GGGOLDDD - This Shame Should Not Be Mine

Of all the music I have already reviewed this year, the new album of Gggolddd (formerly known as Gold and renamed for purely pragmatically reasons of being easier to find and identified) is surely one of the most anticipated.

It began its life as commissioned piece for last year's online edition of Roadburn and became not only my favorite stream of that extraordinary weekend, but in fact the most played show of them all.

That surely came as a surprise to everyone involved, since a whole performance dedicated to an intimate personal account of sexual violence is quite a heavy prospect and doesn't exactly appear as the greatest possible crowd magnet. On the other hand the relevance of the subject of course is indisputable; and it's relieving to see that honest art of burning matters can resonate with such a large audience. Even if due to a pandemic the audience isn't physically present.

Without Covid-19 and the sudden break from work, touring and regular social life however, singer Milena Eva wouldn't have been forced to face the reality of her repressed trauma in the first place.
"This Shame Should Not Be Mine" above all other meanings you could find in it for yourself, was a powerful expression of the will to overcome trauma.

And now it has been turned into Gggolddd's latest and most significant studio album.
  

GGGOLDDD - This Shame Should Not Be Mine (2CD Deluxe Edition) (2022)

Musically Gold have often been dubbed post everything. Post post rock, post post punk, even post post black metal at times, their hypnotic rock music is catchy and familiar, but also dark, often distanced and hard to grasp with your usual preconceptions.

On "This Shame Should Not Be Mine" Gggolddd changes gears and introduces a lot of bass-heavy, yet very clean and often minimal electronic elements. More than ever the music follows the story and emotions of the vocal performance, so at times, in her most fragile moments, Milena sings in an almost completely abandoned void of isolation. Apart from a minimum of lowest notes or as in "On You" only an alienated alteration of her own voice accompanies her. She is alone.
But when either her anger or her confidence grow, she can rise in a blast of exploding guitar layers or cathartic rhythm, best represented in the finale "Beat By Beat", when she declares that it's time for some healing now and she needs to move her body, before the last storm of the album is set loose.

The electronic part of this song isn't the only instance on "This Shame", where the band is obviously paying tribute to Björk, which was even more undeniable during the live performance, which featured an effective interview sample of the Icelandic icon in "Invisible".

Gold live at Roadburn Redux

It's not a detail I'm necessarily missing on the studio album, but rather one of several differences, which gives both versions their own distinct power and justification.
Thankfully we have all the time in the world to explore and compare or just enjoy them both, since both the LP and the CD are available in deluxe editions with "Live At Roadburn Redux" as a bonus disc.

Among several small changes in arrangements and a different overall sound - controlled studio environment vs. the vastness of the empty live location -, the unmissable biggest difference is that the studio album is one track longer. The title track simply hadn't been finished in time for the show.

Another band I find myself reminded of a lot - be it during the trip hop beats, but also during a lot of the rock music parts and due to the emotiveness and quality of Milena Eva's vocal performance is Archive - or to be more specific Archive, when Maria Q, and even much more so  Holly Martin take the helm on the microphone. So if you're a fan of said collective and especially albums like "With Us Until You're Dead", this might really be something you should check out, even if you're not too accustomed with some of the metal influences in the sound of Gggolddd.

All in all I don't think that it matters much anyway, from which specific background of musical preferences you're coming. "This Shame Should Not Be Mine" is an important meaningful statement, a transcendent, beautifully vulnerable and strong piece of art. And also just a perfectly written and executed rock / electronic music album.

There are more thoughts I could elaborate on. I could compare Gggolddd's approach to thematically related artists like Lingua Ignota, Amanda Palmer or Emma Ruth Rundle and how they resonate in different way, but I don't think that comparison would serve any of these amazing artists.
I could gush over the symbolism of the cover photography, but if it doesn't speak for itself anyway, you're probably blind.

And finally I also just have to leave some room in my head to write about "This Shame" once more soon, because not even one week from now, Gggolddd will perform it live at Roadburn again. This time in another new version with extra string players - and hopefully with myself as one small fragment of a huge bodily attendant audience.

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live shows

Maybe, in a couple of years - if you allow me to be uncharacteristically optimistic for a moment -, when we'll look back on 2021 in regards of live music, we'll be able to say that it was the first of two transitional years of things going back to normal.

It took me more than two thirds of it though, to visit a show again - seated and with masks, when you wanted to move, but a great show nonetheless. Until then pre-recorded session streams and actual live internet broadcasts had to suffice - and they sometimes reached an incredible level of quality.

And just like in "real" life there's no way to ignore Roadburn, because Roadburn Redux not only gifted us incredible live performances like a monumental set from Neptunian Maximalism and the incredibly moving commissioned piece "This Shame Should Not Be Mine" from Gold, or amazing prepared streams from Steve von Till, Nadja, Knoll and many more, but it also became a true collective experience through social media and its own website.

The most memorable other streams were Voivod's two Hybercube Sessions, in which they performed their classic albums "Nothingface" and "Dimension Hatröss" in full with stellar performances and an absolutely jaw-dropping sound quality. In 2020 I was still too sceptical, so I missed the first of those three sessions, but I really hope those will see a Blu Ray release or something similar in the future.

