Antibothis

95% of what I read is "music" based whether it be autobiogs, biogs, critiques, genre based books (like Alex Ogg's "No More Heroes" or Ian Glasper's "The Day The Country Died") or simple information like the "Discography Of The New Wave" by B. George. Then there's the magazines, fanzines and small tracts. What makes up the other 5%? Well, there's always the "Radio Times" (weekly listings mag for those non UK readers) and recently some Lon Milo DuQuette, the Nocturnal Emissions "Network News" anthology and an Alan Davis (auto) biography of sorts. It was the mention of Nigel Ayers that drew my attention to "Antibothis:Occultural Anthology Volume 3" writings selected by Fernando Cerqueira.
"Antibothis" (No idea what it means) is a 138 page A5 paperback book with a memory of "Apocalypse Culture" or "Rapid Eye" books of old, but carrying more humour in the pages than any of those two publications, and a compilation CD.
Fascinating from page 1, and quite unputdownable from page 6! Chad Hensley writes about necrophiliacs in the piece "Dead Lays". The confessions of those who sleep with and fuck the dead, the ones who like to cuddle up with cold bodies, the ones who like a warm dead orifice to fuck. In America there are only a handful of States that treats necrophilia as an offence, in other Sates it is classed as "breaking and entering". Ewen Chardronnet writes about the use of drugs in warfare throughout the ages. Iona Miller has a great piece on Dr. Alexander Shuigin, the father of MDMA and his role in the Illuminati. Conspiracy theory abounds. John Zerzan on "Silence". Nigel Ayers piece "All Killer, No Filler" is random writing. Googling words at random and documenting what comes up. Reads like 21st Century cut-ups. Frank Rynne writes about his time with The Master Musicians Of Joujouka and the troubles with the opposing Musicians Of Joujouka that is operated by the Paul Bowles estate. (You see there was Mud, then there was Les Gray's Mud). The book finishes with writings by Adi + Jane Newton for TAGc.

The CD is very entertaining, containing stuff I would not (as a rule) usually listen to. Lydia Lunch & Phillipe Petit, Checkpoint 303, The Master Musicians Of Joujouka, Kal Cahoone and Orbit Service to name but 5 out of 12. There is a track called "The Denizens" by The Anti Group, I am uncertain whether or not this is a new + "exclusive" piece, but certainly one for the Adi Newton collectors. The CD (overall) has a feel of one of those compilations that come free with "The Wire" magazine. Good in parts but pants in others.

The magazine comes from Portugal and cost me fifteen euro (inc P+P to the UK), and I feel I have a treasurous bargain.
Well recommended.

Pictures:
1: Slogan Sticker.
2: Book Cover.
3: CD Cover.
4: Postcard.

Sleazy RIP.

Very sad to hear the news of the passing of Lord Peter Christopherson. His art and sound has been a great inspiration from my first hearing of Throbbing Gristle and discovering his work.
I consider my self blessed to have met the man and chatted (albeit) briefly when we shared the stage at last years Equinox Festival in London.

Thank You Peter.

ACL/Schrage Musik

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the new 7" by Schrage Musik + AntiChildLeague, (ACL),
released on the Einsatz label earlier this month.
Schrage Musik (sorry, there should be an umlaut over the "a" in Schrage, but I don't know how to put it there on this computer) are a new one on me. It is the latest project from Patrick Leagas. I know Patrick was the original drummer for Death In June back in 1980, leaving in 1985...about the time DIJ went a little "pants", but I have never "followed" his output through 6th Comm and Mother Destruction. Probably because DIJ went off the boil a bit I thought Patrick's material would too....it's the way my mind works...add to that he was calling himself Patrick O'Kill (Or to give the full Irish name Patrick O'Killy Killy Killy Kill), made me give his work a miss. 2010 sees him finish with 6th Comm and start Schrage Musik (the sound of firing cannons or "obscure music" depending on which translation tool you use), and also teaming up with AntiChildLeague. "Eternity" is a good track. Very militaristic in rhythm with a vocal that is very similar to Adi Newton of Clock DVA. With a hook line of "I don't want to live for eternity" sang out over a steady beat it becaomes instantly likable + sing-a-long-able. Good stuff, I'd be tempted to hear a whole album.
Gaya Donadio and her AntiChildLeague can do no wrong. Like Nico, I just love her voice and vocal. The ACL track "III Me, Me, Me" is like a following on from last years "Big Fat Arse" 7". Self obsession is no bad thing especially when accompanied with a great synth keyboard "riff".
I saw AntiChildLeague live back in 1999 at The Red Rose in London and have followed the output of Gaya ever since, even asking her to contribute live vocals to a live performance of Dieter Muh "Stella Polaris" at the 291 Gallery in Hackney years back. I love her voice so much! (A shame that performance was never "properly" recorded..it would make a great release).
I saw AntiChildLeague live in 2008 at the Grovesnor in Stockwell, London..Excellent gig.

