Altar Of Flies / Mirrors Are Black

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest split release from Swedish masters Altar Of Flies & Mirrors Are Black. The untitled LP on Tamed Records. Or "Split" as i have had to call it for filing purposes.
I have recently been discovering Altar Of Flies thanks to recommendations from ARKHE and BBBlood. What I have heard so far has been very varied...and I like that. The Altar Of Flies side comprises of two pieces opening with "Attention Please". The sound is "old school industrial". Progressive - not dated just reminiscent of the old sounds from the school of "industrial". (Past student from the Industrial Training College in Wakefield?). "Attention Please" has the feeling of abandonment, it is the soundtrack to encountering the Marie Celeste. SOLAS. Waving synth sounds with bass rumblings hit a "Gristle" chord and add a dimension of unease. Deep in the background there is metal and earth...superb opener that leads into "Fragments". "Fragments" is like a diary ~ a day in the life kind of piece. Field recordings, botanical gardens, a children's playground (as opposed to?), planes, bi-planes fly overhead..it is pleasant listening. Audio reportage that drifts into electronic chaos, crumbling synth and venomous voices and I think...bloody hell...how did it get here. Excellent.
As mentioned Altar Of Flies (here) have a very 70's electronic feel. Loads of reverb and (space) echo. So far and what I have heard Altar Of Files are reminding me of Column One.
Mirrors Are Black is the solo project of Amph member Peter Henning. I mentioned before that Peter is ex-Amph....I apologise, Amph are still going strong and releasing. I have sacked my researcher.
Mirrors Are Black provide three pieces that play as one. "Tesco Days" has a martial sound. Percussive. I think it is the sound of the gong that makes it martial. That is gong as in percussive instrument not 1970's psychedelic rock band....although....I don't know. "At Bethania" is the main opus of the side. A great astral drone work with kosmiche synth and voices hidden behind the wall of drone, the piece moves on with the slow introduction (through collapsed metal) of a high pitched frequency, a pulse, developing into HNW. (or what I believe to be). The side ends on the superbly titled "Girls Who Like Camel". A great guitar loop, the sound of an acoustic guitar being hit rather than strummed! The effect gives it a strange "Middle-Eastern" feel. Mirrors Are Black present one hell of a journey...a journey on an edge.

Classic album that stands out because of the use of real instrumentation. "I could be wrong, I could be right" but I don't think computers were used during the making of this LP.
Buy. Buy Now! www.tamedrecords.com

Gaerra/Mirrors Are Black

Back on a Scandinavian tip with Gaerra and Mirrors Are Black, two completely new projects to me. This split 7" from 2010 was the debut release on Solformorkelse.
Gaerra is the solo project of Flowers Must Die member Rikard Daun. His piece is entitled "Steglad" and is built from oscillations and synthesizer drones over a metronome. Distant radios and reversed voices add to the sense of unease. Good stuff, highly listenable....but..towards the end the pitch and tone of the keyboards varies ~ no need.
Whilst the machines are operating and making a grand sound there is no need to alter or manipulate the sound...just let the machines play themselves and see/hear where the sound goes...the machines will take you there. A lot of folk these days see/feel the need to interfere, must be seen as doing something ~ I say command the machine and let it do its' own making!
Mirrors Are Black bring us "Flickljus" ("Female Light"). Mirrors Are Black is the new name for Peter Henning's noise. Peter used to be Amph, a project I got "into" just as they stopped operating. "Flickljus" is a brilliant noise wall ~ not harsh but brilliant (BNW). Brilliant in a pure bright and clean way. Found sounds, voice, feedback and keyboards create an excellent six minutes of bliss.
I also have an Altar Of Flies/Mirrors Are Black split LP in the "to play" pile - can't wait! Recommended. Neither label or groups seem to have operating websites, but try Millstone distro..if they can't help I am sure they will point you in the right direction.

TNB / VDO (TA106)

