Kuudes Tunti

Erstwhile postpunk Finnish mystery band that most of us wanna hear but can never really find their records. They need constant rereleasing as they always sell out. They functioned between 1980/85 and were briefly called the Glory Boys till 1983. Bass guitarist Milli was the main songwriter and singer until his dear friend and fellow singer Jore Vastelin joined from the great Musta Paraati classic postpunk band. They had recently both been in a short-lived side venture for Milli Jore and TB Widow called Silmät and had released the Haudattu single together after Jore left MP.. Prior to the Jore connection Milli Kailis (drums) and Tuutti (guitar) had released the outstanding Ralf Orn produced "How Are You Today?" Album which largely passed unnoticed but is highly desired these days. The cover for this caused all sorts of friction as it only had Milli featured in an angular profile pose and when the talented Kailis and Tuutti saw another superego in the shape of Jore appear the writing must've been on the wall. The Jukka Orma produced single incorporating Jore's lyrics which was fatefully never released due to alcoholic frolics in the studio damaging the mixing desk can now be heard on a new vinyl version of the lp along with demos etc..in summer 1985 their last gig at the Helsinki song festival marked the end of the band as Milli and Kailis went mad at each other. Even today the material released to the public has negligeable contributions from Jore despite a very keen international receptivity that just craves more and more. The posthumously released sophomore "anthology" album features the lineup without Jore as it is demos and outtakes from the early 80's. Hidden tapes from Milli's car though luckily have allowed Svart records to get unearthing stuff that's been under wraps for years featuring early Milli/Jore revelations. Both Milli and Jore sadly died of hereditary heart complications in the 90's. As to their name, the sixth hour, perhaps there is a biblical connection as in Luke's gospel it is the hour when darkness descended at noon upon the land or it is merely midnite, the sixth hour of the evening. Also in the John gospel the sixth hour of the day, again noon, is when Jesus had water brought to him from a well so instead of the goth-heads' predilection for all-out angst this could signify rebirth through sustenance. Ingmar Bergman's hour of the wolf film represents the time between 3 and 4 am when all chaos happens and if we nominate the 6th hour after midnite as 5/6am then that could also signify a designated release from torment. As ever with some postpunk bands some fans will always try to find clichéd dark meanings but kuudes tunti silmät and musta paraati can never be written off as mere goths only. These clever bands like those of Ismo Alanko and like Bergman himself are not to be labelled lightly..at any rate there is Franz Kafka''s short story "in the penal colony": "of course breakdowns do occur. i really hope they won't today but we must be prepared.. the apparatus is supposed to keep going for 12 hrs continuously. The condemned man goes on living for the first 6 hrs suffering nothing but pain but begins to lose his pleasure in eating around the sixth hour" claims a commandant describing to a traveller a leonardoesque execution machine designated for condemned.men in the colony. This is all quoted in the booklet accompanying the svart rerelease of the debut album. But Milli could be focussed on this or any other significance. Nothing is proscribed with these lyricists. All we can pray for is release from the torment of no new album editions from Svart!