The 7" is limited to 300 copies and all copies are signed (don't know why)? Buy It!

Pictures:
1: ACL.
2: Schrage Musik.

Helm #2

Have just spent a pleasant week listening to Helm's 2007 cassette "Last Journey To Her Altar" on the Scottish Sick Head Tapes label. That's right, I said a week. Time at work now allows me to take in my own music (I don't mean Dieter Muh, but yes...some has been played) and blast it out and varying volume. This week I have been mainly listening to...The Pop Group, Nocturnal Emissions, Neu, Faust, Blood Axis, Borbounese Qualk, The Door And The Window and Bauhaus but always a daily play of Helm.
I recently got the Helm album "Optimism" (Trans-Dimensional Sushi Recordings 2007) and was not that taken with it, a shame after the vinyl LP "To An End". After hearing that I was desperate to get my hands and ears on the works of Luke Younger - I bought the split 7" with Family Battle Snake (Luke in his Birds Of Delay outfit) on Tome Records but that fell short of a decent listen/experience. (Problems with pressing)? So...I bought "Last Journey To Her Altar" as a kind of litmus test...if I thought it pants, then I shall leave Helm alone and wallow in one classic LP.
No need.
"Last Journey To Her Altar" is a C40. Two 20 minute journeys. Instrumention is hard to fathom. Side A brought the phrase: Keyboards assemble themselves at dawn to mind. Think TG's "Industrial Introduction" or "Damaru Sunrise" and we are along the right lines. Side A is very much an awakening, start of the journey, it builds in to this steady drone and leads us in to Side B. Whereas Side A has a begining, side B continues to build into this all consuming drone. A journey, again, what is actually being played is hard to fathom. Keyboards, synths, guitars? Sitting and listening whilst the autoclaves are burring and hissing and the distant traffic rushes along the Riviera Way this album is a beauty and has restored my "faith" in Helm/Luke Younger. When chance occurs I will buy more and encourage you to do the same.

As Loud As Possible.

After the long wait, the tears and sweat of anticipation "As Loud As Possible #1" is with us. I picked up a copy in London last month and until a couple of days ago I have had my nose and eyes firmly stuck between the pages at every possible moment. I am a notoriously slow reader.
So. What is it like? It is the size of a "Sound Projector" or even "Progress Report" of old. Not pocket sized like "Special Interests", "Feral Debris" or "Terror" magazines. It is as big and hefty as it is definitive, authoritative and oraclatory (1).
To have a bad word against this magazine is like criticizing The Bible or The Koran or something, such is the high esteem and kudos ALAP has picked up since it's release. And pointless.
This (necessary) project has been a labour of love for it's editors (Steve Underwood & Chris Sienko) for the best part (to my knowledge) of three years. This is no rush job or badly researched and written tome. A benchmark has now been set for folk who are serious about "noise" / underground music......

Approach.

