July 22, 2018 — “Piritorilta Taivaaseen” by Teksti TV 666

Teksti TV 666

If you only listen to one song today, make it “Piritorilta Taivaaseen” by Teksti TV 666 (2016, from the album 1, 2, 3).
Teksti TV 666 is a garage punk/motorik/shoegaze septet from Helsinki. They formed a few years ago and released 1, 2, 3 in October of 2016, but I had never heard of them until I got something in the mail bag promoting their album Aidattu Tulevaisuus, which will be released on September 7 via Svart Records. To be fair, I also got something in the mailbag in advance of the release of 1, 2, 3, but it somehow slipped through the cracks.

The band is known for its army of no less than five guitars. They’re also known for their intoxicating sound, which is sort of hard to categorize. They have elements of psych rock, punk rock, shoegaze, metal, motorik, and just standard rock music. Today’s song is very much in the motorik style. I think of today’s song as what Transient Random…-era Stereolab might have sounded like if they had six guitars instead of Vox organs and Farfisas and Moog organs and other synths. Then mash that up with some Hüsker Dü, and this is what you might get.

Although I have a lot of interest in Finland, especially the hockey players from Finland, and although that country is very high on my list of places I’d like to visit, I don’t speak any Finnish. Sure, I know a small handful of words, but I don’t even know basics of conversation. Thankfully, there are resources, and I know that “Piritorilta Taivaaseen” translates to “From Amphetamine Square to Heaven”. This is a reference to a city plaza in Helsinki where lots of drug deals go down.

This is that song:
“Piritorilta Taivaaseen” by Teksti TV 666

Although you won’t notice it right away, the other thing that the band is known for is that they sing in Finnish. They speak English, and the members have been in other bands that sung in English, but they decided to go with their native tongue. That decision is in part because the songs on 1, 2, 3 are largely about some local characters in and around Helsinki, and it seemed appropriate to do the songs in Finnish.

For the majority of the song, it has that motorik, Stereolab-esque sound that I mentioned, but it takes a bit of a turn at about 4:25. Once the vocals really kick in, that motorik sound keeps going, but it’s lower in the mix.
Meanwhile, some of the guitars are doing more of a mid-1980s Minneapolis punk-rock thing.

I love this song, and while I haven’t spent any time with the rest of 1, 2, 3, I recommend downloading it from Bandcamp here.

I have spent some time with the forthcoming release, and while I can’t share any of the songs with you, I can tell you that they’re all great. You can pre-order Aidattu Tulevaissus here. And you should, because it’s fantastic.