Technically a rather standard TV session, yet musically so spectacular that it would be a crime not to honour it here, was Magma's ARTE performance of "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh".

It's simple unbelievable how on top of their game the French legends still weave their zeuhl magic!

All this can of course never be a full substitute of the real experience, but if shows aren't possible, I'll gladly take it!

Luckily - and who knows how long it will last? -, after nineteen long months without "real" live music, there was finally a silver lining on the horizon in September and I began to make up for lost time. At least enough to justify a top 7 list... (no extra category for festival shows though, because I've only been to one of those)

TOP 7 LIVE SHOWS 2021:

1. FRA DET ONDE - Musikhuset Dexter, Odense
   
   

   

   The best things in life are for free. Like this show of the Norwegian avant-garde free jazz trio Fra Det Onde, mixed and manipulated live on stage by Emil Nikolaisen. Their unbelievable jams presented music at its most adventurous and free-spirited. I had an absolute blast witnessing this - undoubtly one of my best life choices of this year to add this stop to my Denmark trip at short notice.
   
   
   
2. DOOL - Prophecy Fest, Balve Cave
   
   
   
   After two years of pandemic delay Dool finally were granted the opportunity to play a proper release show for their second full-length album "Summerland", and the enthusiasm to be back on stage after that forced hiatus was the extra spice on top of an already ass-kicking masterclass in the dark side of rock'n'roll.
   
   
   
3. ARTHUR BROWN - Prophecy Fest, Balve Cave
   
   
   
   Yes, it was Him, the true "God of Hellfire"! Like many other attendees of the Prophecy Fest I've never really considered seeing Arthur Brown live. I didn't even know that the 79 years young psychedelic proto hard rock pioneer was even still around. And boy, how he was - what a crazy great show!
   
      
   
   
4. MYRKUR - Musikhuset Aarhus
   
   

   

   Even though this wasn't my first Folkesange show, Myrkur's performance in the Symphonic hall of Aarhus still felt like a new magical revelation, as Amalie Bruun and her singers, drummers and string players seem to have grown a deeper connection to the beauty, but also the elementary otherworldy power of her acoustic material.
   
   
   
5. E-L-R - Prophecy Fest, Balve Cave
   
   
   
   Sludgy and post-metallic doom, which hypnotized through its slowly building repetition and above all the dreamlike harmonic vocals of both frontwomen, made the performance of the Swiss trio another truly mesmerizing experience!
   
   
   
6. ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF - Skt. Lukas Kirke, Aarhus
   
   
   
   Nothing to see at this show, as Anna and her bandmates played the pipe organ far above and behind the heads of the audience. So this concert was just about closing your eyes and wandering through the ancient haunted sound mazes of "All Thoughs Fly" in your imagination. A quite different, yet all the more memorable kind of show.
   
   
   
7. BADA - Hafenklang, Hamburg
   
   
   
   Call it drone, call it noise, call it purposely chaotic fun or majestic super heavy psych! It's all fine. What matters is that this Swedish group, which includes several members of Anna von Hausswolff's live band - including herself on keys -, is a mammothly morphing catalyst of decibel worshipping catharsis.

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live shows

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live albums

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 non-album releases

MUSIC 2021: TOP 21 albums

cassette craze chronicles V (feat. GOLD, GRAVE MIASMA, KNOLL and PUPIL SLICER)

My journey on the tape trail continues with its fifth installment, beginning with two cassettes which albeit ordered during the last Bandcamp Friday (until the continuation of this tradition in August) also feel like delayed souvenirs from the Roadburn Redux merch table:

GOLD - Optimist (2017)
GOLD - Why Aren't You Laughing? (2019)

After orbiting around in my musical cosmos on stage and digitally for a couple of years now, finally owning something from Gold in physical form was long overdue.

Often described as "post everything" these two albums present the Dutch group as exactly that. With the reserved yet emotional, fragile yet determinant voice of Milena Eva in the center, honestly yet also sarcastically dealing with relatable, heavy personal topics, everything around it - though clearly catchy and easy to grasp - can only be categorized in post terms: post punk, post rock, post metal and even post black metal.

Even though the roots in the scene around the Devil's Blood circle, to which I would also count Dool, are undoubtly present, Gold have developed a truly unique and  always evolving personality.

Both albums are great, but you can't deny a remarkable growth from "Optimist" to the masterpiece "Why Aren't You Laughing?" - a trend which after Roadburn Redux only promises to be continued.

Until then I will very much enjoy these two tapes, whoch both not only sound, but also look good. Even the lyrics are printed in a readable font and colour.

KNOLL - Interstice (2021)

Directly from the Redux merch stall (as in: ordered after seeing their stream) comes this dirty crusty gem of grind goodness made in the US.

Being the band with the youngest members on the festival bill, Knoll surprised me with how classic and at the same time fresh and energetic their sound was. Their death metal-infused grindcore was the purest, unhinged old school Napalm Death worship.

On tape it's a little bit more obvious that there's also some of the swansy / industrial stuff, which later Napalm Death loved to work in here and there too, as well as a big chunk of electronic noise noise, which lets in fact a third of the twelve tracks (the album is a little bit longer than half an hour) drown in swirling and droning static. It's fabulous!

