Juhani Saksikäsi is a 42-year old sample-based musician from Helsinki, Finland, and a cult legend in the Finnish Hip-Hop Scene since 1995. Saksikäsi’s father was a record store owner and vinyl collector, and at age 10 Saksikäsi stumbled upon his first rap records by Public Enemy, Run-DMC, N.W.A. and The Fat Boys, to name a few. At age 13 he began experimenting with beats on a 4-track tape recorder. Twenty-five years later, Saksikäsi works mostly on instrumental music and at live gigs in Europe. His new release consists of one 44-minute track and is titled 44:22 – Instrumental Trip-Hop Journey – Live at Ääniä Festival Äänekoski Finland 2021.
Though Saksikäsi has worked with both major and indie labels, he’s now returning to his DIY style from the nineties. He describes his current music as “sample based melodic progressive trippy spacey groovy art trip-hop stuff" that also may fit the prog rock, ’60s fusion jazz and avant-garde genres. This album was recorded live at a music festival in Finland on an art park stage in July 2021, using two Akai MPC Live II workstations. The track was recorded straight to stereo without mixing, to keep the sound as it was played live as much as possible.” The album cover art evokes a cave, and that’s how the music starts out, with low analogue synth rumbles and reverb’d percussion, like you’ve fallen into a dark crevasse. At 1:27 a beat suddenly appears that sounds inspired by the ending of “Strawberry Fields Forever” with melodic percussive overdubs. This is clearly the first example of Saksikäsi’s facility with beats. At about four minutes the music sounds Middle Eastern, though of course through an electronic, futuristic lens. This melds into an extended “jam” with gentle wisps of melodies and different samples trading space against an active, steady beat. At 12:00 minutes the beats drop out, with the rhythm continuing simply by way of warbling synth sounds. This is a good time to note how good the live stereo mix turned out, with each sample or instrument having plenty of room to make its statement. A more active beat resumes at 15:00, with a simple, ascending 4-note Moog motif carrying the melody. At any point I was expecting to hear: “I buried Paul.” As the beats continue for a while, it makes me wonder how the audience receives this music. Do they sit respectfully, or get up and dance around? I can’t see how you wouldn’t actively participate in these rhythms, especially out in the open. At almost the halfway point, the beats take a three-minute break while the melodies and percolating synths continue. Then the drums kick back in, still carrying a bit of that Ringo magic. By this point I have a better sense of the architecture of this piece: there haven’t been any radical changes, and the same basic beats with variations continue all the way through. Even the “main” melodies just hold the center while Saksikäsi plays around with his samples. In that sense this track is almost like a pop song remix, though way longer than one side of vinyl. Whether or not you respond to this kind of extended beat improv may depend on your appreciation of longish club remixes, but for what it is, I found this work interesting and engaging in a low-key, hypnotic way. I can easily imagine Saksikäsi creating more great works in the future.
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