I thought at first I would read ALAP as I would any magazine/book. i.e. from cover to cover (call me old fashioned), but after reading a few pages of "opinion" I started to skip paragraphs to find myself at an article called "The Politics Of HNW". At last I can say I now know what HNW stands for "Harsh Wall Noise" a genre within noise named by the Harsh Noise World".
"Here's another marketing ploy, typical girl meets the typical boy".
It was all getting a bit Wire-esque at this moment, so I skipped the Sewer Election piece (I only have one piece of Sewer Election, a track on the double cassette compilation "Krimkall" that Krimljud released in 2003 b.h.n.w. (2) ), and started to read what I was interested in....The Haters, followed by a piece on Alien Brains. Ahhh Alien Brains, a rare name from my dim and distant past and from the days that I used to write to people like Instant Automatons, Nag & Bendle and Richard Formby. DIY at it's grassy and rootiness. An excellent researched and beautifully informatively written piece by Steve Underwood. I know Steve and his love and passion for this oft ignored but at the same time fucking genius and better than owt else that was going around at the time music comes through in his writing. It is a joy to read. Cheapmachines gets a good hearing and I am looking forward to seeing Phil live in a few weeks time...my collection is pretty thin on his output...but I skipped pages to read the John Smith interview.
Back in the days before the internet (I know, it is hard to imagine isn't it) magazines like John Smith's "Interchange" were the ALAP of their day. Indispensable oracles and jammed packed with information on the bands/artists I wanted to listen to - or be listening to. Small adverts from bands about their tape releases etc got me to hear Seven Horns Da-Ho and Metgumbnerbone and I shall never forget paying for a Mmme Sadie cassette that never showed up. These things stick. I had an inkling John was Ward Phillips (I also thought he was a member of Soviet France...wrong there then), I have the double cassette compilation "Wolfsangel" that Nihilistic Recordings released in 1986. (Yeah...I'm on it too)! It is a fascinating read as is what follows; Thee definitive Putrefier interview by Steve Underwood.
By now (and a week or two in to immersing myself in the writings) I am whetting myself for the mammoth piece on the Broken Flag label. R+G piece looks interesting, later...Giffoni can wait (is he HNW)? I have to read the Broken Flag Story. The collation of research of this piece must have taken years. This piece is a book - a bloody book - it deserves to be a book. The whole Broken Flag story, it's agitants and participants needs the same "treatment" as say "Wreckers Of Civilisation" and/or "England's Hidden Reverse".
It was back in 1983 when I became aware of Broken Flag. Strange story. There was this chap who lived in a squat on the top floor of Charles Barry Crescent in Hulme, Manchester. His squat was the flat that later became "The Kitchen", but then (1983) this guy was just your average Hulme speed dealer. He dressed like a member of A Certain Ratio, Khaki shorts, Hawaiian Shirt - maybe even a whistle(?), I (and my friend Sean) used to like going about in black army drill. This chap approached us, asked us if we liked "Industrial" music. "Yes"! He invited us to his flat. He used to be in to noise stuff but was getting out of it (too dangerous), he was getting in to psychedelic surf sounds like "Pebbles" and "Nuggets" and The Seeds, Link Wray that kind of stuff so he gave us (Sean and I) some Come Org. Kata's and cassettes, some Consumer Electronic and Ramleh tapes. Sean and I split the goods, sniffed our goodbyes and went home to hear this "new" sound. I remember I got "Fur Ilse Koch" and "Live At Nailsea" tapes. Beautiful stuff. It was maybe then reading an "Interchange" that I found an address for BF, or perhaps I just wrote straight off - I can't remember that part. I kind of became disinterested in BF around the time of the Toll release (1986) and didn't really pick up again until the Ramleh "Grudge For Life" LP (I know, it's on Vis-A-Vis, but I'm talking about an interest in Ramleh and that lead me to buying BF tapes again), so to read about what went on in those intervening years is bloody fascinating and essential information.
Now somebody wants to do the same profiling on:
1: Sterile Records.
2: Hanson
3: Harbinger Sound.
It still makes me titter to think that 400 Blows were to be on the "Neuengamme" compilation, but got bumped. I now want the Vinyl On Demand Box Set! (And Steve, if you are reading this can you ask Tim Gane about his band Ingrid Slugs (3) and if he has any recordings, please)?

The sub culture of underground noise music, from a grass roots level, from the 1970's to this day desperately needs to be researched and written about. Sod TG, Cabs, Clock DVA etc they have had their tomes, it is about time the "real" meat was documented, the Broken Flag and Putrefier piece together prove this.

By now weeks have passed and so I skipped the "Classic Albums" section - apart from The Lemon Kittens, it is a bloody classic but I do prefer "The Big Dentist", and delved in to the reviews. Thanks Chris for the kind words on the Dieter Muh 7"EP, and honest opinion on the split release with Mnem. Whelmed is a great description, it's not a favourite of mine..but then again, I'm not on it! And if I'd only been a quicker reader I would have found out about Emaciator before buying a couple of his tapes....
Now ALAP is a dipping mag. Something to take to the toilet or flick through whilst spinning discs, playing tapes etc. Nothing wrong with that - all the best magazines have homes in the forakers.
Was it worth the wait? Yes! Even to wait longer and it still would have been worth it! Steve + Chris know their history, it shows and as of today when the greats like "Interchange", "Flowmotion", "Grok", "Industrial News", "N.D.", "Force Mental" are mentioned with saintly breath in the future "As Loud As Possible" will join that list.

www.asloudaspossible.org

Footnotes:
(1): I made this word up.
(2): Before Harsh Wall Noise.
(3): Tim Gane's band that used to rehearse in The Carnifex Recordings HQ, William Kent Crescent, Hulme, Manchester 1985
.