"Interstice" is a banger which fans of extreme metal old and new should not miss out on - even though you might not get this tape, which was limited to 50 copies.

PUPIL SLICER - Mirrors (2021)

Transatlantic brothers and sisters of Knoll from another mother are Pupil Slicer, who seem to follow a similarily charged ethos, yet package it in an even more frantic and panicked musical framework of the most brutal and brain-wrenching mathcore insanity imaginable.

"Mirrors" is the heaviest shit of The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Hirsch Effekt, spiced up with the same raw and primal grind relentlessness which Knoll are utilizing. And because that mixture wasn't already fucking you up enough, guitarist / vocalist Kate Davies seemingly threw the dice on which millisecond passages of each riff landed in the trash before recording.

The result is highly unpredictable, wild, unsettling - and an immensly cathartic, neckbreaking experience. And when they get more immediately accessible like in the epic midtempo finale "Collective Unconscious" it only makes the album even better, because it  undoubtly confirms that everything here happens a hundred percent by coice.

And I can in no way imagine how the its heavy as fuck production could sound any better.

Bandcamp made a bit of a wave about this trio (which is how I found them too), and rightfully so. If Pupil Slicer can pull this lunacy off live, then they are clearly one of the hottest brutal acts of the coming years.

"Toxic green" is the exactly appropriate colour for this cassette. There are already half a dozen differently coloured tape and vinyl editions sold out by now though.

GRAVE MIASMA - Abyss Of Wrathful Deities (2021)

And finally here's yet another flavor of classix extreme metal brutality!

Did I compliment Gold on the readibility of their lyrics? Well, you can't say that about the print of Grave Miasma's "Abyss Of Wrathful Deities" tape edition. The whole layout looks good on first sight, but is just slightly off.

Luckily that doesn't diminish my love for this British death metal band. I cannot say that I listen to them very regularly, but they indisputably have a special place in my heart since my first contact with them at Hell Over Hammaburg 2017, where they unleashed a sulphuric maelstrom to the netherworld that instantly became one my favorite death metal live experiences of all time.

Stylistically this new album brings some - at least to my knowledge - new shifts in atmosphere and disharmonics to the table, yet mostly still cultivates all familiar trademarks and qualities I already know from 2016's "Endless Pilgrimage", and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's old school Florida / Vader / Nile death metal, sick evil riffs, howling Morbid Angel lead guitar duels and all, which disguises its technical flawlessness under thick layers of reverb on the vocals, giving everything a chaotic "Seven Churches" feeling, without actually relying on youthful really bad timing like Possessed on their landmark debut.

High quality evil!

ROADBURN REDUX - review

Roadburn Festival as we know and love it can't happen right now, obviously.

So this year it's Roadburn Redux - a free to watch mix of exclusive performances (mostly pre-recorded live shows from all over the world) and actual live streams from the 013 venue in Tilburg.

Add to that video premieres, interviews, documentaries... and you're quickly at the point where you decide to keep it real and - just like at Regularburn - don't even try to see everything.

The good thing is that you don't have to watch everything exactly when it happens. Until at some point on Tuesday night everything can be revisited. Good for me, since on Thursday night, when Roadburn Redux began, I was working on "druturum VIII-I" of "Druturum VIII" (further title to be revealed later) with my own band DruturuM. A great piece of psychedelectronic dronekraut low-fi weirdness is forming there, if I may say so myself...

And on Friday the party already started when I still had several hours of work to do. So was a lot to catch up to right from the start for me.

After Tuesday it's up to the artists and labels if, when and where all this greatness might reappear. Much of this would be worth a physical release.

I have written a couple of short reviews about streams in the course of the previous year, but following the fleeting nature of this happening I will keep this one rather brief and just focus on (not even all of) my highlights.
This is the stuff I re-watched, these are the shows I'd tell you about if you were foolish enough to engage in a real life conversation about Roadburn 2021 with me:

GOLD - This Shame Should Not Be Mine

Gold were already established as phenomenal genre-bending live band and being experienced in the live streaming game for me, but this show took them to a whole new level.
Premiering a commissioned personal piece about sexual violence, sounding more electronic and björk-inspired (even using an interview snippet of her as a sample) than ever, this show surely was no easy dish and had an unmatched sincere intensity. The first time I really felt that special, brave adventurous Roadburn spirit fully grabbing me at Roadburn Redux. One for the festival's history books!

I kind of hope that Gold don't even bother to turn this into a studio album, but instead just release it as it is. It's just so damn powerful and on point. Even the underlying discomfort and akwardness which shines through at the end of almost every livestream show without a direct audience, works in its favour. 

NADJA - Seemannsgarn

Drone. Metal. Mastership. Think Godflesh slowed down to infinity! One must have an amazing fantasy to imagine this fourty-minute chunk of cathartic noise possibly being any more perfect. Unconditional love!  

BADA

Bada is the band, which mostly consists of members of Anna von Hausswolff's live band, including Anna herself, but here not in the center of attention, but in the role of an equal member among others on the keys. As their debut record was a fantastic exploration of droning doomy ambient noisy psychedelic rock, so was this live recording, captioned in one of my favorite settings of all pre-recorded performances. Masterfully spellbinding atmospheres!
That one amp in the middle looks like a washing machine though.

