciate the machine-like rhythms and noisy blasts of sonic energy.

"Vakio" is a great debut from one of the few groups that is privileged to exist in a class of its own.

It was techno, but not as we knew it. Caustic, parched beats underpinned by the occasional hum of what sounded like stereo test signals, established this Finnish duo as masters of minimalist brutality. The dry, static crackle of their arid soundscapes suddenly made even Plastikman and the entire Basic Channel output sound like overblown epic house anthems. Nor were they without a sense of adventure: live shows were a contest between epuipment and audience, to see which- eardrum or signal generator-would give way first. Vakio was a staggering, original debut. Subsequent material would prove to be simply more of the same-after all, to be more minimalistic would be to disappear.

Pan Sonic makes music in one of the most original manners I've ever heard: arranging electronic noises. This album is one of their most difficult listeners and that's exactly why I love it. It is an extremely minimal collection of sound that opens up many different audio doors throughout the journey. 3/4 of the time I show this to people, they are telling me that it is not music from the very first song. Maybe it's because all the first track is is a single frequency with an LFO slowly creeping faster and faster, so slowly that you don't even notice it at first, and by the end of the song the frequency has been modulated into almost pure noise: the most complex waveform in existance. This record is filled with stuff like that; it's a total head-trip to listen to and has the ability to change the way some people think about music. Definately not for everybody, but if you have a craving for extreme minimalism and extreme experimentalism, you NEED this record!

It's difficult to review this album because it's actually not music. On the one hand I appreciate Panasonic's record output because it's umcompromising, on the other hand I have to admit that this is their least accessible and interesting album. The best tracks are those with a constant rhythm backing, like "Vaihe", "Sahkotin" and the great "Urania", which was also released on a Mute label compilation called "180 degrees". There's even a video clip available to this track. The rest of the album is not very rewarding, because there's just crackle, rustle and minimalistic noise out of tone generators and other obscure "instruments". However, I think Autechre have done this kind of music with more passion, drama and even melodies. "Vakio" is o.k., but Panasonic's second album "Kulma" and the "Osasto" EP are more powerful and explore more conventional if also very experimental techno ground.

That's a bit of harsh title for this review. However, it is what came to mind first, and you know what is said about first-thoughts and gut-feelings.

This cd really isn't all that bad. It just simply gets stale rather quickly. Too many odd bleeps, blips, tones, buzzes, etc. Not too accessible for many people. In fact, I had to skip the first track entirely after about a minute or so (which seemed like fifty).

The first track features a single tone held for an excruciatingly long time. Just when you begin reaching for the volume control (or the skip button, as the case may be), you think to yourself, "this sounds exactly like the 'emergency broadcast' sound, only slightly deeper." Then you notice a slight change, the tone begins to channel its way between your left and right speakers, accompanied by what sounds like, to my ears anyway, the sound of rushing wind made by passing autos. That's when it becomes too much.

In short, this cd does possess "tracks" which make its purchase worthwhile. It is not wholly bad. It simply is not stellar. Certainly it is not the best in this vein of "music." I'd much rather prefer ANY Oval release. (The same would be true of either Monolake or Pole.)