Just like last year I don't have any look back on my photographic activities to offer. I did some fine stuff though, but I'm just way behind with the scanning and cleaning of my negatives again. So basically I'm continuing collecting pictures yet to be presented, while I just don't have the drive to determine what are my favorites now. And like every year a part of me hopes that at some point I will shift the focus of this blog a little bit back towards the photographic topics at some point. Probably still not too realistic, since I'm also writing reviews for / sharing reviews with a new webzine now...
Right here and now I'll just cover one little musical "leftover" and a new release. There are of course still more than a handful of 2021 releases, which I will probably cover in 2022, once I receive their physical copies.
But before that let me not answer the question whatever was up with my own band DruturuM this year:
After we started the year with "Druturum VII: enigmAoFrelativitY", we where pretty sure to finish "Druturum VIII" in April or May. But then we just didn't rehearse anymore for some reason. Yeah, I don't know. Just like I said: I can't really answer the question.
But now let's see what less lazy musicians have done for us:
Already mentioned as supplement in my albums of the year post, the Indonesian experimental duo Senyawa has not ony released the phenomenal "Alkisah" in 2021, but also a digital album called "Membaladakan Keselamatan (Ballads for the Survivors)", which features acoustic renditions of twelve songs from "Alkisah" and previous releases, performed only with guitar and voice - yet still astonishingly full and heavy. There is just a primal beauty and energy about this mystically anachronistic music. Together with the insane vocal skills of Rully Shabara it's a completely unique experience like nothing else. And even without self-build electronic instruments this collection of ballads is a powerful masterpiece.
And of course today is the day to feature my deranged Dutch darlings Dead Neanderthals, who once again released a monstrous one-track EP for New Year's Eve. The twenty-five-minute mammoth "Corporeal Flux" sees Otto Kokke and René Aquarius teaming up with none other than Sumac/Old Man Gloom throat and guitar punisher Aaron B. Turner. And it's fucking mean, sick and glorious! However I'll leave it at this here, because I've already promised to deliver a fresh review about it to Veil Of Soundtomorrow and don't want to write shit twice.
In previous years this picture would have looked different, because I made it a Christmas tradition to gift myself a calendar with prints of concert photographs I had taken with my Harinezumi camera during the year. This time there was of course a painful lack of material to do that, so I just bought an empty calendar on which I tape some old stuff at the beginning of each month. Which is nice too, since it gives some old prints a purpose for a couple of weeks.
But yeah, it's now one year since I was able to write about a live show on this blog. Which is not only sad for the fact that I fucking need live music in my life, but also because those live reviews have kind of become the soul of this whole blog operation. Of course they never made the majority of entries here, but without them my motivation - or let's better say my creative inspiration - to write about music in general is... not really declining, but surely wavering to some degree.
Partially it may also be an attention matter. Not that I generally have a big problem with writing mostly for myself and a rather small crowd (I wouldn't randomly switch between english and german or just change the blog title as often as I do if I had), but it is nice to get some traction here and there. And that mainly happens through artists who actively share my writings on facebook (like Laibach as a prime example) and live reviews plus the occasional other lucky link.
Some photographic topics also have that potential to attract viewers, but I've been getting more and more behind in scanning, editing and publishing my pictures, and I don't see that changing in the near future. Especially for the editing part I just rarely find the nerves these days, even though I mostly just clean up scratches and lint from the negatives.
I didn't even bother to compilate my photographic highlights of 2020 here. I have still shot stuff (both released and unreleased) which I'm pretty happy with, but there are just too many distractions and changes outside of my hobbies right now, and ultimately I have to draw some lines where I admit that just don't have enough time and energy left at the moment.
One of said changes is that I'm transitioning into a new full-time job outside of my home right now. I know, that's not the most exemplary move during a pandemic, but it's just impossible to learn new tasks and processes from the reclusive comfort of your home office. It's a relatively safe environment, the occasional covid-19 test inclusive, though. That test isn't as bad as I imagined it to be, but boy, I'm still very much in for the vaccine, so please bring it!