JO QUAIL

Short and sweet. Initially the modern post rock and metal's favorite cello player was supposed to play her big commissioned piece "The Cartographer" as the only part of the canceled Roadburn 2021, but due to travel restrictions that wasn't possible. Still nice of her to bring us some dark looped, never before played string goodness in a solo performance instead. 

TRIALOGOS - Stroh Zu Gold

Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Conny Ochs, cellist/composer Sickerman and experimental musician Kiki Bohemia are Trialogos. And their mixture of experimental noises, minimalist krautrock, folk and post rock vibes, that one part which reminds me of the "Knight Rider" theme and some surprisingly heavy monster riffs was without a doubt one of Saturday's highlights. Album pre-ordered!

HAUNTED PLASMA

Sometimes the hype is real. Electronic artists (or bands with strong electronic elements) have become a vital part for Roadburn, and one of my favorite acts embracing the 0s and 1s this year might be Haunted Plasma, a dark and danceable meeting of Finnish minds, including members of Oranssi Pazuzu and guest singer Mat McNerney of Hexvessel in his most gothic register. Addictive!

KNOLL

One of the shortest shows, performed by probably the youngest guys in this Roadburn edition came from the grindcore collective Knoll. So refreshingly close to the early Napalm Death roots of the genre, but still with a distinct sound including some electronic elements. Fuck yeah, this was just pure raw fun!

NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM - Set Chaos To The Heart Of The Moon

Every Roadburn edition has this one show which you enter with ridiculously high expectations, to a point that other visitors might not take you seriously anymore. But you are in the know, and after the show everyone agrees with you that Magma, Anna von Hausswolff etc. totally won the festival.

This year that show was the larger than life spiritual jazz / drone / doom / psychedelic rock fusion extravaganza  of Neptunian Maximalism. Already when the eight members of this live incarnation of the group started the performance just standing in a row and chanting a capella you felt that this was going to be special. And indeed there's no other band out there invoking this blend of elevating cosmic chaos out there. Not even NNMM themselves in a way, because this show sounded deliberately different than their giant three-part debut "Éons", but equally as ancient, mighty and all-embracing.
No doubt, Neptunian Maximalism have done their name justice. If you're a fan of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Sun Ra Arkestra, Swans, Sunn O))), Kikagaku Moyo or just watching the communication between two drummers giving everything, this is for you.

More is more - and more than this is as good as impossible.

PLAGUE ORGAN - Orphan

When we start to talk about drummers of Roadburn Redux, there is no way around René Aquarius and his blasting-it-relentlessly-for-fourty-fucking-minutes performance with Plague Organ. Accompanied by an equally persistent almost-only-one-note bass and his Dead Neanderthals mate Otto Kokke, he delivered one of the surely most talked about instrumental performances of this weekend.
While the meditative aspects of "Orphan" may haven taken a little longer to set in than on the album, the live version made up for it with the typical Neanderthals trolling quality, which was taken to a whole new level with this display of stamina.

DEAD NEANDERTHALS - IXXO 

And the drum robot strikes again! But this time in another tempo. The Dead Neanderthals show on Sunday took their concept of pushing minimalistic ideas to maximal effect into a quite surprsing direct. While you would typically expect some kind of extreme jazz or drone noise from them, the performance of "IXXO" was actually quite... let's say listenable.
Extended to a quartet with three synth players they grooved through a hypnotically repetive krautrock piece, which you would have rather expected from Minami Deutsch or Radar Men From The Moon. Just a bit more minimalistic of course. I was actually a little disappointed that it already ended after thirty-five minutes, haha. If you can blast for fourty minutes, you can do this for a full hour, right?

STEVE VON TILL - A Remote Wilderness

Let's close this bunch of impressions with maybe the most emotionally striking performance after Gold! Why hasn't Steve von Till's solo work been more on my radar before?
What a charismatic presence. What a real voice. And what a profound work of art. If I had to choose, then this show would be among my top 3 alongside Gold and Neptunian Maximalism. I'm speechless.

DE WOLFF 

Or no, let's close this with the actually last band on the bill! The Dutch working animals DeWolff are what you could call streaming veterans by now. I've just seen them do a very entertaining special streaming show in a vintage TV show setting with many guest a while ago. And after that they played a string of nine shows a row, on each performing another one of their studio releases in full.
That probably made them the ideal candidates to jump in almost in the last minute without the chance to rehearse extendly, because Radar Men From The Moon sadly had to cancel their appearance. DeWolff confidently promised "the freakiest, dirtiest, heaviest and swampiest set we'll ever play".

Of course we're not talking The Body or Conan dirty, yet rather Dirty Purple, so yeah, it definitely was a fun vintage rock dirty blues jam party finale. Good times, fuck yeah!

MIZMOR - Wit's End

So far I've only written about live streams and pre-recorded live performances.
Of course there were also tons of audio and video premieres. Kayo Dot, Darkher, Telea Jacta meets Electric Moon or my personal favorite among all those: This epic ultra doomy commissioned track by Mizmor, which comes with a fittingly dark animated video. Looking forward for the forthcoming EP with this on it very much!

