Live show reports / comments

Started by FreakAnimalFinland, July 25, 2011, 09:35:36 AM

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Andrew McIntosh

Shikata ga nai.

FreakAnimalFinland

http://special-interests.net/main/2017/04/16/melun-kiukaat-ii/

Few photos, text (also about Finland in general) and explicit video not suitable for everybody, heh...
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
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NIT

5-19 Seattle

Interracial Sex destroyed. Full respect.

Cdan

All sets at 5.19 The In show were wild (though I def can't comment on my own)

Rusalka and Kakerlak at Vancouver Noise Fest VII were fucking perfect. A lot of strong sets but those were the stand outs for me.

absurdexposition

Primitive Isolation Tactics
Scream & Writhe distro and Absurd Exposition label
Montreal, QC
https://www.screamandwrithe.com

HONOR_IS_KING!

KOUFAR x TERROR CELL UNIT
https://soundcloud.com/crimesofthecrown

PSALM 109

Johann

Last night went out to see Hades Archer, no previous experience with the band but hell if you come from Chile to Detroit I'm gonna try to catch it. My buddy and I met up there late to avoid what he calls the syndrome of "to many notes" (5 bands on this bill), we caught the last two. First up was Abysmal Lord from Louisiana. Kinda funny to see dudes put on some corpse paint and a cloak (think cheap raincoat) with bullet belts and put them in a setting where there is framed molson hockey jerseys and red wings memoribils on the walls. Now add in a fat old sound guy that uses the PA as platform to introduce bands as if they were sports teams "the prefect soundtrack to murder and rape Abbssymall Lorrd" and you got an idea of what kind of fine establishment this happened in.

Despite this the sound was good, loud, Abysmal Lord did a good job...maybe lasted a bit longer than I personally cared for but had the crowd really charged and were really into it. Good mix of blackened thrash...

Hades Archer is apperantly just a two man operation, no gimmicks, no corpse paint...put on a hell of a show, the guitarist set up mics at both ends of the stage so he could move between them, vocals were high in the mix and cut deep into my ears...shit was loud, short songs and slightly sloppy...pretty much everything I like, lyrics were a mix of English and Spanish, simple and often times understood. They played about an hour and it was one of those sets where time flew...a real racket, if you in Chicago they open for Profanatica and are playing in LA this weekend as well. Highly recommend checking it out if you can.

impulse manslaughter

#233
Went to the final edition of the Noisefest in Belgium and had a great time. Record stall outside with 50% discount made sure i went home with some goodies. About the acts:

Arrived when Mariela Rossi started playing. Layers of static noise worked well with the visuals in the background. Nice introduction to this unfamiliar name. Blodvite's mix of field-recordings and loops was nice but couldn't hold my attention. It seems to fade away into the background towards the end of his set. Kakerlak was probably my favorite set of this edition. Various layers of harsh noise structured into a powerful composition. Sofie Herner + Kakerlak; satisfying collaboration that only took too much time to build up. Sfär (Blodvite + Altar Of Flies); i liked this better than the solo Blodvite set, a little bit more variation in the sounds. Altar Of Flies; seems unfocussed in the first part of the set, second part was solid. Bizarre Uproar; sounds were good, vocals drowning in the mix at first, later tuned louder for a more satisfying PE-experience. Nothing really happening on stage was a bit of a let down. Overall a pretty good set that could have been more intense. Seemed too much of a standard routine for the performers.

Duncan

The recent TUSK Festival this weekend gave me a good chance to see some stuff I'd wanted to catch for a while or never heard of before.  I'll summarise the stuff most relevant here.

VALERIO TRICCOLLI - Impressive and engaging acousmatic tape music.  Definitely a bit more lofi than his recorded work but didn't especially suffer as a result.  Certainly moved around plenty through frenetic, rough manipulations by hand into subtle rhythms, pre recorded voices, shimmering high tones and white noise.

KINK GONG - Ethnomusicological recordings from what sounds like a big archive of the artist's field work.  Shoved through a concrete music blender.  Simple, cross legged on the floor laptop playback/improv that worked well due to the quality of the sound sources.

STARAYA DEREVNYA - Not typically something I'd be into but a pretty strong highlight.  3 (?) tables of electronics and synths, looping double bass/theremin and miked up objects accompanied by some kind of live tablet based animations.  Really immersive and pleasant.  Got into some pretty straight up melodic territory which is probably why it worked so well.  More card carryingly musical?  Very enjoyable but went on for longer than it needed to.