And while there are of course significants ups about my new occupation (why else would I've taken it?), there are of course a couple of downsides, which might affect the form and/or frequency of this blog. Less opportunity to listen to music is undoubtly a major one, but also the luxury of just writing or proof-reading a couple of lines during lunch break will surely be missed.
So if there'll be significantly less post here in the future, you have an idea why that's the case. But maybe there won't even be such a drastic difference. I honestly don't know. Let's just see how things go...
What I know for sure though is that it's only around ten hours until the next Bandcamp Friday.
So what are you waiting for? Get this one!
Or this!
Or this!
It's all pay what you want, so where's the harm? Come on! :)
Der Kompositionsaufwand war diesmal ähm... leicht geringer als sonst. Wir haben Montag Abend einfach eine Stunde lang improvisiert, woraus ich dann nachher sechs Tracks extrahiert habe. Und für "druturum VII-IV" habe ich Dienstag noch ein paar Minuten zusätzliches Bildmaterial für die Videoversion gedreht.)
Das Setup bestand aus einem Tisch, einer Bassdrum, Glockenspiel, Klangschalen, WahWah-Tube und Glöckchen. Nein, das ist definitiv kein Metal, besitzt aber seinen eigenen speziellen Charme, hat atmosphärische Passagen und überraschende Action, sowie hör- und sichtbaren Spaß zu bieten.
Ob "Druturum VIII" noch reduzierter und improvisierter ausfallen oder aus noch mehr Tracks bestehen wird? Das wissen wir noch nicht. Aber da Konzerte ja noch längere Zeit illusorisch bleiben dürften, ist bühnenuntauglichst experimentellen Eskapaden natürlich Tür und Tor geöffnet. Ich mache ich hier allerdings keine Versprechungen bzw. Androhungen. ;)
Alle sechs Tracks von "Druturum VII: enigmAoFrelativitY" kannst Du dir hier auf YouTube anschauen:
Und wie immer gibt's das Ganze natürlich auch auf Bandcamp zum Streamen und Downloaden:
Und da ist sie seit gestern nun endlich, die neue Veröffentlichung von DruturuM!
Da diesmal ja von Anfang an klar war, dass es keine Liveversion vor Publikum geben würde, sondern dass die im Proberaum aufgenommene, mit Videomaterial aufgehübschte Aufnahme die alleinige, endgültige Version sein würde, haben wir auf einen Zusatz wie "home session" verzichtet.
Eingespielt wurde natürlich trotzdem alles live, wobei wir allerdings nicht alle Tracks am Stück angegangen sind, sondern "druturum VI-II" eine Woche später aufgenommen haben. Hier können Filmfehler-Nerds dann auch einen continuity error finden, weil die Drum-Kamera leider nach fünf Minuten aufgegeben hatte und ich somit später etwas Bildmaterial vom vorigen Take verbraten musste. Man muss aber schon genau hinschauen, hehe.
Musikalisch ist es super ruhig und reduziert geraten, so dass ständige Nebengeräusche wie Tastenanschläge und Hockerknacken zur Performance dazugehören. Dafür konnten wir das Ganze ganz geringaufwendig mit nur einem Stereomikrofon aufzeichnen.
So ein bisschen kann man sagen, dass es sich bei den drei Stücken um eine Mischung aus Post- und Psychrock, Doomjazz und Elementen von Earth und Anna von Hausswolff in minimalistischer Hausmusikadaption inklusive einer gesunden Prise Dilletantismus handelt - was aber einige erstaunlich große Gefühle nicht ausschließt!
Nicht zuletzt durch das Video-Editing ist die Instrumentaltrilogie auch zu einer Art Requiem für unsere Großeltern geworden, die beide während der Zeit, in der "Druturum VI" entstanden ist, verstorben sind.
