Give The Beat, Maestro! - Archie Hämäläinen Special - LP
Subtitled "Story Of Järvenpää Rock-A-Billy 1981-92, Finland", this is really the musical story of one Arto Hämäläinen, aka Archie and on this release also Artcien and a ton of monikers like Grande Archie or even Lil' Archie. Don't ask me! Calling him Archie seems to be the way to go. At least, I've never heard anybody call him by any other variation of the name.
We recently had the Black Slacks release on HT Production and I've heard it through the grapevine (actually, it was Ari again - kiitos), that there was a 12" in the making, collecting Archie Hämäläinen's musical adventure throughout the decades. I did place an order, I believe sometime in mid-2024 and it got here around the end/beginning of 2024/2025. And it occurs to me, something like this can only happen in Finland. A label releases a 12 " (although very limited and if I'm not completely mistaken, already sold out) of music that was very local. I can't go to any length about the scene in Finland in the 80s, as I have zero idea. All I know, each and every person there is born with a musical instrument in hands and take it from there. Kiitos to Archie and to HT Production for making this possible.
Archie was of course the axe man of Doctor's Order and keeps on going with other bands, still releasing CDs and LPs and seemingly not slowing down. The fact that he had a musical life before Doctor's Order, was actually known to me. I've heard bits and pieces and the road stories were few, but they sounded believable. I need to point out, they never came from Archie, he did keep quiet about what went on before, it was always well informed sources that spilled the beans. Archie wasn't always a guitar player, that much was clear from the tales heard. He did his stint as a drummer and as a saxophone player (the latter is not confirmed).
I hope the scan showing the reverse of the 12" cover is large and clear enough to get all the information across, the bands, the line-ups, the tracks etc. If you think now that you've bought the Black Slacks 12" that came out recently and you didn't need a rehash of the same, think again. The Black Slacks songs here are not the ones you've got on the earlier release on HT Production (except "Love Me") and with the latter, I'm not sure it's the same take. I'm quite bad at analyzing musical matters so deeply. My short term memory doesn't work this way. I can actually do it, but it takes out all the fun in what I'm listening to.
What is it you are listening to on this 12"? It's mainly Rock'n'Roll in one way or the other (with shades of R&B) and something I didn't expect. Lil's A. Big Band with two tracks are flying the experimental flag. First I thought that my copy of the record was somehow damaged or that it had non-fills, but apparently not. I still don't know where those two tracks go. And that's me with a rather large collection of Noise, Industrial, Free, Experimental etc., just flabbergasted. Especially the track "Nivram", by a guy called Hank Marvin (of course, Shadows). Although I don't know the finnish language, even I can make out what C-Kasetit means. Cassettes and in amazingly good shape (more than thirty years after the fact). Sure there are some drop-outs, but the overall condition seems to have been good. The sound is mostly much better than what you'd expect from four decades old tapes.
Another track where it's quite obvious that the tape has had some problems, is Black Slacks "Blue Days-Black Nights", you'll hear it towards the end of the song, a complete change in sound. However, overall the audio is much better than I expected (and I wouldn't have complained if it were worse) and doesn't take away from your listening pleasure.
Although this is a "Archie Hämäläinen Special", the focus back then, wasn't on the man. Archie was part of the bands offered here and there wasn't any reason to shine on these recordings. They sound all like group efforts (except a few where Archie is mentioned as vocal/all instruments). Speaking of which, there are a few instances where he plays the bass as well. One other fact that's worthwhile to mention, the number of originals is outstanding. Of the 22 tracks presented here, 13 are covers and 8 are copyright Arto Hämäläinen (plus one to a Kolmas Nainen).
Why there were only 88 copies released, beats me! I could imagine that this is because of tax exemption purposes, much like the U.K. with their private pressings of up to 99 copies. In any case, it's very worthwhile to keep an eye on the finnish scene, past, current and in future.
Cheers
Roland
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