HANS GRUSEL'S KRANKENKABINET - I expected this to be pure novelty what with the whole aspect of this group's fancy dresses looking something like trees and birdhouses decorated in lederhosen (yes) but sonically they were excellent.  Totally goof ball but LOUD and harsher than expected synth noises and wind instrument/voice.  Bent and broken and not too serious at all.  Culminated in a MIDI cover of Angel of Death which was amazing and got a lot of people very excited.  Didn't seem like a piss take of metal lovers but rather a gleeful, childish tribute.

BRAINBOMBS - Did not do for me what I expected and hoped having enjoyed them for so long.  The mix was actually pretty terrible with nearly inaudible vocals and some huge volume and tone differences between the guitars.  Even so it ticked a box off and predictably enough got the crowd moving around.  In an earlier time and place seeing this group would have meant more to me but less so now, sadly, because I'd been really excited to see them.

BRB>CULVER COLLAB - Just excellent.  Uncomplicated, minimal but extremely loud distorted drone and noise.  It seemed like Culver made use of two loud guitar amps while BRB>Voicecoil took the PA, though I could be wrong.  It felt like an odd pairing to me what with the staunch analog lofi of Culver and the heavily digital BRB but worked so, so well. A proper highlight that felt all the more magnificent being delivered by two of the North East UK underground's proper stalwarts.

KARA-LIS COVERDALE - I only caught a third or so of this but it was a lot better than I thought it would be from the descriptions and I'll definitely be investigating some recorded work.  Sampler based sound collage?  A heavy use of melodies and sampled singing voices/instruments but would just stop and move sharply into new territory whenever she felt like it.  No fear at all of fumbling and exploring for awkward sounds and navigating the sampler and it worked so well.

NURSE WITH WOUND - If it hadn't been the final act of the festival of Sunday evening I'd have approached this differently and also I've really yet to properly connect with NWW, truth be told.  I've enjoyed some of the earlier cut up sounding work but as I always say, for every one of them there are another 3 zither and delay pedal bore fests.  I walked in to some very clean and generic sounding electronics, a bit of percussion and a man I recognised as an English poet doing 'nonsense verse' with all of the Oxbridge, Tolkien fanclub looking gestures (and robes) to go along with it and bailed after about 40 seconds.  Not enough to form a decent opinion of anything other than that 40 secs but I can confidently say it was total cobblers. Sorry.

All in all a very fun weekend.






urall

Quote from: impulse manslaughter on October 18, 2017, 03:03:07 PM
Went to the final edition of the Noisefest in Belgium and had a great time. Record stall outside with 50% discount made sure i went home with some goodies. About the acts:

Arrived when Mariela Rossi started playing. Layers of static noise worked well with the visuals in the background. Nice introduction to this unfamiliar name. Blodvite's mix of field-recordings and loops was nice but couldn't hold my attention. It seems to fade away into the background towards the end of his set. Kakerlak was probably my favorite set of this edition. Various layers of harsh noise structured into a powerful composition. Sofie Herner + Kakerlak; satisfying collaboration that only took too much time to build up. Sfär (Blodvite + Altar Of Flies); i liked this better than the solo Blodvite set, a little bit more variation in the sounds. Altar Of Flies; seems unfocussed in the first part of the set, second part was solid. Bizarre Uproar; sounds were good, vocals drowning in the mix at first, later tuned louder for a more satisfying PE-experience. Nothing really happening on stage was a bit of a let down. Overall a pretty good set that could have been more intense. Seemed too much of a standard routine for the performers.

Yeah was pretty disappointed by the BU stage act as well - soundwise i liked it.
Overall a high quality of performances, sad to see the fest go.

J_D_H

Quote from: urall on October 18, 2017, 07:51:21 PM
Yeah was pretty disappointed by the BU stage act as well - soundwise i liked it.
Overall a high quality of performances, sad to see the fest go.

I've got to disagree with the BU reports - the backing video was maybe not as memorable as usual but thought that overall the on stage 'entertainment' was great! Very camp and sleazy performance which then took a more traditional and aggressive turn with the dual vocals towards the end. Soundwise a little looser and more in your face than usual, worked well.

Mariela Rossi offered perhaps the biggest surprise of the night for me, hadn't head of her previously.   Rough shortwave radio manipulations plus some other minimal electronics - almost soothing textures initially before some truly nasty and raw as fuck noise came in later on. Ended with what sounded like some kinda music box melody and more static -quality stuff!

Lazrs3

#237
Cremation Lily, Knifedoutofexistence, Kuebiko, The Mysterious Monopole. Thursday 7th March 2019, The Chameleon Arts Café, Nottingham. Rammel Club.

I was keen to attend this gig and see all the acts mentioned; I'd recently reviewed the Kuebiko cassette release on Outsider Art Records. I am also a keen fan of Knifedoutofexistence and Cremation Lily and have reviewed their stuff in the past.