Dies sind die Videos:
Und während ich während einer der letzten Besuche im großelterlichen Garten noch Material für einen Trailer schoss, passierte ganz antizyklisch zur Grundstimmung noch etwas witziges:
Den Stream / Download von "Druturum VI: Tightrope Walkers on the Junction of Memory, Dream and Oblivion" gibt es wie immer auf Bandcamp, wo auch noch weitere englischsprachige Liner Notes zu finden sind.
Außerdem ist dort auch der im Video zu sehende 60 x 60 cm Leinwandruck des Covers als einmaliger Merch-Artikel zu erwerben:
Back in March/April I was still playing with the thought of ranking my favorite live streams, but for several reasons I soon gave up on that. Even though I've seen some great live stream performances, it is just not the same as being there in the flesh, and the formats and possibilities in which artists do them are just as different and unfair to compare as my personal attention span while watching stuff happening on the screen.
Some bands are low-fi broadcasting from their rehearsal rooms or just doing unplugged sessions from their kitchen, others have high quality production values with multiple cameras and shit, others just have one angle, while they are playing in empty concert venues.
Many live streams aren't really live, but prepared recordings. Which is all fine, but just makes it impossible to put them in a list. And then I also happened to stumble over some good stuff, which I couldn't include, because I don't remember the artist's name...
So here's just a couple of recommendations of streams, which are still available online right now!
And while we're already here in the internet, below that this post also contains my TOP 10 downloads, as in: music releases of all shapes and sizes, which where mainly or even exclusively available in digital form.
ORANSSI PAZUZU performs "Mestarin Kynsi"
One of the best live bands in metal right now playing one of the best metal albums of the year in full. Consequently all that could go wrong in this stream was the production, but hell no: Sound, direction, effects and camera work (all shifting a little from track to track) are almost ridiculously awesome, matching the flawless performance of the Finnish psychedelic black metal masters. What a maelstrom!
ELECTRIC MOON live at Vortex Surfer Musikclub Siegen
This was one of those live streams where the band just plays on the stage of an empty live club with a couple of cameras filming. This concept often feels sad, especially when the musicians are used to rock in energetic exchange with huge crowds. Luckily jam-based krautrock like Electric Moon is among those styles of music which lend themselves to session situations with just the performers on their own anyway. With a special four-piece lineup due to pandemic seperation from their regular drummer, half of the band had never actually played together before, which gives this show an extra boost of adventurous exploration.
VILE CREATURE performs "Glory! Glory! Apathy Took Helm!"
This duo (with guest musicians) is long overdue to receive some praise here, not only because their sludgy doom is the shit, but also because they don't take themselves too serious in a refreshing way. When this full performance of their recent album went live, you could enjoy it as a full music club simulation by choosing between multiple camera angles. Those included a balcony view, the merch booth, backstage (cuddling with cats) and most hilariously "tall guy in front of you", which basically meant there was one guy filming the band from the empty floor and another dude standing behind him to film his back for the whole show. Apart from some canned applause the still available master cut doesn't include all those shenanigans, but it's still one of my favorite streams I've seen this year.
CENTRE EL MUUSA - sunrise concert in Aidu windmill park
So far I haven't seen any band taking social distancing further than Estonian krautrockers Centre El Muusa on this recently released live video, which shows them jamming it out from darkness to dawn in the giant scenery of a wind energy park. Cut with drone views of the environment this video is pretty breathtaking, which makes it easy for me to forgive that some passages of the music are - while not bad at all - a bit too one-dimensional for my taste.
AMANDA PALMER live in Hawke's Bay, Aotearoa NZ
Not as thematically heavy as her ginormous "There Will Be No Intermission" programme, this show found Amanda Palmer in a different place. Quite literally indeed, since after being stranded there during lockdown, she spend most of the year in New Zealand, which is probably one of the safest places to be during pandemic times. So this stream from an opera house in November actually features a real, even maskless audience. And of course this a brilliant, heartfelt and humorous tearjerker. To say it with one of her finest songs: It's a ride.