Oh wait. I forgot that that was also an amazing video premiere from Big|Brave. Well, I'm getting their new album anyway and it's not a competition, alright?

Ok folks, that's all I was able and willing to write about for now.

That doesn't mean there wasn't more quality and greatness in the line-up. Of course some artist weren't my cup of tea or failed to completely reach their full potential like the Wolvennest offspring The Nest, which despite Ryanne van Dorst being on guest vocals, just had too many aimless and dragging parts.
Similarily Solar Temple, who achieved an amazing richness of sound for two people, just could have told their whole story in half an hour instead sixty minutes.

Both shows weren't really bad at all though. Further shoutouts go to all that those flavours of black metal, be it the crushing might of Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, the class of Wesenwille, the western variant of Wayfarer or the harsh raw purity of Doodswens. There were also great ambient-influenced shows from Die Wilde Jagd,  Autarkh III, the unbelievably beautiful Of Blood And Mercury or Dirk Serries. There was the joyful experimentalism of Spill Gold and the melancholic punch to my gut seeing Hexvessel, who were the second last band I've actually seen in the flesh over a year ago. There was the dirty rock of Maggot Heart. There were Might, Tesa, Kairon; IRSE!, Doctors Of Space, Territoire and more.

And there are some a lot like The Ocean or Aaron Turner, who I still have to catch up on by the time I'm publishing this review.


What a line-up for a freaking streaming event! And what an amazing and elaborate production on all fronts! Roadburn has never done something like this before and is already setting new standards.

I didn't use all social media gimmicks which were offered, but I sure as hell successfully tried that "donate" button, because this weekend of excessive live music consumption exceeded all expectations by far and has been the best thing since forever really.


Thank you Walter, Becky, the whole Roadburn Redux team and all the artists who made this possible!

And also cheers to all fellow Reduxians, each one in their own special bubble, but united in being apart, who against all odds made this feel like a communal experience!

BANDCAMP DAY Juni 2020, mit DOOLHOF, GOLD, JO QUAIL und THE YAZZ AHMED QUINTET

So schnell kann ein Monat um sein! Es ist (noch) Freitag, der 5. Juni und schon wieder Bandcamp-Tag, d.h. die Seite verzichtet auf Gebühren, so dass alle Einnahmen zu hundert Prozent an die Künstler gehen.

Nicht alle Musiker nehmen diesen Covid 19-Bonus in Anspruch und locken entweder mit Rabattaktionen oder spenden ihren Gewinn wiederum an einen guten Zweck.

Mein Vorsatz, das muss ich ganz ehrlich zugeben, war eigentlich, mich komplett fernzuhalten, um mein für diesen Zeitpunkt innerhalb des Monats schon genug strapaziertes Portemonaie zu entlasten.

So ganz geklappt hat dies natürlich nicht.

Hier also meine Einkäufe:

THE YAZZ AHMED QUINTET - When We Were Live (download) (2020)

Genau wie letzten Monat eröffnet Yazz Ahmed den Reigen und steht aus Dringlichkeitsgründen hier an erster Stelle, da sie uns wieder die Pistole Trompete auf die Brust setzt und ihren aktuellen Download exklusiv nur dieses Wochenende anbietet.

Dies ist an sich schon beinahe aberwitzig, denn Liveaufnahmen der "Hohepriesterin des psychedelischen Arabischen Jazz" (Bandcamp-Profiltext) und ihrer exzellenten Band verdienen generell größtmögliche Verbreitung und Beachtung.

Bei dem zusammen fünfzig Minuten langem Material handelt es sich um im Sommer 2018 aufgenommene Darbietungen von fünf Stücken. Drei stammen vom damals aktuellen Album "La Saboteuse". Dazu gibt es "Lahan Al-Mansour" vom letztjährigen Meisterwerk "Polyhymnia" zu hören, sowie einen bisher unveröffentlichten Song namens "Whispering Gallery".

Mein Eindruck aus eigenem Erleben auf dem Überjazz Festival 2018 bestätigt sich hier: Ahmeds Mix aus Orient und Okzident, aus Jazz(fusion)-Tradition und elektronischer Moderne ist besonders live ein magisches Ereignis. Fantastisch!

GOLD - The Bedroom Sessions (download) (2020)

Auch die Niederländer Gold reiten nicht ihr erstes Bandcamp-Day-Rodeo und bieten erneut eine EP, wahlweise auch im Bündel mit physischen Extras wie T-Shirts, Postkarten oder den wieder blitzschnell ausverkauften handgeschriebenen Texten und Filmfotografien an.

Nach den "Isolation Sessions" nun also die "Bedroom Sessions". Nach der Beschreibung könnte es sich hierbei auch um die schlimmere Variante des Pandemie-Entertainments handeln; Sängerin Milena Eva und Gitarrist Thomas Sciarone interpretieren im Schlafzimmer entkernte Versionen vier eigener Songs plus - und das ist die größte Bedrohung - ausgerechnet ein Cover von Bob Dylans "Blowin' In The Wing". Auweia.

