Liimanarina

Liimanarina is one of the more singular names in the Finnish underground the Ikuisuus circle counted as a fellow traveller — a long-running group with a deliberately abrasive, sardonic streak far removed from the label’s more meditative artists. Where most of that circle worked in drone and ritual folk, Liimanarina traded in confrontation and dark humour, its raw delivery switching between Finnish and English.

The group’s roots run back to around 1989. Its early EPs appeared on the Finnish label Bad Vugum across the turn of the decade, before the full-length Spermarket was released by the Chicago label Drag City in 1995 — the connection that carried its name furthest beyond Finland — with later records, among them Dokauschwitz, following on CD. The group was founded by Olli Pauke, whose vocals and guitar anchored a rotating cast that at various points included drummer Karri Laitinen and backing vocalist Tarja Anarkia.

A different register

Liimanarina’s records appeared on Bad Vugum and Drag City rather than on Ikuisuus itself; the group belonged to the same Finnish underground as the label’s circle, a fellow traveller rather than a signing. It is documented here in that spirit — a sharp, contrary counterpoint to the drone and free-folk that fills most of the catalogue, and a reminder that the scene was never a single sound.