Kuebiko played on the floor of the venue, he was surrounded by devices which included contact microphones, chains and effects pedals. This worked as you had to look down or be directly face to face with the artist depending on whether you stood or sat. Sounds started small and gradually grew into a larger, harsher, more frenzied assault of noise. As things intensified the chains got smacked around, contact mikes were put in the artists mouth, Sellotape mummified his head and things descended into a sonic tantrum. The improvised, performative aspects of Kuebiko made for an impressive set.

I knew nothing prior to this about The Mysterious Monopole. The artist looked very different, her eyes were covered with patches of black lace and she was dressed in Brown with an old tie on. This coupled with how the performance built up gave it an impressive 'wtf odd' factor. I don't mean this as a criticism, but she built tension before it even started, which is quite a feat. Samples of noises and keyboard lines were played as the show built up to some impressive demonstrations of unique noise making. The artist started sawing up packs of Ryvita type snacks with a Contact Mic enhanced saw and then she was playing homemade card records on a turntable. The noise was crumbly and parallels the project Evil Moisture with unique sources of sound, but more warped off in her own tangents. Like Kuebiko the set was fully improvised, with a stronger performance art bent. An audience member was brought in to do vocals in a repeated chant as the artist crunched up Ryvita and trampled on the saw. This seemed to be a commentary on food politics that dominate life. I was half expecting to be force fed Ryvita or something as the artist made full use of the stage made for a truly excellent performance. To see someone coming at noise from such a truly eccentric, unpredictable angle was very exciting.

This show was a collaboration between Cremation Lily and Knifedoutofexistence, which is another self-personified Power Electronics project whose slow burn growth over the years has been impressive. The collaboration started with Knife's more experimental PE set with both artists contributing noise, Cremation had a minimal set up that seemed to consist of an electronic device that threw out sampled sounds and beats and a tape player, where as Knifed had a larger, complex set up. The noise got harsher and louder yet contained good atmospherics and the Knifed vocals were cleverly put in the background as he shouted into the microphone, this added more performance to what he did as he faced to audience. Last time he did the whole back turned to audience type performance thing, the frontal approach was more direct and way more effective. Both artists seemed to fire off each other. The noise seemed to be able to say more without being overpowered by vocal rage. The performance was a mass of complex emotion and range. This mixed with the distanced vocals and rich textured sound made for the strongest Knifedoutofexistence show that I've seen yet, I was very impressed – the slow burn development continues unhindered.  

Where Cremation Lily is concerned, I'm politely obsessive. I believe the project upped the ante with Power Electronics very early on by coming from such a deeply personal angle. Funeral Home has one of the most impressive modern vocal performances that I've ever heard, that and S.T.A.B.'s Day of the Male are the vocal benchmarks to me in how I judge modern Power Electronics. The project continually progresses and changes with each passing year; I'm excited to hear where it's at each time. This is my fourth time seeing Cremation Lily and I enjoy each performance.

The atmosphere stripped down as things moved to the Cremation Lily part of the set.  What threw me was that I was expecting a more ambient set, yet there were beats, moody electronica with passages of noise thrown in, the shift between the two sets was smooth and effective. Cremation's vocals shifted between agonised shouting, distorted rage and some actual singing. Knifed effectively switched from complimenting to contrasting the work with a range of sounds. Previous Cremation Lily sets had been displays of noise that just exploded where as this was a longer musical set with continual shifts into different musical parameters. The depth of feeling, past sadness and sonic texture was impressive as it seemed to run through both sets. Like any good set I am left with questions, while I truly loved both sets and saw both artists conquer new heights, is this duo thing something that should be recorded and developed outside of their individual work? Both artists shifted into new areas, they complimented, supported and built on each other's strengths, not allowing for any weakness to hinder the sound.  Had it not worked, this whole collaboration could easily have had its ass kicked because of the strength of both the support acts. But it did work, giving an epic finale to a great night.

Lazrs3

#238
S.T.A.B. Electronics, Iron Fist of the Sun, Antivalium, Active Denial. The Castle, London, Saturday 31st March.

I went to this gig alone, upon 10 minutes of my arrival I'd met Phil from W.I.P., Lee from Iron Fist of the Sun, Keith from S.T.A.B. both guys from Active Denial and Winston from Shift/Unrest. It was great to meet the faces behind the projects that I love. The occasion was S.T.A.B.s first live gig in 3 years to celebrate the release of Enemy of Pigs on Unrest Productions, I'm playing it now on my turntable.