Doch gerade jenes Stück entpuppt sich mit aktualisiertem Text und vergoldeter Melodieführung als ein echtes Highlight dieser kleinen, feinen und durchaus auch in einem Studio zur Welt gekommen sein könnenden Veröffentlichung. Eine wunderschöne EP im getragen geduldigen Rhythmus ganz langsamer Dead Can Dance-Stücke. Und gegen Ende in "Teenage Lust" sogar mit einer Spur von Drone.

JO QUAIL - The Parodos Cairn (download) (2020)

Normalerweise sowohl alleine mit Loops und Pedalen, als auch als Gast wild in der Welt der anspruchsvolleren Metal/Postrock/Folk/usw.-Szene herumgeigend (Gibt es eigentlich ein entsprechendes Verb für das Cello?), zeigt sich Jo Quail auf diesem etwas über sieben Minuten langem Track mal von einer anderen Seite, nämlich als Arrangeurin und Massenkollaborateurin aus Quarantänelangeweile. "The Parodos Cairn" besteht nämlich aus 167 Musik-, Geräusch und Sprachsamplefetzen, die ihr von 124 Mitwirkenden aus allen Ecken des Globus zugeschickt wurden.

Und man muss sagen, dass sie aus dem Material eine naturgemäß ziemlich vielfältige, aber dabei auch durchaus stimmige Ambient-Reise zusammengestellt hat, die mich atmosphärisch bisweilen an den Stachelgeiger Saba Alizadeh erinnert.

Der Track ist umsonst, kann aber nach eigenem Ermessen mit einer Spende belohnt werden, welche direkt an die britische Clubrettungsinitiave Save Our Venues geht.

Apropos Jo Quail allein zu Hause: Gerade erst Anfang der Woche hat sie im Rahmen des Slay At Home Festivals von Metal Injection in ihrem gewohnten Element ein paar ihrer geloopten Cello-Kompositionen zum Besten gegeben:

DOOLHOF - Doolhof (download) (2020)

Ok. Wem alles vorherige hier noch zu gefällig und hörbar war, für den gibt es nun abschließend noch eine Entwarnung: Macht euch keine Sorgen, ich bleibe dem kranken Scheiß natürlich als Hörer erhalten! Insbesondere natürlich, wenn mir mit einem Album wie in diesem Fall ein Herzenswunsch erfüllt wird, schrieb ich in meinem letzten Roadburn Festival-Review doch: "Concerning wishes for future live at Roadburn releases Doolhof are my absolute number one."

Und genau die dort einmalig aufgeführte, ultraexperimentell improvisierte Advantgardeambientnoisedroneperformance der Herren Turner (Sumac), Brooks (Dälek) und Dennis Tyfus gibt es hier nun auf die Ohren.
Was sogar großen Teilen des abenteuerlustigen tilburger Publikums vor Ort zu viel war, das bleibt auch in der Aufzeichnung großartig. Der Mix aus geräuschender Gitarre, Samples, superbassiger Elektronik und vollkommen irrem äh... Gesang ist einfach ganz gewaltige Tonkunst.

Nur darüber, ob das hastig dahingekritzelte Cover nicht evtl. noch steigerungsfähig gewesen wäre, lässt sich natürlich noch diskutieren.

Der Erlös des Albums geht - wie alle diesen Monat erschienenen Bandcamp-Releases von Aaron Turners Label SIGE Records - an diverse nordamerikanische Bürgerrechts- und Hilfsorganisationen, die sich u.a. der Lage der Schwarzen, Opfern von Polizeigewalt, aber auch der Covid-19-Vorsorge der indigenen Navajo Nation widmen. 

GOLD - The Isolation Sessions

Nach zumindest der vom Gothic der Achtziger inspirierten Seite von Dool ist es kein weiter Sprung zu ihren Landsmänner(inne)n Gold, welche neulich am Homeburn-Wochenende eine - natürlich publikumslose - Livesession gestreamt haben, welche nun exklusiv auf Bandcamp als digitales Minialbum verfügbar ist.

GOLD - The Isolation Sessions (download) (2020)

Ja, ich weiß, Livestream-"Konzerte" gibt es gerade wie Sand am Meer. Was soll man als Musiker auch jetzt groß anderes machen?

Ich habe natürlich auch schon ein paar davon mit wechselnder Aufmerksamkeit verfolgt und muss bei allem guten Willen doch feststellen, dass es sowohl technisch als auch künstlerisch selten hundertprozentig funktioniert.
Es fällt natürlich auch schwer, auszublenden, warum die Musiker den heimischen Screen bespielen, statt auf Tour unterwegs zu sein. Es ist also per se ein merkwürdig trauriges Grundgefühl vorhanden, gegen das die Musik oft nur mühsam anstinken kann.

Gold haben diese Hürde allerdings mühelos genommen, was u.a. am ohnehin bedacht unterspielten, mit theatralischer Distanz versehenen Habitus von Sängerin Milena Eva liegen mag.

Doch auch die Themen und der musikalische Post-alles-Mögliche-Mix aus Post Punk, Post Rock, Post Black Metal, Post Industrial, Post Pop und so weiter und so post, scheint in seiner zwischen Sarkasmus und Aufrichtigkeit, zwischen Kühle und Melancholie schwebenden Stimmung tatsächlich komplett ready-made für diese Situation zu sein.



