Telegrams From Helsinki & Ljubljana

If you've been following my Instagram, you'll be well aware that I've been in Helsinki with work for the last couple of days at a conference.

#trams... inaugural trams...

A video posted by Sammyfax (@ceefaxoflife) on Apr 21, 2016 at 7:10am PDT

I met loads of cool people, shared loads of ideas, and learned about loads of projects from all across Europe.

One of the people I met was Matjaž from Slovenia, who gave me this neat map of Ljubljana...

And called me Telegram Sam...

So now I know two Bauhaus songs.

Related Article: Bela Legosi's Dead Innit

My Perfect Weekend: The Undertones, Amsterdam & #Bantz

I spent last weekend in the awesome city of Amsterdam on #COXSTAG. As a little prank on the stag on the way there we tried (and succeeded) in convincing him we were off to Ireland instead.

A photo posted by Sammyfax (@ceefaxoflife) on Apr 7, 2016 at 9:09pm PDT

What I think really clinched it was the playlist on the way to the airport - 12 tracks of all killer, no filler, (mostly) Irish classics, starting north or the border before heading down. The classic burnt CD was our format of choice but you can find most of it on this playlist (although JJ72's October Swimmer is mystifyingly missing from Spotify).



The big surprise for me, aside from finding And So I Watch You From Afar quite palatable, was just how good the Undertones' new wave stomper My Perfect Cousin still sounds...

As an aside The Undertones have featured in a little thing I'm doing over on my Instagram of Bands/Beats & Badges, where I take slightly over the top pictures of tapes/CDs and old football badges. As you can see from the cover of My Perfect Cousin at the top of this post, The Undertones seem to support Derry City and somehow I have a Derry City badge...

A photo posted by Sammyfax (@ceefaxoflife) on Apr 5, 2016 at 3:34pm PDT

Air Doom & Canal Parade

If you see some graffiti saying DOOM, I say you simply must stop and take a picture.

A photo posted by Sammyfax (@ceefaxoflife) on Apr 2, 2016 at 7:53pm PDT

I took this on Friday afternoon on my stroll from the office to The Abacus. I went to collect a table that I had helped to make out of pallets. Sadly I got mixed up and put my name down for the wrong one. Hey ho, I will just have to make some more pallet-based garden furniture now. And I did pick up a far nicer table than the one I originally went for... so I really can't complain.

I'm drifting... DOOM! Yeah, so when I clocked this graffiti on Canal Parade, I thought 'damn, gonna do me another blog on MF DOOM or DOOM or whatever name he's using for his latest collaboration.'



Yet after punching the word doom into iTunes, I found myself drawn to another artist, more electronica and less hip-hop. I decided to post about a track I've known for yonks called Air Doom. It was released by Dan Snaith under his Manitoba moniker back when he could legally use it. Air Doom is now classed as a Caribou track, as a lot of Snaith's early stuff has since been relabelled and released as Caribou due to that spurious lawsuit.



Air Doom is available on the expanded reissue of Start Breaking My Heart, my third favourite album of the 00s, but I came across it on a Leaf label sampler called Lost For Words back in 2002.