Finally, this week saw the release (or at least the arrival at Hartop Towers) of the The New Blockaders / Vagina Dentata Organ "art-multiple" box set on German based Tochnit Aleph Records. Originally planned for release on the day that TNB and VDO performed at the NK Projekt in Berlin, March 31st 2012, it was delayed due to pressing then packaging hiccups, but now 9 weeks after the event the release sees the light of day. Now limited to 40 copies ~ I seem to remember the initial release was to be 25 or some such number ~ and probably sold out from source.
The evening of the 31st was special,beautiful and almost magickal. The energy contained in the venue that evening was phenomenal therefore this record / document of the event was/is essential. The New Blockaders performance was TNB at their very very best. The Rammel Weekend in Nottingham at the beginning of March was just a trial, a warming up (if you like) .. and the performance at The Dome in London at the beginning of May was a merciful release ~ a wind down from the 3 live performances. Berlin was special. Undoubtedly The New Blockaders will release the full Berlin performance in some format or other - everything is documented - but for the box they provide two 10 and a half minute pieces both entitled "-----------".
I am no aficionado of The New Blockaders, despite folk in Berlin & London insisting I was Richard Rupenus. The line-up here is Richard Rupenus, Michael Gillham (he of Nihilist Assault Group + Smell & Quim) and a chap called Hutchinson..who may or may not be Hal Hutchinson. (Certainly not Don). The vinyl sounds like one is inside a bottle bank, one in a scrap metal yard and the other has attached contact mic's to the wheel arches of a Boeing 747. It is fast and furious stuff, and masterful editing of sounds. Sounding nothing like the three performances over the Spring months of 2012...it plays and sounds like a breath of fresh air, a clearing of the lungs - Classic Blockaders and at 20 minutes..just the right length.
The Vagina Dentata Organ contribution is a piece of art called "Kleenex". A crumbled art blood print embossed with the VDO logo. I have a feeling that each piece has been created from the blood splattered toilet rolls that littered the floor during and after his performance. I haven't taken my piece out of its' wrapping yet - I have been instructed to keep behind glass and until I am told the dimensions of the piece so I can get a frame constructed it shall remain folded and in the box. I have got a full roll of blood splattered and glass encrusted Kleenex from the evening (a memento), I intend to start a VDO shrine with it...one day.
Also with the box came an event postcard.
Worth the wait ~ almost certainly...but who is the guy selling a copy for £1,020.84 on Discogs? (why "and" 84p).

I shall treasure this release and probably be buried with it.

Pictures.
1: TNB/VDO Box Cover.
2: TNB/VDO Box Reverse.
3: TNB/VDO Box Inner.
4: VDO "Kleenex" (section).
5: TNB "-----------" Side 2.
6: The New Blockaders are lead to the stage by Steve Underwood. Berlin 31/03/12.

Danny Devos:160 Performances

I am a notoriously slow reader. I am still reading the Tuxedomoon "Music For Vagabonds" book by Isabelle Corbisier, and I started that back in early March. It's a great book that not only has a main narrative but has side-stories, third party recollections and interviews running at the same time...it's like two books in one. Anyway, I broke off from the Tuxedomoon chronicles to read "160 Performances" by Danny Devos.
The book covers the performances of DDV from 1979-2011. Presented in a thick, hardback and hefty tome. 320 pages covering the great artists work. The introduction is in Belgian (naturally), and then carries two pages per performance. Quality documentation in text and photographs on quality paper. The book ends on an interview with Danny (thankfully in English) on "performance" art.
Danny Devos' work is body orientated - putting the mind and body to extreme limits - a lot of his work includes self harming...not all ~ but alot. To find where the mind and body goes by putting it to painful extremes, also reflecting on the audiences reaction is fascinating stuff.
The book also includes documentation of prank art and street art.

Essentially a coffee table book and like the Forcemental compendium that Club Moral put out last year, a book that can be devoured and then dipped into for pleasure.
I picked this book up at the Broken Flag:Never Say When weekend earlier in the month. A bargain at £49. Copies are available from Club Moral. Try www.performan.org the edition I have is limited to 979 copies.

Pictures:
1: Danny Devos "160 Performances" dust jacket.
2: Danny Devos "160 Performances" book cover.
3: Danny Devos live at the Dome, London. May 2012.

Destroy All Beauty

Film by Nosfe (from Grey Park)

Scandinavian Noise Manifesto

For the past couple of weeks I have been exchanging information and viewpoints on the Scandinavian "underground / sub-culture" noise (for the want of a better word) scene (for the want of an even betterer word) with good friend Paul Watson (a.k.a Mr. Bbblood).
I think it all began with me mentioning my new found joy of Sewer Election and White, and Paul mentioning the latest release by Jaakko Vanhala, which I don't have but like his work with (or in) I.Corax...and moving onto Bestializer and Paul had never heard Karmanjakan Inotonarumori, and then I probably brought in Grey Park, Henrik Rylander and White Stains ... you know how these E Mails go. I have spent a few weeks with Scandinavians, going to Sweden and staying in the company of a few and then Scandinavians seemed to be littering the bar and Merch' Stall of the Broken Flag Festival.

