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Suomisaundi (sometimes called psy-fi, suomistyge, suomisoundi, forest trance or spugedelic trance) is a style of freeform psychedelic trance, originating from Finland. Suomisaundi literally means in Finnish slang "Finnish sound". The term "spugedelic" is humoristically derived from "psychedelic", spuge means "an alcoholic" or generally a bum in Finnish slang language. The term spugedelic was likely first used by suomisaundi artist Huopatossu Mononen, releasing a track called Kikapelaus (A Spugedelik Return To Monoverse). It seems "suomisaundi" might be the most commonly used term for Finnish psychedelic trance, since there's also a popular Soulseek chat room that has the same name.
The "suomi" style of trance music is also produced in Australia and New Zealand, where there's a steady fan base of both Finnish and Australian style psytrance music - however only Finns usually refer their style as "suomisaundi" whereas abroad the term to this type of music is usually something like "freeform" psytrance. The genre knows of no limits and isn't usually anywhere near as "strict" as most current (full on) psytrance songs are. Most recognizable element of this style is that it has no set definition of styles or rules apart from basic trance elements such as the four-on-the-floor kick drum. The songs are usually very melodic, including a lot of influences from early Goa and acid trance tracks, as well as funky guitar/organ loops and sounds from or reminiscent of 1980's video and computer games.
The songs might also include some sort weird sampling and effects, tricky drum fills and breaks, as well as speech samples in Finnish or in English. In many occasions there's also some sort of strange humor or self-irony in the music or in the track titles. Some even describe the Suomi-style of psy-trance as anarchistic and almost punk in the trance music scene, because the songs are usually very different and progressive compared to the "more mainstream" European/Israeli psy-trance tracks. Some criticise suomisaundi because it sometimes lacks production quality and tracks may not offer such high-fidelity sound as central European trance tracks. The fans and friends of the style defend suomisaundi by saying that the tracks are usually "more organic" than most popular psy-trance tracks. This view could be partly explained by the fact that there's a very steady forest party scene in southern Finland where suomisaundi is played almost exclusively throughout the night.
Finnish acid, Goa and psychedelic trance has been produced in Finland throughout its existence, starting from the early 90's right when the Goa/acid trance culture itself started to form. There are many artists in Finland producing suomisaundi style of music, but one of the main characters that started the "suomisaundi-fuzz" is considered to be Texas Faggott. Their debut album Texas Faggott, released by Australian Psy-Harmonics label in 1999, is considered by many as one of the early relics of the weirder-edge suomisaundi. The popularity of Texas Faggott grew amongst the Finnish trance scene with their second release, Petoman's Peflett in 2001. Especially group member Tim Thick has been an active promoter of Finnish psy-trance, as he established and operated Thixx'n'Dixx in 2000, a site offering free MP3 downloads from almost all the existing Finnish psy-trance artists, including tracks from his own groups. After its initial opening, the Thixx'n'Dixx site grew, offering new mp3 albums from different suomi-style artists and eventually became so popular that it was even mentioned in a pop music program aired on Finnish national TV.
Since 2000, the global interest towards Finnish trance has grown a lot and many Finnish groups have performed abroad. However, usually outside Finland, the Suomi-style is still considered a weird delicacy. Most notable suomisaundi audiences outside Finland are in Israel, Russia and Japan. The Japanese 6-Dimension Soundz concentrates almost only in releasing suomi-style trance. Two of the most notable record labels in Finland releasing suomisaundi albums are Exogenic Records and Freakdance Records, but many of the popular Finnish trance-artists might not have recorded ever, making their music only available as MP3's on the Internet. After site-hosting problems and excessive bandwidth usage, the Thixx'n'Dixx site operates nowadays merely as a suomisaundi link catalogue, offering links to individual suomisaundi artist pages at mikseri.net, which is a Finnish MP3 community for unsigned/independent artists. Another popular MP3 download site for suomisaundi songs is the Antiscarp-website, hosted by members of the Finnish psy-trance group Salakavala.
[edit] Musicians
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- Masatronics
- Oikeusjyvä
- Outolintu
- Mullet Mohawk
- NBR
- Okta
- Omituisten Otusten Kerho (O. O. K.)
- Pelinpala
- Pentti Slayer
- Puoskari
- Salakavala
- Serotonot
- Shiwa 2000
- Sora
- Squaremeat
- Texas Faggott
- Toletrancer
- Tres Lost Amigos
- Vihtahousu
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[edit] External links
