Beats and Styles
Encyclopedia
Beats and Styles is a Finnish
pop
/rock
/rap group led by DJ Control whose real name is Jaakko Manninen. Beats and Styles sings in English
and has collaborated with wide variety of artists, such as Michael Monroe
, Papa Dee
, Toni Wirtanen
, Raymond Ebanks
and Andy McCoy
.
local television. They became more and more interested in making music, and they made drum'n'bass music in solo and later Finnish language
music under the name Alimo&Control. The Alimo&Control project's most famous song was "Tarkkaillaan", featuring Laura Närhi
from Kemopetrol
as the vocalist. In 2003, Alimo and Control released an album, This is... Beats and Styles, whose most famous songs were "Dynamite" and "Girls' Anthem".
In 2004, the duo released the album We're Not Ready Yet, whose most famous hit was "Renegades", sung by Michael Monroe and Alimo, as well as "Fire" and "Dance, Dance, Dance". In 2005, they released the album Everything is Everything, whose most famous songs included "Invitation to the Dancefloor" and the title song "Everything is Everything", whose music video
was shot in Prypiat
near Chernobyl
. Beats and Styles won a bronze award in the 2005 Muuvi music video competition and a special mention for productive and good quality video work. The group's music has been published in Sweden
, Germany
, Poland
, Ukraine
, France
, Italy
, United Kingdom
, South Africa
and Australia
among other countries, but so far the duo has not achieved a true international breakthrough.
Beats and Styles released their fourth album Walk, Don't Talk on 14 February 2007. The album's first single was "Ocean Wave", featuring guest artist Michael Monroe from Hanoi Rocks
. The video for "Ocean Wave" was shot in Fuerteventura
and was directed by Kusti Manninen. The group also participated in the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest
selection for the Finnish entry with their song "See the Signs", but got last place.
Soon after that Alimo stopped performing at the gigs and doesn't appear at all at the Beats and Styles album Schizosonics released on 16 September 2009. DJ Control said his departure was caused by musical differences: "Alimo didn't want to join the new album's pop vibes."
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
/rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
/rap group led by DJ Control whose real name is Jaakko Manninen. Beats and Styles sings in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and has collaborated with wide variety of artists, such as Michael Monroe
Michael Monroe
Matti Antero Kristian Fagerholm , best known by his stage name, Michael Monroe, is a Finnish rock musician, and multi-instrumentalist who rose to fame as the vocalist for the glam punk band Hanoi Rocks, and has served as the frontman for all-star side projects, such as Demolition 23...
, Papa Dee
Papa Dee
David Christopher Daniel Wahlgren , better known by the stage name Papa Dee, is a Swedish rap, ragga and dancehall musician...
, Toni Wirtanen
Toni Wirtanen
Toni Juhana Wirtanen is a Finnish musician, best known as the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Apulanta....
, Raymond Ebanks
Raymond Ebanks
Raymond Ebanks, aka B.O. Dubb , , is a Finnish rapper in the band Bomfunk MC's. He is from London and has lived in Kontula, Helsinki since he was about one year old . He started Bomfunk MC's with DJ Ismo Lappalainen aka DJ Gismo...
and Andy McCoy
Andy McCoy
Antti Hulkko , better known as Andy McCoy, is a Finnish musician. He is most famous for his role as the lead guitarist and main songwriter of Hanoi Rocks, but has also played with Iggy Pop....
.
History
The band was originally a duo, consisting of DJ Control (guitar, vocals) and DJ Alimo whose real name is Asmo Soivio (vocals). Alimo and Control started their career as DJs and club promoters. In 2000, they got their own club culture TV show on HelsinkiHelsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
local television. They became more and more interested in making music, and they made drum'n'bass music in solo and later Finnish language
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
music under the name Alimo&Control. The Alimo&Control project's most famous song was "Tarkkaillaan", featuring Laura Närhi
Laura Närhi
Laura Närhi is a Finnish pop singer. The lead singer of Kemopetrol, she started a solo career and her debut solo album Suuri sydän was released in August 2010 and has sold over 30,000 copies in Finland...
from Kemopetrol
Kemopetrol
Kemopetrol is a Finnish band from Helsinki. The members of Kemopetrol are the vocalist Laura Närhi, the drummer Teemu Nordman, the guitarist Marko Soukka and the keyboardist Kalle Koivisto, who also writes the songs for Kemopetrol. Kemopetrol's original bassist, Kari Myöhänen, left the band in July...
as the vocalist. In 2003, Alimo and Control released an album, This is... Beats and Styles, whose most famous songs were "Dynamite" and "Girls' Anthem".
In 2004, the duo released the album We're Not Ready Yet, whose most famous hit was "Renegades", sung by Michael Monroe and Alimo, as well as "Fire" and "Dance, Dance, Dance". In 2005, they released the album Everything is Everything, whose most famous songs included "Invitation to the Dancefloor" and the title song "Everything is Everything", whose music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was shot in Prypiat
Prypiat, Ukraine
Pripyat is a ghost town near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Kiev Oblast of northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus....
near Chernobyl
Chernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....
. Beats and Styles won a bronze award in the 2005 Muuvi music video competition and a special mention for productive and good quality video work. The group's music has been published in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
among other countries, but so far the duo has not achieved a true international breakthrough.
Beats and Styles released their fourth album Walk, Don't Talk on 14 February 2007. The album's first single was "Ocean Wave", featuring guest artist Michael Monroe from Hanoi Rocks
Hanoi Rocks
Hanoi Rocks was a Finnish rock band formed in 1979, whose most successful period came in the early 1980s. The band broke up in 1985 after the death of their drummer, Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley...
. The video for "Ocean Wave" was shot in Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura , a Spanish island, is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is situated at 28°20' north, 14°00' west. At 1,660 km² it is the second largest of the Canary Islands, after Tenerife...
and was directed by Kusti Manninen. The group also participated in the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
selection for the Finnish entry with their song "See the Signs", but got last place.
Soon after that Alimo stopped performing at the gigs and doesn't appear at all at the Beats and Styles album Schizosonics released on 16 September 2009. DJ Control said his departure was caused by musical differences: "Alimo didn't want to join the new album's pop vibes."
Discography
- This is... Beats and Styles (2003)
- We're Not Ready Yet (2004)
- Everything is Everything (2005)
- Two White Monkeys (France) (2006)
- Walk, Don't Talk (2007)
- Straight Forward - The Best of Beats and Styles (2008)
- The Schizosonics (2009)