So...all this talk made me dig out the compilation CD "Scandinavian Noise Manifesto" featuring Bad Kharma (Sweden), Lasse Marhaug (Norway) and Grunt (Finland). It was a joint release from each projects labels (Bonbon. Jazzassin & Freak Animal Records respectively) in 1998. Sweden's Bad Kharma begin the CD with "Wasa" a 23 minute piece built from the sound of crispbread. Crispbread is place on turntables and played with a stylus, other pieces are mic'ed up and crumbled, eaten and tossed. Interesting sounds. Speed and volume varies and i imagine seeing and hearing the recording live would have been amazing....I seem to remember Project D.A.R.K. doing/releasing something similar around the same time. Next up is four pieces from Norwegian sound artist Lasse Marhaug. Lasse comes from the great Origami collective, a band of artists based in Trondheim - Origami Galaktika being a favourite here. Lasse is blistering noise - high volume white noise, close to JapNoise. The final track "Himmel Og Helvete" sounds like a thousand cats in labour through pitchshifter and distorto box. Great looped sound. High speed, high energy, high frequency, high sine-waves,high volume stuff.
When I bought the CD (back in 1998) I didn't like Lasse's contribution too much but now I can take the punishment - I can hear different loops and hooks that I couldn't before....In 2008 I saw two great live performances by Testicle Hazard (Lasse and Finnish ex-Sefahat mainman Tommi Keranen) in London...perhaps this has warmed me to the sound of Marhaug?
Grunt offer seven tracks. Seven tracks of dark and disturbing electronics. The tracks sound like Whitehouse of old...Whitehouse when they were dark and menacing and not comedy and/or vaudeville. Whitehouse of "New Britain", "Psychopathia Sexualis" and "Great White Death". Classic Whitehouse. This is no Whitehouse copyist material...don't get me wrong...it is just the feeling of unease the sound carries. Excellent titles like "Family Life", "Liquor Homicide", "Inbred Community" bring to the fore Grunts' take on Suomi life. Standout track being "Innocence Kills". A voice tape looped and manipulated to the point of genius over a soundtrack of despair. A piece that is close to Mikko Aspa's other work as Alchemy Of The 20th Century. The sound of Mnem is also prevelant in Mikko's work around this time. Despite being released under the noise banner only the tracks by Lasse Marhaug can be seen (and heard) as noise Per Se.

I have rediscovered this album - it's a classic, file alongside other "old school" Scandinavian noise compilations such as Negart's "Members Ov Sonic Cults" tape, Freak Animal's "Degenerating Finland" CD and "Sweetness Overcome" on Swedish Segerhuva label.

And now there are so many Scandinavian projects to discover. Paul recommends the Danish Posh Isolation labels' output and a group called Alleypisser (awful name). Do Danes count as Scandinavians? The only Danish band of note (I can think of) is Sort Sol - I'll look out for Posh Isolation releases.

Pictures.
1 - 5: Scandinavian Noise manifesto CD cover + inlays.
6: Lasse Marhaug, Phil Taylor + Tommi Keranen boozing in London. 2008.

Olympic Fever

"The Olympic Torch is designed to shine through the centuries, a signal of peaceful understanding between nations, with the aim of arousing more and more enthusiasm for the ideal of humanity" (Carl Diem 1936).
The first Olympic Torch relay took place at the 1936 Olympic Games where a torch was lit in Greece and relayed across countries to Berlin. The torch was carried by athletes from Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia and finally Germany - each athlete running 1 kilometre with the torch held high.

2012 and the Olympic flame makes it to Torbay as part of the torch relay throughout Britain in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics, it was also coming close enough to Hartop Towers to warrant the nomadic famalie Cammai to wander onto the streets of Saint Marychurch and "have a look". After all, not many Nazi ideas are still "used" these days - I thought it was worth seeing what all the fuss was about. The good folk of Saint Marychurch gathered in their hundreds to see the Samsung/Coca-Cola/Lloyds TSB Roadshow being followed by a flotilla of police motorcycles and then a man with a torch. They stood waiting for 2 hours to see an event that lasted roughly .... seconds. I was watching the relay "live" on the Internet y'see...I could see the delay, there was some guy in Totnes who just stood with the mini beacon and waved...then walked a few steps and waved some more, there were pensioners, folks with walking sticks and kids - not so much "Olympic Ideal"...more "Day Out from the Care Centre." Not really what Carl had in mind, so the whole event was running behind time. I left Hartop Towers when I knew I would only be waiting ten minutes...forward planning - always helps.
The kids were excited. It was "for the kids" as Jimmy Pursey would say. Oscar loved the police motorcycles and big busses and Isabel F. just wanted to make sure Minnie Mouse got a good view. I got tossed a "torch relay" bottle of Coca-Cola and with all the hoo-ha about 2012 memorabilia I might stick it up on EBay next week, well, if highly inflammable tracksuits and used torches are going for a couple of grand ... who knows.

That was my contribution to the Olympics - I doubt whether I'll watch any on TV .. they never show the football (I have become to hate highlights), I feel like I have done my bit!

Pictures.
1: Isabel F. & Tamsin wait in anticipation. (Oscar is looking at toys in the shop window).
2: The Torch approacheth
3: The Torch passes
4: The Torch heads towards Shaldon
5: My limited edition 2012 Torch Relay bottle o' Coke - what do you bid?