black and decker

Paul on metal bashing.

There’s a sort of industrial sub-genre of power-tool-weilding non-musicians — Test Dept, SPK, almost no-one else.

To this list must be added Z’ev – who I think was the first. He was absolutely amazing live as well – lots of wonderful reverberations and so on which were quite calming, rather than the patented bish bash bosh clang of metal as percussion. Don’t think he used tools, but the metal as instrument thing. Innit. Er, hangover today. I got messed up last night and ending up in a really rambling ranty conversation about Wilhelm Reich getting his books burned by the US government. I was basically trying to say that just because he had his books burnt didn’t automatically mean his ideas were all alright, but inevitably this all came out horribly wrong. Pretty funny though, I’m sure some people will now always think of me as “the book burning bloke we met that time”.

Oh and people always mention “Tools You Can Trust” but I have no idea about them, possibly because they were rubbish. And Pookie Snackenburger who went on to be “Stomp” I think? Sort’ve palatable metal bashing for the theatre-goers.

emememememe

Paul in actual blogging update frenzy.

“John as ever cannot distinguish between product and consumer. Much of Killing Joke’s audience were goths. Some of Coil’s audience were goths. None of Joy Division’s audience were goths, at least until the record was over. But Killing Joke weren’t goths. They were a speedfreak heavy metal band without the guitar solos and better taste. Neither were Coil or Joy Division goths. They both had a certain dark glamour, but they weren’t Sex Gang Children, or The Nephilim.”

This is a bollocks argument because we were talking about genres which very rarely emanate from the band itself, but are given to it by journalists, fans, the mysterious people who decide where things go in record racks, etc. (In fact, perhaps one of the many good things about dance music is that you don’t get any of that nonsense about “oh no we’re not really goths/shoegazers/industrial blah” – because you need to identify yourself as house/techno/drum and bass so DJs will buy your records – it’s all about function).

So anyway, it’s perfectly valid to call Killing Joke goths in my opinion but I will admit they had other things going on as well. I guess what we are talking about are gothic tendencies rather than “gothicness”. Which is why I used the word “elements” innit, fool!

“John is of course a closet goth and is deeply embarassed about it.”

It’s only closet because I got bored of wearing black clothes all the time, but I have no problem lining up with people who are into daaaaaaaaark music whether that be Coil or The Bug, or tech-step, or Killing Joke or spooky Lee Perry dubs or whatever. Or even some of the early Sisters of Mercy stuff like “Reptile House” or Bauhaus, but I haven’t listened to them for years now.

It’s only music and therefore liking it is nothing to be ashamed of, one would think.

It’s interesting that the banner ad at the top of Paul’s blog now looks like this, though:

city of god

I’m crap at reviewing films (I’m pretty bad at reviewing music, as well, to be honest!). I think it’s because I enjoy the immersion aspect of watching them so much that when I resurface I can’t really distance myself from what I’ve been watching. In other words, I have ZERO critical faculties.

Don’t go to the cinema these days because it involves baby sitters and if you get a babysitter you want to, y’know, go out and get drunk and have conversations with each other which don’t revolve around the flat falling to pieces, imminent financial meltdown and the daughter’s pathological attraction to dangerous objects.

But we did rent City of God the other night. You’ve probably seen it already, but it’s great isn’t it? Utterly futile and depressing and chocka with soul-destroying senseless violence, but fantastic all the same – the glimmer of human creativity and consciousness emerging from underneath the hellishness.

I was conscious of all that stuff when we were in Brazil – it’s impossible to avoid it in most places, but obviously we stayed pretty much away from the hard-edged favellas. With a couple of notable exceptions, like ending up in the middle of nowhere one night after we’d been looking for Ronnie Biggs’ place.

You could do tourist trips into the favellas, but this just seemed like the most grotesque “bedlam” voyuerism to us. It was bad enough watching 8 year old kids sniffing glue in the centre of Rio without showing up in da ghetto and snapping away.

I should probably excavate the diary I wrote and stick some bits up here…

gabba gabba hey we accept you as one of us

Dubversion bloggin up a storm. Welcome to the nerdosphere, comrade!

Without getting into sheer luvviness, what I like about his stuff is that he manages to write about himself but also covers areas which are interesting to a lot of other people, like music, or events he’s been to. It’s that critical middle path between being completely distant and abstract or being so personal that it’s trite.

So, a few good shots on the whole “hermetic nature of blogging” and the recent industrial spate.

And he’s foolishly agreed to let me loose on the decks in Brixton on August 23rd. Put this in your diaries right now…

NOTHING HERE NOW BUT THE RECORDINGS

Ten industrial albums YOU must own.

PART 1: Throbbing Gristle – Heathen Earth (Industrial Records, 1980)

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“You should always aim to be as skillful as the most professional of government agencies. The way you live, conceive and market what you do should be as well thought out as a government coup. It’s a campaign, it has nothing to do with art.” – Genesis P-Orridge

All of the “proper” TG LPs are great, but this one is the most focussed in my humble opinion. Which is odd, because it’s a strange beast – a “live” album that was recorded in front of a small invited audience at TG’s studios in Hackney (which I take to mean “The Death Factory” at 10 Martello Street E8).

