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Matti Järvinen’s Matin Levy (Hi-Hat, 1976) is one of the most sought-after Finnish rock records from the 1970s. Though the album was critically a success and had interesting, riff-driven songs, it didn’t reach a wide audience at the time or spark any hits. Järvinen played only a small batch of gigs after the album’s release before vanishing from the music scene entirely. This setting makes this Popstudio set particularly interesting since it’s one of the rare opportunities – possibly the only one – to hear Järvinen’s entire live set.
The lineup is a bit different than on Matin levy. Järvinen himself (vocals, electric guitar), Harri Merilahti (electric bass), Upi Sorvali (drums) and Kari Kuusamo (electric piano, clavinet, organ, synthesizer). Kuusamo also played at the time in Cascade that was the second band of the night. He was recruited to the live lineup since multi-instrumentalist Järvinen couldn’t play both the synthesizer and electric guitar like he did for the album.
Musically the two acts differ quite a lot from each other: whereas Matti Järvinen played prog-influenced rock, Cascade played a set of Stevie Wonder’s soul classics. Three out of four songs were from Wonder and Korvissa soi is a Finnish translation of the Ruby & The Romantics 1963 hit Our Day Will Come. Cascade’s Rokkibeibi (a cover of George McRae’s Rock Your Baby) from 1974 is often considered to be the first Finnish disco single
Live Broadcast on Channel Two, Wednesday, October 13th, 1976, 8 pm to 8.40 pm. Produced by YLE. Hosted by Jake Nyman.
Track Listing
CASCADE