Chaos Theory livestream music show feat. ÅRABROT, JO QUAIL and COMA WALL
You want it even more talkative between songs than Amanda Palmer? Well, this stream was basically an interview show with three groups / artists and prepared clips of special acoustic quarantine performances. If you don't have two hours of time on your hands you can skip over all the other stuff though and just enjoy the music, which is quite a left-field, but above all extremely beautiful and cohesive gathering. Be it Årabrot with their dramatic post punk gothic country charme, cellist Jo Quail going fully classical, yet remaining as exciting as ever, or the enchanting vocal harmonies in the doomy grunge of the revived Coma Wall (aka the acoustic side of Undersmile) - this is all amazing stuff reminding me of why I fucking love music.
ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF - "All Thoughts Fly" release concert in Örgryte New Church
"All Thoughts Fly" is a special, magical album and seeing it played live in the church and on the pipe organ of its recording adds another dimension to it. It's quite interesting to realize how much this is actually a band performance, even though everyone's just playing (or processing the sounds of) that one huge instrument. Of all streams here (except the following of course) I have watched this one by far the most. Despite two of the three cameras showing almost no perceptible action. Mighty!
DRUTURUM - "Druturum VI: Tightrope Walkers on the Junction of Memory, Dream and Oblivion"
Yes! Despite all obstacles of this year DruturuMis finally releasing a new live session on December 26th. Of course I'm going write a post entirely devoted to this one later, but forgive me that I also have to plug it here! If you like Anna von Hausswolff, Earth, psychedelic rock and doomjazz, but performed in a very stripped-down fashion, including the use of toy instruments and a pinch of dilettantism mixed with great emotions, we've got you covered. Definitely our most calm and introspective work so far and we're quite proud of it. (Watch a trailer HERE!)
An early favorite from the distant "before times" (=February) this collection of four avant-garde duet improvisations by Toby Driver (Kayo Dot) and Nick Hudson (The Academy Of Sun) is a true testament to the musical chemistry of these musicians and never ceased to mesmerize me as a calming yet still stirring companion through all the troubled times this year had to offer. Piano, guitar and vocals formed to a piece of art that has a good place on Bandcamp, but would rightfully deserve to be pressed on vinyl by a label like Denovali or RareNoiseRecords.
Always such a shame what phenomenal shows you miss at every Roadburn! This 2019 live recording from the mighty Old Man Gloom and their alter ego Zozobra is absolutely killing it, as the hardcore/sludge/doom apes Aaron Turner, Nate Newton, Stephen Brodsky and Santos Montano were totally levelling the 013 venue to the ground. Brutal and punishing, but also quite versatile and just plain fucking fun, this makes being screamed and punched in the face an addictive joy.
I must admit that I haven't really felt a great interest in the physical releases of Archive's 25th anniversary year yet. Which probably is a little ungrateful from my side, given that the band gave us this free download for a couple of weeks in February/March. It's a high-quality compilation of a whopping twenty live recordings, including several long epics like "Lights", "Again", Controlling Crowds" and "Dangervisit". Enormous!
The "high priestess of psychedelic Arabic Jazz", composer / trumpet and horn player Yazz Ahmed released a couple of Bandcamp Friday things, among which this live recording from the summer of 2018, including tunes from "La Saboteuse" and "Polyhymnia" is my clear favorite. One of the most important contemporary jazz fusion artists killing it with a phenomenal quintet. What more do I have to say?
Yet another Roadburn live album, probably the hardest release to listen to on this list - and without a doubt the one with the laziest cover artwork. After this experimental electronic ambient and drone plus vocal weirdness trio of Dennis Tyfus, Will Brooks (Dälek) and once again Aaron Turner (Sumac, Old Man Gloom) had cleared the audience at Roadburn 2019, I knew that I wanted to re-experience their performance as a live album. Finally here it is and it's fantastic unsettling shit!