Picture:
1: Front Cover of "As Loud As Possible".

Bestializer

Just spent a pleasant while listening to "Penal Harm" by Bestializer. A new C40 cassette release from the Sexkrime Arts label. This was my first hearing of Bestializer, the (almost) new project from Joakim Karlsson Kuren formerly known as Karmanjakan Intonarumori, Ju;X and former member of Survival Unit.
Joakim's releases as Karmanjakan Intonarumori were really the dog's bollocks in the mid-00's. His CDr "Vermin Vortex Futura" release in 2004 on the Karmanjakanintonarumoriprodukt label is a top 20 decade release. Low drone rumblings with lots of space and interesting vocal samples that looped throughout the tracks - like old school "industrial".
"Penal Harm" brings to mind electronics by Survival Unit ("Fentanyl Martyrs" is a must too), Genocide Organ and The Haters. A murky swamp of noise loops and hooks that drive along at great speed and power. Excellent stuff played loud. Despite the track listing the tape plays like two long tracks. Unforgiving, compelling and essential PE.
I've a couple more Bestializer cassette releases to get through...looking forward.
Contact Joakim and get a copy: jocke@mellow.net (It is that easy)....

Picture:
1+2: "Penal Harm" Sleeve.

Onomatopoeia

One of the highlights of the year has been the reimmersion (of sorts) of Onomatopoeia.
The UK label The 7.17 From West Wittering Is Late Again (perhaps the worst named label in operation at this moment in time) has re-released the 1997 cassette "Irrelevant" on vinyl format. I do not know if it is a straight cut from the tape release or a remix / remaster by Onomatopoeia but it is an excellent album, and if it is 13 years old...then it is a timeless classic.
5 Tracks that journey along a rumbling electronic drone track each one having a dominant instrument in the driving seat. Hunting Horn, Cymbal, Piccolo, Bass Guitar + Home-Made Zambomba. I don't know whether or not the release heralds a new phase of activity for Onomatopoeia or whether this is a one-off boot, like the recent factor X LP, or if the person or persons unknown behind the label is in fact Steve Fricker...my paypal monies went to a guy with a suspiciously Greek sounding name.
When in operation Cheeses International (home label for Onomatopoeia) was one of my favourite labels, with catalogues to rival any small noise fanzines review section. Journeys to London often meant a meeting up with Steve (and more often than not Mark Durgan + Steve Underwood as my visits to London would be for gig reasons only), finding a cheap pub and drinking ourselves in to oblivion...laughing all the way. I got drunk with Steve the first time I met him (at a Der Blutharsch gig at The Slimelight in 2001) and I was drunk the last time I met him (at a Con-Dom gig in Stockwell in 2008).
I only managed to see Onomatopoeia live on one occasion, the gig wasn't too clever either. On a cold winters night in Bristol Onomatopoeia played with Consumer Electronics, Grunt, Emil Beaulieau + Jessica Rylan. The evening was running hopelessly late and some folk had soundchecks and others didn't. I don't think Steve did and his box of noises and tricks seemed to betray him that night, resulting in Steve telling jokes and smashing glass on his fists. It was like when I saw Fad Gadget in 1984 at Manchester Hacienda in front of about 20 people..he smashed his guitar and ran in to a brick wall giving himself a nosebleed (+ perhaps a broken nose) all because his microphone and/or monitors weren't working. You had to feel sorry for the chap. Onomatopoeia in Bristol was like that + soon after Steve went completely off the radar. No response to E Mails and a cessation of Cheeses International.
Like I mentioned, I met Steve at a Con-Dom / Pain Nail gig in 2008 in The Grovesnor, Stockwell, and as I left, walking for the night bus to Tottenham Hale in the freezing winter fog so too did Steve disappear...no sightings since.

"Irrelevant" is limited to 300 copies. Each cover has a different sleeve - a small flag stuck to the cover, and in my mind is essential. BUY!

Pictures:
1: "Irrelevant" Flyer.
2: "Irrelevant" Sleeve. (Taken from Discogs site).
3: Steve Fricker at the bar, The Grovesnor, Stockwell. Winter 2008.