I've reviewed both Active Denial tapes in the past and I was keen to see them in a live context. I believe they haven't played a lot of live gigs prior to this. The set up was simple vocals, keyboard and four Walkman portable players that all into a mixer.  Adam Apple screamed and shouted into the mic, got right into people's faces throughout their set. Sometimes both Apple and Bucorvus Leadbeater did vocals together, the noises were primitive like those used on their recordings. For a moment I felt it waned briefly, but sudden a strobe pointed at the audience and a resurgence of rage pushed things up another few notches. I thought this was a great performance that set the bar high for the evening, the rage seemed endless: The Summer of Hate came back with a vengeance.

Antivalium came dressed in suits and masks, their stage presence and image were strong. Their brand of synth dominated industrial noise with beats was good and it shifted a lot in sound. At times it was hard not to dance when they became more animated as beats took prominence. There was an air of deep broodiness throughout an impressive set that really stood out - the excellent taste in vintage microphones certainly helped this. Their sound and intensity were different to the other acts and stood out most as the odd act out, still great and this seemed to allow the differences between all acts to shine through. When researching after, I found out they were both in KnifeLadder with the late John Murphy as well as Black Light Ascension which is impressive, but Antivalium stands as a strong project, this was demonstrated by their performance - I look forward to investigating their work more.

The gig did have an air of sadness as it was to be the last performance from Iron Fist of the Sun. I love this project as I reviewed a lot of his work over the years and have most of the releases. This is a top tier project of present day that I know can deliver live and on record. As he began it was crisp, concise and everything was delivered with precision. He shouted with his back to the audience at the rear wall of the venue or sideways to the audience and it was effective as he became angrier and the sounds intensified massively. The way the vocals weren't as in the faces of the audience as the other acts seemed to allow for it to really project outwards at the audience. The sound and set up he had was complex and wouldn't have worked so well in less competent hands, he then flicked a switch and the familiar, powerful death drones of Smile Like Sword kicked in to cheers and shouts. The vocals were great, he shouted and screamed and had some effect that doubled the vocals up when it was used – amazing wasn't enough to describe it. His set became choppy, chaotic and noisier at the after Smile Like Sword and made for an effective contrast that died out to an end to be greeted by huge applause and enthusiasm from the audience. I'd only ever seen IFotS live once this was even better than that. To end on such a high with a consistently solid, evolving body of work is noble. However, my personal view is the integrity of the project would have kept it great for a long time to come, but greatness is as greatness does.

The night seemed like a series of championship fights and S.T.A.B. Electronics continued to up the levels of intensity with a savage, manic performance. He was continually right in our faces shouting, the mic seemed to die out at one point, and I am not shitting you, it made no difference to the vocal levels at all, he continued to yell over the electronics until the mic worked again - vocally S.T.A.B. continues to be next level. His personal, nasty take on Death Industrial was complimented by videos of violent gang fights and sadomasochistic penis abuse. The images of a guy continually being ball punched by a Dominatrix made me hold my balls in protective fear whilst S.T.A.B. seemed to continually grab his balls hard to raise the pitch of his vocals. The set was mostly newer material as I am recognising a lot of it as I play my copy of the excellent Enemy of Pigs; there was a lot of really, muddy, murky noise that was dominated by the louder than loud vocals, the level of performance used to work the vocals from the background to the forefront repeatedly was something else. Height wise he was huge, which amplified his stage presence, he was all over the stage in the audience's faces, yelling and gesturing; the intensity and menace never let up for a minute. I've been listening to the S.T.A.B. cds I have a lot over the last 6 months since discovering the project, this live performance was even better than I imagined it would be and the new album ups the ante.

Four solid performances made for an excellent night.

Review with pictures here: https://1208fullerave.blogspot.com/2019/03/enemy-of-pigs-launch-night.html


Cementimental

AM NOT, Stress Orphan, Mollusk King, The Castle London, UK - 6.5.19

Was really nice to see many people i've not seen for waay too long, apologies we had to get going quickly after the gig finished and didn't get to talk to everyone all that much.

Show was great all round! Mollusk King was really high quality with a lot of interesting developments since I last heard. Some very high end sound design and interesting musical elements outside the usual PE sounds, cinematic at times and almost hiphop/grime at a couple of points. Nice surrealist visuals too with unexpected combinations of footage (Svankmajer X Berserk is fine by me!) made to gel with monochromatic colour effects. Stress Orphan was enjoyable and energetic PE of the laptop karaoke variety, decent but not really my cup of tea - to use a Frans de Waard clichè. AM NOT was excellent as ever, great sounds and vocals, quality political collage visuals, and I wasn't expecting three different suitably intense guest vocalists

Nice work everyone involved and Unrest for organising!