Jori Hulkkonen @ Club Rose Garden, Helsinki

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  • Given the first weekend in January is usually a non-event in most promoter's minds, one could have forgiven Helsinki's Rose Garden had they decided to shut up shop tonight. This, in combination with the fact that the DJ they'd booked, Jori Hulkkonen, had a broken arm meant tonight's gig should have been a recipe for disaster. And yet, it most certainly didn't turn out that way. Luckily the people behind “The Box” -- and Hulkkonen himself -- decided to go ahead with their Jori Hulkkonnen All Night Long event at the Rose Garden. Located just a10-minute walk from the city centre, its visitors are rewarded with one of the best laid out clubs Finland has to offer. No frills, no gimmicks - just a club with an authentic underground feel to it. Hullkonnen’s latest album includes collaborations with such diverse artists as Tiga, Nick Triani and Jose Gonzales and his equally eclectic approach to music production could also be heard very clearly early on in his 5-hour set. Kicking off his set at 11 o’clock to a fairly empty club, Hulkkonen rewarded the early comers with tracks like Sebastian Telliers “La Ritournelle” . Dubbed the “Unfinished Sympathy” for the noughties, this honest love song certainly stands up well against Massive Attack's masterpiece. The tempo changed shortly after, as we got to witness a master class in DJing, Hulkkonen slowly picking up the bpms with some quality tech house. By 12 ‘o’clock the dance floor was packed; a crowd of varying ages enjoying Hulkkonnen's fuse of electro and tech house including Volga Select's “Transe”. Hulkkonen belongs to one of the most outstanding record labels of the last 11 years, FCOM, and he's not afraid to play some of his stable mates' songs. However when you have a group like The Youngsters on your label it's not exactly a hard choice. Another great thing about Jori Hullkonnen is you never know what’s coming next, and for the next two hours we were treated to electro house, techno and tech house, all mixed perfectly and essentially, by a guy with only one arm. His karaoke style approach to the Jesper Dahlback remix of Tiga “U Gonna Want Me” showed the crowd were willing to go wherever he took them, since enticing Finnish people to sing in public is no easy feat. Consisting mainly of classics, his last hour saw “Witchdoctor “ by Armin Van Helden and the lesser known vocal mix of “Blackwater” by Octave One coming out on top in his montage to classic dance. So there you have it. Jori Hulkkonen took over a club for an entire night, rocked the place and all this with one hand tied behind his back, literally. Ten out of ten.
RA