There are shows that are legendary by nature of the performances – The Beatles on the rooftop of Apple Offices in 1969, Aphex Twin’s Sandpaper set at Disobey, Radiohead at Glastonbury. And there are shows that become legendary simply by word of mouth, like a kind of cultural osmosis, where history and facts are displaced by memory and reportage. Pan Sonic in London in 1994 is on that list.
And consider The Sex Pistols gig at Manchester’s Less Free Trade Hall in June 1976, where hundreds of people have claimed they were there, but in actuality there was around 40 people there, or even early Throbbing Gristle shows where they played to just a handful of spectators.
Wigged Out and Dancefloor Friendly Electronica
Friday 14 October 1994 was one of those special nights. In a dark and dingy corner of Brixton, South London, the Vox Club space offered up Quirky, “a night of wigged out and dancefloor friendly electronica,’ featuring The Orb live in the ‘Experimental Space’ and for me the draw of the evening, Sähkö Records with Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen of Panasonic, Jimi Tenor, Sami Salo and Sähkö DJs.
On reflection, it’s curious to think how a chance encounter with Tommi Grönlund, co-founder of Sähkö Records, at London underground vinyl hubs These Records and Fat Cat Records in 1993, brought about a night that proved to be such a nexus point of connections. Connections that moved between visual art, architecture, design as well as musical genres.
A little bit of history
Firstly, a little historical context. Back in 1993 Grönlund, Vainio, Väisänen and Salo were hanging out with German artist Daniel Pflumm in Berlin. Pflumm founded the renowned ELEKTRO club with Mo Loschelder on Berlin’s Mauerstraße which ran from 1992 until its closure in 1994.
At ELEKTRO, you would find TV monitors playing videos made by Pflumm: short segments from recorded news and TV commercials, looped ad infinitum. This would be repeated at his next club – Panasonic on Berlin’s Invalidenstraße (1995–97), where he also displayed his light-box works: company logos stripped of their identifying names, one boldly featuring the word PANASONIC across a blue screen. Are the dots connecting now?
In the warm personable climate of early 1990s electronica I had befriended James Bignell and Tony Wilson of Quirky, who ran the space with an enthusiastic curatorial edge. In retrospect, the nights were almost mythical, with live events featuring Autechre, Aphex Twin, Reload, Biosphere, LFO, Main, Rephlex, Spring Heel Jack, Locust, Orbital, Seefeel and countless others.
My fervour for new music has never waned and I suggested the idea of a Sähkö Records night to the team. And so here we were on 14 October 1994 at 22:30. My diary records the opening of the night.
“We arrived but found the place almost empty. It was a strange night in that respect. When Alex P plays it’s usually full of little Orbettes but it was surprisingly quiet. I met Tommi at the door and we went upstairs to the soundcheck which was absolutely phenomenal! I DJed from 23:00 until past midnight with a mixture of beats and noise, Biting Tongues. Barry Adamson, SPK, 23 Skidoo, Skylab and more. Tommi followed with some crazy industrial tunes.”
The Wild West of Electronica
In reality, it was significantly more challenging than that. There was only one regular CD player in use, as the other one was faulty, and Grönlund had made a CD of Vainio’s cassette tape recordings to play, whilst the colorful lights were completely in contrast to his request for Panasonic-blue lights. So the atmosphere grew darker and angrier.
And then there were three, as Väisänen, Salo and Tenor, wearing a Wild West Cowboy style shirt and chunky spectacles, walked out on stage and stood behind a long wooden trestle table, with strange scientific equipment balanced on top. Vainio was surprisingly absent because of sickness, to be replaced by Kimmo Rapatti, aka Mono Junk, on the following live UK dates. And none of us could have anticipated what was to follow.
A very low bass entered into the room, as great mountains of noise seem to lurch from beyond an imaginary mountain, moving closer and closer. Pitch black but for a laser projection mapping out the frequencies on a screen behind the performers, razor-thin tones resonated about us, unnerving, primeval, ancient and modern in equal measure, building with rhythmic energy and pulsations. And then, without warning, silence, darkness. A time without mobile phones was a time of utter blackness, with only the stub of cigarettes visible.
As Väisänen recalls: ‘The place was a kind of warehouse space, reminding me of old school acid-house party locations. The PA was gigantic. The 808 and other devices were moving across the table! I had made a transition piece between the tracks for the show and, basically just speeding up the LFO and opening a filter, played by the CSG Typewriter (a small synthesizer built inside an old typewriter). I was just doing this and just when I was supposed to cut the sound, an arc of light appeared in the corner of the room and the electricity stopped!’
Twelve minutes. Just twelve minutes
Twelve minutes. Just twelves minutes on stage, but enough to get them a record deal with Blast First and to live on in memory. As to the cause of the powercut? A truly un-rock ‘n roll kettle in the kitchen tripping the entire system, plunging The Orb into darkness at the same time too. Chaos ensued as beefy security guards began to encourage people to leave the space, down twisting staircases with torches as their only guide.
Richie Hawtin was caught taking the wrong route and manhandled by a bouncer, equipment was rapidly removed, and rather tragically the CD with the unique CD of Vainio’s music still inside was taken and never found again. The next release on Sähkö Records was gone for good.
We witnessed just two pieces of music that night – Tenor’s Matti B from his Sähkömies album and Väisänen’s Typewriter, but the measure of this night has spanned way beyond that. As Paul Smith of Blast First recalled the PA buckling under the situation was a great electro-punk ending to their set, though clearly not the show Sähkö team wished for their London debut. Now with Vainio tragically gone, it’s left to Väisänen to weave the sonic magic for future generations.
Do visit https://sahkorecordings.bandcamp.com
Originally published in Electronic Sound Magazine in a different form