Kristin Hayter was also busy unleashing several Bandcamp Friday tracks, and as always it's all emotionally hard-hitting material. From a new recording of her known Dolly Parton cover "Jolene" over her deconstructions of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" and Eminem's "Kim" to her own mighty "O Ruthless Great Divine Director" and the very uncomfortable experimental collage "Failed Forest // Golden Grid" - what Lingua Ignota touches is great oppressive and painful art.
And of course shortly after I had written this paragraph there was the final Bandcamp Friday of 2020 and the artist not only shared one more track, but twelve of those, being "The Caligula Demos" whech led to the later album, "fragments, motifs, repetition, cuts, warts and all". Similar but also quite distinct from what it became later, this material is already extremely fascinating and mesmerizing on its own.
I know, I know, I don't have that new Napalm Death album yet, even though what I've heard from it so far is awesome. But speaking of awesome, ND bassist Shane Embury's experimental electronic ambient/industrial solo project Dark Sky Burial more than makes up for this shortage in my collection with a debut album overflowing with creative eclecticism. Definitely among the most fitting soundtracks to the overall mood of this year.
The only reason this is not higher up in this list is the lack of quantity, as "Staying Power" is just one single song with a regular four minutes length. But boy, what a song it is!
Well, it is a previously unreleased track from the "On Dark Horses" sessions, and just like everything on that album Emma Ruth Rundle's performance on voice and guitar is deeply moving, strong and vulnerable in her unique beautiful way.
Yeah, what this Italian duo does is pretty much on the nose and it sounds exactly like the best imaginable version of what the cover artwork promises. Chuck Schuldiner goes instrumental synthwave, as Nitelight cover the whole "Symbolic" album and in translating it into a totally different musical language prove once again, just how good these compositions are.
Unsurpringly if you dig this you also can't possibly say no to the single Helloween bonus track "Zombie Ritual", which sees the "Scream Bloody Gore" Death classic get the same irresistable Carpenter Brut style danceable makeover.
Speaking of Helloweeen, that was also the occasion for French avant-garde black metal working animal Asthâghul aka Esoctrilihum to drop this three-track EP. And just like on his full albums so much is happening during the (in this case) twenty minutes that you're tricked into thinking the actual playing time is much longer. I called this the "Altars Of Madness" effect - which is also a good stylistic reference, especially for the final track "Lugalugkuh". All in all "F`htansg" is a great nice little demonic black/death inferno and probably a good entry point into the cosmos of this project.
After my TOP 22 albums and my TOP 20 live shows it's time for the third and last part of my musical rewind of 2019, where I gather everythink else I want to rank or mention.
Which isn't very much this time, because two new 7" records (and one of them being a magazine extra) doesn't really justify a list. So here are my TOP 3 EPs and live recordings - and then three videos with my honestly most favorite music stuff of the year. Please check them out!
Here's yet another example of "one excellent release per year just isn't enough". Think of "Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery" as a colourful ball of modelling clay; to fit it into a shorter running time you press it together with all your power. Its particles are closer together now, everything is tighter. The electronics are crispier, the droning keys are vibrating deeper. The beats are harder to resist and the saxophone reaches higher to the stars. The Comet Is Coming are just getting a little bit better with each LP or EP. Just as the album "The Afterlife" also features one track with a guest poet / musician, the male counterpart to Kate Tempest, if you will. It's Joshua Idehen, who we already love from his contributions to Sons Of Kemet's "Your Queen Is A Reptile".
Drone. Super drone. Radar Men From The Moon drone. No, wait! I've already reserved this introduction for another release. (See live recordings below!) It works for both bands though, since this EP from the Dutch psych heads especially in its more ambient moment feels very much alike Ulver's "Drone Activity". RMFTM's approach however is more direct, meaner and harder. When they're using harsh electronic beats you can imagine JK Flesh nodding in approval of this buzzdroning grumble-bee of a record.
Named after the last song of the album "Earth Air Spirit Water Fire" from Selim Lemouchi & His Enemies, it his no big surprise that this group, which was founded for a commissioned Roadburn performance, is basically a merger of the late guitarist's last psychedelic rock and his occult proto-metal with The Devil's Blood. The stomping beats with that signature groove, the hard rock powerchords, the layered lead guitars harmonizing into eternity... and of course she herself on lead vocals, "the Devil's Mouth" Farida Lemouchi, whose longing, mystical voice has been dearly missed. If the the sound of this EP would just be a tad clearer and the running time a little longer, "Morning Haze / Drops Of Sunlight" could have been my number one here.
Drone. Super drone. Ulver drone. Two weeks before an event called (surprise!) "Drone Activity" in a former fish warehouse in Oslo Krystoffer Riggs' famous local band was invited to play a show there and agreed to perform 90 minutes of exclusive new music. Some band members could only come shortly before the performance, the drummer wasn't available at all. But somehow they managed to prepare just enough basic structures to have it bloom into a phenomenal dronescape. Edited down to four massive tracks this resulted in an album dramatically different than - yet truly on par with - their last studio work "The Assassination Of Julius Caesar".
When the Finnish blackadelic hypnotribalistic colossevil cosmic black metal force Oranssi Pazuzu played in Het Patronaat in 2016 the interest in the band was much bigger than the room. So they made a triumphant return in 2017, which is documented on this gigantic record. Considering that they already co-created my personal album of the year with the Waste Of Space Orchestra, this an extremely pleasant icing on the Pazuzu cake.
[Speaking about dark and epic Roadburn records: Mizmor's "Yodh: Live At Roadburn 2018" is another jewel of doom and black metal you don't want to miss!]
No, I won't delve deep into the genius of Zeal & Ardor's black metal meets gospel meets blues in an alternative universe mix again right now. But what I cannot emphasize enough is the pure mass of hits on this live recording. Only the debut EP and one full album are not much material for the kind of headlining status Manuel Gagneux's band has already achieved, so there's a whole handful of new songs which are celebrated just as euphoric as the rest of the repertoire. All in all "Live In London" is not only a great live recording, but also an excellent point to start in case you're still new to Zeal & Ardor.
and else?
I've thought about including other rankings, but I just don't have enough 10" records or re-issues or whatever to justify them. The category of disappointments is not only negative, but it also feels so samey, because every year there are bands who disbanded (Subrosa), lost crucial members (Sinistro) or avoided Hamburg / Northern Germany on their tours (hello, Earth!), so I'm not doing that either.
That leaves me to conclude with my own shit...
DRUTURUM activities:
DruturuMsadly did not play live this year. Yeah, it's been a horribly long time now.
However we finally finished "Druturum V: Wayfarer" and played a live home session of it in our rehearsal room in April. As always there are some small mistakes, but all in all we are very proud of this huge chunk of Danelectro drone with lots of psychedelica, Glockenspiel and some surprising twists and turns in it.
You can watch the whole session - flavoured with lots of my photographs and some new Digital Harinezumi video sequences - in three parts on our YouTube playlist:
Even though we haven't practiced it since then, we're still willing to do one exlusive "real" live performance of "Druturum V: Wayfarer" with an audience at some point. Maybe even as a double feature, if we're allowed to, haha.
Because meanwhile we're working on "Druturum VI: Tightrope Walkers on the Junction of Memory, Dream and Oblivion", which will again feature some new instruments and styles and already has a very fine cover artwork (1972, Ohlsen family archives):
Es war in letzter Zeit mangels leider ein bisschen schwierig, sich um meine eigene Musik zu kümmern, doch die Gebrüder Ohlsen sind fest entschlossen, mit DruturuMnun bald tiefer in die Komposition von "Druturum VI" (noch unbetitelt) einzutauchen.
In der zwischenzeit kann man sich auf YouTube die komplette home session von "Druturum V: Wayfarer" zu Gemüte führen. Dies sind Liveaufnahmen aus zwei Durchgängen des Programms (deswegen wird es bei "druturum V-III" draußen heller) vom 6. April 2019.
Unsere Audioaufnahmemöglichkeiten haben sich gesteigert, von daher klingt das Ding wesentlich fetter als unsere letzten Rehearsal-Mitschnitte!
Und da nur zwei Typen im Proberaum über eine Dreiviertelstunde doch etwas wenig sind, enthalten die drei Videos auch die Lyrics und ich habe einiges an Fotos aus meinem Archiv und Digital Harinezumi-Filmen als Schnittmaterial darin verbraten:
Und falls sich jemand fragt: Da fehlt doch was?
Ja, der Livetermin für die einmalige Aufführung dieses Programms steht immer noch aus. Notfalls machen wir das jetzt auch nach "Druturum VI". Wichtig war uns vor allem, das Ding nach der ohnehin schon langen Zeit endlich kreativ abzuschließen.
Den Stream / Download, sowie noch detaillierte Liner Notes kann man wie immer auf Bandcamp finden:
It's end-of-the-year list season. The "big one" with my favorite albums and concerts of 2018 is already done, so here comes the appendix with the best of other musical stuff.
While compiling it I realized that it really was an album-centric year for me. I obtained so few 7" or 10" records, split releases or download-only stuff, that it would be silly to make lists of any of those categories. So the whole thing is a rather short one this time.
To compensate I've thought about reviving the cheerful disappointments section, but despite being the longest text here that actually didn't generate too much solid content either.
The final part of this post is just a look back on what little my own experimental duo was doing this year.
Droning. Mystical. Colossal. Judging from the playing time this work may count as an EP, but the sonic reality is that Dark Buddha Rising rolls over your senses like a cosmic giant.
Watching Bell Witch open Roadburn 2015 with their genius duet take on funeral doom still counts as one my most imprinting concert experiences in recent years. So to finally get this show as a crushing record is the best addition to the two special 2018 Roadburn shows I could ever imagine - and another worthy tribute to the late Adrian Guerra. Worship the shit out of this!
Yes, the music is as insane as the title. This Turkish / Japanese free jazz / noise rock cooperation is definitely among this year's most borderline crazy advantgarde shit releases. Also - to make things even weirder -, don't confuse this with previous year's studio album of the same name, which is comprised of totally different compositions!
Even though I already own the studio album and have witnessed the very last of those rare shows for it at Roadburn, I still got my fingers on this live album, which once again features the stellar collaboration of Swedish post metal force Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas. Some vocal arrangements may remain unperformable, but the live setting adds so much energy and so many layers at other places, that it has become my most listened-to version of "Mariner".
While the first-time vinyl release of Swans' "Die Tür Ist Zu" may be of more exclusive content, I have to go with this 10 year anniversary reissue of Earth's already timeless and legendary masterpiece here. I had this on CD, but not only for the bonus track the vinyl is an upgrade. So much fuller and richer... It's almost like discovering a whole new record for me.
When has western psychedelic desert doom ever sounded cooler?
Disappointments 2018?
I don't know about any huge disappointments... Has any band or artist fucked it up big time? Nothing severe comes to mind.
Of course bands are disbanding. Norway's advantgarde metal specialists Virus are a huge loss that comes to mind immediately.
And then there's the never-ending "Laibach Revisited" story. The release has grown into a big, extremely promising box set, which I already have pre-ordered and payed for, but it has been postponed from September to spring 2019. While it is a bit annoying, the reason is that they are still adding additional stuff like a whole extra album. So that's fine with me.
I'm significantly more pissed that my vinyl copy of "The Sound Of Music" still hasn't found its way to me. Fucking Christmas.
Bruce Dickinsson outing himself as a Brexiteer, that was a shame. Well, he's rich. But yeah, that's not really music-related. And if we're going in that direction, the world has become way too absurd to do it justice here.
I guess my major general complaint is that the year goes by so fast, with so many albums which I still haven't bought or listened to yet. I mean, you still need some time to process all of it, right?
