Crossing the Boundaries

Mikki Kauste has been writing music for Egotrippi for at least 15 years. Like any ambitious songwriter, he has probably never aimed to write only certain type of music, such as music to meet the conception of what is suitable for Egotrippi – not that “suitable for Egotrippi” is even easy to determine in the first place. As Mikki developed as a songwriter, new influences began to manifest themselves in his compositions. At some point he noticed he had written a bunch of songs that he didn't think would suit Egotrippi but he didn't feel like giving them to other artists either. Mikki decided to go solo.

The result was an album called Lintumies, released in May 2013. The album has been labeled as schlager music and while certain songs (Turmio, Oisin kerrankin mies, Rakkauden roinaa) sound very much like schlager, there are also other things such as timeless intimate pop ballads, following in the footsteps of the Walker Brothers' orchestrated grandiosity: Prologi (Lintumies), Pyydät liikaa, and Hyvästi Amsterdam.

Mikki has described his vision as pop music expanded towards grandiose Anglo-American pop á la Dusty Springfield, old Finnish schlager, Italian schlager, and French chanson. Also fascination towards old jazz has surely influenced Mikki's melodic sensibility. Even his jangly power pop song Tie from the 2011 Syksyn sävel song contest fits the album both musically and thematically. In a way Lintumies is a real crossover album, showing that different musical styles can easily be put together because they all have certain common roots in the golden decades of pop music.

So, what if this music had been released as an Egotrippi album? The audience would probably have been quite surprised, even confused, even though Egotrippi has been pushing its musical (and lyrical) boundaries during the past ten or more years. I do understand the decision to release the Lintumies material as a solo album. It was time for Mikki to show what he can do without his band – and he shines like never before.

Lintumies is a truly high-quality, coherent, intimate album full of timeless melodies. I am especially impressed by the heavenly ballads. The album lyrics are really good but Mikki's voice expresses much more than any words could ever do. Mikki is a really distinctive vocalist and he has been getting better and better throughout the years. On this album he is free from all boundaries, resulting in his most heartfelt renditions.

Somehow I get the feeling that this is only the beginning. Coming next, a jazz album? A chanson album? My expectations are getting high!

Scott on TV

After the Walker Brothers' success, Scott Walker had become such a popular artist in the UK that he was granted a TV show of his own. Scott surely hesitated because singing other people's songs didn't really fit his artistic ambition that kept growing. Despite being hungry for getting to present his own compositions and lyrics Scott agreed to do the show. He saw it as a way to challenge himself as there were many songs he hadn't sung before.

Scott: Scott Walker Sings Songs from His TV Series was released in July 1969 being his fourth solo album release. The songs on the album are studio re-recordings of the same songs Scott performed live on TV, consisting of big band numbers, ballads, and film music.

At the moment the album is not officially available on CD, thanks to having being blocked by Scott himself. However, most of the songs can be heard on various CD compilations. The rest can be heard through unofficial channels, such as YouTube. Despite the difficulties in availability, the album itself just might be worth hearing if you happen to enjoy Scott Walker singing any kind of good music (and not just self-penned material).

My personal experience with this album has been quite interesting. Knowing Scott and his artist persona, him singing something like Will You Still Be Mine was very bizarre at first. However, those kind of cheery big band numbers didn't sound so strange too long – Scott does a fantastic job throughout the album – even though his version of Look of Love isn't as good as Dusty Springfield's.

In any case, many of the songs on the TV show album are melancholic ballads (which you could definitely expect from Scott) and Scott's renditions are impeccable. You can hear how he took the challenge seriously. The orchestrations are very pleasant thanks to Peter Knight's work as music director.

Wish to hear more of Scott's standards, tender ballads or jazzy numbers? Don't underestimate the power of Scott's TV show music!

P.S. Unfortunately, the actual TV show is gone, thanks to BBC overwriting the tapes. The audio was salvaged, though, which is a good thing even though the quality isn't superb. Search for "Scott Walker BBC TV show".

Kiki Dee's Soul

Recently, I have been listening to quite a lot of music that could be described as blue-eyed soul, or white soul. Why white soul, you ask. It might have originated from my fascination towards 60s and 70s bubblegum music which sometimes has a very close connection to soul and/or funk.

It seems that ever since there was gospel, jazz and rock'n roll, white people have adopted the same styles and even identified very strongly with some genres – all of which were originally based on African rhythms. Even today, certain singers reach popularity very much due to sounding black despite being white. And even if all soul singers don't sound black, soul music has come to stay.

In any way, the concept of me listening to white soul is not entirely new. I came across an English singer called Kiki Dee through Scott Walker and Dusty Springfield, both of whose music I recently had become very fond of. Kiki once performed on Scott Walker's TV show, and Kiki Dee also sang background vocals for Springfield who was a soul music singer. Even Scott Walker sometimes flirted with soul.

I practically only needed one song to get impressed enough to purchase a compilation called I'm Kiki Dee: The Fontana Years 1963-1968. What a fantastic voice Kiki has! Even forgetting the voice, it is extremely easy to like her music. Almost everywhere you hear big arrangements with strings and/or horns. There are even some jazz elements present. It is all very, very carefully arranged and professional. However, you could say that a few songs in the beginning of the compilation represent a slightly more primitive sound (and I like those songs too) but the rest perfect in all possible ways.

Kiki's voice is bright, yet suitable for any big heartbroken ballad. Dusty Springfield is a fairly good comparison even though the overall impression you get from Kiki's voice is surely different, gives different vibes. There is an element of delicate sensitivity in Kiki's voice but also many other different nuances. Many of the songs are ballads. Kiki performs sad ballads (Excuse Me, Patterns), happy ballads (Sunshine, We've Got Everything Going for Us), songs that are playful (Doctor in Clover) or bitter (Running out of Fools), and groovy dance numbers (Take a Look at Me, He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'). She also gives a great version of Can't Take My Eyes off You.

Despite having performed very similar and equally good music, Kiki Dee is not as well-known as Dusty Springfield. Kiki didn't have any big chart hits in the UK in the 60s. However, she was apparently the first white artist to be signed by Motown. She has had a long career and I really only have scratched the surface. At least check out the 60s material!

Not many songs on YouTube, try Spotify instead. Here is one, though.

Baby I Don't Care