Falls die Band in diesem isolierten, mit Mindestabstand zueinander realisierten Setup verständliche Unsicherheiten gefühlt haben sollte, wurden diese perfekt in die Performance kanalisiert.

Natürlich wünschen wir uns alle, dass die Band wieder vor Menschen aus Fleisch und Blut spielen kann, worin sie, wie ich letztes Jahr ja selbst erleben durfte, auch ziemlich gut ist. Doch im großen Falschen war Gold hier ganz klar die richtige Gruppe am richtigen Ort.

Dafür kann und sollte man der Band ruhig etwas Liebe und Gold spendieren.

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2019 • DAY TWO: Friday, April 12th

- The Mysterious Vanishing Of Jolene -

Lingua Ignota

Being offline during the whole Roadburn trip one of my first priorities for Friday (as well as the following festival days) was to find recent information to fill in running order blanks and add surprise shows (which were plenty) to my schedule. Today there was a big gap in Het Patronaat. I would have bet for a Dark Buddha Rising appearance there, because both support bands from their tour, which had just ended the day before, were playing in the Little Devil bar as a special part of Roadburn, but no. Instead Mono played a second show with a darker tone.

I didn't even write down all extra shows in the Ladybird Skatepark, because who cares what's parallel to Anna von Hausswolff? But I was especially thankful for one addition in particular: Lingua Ignota, whose Green Room performance I had skipped for being too crowded yesterday, was playing. Roughly at the same time as Mono, but surely faster to access without a queue, so this was where I would be going.

Talking about queues; I generally tried to avoid them, but with the first show of the day in Het Patronaat there was no way around it. And while people were patiently waiting, a car slowly pushed itself through the seriously crowded street, which was really inconvenient at this point. "And the Nobel price for clever driving goes to... Anna von Hausswolff". Her driver obviously didn't get the memo that the 013 backstage is easily accessible from the other side. Well, at least she had that embarrassed sorry/guilty look on her face, haha.

Gold

The legacy of The Devil's Blood is still going strong in Dutchistan. One of the most prominent proofs for this are Gold.

Merging those typical groovy upbeats with post punk, gothic, some hypnotic psychedelica, a very catchy pop appeal, but also prog influences and riffs which are clearly inspired by black metal, the instrumental foundation of Gold is very confident in its diversity.
Anne Hathaway lookalike Milena Eva, who has perfected the theatrical art of going through a dozen costume changes with just one set of black clothing, completed the picture with an unexpectedly unspectacular, but always right on point performance.

Great original band, flawless show.

If only I could also say the latter about the following set of commissioned music on the Main Stage...

Triptykon & Metropole Orkest

Thomas Gabriel Fischer completing with Triptykon plus a complete orchestra what he had begun decades ago with Celtic Frost. Only at Roadburn. The "Requiem" certainly was a performance noone would have even considered as a possibilty, before it was announced. And it surely not only for me was one of the most anticipated sets of this weekend.

Yet I hate to say it, especially since I had already bought the "Requiem" t-shirt the day before, but the joint performace of Triptykom and the Grammy-awarded Metropole Orkest was this year's biggest disappointment.

Which doesn't mean it was bad. No, I actually liked the composition, including the new - and by far longest - second act. Sparse, only with cymbals, percussion and vocals at times, full-on monumental in other parts, with typical Triptykon doom death riffs here, but also with surprisingly pink floydish guitars there, this suite was an exciting dark journey.

But - and that's a big but - the sound.

Yes, being in the front meant to be closest to drums and percussions in this case, but I've spoken to attendees who had been in the middle or back and also had similar issues. Maybe it had something to do with the album / DVD production which was obviously going on (professional film camera teams are a rare sight at Roadburn), but there's just no denying, that the whole thing - and especially the band - was just not loud enough.
It's fucking heavy Triptykon and a giant stage crammed with strings and woodwinds, brass, percussion, choir... this should have been ear and soul crushing, the most epic thing ever. But compared to Mono the night before, or compared to what would happen next on this stage, it was a tame household noise level affair.

I sincerely hope the post production for the upcoming release can fix it and make it a more powerful experience. The music deserved better.

And the shirt by the way is really small for its size.

Seven That Spells

"The Death and Resurrection of Krautrock" is an album trilogy of the Croatian psyck rock band Seven That Spells. And they played it, the whole thing. Three Green Room shows in a row, one hour each. Yes, another one of those ideas you can only see followed through at Roadburn.

Of course it clashed with everything, so I could only watch a small portion of it before getting into the front row of the Main Stage again.

But fuck yeah, that part of "Io", the middle of the trilogy, which I saw was fucking awesome. It was much darker, heavier and proggier than I had expected. Especially that one part which was already played in some odd time signature, but the band just sped it up and slowed it down like they were manipulating a tape. Awesome what the fuck shit!

Anna von Hausswolff

Roadburn is not a contest.

There's a pretty wide consensus however that at least on this day Anna von Hausswolff won it. And she rightfully did so.

Having seen her perform the material of her colossus "Dead Magic" before, this didn't surprise me one bit, because the Swedish singer / instrumentalist and her band are easily among the most (sonically and emotionally) powerful artists you can watch live right now.