Those who were present are listed on the back of the album sleeve and are a veritable “who’s who” of the end of TG and beginning of the next stage – a transition.

The albm is therefore TG’s live sound without the audience-baiting, all four members concentrating on the music in full, with full studio clarity. (Plus TG, almost uniquely, were honest enough to admit that a little bit of post-production and re-recording took place after the event. These days people don’t even admit they’ve done their mix CD’s in Pro-Tools!).

The first piece features two cornets being phased in and out. Listening to this again* I can see how so many industrial kids ended up getting into stuff like Shaka. The cornets echoing in and out make this just like some kind of uber-ambient dub track. This fades into a section featuring some effects-laden guitar and clicky electronic rhythm. It almost sounds like Sonic Youth until Gen’s vocals come in: “Standing here in the desert /  how much do you love me / Can the world be as sad as it seems?” Manson’s lyrics bleeding into Burroughs’ text. The track collapses into effects, noise, a recording of someone breathing, pre-techno bleeps.

“Ambient” is probably a theme I will return to throughout this list. Industrial’s refusal of rock constraints gave it the freedom not to have boom-tish drum beats all of the time, or even “songs”. Many of the records can therefore be seen (and used) as dark ambient pieces. Not necessarily for “chilling out” in the normal sense, but for allowing yourself to be immersed in particular emotions, contemplation.

The last track on side one** is a great droney filmic piece in which Gen’s monotone vocals act as the foreground to a soundscape of phased loops and beats. It’s incredibly dream-like in the same way that Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” is. Often when people talk about TG they either focus on the harsh noisey bits or the bits which-can-be-seen-as-a-precursor-to-techno. But for my money there’s a whole swathe of moody downtempo stuff which TG did perfectly – tinges of dark psychedelia kraut/post- rock, whatever you want to call it. Stunning.

Indeed, the first few bars of side two ARE downtempo techno – albeit Dr Who style rather than E/rave style. This is followed by an ambiguous spoken-word duet between Cosey and (I have always presumed) Chris. The male part is insistent and mono-maniacal, the female part is more distant and vague. It’s about a girl being pestered for sex, but it’s more than that, it’s about power relationships… alienaton…

And thence to the funkless robotic groove (in a good way!) of “Don’t do what you’re told – do what you think”) Again, the reverb and repeated vocal snatches are light years ahead of the game, but this track is slightly marred in retrospect by the bass which is unable to escape from a few slightly rockist scales. It’s almost as if even TG couldn’t bring themselves to “merely” reproduce a few carefully focussed bass notes ad infinitum.

Cut to hypnosis tape/sound of equipment being turned off. Black.

2ND CHOICE: Throbbing Gristle – D.O.A. The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle. (Industrial Records, 1978)

A hard one, but if Heathen Earth is a perfectly conceived whole, D.O.A. probably captures da Gristle’s diversity the best. 20 Jazz Funk Greats is possibly the most accessible LP and includes catchy pop numbers like “Hot on the Heels of Love” & “Persuasion”. 2nd Annual Report is sheer power. But D.O.A. wins for me – you get perfect synth pop like “AB/7A”, disturbing ballads like “Weeping” and “Hamburger Lady”, bizarre satanic boogie woogie in the form of “Hit by a Rock” and “Blood on the Floor” and more ambient pieces – both quiet and bastard noisy. Oh and the now legendary answerphone messages.

AVOID:

Impressive though it is, you’d be a headcase to start your TG experience with Mute’s recent TG24 – 24 hours of live recordings. Similarly there are a shedload of dubious LPs of uncertain origin out there which can generally be dispensed with.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The Axis Arcives at Brainwashed include some great interviews. See also the link below for the all-new official site.

You could also check out “Wreckers of Civilisation” by Simon Ford and the two volumes of RE/SEARCH which deal with Throbbing Gristle – one is a TG/Gysin/Burroughs special, one is the self-explanatory “Industrial Culture Handbook”.

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*(TG on headphones, in the summer, on my own? It’s like being 18 again…

*Because, yes we are talking vinyl here, and yes we are talking the original Industrial Records edition, spotters. But not on Blue Vinyl. That would just be vulgar!

genre benders

Matt ties himself in knots. Genres, eh? Way of categorising records in shops, or basis for your identity?

Matt is thrown by Paul Meme’s almost pathological enthusiasm for stuff, which means that “music Paul likes” = industrial.

However Matt has already invested quite a lot in NOT liking industrial music. Being good chaps, there is obviously some cross-over. Hence confusion.

It seems clear to me that Cabaret Voltaire and Neubauten are industrial. The cabs released stuff on Industrial Records (possibly just cassettes?), supported TG at gigs and were interviewed in the seminal “Industrial Culture Handbook” by RE/SEARCH.

Neubauten fit squarely into the mid-80s Some Bizzare scene which also included PTV and Coil (and the Cabs/Foetus/Test Dept/SWANS – etc mmmmmmmmm!).

23 Skidoo included David Tibet in their early ritualistic incarnation and one of their members lived next door to the P-Orridges in Hackney. Plus they played the heavily industrial “Final Academy” Burroughs-fest.

I suppose there is room for a number of sub-categories (including the whole new-beat spin-off).

Paul is just as guilty, however, for refusing to accept the gothic elements of Killing Joke, Joy Division and Coil.