Of course I cannot blame Dead Can Dance, Florence + The Machine, Obscura, Sons Of Kemet etc. for me not having purchased their albums yet.
On the other hand just a little pinch of scepticism about the musical direction can hold me back for a long time - as seen with Khemmis, who after two great works are now maybe too traditional metal / hard rock for me? Don't know, I should really take a listen.
Same goes for Janelle Monae, who has finally delivered a successor to 2015's "The Electric Lady", but ditched her Cindi Mayweather persona. "Dirty Computer" has at least some good tracks on it, I know, but I'm having a hard time adjusting to the aesthetics of those modern pop royalty productions... The same thing made me avoid previous year's Kendrick Lamar album.
Damn.
DRUTURUM activities:
And finally a brief look back on my personal activities with Druturum.
Due to the concept of exclusive shows itself and occasional difficulties to find rehearsal time, our tour schedule will always be easy to oversee, that's for sure. At the moment we're patiently working on "Druturum V: Wayfarer", but it will still take a while until we can confirm a date and location.
This year in May we've played two very different shows. For more background information follow the links to the respective bandcamp pages (english) or posts in this blog (german)!
Mit einem halbstündigen Ein-Track-Programm eröffneten wir ein Dreier-Paket aus dem finnischen Ein-Mann-Projekt Horizon Of The Mute, dem Drone-Doom-Duo Father Sky Mother Earth und uns, das sich auf dem Plakat vor "D"s kaum retten konnte: Dark, Death, Doom, Drone, Duo, DruturuM:
Dass es als lokale Undergroundband mit unberechenbarer Randgruppenmusik nie einfach ist, in Line-Ups zu geraten, die als Ganzes hundertprozentig stimmig sind, ist für uns ja nichts neues. Umso erstaunlicher, wie gut es hier passte, mit drei Shows, die alle unter "special interest" laufen, einen starken Drone-Anteil hatten und dabei doch sehr unterschiedliche Seiten aufzeigten.
Father Sky Mother Earth haben das meditative Drone-Doom-Ding mit starker individueller Note einfach perfekt drauf. Und man staunt, dass Musik, die sich so sehr nach amplifier worship anhört, ganz leichtgepäckig ohne Verstärker auskommt.
Jani aka Horizon Of The Mute ist abseits der Bühne ein symphatischer Kerl, sein industrial-, black/death- und drone-geschwängerter Auftritt läuft bei mir allerdings unter "Singer/Songwriter from hell". Sehr abgründig, qualvoll und böse! Nice.
Und wir? Spielten ein knapp halbstündiges Drone/Elektro/Metal-Stück mit Scooter- und Verschwörungstheoretiker-Einfluss. Es kam auch gut an, weshalb mein im Vergleich zu sonst erhöhtes Lampenfieber im Nachhinein ungerechtfertigt erscheint. Aber es war wohl die neue Situation ganz ohne Schlagzeug und/oder Mikrofon, die mir dann doch einen kleinen Bühnentatter verpasst hat.
Schön unschön geworden ist es zwar trotzdem - dennoch gefällt mir meine persönliche Performance am Korg Monotron Duo in der Probeversion besser. Dafür klang mein Sample/Finger-Drumming live nicht wie ein besoffener Drumcomputer, hehe.
Wir empfehlen jedenfalls, in beide Versionen reinzuhören, dröhnen und umpffumpffumpffen tun sie nämlich beide gut.
Und hier nun die mediale Aufbereitung von "Druturum IV: The Science Behind Angel Encounters":
Ok, damit ist dieses Kapitel geschlossen und ich habe ein egroße Ausrede weniger, endlich mein Review für den letzten Roadburn-Tag zu schreiben.
Und für DruturuM geht nun der ganze kreative Zyklus von vorne los. Wird es mal wieder musikorientierter? Spielen wir endlich flohmarktbühnentauglichen Dad Rock? Wir werden sehen! In ein paar Monaten irgendwo in Norddeutschland...