With the crushing drone and heavenly highs of her music and her amazing vocal invocation of Kate Bush she quickly put the whole room under her spell. Even though her setlist was regular, you could tell that this was a special show, which was even expressed in her ever evolving interpretation of the songs. Key parts like the mid-composition climax in "Ugly And Vengeful" or just the whole performance of "The Mysterious Vaninishing Of Electra" were delivered especially slooow and mighty.

What more can I say? Anna von Hausswolff at Roadburn was a superlative that will live on as a highlight in the festival lore.

Thou & Emma Ruth Rundle

After my longest break of the day I went to see the artists in residence in the Koepelhal. For today's show Thou teamed up with Emma Ruth Rundle, performing songs especially written for this gathering (which was not the first of this kind, since they had already practiced with a couple of joint shows on tour together).

After one listen I can't really tell if those songs are gems for eternity, but I confirm that at least live they work extremely good, probably due to the simplicity of the idea behind them. You just take the thick sludge metal of Thou, including the screeching Elmo voice and the occasional "normal" female vocals and pair it 1:1 with Emma Ruth Rundle's pure and sensitive singing and her also very distinct guitar style.
The concept sounds almost too cheap to work, but boy, that combination worked fatastically and created a sound I really haven't heard before.

I must also mention how almost hilariously casual the band looked, especially compared to their all make-up promo shots. It really looked like Walter had picked up some students from a street cafe: I have a stage and instruments. Anyone wanna play something?

Lingua Ignota

While most of the Ladybird Skatepark shows would take place on a very small "natural" stage on the east wall with the soulless tube lights on the room's ceiling fully turned on, the setup for Kristin Hayter aka Lingua Ignota was a little different. Her keyboard stood on an even smaller stage in the middle of the room, right behind the mixing desk. The main lights were turned off, so her show was only illuminated by two lamps, which she draped differently as she went along, which also meant carrying them like shackles, while she went face to face through the audience.

What Lingua Ignota does is indeed an unknown language even within the context of an extremely eclectic festival. A bastard of Stefani Germanotta and Diamanda Galas, expressing suffering and horror over a base of harsh industrial noises and desolate piano, always singing and screaming against an ongoing movie sample, which sets a strange kind of sound barrier, which she always has to fight against. The whole performance was an unsettling pendulum swinging between cold distance and frightening nearness.

Her nightmarishly bleak and desperate rendering of the Dolly Parton classic "Jolene" is undoubtly the most haunting memory I've taken with me from this Roadburn edition.

Black Bombaim & Peter Brötzmann

Alone for not being able to witness today's Mythic Sunship show with saxophone the next stop in the Green Room was absolutely mandatory for me, as the Portuguese heavy improvisational band Black Bombaim was collaborating with a living legend of free jazz, none other than Peter Brötzmann.

Even without the jazz giant this would already have been a great show, as the trio was jamming on a constantly high energy level, but always super tight and with a murderous, irresisteble groove. To watch the drummer get into it was an infectious show in itself.

But then there was Peter Brötzmann. In his hands the saxophone turned into an instrument of rawest and most primal expression. Even though he sometimes seemed to challenge the band, his hard playing always complimented the group's sound perfectly.

My final verdict about Black Bombaim and Brötzmann is: this was insane! What a powerful display of the pure joy of music. I loved every second of it.

Loop

Roadburn Bingo: Robert Hampson is on stage.

It was already after midnight when I went back to the Main Stage for the return of Loop. Even though it took a while until the strobe lightning was as frequent as the band wanted ("It's kind of our thing."), the magnetic pull of repetition had the hall in its grip immediately, as riffs and beats looped through one psych noise post punk song after the other.

Great show. However my personal attentioned vanished a little bit towards the end, because I was just getting tired now. These Roadburn days are so long. I will never in my life attend one of those after parties, that's for sure, haha.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Anna von Hausswolff rules. Black Bombaim and Peter Brötzmann were the shit! Gold were gold.
Again everything I've seen was worthwhile, even with the volume flaws of the "Requiem".

CLASHES AND MISSES:

This whole day was a master class in clashing. So many opportunities, but only one body to pursue them. The infamous Mythic Sunship clash, but also Anna von Hausswolff joining At The Gates on stage for some experimental soundtrack music. The whole Seven That Spells extravaganza... and of course the second Mono show. Fuck, you just can't have it all. I don't regret any of my choices.

reviews of the other festival days:

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2019 • THE DAY BEFORE:
Ignition / Wednesday, April 10th

- Head first into the bloody rabbit hole -

 

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2019 • DAY ONE:
Thursday, April 11th

- Hymn To The Immortal Devil -

 

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2019 • DAY THREE:
Saturday, April 13th

- Montaña Is Beautiful Now -

 

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2019 • DAY FOUR:
Friday, April 14th

- Church of the Burn,
May Thy End be a Triumph! -

 

Gold:

Triptykon & Metropole Orkest:

Seven That Spells:

Anna von Hausswolff:

Thou & Emma Ruth Rundle:

Lingua Ignota:

Black Bombaim & Peter Brötzmann:

Loop: