I.C.R.N. - Industrialised Culture Research Network

Extensive interview with Adi Newton (Clock DVA)

2011-10-16T17:25:00.003+01:00

The Belgian magazine Peek A Boo has published an interview with interesting news on imminent Clock DVA releases and some of the ideas behind the group. Read it here...

Laibach Gesamtkunstwerk: Dokument 81-86 Box Set

2011-09-19T13:09:00.001+01:00

This deluxe box of rare archive audio and video is available now from Vinyl on Demand. Besides the five LPs, DVD and deluxe artwork there is an extensive booklet edited by Alexei Monroe. There are also exclusive texts from Donald Campbell, Igor Vidmar, Michael Goddard and Aleš Leko Gulič, shedding new light on the social, cultural and political conditions that shaped the first phase of Laibach's activity.

Peter Webb discusses Neofolk at Subcultures Conference

2011-09-12T18:18:00.003+01:00

I.C.R.N. member Peter Webb will be discussing Neofolk together with Anton Shekostkov and others the Subcultures conference at London Metropolitan University. It should provide an opportunity for a measured and constructive discussion of neofolk and recent associated controversies. The session is scheduled for 10AM this Thursday 15th. Full details of the event can be found here.

Statement by Peter Webb of I.C.R.N. on Neofolk

2010-10-12T12:09:00.006+01:00

Following some recent hostile commentary on his work on Neofolk, Peter Webb has asked us to publish the following statement. It is possible that both parties may be somewhat over-stating the ideological/conformist power of the scene - certainly some insidious ideas are being re-circulated, but it's unclear how many political converts such groups win in this way. From (somewhat distant) and anecdotal observations of the scene, we have the impression that listeners are tiring of by-numbers Neofolk accompanied by rightist references and that the movement may have passed its peak. It's also worth remembering that now Neofolk is a codified 'style', some producers probably make such references as an act of aesthetic rather than ideological conformity. Constant banal propaganda can sometimes have the opposite effect to that intended by its creators. Nevertheless, there are important and legitimate questions to be considered here...

Statement on Neo-folk and Post-industrial music in response to Whomakesthenazis.com and a.n.other `commentator’!

I have been alerted to the contents of this blog www.whomakesthenazis.com and one other website and feel that I have to respond to the criticism and confusion that seems to link my work to some kind of support or covert agreement with some of the ideas that are discussed here in the Fascist, Conservative Revolutionary or Traditionalist sphere. I firstly want to make clear that my work in `Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music’ (2007) is partial and a discussion and description of some element of the Neo Folk/post-industrial music scene in amongst chapters on hip-hop, Bristol’s music culture, the Independent music production of Crass and a variety of house music labels and musicians dealing with each other, writing credits and the wider music industry. Therefore it is not exhaustive or comprehensive and does not fulfill the remit of discussing the ideological/political implications of this scene (Webb, p105) in much detail, this is something I had always intended to fulfill in other pieces of work. Sites like whomakesthenazis.com are one set of views on the political implications of this scene and whilst I feel my work and reputation are being crudely represented within them they do have a place in presenting information on this scene. My position politically is one of opposition to many of the political/ideological elements of this scene and below I present some comments on that.

Christopher Browning in his book `Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland’ (1992) describes the events that led to the deaths and deportations of tens of thousands of Jews from Poland in 1942. The focus of the book is on the German order police (Ordnungspolizei), battalions of drafted middle-aged reservists who couldn’t fight on the frontline and who were used to police Polish cities and also to round up and kill Jews en masse. This group who had no particular affiliation with Nazism (but had nationalist ideas) were attached to units led by SS men. The executions were carried out by large groups of officers, mainly by shooting their Jewish victims one by one in the neck after they had been forced to lie down in forest areas used for the killings. Browning tries to examine how this group of men who came from ordinary backgrounds and jobs had been turned into mass executioners able to kill tens of thousand of Jews in cold blood day after day whilst in Poland. His explanation suggests that a combination of Nazi Ideology, peer pressure, the situation of the war (even though these individuals had not experienced any fighting before their part in the killings), conformity and indoctrination were responsible. Only a minority refused to take part in the acts and as they developed they became routine and were even joked about. The point of Browning’s book, if we accept its thesis, is that ordinary men and women can become detached killers and brutal racists through a mixture of ideological leadership (in this case from those who had gone through SS training) and the power of group conformity. The reason I discuss this is that, like Stanley Milgram’s obedience and authority experiments or Phillip Zimbardo’s Prison experiment, Browning alerts us to the importance of group dynamics and conformity or obedience to a dominant set of ideas or norms that are pushed to the foreground in a group (either politically, socially or culturally) and often followed uncritically and obediently by the majority of the social group involved.

Browning’s work is useful here as it gives an insight into how strong ideological elements within a social grouping can heavily influence the way that grouping continues to act and think. Even though there is clearly no direct comparison to the events that Browning describes and a small music scene (Neo Folk/ post industrial), the idea of dominant figures in a social situation gaining people’s obedience and shaping their actions through ideological hegemony is important for this discussion. Both situations, do however, contain ideological positions that foreground elitism and disgust, demonization and contempt for an `other’ group (e.g. Jews, gypsies, the ignorant mass population). The chapter I wrote describes elements of this milieu as accounted for by some of its members and through some of my engagement with it over a number of years; it focused particularly on the three musicians of the band Death In June and their various musical projects since two of them (Tony Wakeford and Patrick Leagas) left and Douglas Pearce continued the project to the present day. The chapter does not delve consistently into the various ideological elements of the scene and I suggested that it was beyond the remit of this particular piece of work as I think it would require a book or series of articles in their own right to really discuss the full extent of the ideologies that are referenced by this milieu. That said however it is an omission that needs rectifying. I wish to state clearly that within the milieu there is a clear timeline that runs from the incarnation of Death In June through to the current output of bands like Von Thronstahl, Alerseelen, Orplid, Blood Axis etc that leads its audience to look at thinkers from the three ideological and philosophical areas previously mentioned i.e. Fascism, Revolutionary Conservatism and Traditionalism. The artists themselves have clearly explored and would subscribe in some cases to elements of the worldview of Julius Evola, Savitri Devi, Ernst Junger, Moeller Van Den Bruck, Armin Mohler, Oswald Spengler, Rene Guenon, Francis Parker Yockey, The Strasser brothers and particularly in the present configuration of the milieu, the European New Right and the work of Alain De Benoist and associated thinkers around him.

Douglas Pearce stated in an interview with Zillo magazine (late 1992) that:

“At the start of the eighties Tony and I were involved in radical left politics and beneath it history students. In search of a political view for the future we came across National Bolshevism, which is closely connected to the SA hierarchy. People like Gregor Strasser and Ernst Rohm who were later known as `second revolutionaries, attracted our attention” (Forbes, p.15)

He has not discussed this topic in great detail again, never wishing to publicly account for his political or ideological position, but it is prophetic and telling in its indication of ideas that are still referenced and linked to by leading artists and fans of these bands and some of the various webzines and magazines that have given space to them (e.g Heathen Harvest, Occidental Congress etc). It also seems clear that these were the ideas that DIJ were engaging with around the period of 1981 – 1984 when Tony Wakeford was a member of the National Front and part of the group who were being referred to as Strasserites and Third Positionists. The milieu of neo-folk is littered with references to these thinkers, to the political project of the New Right and the third positionists that came out of the fracture of the (UK) National Front in the early 1980s. DIJ, in name, referenced the `night of the long knives’ and the culling of the leadership of the SA and also in the dates put on the first two releases: SA 29 6 34 and SA 30 6 34, Tony Wakeford’s post DIJ band Above the Ruins were a direct reference to Evola and contained lyrics that echoed the third positionist direction of the NF, the title of the first Sol Invictus album was `Against the Modern World’ a reference to Evola’s work `Revolt against the Modern World’ (1996), Current 93 referenced Francis Parker Yockey’s `Imperium’ (1969) work on the album of the same name in 1987 and Savitri Devi on the album `Thunder Perfect Mind’ (1992). As the scene develops many bands reference and provide links to this range of thinkers maybe most clearly in the compilations Cavalcare El Tigre (Eis Und Licht, 1998 a reference to Evola’s work of the same name) featuring Von Thronsthal, Alerseelen, Orplid, Blood Axis, Waldteufel, Camerata Mediolanense and Ain Soph amongst others and more recently the Von Thronstahl album `Sacrificare’ which alerts readers of the CD liner notes to look at the work of Moeller Van Den Bruck and Joseph-Marie Comte De Maestre, one of the founders of a European Conservatism that put its trust in emotional allegiance to an unquestioned authority; usually a form of hereditary monarchy.

From Boyd Rice’s continuous references to Ragnar Redbeard’s Social Darwinist `Might is Right’ text and his appearance on Tom Metzger’s Race and Reason Cable TV show (where he discusses White Nationalist/power music mentioning DIJ, C93 and Above the Ruins) to Tesco distribution (neo folk and Marital Industrial distributer selling books such as De Benoist’s `On being a Pagan’, John Michell’s `Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist’ and the Evola inspired `Handbook for Traditional Living’ published by Artkos (who also publish work by Troy Southgate the National Anarchist/3^rd Positionist and racial separatist), through to Michael Moynihan’s publishing of `Siege’ (1992), the work of James Mason the American National Socialist Mansonite, there are continuous and clear signposts to writing and work in the fascist, traditionalist and conservative revolutionary tradition. There are many other examples of this tendency within this scene and to clearly outline and discuss these specific elements of this milieu would need a fairly exhaustive work, which, I am sure, will be produced by many different writers and commentators. I am currently finishing a piece that deals with some of these elements but my intention here is to state clearly that I have no political, ideological or philosophical sympathy with any of the ideas of Fascism, traditionalism or conservative revolutionary thought. My interest in this milieu stems from my own immersion and interest in anarchist punk, post-punk, gothic music and various dance music scenes that provided clear links to sets of ideas, artistic practice, political activism and lifestyles – my own politics has come partly out of these types of engagement and could be described as a type of humanism derived from a combination of post Marxism, anarchism and libertarian thought but clearly driven by non-elitist, democratic and egalitarian principles all of which are clearly totally oppositional to the ideas presented by some of the key members of this musical milieu and in fact openly despised by some of them.

The reason for starting this piece with reference to Browning’s work is that although the neo-folk and post-industrial milieu is inhabited by a variety of different political, philosophical, spiritual and lifestyle ideas, practices and supporters there is a clearly significant and dominant use of the ideas of some of the most elitist, racist, conservative and traditionalist thinkers from the 19^th, 20^th and now 21^st centuries, those ideas can lead to and provide a strong conformist group dynamic. Some people will be drawn to these ideas through their engagement with this milieu and some will take these ideas forward to develop a type of political engagement. I would hope that further discussion of these ideas and illumination of their potential social and cultural impact will break many individuals from that engagement and get them to look to develop their own work with a different set of reference points. So even though I think that this blog has taken my work completely out of context in terms of what it suggests should have been the focus of my chapter and contains some fairly crude slurs on my reputation I would suggest that `some’ of the material here is useful. Whether individuals in this milieu are active politically or not, the main point here is that the use of these thinkers in the forefront of the reference points used by the main bands as they have developed over the years leads to the creation of a group dynamic and conformity to this type of thinking amongst a significant section of the audience and new bands that emerge. This element of the milieu is one that I feel is highly problematic and one that needs opposing critically within the scene as well as from outside.

Peter Webb – October 2010

Bibliographic references:

Evola, Julius (1996) Revolt Against the Modern World: Politics, Religion and Social Order in the Kali Yuga. Inner Traditions Bear and Company

Evola, Julius (2002) Men among the ruins: Post-war reflections of a radical traditionalist. Inner Traditions Bear and Company

Spengler, Oswald. (2007) Decline of the West. Open University Press

Silfen, Paul Harrison (1973) The Volkisch ideology and the roots of Nazism; The early writings of Arthur Moeller van den Bruck. Exposition.

De Benoist, Alain. (2004) On Being a Pagan. Ultra Press.

Southgate, Tory. (2010) Tradition & Revolution: Collected Writings of Troy Southgate. Arktos Press.

Devi, Savitri (2000) The Lightning and the Sun. Lulu.com

Goddrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2000) Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth and Neo-Nazism. New York University Press

Browning, Christopher (1992) Ordinary Men : Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, New York : HarperCollins

Yockey, Francis Parker (1969) Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics. Noontide Press

Forbes, Robert (1995) Death In June: Misery and Purity. Jara Press

Article on Crash Worship by Alexander Nym

2010-10-10T22:36:00.004+01:00

Here's a link to a recent article by I.C.R.N. member Alexander Nym on the American project industrial/aktionist project Crash Worship, which featured Markus Wolff of the neofolk project WALDTEUFEL. Read it here.

THE RED DISTRICT SYMPOSIUM (Past Perfect – Future Tense)

2010-08-19T13:21:00.007+01:00

Trbovlje, S.F.R.J., 1979.

I.C.R.N. members Alexei Monroe and Peter Webb will be present at this symposium exploring the past, present and future of Laibach, Neue Slowenische Kunst and the NSK State. The event is co-organised by Alexei Monroe and Naomi Hennig in collaboration with Delavski Dom Trbovlje. Dr. Webb will be part of a panel session on the 24th discussing key Laibach actions. The symposium is FREE and will include presentations by some of the key experts on the subject, including Laibach's former manager Igor Vidmar. Further information on the symposium and associated concerts and exhibitions can be found here.

Heinrich Deisl - Cultural Noise Noise as a musical metaphor for contemporary aesthetics in popular culture.

2010-06-13T20:09:00.004+01:00

I.C.R.N. presents a recent lecture text by our Vienna representative Heinrich Deisl...

Cultural Noise

Noise as a musical metaphor for contemporary aesthetics in popular culture.
Exemplified by the Works of Throbbing Gristle

Zachęta National Art Gallery, Warsaw (PL), 12/5/2010

Soundlecture

Heinrich Deisl

In this lecture I want to present a framework of how to cope with Noise as one of the most prominent, still widely neglected academically phenomena in contemporary music and popular culture. In doing so, I decided to discuss Throbbing Gristle.

The London-based group Throbbing Gristle (TG) originally existed from 1976 to 1981, comprising the two conceptual art performers Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti and the two electronic musicians Chris Carter and Peter Christopherson. One of their friends, Monte Cazazza, had coined the slogan “Industrial Music for Industrial people”, a slogan that later constituted an entire genre of music. In 2005, TG decided to return to the stage and since then, they have gained massive attention, especially in the art world. The last years have seen some publications on the Industrial genre, amongst others Simon Ford’s book “Wreckers on Civilisation” (2001), which is one of the most coherent on the topic.

I will use the artistic interventions of Throbbing Gristle as a reference point for some general thoughts on Noise music. I see industrial as one development of Noise music and as a prominent aspect within late 20th. century avant-garde music.

My lecture is divided in three parts:

1)An introduction to theoretical discourses and a brief abstract of the historical framework of Noise music
2)The history of TG
3)The “practical” side of it: A sound-lecture would be nothing without images, music or films.

I want to begin the theoretical part by arguing the following:
Noise can be considered as the maximum compression of information within a certain framework of space and time. If we consider music in the light of the Futurist Luigi Russolo and of John Cage, music no longer has to be a canonized system of notes but can be understood as a structure of organized audio phenomena. It’s the same argument posited with Marcel Duchamp's Readymades: everything then becomes a sonic quantum. The result is a radical democratisation of sounds in comparison to music.

As the French scholar Jacques Attali has put it in his ground-breaking essay “Noise: The Political Economy of Music” from 1985: Noise lets us hear the audio-signals of the future, as we, the listeners, have not yet arrived at an adequate system of references to decipher these audio-signals as a new semiotic gesture. He argues that “the noises of a society are in advance of its images and material conflicts” (11) and continues: “It is necessary to imagine radically new theoretical forms in order to speak of new realities. Music, the organisation of noise, is one such form. It reflects the manufacture of society; it constitutes the audible waveband of the vibrations and signs that make up society. With noise is born disorder and its opposite: the world. With music is born power and its opposite: subversion”. (6)

The English scholar Paul Hegarty adds in his book “Noise/music”(2007): “Noise is an excess, is thought of as being too much, and for human hearing, this occurs almost entirely through cultural perceptions, and individual reactions within that framework.” (4)

Noise music is not a sonic disturbance but a strategy to make political and socio-economic structures audible. Noise isn’t necessarily “loud”; but it is much more fun to use the whole body as a target-field for sonic assaults.

Some further biographical notes on TG now: Developing from the performance group COUM Transmissions, which had been founded by P-Orridge and Tutti in 1969, Throbbing Gristle released only five official albums on their label Industrial Records plus some extra records like the soundtrack for the film “In The Shadow Of The Sun” by Derek Jarman. Apart from a massive corpus of live cassettes, the label released the output of bands like SPK, Cabaret Voltaire or William Burroughs.

Most prominently known for their bruitistic sound experiments and deviant iconography, they also released some fine, Giorgio-Moroder-like Roboter-Disco-tracks like “Adrenalin” or “Hot on the Heels of Love” from 1978. They became one of the most cited underground bands and inspired legions of other bands, ranging from Einstürzende Neubauten to Nine Inch Nails, Pan Sonic or the Polish avant-garde band Za Siódmą Górą. If you search in Google, TG produces more than 350.000 hits.

In 1975 Lou Reed released his ground-breaking noise-record “Metal Machine Music”, two years later TG came up with their vinyl debut “2nd Annual Report”. In 1980, the Australian band SPK released “Information Overload Unit”, another pioneering Industrial LP and again five years later Attali’s book “Noise” was published in English.

In “Industrial Culture”, from 1983, one of the most essential books on the topic, music journalist Jon Savage outlines five characteristics of early Industrial music:

1) organizational autonomy,
2) access to information,
3) use of synthesizers and anti-music,
4) extra musical elements,
5) shock tactics.

P-Orridge told Savage in an interview from that period:

“We’re interested in information, we’re not interested in music as such. And we believe that the whole battlefield, if there is one in the human situation, is about information. We’re interested in taboos, what the boundaries are, where sound became noise and where noise became music and where entertainment became pain and where pain became entertainment. All contradictions of culture”.

That’s why their quite ambivalent album “Greatest” features the sub-headline “Entertainment through pain” on its cover and why in its images the album quotes the American Easy-Listening-/ Exotica-composer Martin Denny.

In 1949, the American mathematician Claude Shannon developed an Information-Communication model, in which Noise is that part of information which doesn’t contain concrete content and thus is diffuse and redundant. If we stay with this definition, Noise can be compared to the interval, defined by Gilles Deleuze. The interval in this sense is the place where “nothing” happens, the “place in-between”. It is not necessarily the beat that defines musical genres, but the time in between the beats; what in Dub music is called “space”. Through a reverse thought, the interval becomes exactly the place of Noise because it is here that all the information is stored, it opens the sonic text to the future, to the next note or the next break. The musical creation out of Noise, out of the interval, is nothing other than what Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek – referring to Lacan – calls “the creation out of nothingness”. Noise constantly produces its own simulacrum through its affirmation of “nothingness” and its rejection of “traditional western values” like rhythm, melody and cadence. Out of its compression of time and space, it generates an information overload unit, an excessive “too much”. Noise is the accompanying soundtrack of the desert of (Lacan’s) Real.

In the last one hundred years, numerous artistic articulations have dealt with the phenomenon of how to “audio-picture” modern life’s necessities in an industrialized environment and revealed repetition as its paradigmatic sonic score. Futurism and Constructivism can be considered as crucial innovations due to the way in which they broadened the sound spectrum with “non-musical” elements like the noises of cars, airplanes, factories and other acoustic manifestations, trying to “audio-picture” the surrounding social noise; Or, what Russian film director Dziga Vertov, in his famous “Kino-Glaz” theory from 1925, had termed “life-facts”. In the middle and late 70s, industrial musicians executed these “life-facts” by reflecting the social grievances and conservative bureaucracies in societies with strong social and hierarchical divides. Industrial musicians would break with musical traditions, mainly understood as an appropriation of self-definition of music and of self-empowerment.

Yet was this also not the case with for example. the “Viennese school” of Schoenberg or Webern, or with Edgar Varèse and Penderecki? This line of reference can be traced back to “Le Sacre du printemps” by Igor Stravinsky (1913) or Eric Satie’s “Parade” (1917), to John Cage, Stockhausen, Tony Conrad and numerous others, nowadays mostly present in works of notorious Noise artists like Merzbow from Japan, The Haters from Canada or Whitehouse from Great Britain. The striking difference to the previously mentioned compositions is that practically all industrial musicians were auto-didactic composers who didn’t want to make music as such – let’s remember the quote of P-Orridge in the beginning.

By discussing Industrial as one occurrence of Noise music, I want to refer to topics like “control”, “power”, “the body” and “production”. Industrial owed much to the “Do it yourself”-approach of Punk and Fluxus. Thinking of COUM, the Viennese Aktionism in the mid-60s also can be named as one of the paradigmatic interdisciplinary artistic articulations – which is putting the body in question and occupying it as a symbolic battlefield. The Aktionism-inspired, but already diluted body-politics of Punk were absorbed by Industrial, highlighting the concepts of the “Materialaktionen” – as a loss of control and power over one’s own body.

As in Aktionism, we have to think of industrial as a genre that identified “the” industry as a synonym for conservatism, an industry that used mass-produced and fascistic strategies for surveillance and suppression. It seems emblematic that industrial provoked deviant aesthetics, as it produced semiotic disturbances through cut-ups of the media, inspired by the notorious Beat-poet William S. Burroughs. Materials were removed from their restricted economy of usefulness. Or, to put it metaphorically, the sense of a user’s manual of a synthesizer was not to read it but to make a cut-up out of it using scissors and glue.

The fascination with machines opened up a field of discourse that is most significantly exemplified by a line of reference from Fritz Lang's film “Metropolis” (1926) to the band Kraftwerk and then to Techno. The mechanisation of production had caused a major loss of the auratic moment of the piece of art. Bearing in mind Walter Benjamin's text “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936) but at the same time that the possibility of mechanized reproduction would extinguish the bourgeois idea of the artist as a genius, which meant a democratisation of facilities, knowledge and acquirement.

The dependence on the mercy of prototypical machines dislocated the artists’ settings of control outside of them. This conscious loss of control was practised as a response to the feelings of social repression within a society of control, as outlined by Foucault’s concept of “Discipline and Punish”. That’s why many Noise artists offer a vast catalogue of live recordings and integrate the affirmation of the atavistic and the primitive. Finally, autonomous label structures guaranteed an output that would blow away Adorno’s theories of the “culture industry”.

In no other country than England, the native land of the industrial revolution, would the evolution of Industrial music have made more sense. P-Orridge once said that they wanted to transfer the music of the time of slavery, Blues and the whole tradition of rock music, to the industrial era. In that respect, the change from guitar to synthesizer bore a political connotation as well.

What brought TG the freedom to record tracks like “Zyklon B Zombie”, to name one of their manifestos “Freedom is a sickness” or their studio “The Death Factory”, to use a picture of the Auschwitz crematorium for their label logo and to use a lightning flash for their band-logo that resembles both the the sign for high voltage but also the SS-rune? As a first answer, TG liked to refer to the aphorism of the Spanish philosopher Georges Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Music critic Brian Duguid wrote in 1995: “Throwing the establishment’s own excrements back into the throat is sure to result in a nauseous reaction. For groups intending on outraging society, fascism was a powerful weapon. With methods you had for doing so were those that the authorities had themselves taught you.”

In the times between the decay of Punk and the foreshadowing of the English neo-conservatism known as Thatcherism –, TG's sonic warfare formed one of the first indications of the arrival of the media- and information-society.

TG’s attacks on established modes of listening drew its most powerful legitimation from the parent generation’s coming to terms with the past and from Punk: both were considered on the one hand to be too much programmed in the direction of de-escalation and on the other hand too much occupied with a pseudo-rehabilitation of the past. They used Fascist semiotics to fight the politics of historical exclusion and its culture of silencing it. Or, metaphorically speaking: TG sought to destroy that freedom which had been cynically promised by the Nazis to around one million people, when passing the gates of the concentration camp in Auschwitz which bore the slogan “Arbeit macht frei” (“work will set you free”). This perverseness of freedom could only be wiped out by perverting it. In their artistic expressions, TG synchronized economic concepts like Fordism, exemplified by the assembly-line which was felt to be inhuman, with the factory-like killing machines of the Third Reich. Their noise of factories was the noise of decaying factories, of a society in decomposition. Their 1980 single “Zyklon B Zombie” sold more than 20.000 copies and became one of the “hit”-tracks of the band. Listen closely to the noises at the end of the track which are a sample from a train that arrives at a concentration camp.

Following this, I will show you an excerpt of the video “Discipline”. “Discipline” was a kind of blueprint in the output of TG and typical for their inversion of the inversion. Released in 1981 as a 12” single, the band, standing in front of the former ministry of propaganda in Berlin and wearing self-designed camouflage uniforms, proclaimed: “We need some discipline in here!”. The dry lyrics are overlaid by a massive, ear-piercing noise, however the beats make “Discipline” quite danceable. Consequently, these quasi-dictatorial agitations were barked during live shows in Berlin, which was so to speak the former centre of evil and in Manchester, a centre of the industrial revolution. TG confronted themselves and the audience with a harsh exorcism of the industrial revolution. From this catharsis, there was no way back. As a consequence, they declared shortly after “The mission is terminated”.

To end my lecture, I want to return to some more general thoughts on Noise and on Industrial. Industrial dealt with established taboos by breaking them, their brutal sounds and images merged into transgression. But this transgression in the sense of the French writer George Bataille can’t last for long, as it would become just another boring permanence of the norm itself. Bataille wrote in “Eroticism” (1957) that “transgression suspends a taboo without suppressing it”. From that we can say that for transgression the need for taboos is essential. There can’t be any doubt that TG’s use of Fascist signs arose from an anti-fascist ideology. But way too many people saw in TG only the “wreckers of civilisation” and TG’s martial and national-socialist iconography would open the field for many stupid followers who did not take into account their cynical and even funny tactics of social confusion. Think again of the reference to Martin Denny in TG’s “Greatest Hits” or the picture of Chris Carter on the album “Heathen Earth” (1980), wearing on his shirt a sticker of the Swedish super-pop-group ABBA.

Most of what I have exemplified so far draws its parameters from an analogue age. The digital version of this, to move from the industrial revolution to the revolution of information and its rhizomatic, de-centralized networks of gathering and storing information, is still to come. Nowadays, if you want to produce a contemporary sound-work, you no longer have to compete with the sounds of factories but with those of urban traffic in mega cities, of earthquake simulators, tankships, super-fast computer networks, transatlantic airplanes or sound weapons and cyber organics.

Still, there is no serious debate about how to handle Noise if the sound-tools and its aesthetics are available in every supermarket around the corner; Which means that Noise, the “sound of nothingness”, has become omnipresent.

Noise makes audible the fragile order of chaos, but what to do in a social framework that seems to be obsessed by a paradoxical symptom of total freedom that just looks like the reverse side of the coin called control? Noise music offers a good example of how to overcome repression – but how to cope with Noise if is no longer an exception but a permanent state of existence?

Further reading:

Attali, Jacques (1985): Noise. The Political Economy of Music. Theory and history of literature, Vol. 16, Manchester University Press.
Duguid, Brian (1995): The Unacceptable Face of Freedom. http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/articles/freedom.html
Ford, Simon (2001): Wreckers of Civilisation. The Story of COUM Transmissions& Throbbing Gristle. Black Dog Publishing.
Hegarty, Paul (2007): Noise/music. A History. Continuum.
Re/Search Publications (1983): Industrial Culture Handbook. Re/Search, San Francisco. http://researchpubs.com

Throbbing Gristle: www.throbbing-gristle.com

Talk at Schillerndes Dunkel book launch, Leipzig May 23rd

2010-05-21T15:41:00.003+01:00

I.C.R.N. founder Alexei Monroe will give a short talk at this event taking place in the courtyard of Absintherie Sixtina, Leipzig from 11.00. The talk will discuss industrial's relationship to other "dark scenes", on the occasion of the launch of this new German publication edited by I.C.R.N. member Alexander Nym:

www.ploettner-verlag.de/shop/Buecher/-Shop/Sachbuch/Schillerndes-Dunkel::126.html

Monroe has two texts in this major collection, one on Gerechtigkeits Liga and one on Laibach, both appearing in German for the first time.

Klub V.E.B. V at The Grosvenor, 14.05.2010

2010-04-19T14:50:00.004+01:00

Klub V.E.B. presents its first live action of 2010 featuring:

Eva 3 feat. Riotmiloo
Jose Macabra
Sz. Berlin
Jamka

Plus Industrial, EBM, Power Electronics, Dark Ambient, Dystopian electro, techno and other ailing frequencies from DJs Codex Europa, Kriegslok and Floressas

3 pounds before 10, 5 after.

Codex Europa download on Southwark Anthology of Noise

2009-12-30T13:02:00.003Z

The recording of Codex Europa's selection for the Southwark Anthology of Noise is now online and can be downloaded here.

It's Codex's personal selection of industrialised/structured noise - industrial, power electronics gabber, techno, techstep and more.

Black Scenes: Call for papers

2009-11-13T21:56:00.005Z

I.C.R.N. member Alex Nym is editing an interesting anthology and has sent the following message...

Hello,

we are an enthusiastic and professional team of publishers, Culture scientists, photographers and authors (most of us with „scene“ experience) planning to produce a lush & aesthetically designed reference book about the Black Scene (which, although primarily known in English-speaking countries as „Goth/ic“, includes Goth as a subgenre aside others considered generally as black, like EBM, Industrial, etc).

Besides offering a collection of texts by artists, promoters and audience members as well as contributions from social and cultural scientists, which aim to present and analyse the scene and its aesthetics and history, the accompanying illustrations are supposed to make this book a first rate artistic and intellectual experience – and you are asked to contribute!

What we need:
- Text contributions from/about the Scene about a diverse range of subjects. Please send texts ranging from 2000 to 10.000 characters in length to text[at]ploettner-verlag.de in odt, doc or rtf formats. Size limitation does not apply to scientific contributions, please contact the editor for details: a.nym[at]ploettner-verlag.de. Language used throughout the book will be German; texts in German or English are acceptable.
- Colour- or b/w photos from events and people (e.g. Festival-visitors – please no photos of bands onstage, except they're artistically or historically relevant, see below)
- Documentary photos (e.g. From the 70ies, 80ies..., here concert pictures too)
- Event ads, flyer- and poster-motifs, tickets in colour of b/w (original or digitized; originals will be sent back; don't forget to give return adress)

!All illustrations have to have printable size/resolution (300 dpi, cmyk)!
!Deadline for all contributions is December 23rd 2009!

Since the book is supposed to cover the Black Scene in all its diverse facets, images of all sorts are welcome, whether they be old-school, medieval, cybertech, fetish, industrial, EBM, neofolk, neoromantic etc in nature.
Due to the fact that the book should be considered a kind of documentary exhibit catalogue of the Black Scene, the prime of artistic value in the illustrations cannot be stressed clearly enough; hence artistic works are expressly welcome.

What we offer:
Aiming for a total of 250 pages, we're unable to pay individual fees, but will gladly compensate you with free review copies, ranging from one to five depending on the amount of your contribution. In addition, you'll receive further copies at subscription rate, thus cheaper than in stores or at amazon ;)

What you should consider:
The rights to the text/image has to be the authors/the photographers, so has to be yours; in case we publish any, you'll have to provide us with a consent to print, but in any case we need image captions, e.g. „Tamara, 23, transvestite from Giessen“, something along that line. In relation to historical photos, please relate event, location & date, e.g. „German gothpunk meeting, Cologne, pentecost 1990“ – without such references, we're unable to use the picture.

There is no entitlement to use for print of sent materials – it'll be impossible to use *all* material; please be not disappointed if your material should not have found consideration in the final product. We will keep you updated about the project's progress.

In case there should be too much outstanding material for merely one book, if this one's sales allow, there even might be option for use in a possible sequel.

Contact address/-form:
Digital images of up to 20 MB size can be sent directly to images[at]ploettner-verlag.de.
If you have online-photo-galleries, you can also send link adresses to images[at]ploettner-verlag.de; in case we select your picture(s) we'll get in touch with you. Otherwise, you can send images in printable size/res on CD/ DVD/USB to:

Plöttner-Verlag, Red. „Schwarze Szenen“
Marbachstr. 2a, 04155 Leipzig/Germany

Please note that unrequested data carriers, manuscripts, etc cannot be returned (unless you provide ample return postage).

The best of luck,

Alexander Nym & Claus-Peter Paulus, ed.

„Black Scenes“ – Table Of Content

- Preface: What is black?

- Adolescence of a youth culture: History and development
~ From punk to post-punk: The 70s
~ New Romantic, New Wave, Gothic Rock: The 80s
~ Between bambam and campfire romanticism: The 90s
~ Grown-up subculture: The 21st century

- Genres and sub-scenes
~ Batcave, Gothic rock & -metal
~ Synth-pop, Electronic Body Music, Technoise
~ Industrial & Neofolk music
~ Medieval & Neo-classical music
~ The most important festivals – WGT, M'era Luna, Amphi, etc
~ The scene in the DDR
~ The scene overseas: USA and Japan

- Between Avantgarde and assimilation: Themes & influences
~ Death, Transience, Apocalypse
~ Mysticism, Spirituality and Religion
~ Literature, Art and History
~ Sex and Fetishism
~ Transgression and Taboo-breaking
~ Ethics of DIY – from (self-)destruction to Cultural Engineering
~ Outward boundaries, inward elitism – tolerance and strife for identity

- Self-images and representation
~ From Avantgarde to Apocalypse – how progressiveis the scene really?
~ Roles and rituals – Gender relations
~ „Gothic“ in the media – stereotypes and prejudices
~ Between Indie and commerce – the black music industry
~ Fashion & styling – the aesthetics of the abysmal
~ Creativity in action and the Gesamtkunstwerk: summary

- Authors and photographers

- Literature, Films, Musics (sources)

- Register/glossary

Industrial morality: a contradiction in terms?

2009-07-18T15:01:00.005+01:00

How can anyone involved in industrial music criticise its worst excesses and abuses? The genre was in large part based on the expression of ambivalence, disgust, social tension, and the systematic violation of repressive taboos. Industrial music that does not generate some form of unease or ambivalence, even among its core audience, is simply another form of electronic sound. That we should have reservations about it is essential to its effectiveness and in this context Laibach's statement, "In art morality is nonsense; in practice it is immoral; in people it is a sickness.", is particularly relevant.

Once we accept the value or significance of industrial it is already ridiculous to speak in terms of "morality" in the usual banal sense. If we allowed morality to dictate our aesthetic preferences we would not be following or accepting the existence of industrial culture in the first place. Moreover, a society governed by mainstream morality would be as totalitarian as one governed by the agendas of some openly Fascist industrial groups. So in the context of industrial culture morality is certainly a "nonsense", or at least it is faintly ridiculous to invoke it.

Just as we cannot easily speak of morality in the industrial context, neither can we talk credibly about the “corruption” or “perversion” of a genre that departs from an acceptance or diagnosis of corruption. However, some of us now believe that we can speak about the attempted appropriation and political normalisation of industrial culture by forces that are ultimately as conservative and censorious as the liberal mainstream that industrial producers and listeners find to be so oppressive.

With these issues in mind we want to start a debate to explore some of the questions often posed of industrial and its listeners:

How do you reconcile buying music by or attending shows by acts whose politics you despise but whose aesthetics interest you?

How do you explain to those outside the scene that aesthetic identification or appreciation is not always the same as political identification?

Do you still listen to such acts but refuse to buy their music or watch their shows? Which ones?

Are thre any acts you boycott completely on political grounds? Which ones?

At a time when acts from industrial and related genres as well as their fans remain subject to violent hostility we believe that discussing these issues openly will make a valuable contribution to the debate.

Please add your comments here (bear in mind that for obvious reasons comments are moderated, they will appear here as soon as they are processed...)

Alexei Monroe/ICRN.

Klub V.E.B. II at The Others, July 2nd. FREE

2009-07-01T09:54:00.002+01:00

LIVE

Sz. Berlin
(Extreme electronics from the Warsaw Pact)

www.virb.com/szberlin

Graan
(Granular synthesis meets ritualistic droning ambience)

www.graan.org.uk

DJ’s:

Codex Europa (Dark Electro Industrial)
Kriegslok (Power Electronics)
Floressas (Esoteric/ritual dark ambient)

Stage times:

2000 - 2030 - Codex Europa

2030 - 2100 - Floressas

2100 - 2145 - GRAAN

2145 - 2215 - Kriegslok

2215 - 2245 - Floressas

2245 - 2330 - SZ BERLIN

2330 - 0000 - Codex Europa

FREE

Thursday July 2nd, 20.00 – 00.00

Top Floor, 6 - 8 Manor Road,
Stoke Newington
London N16 5SA

Video and news from Laibach Kunst exhibition, Łódź

2009-06-11T12:01:00.004+01:00

This Polish site has a short film which has a clip from the opening performance, similar to the one given at I.C.R.N.’s RoTr event in 2006.

I.C.R.N. member Alexei Monroe will lecture at the exhibition on June 23^rd at 6pm. Codex Europa and Wiktor Skok will DJ in an industrial vein afterwards.

Read more here about this major exhibition, which presents the most comprehensive overview of Laibach Kunst works yet staged.

I.C.R.N. Member Alexander Nym lectures on NSK in Nuremberg

2009-04-15T20:39:00.006+01:00

Alexander Nym will give a multimedia presentation on the work of NSK (Neue Slowensiche Kunst) at the Dokumentation Center in Nuremberg on April 28th at 19.00. Entrance is free and the lecture is in German. It will discuss the traumatic legacies of the Partisan struggle against the Nazi occupation of Slovenia and how NSK has worked through these issues artistically. Details of the lecture can be found here.

Recession, Repression, Regression

2008-12-07T12:52:00.009Z

Photo © Alexei Monroe

Your tyranny
I was part of
Is now cracking
On every side
And your own life
Is in danger
Your empire
Is on fire

Front 242 - Gripped by Fear

For some time now this 1991 track by Front 242 has seemed increasingly relevant, above all because of the opening line: Recession, Repression, Regression. What better description could there be of the current situation in Britain and beyond? Ever since its emergence in crisis-stricken 1970s Britain, industrial music has had an uncanny knack of putting its finger on present and imminent social, political and economic tensions. Inspired by this we decided to compile a list of tracks which seem especially relevant now. Some of these are from first-wave industrial groups and have found their time yet again. Others are from second and third-wave industrial groups but we have cast the net wider to draw in tracks from related industrialised genres: EBM, Digital Hardcore, Speedcore Techno, 'Rhythm n Noise' and Power Electronics. This is an initial collective list compiled by ICRN friends and members, but it will doubtless grow, particularly as the crisis inevitably intensifies and becomes more severe.

A Challenge of Honour - Here We Go Again

Absolute Body Control - Figures, Is there an Exit?

Alec Empire - Nobody Gets Out Alive!, Burn Babylon Burn

Black Leather Jesus – Manipulating the Masses

Bleiburg - Oil in their Eyes

Brandkommando - Economy of violence, Neokolonializm, War War War, U S Aggression, War and Occupation, Storm in Europe, Suicide, The End

Brighter Death Now – No Tomorrow

Cabaret Voltaire – Kneel to the Boss, This is Entertainment,

Consolidated - Friendly Fascism

Contrastate - The End of History?, Extinction

Coph Nia - Holy War

Cyborg Attack - Blutgeld

Death Funk - The New World Order

DJ 6666 feat. The Illegals - Welcome To The Shit Generation

Fad Gadget - State Of the Nation

Front 242 – Gripped by Fear, Welcome to Paradise

Gerechtigkeits Liga - End of the Present, Controlled Europe

The Grey Wolves - Red Terror Black Terror

Laibach – Wirtschaft ist Tot, Das Spiel ist Aus, Das Ende, Now You Will Pay

Low Entropy - Urban Uprising

Materialschlacht – The End of Depression

Ministry - Fear Is Big Business

Sektion B – The World is on Fire

Severed Heads- Petrol

SOL INVICTUS - Media

Sonic Subjunkies - Railton Road Blues
Test Dept. - 51ST State Of America, Pax Americana

Thorofon – Riotdictator, Digital Human Kontrol, You Vote/ We Choose, Humans As Product

Toroidh - Europe Is Dead

Tyske Ludder - Khaled Aker

Winterkälte – Genetic Imperialism

I.C.R.N. Editorial: The Right to Research

2008-05-16T13:50:00.002+01:00

In January we published an extract from Peter Webb’s new book in which he deals with the problematic stances and associations of Death In June, Tony Wakeford and other artists associated with the so-called neofolk scene and charts a history of their work. Subsequently, Webb published an interview with Wakeford in which the latter freely discusses and disowns his openly admitted right-wing past. In response to this Stewart Home published a typically hysterical article on his website in which he accuses Webb of being an apologist for the far-right music scene. This stance is dangerous in at least two respects. If taken seriously (never an entirely advisable option in Home’s case) it suggests that Home and/or his associates should have or aspire to have a right of veto over what can or cannot be researched. This represents a clear attack on academic freedom and an attempt to prevent free debate on a controversial topic (as we will see, Home has a strong vested interest in keeping this debate as limited as possible). Home has also labelled Webb as a ‘fanboy’. It is hard to know what to make of this. Does it mean that anyone researching a group is disqualified from expressing appreciation for its music? Moreover, it is hard to think of any example of a ‘fanboy academic’ whose praise could ever equal the cringingly embarrassing praise which Home once showered on Wakeford. A truly spectacular example of this appears in the following text which we recently received. As recent events have suggested that Home has influence over some violent individuals, the author will be known only as ‘a friend in Newcastle.’ Judging from the evidence presented in this piece it is hard not to draw the conclusion that Home is a) seeking to obscure his own past connections with Wakeford and others b) that this is part of a wider attempt to initiate a scare campaign intended to shut down industrial and neofolk events. Last year, Home posted an anonymous article on the Metamute website. This appears to have triggered a violent assault on a member of the audience at the Boyd Rice show but, more positively, provoked a spirited defence of the scene and of the right for individuals to make their own cultural choices, even if they are controversial or distasteful to others. Two things emerged clearly from the debate which ensued. Firstly, Home’s inability to engage in any kind of ordered debate without lapsing into self-parodic abuse. Secondly, that attending shows of this type does not represent any sort of automatic endorsement of the groups’ politics and that much of the audience are (currently) apolitical or even from a leftist background. Moreover, there was no agitation or political propaganda present at this or similar events. Luckily, most British anti-fascists don’t seem to have been persuaded that that harassing a minority music scene is more important (if less dangerous) than confronting actual far-right activists. Some of these groups engage in tasteless flirtation and have views which can be condemned. However, we suspect that Home and his masters remain intent not just on criticising and exposing problematic views but ultimately on criminalising an entire swathe of neofolk and industrial activity. Given the colossal hypocrisy of Home’s stance and the likely radicalising effects on non- or anti-political followers of these scenes, it should be clear that there is a danger that such activity will alienate or disgust people whose worldview is as critical of fascism as of other ideologies but who refuse to have their cultural interests censored and controlled by self-appointed cultural cleansers…

The Stewart Home Syndrome; Sol Invictus, "Intellectual decompostion" and other mindless projective tantrums.

So we should ask the question, who is Stewart Home and why is he getting so worked up?

Stewart Home, or Herr Heimat as perhaps we should call him, has been busy protecting the hapless, the stupid, the easily led, the politically unaware and the grammatically challenged from fascist art, worthless music and criminally superannuated academics. Stewart is an author, hoaxer, politico, public speaker and psycho-geographer. He considers himself to be one of the finest living authors since Alexander Trocchi, William Burroughs, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Irvine Welsh (to name a few) and has written books with evocative titles such as 'Cunt', 'Blow Job' and 'Slow Death'. He has a literary style that avoids complex narrative and plot for a type of writing that has been better expressed in hardcore porn. Here is an example of one of his finer pieces of text:

"Then she dropped her jeans and got me to lick out her funky twat. It tasted a hell of a lot better than the pre-packaged in-flight meal I’d just eaten. The girl sat down on the toilet bowl and I licked her clit while she took a shit. She stood up again and said I could fuck her up the arse. We didn’t need a lubricant, her lunch hadn’t agreed with her and she’d just had a very loose crap. The computer scientist’s sphincter was well stretched and I didn’t have any problems getting my cock up there. (Cunt, p.97)"

Stewie litters this tome with the sexual conquests and adventures of a character called David Kelso, possibly because Home’s obsessive character fantasises about being the libertine he has created; a character of misogynistic bent who uses women as disposable sex objects. Maybe Stewie, as a good left leftist, has always held a deep seated disgust and mistrust of women and this is his way playing out what would otherwise be an unacceptable position for a man of his high morals, principles and politics.

Herr Heimat also seems to be disturbed by people lying to him. Musician Tony Wakeford apparently lied to him about his involvement in the band Above The Ruins which seems to have led to Stewie disbelieving everything else Wakeford says and does. Wakeford was in a band called Above The Ruins, he was in the National Front (in the mid 1980s), was a member of IONA (Rightist cultural group who were taken over by the NF) and was a racist, he now claims that he deeply regrets his involvement in these organisations and has rejected the racism of that period of his life. He says he’s not interested in those politics, or in the brand of cultural, Gramscian, war of positioning that some rightist musicians such as Troy Southgate obviously are. If he is involved in any kind of fascist positioning in the neo-folk music scene he is keeping it well hidden from everyone around him and especially the musicians he works with. Caroline Jago and Lesley Malone (Sol musicians) would actually describe themselves as leftists.

Still, Stewart is not averse to a bit of lying himself: in an interview with Charlotte Cooper about his mother, Stewart discusses his public, obsessive vendetta with Michael Prigent and Larry O’ Hara:

“…my fun and outgoing side comes from my mom. She wasn’t judgmental but if it wasn’t for her there are individuals who I dislike who I’d have probably never had any negative feelings about. I’m thinking of people like the pro-situ Michel Prigent who she knew, and to the best of my knowledge his public vendetta against me stems from the fact he has some weird feelings about my mom who he seems to have met through people like beat writer/situationist Alex Trocchi.”[i]

In truth, 1) Michel Prigent never knew Home’s mother, and therefore, 2) cannot harbour any feelings about her, “weird” or otherwise, and 3) it is Home who is pursuing the “public vendetta.” Why the vendetta? Because in the mid-nineties Prigent, along with Larry O’Hara and myself [David Black – author of the piece] called Home to account for his strange associations with the fascist rock scene, in particular, one Tony Wakeford.[ii] The article goes on to examine Home’s love of Sol Invictus and Tony Wakeford even mentioning that Home did a piece in a Wakeford book of song lyrics. Here are some surprising highlights from his three page introduction to "Above Us the Sun" (a Tony Wakeford lyric book):

"Kierkegaard long sought but never found an example of a knight of the faith…..Tony Wakeford is the knight of the faith, he has gazed into the black abyss at the heart of our century and his penetrating eyes have exposed the emptiness of this world…..Wakeford is a genius….just look once again at his lyrics and you will see that this is true." (Home, 1996, pp1 – 3)

The principiadialectica article also has a discussion of Wakeford as being a fascist in the mid eighties period i.e. roughly 1982 – 1987. So it turns out that Herr Heimat was in fact a Death In June, Sol Invictus, Current 93 loving fan who was chastened by people in his political and social milieu enough to make him rethink his position and deny his true musical love. All of this maybe explains the lengths to which a busy, media celebrated author like Home, has gone to pursue the obsession with Wakeford et al even further. An interview with Wakeford[iii] suggests that he is over his fascism in all its different guises and we would go further to say that he has realised the error of past associations with the NF, IONA and Evola and that area of political or philosophical thought. If we’re wrong then it is a cover up that Wakeford is doing so well that there is no trace of any fascist activity since IONA. So, while Wakeford clearly admits to and expresses regret for past errors, Home desperately attempts to deflect attention from his own past by tarring everyone and anyone with the same fascist brush in order to present himself as a doughty anti-fascist fighter. As for the Gramscian war of position that Home suggests is being taken up by many in the neo-folk scene; we would agree with him that some have taken that route very seriously. They; bands such as Herr and Von Thronsthal, have got a position in this scene but are not that influential as yet. The debate of ideas and challenging responses to them can be opened up by the promotion of work that disrupts and provokes these projects with alternative agendas and stimulating artworks. New agendas require new active cultural production.

Throughout these exchanges Home has shown complete disregard for the lack of any evidence of Wakeford’s current fascist involvements and also a high level of ego in wanting all around him to agree with what he says or risk being accused of being a Nazi sympathiser or of being used by the shadowy occult-fascist axis that stalks this twilight world of neo-folk. It is interesting to note that Home, in his article on Wakeford and fascism, names Gary Smith as a member of No Remorse (skinhead far right band) and bass player on some Above the Ruins material, and uses this individual as 'guilt by association' evidence for Wakeford’s fascist involvement. Yet it seems that in the mid to late 1980s when Home mixed with the Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill scene in London, Gary Smiths girlfriend used to regularly pop round to Home’s house to use the photocopier to copy material for Smith. Should we see this as another example of his own guilt by association that he now `projects’ onto others who disagree with him?

Finally, would-be Gauleiter Home wants us all to take his work oh so seriously and even suggests that people quote him as the ‘seal of approval’ for `their’ own work. His Anarchist Integralism being one work that he wants everyone to quote from as the authoritative source. The continuing theme here is that he suggests that anarchism and fascism are twin bed fellows because of Proudhon’s anti Semitism and Bakunin’s ‘proto-nazi conspiracy theories’ [iv]. Within this piece he resorts to a pseudo scientific explanation suggesting that Proudhon, Kropotkin and Bakunin betray a 'congenital weakness within the anarchist creed' by linking them to 'forms and practices' that bolstered the nation state. This again fails to take account of over 100 years of developments in anarchism, the rise of anarcho-syndicalism and its part in the Spanish Civil War plus the trajectories of anarchism in Britain through a variety of groups ranging from Class War and Direct Action Movement through to the Anarchist Workers Group amongst many others. Home’s attention to minutiae distorts his ability to see difference and change within political movements that are operating in very different circumstances to the anarchists of the 1800s and the position of anarchists in revolutionary Russia. Home seems obsessed with a continuing identification of the stable subjectivities of those he criticises that are patently unsustainable even for him. To use his own pejorative term he has himself been an 'obsessive fanboy' of the works of Douglas P, Tony Wakeford and others in this scene. He idolised their work when Wakeford was a member of a fascist organisation (mid eighties when he still liked DIJ) and he has now become their most obsessive critic and stalker at a time when Wakeford has publicly disowned his fascist past. In fact, the more he harks on about this issue the more he holds up a distorted mirror to his own contradictions and hypocrisies.

It’s interesting to speculate why he should feel the need to exhume this issue (which has its roots in an obscure personal vendetta) at this time. Could it perhaps be that he wants to reassure his new fans in the mainstream media that he really is more ‘accessible’ and less tainted by now embarrassing sub-cultural connections? Curators and literary types seem quite susceptible to his shtick but it’s probably safer to distract them from some of the more interesting aspects of his past: they don’t like it too transgressive!

[i] http://www.charlottecooper.net/docs/archive/stewartmum.htm
[ii] http://www.principiadialectica.co.uk/blog/?p=88
[iii] http://www.eveningoflight.nl/en/interviews.htm
[iv] http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/ai.htm

I.C.R.N. Newsflash: Gerechtigkeits Liga play Wave Gotik

2008-04-07T21:32:00.002+01:00

Gerechtigkeits Liga have now been confirmed to play at Wave-Gotik-Treffen 08!"

Please check for updates on the time and venue on the WGT website. This is a rare live appearance for GL and coincides with the imminent release of their retrospective double LP and DVD set on Vinyl on Demand.

From Crisis to Death in June

2008-01-19T11:05:00.001Z

From Crisis to Death in June

We present an extract from I.C.R.N. member Peter Webb’s new book, `Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music: Milieu Cultures’.

This section is taken from Chapter Four of the book: Neo-folk or Post-industrial music: The development of an esoteric music milieu and addresses directly the ideological controversies surrounding DIJ.

The full chapter contents are:

1 - Influences, musical milieu, musical lifeworld,

frameworks.

2 - Death In June and the developing esoteric music milieu of the 1980s

underground.

3 - From political crisis to the creativity of the `petit mort' of

punk.

4 - From Crisis to Death In June.

5 - Paganism, Heathenism and the spiritual element.

6 - Politics, philosophy and ambiguity.

7 - Conclusion.

As the 1980s started and the post punk element of the music scene developed (see Reynolds, S, 2005) the two founder members of Crisis had decided to move in an entirely different direction than before. Their belief in left wing politics had been chipped away at by the dogma, chaotic organization and blind membership drives of the far left groups they had been a part of. Now they looked away from the politics of the left to an aesthetic and artistic understanding driven by a creative vision that combined some of the iconography of fascism and the spirituality of a European past that looked to its pagan traditions rather than those of Christianity and ideas from writers such as Jean Genet, Yukio Mishima, Mirbeau and Lautremont. Musically a mixture of Scott Walker, Ennio Morricone, The Beatles, Love, The Velvet Underground, Joy Division and military percussion and trumpet calls were folded into the new project of Death in June. The art of Death in June would be provocative and would `aim to please with constant unease’

(http://www.deathinjune.org/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Interview:

1996-Descent).

The main symbols used by the band to identify them and their releases is a modified Death’s Head or Totenkopf which was used by the Prussian army under Frederick the Great through to the Totenkopfverbande (Deaths Head Division) of the SS under the tutelage of Heinrich Himmler. Douglas P has explained the use of the symbol modified to be grinning slightly and with the number 6 beside it as `deaths head for Death and the 6 for the month of June’. Death in June’s first release was called Heaven Street and came out on the bands own label which was titled `New European Recordings’. The cover for the record was a textured brown sleeve that had two gold stripes down one side and an embossed Death in June in brown across the cover. In the middle was set a photo of some cliff top defense buildings or control towers overlooking the sea. These could be German defence systems from world war two in the Channel Islands or systems on the French coast. The lyrics of Heaven Street also indicate the artistic and challenging direction that DIJ had taken:

Take a walk down Heaven Street

The soil is soft and the air smells sweet

Paul is waiting there

And so is Franz

Now only memories run on railway tracks.

This road leads to Heaven.

Waiting feet frozen to the ground

The earth exploding with the gas of bodies

Rifle butts

To crush you down

Now only flowers

To idolize.

This road leads to Heaven

(Taken from the DIJ website – www.deathinjune.net )

The material refers to the period of history that would dominate many discussions of the group who deliberately were ambiguous about any political meaning that they may be conveying. The rise of Nazi Germany and the period of the Second World War was one that was pertinent to all three members of the group. Douglas talks about his father’s action in world war two as a fighter pilot in the RAF (DIJ DVD) and Patrick Leagas (who became the third key member of Death in June) talks of his interest in the area coming from his families’ involvement in the war:

The connection with World war 2 was a very real thing for me since my father fought through from Dunkirk onwards and beyond and so stories around the Sunday roast from my father , uncles and others infused a memory that very much connected me to a romantic but realistic awareness about that time. Wearing a German helmet and playing with old Enfield and Mauser rifles and bayonets for me was my playground. Funny how when you speak to people involved in that war how few had any hate towards the German people. They had a better understanding of the power of the individual in those days and the fact that people on both sides often had very little choice in what happened. (Interview with Patrick Leagas, 09.01.2007)

The lyric of Heaven Street that refers to `Paul is waiting there and so is Franz’ references the book by Gita Sereny about the camp commandant of Treblinka called Franz Stangl (Sereny, G, Into that Darkness: An examination of conscience, Vintage Press, 1983). In the book Sereny finds that Stangl is referred to by both names in his double life at the camp. A life that by day is the commandant who oversees all aspects of the inmate and extermination program and by night is sitting at his home, separated off from the rest of the camp acting as the perfect father and husband to his family. In an e-mail discussion with Douglas P I asked him to clarify the lyric in the song. His response is interesting and instructive:

Sometime late in 1979 I'd seen a documentary on television about a woman who had survived the war by working in the Kanada Kommando of one of the death camps. As you probably know, this was the work detachment of inmates that basically cleaned everything up in the camps from the latrines to the corpses and was so-called because it was like a 'holiday' in Canada in comparison to whatever else was going on in these places. Why Canada was chosen as opposed to, for instance, Australia, as an idyllic 'holiday' destination still baffles me. She was accompanied by her daughter who may have even directed the documentary and what amazed me was how little bitterness seemed to colour her recollections which all appeared very matter of fact-like. This included her remembering the glamorous camp commandant who would ride a horse through the camp wearing his white summer tunic. This was almost certainly Franz Stangl.

On the strength of the documentary I was moved to write the song 'Kanada Kommando' which was the last song I wrote for Crisis and was released on the 'Hymns of Faith' album in early 1980. Shortly after, the group split and Tony Wakeford and myself agreed that we should take a few months off from music, etc and reconvene down the track to see how we could carry on with something different - whatever that would be.

I was working as I petrol pump attendant in this period and during times when no customers would come in I read books. One of these was obviously 'Into That Darkness' which I had found in the local library. I began to write lyrics inspired by this book on FINA note paper, which I still have, and very soon I had the basics of what was to become the very first song I wrote for the still unformed Death In June, 'Heaven Street'.

In the late Summer/early Autumn of 1980 I took my first, of what was to be many, visits to Vienna, Austria. During that holiday I went up to the wine growing area around the city known as the Grenzing and sampled a lot of the first wine of the season known locally as 'Sturm'!

Whilst visiting a toilet in one of the wineries a local man stood next to me and started humming and whistling. He eventually turned to me and said something along the lines of "We Austrians love music!" When I left the winery shortly after on the opposite side of the road was the street sign reading; Himmelstrasse (Heaven Street)! I saw that as a 'sign' in more ways than one.

Eventually, when the first rehearsals and then recordings and then performances took place of Death In June I noticed that "Paul is waiting there and so is Franz" sounded very similar to "Poland is waiting there and so is France" which had even more connotations than any I may have originally thought of. So, that's where I stand with 'Heaven Street'. As usual, with Death in June it's not completely straight forward not even for me - 27 years on.

The lyrics to the original 'She Said Destroy' were written entirely by David Tibet in 1983 and he claimed he based the title around the French novel 'Destroy, She Said' but obviously tipped his hat in the direction of 'Heaven Street' and its influence in the rest of his text. (Email 16.04.07)

Douglas describes the taking of pieces of information and emotive material from a number of sources here to produce a lyric and piece of music that reflects his reading of the documentary and the book `Into that Darkness’ and some of his experiences whilst traveling and reflecting on the material. He is also developing his own understanding and poetic take on the events that he is referencing. This method of creating lyrics and music and juxtaposing different elements is like a more structured version of William Burroughs and Brian Gysin’s cut up method (Calder, J. 1982). It is also located in a particular time period where, as we have seen, the shadow and effect of World War Two was still being directly felt by the group of young people of Douglas’s age. Their parents still had clear recollections of the war and often had been involved in some way or another so had strong opinions of it. Children of this age were still growing up with comics that portrayed the war with titles such as War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library and Commando (Fleetway Press – now a part of IPC) they continued to fire young imaginations about these events. The 1970s was also a period where the TV series The World at War; (Thames Television also claimed to be one of the finest documentaries ever made, it was number 19 in the 100 best TV programmes ever made voted for by the British Film Institute in 2000) which over 26 episodes documented the lead up to and the history of the war and included interviews with still surviving leading figures from all sides, provided an important aural and musical voice. The theme tune of the show, an ominous, melancholic classical motif, played a part in setting the scene and as it developed through each show provided a thematic link that was particularly powerful. This programme, scheduled on a Sunday afternoon and tea time, continued to examine the specific peculiarity, horror and social and cultural importance of the War for a British audience. So in many ways the war and the development of Nazi Germany had a profound effect on the developing psyche of many a young person in the 1970s. Douglas P, Patrick Leagas and Tony Wakeford were locked in to this area of history as much as they had been locked in to a leftist, socialist/communist slant on history from their political affiliations in the 1970s and this would be examined within their art.

The title of the book; `Into that Darkness’ would appear as another Death in June lyric on the track `She Said Destroy’ which became the third single and marked the groups move towards the use of more acoustic guitar work than the more heavy drum, bass, electric guitar and militaristic trumpet of the early recordings. This approach was coupled with tracks such as `C’est un Reve’ (It’s a dream) which would appear on the bands second LP `NADA!’ and contained the lyrics:

Ou est Klaus Barbie

Il est dans le coeur

Il est dans le coeur noir

Liberte

C'est un reve

(Taken from the DIJ website – www.deathinjune.net )

The lyrics here suggest that we will find Klaus Barbie (Chief of the Gestapo in Lyon, France 1942-1944, responsible for many deportations of Jews to the concentration camps) in the dark heart and that Liberty is a dream. This fits with a variety of analyses of the role of ordinary men and women in World War Two e.g. Christopher Browning’s book `Ordinary Men: Reserve Battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland’ (Browning, Penguin, 2001) which shows how a group of men who had no overt previous history of far right politics could by virtue of man management and group solidarity become instruments of extreme violence, torture and death. This portrays the direction of Death In June’s art which was to combine elements that at once enliven, question, re-examine and provoke a response by juxtaposing many symbols, aesthetics, music and lyrics that in their new context, as part of DIJs art, take on new meaning and provocation. In an interview in Descent magazine the interviewer asked Douglas P:

….i would like to submit some ideas to you. I wouldn't want to stress these questions (that you certainly used to hear all the time, often asked in a tendentious manner) but I feel the paramilitary image as a symbolic warning against all the things the uniform represents. The provocation is a way to incite reflection, not remaining passive, not being easily influenced or manipulated, with a personal and omnipresent rigor and will. But, on the other side, and don't think that there's a mental reservation; the fact that you are homosexual could make the uniform a simple fetish object, indeed sexual (as I’ve read in an interview in '84).

(http://www.deathinjune.org/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Interview:

1996-Descent )

In response to this Douglas stated that:

Except for the idea that anything to do with DEATH IN JUNE is "fun" then I can't disagree with the other theories you forward. There is more, much more but, I draw the line at "explaining the line of DIJ". This is because I find that demeaning. Those who understand do and those who don’t won't! Life is too short to spend too much time talking, until you are blue in the face. The time for pontification and overindulgence in analysis are over. Actions speak louder than words! Time is running out like water from a sink.

(http://www.deathinjune.org/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Interview:

1996-Descent )

The milieu of Industrial music culture, punk and post-punk contained many contradictions, philosophical and political discussions, use of imagery and aesthetics as provocation and stimulation or questioning, and the exploration of many positions of different politics, ideologies, spiritualities and esoteric matter. Throbbing Gristle, pioneers of British avant-garde industrial music had used a lightening flash insignia which had been used by many different militaries across the world but because a variation of it had been used by the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s questions were raised in the press about Throbbing Gristles politics. The band themselves adapted it from their look at military insignia and David Bowies flash make-up used during his Ziggy Stardust period (Ford, S, 1999). Joy Division, the post punk band who had taken their name from the concentration camp inmates who were used as prostitutes for the guards of the camps, were also accused of fascist sympathies simply on the strength of their name and the groups on stage 1930s look of trousers, shirts and ties. Theatre of Hate became Spear of Destiny in 1983 also were accused of flirting with fascist imagery because of the myths surrounding the Spear of Destiny and the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s. Laibach the Slovenian industrial band were accused of being fascist for being deliberately ambiguous about their imagery and totalitarian statements about their art. Most of these artists were using these ideas, images, aesthetics and ideas as juxtapositions and collage affects for their artwork to have an impact on a culture that during the 1980s in the UK was beginning to become intellectually and artistically depthless and insipid. Just as critical postmodern thinkers like Jean Baudrillard (Baudrillard, 1983, 1994) were beginning to point out the lack of depth and culturally disembedded nature of symbolic goods and ideas this pocket of music makers were making people think on a scale unexpected by popular cultural standards. The book Tape Delay by Charles Neal (SAF publishing, 1987) brought together interviews, essays, lyrics and commentary on a group of musicians who were operating in fairly diverse musical fields but who shared a commitment to challenging music and lacing that music with references to different ideas. These artists and their audiences produced a cultural milieu that was incredibly rich with discussion, theorizing, literary and philosophical references and crucially critical thinking. Artists such as Cabaret Voltaire, Test Department, Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave, Einsturzende Neubauten, Psychic TV, David Tibet, Diamanda Galas, Swans, Matt Johnson, Mark Almond, Coil, Sonic Youth, Mark Stewart and many more were linked together as a type of intelligent independent music scene (even though some of these artists were on major labels). By Independent here I mean in terms of thought and musical development, these artists often produced music that completely worked outside of what was thought of as `popular music’. The reference points in their work are many and varied and include: William Burroughs (the American beat writer and intellectual), Alfred Jarry (the playwright), Salvidor Dali (the artist), Austin Osman Spare (the artist and occultist), the Marquis De Sade (author), Joseph Conrad (author), Mirbeau (author), Aleister Crowley (the occultist), Hakim Bey (anarchist and author), Ezra Pound (author, poet), The Futurists (art movement), Noam Chomsky (Writer and critic). Various types of paganism, magic, occultism, environmentalism, anarchism, situationism, conservatism, communalism, individualism, socialism are also apparent in their references. What is clear from their work is that the using, abusing, borrowing and knitting together of these various reference points is always done in a unique and thought provoking way.

Peter Webb’s, `Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music: Milieu Cultures’, is published by Routledge. ISBN 0-415-95658-7. For further details see:

http://www.routledge.com/books/Exploring-the-Networked-Worlds-of-Popular-Music-isbn
9780415956581

It is available from:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-0336907-7782207?url=search-alias%3Daps

&field-keywords=exploring+the+networked+worlds+of+popular+music&x=0&y=

Codex Europa Live Session

2008-01-01T12:48:00.000Z

At 20.00 (21.00 CET) on 3rd January, Codex Europa will play a live set on Ill FM. The set will feature a selection of Russian and ex-Yugoslav industrial music interspersed with avant-garde composition from the region.

Gerechtigkeits Liga Interview with Alexander Nym (I.C.R.N).

2007-06-18T22:51:00.000+01:00

As a follow-up to Alexei Monroe's GL article we publish this German interview.

GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA

Till Brüggemann im Gespräch mit Alexander Nym

„GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA ersetzen mytho-poetischen und romantischen Nihilismus durch einen introvertierteren und neurotischeren Ausblick. Es ist dies die paranoid-kritische Art zu urteilen und zu handeln.“

Dieses Zitat enthält keine absichtliche Referenz an Salvador Dalí, aber sie kann auch nicht schaden, schließlich erforscht die GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA seit inzwischen mehr als einem Vierteljahrhundert Träume, Ideen und Halluzinationen, die dem Surrealismus ebenso artverwandt sind wie dem Schamanismus und der Magie – der Magie der Klänge und Rhythmen.

1981 von Till Brüggemann und Frank Ströpken in Bremen gegründet, war das düster-experimentelle Projekt der beiden eines der ersten in Deutschland, die die Energie des Punk mit elektronisch disziplinierter Maschinenkraft kombinierten und damit ihre Hörerschaft in unbekannte, dunkel-bedrohliche Klanggefilde lockte. Vor GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA war Till Brüggemann als genialer Dilettant in der Punkband E-605 als Gitarrist und Sänger zugange gewesen, zusammen mit einem gewissen Hank am Bass, der später für eineinhalb Jahre ebenfalls bei G.L. mitwirken sollte.

Ströpken verließ das Projekt um 1982/83, und Brüggemann setzte in den folgenden Jahren die Arbeit mit anderen Musikern fort. Zusammen mit den EINSTÜRZENDEN NEUBAUTEN zählen GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA zu den bekanntesten Industrial-Pionieren aus deutschen Landen. Das blieb allerdings nicht lange so, denn nach einem Umweg über Bremen und Berlin (Besetzungsänderungen inbegriffen) zogen die LIGA-Mitglieder 1985/86 dauerhaft nach London. Dort verliefen sich die Spuren in den 90er Jahren, und es blieb lange ruhig um das ominöse Projekt, bis es im neuen Millennium mit der Wiederveröffentlichung der klassischen Vinylscheiben The Games Must Go On und Hypnotischer Existenzialismus sowie mehreren Samplerbeiträgen wieder auferstand.

Wie bist Du zur Musik/zum Klang gekommen?

Bevor ich mit dem GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA-Projekt anfing, hatte ich in zwei Punkbands als Gitarrist gespielt. Ich war ein totaler Dilletant und hackte auf dem Instrument eigentlich nur herum. Meine Mitmusiker hatten auch andere Projekte am laufen, und somit war es nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis wir uns trennten um in „künstlerischer“ Hinsicht unsere eigenen Wege zu gehen. Ich war sowieso schon seit einer Weile vom Punk-Sound desillusioniert und suchte nach anderen musikalischen Alternativen. GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA sollte eine Plattform für die neurotischen Obsessionen ihrer Mitglieder sein, was auch gelungen zu sein scheint, wenn ich mir die Aufnahmen aus den frühen 80ern so anhöre...

Wann und unter welchen Umständen erschien Deine erste Veröffentlichung?

Meine bzw. unsere erste Veröffentlichung mit dem Titel Scenes we’d like to see erschien 1982 als Tape: 50 Stück Auflage mit 4-seitigem Begleitbuch, auf dem schwarz-weiss Kopien von Archivfotos deutscher SS-Ärzte abgedruckt waren, aufgenommen nach Versuchen an lebenden Menschen. Der Titel war natürlich höchst ironisch, was aber z.T. völlig missverstanden wurde und uns in der Bremer Punkszene den Ruf eintrug, Neonazi-mäßig drauf zu sein – was völlig daneben war!

Ein ständig auftretendes Problem. Was hat Dich damals veranlasst, die KZ-Bilder für das Tape zu verwenden, und was bekam man darauf zu hören?

Es frustrierte mich zur damaligen Zeit sehr, dass die deutsche Vergangenheit doch offensichtlich immer noch von vielen Bundesbürgern bewusst verdrängt wurde. Diese Tatsache war ein wesentlicher Ausgangspunkt, der uns letztendlich dazu bewegte, dem Tape-release diesen eigentlich unmissverständlichen Titel zu geben.

Dazu inspiriert hatte mich der Schriftsteller Primo Levi mit seinem Buch Ist das ein Mensch – Erinnerungen an Auschwitz. Er wurde im Jahre 1943 als 24-jähriger in Italien von faschistischen Truppen festgenommen und nach Auschwitz deportiert, wo er 1945 von den Russen befreit wurde. Auf dem Tape, das wir im Eigenverlag produzierten, veröffentlichten wir Soundcollagen, die sich aus Tape-loops, Synthesizersounds wie etwa basslastigem Rauschen, sowie Metallsounds, die von field recordings stammten, zusammensetzten. Zum Teil wurden auch konventionelle Instrumente mit Verzerrern eingesetzt.

Wie ging’s weiter mit GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA?

Als ich 1983 volljährig wurde, begann ich mit einem neuen Kollegen am GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA-Projekt vollzeitmäßig weiterzuarbeiten. Der „Neue“ war der Bremer Thomas Furch, Herausgeber eines Punk-Zines. Wir waren aus praktischen Erwägungen zusammen gezogen und waren in einer Musikkooperative mit anderen Musikern und Bands zusammen, so dass alle das jeweils vorhandene Equipment nutzen konnten. Damals probten wir täglich in einem modernisierten Weltkriegsbunker, der im Fall eines Atomkrieges zwar keinerlei Schutz geboten hätte, aber trotzdem vom Bremer Senat zum Atomschutzbunker deklariert worden war. Diesen Bunker teilten wir uns mit ein paar anderen Bands. Wir fingen mittags an zu proben, um den anderen Gruppen zuvorzukommen, wobei Thomas sich im Lauf der Zeit zunehmend auf Klangcollagen konzentrierte, während ich mich um die Rhythmen und Strukturen kümmerte. An anderen Tagen verlagerte sich die Arbeitsaufteilung genau andersherum. Je nach Stimmung und Intuitionen. Ich hatte mich nun endgültig entschlossen, unsere Sound- sowie Film- und Videoarbeit auf eine professionelle Basis zu stellen. Wir gründeten unser eigenes unabhängiges Label, welches sich Zyklus Records nannte. Nach der ersten Tapeveröffentlichung von Scenes we’d like to see von 1982 waren 2 oder 3 Live-Mitschnitte über unser Label auf Tape veröffentlicht und per mailorder verkauft worden. Im Laufe der Zeit wurden immer mehr G.L Tapes und auch Videos über unser Label verkauft.

Uli Rehberg, der heute unter seinem Pseudonym Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg bekannt ist, organisierte mit WHITEHOUSE und uns ein Konzert in Hamburg. Ein wirklich gutes set-up, zu dem allerdings leider nur sehr wenige Gäste kamen... Trotzdem gingen wir mit der Einstellung einer Punkband an den Gig heran; es war sehr aggressiv, druckvoll, und um einiges härter als das, was es von uns auf Platten bzw. Tapes gab. Das lag u.a auch daran, das ich wie ein metaphorischer Spiegel agierte, indem ich die Stimmung des Publikums in mir verarbeitete und diese mit mehrfacher Kraft verbal zurückschleuderte. Uli war von unserem Live-Sound so beeindruckt, dass er in Erwägung zog, eine Platte mit G.L.-Studioaufnahmen auf seinem Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien-Label zu veröffentlichen, falls diese dem live-Standard entsprechen würden. Zwar hatten wir bisher in keinem Studio gearbeitet, fanden aber nach kurzer Zeit ein 4-Spur-Studio in der Nähe von Bremen und machten uns an die Arbeit. Da es unsere erste Studiosession war, hörte sich das Ergebnis auch dementsprechend mies an. Uli verlor beim Anhören auch seine anfängliche Begeisterung, und wir entschieden uns schließlich, ein billiges 8-Spur-Studio in London zu finden, um das gesamte Material aufzuarbeiten.

Warum ausgerechnet London?

Einige Monate zuvor waren wir das erste mal nach London gereist und hatten dort Graeme Revell von SPK, sowie Dominik Guerin und Colleen Ford (beide von TWIN VISION) kennen gelernt. Dominik war auch an anfänglichen SPK-Aufnahmen beteiligt, und er und Colleen arbeiteten damals an all den SPK-Videos und –Backroundfilmen. Außerdem machten wir die Bekanntschaft von Brian Williams (LUSTMORD), sowie etlichen anderen Musikern. Durch diesen ersten London-Besuch hatten wir auch einen Studiobesitzer und Musiker namens James Braddel kennen gelernt. Als wir wieder in London ankamen, machte uns James ein einigermaßen gutes Studioangebot, und wir fingen an das 4-Spur-Master in seinem 8-Spur-Studio zu überarbeiten und neu zu mastern. Nachdem wir nach Deutschland zurück kamen, konnten wir Uli trotz der Überarbeitung nicht mehr für eine Veröffentlichung auf seinem Label begeistern, also entschlossen wir uns, Geld zu leihen und die vier aufgenommenen Tracks auf einer 12"-Maxi auf unserem Zyklus-Label herauszubringen. „Das Büro“, damals ein guter deutscher Vertrieb in Düsseldorf, zeigte sofort Interesse am Vertrieb. Die GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA-12" wurde dann als einmalige 500er-Auflage veröffentlicht.

Wer ist GL heute, und wie hat sich Deine Herangehensweise ans Sound produzieren verändert?

GL besteht heute aus zwei Personen: Mir und Ragnar aus Berlin. Wegen der räumlichen Distanz zwischen Berlin und London ist das nicht die praktischste Lösung, aber dank der heutigen Studiotechnik sind solche Probleme bei Zusammenarbeiten eher zweitrangig. Was hat sich noch geändert? Anfang der 80er Jahre arbeitete ich für die Tape-Veröffentlichungen mit sehr minimalistischen Mitteln wie vorbereiteten Soundcollagen von Tapes, die durch Gitarrenverzerrer oder sonstige Pedaleffekte manipuliert wurden. Unser Ausgangsmaterial waren primitive Samples, die wir mit einem Diktiergerät z.B. von Sperrmüllabholungen oder auch aus dem Fernsehen oder Radio aufgenommen hatten. Das Diktiergerät war zwar nur mono, war aber geschwindigkeitsverstellbar, wodurch wir das Material pitchen konnten. Die Sounds, die wir verwenden wollten, überspielten wir dann auf Cassetten und Tonbänder, wobei wir Loops mühselig durch vielfaches Kopieren der selben Sounds manuell herstellen mußten. Analog total! Außerdem verwendeten wir analoge Drummachines, E-Gitarren, Bass und Violine. Aufgenommen wurde das dann auf einem Fostex-8-Spur-Gerät, das nur eine Bandbreite von einem Viertel-Zoll hatte. Dadurch war das Gerät zwar gut zu transportieren, aber die Aufnahmen verloren an Dynamik, verglichen mit einer professionelleren Maschine. Abgemischt und gemastert wurden die Sachen schon digital; das begann damals gerade, Einzug in die Studios zu halten, was den Klang erheblich verbesserte, aber auch sehr teuer war. Auf Hypnotischer Existenzialismus hört man bereits einen digitalen Drumcomputer, den Drumulator, ein riesengroßes Teil, und einen polyphonen Roland-Synthesizer. Im Lauf der 80er mischten wir zunehmend elektronische Rhythmen (Sequenzer) sowie natürliche und synthetische, also digitale Geräuschkörper, in unseren Sound, verwendeten aber auch nach wie vor unsere eigenen Samples. Heutzutage kann sich jeder Musiker mit verhältnismäßig kostengünstigen Mitteln ein eigenes Homestudio einrichten. Für uns bedeutet das wesentliche Zeiteinsparungen beim Bearbeiten vom Samples, die ich mit einer digitalen Workstation hier in London abmische, mit der ich auch Analogaufnahmen digital verarbeiten kann, und die bekommt Ragnar dann als Einzelspuren gebrannt. Er ist Toningenieur und arbeitet in seinem Berliner Studio an den Tracks, die er mir auf CD-R zuschickt oder in virtuellen Lagerräumen im Cyberspace parkt. Ich sichte das Material, wähle aus, und per Telefon und E-mail betreiben wir Ideenaustausch, um die Stücke voran zu bringen. Das ist natürlich umständlich, und mein Laptop ist völlig veraltet, sodass das alles moderner klingt, als es ist – gegenwärtig ist noch alles offen, weil wir ja auch noch andere Verpflichtungen haben und uns nur selten treffen können.

Wie sieht dein Verhältnis zu deinen Industrial-Mitpionieren aus?

Leider habe ich den Kontakt zu meinen alten Mitstreitern fast vollständig verloren. Die Tatsache, dass viele der damaligen Musiker und Künstler, mit denen ich in den 80ern Kontakt hatte, schon vor Jahren London bzw. Großbritannien verlassen haben, hilft natürlich wenig. Dazu kommt, dass ich es bevorzuge, eher zurückgezogen zu leben, und es auch aus diesem Grund schwieriger ist, neue Leute kennen zu lernen. Andererseits versuche ich zumindest, Kontakte zu alten und neuen Freunden und Bekannten per e-mail aufrecht zu halten. Wenn meine Finanzen nicht so negativ aussehen würden, wäre ich schon des öfteren mal wieder in die Staaten oder auch nach Australien geflogen... Andererseits habe ich zwischenzeitlich neue, zum Teil sehr interessante Bekanntschaften mit Musikern und anderen kreativen Leuten gemacht, und bin darüber sehr froh.

Wie denkst Du über den ungebrochenen Trend, monotone Einfallslosigkeit und strukturloses Rumgelärme als Industrial Music zu bezeichnen?

Die meisten von Dir angesprochenen aktuellen Sachen finde ich ziemlich uninteressant. Leider! Es stoßen auch immer mehr Kopisten dazu, die aussageloses Krachgewirr betreiben.

Welche Musik hörst Du daheim am liebsten?

Vieles; von Klassik – Wagner, Mahler Händl, Mozart, Philip Glass ect, ect. – bis hin zu experimentellem Techno. Insgesamt kann ich aber sagen, dass ich Musik aus vielen Orientierungsrichtungen höre, entsprechend meiner Laune.

Zusätzlich zur Musik hast auch mit Video experimentiert...?

Ja, ich hatte um 1982 auch angefangen, mit Super-8-Filmen, Video- und Dia-Projektionen zu experimentieren und diese mit Soundtracks in Form von krachigen Soundscapes zu unterlegen. In England besuchte ich – mit Unterbrechungen – zwischen 1987 und 89 die St. Martin School of Arts, um Experimentalfilm zu studieren, konnte aber die Finanzierung für meinen Abschlussfilm nicht zusammen kriegen. Ärgerlich, denn es war schon ein Privileg, dort überhaupt genommen zu werden. Eigentlich nutzte ich das College hauptsächlich, um an Equipment ranzukommen. (lacht) Amüsanterweise kam ich aber nicht durch St. Martin in Kontakt mit anderen Filmleuten, sondern ausschließlich durch Freunde und Bekannte. Derek Jarman zum Beispiel lernte ich über einen gemeinsamen Londoner Freund kennen, und konnte später auch einen kleinen Nebendarstellerjob in dessen War Requiem bekommen. Am College war ich aber ein extremer Einzelgänger, nicht zuletzt weil auch mein Englisch noch nicht so gut und ich sehr schüchtern war und meine Interessengebiete auf einer anderen Ebene lagen.

Du bist auch in Full Metal Jacket zu sehen... Erzähl mal davon.

Leute von TEST DEPT. vermittelten uns kurz nach dem Umzug nach London Statistenjobs bei der Produktion von Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick’s Produktionsfirma hatte eine riesige Lagerhalle in den Docklands angemietet, die damals sowieso aussahen, als hätte dort ein Bürgerkrieg stattgefunden. Und dort trafen wir dann auch noch drei Leute von LAIBACH, die ebenfalls mitmachen wollten. Da wir damals in einem besetzten Haus ohne Strom und Telefon wohnten, musste einer von uns morgens um fünf zur nächsten Telefonzelle laufen, um bei der Firma anzurufen und nachzufragen, ob aus Wettergründen überhaupt gedreht werden würde. Wenn das Wetter okay war, nahmen wir die erste U-Bahn zur Baker Street, von wo aus man uns mit Bussen raus aufs Land transportierte, wo die Aufnahmen gemacht wurden. Man wurde voll rasiert, obwohl wir nur im Hintergrund durch die Gegend joggten, bzw. Militärdrill exerzieren mussten von. Und dabei war ich seinerzeit von Bremen nach West Berlin gegangen, um mich der Bundeswehr zu entziehen. Das ging über mehrere Wochen so; Kubrick drehte wahnsinnig viel Material, von dem am Ende nur Bruchteile im fertigen Film zu sehen waren. Als Regisseur hätte ich manche der Szenen mit Sicherheit verwendet. Es waren einige Musiker bei FMJ mit dabei: Big John, der mit Angus von TEST DEPT. zusammen wohnte, und ex-SPK-Mitglied Carrel Van Bergen, waren damals bei der BAND OF HOLY JOY – für die hab ich mal einen Gig in Brighton gemischt, und wir teilten uns eine zeitlang den selben Übungsraum. Auf dem FMJ-Set habe ich auch Jason Gilliam kennen gelernt, einen Australier, der gerade von Berlin nach London gezogen war. Mit Jason arbeitete ich dann bis etwa 1989 an GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA weiter, bis er begann in elektronischere, tanzbarere Richtungen aufbrach. Wenn man sich Full Metal Jacket ansieht, kann man im Ausbildungscamp im Hintergrund zahlreiche Experimentalmusiker schwitzen sehen...

Welche Musik hat Dich früher geprägt, bzw. inspiriert?

Es waren ethnische Klänge aber auch ziemlich gegensätzliche gregorianische Chöre, die mich inspirierten... Als mir damals die erste SPK-Single Mekano von Freunden vorgespielt wurde, war ich von deren Sound sehr begeistert. Kurz darauf hörte ich die SPK-Alben Information Overload Unit und Leichenschrei, die ich für totale Klassiker hielt. Außerdem fand ich SPK's Konzept wirklich genial. Dazu kamen die ersten THROBBING GRISTLE-Alben wie z.B. The Second AnnualReport, DOA und auch Discipline, welche mit SPK’s statements nicht wirklich vergleichbar sind. Ein anderer Klassiker waren natürlich FAKTRIX aus den USA, aber auch Gruppen wie die SWELL MAPS und EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN hinterließen positive Spuren bei mir. Klassische Musik hörte ich auch, allerdings beschränkte sich das größtenteils auf Penderecki, Strawinsky und Prokofiev und einige andere. Ansonsten fällt mir augenblicklich nicht sehr viel mehr ein. Es sind seitdem schon gute zwei Jahrzehnte vergangen... Je kreativer ich mit meiner eigenen Musik wurde, desto weniger hatte ich das Verlangen, Musik von anderen Gruppen, bzw. Musik generell zu hören. Heute ist es nicht anders als es früher war: Wenn ich an Aufnahmen arbeite, habe ich weniger Verlangen, Musik zu hören. Ansonsten sind es teilweise die alten Klassiker, natürlich aber auch neues interessantes Material von „jüngeren“ Gruppen, die ich höre. Namen zu nennen wäre zu aufwendig. Der Markt ist mittlerweile ja auch relativ gesättigt mit ziemlich guten aber leider auch miesen Bands/Musikern, sodass ich zu einem großen Teil den Überblick verloren habe! Andererseits habe ich angefangen, mich doch mehr für klassische Musik zu interessieren, wie ich bereits erwähnt habe.

In Deiner Musik erzeugst Du dunkle Atmosphären mit schamanischen Rhythmen, Samples von Naturvölkern, enochischen Gesängen, etc. – Was inspiriert Dich zu solchen Kompositionen und woher stammt Dein Interesse an Magie & Mystik?

Gegen 1983 begann ich mich für ethnische Songstrukturen aus aller Welt und „tribal“-Rhythmen zu interessieren. Die Herkunft, bzw. der Ursprung sogenannter „primitiver“ Musik ist ja die Stammeskultur. Zur selben Zeit las ich Mircea Eliade’s Buch über Schamanismus und archaische Ekstasetechnik, welches mich in meiner Absicht bestärkte, vermehrt mit diesen Elementen zu arbeiten und sie in meine Musik zu integrieren. Ich empfand damals ein starkes kreatives Bedürfnis, eine Komposition zu erschaffen, die einen Teil der menschlichen Evolution symbolisierte, und verwendete dazu neben den ethnischen Samples und archaischen Rhythmen auch atmosphärische Sounds und düstere Industrialklänge. Sozusagen z.b. die akustische Version dessen, was H.R. Giger auf optische Weise mit seinem Necronomicon angestellt hatte. Zum Thema Magie: Zu der Zeit hatte ich mir das original(?) Necronomicon geliehen, an dem ich aber bald das Interesse verlor. Eine Mitbewohnerin, die das Buch entdeckte – und überzeugte Christin war – bekam einen Riesenschreck und verlangte, ich solle es innerhalb von 24 Stunden aus dem Haus schaffen- was mich extrem amüsierte... Zumindest bin ich durch dieses Buch später auf H.R. Giger aufmerksam geworden, mit dessen Arbeit ich wesentlich mehr anfangen konnte. Durch die weitreichende, internationale Korrespondenz, in die ich zunehmend verwickelt wurde, nachdem in einigen Zines Artikel und Rezensionen über GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA erschienen waren, flatterte mir allerdings manch interessantes ins Haus, z.B. Post vom „World Satanic Network“...

Hast Du religiöse/spirituelle Ansichten, und wenn ja, welche?

Ich habe mich im Lauf der Jahre mit verschiedenen spirituellen Themen beschäftigt, diverse Bücher darüber gelesen, und hatte u.a. im damaligen West-Berlin okkulte Erlebnisse, denn gerade dort manifestierten sich einige der negativsten Energien, die zum Teil durch die geografische Isolation entstanden. Übrigens möchte ich hier bitte nicht missverstanden werden: Ich assoziiere mit dem Begriff okkult in keinster weise etwas negatives. Jedenfalls blieb es nicht aus, dass sich einige okkulte Strömungen in meiner Musik manifestierten. Ein Beispiel dafür war ein Compilation-Projekt,das von CLUB MORAL zusammengestellt wurde. Der Titel dieses Tapes, welche 1986 als limitierte Auflage von 500 nummerierten Exemplaren veröffentlicht wurde, war 19Keys/19Bands. Thematisch behandelte die Compilation die 19 enochischen Schlüssel oder Anrufungen, und jeder teilnehmende Musiker bzw. Projekt erhielt einen der Schlüssel, welcher dann als chant oder gesprochen in das jeweilige Musikstück integriert werden sollte. Das war die Vorraussetzung zur Teilnahme an der Compilation! Die enochische Sprache wurde das erste mal von John Dee und Edward Kelley im 16. Jahrhundert niedergeschrieben, hat ein eigenes Alphabet und eine eigene Syntax. Es hat den Ruf, Wahnsinn und möglicherweise Tod für diejenigen zu bringen, die sich nicht für das Ritual vorbereitet haben – Die GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA erhielt den 14. Schlüssel, den ich in enochisch rezitierte. Der Einfachheit halber hier die englische Übersetzung:

O you sons of fury, the daughters of the just, which sit upon 24 seats, vexing all creatures of the earth with age, which have under you 1663: behold the voice of god, the promise of him which is called amongst you Fury or Extreme Justice. Move therefore and show yourselves: open the mysteries of your own creation: be friendly unto me: for Iam the servant of the same your god, the true worshipper of the highest.

Rückblickend ein wirklich sehr interessantes Projekt!

Zufall ist ein Konzept, dem ich nicht vertraue. Man sollte die Welt als ein Netz aus vielfach verknüpften Geschehnissen (und Geschichten) betrachten.

Es war lange ruhig um GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA. wie kam es, dass nach jahrelanger Pause wieder Stücke erscheinen, bzw. das 80er-Jahre-Material wiederveröffentlicht

wurde?

Im Jahr 2001 wurde ich von Stefan Schwanke, der die Ironflame- Infowebseite betreibt, gefragt, ob ich Interesse hätte, einen exklusiven GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA-Track für seine geplante Boxset-compilation Statement 1961 aufzunehmen. Da ich schon seit längerer Zeit mit dem Gedanken gespielt hatte, neues G.L.-Material zu veröffentlichen, kam mir dieses Angebot sehr gelegen. Außerdem gefiel mir die Thematik des Projekts, da es um den Aufbau und den Fall der Berliner Mauer ging, und ich in meinen jüngeren Jahren ja

für kurze Zeit in West-Berlin gelebt hatte. Anlässlich der Veröffentlichung der Compilation im Juni 2004 gab es einen Konzertabend in Berlin, auf dem ich neben anderen Künstlern wie SCHLOSS TEGAL, CLUB MORAL, C O CASPAR, ect..., auch auftrat. Statement 1961 ist eines der besten Kompilationsprojekte, an denen ich in meiner musikalischen Karriere unter dem Namen GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA einen Track veröffentlicht habe. Diese Veröffentlichung ebnete mir wieder den Weg in die Industrial-„Scene“, welche sich jedoch leider in mancher Hinsicht nicht unbedingt zum Besseren entwickelt hat...Andererseits sind durch die Entstehung des Industrial viele andere Musiksubkategorien entstanden, von denen manche wirklich in vieler Hinsicht faszinierend sind. Aber noch mal kurz zum eigentlichen Thema:

Am Konzertabend in Berlin wurde ich von einigen alten Bekannten wie Graf Haufen, aber auch von anderen netten Besuchern angesprochen. Einer von diesen war Lerry Dimitrow, der kurze Zeit später sein eigenes Label Isegrimm Records gründete und darauf meine erste 12" The Games Must Go On, sowie das Album Hypnotischer Existenzialismus, welches 1985 auf SPK's label Side Effects, (in den USA auf Themidor) erschienen war, plus sieben Live-Tracks aus NYC, in Form einer Digibox-CD veröffentlichte.

Welche außermusikalischen Themen und Einflüsse bestimmen die Arbeitsweise und Inhalte von GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA?

In den Anfangsjahren von G.L. bewirkte die Tatsache, dass wir uns im kalten Krieg befanden und Westdeutschland geographisch gesehen an der „Front“ lag, eine unbeschreiblich beklemmende, nervöse und fast schöne apokalyptische Stimmung bzw. Atmosphäre, die wohl auch stark das rege Treiben der damaligen atonalen Künstler beeinflusste und auf subtile Weise bestimmte. Auch dass wir in dem erwähnten Bunker probten, erscheint mir rückblickend als passende Ironie; dieses Ambiente verstärkte die allgegenwärtige Paranoia und Untergangsangst noch – oder vielleicht lag’s auch am Speed... Jedenfalls war ich manchmal nach den Fernsehnachrichten überzeugt, dass die Welt am nächsten Tag untergehen würde, und war deswegen hin und wieder völlig fertig; am Rande des Nervenzusammenbruchs.

Ebenso hatte ich mich schon in jungen Jahren über die KZs des „Dritten Reichs“ informiert – was sich ja auch deutlich an unserem ersten Tape zeigte. Meine Lieblingsregisseure waren damals (und sind zum Teil auch heute noch) David Lynch – Eraserhead hinterließ bei mir extrem starke Eindrücke; Krysztof Kieslowski, Lars von Trier, David Cronenberg, die Coen Brothers, Tarkovsky und viele andere, die damals schon zu unbekannt waren, als dass ich mich heute noch erinnern würde. Im visuellen Bereich natürlich der bereits erwähnte H.R. Giger – und natürlich Dalí. Artauds Theater der Grausamkeiten hat mich immer fasziniert, aber ich bin bisher noch nicht tiefer darin eingestiegen.

Kommen wir zu Büchern...

Meine literarischen Einflüsse sind sehr breitgefächert und vielschichtig. In jungen Jahren war ich großer Burroughs-Fan (und hatte ja auch das große Glück, ihn kennen zu lernen); darüber hinaus las ich u.a. Georges Bataille, Marquis deSade, Aleister Crowley, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Cioran, und J.G. Ballard natürlich, nicht zu vergessen. Es gibt da noch soviel mehr Autoren... In den 90ern las ich u.a. Bukowski, aber das wohl eher, da ich ein Alkohol Problem hatte...

Wie kam es zu der Begegnung mit William S. Burroughs?

Während meiner ersten USA-Tour 1984 hatte ich die große Ehre, während eines zweitägigen Aufenthalts in Lawrence/Kansas Bill Burroughs zu treffen. Ich war mit einem anderen Bill verabredet, der die (nicht mehr existente) Video-Firma Fresh Sounds betrieb. Ich war von ihm eingeladen worden, die zwei Tage bei ihm zu verbringen und mit ihm einen Exklusivvertrag für Nordamerika für das G.L.-Videomaterial zu machen – und um ein bisschen Erholung vom Tourneeplan zu haben. Es stellte sich heraus, dass er ein guter Freund von Burroughs war, und am nächsten Tag wurden wir zum Schiessen auf Burroughs’ Grundstück draußen auf dem Land eingeladen! Also fuhren wir am nächsten Morgen zu dem Haus, in dem Burroughs zu der Zeit lebte. Ich sprang aus dem Auto und klopfte, und einige Zeit später wurde sie von einem ziemlich dünnen älteren Mann geöffnet. Ich erkannte fast sofort die Gesichtszüge und konnte gar nicht glauben, dass ich ihm gegenüberstand, seine Hand schüttelte und wir uns vorgestellt wurden – hier muss ich erwähnen, dass mein Englisch zu der Zeit fürchterlich war, und die Konversation von hier an sehr einfach gehalten war. Bill B. stellte mir seinen Boyfriend vor, sammelte seine Waffenkoffer zusammen, und Minuten später fand ich mich auf dem Rücksitz eines Wagens wieder, auf dem Weg zum Grundstück, mit einem kurzen Halt zum einkaufen von Munition für Bill’s Pistolen; er benutzte nur Handfeuerwaffen. Als wir schließlich bei der Hütte, die sich mitten im Nirgendwo befand, ankamen, verbrachten wir einen großartigen Nachmittag mit dem Durchprobieren von Bill’s besten Schießeisen. Runde um Runde ohne Ende haben wir geschossen; Zielübungen unter blauem Himmel, und natürlich die Freude der Tatsache, in Gesellschaft eines der einflussreichsten Schriftsteller des vergangenen Jahrhunderts zu sein – das war einmalig!

Etwa ein Jahr später traf ich Graeme Revell von SPK und erzählte ihm von meinem Treffen mit Burroughs. Graeme erzählte mir, dass sie ein paar Jahre zuvor auf einer ihrer US-Tourneen exakt dasselbe Treffen erlebt hatten: Sie hatten auch in Lawrence halt gemacht, einen Video-Deal mit Fresh Sounds unterschrieben, Burroughs getroffen und sind mit ihm Schießen gegangen...

War Burroughs noch auf Drogen?

Nein, keine harten Sachen mehr. Ich fragte ihn, ob er noch Drogen nehmen würde, aber außer ab und zu Gras hat er wohl nichts zu sich genommen.

Welche Rolle spielten Drogen bei G.L.?

Um 1983/84 experimentierten wir auch mit psychedelischen Drogen: hauptsächlich mit Pilzen, die man im Herbst auf den norddeutschen Wiesen sammeln konnte, aber auch mit Acid. Die Einblicke, die diese Substanzen ermöglichen können (und ich betone: können!), waren schon sehr aufschlussreich, interessant und in kreativer Hinsicht auch nützlich. Die meisten und besten Ideen bekomme ich durch anregende Gespräche mit Freunden und Kollegen. Der Großteil meiner Inspiration kommt allerdings aus meiner „inneren Dunkelheit“. Ich lebe sehr zurückgezogen, was sich vielleicht seltsam anhört, wenn man bedenkt, dass London eine Metropole ist. Aber gerade in Gegenden, in denen menschliches Massentreiben herrscht, kann man sich am einsamsten fühlen – und wohl auch eher Misanthrop werden.

Würdest Du Dich als Misanthrop bezeichnen?

Teilweise schon, ja. Mit Sicherheit. Mir kommen zwar auch Ideen, wenn ich raus muss; unterwegs bin. Sie kommen ganz plötzlich aus dem Nichts, und ich versuche mir anzugewöhnen, sie mit einem Diktiergerät fest zu halten. Oft beziehe ich auch Ideen aus meinen Psycho-Träumen, kurz nach dem Aufwachen. Oder auch zu verschrobenen Tageszeiten, frühmorgens oder spät nachts.

Was siehst Du für Dich, bzw. Gerechtigkeitsliga in der Zukunft?

Zwischenzeitlich sind neue Tracks auf Compilation CDs erschienen; eine DVD mit den Videos aus den 80igern, auf der auch ein paar der lange verschollenen Bunkertapes veröffentlicht werden sollen, ist in Planung und soll in naher Zukunft bei Vinyl On Demand erscheinen. Außerdem ist ein neues Album in Arbeit...und möglicherweise eine portable Soundskulptur. Über das neue Album will ich noch nicht allzu viel verraten. Wir haben einige Sounds und neue Strukturen entwickelt, aber ich bin mir noch nicht sicher, ob es ein „Konzeptalbum“ werden wird – wie es sich bei Hypnotischer Existenzialismus schließlich ergab, weil wir einzeln ins Studio gegangen sind und das Material individuell entwickelten, bevor wir daraus das Album zusammenstellten. Und wie erwähnt, ist es ein sehr langwieriger Prozess, die Stücke ping-pong-mäßig zwischen London und Berlin hin- und her zu schicken. Es kann also gut sein, dass es bis 2008 dauern könnte, bis ein neues Vollzeitalbum erscheinen kann. Möglicherweise wird vorher eine Single veröffentlicht werden.

(zuerst erschienen in/first published by BLACK magazin No. 45, p. 62 ff, 2006)

I.C.R.N. Paper 4: Alexei Monroe: Gerechtigkeits Liga: Many Unhappy Returns?

2007-04-02T09:01:00.000+01:00

Gerechtigkeits Liga: Many Unhappy Returns?

The name Gerechtigkeits Liga is one which re-surfaced only recently, but which has recurred at key points since the early eighties. The group appeared alongside SPK, Laibach and others on the seminal compilation Vhutemas Archetypi on Graeme Revell’s Side Effects label. It also performed at the Berlin Atonal festival in 1985, an event which still casts a long shadow, and which, due to its reputation, is possibly even more significant for those who weren’t there than for those who were. Given GL’s association with these key moments in the development of second-wave industrial, the group has had a surprisingly low profile. Partly this was due to the vagaries and adversities of the music business: tracking the trajectory of such a group you discover that industrial groups also suffered from bad deals and neglect, even on independent and supposedly progressive labels. Yet although force of circumstance conspired to keep GL silent for long periods, particularly in the 1990s, this silence and the rarity of its works may have actually have helped maintain an aura of fascination and elusiveness that motivated collectors and others to track down rarities and which has now inspired both a re-issue programme and a return to recording.

In 2005, the long unavailable first album Hypnotischer Existenzialismus and single were re-released on CD, together with a live recording from New York in 1985. In recent years the group has released new material on the German compilations Statement 1961 (Ironflame) and Paranoise One (Paranoise) and the group is working on new collaborative projects. Further re-releases are planned, as well as new material, and this is a good opportunity to analyse the work of this obscure but still fascinating group. This article is based on conversations with founder member Till Bruggemann, initiated in March 2005.

GL emerged in Bremen in 1981 and its members were from the generation slightly too young to have been involved in, but creatively captured by, the first wave of Punk and industrial. Beginning as a punk/noise group it soon switched to using industrial-electronic textures and equipment. The group assumed the sinisterly fascinating name Gerechtigkeits Liga – certainly one factor in the aura surrounding the group. This was a ready-made name, taken from the American comic Justice League and translated into German. Like many key industrial groups, the choice of name instantly generated a sinister and ambivalent aura.

GL grew up in what was Bruggemann says was already a post-industrial society, but industry was an important presence. Like so many (post)-industrial producers, Bruggemann was interested in industrial buildings, but could never imagine doing factory work. He was fascinated by the impact such monotonous work must have had on people’s lives and the fact of being born into it and having no other options. GL were fascinated by post-industrial landscapes, and would always visit the ‘outer areas’ of towns they visited. Bruggemann was particularly inspired by London’s docklands in the 1980s. He recalls it being possible to imagine the most fantastic post-apocalyptic scenarios. It was possible to drive for 20-30 minutes across Docklands: an area that looked “as if a revolution or hell knows what” had taken place. In 1986, Bruggemann together with members of Laibach and Test Dept. were extras in Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, partly filmed in the ready-made war-zones of Docklands.

GL also assimilated some of what could be called the “canonical” cultural sources particularly associated with first and second wave industrial. These included Dada and the work of John Heartfield (later also used by Laibach and Front Line Assembly amongst others). The montage Der Henker und Die Gerechtigkeit (The Hangman and Justice) was a source of particular inspiration and GL used it on the cover of a promo VHS in the early 1980s. Concerns over copyright issues and meant GL never used it more publicly but it remains clandestinely associated with their work. The combination of GL’s name and the disturbing Heartfield image of mutilated justice produce rich associations and contradict any right-wing interpretations of GL’s ironic and ambivalent name. In a way similar to other industrial groups, GL were using this type of image to hint at the group’s agenda without being explicit, even at the risk of misinterpretation. Since Heartfield’s imagery in itself now seems liable to misinterpretation by those unaware of its context, the chances of (ironic) misinterpretation remain high, even before the imagery is appropriated for counter-cultural use.

From an early stage, GL’s actions and images have been misperceived as rightist, but its art doesn’t seem marked by an unmediated will to power so much as an urgent, existential will to communicate some of the most disturbing aspects of present day life.

Heartfield and Dada style collage and montage techniques were an inherent part of the GL aesthetic, particularly in the designs of some of their now sought-after cassette releases but also in their early home-recorded sound collage work, which was closer to a sonic application of artistic techniques than to the sample culture that shaped industrial later in the decade. At this stage GL worked mainly with tapes and transferred sounds between numerous recorders, a method Bruggemann describes as having been quite an effective. They also had a primitive emulator and other devices built for them by a friend.

Unlike some of the other industrial groups, the young GL were then unaware of electro-acoustic or musique concrete, despite the similarity in techniques, if not resources. One definite influence was Einstürzende Neubauten’s junk aesthetic, and GL went on sound-hunting sorties in Bremen and elsewhere; recording pure noises and raw material from whatever industrial debris they encountered. However, GL did not share Neubauten’s fascination with the objects themselves, but were interested in their sonic potentials. They would treat, accelerate and slow down the gathered sounds into more abstract yet still oppressive and confrontational sounds. The new group soon relegated the guitar to its proper role as an extra source of distortion with layers of tape loops. GL acquired a drum machine and the archetypal industrial synthesisers – first a korg ms10 then an ms20.

Equipped with this new sound arsenal GL moved into one of several former air raid bunkers that the city of Bremen made available to musicians and groups as rehearsal spaces. GL were one of the first groups to receive a double room in one of these bunkers. They removed the wall down between the rooms and created what Bruggemann describes as an ideal location for GL’s kind of music with a great acoustic. GL already had an interest in Germany’s suppressed past and so to operate in such a historically and literally resonant space certainly had an effect on its work. Here their first cassette releases were recorded straight to tape with amplification from standard bass and guitar amps. GL cassette releases had distinctive self-produced booklets and graphics, remembered by those on the scene at the time and still collected. They were issued between 1981-1986 under two different label names. The first label was GL’s Lausch label; almost all of these releases were limited editions of 20-50 copies which sold fairly fast. The second was GL’s Zyklus Records, which distributed tapes and also videos in larger numbers.
Although the primitive quality of cassette releases by GL and other groups was primarily the result of limited resources, this very roughness was almost integral to the industrial tape aesthetic. However, despite the similarities and some influences, the group were still working in isolation and only joined the emerging industrial scene when GL became a more professional project around mid 1983.

Around this time original member Frank Stroepken left and was replaced by Thomas Furch. The group continued working in the bunker but did see the need to go into a studio and make their first professional recordings. Through a personal contact they gained access to a four track studio at a cheap rate. However, GL had no studio experience and the engineer (who later worked with Neubauten in Berlin) was unfamiliar with the industrial aesthetic, being used to working with Punk and indie groups. Despite this he liked the GL sound and became their live mixer for a while. As in so many other cases, technical limitations and accidents have helped cement industrial’s aesthetic of D.I.Y. monumentalism. Flaws obvious to their creators were taken by new industrial listeners to be stylistic templates and inspirations, and the genre as a whole has been shaped by successor groups taking the inherent “wrongness” of early industrial recordings as a staring point to be developed and perfected rather than overcome.

Around the same time, GL began to tour Northern Germany and came into contact with one of the industrial scene’s key facilitators, Uli Rehberg of Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien. Rehberg organised a slot for GL to play with Whitehouse at the YMCA in Hamburg, Germany. Rehberg liked GL’s live sound and had previously expressed interest in releasing some material but disliked the first studio recordings.

GL then took the material for mastering in London and had it transferred to eight track. The first single The Games must Go On then finally appeared in an edition of five hundred copies on their own label Zyklus records, distributed by Das Büro, mainly in Germany & Benelux. Looking back, Bruggemann feels that the recordings from early period were too minimal and although for many listeners this gives the material a certain charm and fascination, he still would have liked to have used just a little more percussion or other elements. This seems to be a motivation for GL’s current work – to produce a sound that is not technically hampered and that fully matches the scale of the vision.

One particular source of inspiration for GL in 1982-3 was SPK, particularly the Information Overload album and the Mekkano single. On their first visit to London, the group visited SPK video maker Dominic Guerin in his squat and then met Graeme Revell and Brian Williams (Lustmord). GL were now developing a stronger network of international contacts and began to visit London more regularly. The group managed themselves, retaining complete control over their work. They organised a successful U.S. mini-tour in 1984, and returned again in 1985. On these visits they played memorable shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Boulder- Colorado and New York as well as recording a session in the TV Studios of Columbia University.

The group were now recording on an eight track home studio and brought their latest recordings to London. Revell heard these and was impressed by the development of GL’s sound since the original material he had heard. By now, Revell had enough income from SPK’s more commercial work to finance releases on Side Effects and to release work by GL and similar groups who had problems finding labels to release their work. The early Side Effects releases left an impressive legacy but the first incarnation of the label folded at the end of the eighties. All this material except Hypnotischer Existenzialismus was later re-released on CD. The long unavailability of the album gave it a retrospective “classic” status.

In common with many industrial and other musicians, Bruggemann has an instinctive distrust of musical categories. He found Graeme Revell’s term “post-industrial” interesting, but this never really caught on and isn’t widely known or used among younger listeners. Of course, GL’s work is close to industrial in many ways, and it operates primarily within the industrial scene, but Bruggemann dislikes categorisation and is uncomfortable with it. As he says, once named, something can be put into a drawer and forgotten. In fact, some reviews of GL’s first release described it “dancefloor.”

GL’s music in this period was a reflection not just of the still-developing (post)-industrial Zeitgeist, but of the political, cultural and personal terrors and excesses of the time. Bruggemann says that while he was not consciously aware of putting his anxieties into the music at the time, their influence is undeniable when listening now. The political atmosphere of the new cold war period in Germany certainly seeped into the music, being present as a sort of “background radiation”, even if it was never present as an explicit theme. During the particularly tense period between 1983 and 1985, Bruggemann had panic attacks induced by what seemed like the threat of imminent war (it’s easy to forget now how close war seemed in that period). He also found the paranoiac front-line atmosphere in Berlin particularly oppressive, even while enjoying the city’s alternative cultural life. Living on the front-line near the wall, Bruggemann was aware of the phone in his Berlin residence having its phone line monitored by both the Stasi and the West German Verfassungsschutz.

Like many others, Bruggemann came to Berlin in order to avoid national service but would spend two works there and two weeks in Bremen to recover from the pressures (and pleasures) of Berlin. This was interspersed with increasingly frequent samplings of the tense but dynamic London scene of the period. Eventually, he was permanently seduced by what seemed like the fascinating fertile chaos and greater breathing space offered by eighties London in comparison to the cleanliness and order of Germany and relocated permanently. He found that the German atmosphere induced both paranoiac and justified feelings of being spied on. Ironically, Bremen later experienced some of the traumas of de-industrialisation that were so fascinatingly apparent in London.

A key conceptual reference for GL in this period was the work of the controversial Romanian writer E.M. Cioran. Bruggemann’s partner was a great admirer of Cioran’s work and Bruggemann read it during the recording of the album and it was decided to integrate some Cioran material onto the album cover, alongside what they called the Manifesto of the Anti, which was a first attempted distillation of the vortex of influences operating on the group. GL were fascinated by Cioran’s work and Weltanschauung, and tried to express its spirit in their music.

Of course, like so many other industrial sources and references, Cioran was an ambiguous, even contaminated one, due to his early connections with the Romanian Iron Guard movement, from which he later distanced himself. Industrial in this period could be seen as a sort of mass-alchemical appropriation of a whole range of forbidden, compromised and unhealthy sources. Such material held a particular fascination for sensitive artistic types out of step with the mainstream zeitgeist of the pack, and desperate to communicate their horror at the state of things. In the experiences and concerns of these groups it’s possible to apprehend heroic attempts to process the vast range of half-understood contradictory cultural debris they were surrounded by or sought out.

This refusal or even existential inability to remain apart from horrific and forbidden material has been a key marker of industrial groups. In some cases, manifestoes arguing for a confrontation with painful reality have simply been a cover for un-thinking shock tactics and outrage for the sake of outrage. While GL always had some conceptual rationale for their shock tactics, their provocations certainly became more subtle and focussed as they gained in experience.

Certainly, use of some sort of ambivalent material became almost de rigeur for industrial groups. In the polarised, hyper-ideological context of the eighties, there was infinite scope for the misunderstanding of such work, and GL encountered their share of denunciation and obstruction, even though they were not always consciously seeking to provoke. Much of GL’s later provocation took more subliminal forms, appearing in their background films and slide projections, as well as in the music itself.

Despite its contacts with squat and alternative culture, to be even loosely identified with the industrial movement often meant being under suspicion – from certain types of leftist activists as much as from the authorities. Of course, for many groups and their listeners, their “outlaw” status was and remains a badge of honour. Certainly, to provoke some of those provoked by the very idea of industrial is almost always worthwhile.[1]

GL first attracted hostile attention in 1982 when they released a limited cassette based on the history of the Nazi era. They produced an A4 poster showing a wagon load of holocaust victims with what they believed was the self-evidently cynical title Scenes We’d like to See. As Bruggemann recalls, “all hell broke loose in Bremen” and an unsuccessful hunt for those responsible was launched. Perhaps naively, GL believed that the meaning would become clear when people took time to listen to the music. At the time, GL believed that through listening to the music, people would understand the group’s original intentions, or at least that they would taken a bit more time before jumping to wrong conclusions.

However, snap judgements were and remain a sign of ideological rectitude on both left and right, and the idea of exploring anything in greater depth is inherently suspect to many ideologues. In this the current context of institutionally-reduced attention spans, patient analysis is even more unlikely. Like many of their generation, GL were very dissatisfied with the way the past was handled in Germany, the lack of open discussion, and the refusal of the older generation to discuss it. GL were struggling in their own, perhaps unsubtle, way to express this, but were never interested in simple shock for shock’s sake. When GL later became aware of Laibach they found much to admire, and would certainly have welcomed the almost unique chance Laibach and the NSK had to reach intellectuals, journalists, and the country generally.

Certainly, many people at the time misunderstood or chose to misunderstand industrial, and lost no chances to demonstrate their rectitude by attempting to suppress it. Later in the 80s GL were due to play at a Berlin festival organised by students at the technical university. The event was paid for and British groups had flown in when a rumour began among the university feminists that GL would show Frauen- feindliche Filme (films hostile to women). Their agitation led to the entire event, (not just GL’s performance) being cancelled. Bruggemann still has no idea where the rumour originated from: beyond a very small VHS release in America, no GL video material was available. One possible explanation is GL’s use of “video nasty” material in the film collages they used on stage, yet even this seems like a slightly insufficient explanation for the suspicious cancellation of the event. In these and other situations GL were certainly accused of rightist tendencies but while such accusations may have been more credible when attached to certain groups, in GL’s case it certainly was not. While they refused to restrict themselves to the “approved” range of material and subjects, they actually represented just the type of sensitive, alienated, individualistic, unsettling voices of the type that Fascists are the first to try and suppress.

GL’s use of film on stage was another point of similarity with their industrial colleagues, although GL’s case was slightly different. They never had a lead singer or front-man as such, and had always used background films to make a stronger statement, combining their own films with found footage. Bruggemann states that the films were used to “enforce” the ideas the music was trying to express. At I.C.R.N.’s Return of the Repressive event in Birmingham last September, GL film material was screened publicly for the first time in two decades. It was very evident that even among a well-disposed industrial audience, GL’s films still retain a power to shock as well as fascinate. In particular, the clip Jesus Crucified left a very strong impression on the audience. The final part of the GL re-issue programme will be the re-mastering and issue of some of this material on DVD, and it will certainly add to our understanding of this crucial period.

GL was more or less dormant in the 1990s, experimenting, observing, and adjusting to the post cold-war, fully post-industrial cyber-cultural context. GL has joined numerous other industrial groups in their colonisation of myspace and become part of the new and revived trans-national connections currently possible. Of course, given that my space is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the vivid and (largely) un-censored presence of an industrial sub-culture there is an intriguing paradox. However, as in other ways, GL and similar groups refuse to maintain imaginary ideological purity if it gets in the way of pragmatic objectives. Yet this does not mean not being vigilant: GL believes there is no room for complacency in the constantly escalating war of information being fought out in these online spaces.

Yet while Bruggemann is involved in the contemporary scene, he is also aware of the negative side of the proliferation of industrial (sub)genres and the impossibility of monitoring them all. He explains that GL originally wanted to inspire people to create their own sounds (a leftover Punk attitude), and not to be just consumers, to start to criticise governments and systems more. This has happened to a certain degree but Bruggemann is unsure at what price this has taken place.

The creative process now has a very different ausgangs-position (starting point) to the much more “black and white” 1980s, yet GL still responds to current events. Living very close to the scene of one of the July 2005 London bombs, Bruggemann responded with the anguished and aggressive track Slash 7705 (one of few if any commentaries on this already near forgotten event). With luck, GL will continue to issue more urgent warnings and dispatches in what seems likely to be a seductive(ly) neo-apocalyptic period.

[1] One of the central tenets of contemporary sonic correctness is that industrial was at best a regrettable necessity that shouldn’t be mentioned too much in polite society, and when it is, only certain groups are allowed into the charmed circle. Even some of industrial’s original advocates now seem embarrassed or afraid to attach themselves too closely to it, and now sometimes even teeter on the edge of self-denunciation. This is partly due to the degeneration of some types of industrial into one-dimensional provocation and unreflective rightist agitation, but also motivated by a fear of being associated with “unhealthy elements”. Distrust or wholesale dismissal of industrial is almost demanded by some of the same people who argue that all styles are equally valid. Yet, try to turn the tables and express a similar disdain for jazz or other favoured genres and the mask of liberal tolerance soon slips and it’s possible to watch a supposedly “liberal” person degenerate into hysterics or inarticulate abuse. In this sense, (selective) openness to industrial remains a harsh but necessary test of tolerance.

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I.C.R.N. Paper 3: Heinrich Deisl "Off-Key Continuities: Audiovisual Interventions by the Video Groups Metamkine and Granular Synthesis"

2006-11-07T11:39:00.000Z

I.C.R.N.'s Vienna correspondent Heinrich Deisl presents a text dealing with the status of sound/video within (post)-industrialised media culture:

Off-Key Continuities: Audiovisual Interventions by the Video Groups Metamkine and Granular Synthesis

"If you close your eyes, you lose your sense of abstraction.
Michel Serres"

Even after years of terminological presence it remains difficult to pin down what a VJ does, what makes one a VJ, what legitimises a VJ, what a VJ is all about. Depending on the context, the terms «VJ» and «VJing» are used in such heterogeneous frameworks and are associated with such an array of different fields of activities that it would take several chapters merely to explain the term «VJing» and its nature. This text, however, attempts to create an audiovisual dispositive which departs from common designations for VJs, and instead takes a detour around so-called video groups to display the many possibilities for novel audiovisual live art. This will be exemplified by Metamkine from France and Granular Synthesis from Austria.

Strictly speaking, VJing has been an empty phrase from the very beginning, an auxiliary neology.i In clubs and discotheques, crowds had realised that «shaking it up» could be experienced more intensely with additional visual feeds. Moreover, since the mid-1990s, software applications for sound and video have gradually come to resemble each other, and can now be controlled by using the same user interface. Because club culture is DJ-driven, it was obvious to call video artists «VJs». Yet how can this optical stimulus at a techno party develop into a style of its own when the moving images mostly act as mere supplements? Maybe the «true» VJs are the ones presenting video clips on music television. This is precisely what the first British radio DJs did in the 1930s. DJs began emerging as professionals, aided by the gradual social legitimisation of popular culture, and in the process, not only did the turntable become an instrument, but also the DJ was (deservedly) raised to the status of musician. Turntable groups, such as Invisibl Skratch Pickles or particularly The X-Ecutioners, elevated the collagist usage of prefabricated music to an art form. Clearly, such experiments go back as far as the time of John Cage in the early 1960s (and even earlier). Wide-scale integration of the visual medium, however, only came about in techno clubs, and was pressed forward by groups such as Hexstatic and Coldcut in the mid-1990s, using their self-developed software «VJamm». This application was so pioneering that it was accorded a permanent place at the «Interactive Games Room» of the American Museum of Moving Images.

The increasingly similar interfaces presented to us for the control of computers make the previously very different tasks of organising and transforming text, static and moving visual images and sound into experientially ever more similar processes. The new electronic technologies therefore form a seductive potential meeting point for many previously separate art practices. Such interfaces make use of identical concepts – frame, freeze, copy, paste, loop – as controlling strategies.ii

The Audiovisual Dispositive

This text, however, is not about tracking down synaesthetic strategies in club culture. Rather, it tries to provide, with the aid of several audiovisual manifestations, a historical and an aesthetic frame of reference for live-generated sound and image art which reaches beyond the ongoing discussions caught up in questions of technical details. This is why, owing to the prevailing difficulty in assigning the term «VJ» to a specific field of work, the term is being extended to the realm of live video art. It can be explained by one of the prerequisites of the considerations made herein, namely that VJing is considered a two-channel transfer of information, in which the channels not only complement each other synaesthetically, but also exist side by side in parity, conditioning each other. In his book «The Time-Image», Gilles Deleuze supported the hypothesis that the audiovisual image was a result of the 'collapse of the sensory-motor schema' without referring to a 'whole'.iii Yet he spoke of film. As narrative, dramaturgical and space-time constellations of film organise themselves in a way that differs from live interacting media or forms of presentation, the following aims at patching up the collapse of the sensory-motor schema by way of video groups. Even though Deleuze (p. 268) admonishes that the audiovisual image «is not a whole, it is a 'fusion of the tear'», one must keep in mind the different production and processing logics of the output of video groups. On the one hand, this acts as a mirror for the transformation of film-historical connotations, while on the other – given the rather un-dogmatic approach towards this canon – a pop-cultural evaluation takes place. Inherently avant-garde, Granular Synthesis and Metamkine play with avant-garde material, thereby identifying the respective ruptures – clearly in the sense of Jacques Attali's concept of «Noise» as a musical anticipation of socio-political structures[i] – in the popular realm. The translation of the audiovisual material into rhythm, as well as the haptic physicality of their live shows, evoke a sensory-motor confrontation which is cinematographically grounded only to a certain extent, but above all, performatively rooted. Although both formations refer to historical connections pointing towards experimental cinema and 'expanded cinema', we can observe the overcoming of cinematographic code systems that contribute to a relocation of audiovisual perception by the fixed implementation of musical practices. This type of cinema may take place in film theatres, but it is usually shown in galleries, clubs or concert halls. While the music is made to sound 'cinephile' in order to evoke a 'cinema pour l'oreille', on the image track a 'kinaesthetic' approximation of the performance venue takes place, which at the same time is being stridden across acoustically. Sound and image, however, plainly serve as surface plateaus in rhizomatic destabilisation practices, leading to a setting which makes rehearsed parameters of space and time perception crash. Stroboscopic flashes of light from the rear regions of memory flare up for split seconds as figures that change from organic to abstract, connect with others, rotate and dislocate themselves, fuse with the layers of sound, and form a cerebral data stream, the impulses of which, as if leaking from electric cables, directly penetrate those regions which turn abstract images of reality into concrete dream images; the data processing brain is put into REM phase, the body converts to a big vibrating resonance box.iv

The mode that was thus to become exemplary during the seventies was performance – and not only that narrowly defined activity called performance art, but all those works that were constituted in a situation and for a duration by the artist or the spectator or both together. It can be said quite literally that 'you had to be there'. [video and sound installations] not only required the presence of the spectator to become activated, but were fundamentally concerned with the registration of presence as a means toward establishing meaning.v

My approach in this text with regard to VJing is an audiovisual dispositive which, because of the interdependence of visual and acoustic information and the resulting synaesthetic interaction, may only be applied to the model of band or group. This dispositive is not determined by a specific technology. In this context, VJing does not equate to related algorithmic programming, but acts as a counterbalance for the expansion of performative practices which are genealogically most likely derived from performance and media art. This way, an only seemingly paradoxical acousmatic representation may be defined in which the actual sources of reference of both channels are reciprocally present in each other, virtually off-screen (acousmatic). The respective complementation in the spectrum of reception is, however, placed in an exterior space, i.e. represented. As a consequence, the performance space becomes an integral part of the intervention where the architectonic space, by way of enormous sound systems, is being disclosed acoustically and visually by performative means (Metamkine) or through large projection screens (Granular Synthesis). It is almost like in a 360-degree cinema where one may, and even ought to, walk about. This strategy, however, goes back to concert and film logics that demand rather undivided attention. As the viewer is being taken possession of, this surely represents one of the most virulent oppositions to club VJing.vi Roughly put, the dispositive might be localised at a point where one no longer knows whether s/he should listen to the images or look at the music. This relates to the different perception speeds and distraction mechanisms of music and image. In this context, the German film music theoretician Norbert Schneider (p. 65) writes, «Watching informs us about the constitution and 'condition' of the environment. Listening informs us primarily about the interior life of fellow human beings, about their thoughts and moods.… Thus, listening corresponds to feeling (as an unconscious understanding of the world) whereas watching corresponds to thinking (the conscious understanding of the world).»vii This leads to certain 'off-key continuities' in perception, prevalent in film editing or musical cut-ups. Virtually all video groups produce momentous interactive art, since they, much like music groups, generate an art event in real time. As a result, we obtain four interdependent variables which map out the dispositive:

Image D Interaction D Sound
E
Time

Be it in a performance, an installation, or a club context, the groups work in all three segments – some times more and some times less – with prefabricated settings from their own audiovisual data archive and either interact in an improvising manner (Metamkine) or according to a formulated compositional plan (Granular Synthesis). From this, two statements may be deduced:

1) The auditory and optical information is presented in parity as multi-channel manifestations.
2) These manifestations take place in a live context. They exist like a concert or a temporary installation for the moment.

The exponential increase in the number of performance artists in almost every continent, the numerous new books and academic courses on the subject, and the many contemporary art museum opening their doors to live media, are clear indications that in the opening of the twenty-first century, performance art is as much as a driving force as it was when the Italian Futurists used it to capture the speed and energy of the new twentieth century. Performance art today reflects the fast-paced sensibility of the communications industry, but it is also an essential antidote to the distancing effects of technology. For it is the very presence of the performance artist in real time, of live performers 'stopping time', that gives the medium its central position.viii

Like Granular Synthesis, Metamkine deal with a rudimentary, even archaeological understanding of cinema and music in order to arrive at the essence of the respective medium, and from there deduct an associative-physical stream of information which leaves behind the technically well-armed VJ scene via an intermedial approach (Metamkine) or an oversized hearing and viewing box (Granular Synthesis). The musical rhythm loops, which are at times perceived as pulsating, and at other times below the perception threshold, do not fall into the trance-like, repetitive machine beat of techno music. Metamkine and Granular Synthesis view rhythm as layers of sound, sound colouration, drones or sequencing which, apart from intensely territorialising the body, at the same time also capture the largest human hearing organ, the skin, by making use of the entire frequency range. Due to these complex parameters, they have in mind rather the concept of sitting in a cinema instead of dancing in a club. One can be quite occupied with not being occupied with these groups. After all, both aim to amplify the habits of hearing and seeing by using a radical and fervent audiovisual attack. Both video groups work in a performance context that is commonly frowned upon as being 'high culture' or 'elitist', which takes place in art galleries, museums or theatres. Such a designation rather indicates that the perception of images and sounds seems to be of a divergent nature, since the images could easily work in more 'low-culture' spaces, such as clubs or other locations atypical for staging art performances, even though the music would most likely be rejected in these spaces. In the last few years, however, much like in the areas of film, music, etc., the formerly rigid societal segments have become permeable and fluctuating, gradually coming closer to each other. This fusion of social and aesthetic positions pervades traditional designations against the backdrop of an ever increasing image and information overload. In this respect, Metamkine and Granular Synthesis may be seen as audiovisual pioneers, since their artistic 'high culture' works, via club space, have helped to blur these boundaries and have made live video art compatible for the pop context.

Formed Light, Concrete Sounds – Metamkine

Since 1987 the French artists Jérôme Noetinger, Christophe Auger und Xavier Quérel have been working together as Celulle d'Intervention Metamkine. Their performances have a rather haptic air about them, since they exclusively use various Super8- and 16mm-films and vintage synthesisers. What makes them different from other formations is simply that Auger and Quérel, by manually controlling projectors, convert them practically into visual instruments which enter into spontaneous interaction with the analogue music and by doing so, significantly determine the overall composition. These audiovisual interventions are committed to the cinephile qualities of French Musique Concrète. It could be argued that such practices appear regressive in the fully digitalised era. In this regard Noetinger, who also runs the Metamkine label, pointed out in an interview in 2004, «Not long ago, everybody dreamt of having a Revox! It was the Rolls Royce! Today there's this spurious idea of 'progress', this imposition of new technology by the market. There's something totalitarian about it. It's like asking a violinist why he doesn't play a computer.»ix Operational sounds such as the clattering of projectors blend in with partially crude analogue layers of sound or sound fragments of the prefabricated magnetic tapes; at times the smell of (un)intentionally burnt filmstrips fills the air. The filmstrips, which are edited as loops, are self-produced or found footage, and through the choreographies which are evaluated in extensive rehearsals, they generate a performative image space in which the depicted transforms into a sculptural replica. Adding to this, Metamkine work with a set of mirrors, so that through extra deflections and refractions the projections are ad infinitum expanded, fragmented, bent – beyond recognition. With the visual aspect of Musique Concrète in mind, the sense of space thus formed may be traced back to choreographies of Oskar Schlemmer in the late 1920s which he had developed for the Bauhaus school.x Here, artists perform relatively simple geometric figures that live off their expressive gestures. These are conceptualised into the audience and made to appear as ornamental bodies in the best manner of the silent film tradition. This directness in expanding the stage into the audience was especially pushed forward in the performance art of the 1960sxi and has lost much of its attraction (or 'aura') with the successive separation between performer and performance.xii Therefore, the latest developments are inclined towards the concept of musicians and video artists virtually backing out from the visual spectrum of the audience, and in a 'retrograde' step see themselves as newly constructivist machinists, who expose the inner processing logics of the machine and transfer them into public space.xiii Metamkine's performers are most of the time clearly discernible, whereas the performers in Granular Synthesis are not visible at all. While Metamkine operate in a relatively classic performative stage setting, Granular Synthesis present a kind of audio film where only the oversized, approximately 4 x 3 m high projection screens are visible.

Performative Disclosure of the Audiovisual Space

By insisting on a historicity of one's own, Metamkine join in an already quite canonised video art exemplified by the early works of Nam June Paik. Instead of discussing Paik's TV experiments, I want here to point to his Music Studies and his early audiotape experiments. «Paik brought his knowledge of a more highfalutin' art form, namely the electronic music of Stockhausen and Cage, to bear on a brand-new media. Structurally, Paik's videotapes derive from the audio-taped musique concret sound collages he was making in Europe before Cage deflected him towards performance.»xiv Following the audio tape sound experiments conducted prior to World War II, this medium turned out to be one of the first and most promising post-war developments in exploring new worlds of sound. Such as with the case of French Musique Concrète by Pierre Schaeffer, later Pierre Henry or Vladimir Ussachevsky in the U.S., however, Musique Concrète itself alluded to such groundbreaking pieces as the acousmatic collage 'Wochenende' (1930)xv by Walter Ruttmann or Viking Eggeling's spatial figures set in motion in 'Diagonal Symphonie' (1921/25). Unlike many digital music video filmmakers who have geometric figures spurring across the images to the sound of abstract electronic music, Metamkine's arsenal of images, quite directly quoting early medial development phases of interwar abstract film, had virtually always been fed by the concrete, processed and/or alienated via simple means such as pitching, splicing, colouring, fading or more or less traditional editing. In this connection we not only deal with the replacement of central perspective in painting and cinema by physically marking out the performative space; Metamkine's visual element may rather be seen in a framework that refers to the inner materiality of the medium. Concrete image content is purged until nothing but formed light remains which, as a projection screen, entirely occupies the performance venue.

Sonic Layers of Time, Optical Shattering – Granular Synthesis

All sound is an integration of grains, of elementary sonic particles, of sonic quanta.
Iannis Xenakis (1971)

Increasingly specific software applications have turned computers into interactive and intermedial interfaces par excellence. For the 'black box' it no longer makes much of a difference whether the algorithm fed in generates an optical or acoustic output. Improved processor performance has made it possible to produce highly complex compositional methods such as granular synthesis. Founded in Vienna in 1991 by Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich, Granular Synthesis derive their name from this method. To date, the duo has executed around 15 fully set-up installations. Compared with Metamkine's approach, Granular Synthesis are basically located on the opposite side of the audiovisual dispositive. Granular Synthesis allow the semantic codes of the digital machine free play and generate a human-machine interface which toils on the fringes of cutting-edge computer technology. Each micro structure, each millisecond grain is aimed at making the tactile quality of the sound and the image be experienced. While Metamkine still leave open perceptive slots by way of their theatrical gestures and allow organic physicality, Granular Synthesis confront us with the full impact of machine-controlled logics. Consequently, by extreme fragmentation of the images, the performers' heads, filmed in glass cubes in the early works of the band, become grimaces, the contours of which remain organic, even in the moments of highest affect. By its intensely accelerated serial split-up, the physical image's content is distilled into some kind of pure object, completely bereft of voyeuristic sexual connotations, and lets the potentially desiring gaze go blank. Instead, these images herald the industrial degeneration of present social forms of communication, for example, when in 'Model5' (1994/96) the head of performer Akemi Takeya, under the impression of speed, «gives birth to an electronic Medusa image oscillating between the poles of sensual ecstasy and agony.»xvi The recipient is caught up in the dichotomy between voyeurism and the auto-destructive projection on the protagonist, who is trapped in this glass construction as if under a cake dome; the glass resembles a transparent data helmet imposed on the performer, but also a morbid incubator.xvii

Compressed Emptiness of the Audiovisual Bodies

Granular Synthesis dealt with precisely this loss of control and correlation primarily in the phase between 1991 and 1999. In the second phase an almost complete emptying of the image space takes place in which solely monochrome surfaces and 'psychedelic' flicker effectsxviii are employed. In the works of Granular Synthesis the eye is successively deprived of information while ever-increasing sub-basses and cascades of rhythm, synchronised to up to 200 bpm, roll over the sound plane. An experiential space opens up, the experience of which becomes more intense the more it is cleared of signs.

The grain is a unit of sonic energy possessing any waveform, and with a typical duration of a few milliseconds, near the threshold of human hearing. It is the continuous control of these small sonic events (which are discerned as one large sonic mass) that gives granular synthesis its power and flexibility. The typical duration of a grain is somewhere between 5 and 100 milliseconds. The most musically important aspect of an individual grain is its waveform. A vast amount of processing power is required to perform granular synthesis. A simple granular 'cloud' may consist of only a handful of particles, but a sophisticated 'cloud' may be comprised of a thousand or more.xix

The hyper-physicalised affirmation of the machine presented in the works of Granular Synthesis breaks down the boundaries between the humanoid and technoid body with its repetitive sequences of image and sound which, in some way, brings us closer to constructivist practices. The conscious display of the technological apparatus exhibits a human internalisation of the machine as it had already been presented for example in Detroit-Techno. Hence, the media theoretician Florian Rötzer writes, «The moving image, the image changeable in every pixel, the image that has become truly musical, is the condensation of speed.»xx In order to distil an intense sensual experience, it is necessary to build up an antipole of some sorts which consists of an upgraded environment and refers to the development of a software of one's own.xxi This software, which was produced between 1997 and 1999, is called VARP9. Just like a music sampler, it enables one to subject images and above all the direct connection of audiovisual data to granular synthesis: «It is a sample based MIDI software instrument that streams from RAM. It works in real-time in full PAL video resolution and frame rate. It allows accessing and allocating single frames at 25f/ sec. At this video grain rate it is capable of audiovisual granular synthesis».xxii

The flashes of consciousness produced by Granular Synthesis extract micro-range time snippets, which no longer represent caesurae but a permanently permuting flickering, become expansions, shiftings, rumples and fractalisations. The acts of acceleration and deceleration move parallel; the microtonal interferences in between generate trance effects, amplified by their (sub)sonic intensity. Misconnections in space and time collide with elliptic retardation and acceleration strategies which join – from the perspective of Austria’s film avant-garde – the works of Martin Arnold, Peter Tscherkassky and Peter Kubelka's 'Arnulf Rainer'. The award-winning duo (amongst others the Grandprix Artrec '95 in Nagoya, Japan) creates an industry-induced 'information overload unit' which makes no use of found footage, but instead samples itself so to speak as an 'alter ego image' and flickers across the screens in countless variations with a massive sound environment on top. While the processing inherent to the working method is quite laborious, the starting material is mostly easy to prepare: heads in glass boxes on huge multi-screens ('POL', 'NoiseGate', 'Model3'/ 'Model5'), video sequences of British dance artist Michael Ashcroft ('We Want God Now', 'Form', 'Sinken'), completely monochrome surfaces ('Reset'), predominantly black surfaces ('Minus') or the computer-generated transformation of a public building into a sculpture of light which evokes the illusion of a twinkling space ship ('Lichtwerk'). Stripping it down to the basics yields the focussing on an image which has come to appear so vacant that only basic geometric patterns remain. The emptiness is stored in the highest audiovisual data decompression. While in the 'Model'-series humans, in their gestural articulations, were important as concrete representations or images, the camera focus has gradually centred on the body itself until finally the lens reads the skin as the focal point of abstract geometric patterns and as the boundary to ways of representing humans.

Audio Visions Reloaded

By way of the two video bands Metamkine and Granular Synthesis, I have attempted to make the VJ-ing 'genre' discussable in a film and music historical context. Both bands, in their own ways, herald audiovisual prehistoric times, the sonic and filmic codes of which, via club culture, have, within the last ten years, grown to a mass-compatible phenomenon. The concept of an audiovisual dispositive outlined here is intended to contribute to getting a glimpse of the discussed bands' synaesthetic methods of working. While Metamkine consciously hold on to a musical and cinematographic tradition in order to provide new discourses on perception and the gaze, Granular Synthesis work with cutting-edge technology to expose the primal and submerged layers of human perception. As both bands use image and sound track as equal transmission matrices, this allows a concise, real-time experience which transfers live media art to a performance context where live interaction between the two media and the artists becomes the performative compositional premise.

Originally published on www.vjtheory.net

Selected Material:

Granular Synthesis (http://www.granularsynthesis.info/):

Index Edition, 2005. Remixes for Single Screen. [DVD]. Vienna: Index. http://www.index-dvd.at/
ZKM/ Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, digital arts edition, 2004. Immersive Works. [DVD]. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. http://www.hatjecantz.de/

Metamkine – Cellule d'Intervention (http://metamkine.free.fr/)

i The international festival 'Netmage', founded in Bologna in 2000, may be regarded as one of the leading events in live media art in Central Europe. Already in 2005 its artistic director Andrea Lissoni considered the 'genre' VJing to be outdated. In: Deisl, H., 2005. Netmage 2005. Ray – Kinomagazin, April 2005, pp. 44-46.
ii Waters, S. Beyond the Acousmatic: Hybrid Tendencies in Electronic Music. In: S. Emmerson, ed. Music, Electronic Media and Culture. Ashgate, Aldershot, 2000, pp. 59-86.
iii Deleuze, G., 2001. The Time-Image. Cinema 2. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 256-257. Later on in the book (p. 266) Deleuze recurs to Robert Bresson's automatic 'model' which «has no need of computing or cybernetic machines», however «the cinematographic image was already achieving effects which were not like those of electronics, but which had autonomous anticipatory functions in the time-image as will to art.»
[i] Compare: Attali, J., 1985. Noise. The Political Economy of Music. Vol. 16: Theory and History of Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
iv That is why Kittler writes: «That which is no longer imaginable happens because there where nothing may be imagined data processing takes place». Kittler, F., 1989: Die Nacht der Substanz. In: Pias C. et al., eds. Kursbuch Medienkultur. Die maßgeblichen Theorien von Brecht bis Baudrillard. Stuttgart: DVA, 1999, p. 507.
v Crimp, D. Pictures. In: Wallis, B.. ed. Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation. New York/ Boston: Museum of Contemporary Arts/ Godine Inc., 1995, pp. 177-180.
vi Actually it is quite dull to watch a DJ or laptop artist work while dancing, in a situation in which immediate auratic elements seem to be blinded out. Here, the dynamic VJ images are much more entertaining. These may not only be 'danced to' but one may also quite happily expose oneself to the continuous visual flow.
vii Schneider, N. J., 1990. Handbuch Filmmusik. Bd. 1, Musikdramaturgie. Konstanz: UVK.
viii Goldberg, R.L., 2001. Performance Art. From Futurism to the Present. London: Thames& Hudson, p. 225-230.
ix Warburton, D., 2004. Cinema for the Ears. The Wire. Adventures in Modern Music, 239, p. 24.
x Goldberg (2001, p. 106) mentions what was probably one of the earliest project descriptions of an audiovisual performance dating back to 1923 when the two Bauhaus- and O. Schlemmer-students Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack and Kurt Schwerdfeger staged their 'Reflected Light Compositions' «to multiply the sources of light, adding layers of coloured glass which were projected on the back of a transparent screen, producing kinetic, abstract designs. Sometimes the players followed intricate scores which indicated the light source and sequence of colours, rheostat settings, speed and direction of 'dissolves' and 'fade-outs'. These were 'played' on a specially constructed apparatus and accompanied by Hirschfeld-Mack’s piano playing».
xi Such ambitions are by no means new. Here, acting as representatives, I would like to recall the theatre space designs by Erwin Piscator or early theatre works such as 'The Mexican' (1920) or 'Gasmasks' (1923) by Sergei Eisenstein, in which the traditional situation encountered in the proscenium stage, as known from theatre and film, is being interrupted and extended by a so to speak third dimension.
xii The DJ desk equipped with DJ or laptop consoles has gradually moved toward the 'interior' of the stage. Compared to rock or pop bands, Club DJs or VJs are all but 'tangible', their production logics are separated from the performance location, which is mirrored in a techno-reactivated constructivist human-machine interface.
xiii Since the mid-90s it has become a common practice of work and aesthetics to make use of the 'error of the system', the 'glitch'. This is carried out by wilfully bringing about computer crashes or other machine-inherent errors or manipulations (interpolations, distortions, foreign data material). Comp. e.g.: Young, R., 2002. Worship the glitch. Digital music, electronic disturbance. In: The Wire/ Young, R., eds., ²2003. Undercurrents. The hidden wiring of modern music. London/ NY: Continuum, p. 45-58. As regards Austria, mention should be made of video bands such as Skot, reMI or epy.
xiv Hoberman, J. Paik’s Peak. In: Hoberman, J., 1991. Vulgar Modernism. Writings on Movies and Other Media. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, p. 138. Originally published in: The Village Voice, May 25, 1982.
xv Guy Mark Hinant writes in the liner notes of the CD-compilation a-chronology: An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music. [DCD]. Brussels: SubRosa: «'Wochenende' is unique of its kind. Twenty years later this editing technique will be improved, to form the basis of concrete music – even Pierre Schaeffer quickly abandoned what he called anecdotal sound for more concrete research. This work can be regarded as the first image-less film». (Italics by H.D.). The piece was republished by the label Metamkine in 1994, based on the original tapes which Ruttmann's daughter had handed over to Metamkine.
xvi Richard, B., Bath in the Resonance Chamber, and Blinding. In: ZKM/ Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, ed., 2004. Granular Synthesis: Immersive Works. [DVD-booklet]. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, digital arts edition, p. 19.
xvii Concerning the affect-image and the head (or face of a person) that symbolizes it, Deleuze writes: «The close-up does not tear away its object from a set of which it would form part, … but on the contrary it abstracts it from all spatio-temporal co-ordinates, that is to say it raises it to the state of Entity. … If it is true that the cinematic image is always deterritorialised, there is therefore a very special deterritorialisation which is specific to the affection-image». Deleuze, G., 1997. The Movement-Image. Cinema 1. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 96 et seq.
xviii The flicker effect and its 'consciousness-expanding' influence comes in numerous forms. It is quite popular in clubs where the flickering light/ dark situations recall Early Cinema. In the early 1960s, French artist Brion Gysin, together with Ian Summerville, went about constructing the 'Dreamachine': «… we started in a whole series of Dreamachines: from a very simply cylinder with a just regularly spaced slots producing therefore just one fixed rate of flicker, to these years later, the present machines with along the height of the column as you move your eye, your closed eyes up and down, you experience all the light interruptions between 8 and 13… External resonators, such as flicker, tune in with our internal rhythms and lead to their extension. … Elaborate geometric constructions of incredible intricacy build up from bright mosaic into living fireballs like the mandalas … in their act of growth». Summerville, I., 1962. Flicker. Olympia Magazine 2. Reprinted in: Wilson T./ Gysin B., ²2000. Here to go. Los Angeles: Creation, pp. 210 et seq. The works 'Reset' (2001) by Granular Synthesis and 'RGB' (2005) by Bas van Koolwijk/ Christian Toonk expand these configurations by using primary colour schemes.
xix Eric Kuehnel's Writing Pages. 2003. Available from: http://music.calarts.edu/~eric/gs.html, [cited 23 March 2006].
xx Rötzer, F., 1989. Technoimaginäres – Endes des Imaginären. In: Kunstforum International, 98, Ruppichteroth: Kunstforum Verlag, 1989, p. 55.
xxi Writing one's own software is virtually part of the etiquette of every well-versed video group. Here I again wish to refer to Hexstatic/ Coldcut. Their software programme VJamm enables them to sample concrete images possessing certain inherent sounds, and they deduce these into a set of repetitive beats with loops, which leads to the development of a techno track in the widest sense. In 1997 their video 'Timber' set new standards for club VJing. In 1998 the video won French Television's 'MCM Best Video Editing Award'. All in all it was remixed four times, entering the Guinness Book of Records as the single with the most video remixes.
xxii Description of VARP9 on the band's homepage.

I.C.R.N. Agenda Autumn 2006

2006-09-30T00:39:00.000+01:00

Coming soon:

Features on Gerechtigkeits Liga and Sonic Correctness.

In development 2006-7:

Survey of key industrial releases.

Enhanced website.

Temporary Hegemonic Zones - I.C.R.N. seminars, performances and exhibitions... watch this space.

Current sounds:

Asmus Tietchens - Seuchengebiete and Geboren um zu dienen (Die Stadt)
Necropolis - Necrosphere (Cold Spring)

Recruiting:

I.C.R.N. collaborators sought...

I.C.R.N. Review 2: Monochrome Visions

2006-09-22T09:12:00.000+01:00

Miguel A. Ruiz - Grosor. (mv03)

Rafael Flores - Nubes, cometas, rumores y oregas (mv05)

h.h.t.p. and portable palace - Cavitation (mv04)

In a 2003 article for Contemporary Music Review on laptop music[1], I argued that electronic music has the capacity to represent what Deleuze and Guattari termed “the specific freezing point of the ideal.” Electronic and (post)-industrial sound is capable of transmitting a specific type of coldness which highlights the threatening aspect of technology but which can also act as an antidote to runaway cultural global warming caused by constant market-led demands to “chill out”, “go with the flow”, “take it easy” etc. “Cold” textures can create a sonic/conceptual space that can act as temporary autonomous zone or enclave within a superheated hyper-stimulated culture. In such a space it may be possible to effectively slow down the speed of the information flow and perhaps to think through some of the contradictions and possibilities of the present.

Making a very crude characterisation, we could say that there are two “poles” of the (post)-industrial sector/soundfield. One mode of industrial has always relied primarily on force and counter informational overload, violently annexing space within the listener’s consciousness and the wider culture. Another has gone “deeper” into the territories associated with industrial or dark ambient projects like T.A.G.C. or Coil. Of course, many, if not most groups oscillate between these extremes, even if one mode predominates. Yet there is another cluster of activity in between these two poles. In this mode force and percussive elements are still present, but there is also conceptual and sonic space (if not the vast abysses associated with Lustmord and others).

Of course, if we speak about global cultural warming, it has to be said that commodified Latin/Hispanic culture is a key “pollutant”. An insidious, clichéd, and unquestioned mode of musical and cultural “sexiness” is integral to the dominant pop cultural order. Therefore it’s always especially refreshing to encounter Spanish music that almost totally rejects this clichéd understanding of Spanishness in sound. Part of the Russian label Monochrome Vision’s mission is to unearth some hidden, obscure and unreleased material that helps to fill out the history of electronic music in the last few decades, as well as issuing more recent material situated in the grey areas between formal composition, sound art and the electronic underground.

Even if there weren’t so much genuine ‘lost’ or terminally obscure material from the 80s available for re-release, market forces would probably drive producers and labels to invent more in order to satisfy the current demand for it, and this may well happen once the archives are completely exhausted. Very few people could say with certainty that such and such a project hadn’t been released on a hyper-limited cassette release. The Monochrome Vision releases by Miguel A. Ruiz and Rafael Flores (a.k.a. Commando Bruno) are extremely valuable in increasing our understanding of Spanish electronic music, the perception of which is still largely dominated by the renowned and now highly collectible Esplendor Geometrico and more recent electro and minimal techno producers such as Reeko and others.

Miguel A. Ruiz was active on the industrial cassette network from 1986 and issued many recordings, using pseudonyms and his own name. The material presented on Grosor was recorded between 1989-91, a period during which many of the better know industrial groups began to dilute the “mechanicity” of their sounds and begin what was often a disastrous flirtation with rock (perhaps the value now placed on “re-discovered” and “lost” industrial material is that it symbolises the time when industrial still retained a genuine “apartness”, and hadn’t begun a process of self-normalisation and cultural adaptation). Grosor contains little beyond the name of its producer and a Spanish dialogue sample on Brain Velocity that suggests any Spanish connection. It exists in an idiosyncratic hinterland, and is neither exactly dark ambient nor percussive industrial. In some ways, the factory type sounds do already sound “historical” and yet they are very much needed and still keenly felt in our “post-industrial” present. Like many of the most skilful producers of this type, Ruiz is adept at suggesting and summoning a machinic unconscious or uncanny: the intangible but palpable excess that both actual technological/industrial processes and their (artistic) simulations can produce. In these simulated/created deserted spaces mechanisation and its traces are present as a spectre. Grosor alternates between (controlled) acceleration and near static passages within which the spectral elements surface. It is accompanied by a surreal/mystical Castilian poem which refers to the “post-industrial technosphere.” The album opens with what sounds like a factory process, whose cold, clanking elements build into an orchestra of echoing metallic sounds. By the start of the absurdly/frivolously titled Testicular Prawn, the process has “run out of steam” or radically decelerated. There are deeper clangs and reverberations, the metal orchestration remains but is now dragged out into subdued traces and rumbles. The process (or its aftermath) creates hovering clouds of metallic sound vapours. As the album/process proceeds, it further intensifies and smears into a series of ghostly chords, suggesting that this obviously esoteric technology has begun, either by design or by mutation/malfunction, to haunt itself. On Sin Apenas Coxis and elsewhere, quieter, and even graceful elements such as piano chords float to the surface, forming a film of gossamer toxicity. Mysterious, filmic, ethereal and sinister atmospheres drift in out of Ruiz’s sound pictures, which suggest numerous possible visions and associations, and challenge the common sense association between electronic coldness and unemotionality.

Rafael Flores’ Nubes, cometas, rumores y oregas presents more recent material, dating between 1994 and 2004 (tracks three to five, which are the most impressive of a very strong set). Like Grosor, Nubes immediately confronts the listener with a machinic process, an immense, fascinating grinding. Although first developed in relation to techno, electro and drum n’bass, Kodwo Eshun’s notion of sonic fiction[2] gives us a useful framework within which to understand this release. Applying a little poetic licence, we could even speculate that machines’ own fictions or fantasies might sound something like this, they certainly have a “starring role” in what are epics of the machine age. In Sanzoot a colossal but still detailed and textured sound gradually turns catastrophic and “orchestral” chords emerge from the dense sound field. The next track Sanzooot deploys a huge array of metallic sounds that become a focussed, sensual, looping rain of metal. This stands comparison with or even surpasses the best “metallic” tracks by Neubauten, Test Dept and other metal working groups. After this peak, Nubes slowly winds down into a series of desolate but still beguiling tone pieces, fading out with Luders, the sound of a “dying” machine performing its final operation.

Monochrome Vision’s fourth release, Cavitation by h.h.t.p. and portable palace sits in between the two Spanish releases in the catalogue. It is produced Dmitry Gelfand from New York and Andrey Savitsky and Kirill Domnich from Minsk (home to a surprisingly active musical underground). The three long pieces date from 2002 and while also “cold” in feel, they are more formal in their tone, and are closer to the electro-acoustic than the industrial context. However, the sounds are at least partly (post)-industrial in spirit if not in origin and ought to interest the “industrialised listener”. In the way it excavates cavernous space it mirrors some industrial ambient but is less theatrical than that “genre” tends to be. Although texturally clinical, Cavitation has a markedly eerie undercurrent that eventually becomes overt and suggests a techno-pagan ritual invoking dead machines, offering a simultaneously nostalgic and prophetic comment on our present reality.

http://www.monochromevision.ru
www.rafaelflores.net
www.batanbruits.com
www.hhtp.org

[1] "Ice on the Circuits/Coldness as Crisis: The Re-subordination of Laptop Sound." Contemporary Music Review. 22: 35-43.
[2] Kodwo Eshun, More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction, London: Quartet, 1998

Laibach @ RoTr

2006-09-12T23:42:00.000+01:00

Photos © Soren Stirling.

ICRN is grateful to everyone who attended, assisted and supported a very memorable night on Friday 1st September. Strong performances were given by all the acts and further photos will appear here and on other sites shortly. Special thanks to Laibach Kunst members for creating a mesmerising spectacle.

Return of the Repressive (RoTr). Birmingham 1st - 3rd September

2006-07-10T21:21:00.000+01:00

Return of the Repressive (RoTr)
The Custard Factory Birmingham,
September 1st – 3rd.

A weekend of industrialised culture presented by I.C.R.N. (Industrialised Culture Research Network) in collaboration with Capsule, Cold Spring and the Custard Factory.

Over the first weekend of September the Custard Factory will host a unique event exploring the past, present and future of industrial music and culture. Often ignored, industrial is a style that won’t go away, and keeps re-surfacing in new contexts. Return of the Repressive will trace the industrial undercurrents that seethe beneath the surface of our culture.

The centrepiece will be the opening of the LAIBACH KUNST inhibition “Instrumentality of the State Machine”. This large-scale sound and visual installation recreates the industrial ambience of Trbovlje, the Slovene industrial city which gave birth to Laibach 26 years ago. The exhibition will be open daily 11-8 until September 5th.

The exhibition will open on September 1st, and members of Laibach plus guests will perform a special "Concerto for magnetophone, gramophone, radiophone and megaphone" at 8pm.

The Laibach opening will be followed by an evening of DJ’s and live acts, featuring dark drum and bass act PCM, percussion group Shit and Shine, dark industrial legends Schloss Tegal, and a specially commissioned audiovisual set by Birmingham techno pioneer Surgeon.

On Saturday 2nd there will be screenings of rare industrial video material plus a Mutefilm screening, including Laibach videos and the British premiere of Saso Podgorsek’s Laibach U.S. tour documentary Divided States of America.

On Sunday 3rd, industrial will be explored in an ICRN seminar featuring guest speakers and a presentation of Interrogation Machine, Alexei Monroe’s book on Laibach and NSK.

Tickets 1st Sept. £10 Adv. (8-9pm Advance Tickets only). Limited tickets available at door. Tickets 2nd & 3rd Sept. £5 Door Only.

RoTr is generously supported by Cold Spring Records.

LAIBACH:

http://www.laibach.nsk.si/

http://www.nskstate.com/

http://www.gla.ac.uk/~dc4w/laibach/laibach.html

SURGEON:

http://www.dj-surgeon.com/

COLD SPRING:

http://www.coldspring.co.uk/

MUTE RECORDS:

http://www.mute.com/index.jsp

ALEXEI MONROE:

http://pluralmachine.blogspot.com/

I.C.R.N. Alert: RoTr Festival, Birmingham, September 2006

2006-07-02T08:49:00.000+01:00

Return of the Repressive (RoTr)

This I.C.R.N. initiated event will take place over the first weekend of September at the Custard Factory in Birmingham. It will feature live peformances, video screenings, an industrial seminar and more. More details to follow shortly...

I.C.R.N. Live Review 1: Hanno Reichel. DIE KRUPPS 25th Anniversary Tour

2006-07-02T08:39:00.000+01:00

BACK TO THE AGE OF STEEL? - VOLLE KRAFT ZURUECK!
DIE KRUPPS 25th Anniversary Tour “25 Jahre Wahre Arbeit, wahrer Lohn”

Berlin, Kato. 29.1.2006

As part of their 25th anniversary tour, the renowned German electro/industrial pioneers DIE KRUPPS returned to the stage on Sunday 29th January. The group had fallen silent since the last official tour in 1997 and the increasing preoccupation of frontman Juergen ENGLER with his new project DKAY.COM. In any case, by the mid to late 1990s little remained of the original avant gardist reputation of DIE KRUPPS who had once been a crucial influence on the electro- and industrial-scene back in the early 1980s. Unfortunately, their visionary approach had since the early 1990s literally been buried by a layer of “rock” and “metal” debris, leaving the former KRUPPS´ factory halls ruined and dysfunctional, echoing to the slowly fading sounds of their “Stahlwerksinfonie” (Steelworks Symphony). Nevertheless, the “new” KRUPPS-style with the massive use of (-ironically- metal)-guitars and more or less completely English and non-industrial lyrics seemed quite suitable to the new market: the blood- and sweat era of the former “Steelworkers” was quickly forgotten, giving way to more streamlined and designed music and lyrics for the new (post-industrial) generation of consumers.

In this sense, the return of DIE KRUPPS accompanied by an explicit reference to the early 1980s “Wahre Arbeit, wahrer Lohn” era was unexpected enough to raise speculation about what was to be expected from these concerts. The announcements of the concert already suggested a return to the roots of DIE KRUPPS, with posters bearing on a black background the familiar KRUPPS “rings of steel”, surrounded half and half by a cogwheel and wreath. This visual proclamation of past times was accompanied by the news that the concerts would be performed by the most original KRUPPS-line up imaginable, Juergen ENGLER (vocals), Ralph DOERPER (keyboards/programming) and Ruediger ESCH (bass). For all that, the announcements also already gave the impression that, far more than just performing old-school material, DIE KRUPPS seemed to have adapted to contemporary influences, as the phrase “Wahre Arbeit, wahrer Lohn” featured the letters “A” in the font used in the official acronym and logo of the German federal office “Bundesanstalt fuer Arbeit” which has become synonymous for the problem of mass-unemployment in Germany since the early 1990ies.

Thus, when the group entered the stage (which was -in a Laibachian manner- flanked by flags bearing the “rings of steel”-logo), the audience seemed full of expectation of what was to come. The set started with the –musically and lyrically timeless- track “High Tech-Low Life” from the album “I”, and the very sound of that track already gave an impression of the shift backwards in the sound of DIE KRUPPS: Even though it was originally one of the more guitar-based tracks, the guitar-elements remained quite far in the background, giving more space to the synthesizer-sequences of the stoically (KRAFTWERK-like) acting DOERPER and the great bass-work of ESCH, which effectively transformed the venue into a hammering and vibrating industrial worksite. Following that concept, ENGLER resembled perfectly his image in (now 25 year old!) photographs from the “Wahre Arbeit, wahrer Lohn”-album with a black work vest and trousers and precise short haircut. Thus, even the more recent tracks that followed were greeted enthusiastically by the audience (which seemed to be composed at least 50 percent of “old” DIE KRUPPS fans). The atmosphere intensified even more, when, to the sounds of “Germaniac”, the large apparatus that had been carried onto the stage just before the beginning of the show turned out to be a renewed and improved (but conceptually original) version of the ancient KRUPPS “Stahlophon” furiously beaten by the energetic ENGLER.

After the first 30 minutes, which mainly featured tracks from the more recent (guitar oriented) albums “I”, “II”, “III” and “Paradise Now”, KRUPPS embarked on a time-trip back to the early 1980s presenting (among others) “Volle Kraft voraus!”, “Goldfinger” and “Fuer einen Augenblick”, all performed in the original style, with only slightly modified synthesizer sequences and absolutely (!) no guitars. Although the audience was enthusiastic enough about hearing such old tracks once again after their total absence from DIE KRUPPS for so long, a medley of old and new songs wouldn’t have been in itself anything significant for an anniversary tour, but DIE KRUPPS seemed to have more in mind.

The small section of totally new and so far unreleased tracks started with “5 Millionen”, a song musically strongly linked to “Wahre Arbeit, wahrer Lohn” but addressing the problem of the now more than 5 million unemployed in Germany. Musically and lyrically, the track is –due to these contradictory references- a perfect description of the social problems in post-industrial Europe, on the one hand once more satirically celebrating the sweat of hard industrial labour as the basis of post-war Europe (“von der Stirne heiß, rinnen muß der Schweiss”) but at the same time stating that this kind of work seems less and less available and/or suitable to people now (“5 Millionen – Denn die Zukunft muß sich lohnen”). More than any other, this song might mark a new beginning of DIE KRUPPS, recognizing that their original artistic approach towards work and industry themes in the early 1980s might not be at all out of date but in need of only a few adaptations to the context of the new decade and the global economy. In this sense, the return of the “Stahlophon” and the reduction of populist rock-elements in the KRUPPS performance might parallel the signs of a coming era that will be marked by more basic needs for work, energy and raw materials across the globe. Philosophically speaking, it might have occurred to society as well as to KRUPPS that the future can sometimes be found in the past. In this sense, the formerly explicit message of “Volle Kraft voraus!” could be transformed into the oxymoronic statement “Vorwärts, Kameraden – Wir müssen zurück! (Onward, comrades – We must go back!)”.

In this way, the second new track “Der Amboss” (featuring CLIENT) even more retro-stylistically connects the idea of industrial work (“Wir schlagen den Amboss”) with post-modern club culture (“Tanz mit mir!”) and even includes slightly erotic musical and lyrical elements. The result is a track that comes across like an obscure mixture of “Wahre Arbeit, wahrer Lohn” and DAF´s “Der Mussolini” done in a retro style but nevertheless with a state-of-the-art sound-mix. Forcing together the contradictory -but also self-stipulating- aspects of hard work on the one hand and ecstatic leisure time on the other brings to light the dramatic problem of “contemporary” western societies: offering aspects of leisure and entertainment on the broadest possible basis, but being incapable of offering enough “wahre Arbeit” for its citizens to participate in society and contribute the effort of “wahrer Lohn” to legitimately afford the comforts produced.

Coming full-circle, the time-travel ended with the another new mix of “Wahrer Arbeit, wahrer Lohn” (featuring Nitzer Ebb’s DOUGLAS MCCARTHY), performed with some additional guitar sound but also the most “original” elements of the “Stahlophon” and ENGLER´s whistle blasts, once again confronting the audience with the sociological and economical question of whether this image of work is a) out of date and b) if not, if it is then desirable or frightening.

Speaking in the industrial-economic mode that was a permanent trademark of DIE KRUPPS in their early days, the concert could be described as a good test performance of some first new machinery-prototypes and marketing strategies hopefully giving way to a successful resumption of mass-production. If DIE KRUPPS are able to reflect on their traditional methods again, and adapt them to the new challenges, they might be successful again in the same way as their predecessors: The “rings of steel” logo of the former steel and arms manufacturer KRUPP survived wartime- and post war disruption as a permanent symbol for “deutsche Wertarbeit” (German workmanship), and are now gliding towards the future on the advanced suspension-railway “Transrapid” built by the German industrial-trust THYSSEN-KRUPP in China. Maybe the shadow group who appropriated their logo will once again be able to create a successful cultural “Exportschlager”, stimulating discussion about industrial and post-industrial art, society and life.

Hanno Reichel is based in Berlin and is a regular contributor to http://www.nskstate.com/

die krupps site: http://www.dkay.de/krupps_index.html

thyssen-krupp/transrapid site : http://www.thyssenkrupp-transrapid.de/

photographer´s site: http://www.vorndranphotography.com/

I.C.R.N. Paper 2: Heinrich Deisl "»Freedom is a sickness«: Musikalische Anschläge gegen die neoliberale Beliebigkeit im englischen Industrial"

2006-07-02T08:31:00.000+01:00

Symposium Pop & Politik. Fluc, Wien, 31/05/06.

»Freedom is a sickness«: Musikalische Anschläge gegen die neoliberale Beliebigkeit im englischen Industrial bis Mitte der 1980er Jahre

Der Titel dieses Vortrags hätte auch heißen können: »Tanz den Adolf Hitler«. Das wäre aber zu plakativ, außerdem geht es hier um sozusagen echten Industrial. Denn wo sonst außer im Geburtsland der Industriellen Revolution würde es so viel Sinn machen, eine Musik zu entwickeln, die, wie es Genesis P-Orridge, Sänger der Band Throbbing Gristle, einmal formuliert hatte, daran interessiert war, die Musik aus der Sklavenzeit, dem Blues, in das industrielle Zeitalter zu transferieren. Also von der (Strom-)Gitarre zum Synthesizer. Womit die Wahl der Musikinstrumente – zumindest damals – auch politisch konnotiert war. Die deutsche Band DAF hatte mit diesem griffigen und so oft in falschen Kontext gebrachten Slogan ein Feld beackert, das ein paar Jahre vorher in England wesentlich radikaler und diskursiver aufgezogen worden war, als es DAF jemals sein konnten. Um erst gar nicht von den Irgendwie-Fascho-Posern von Rammstein zu reden, dieser Band, deren Musik höchstens für die sublimierten Allmachtsfantasien pubertierender Jugendlicher auf einem radikalisierten Jugendlagertreffen taugt. Immerhin haben Rammstein ihre letzte CD »Reise, Reise« (2005) international 1,6 millionenmal verkauft und der Major EMI war stolz...

Freedom is a sickness: Freiheit ist eine Krankheit. Oder, wie es Slavoj Žižek formulieren würde, Freiheit ist ein Syndrom. Was bringt Bands wie Test Dept. dazu, eine Platte mit dem Titel »The Unacceptable Face of Freedom« oder Throbbing Gristle dazu, eine Nummer namens »Zyklon B Zombie« aufzunehmen? Oder eben die für den Vortrag namensgebende Nummer »Freedom is a sickness«, wo doch Freiheit als das wertvollste Gut überhaupt gilt? In diesem Vortrag möchte ich ein paar Beispiele dafür bringen, welcher Notwenigkeiten es bedurfte, mit einem mit faschistischen Zeichen, Symbolen und Inhalten aufgeladenen künstlerischen Output gegen die Mittelmäßigkeit in der Musik, in der Kunst, in der Gesellschaft im Allgemeinen vorzugehen. Die Aufrüstung der Gesellschaft ist in vollem Gang, wie etwa das wegweisende Buch »Entsichert« von Tom Holert und Mark Terkessidis bereits 2002 zeigte. Und spätestens im Zuge einer neuen Weltordnung nach dem 11. September 2001 wird klar, dass eben diese Freiheit mit vehementen Mitteln als propadandistisches Tool instrumentalisiert werden kann.

Verglichen mit heutigen Standards mutet das meiste künstlerische Material des Industrial krude, offensichtlich und oft auch zu existentialistisch an. Das hat nichts mit »Härte« zu tun: Wer findet in Zeiten von Slayer etwa Black Sabbath »hart«? Aber es ist der Vorteil oder Nachteil so gut wie aller Revolutionen, dass sie früher oder später eingemeindet und damit diskursfähig werden. Auch wenn Industrial heuer genau 30 Jahre alt geworden ist, ist eine Auseinandersetzung mit dieser heftigen Entäußerung im künstlerischen Underground – zumindest im deutschsprachigen Raum – nach wie vor praktisch nicht vorhanden. Zwar gibt es gute Biografien wie etwa »Wreckers of Civilisation« von Simon Ford über TG (1999); Die meisten Bücher aber, die Industrial als gesellschaftliches Phänomen untersuchen, stammen aus den frühen 80ern. Und das, obwohl Industrial als künstlerischer Einfluss mittlerweile in diversen Galerien ausgestellt wird. Während die Kunst Industrial via Futurismus, Konstruktivismus, Aktionismus, Mail-Art und Fluxus schon längst in ihren genealogischen Diskurs übernommen hat, siehe etwa »Performance Art« von RoseLee Goldberg, sind musikalische und politische Auseinandersetzungen über weite Felder auf nerdige, kryptische oder zumindest fragwürdige Quellen verstreut. Über den Umweg klischeehafter Abziehbilder wurde diese Musik- und Kunstrichtung ziemlich in Misskredit gebracht. An dieser Stelle ein Zitat des spanischen Philosophen Georges Santayana, das Throbbing Gristle gerne benutzte: »Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it«.

Folgende Thesen habe ich für diesen Vortrag aufgestellt:
1) Die historische und spezifisch sozioökonomische Situation des frühen neoliberalen Wirtschaftssystems in England Ende der 70er/ Anfang der 80er Jahre war Grundbedingung für das Entstehen von Industrial.
2) Die künstlerische Auseinandersetzung des Industrial mit der Industriellen Revolution antizipierte als eine unter vielen Strömungen das Informationszeitalter.
3) Industrial brach mit der post-nazionalsozialistischen Tradition der Entschuldungskultur und des Bilderverbots, indem diese radikal ausgestellt wurde.

Während die Popmusik und damit ihre Kultur noch immer in dem Rock’n’Roll-Mythos vom rebellischen Outlaw verhaftet ist, wurde dieser Mythos als längst konsensfähig in die breite Massenkultur eingemeindet. Eine Teilschuld dessen sehe ich in der in den späten 80ern losgetretenen Debatte um Political Correctness, die sich schnell in ihr Gegenteil verkehrt hatte: Die Zensurschere kommt nicht mehr bei der FSK oder anderen, greifbaren oder relativ leicht zu identifizierenden Organisationen zum Einsatz, sondern im Kopf. Eben Selbstkontrolle, dis-lokalisiert und unsichtbar. – Was alles bereits bei Foucault aus Mitte der 70er nachzulesen ist. Ein sozioökonomisches Update lieferten 2000 Antonio Negri und Michael Hardt mit ihrer Studie »Emipre«, in der sie die mittlerweile im globalen Kontext agierenden, wirtschaftlichen Verflechtungen als exterritorialisierte Hegemonialmacht darstellten und auf die Umlagerung der Macht weg von Staats- hin zu Wirtschaftsystemen darlegten. In weiterer Folge geht es darum, ein adäquates Regelwerk für die neoliberale »Fit-for-Fun«-Informationsgesellschaft zu generieren, deren nihilistisches Chaos und Paranoia mittlerweile in den großen Institutionen nistet, Devianzen als gern gesehene Kollateralschäden firmieren, weg vom individuellen, hin zum kollektiv verstandenen »body as battlefield«. Darin liegt vielleicht eine der Hauptschwierigkeiten aktueller Kunst: Die Zentren der Macht, der Feind, etc. konnten sich abstrahieren, sind scheinbar unsichtbar geworden.

Da hatten es die Bands in den späten 70ern, frühen 80ern leichter. Das heraufdräuende neoliberale Zeitalter, als erste Industriestaaten exemplifiziert in den USA durch die »Reaganomics« und im UK durch den »Thatcherismus«, und die ersten Indizien einer Medien- und Informationsgesellschaft zeitigten zusammen mit dem heftigen Input, den Punk hinterlassen hatte, eine toxische Mischung. Hier wurde unter dem Eindruck der staatlichen Kontrolle ein absichtlicher Kontrollverlust eingeübt, sei es durch die Schaffung temporärer autonomer Zonen, sei es durch Körperekstase wie Tanzen oder sich selbst zu verletzen, sei es durch eine bisher unerhörte Musik oder Kunst. Die Punk-Ikone Lydia Lunch hatte über ihre sadomasochistischen Erfahrungen im Pornofilm als Befreiungsschlag gegen das aufoktroyierte Körperregime in dieser Zeit einmal gemeint: »It’s better to feel pain than to feel nothing.« Der von diesen Bands ausgeführte »sonic warfare« lässt sich – wie es der französische Nationalökonom Jacques Attali formulierte – als Riss (»rapture«) im gesellschaftlichen System lesen, der auf zukünftige sozioökonomische und politische Verhältnisse verweist, Musik somit diese Verhältnisse antizipiert. (Ein Riss, an dem sich auch etwa DAF und besonders die slowenische Band Laibach abarbeiteten.) Attali schreibt 1985: »It is necessary to imagine radically new theoretical forms, in order to speak of new realities. Music, the organisation of noise, is one such form. It reflects the manufacture of society; it constitutes the audible waveband of the vibrations and signs that make up society.«[i]
Cosey Fanni Tutti, ein Bandmitglied von Throbbing Gristle, drückte es in einem Interview mit »de:bug« so aus: »Eines der stärksten Motive war Frustration und Zorn über die unterwürfige Haltung, die Kulturschaffende einnahmen. Es spielte natürlich auch eine Rolle, dass das Klima in den 70ern in Großbritannien extrem politisch aufgeladen war. Es gab ständig Krawalle, Streiks und Unruhe im Land. Wir hatten das Gefühl, dass unsere Arbeit auch politisch war: Wir wollten die Vorstellungen darüber, was Musik ist, niederreißen.«[ii]

Oft als chaotisch oder nihilistisch verschrieen, führ(t)en diese Attacken auf die Hörgewohnheiten zu einer exzessiv überhöhten Selbstaufgabe, die den bewussten Kontrollverlust als Regulativ auf die Kontrollgesellschaft einübte. Diese Musik bezog eine ihrer stärksten Legitimationen daraus, dass die Elterngeneration einen Abwehrkampf gegen alles und jeden geführt hatte, was nur annährend den Verdacht hätte nähren können, faschistisch zu sein. Während sowohl in der alten wie in der Jugendkultur alles auf De-Eskalation programmiert war: einerseits Regression und aktives Vergessen und andererseits die als extrem dröge empfundenen Errungenschaften der Hippies – wuchs eine neue Generation von Künstlern heran, die praktisch aus doppeltem Antrieb heraus gegen die auf breiter Front gefahrene Politik der Verdrängung anzugehen hatte. Somit wird auch klar, dass dieser mit faschistischen Zeichen aufgeladene Kampf eigentlich ein »antifaschistischer« war. Aus heutiger Perspektive könnte man die Industrial-Musik wahrscheinlich als »sonically incorrect« bezeichnen. Was Georg Seeßlen über DAF schreibt, kann man in diesem Zusammenhang auch auf die hier besprochenen Bands anwenden: »[DAF] ließ nie genau erkennen, was noch Parodie und was schon spielerische Aneignung faschistischer Fantasien war. [...] Sie waren die Kinder des Bilderverbots und der Entschuldungskultur. Aber sie hatten auch den historischen Pakt der Jugendkulturen mit dem Projekt der linken Weltverbesserung aufgekündigt, mit Love, Peace und Happiness.«[iii]

Der britische Autor Stuart Home beschreibt in seinem Abriss über avantgardistische Kunstströmungen seit den 50ern einige Schnittpunkte zwischen einer Avantgarde-Tradition und Punk und erdet ihn dezidiert in einem »proletarian movement«. Er schreibt: »Punk was a politics of energy with a bias towards expressing itself in the rhetoric of the left, but which more than occasionally assumed the voice of the right.«[iv] Durch den Einfluss der Punk-begeisterten Kunststudenten wurde eine historische Komponente eingezogen, die bis zu den Futuristen und den Dadaisten zurückreichte. Mark Sinker, englischer Musikjournalist, fasste zusammen (186): »Futuristic music was to be a sensual exploration of Noise as a continuum of detail, structured by contrast and juxtaposition.«[v] Die aus diesen Strömungen entlehnten Taktiken und Ideen wurden besonders für den Industrial inkorporiert. War der Futurismus nicht schon in seiner aktiven Phase vielerorts als »protofaschistisch« eingestuft worden? So wurde dem Fabrikslärm, der Collage und einer expressionistischen Weltsicht gehuldigt, zu der sich die »Ideologie« von Geschwindigkeit, Massenproduktion und Mediendesavouierung gesellte. Das Wissen um diesen historischen Dechiffrierungskorpus zeitigte notwendigerweise eine Abkehr vom Punk, der mit 3 Akkorden die Welt erklären wollte. Prototypisch für den Industrial kam eine weitere historische Komponente dazu: Die als inhuman empfundenen, den Kapitalismus zementierenden ökonomischen Richtungen des Taylorismus und besonders des Fordismus, exemplifiziert an der Fließbandarbeit, wurden mit der fabriksmäßig betriebenen Tötungsmaschinerie des 3. Reichs synchronisiert. Mit den hämmernden Beats aus den billigen Rhythmusinstrumenten erfuhren Futurismus und Dadaismus –am besten exemplifiziert an Cabaret Voltaire – ein analoges Update. Test Dept. dagegen setzten – ähnlich wie die Einstürzenden Neubauten – mit ihrer tribalistischen Stahlpercussion auf eine nochmalige Brechung und projizierten diese in eine archaische Vorzeit. Indes war dieser Mythos des Martialischen, praktisch eine der Grundbedingungen des nationalsozialistischen Körperkults, mit einer konstruktivistischen Ikonografie aufgeladen.

Oberflächlich gesehen, roch Ende der 70er so ziemlich alles nach Freiheit, Grenzüberwindung, Verbrüderung. Disco, HipHop und besonders Punk sorgten für ziemlich radikalste popkulturellen Befreiungsschläge. Aber es waren eben nicht die »Holidays in the sun«, wie die Sex Pistols krakeelten. Denn schon kurz später sollte sich diese kreative Spielwiese an der Realität und an sich selbst vaporisieren: Die Anfang der 80er in England herrschende Stimmung lässt sich treffender mit einem Song sozusagen von der B-Seite von »Holidays« charakterisieren: »Belsen was a gas« (1978), das mit »Zyklon B Zombie« (Throbbing Gristle, 1980) eine brachiale Neuverortung erfuhr. Diese Single musste wiederholte Male neu gepresst werden, nachdem sie mehr als 20.000mal verkauft worden war. Man beachte die gesamplete Ankunft eines Zuges im Regen am Ende der Nummer...

Dieser heftige Anschlag auf Bauch, Beuschl und gute Sitten lässt uns mit einem ziemlich mulmigen Gefühl zurück. Keine Glorifizierung des Martialischen, wie sie so gerne von so vielen Bands durchgeführt wird, sondern eine Identifikation mit dem Opfer, in all der ungeschönten Grausamkeit. Keine Melodie, in die man sich verlieren könnte sondern ein treibender, stampfender Rhythmus, der auf die Tötungsmaschinerie der Gaskammern verweist. Somit lässt sich als Indiz festhalten: Es war genau jene Freiheit, die TG zu zertrümmern suchten, die den Millionen Nazi-Opfern in Auschwitz versprochen worden war: »Arbeit macht frei«. Diese Pervertierung der Freiheit konnte nur mit einer nochmaligen Pervertierung gesühnt werden.

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An dieser Stelle einige kurze Worte zu den Biografien der Bands Throbbing Gristle, Test Dept. und Cabaret Voltaire.

TG wurden 1976 von den Kunststudenten Genesis P-Orridge und Cosey Fanni Tutti und den beiden Elektronikmusikern Peter Christopherson und Chris Carter in London gegründet. Die Band existierte nur bis 1981 und hinterließ bloß 5 offizielle Platten, die alle auf ihrem eigenen Label Industrial Records veröffentlich wurden sowie eine Reihe von Bootlegs. Sie gelten als die Begründer der Industrial Music. Sie verwendeten als Logo einen Blitz, der gleichzeitig für Starkstrom als auch eine Abwandlung der SS-Rune gelesen werden konnte, auf vielen Covers war der Schornstein von Auschwitz zu sehen. Nicht nur mit ihren bruitistischen Kracheskapaden sondern auch mit einer Art elektronischer Proto-Disko-Musik wurden sie zu einer der einflussreichsten Underground-Bands und inspirierten Gruppen wie die Einstürzenden Neubauten, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry und große Teile der späteren Electronic-Body-Music, einem der Vorläufer des Techno.

Cabaret Voltaire: Ihr Name geht auf den Gründungsort des Dadaismus, das Züricher Café Cabaret Voltaire zurück. Chris Watson, Steve Mallinder und Richard H. Kirk produzierten ab 1974 in Sheffield Klangcollagen, ihre ersten Platten wurden auf Rough Trade und auf Industrial veröffentlicht. Im Gegensatz zu TG war die Band praktisch von Anfang an mehr an einer Diskussion um Medien und ihrer Interaktion mit Macht interessiert. Cabaret Voltaire schlossen gesamplete News-Reels mit maschinell geerdeten post-Funk-Beats kurz und sangen über die Baader-Meinhof-Gruppe oder produzierten eine ganze LP gegen amerikanische Allmachtsfantasien (»The Voice of America«, 1980). In den späten 80ern wandte sich die zum Duo geschrumpfte Band dem Dance-Underground zu, den sie zu dieser Zeit bereits nachhaltig geprägt hatte.

Die fünf Mitglieder der 1982 gegründeten Band Test Dept. kamen aus den Londoner Docklands und entstammten einem Redskin-Mileu. Die als Kollektiv auftretende Band ist sicherlich die politischste und »englischste« dieser drei Bands. Anlässlich des großen Minenarbeiterstreiks 1984/85 brachten sie die Platte »Shoulder to Shoulder« heraus. Darauf nahm die Band Streikreden und Chorgesänge der Kohlebergwerker im Revier South Wales auf und beteiligte sich an einer der größten Streikaktionen des industriellen Englands. Die Band paraphrasierte besonders eine konstruktivistische und kommunistische Ikonografie. Nachdem sie sich gegen Ende der 80er intensiv mit Bühnenperformance auseinandergesetzt hatte, waren Test Dept., ähnlich wie Cabaret Voltaire, im englischen Dance-Underground aktiv.

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England, zwischen Ende der 70er und Mitte der 80er Jahre, in ein paar Spotlights zusammengefasst:

1977 war die Arbeitslosigkeit in England auf 1,3 Millionen gestiegen, soviel wie 1939. Der Winter des folgenden Jahres sollte als »Winter of Discontent« in die Geschichtsbücher eingehen, als es zu ausgedehnten Streiks der Gewerkschaften kam. In der Folge musste Premier James Callahan von der Labour Partei zurücktreten. Ihm folgte 1979 Margaret Thatcher.

1978: Die Debüt-Platte »2.nd Annual Report« der Band Throbbing Gristle brach mit ihren kruden Noise-Wällen in ein gesellschaftliches Szenario ein, das gefüllt war mit Agitation von linker und rechter Seite, von Streiks und Propaganda. Praktisch auf ihrem Höhepunkt brachte die Band die Nummer »Discipline« heraus, eine Art Blueprint sowohl für die Band wie für die herrschende Stimmung im Land. In selbst designten Tarnanzügen forderten sie ein: »We need some discipline in here!« Wo sonst als vor dem ehemaligen Berliner Propagandaministerium entstand das Cover zu dieser 12’’ von 1981. An diesem symbolträchtigen Ort kulminierten die Referenzrahmen der Band. Die in einer agitatorischen Strenge vorgetragenen Lyrics wurden in dieser Live-Nummer sukzessive von einem schier ohrenbetäubenden Lärm überlagert, ein Rhythmus, der durchaus tanzbar war und dazu die für TG typische Inversion der Inversion: Die nur wenig entschärfte Diktion der Nazi-Rhetorik wurde sinnigerweise auch über Manchester losgelassen, dem Geburtsort der industriellen Revolution. Über fast 10 quälende Minuten ist nun ein Live-Videomitschnitt zu sehen, in dem die menschlichen Verschleißteile der industriellen Revolution als augenscheinliche Katharsis herausgekotzt werden, in dem TG sich einen brachialen Exorzismus mit sich selbst und dem Publikum liefern. Von dort gab es kein Zurück mehr. Konsequenterweise löste sich TG im selben Jahr auf.

Der für England erfolgreiche Falklandkrieg 1982 mochte zwar zur Wiederwahl Margaret Thatchers maßgeblich beigetragen haben: Für die vielen Engländer, die sich mit einem massiven Sparprogramm besonders bei den Sozialausgaben konfrontiert sahen, war es indes nicht akzeptabel, einen Krieg zu führen, der 10.000km vom Mutterland entfernt stattfand. Durch starken Rückhalt in der Bevölkerung und im Parlament konnte Thatcher den einjährigen Bergarbeiterstreik im März 1985 für sich entscheiden. Damit ging eine drastische Reduzierung der Rechte der Gewerkschaften einher. Die Haltung Englands gegenüber der polnischen Solidarnosc-Bewegung war gespalten. Denn einerseits war die Arbeiterbewegung und ihre Gewerkschaften noch stark im englischen Selbstverständnis verhaftet, andererseits fiel eine Fraternisierung mit dem kommunistischen Polen von offizieller Tories-Seite nicht gerade leicht. Test Dept. beschrieben in einem Interview 1987 die Situation so: »They can support Solidarity by saying that it’s the Communists that are against them. And here they can put down the unions because they say that the Communists are behind them, too. In the early 80s the British government were openly supporting Solidarity, praising them and waving their flag. It was front page news – they had extended newscasts devoted to the Poland issue every day, and now it’s suddenly forgotten and buried.«[vi] – In dem nicht ganz pathosfreien, indes sehr eindringlichen Track »Shockwork« auf »Shoulder to Shoulder« exklamieren Test Dept.: »Justice to the miners, down with the police state! Victory for the miners, victory to all the working people!« – Daran anschließend die Nummer »Statement« von »Unacceptable Face of Freedom« als eine Art Verdichtung der Ereignisse des Bergarbeiterstreiks, konterkariert mit einer etwas elaborierteren und in einen breiteren gesellschaftlichen Rahmen gestellten Auseinandersetzung mit der Thematik Staat und Machtausübung.

Cabaret Voltaire dagegen waren wahrscheinlich die modernste Band der drei. Sie erkannten bereits sehr früh die Wirkung des Bildmediums in dem von vielen Industrialbands etwas pathetisch als »Information War« bezeichneten Diskurs um Massenkommunikation und den Einfluss der Bildmedien darauf. Das Video »Walls of Jericho« von 1981 ist eine Art Sammelsurium von Bildtabus. Aus heutiger Sicht ziemlich krude zusammenmontiert, ging es vor allem darum, ein rhythmisiertes Bilderarsenal zusammenzustellen. Dieses Video hat per se nur wenig mit den vorher dargestellten Beispielen linker oder rechter faschistischer Ästhetik zu tun. Vielmehr fand hier eine wesentlich unterschwelligere Okkupation des Körpers und der Sinne statt, die indes genauso vehement von der nuklearen Krise des Kalten Kriegs kündigt wie »Discipline« oder »Shockwork« davor. – Vorher noch die Nummer »Do the Mussolini Headkick«, einer der frühesten Tracks von Cabaret Voltaire von 1978. Mit einer seltsamen Mischung aus ein paar schrillen Synthesizer-Klängen, einer verzerrten Stimme und einem für die Band emblematischen Beat entstand neben »Baader Meinhof« wenig später die wahrscheinlich offensichtlichste politische Nummer der Band. Sie ist praktisch das Gegenstück zu DAFs »Tanz den Mussolini« von 1981. Hier findet allerdings eine bewusste Umdeutung oder Rekontextualisierung des faschistischen Gestus statt, indem – weit weniger offensichtlich – die Nummer mit einer Melodie daherkommt, die mehr als harmlos scheint.

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So lassen sich einige politisch relevante Tendenzen im frühen Industrial bei Bands wie Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire und Test Dept. in eine Entwicklungslinie bringen, die mit existianzialistischer Gewalt den Körper in Frage stellte, ihn als ein Schlachtfeld territorialisierte, veritable Medien-Guerilla betrieb und mit bisher nie dagewesener Heftigkeit und vor allem Konsequenz versuchte, musikalisch, visuell und performativ der herrschenden politischen Situation Herr zu werden. Es galt, gegen das faschistische Erbe der Elterngeneration und die gesellschaftliche/ kulturelle/ künstlerische Vernichtungsmaschinerie anzugehen. Mit der unbändigen Schaffung, Bereitstellung und Dechiffrierung von medialen Inhalten, also mit der Gründung eigener Labels und Vertriebsstrukturen, jeder Menge Texten, Videos und Postern sollte die »Do it yourself«-Politik des Punk für das Medienzeitalter nutzbar zu machen, von großen Firmen und Organisationen unabhängig zu sein, ein Netzwerk aufzubauen und eine Gegenöffentlichkeit zu etablieren. Der englische Musikkritiker Brian Duguid fasste es 1995 so zusammen: »Throwing the establishment’s own excrements back into the throat is sure to result in a nauseous reaction. For groups intending on outraging society, fascism was a powerful weapon. [...] with methods you had for doing so were those that the authorities had themselves taught you.«[vii]

Industrial erklärte den Medien einen »Information War«. Aufgerieben zwischen der Überwindung der Hinterlassenschaften der faschistischen Elterngeneration und den kommunikativen Neupositionierungen des heraufdräuenden Massenmedienzeitalter, kamen diesen Bands die analogen Elektronik-Musikmaschinen zugute, mit denen die Funksignale einer im Popkontext längst vergessenen Zukunft von Futurismus, Konstruktivismus und Geräuschkunst eingefangen und tanzbar (!) gemacht wurden. Die Politik der Maschine synchronisierte sich einmal mehr mit der des Körpers, der Körper zur aktionistischen Kampfzone ausgeweitet. Nicht umsonst wurden die Materialaktionen des Wiener Aktionismus als körperinhärente Inspiration für Industrial zitiert, da diese das Stigma des »Volkskörpers« hinsichtlich Kollektivität und Physikalität als Tabubruch in der Entschuldungskultur der späten 60er Jahre radikal instrumentalisierten. Was an sich klar auf der Hand liegt, wenn man sich vergegenwärtigt, dass die hier beschriebenen Bands großteils aus einem Performance-Kontext kamen, der als Interventionen im öffentlichen Raum meist den eigenen Körper zum Ziel hatte. Auch klar, dass praktisch die einzige diskursfähige oder zumindest referenzielle Band für den Industrial Velvet Underground waren, deren Noise-Wälle und devianten Sex-Transgressionen mit den Erfordernissen technologisch vermittelter Musikpraktiken kompatibel gemacht wurden. Was nicht heißt, dass Joy Division hierbei ausgelassen werden soll. Viele Überschneidungen mit dieser sehr einflussreichen Band aus Manchester wären zu erörtern, die genug Stoff für einen weiteren Vortrag liefern würden.

Nur wenige bemerkten die humoristische Erdung dieser kathartischen Exzesse. Während im »The Great Dictator« (1940) Charlie Chaplin seiner Hitler-Persiflage Hynkel noch die Worte »Die Freiheit ist hassenswert« in den Mund legte, generierten TG gut 40 Jahre später eine durch William S. Burroughs u.a. inspirierte Decodierung der Sehnsuchtsprojektion Freiheit in Richtung »Freedom is a sickness«.

Freiheit als Krankheit, als Syndrom einer Gesellschaft, die für ihre systematische Krankheit zwecks Machterhaltung meistens nur kranke Agitationen bereitstellt. Die Frage stellt sich natürlich, ob es klug, sinnvoll etc. ist, Gewalt mit Gewalt zu konfrontieren. Mit der von diesen Bands ziemlich offen vorgetragenen Nazi-Rhetorik war es klar, dass diese Nazi-Sympathisanten anziehen würde, denn nicht jeder tut sich die Mühe an, die vielen kleinen Fährten und Spuren zu decodieren, die über das künstlerische Output wie eine Art makroskopischer Rahmen gelegt wurden. Für die Bands damals schien das ein wesentlich effizienteres Vorgehen als sich um subliminale Strategien zu bemühen. Diese rüde Haltung des »Schau her, so bin ich. Love or leave it« ist natürlich auch eine, die einem faschistoiden Gedankengut zuspricht. Weswegen diese Bands auch als »unzugänglich« galten/ gelten, weil sie, die produktionstechnische Freiheit im Rücken, nicht an Major-Plattenverträge gebunden waren, in mehr oder weniger politische Weise aktiv waren, diese Statements in Musik und multimediale Kunst umsetzten und so nicht nur verstörten sondern heftig polarisierten.

Das hat nichts damit zu tun, dass sie laute oder »extreme« Musik machten. Im Gegenteil: Attali weist nach, dass seit der Antike jede Musik, so sie revolutionär ist, als »Noise« empfunden wird, der die hegemoniale Ordnung der Gesellschaft durcheinander bringt, für semantisches Chaos sorgt, weil sich ökonomische und musikalische Strömungen seit jeher simultan entwickeln. Zur gleichen Zeit, also Anfang der 80er, trieb auch die unabhängige Video- und Super-8-Szene einmal mehr ihr »Unwesen«. Alle drei hier beschriebenen Bands nutzten den visuellen Kanal, da klar war, dass Fernsehen oder zumindest visuelle Informationsverarbeitung eine stärkere, weil direktere Verbindung zum Publikum herstellen konnte. Industrialmusiker als ziemlich klassische Bilderstürmer. Weshalb bei Live-Konzerten oft Ausschnitte aus Avantgarde-Filmen, gegengeschnitten mit KZ-Filmen oder Euthanasie-Videos mit militärischen Lehrfilmen zusammenmontiert wurden. John Fiske schreibt in »Media Matters«: »The saying ‘the camera cannot lie’ is inaccurate and out of date but not stupid, for it does point the key differences between words and photography in terms of the immediacy and totality of the social control that can be exerted over them.«[viii]

Diese Vorboten des Informationszeitalters wurden durch den aktuellen Komplex des »Empire« mit neuer politischer Weltordnung und neoliberalem Grundtenor einmal mehr aktualisiert. Während die durchschnittliche Popmusik ja meist daran interessiert ist, den Hörer ruhig zu stellen, sollten mit diesen akustischen und visuellen Manifestationen Anschläge auf das alte System verübt, die Zuhörer echt rangenommen und an die Grenzen des Erträglichen gebracht und – wie bei jeder nachhaltig ernstzunehmenden Kunstströmung – an den Grundfesten der Gesellschaft gerüttelt werden.

Diese Brechung und Decodierung ist einer jener Vorläufer der Aneignung politischer Inhalte auf der »Spielwiese« namens Pop, auf der alles erlaubt zu sein scheint, wenn etwa heutzutage T-Shirts mit Images von z.B. Che Guevara oder der RAF in »modebewussten« Klamottenläden um die Ecke zu haben sind.

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Selektive Leseliste/ further reading:

Heinrich Deisl: 10 auf der nach oben offenen VU-Skala. Sonische Symptome: Noise. In: skug – Journal für Musik. #64, 09-11/05, Wien, 24f.
Gilles Deleuze/ Felix Guattari (1986): Nomadology. The War Machine. Semiotext(e). University of Minnesota Press/ Columbia University, New York.
Simon Dwyer: From Atavism to Zyklon B. Genesis P-Orridge& Thee Temple of PsychicYouth. In: Simon Dwyer [Ed.](1995): Rapid Eye 1. Creation Books, London.
Simon Ford (1999): The Wreckers of Civilisation. The Story of COUM Transmissions& Throbbing Gristle. Black Dog Publishing, London.
RoseLee Goldberg (2001): Performance Art from Futurism to the Present. Thames& Hudson, London.
Michael Hardt/ Antonio Negri (2003): Empire. Die neue Weltordnung. Campus, Frankfurt/ New York.
Dick Hebdige (1979/ 2005): Subculture. The Meaning of Style. Routledge, London/ New York.
Terry Wilson/ Brian Gysin (2001): Here to go. Brian Gysin. Preface& additional text: William S. Burroughs. Creation Books, New York.
Tom Holert/ Mark Terkessidis (2002): Entsichert. Krieg als Massenkultur im 21. Jahrhundert. Kiepenheuer& Witsch, Köln.
Robert H. King [Ed.](1993): Total. Vol. 2: The Body. Total Press, Glasgow.
Greil Marcus (1992): Lipstick Traces. Von Dada bis Punk: Eine geheime Kulturgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Rowohlt, Reinbek / Hamburg.
Allucquère Rosanne Stone (1995): The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass./ London.
V. Vale/ Andea Juno (1992): Re/Search: The Industrial Culture Handbook. #6/7. Re/Search Publications, San Francisco.

http://www.throbbing-gristle.com/
http://brainwashed.com/cv
http://www.testdept.org.uk/
http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/articles/preindex.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_music
www.wildcat-www.de/wildcat/70/w70industrial.htm

[i] Jacques Attali (1985/ 2002): Noise. The Political Economy of Music. Theory and History of Literature, Vol. 16, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis/ London, 4.
[ii] Felix Denk: Throbbing Gristle. 5/07/04. www.de-bug.de/texte/3322.html
[iii] Georg Seeßlen (1994): Tanz den Adolf Hitler. Faschismus in der populären Kultur. Ed. Tiamat, Critica Diabolis 47, Berlin, 175.
[iv] Stuart Home (²1991): The Assault on Culture. Utopian Currents from Lettrisme to Class War. AK Press, Sterling, 81.
[v] Mark Sinker: Destroy all music. The Futurists: Art of Noises. In: Undercurrents. The Hidden Wiring of Modern Music. Continuum, London, 2003, 186.
[vi] Test Dept. In: Charles Neal (²1992): Tape Delay. SAF, London, 166.
[vii] Brian Duguid: The Unacceptable Face of Freedom. 1995. http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/articles/freedom.html
[viii] John Fiske (1994): Media Matters. Everyday Culture and Political Change. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis/ London, 222.

Gerechtigkeits Liga - Hypnotischer Existentialismus

2006-02-22T22:50:00.000Z

The re-discovery of historic industrial releases continues. The new label Isegrimm Records has re-released rare and long deleted material by the industrial project Gerechtigkeits Liga. Information from

info - at - Isegrimm.org

Music as Mechanisation Papers

2006-02-22T22:40:00.000Z

Papers from the first I.C.R.N. panel given at the 20th Century Music Conference at the University of Sussex in August 2005 are now online at the English section of the SKUG website.

www.skug.at

I.C.R.N. Paper 1: Heinrich Deisl "Your Body Is A Battleground"

2006-01-10T14:45:00.000Z

We present the first in a series of papers by I.C.R.N. members and guests.

»Your Body Is A Battleground«: Lust-Machines, Cyberflesh and Man-Meat in the Film TETSUO

Heinrich Deisl / TEXT. Summer 2004

i) The Crisis of the Postmodern Body
ii) But what’s a Cyborg?
iii) The Man-Machine-Interaction: An Iconography of Waste
iv) Sa, Koi!: Holes, Loops, Transformations and Sex exemplified

Synopsis:
It is not really true that the Japanese film »Tetsuo« doesn’t have a plot. It has, certainly. But this plot is extremely vague and irritating, yet rhizomatic and appealing, it is highly complex and full of references and allusions and allows a broad range of interpretations. Because of its release in 1989, the film stands in the middle of an historical development where we have »Neuromancer« on the one hand and the common use of Internet on the other. — A car-crash changes the life of an ordinary Business Man from Tokyo from ground. He starts to transform himself into a hybrid of man and metal, he changes to a Cyborg. His Alter ego who is a fetishist of metal terrorizes him. As a showdown, they melt together to form one big hybrid to take the world over. »Tetsuo« has become a cult (underground) movie. A shortening saying goes like: The 80s started with »Eraserhead« (1976) by David Lynch and ended with »Tetsuo« in 1989. »Tetsuo« can be seen as the first part in a four-part-series of Tsukamoto’s in-deep occupation with topics like (altered) bodies, violence and destruction. These films are: »Tetsuo II – Metal Hammer« (1992), »Tokyo Fist« (1995) and »Gemini« (1999).

1 The Crisis of the Postmodern Body

Since the Industrial Age, when societies started to build machines as an extension of manpower for more efficiently working processes, the body has become everything. Man has long been fascinated by the idea of automata, or externalised machines taking the form of a human being, and their potential to be an ideal counter-concept that can overcome the numerous limitations we as organic structures have been unable to conquer. Scientists have made big steps in exploring the human body, its functions, its specifics. It seems, no secret can be kept against the very impulse of science and technology to make the body transparent, as it is believed that in doing so we would understand better of what’s going on with us and inside us. The human body has become a high-tech-laboratory, medicine, biology, psychoanalysis and many other disciplines scrutinize bodily functions: The body has become readable, it can be decoded, can be put in a certain framework which clarifies most of the parameters that arrange »us«. The functions of the body can be described by the functions of machines; the body can be divided into 1 and 0, into a double helix, a neuronal and a blood-system etc. It seems that the body is an ensemble of mathematical codes and rules.
It was in 1946 when the great German scientist Robert Wiener coined the term »Cybernetics«. His mathematically driven definitions of a Man-Machine-Interface have become the basis for further research concerning of how we could imagine our living-together with representations of »ourselves«, of machine-based »Alter egos«. Books like Douglas R. Hofstaedter’s »Gödel, Escher, Bach – An Eternal Golden Braid« from 1979 may be as useful as William Gibson’s »Neuromancer« from 1984 to help defining the topic of this conference. Here it was, the term »Cyberspace«. From now on, the »nonspaces of the mind« (William Gibson), opposed to a world that was run by tactile impulses, could be named and came into existence.
Finally a term was found which would describe the relation between human beings and their avatars, their machine-mediated replications. Cyberspace, Artificial Intelligence, Cyberculture,… All these are expressions that explore the relation between organic and non-organic entities. As most of the times, the more appealing is the space in-between, the semi species: So hundreds of films and thousands of books were produced in order to find out more about hybrids, about new forms of existence. For science, these crossbreeds are a very thrilling field of research, it is an area, where one can make science out of science fiction. It can mean the fulfilment of all wishes to practically »melt« with technology, it could be an apotheosis of Eros and Techné.
These hybrids have many highly erotic components available as they take the best from both the organic and the non-organic world. Sigmund Freud criticized the zeitgeist of constructivism as a way of to search for a »prosthesis god«. In the same period Vannevar Bush, one of the very first computer scientists, started his descriptions of mechanized tools that later would collide in the ideas of the memex[1], thus providing topologies for to understand computers as a superswitch which would work like a prosthenos – an extension.
In all this technological process, it is important to remember the close connection between high-end information-/ communication-research and the military. Allucquère Rosanne Stone points out how deeply most of the branches root in military research by clarifying in an unique way: »Sooner or later we can trace any funding back to government sources; if we include MIT, which has always been heavily funded by military budgets, there is almost no one working in the field [of virtual systems; H.D.] today whose original research is not or was not funded by military money.«[2]
Let’s change the focus towards cultural and popcultural implications. Since the period of Industrialisation – and even long before since the time of enlightenment – it has become a commonly used practice to insert metal-parts into a functioning body to enrich his/ her capacities in order to become in whatever way more »efficient«. Efficiency has become a keyword in nowadays communication-practice: We all should have undergone military-like training camps if we wanted to run a company, no time to go more into detail as there is so much else to do, as the latest developments could be named: acronyms, emoticons and SMS.
Some of the art forms at the beginning of the last century aimed explicitly at suggestions concerning body-modifications through technology. Think of the Italian Futurist movement and the German and Russian Constructivists, just to name the most relevant ones. The first movie about robots became one of the best known: »Metropolis« by Fritz Lang. This film clearly became a blueprint for the popcultural approach in Cyberculture. At the same time, Mary Shelley’s »Frankenstein«[3] broadened the field of discussion with its poignant story of the introduction of self-questioning of the capacities and limitations of the human body and his/ her technical transformation towards a certain goal. In Japan, these ideas fell on a fruitful ground as here the dichotonomy of the apotheosis of technology on the one hand and a very roots-orientated spirituality on the other configure a set of extremes unknown to westerners.[4]
In terms of film, the time of the Cold War was a very active period in overcoming the trauma of the A-bomb in films like those of »Godzilla«.[5] Whereas the 30s and 40s were the »classical« period for a new wave science fiction (just think of all the innovations related to World War II), the 50s and 60s anticipated a basis of thoughts that allowed popcultural articulations to merge with discourses of technology and vice versa. 1989, the release-date of »Tetsuo«, suggests that the film came out on the edge of complex sociological, historical and technological developments: Cyberspace had already been created and colonized, but there were no widespread home-user computer-applications yet. The whole discourse of cyberspace was at that time in a state of development where many things still could happen, cyberspace had not been »incorporated« yet. From what I could imagine, at that time (1984) cyberspace for most users and consumers (just) meant a white spot in the landscape of illusions, an alternative icon in time and space, similar to strategies of catharsis and other tactics of to get over reality. In popculture, the construction of (non-)reality/-ies and its values a.k.a. socialisation as a strategy for identification cannot be underestimated. Although cybernetics since the 50s have left a philosophical and technical landmark in providing arguments for the organisation of feedback in (non-)organic systems, the gap between theory and praxis in popcultural structures had to be left open until the mid-90s, when multi-tasking computers had spread deeply into the subconsciousness of collective societies.
But »Tetsuo« is connected to cyberspace on a much more rudimentary level. The link towards cyberspace is its »Man-Machine-Interaction«. Even if the topic of the Cyborg is paradigmatic for these kinds of films, »Tetsuo« more refers to classical performance-acting and to postures known from theatrical contexts than it does to comics or its Japanese version, the Mangas or the Animé-Films. The film found its closest feedback in terms of nowadays cinema in »Electric Dragon 80.000V«, a film which was released in 2000 and was directed by Shinya Tsukamoto’s former teacher Sogo Ishii.
Speaking of music, references go in the direction of English Industrial Music, mostly widespread by the beginning of the 80s and the Electronic Body Music, mainly generated in Belgium couple of years later. In these musical movements, the body highly was put into question: the philosophical and political implications partly rendered expressions of atrocious art. With their emphasis on the transformation of the body via alternative settings of communication, Industrial Music can be rooted back to the constructivist and situationist movements and to the Viennese art circle of the Aktionisten. Bands like Clock DVA[6] functioned as a crossing point between the ages: For the album »Man-Amplified« (1992) the cover showed a collage by El Lissitzky and the band sang a.o. about the misuse of information by official institutions in cyberspace. »Man-Amplified« can be seen as a »lost continent« in the treatment of »Tetsuo«. Both articulations have in common that they point out the transformation of man into a semi-organic creature. Might it be that their intensions differ, both absorb big influences from the constructivist movement of how to treat technology and what to do with it for the use and misuse of distorted bodies.

2 But what’s a Cyborg?

The word »Cyborg« (cybernetic organism) devised by Dr. Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline, define a Cyborg as »An exogenously extended organizational complex, functioning as a homeostatic system.« Along with other computer experts Dr. Clynes believes that intelligence need not be confined to the DNA structure. He also believes that life is more a matter of relationships and organizations than of material. Clynes points out an under-standing of the nature of our thoughts in terms of their mathematical, electronic and time-space identities which will permit us to communicate better than we do at the present time, we may find new shapes and discover means of utilizing them to communicate in entirely new ways, ways that cannot presently be imagined.[7]

Cyborgs are cybernetic organisms, hybrids of machine and organism, they are creatures of sociologic realities as well as of those of fiction. Sociologic reality, i.e. actively lived social relations, is our most important political construct, a world-changing fiction. […] we are Cyborgs. Cyborgs are our ontology. They define our politics. The Cyborg is a compressed picture of our imaginative and material reality, both of them are centres connected to each other from where historical changes of transformation emerge. Cyborgs are couplings between organism and machine, each conceived as coded devices, in an intimacy and with a power that was not generated in the history of sexuality[8]

The concept of the Cyborg has become a bit blurred. If we think of a person equipped with a data-glove and simulation-glasses for Virtual Reality, it that already a Cyborg? Is a Cyborg necessarily connected to digital computer logics?
Some bodies look as if they would be in an organic metamorphosis (»The Fly«, »eXistenZ«, »Tetsuo«), some have put their bodies into a metallic exterior because of some handicaps, as seen in »Terminator«, »Blade Runner«, »Robocop« and »Star Wars« (Darth Vader). In between there are mix-forms ranging from the Manga »Akira« to the horror-slasher »Hellraiser«. Bodies into a metallic exterior are perfect incarnations of an effective state-apparatus as they represent the power of a certain system, whether to defend or to destroy other systems. On the contrary, the concept of metamorphosis represents individualistic attitudes and can be seen as seismographic observations of socio-political moods of the audience. In terms of aesthetics, the body in metamorphosis has mostly to undergo a quite violent and gory procedure: Usually infected by a virus, by strange coincidences or by mislead self-tests, the protagonists have to deal with their own mimicry. Neither are they familiar with the process of transformation, nor do they have the antidotes needed to cure or stop this act. Having undergone it, they are in a psychological state of having survived a rite of initiation. The initiation as a final result of the transformation is shown in nearly all Cyborg-films. In »Tetsuo« the two male protagonists become a role model for an altered, yet cyborgian iconoclasm.
It also can be interpreted in terms of a political and individual socialisation: Through this initiation, the Cyborg by definition is put outside of any legal system run by humans and – in a psychological sense – has put an »irrational guilt« upon himself. S/he has become her/his »own boss«, devoted only to personal rules of interaction. They are not bound anymore to canonized systems of values and ethics, they have become their own »Metal Gods«. But being a Cyborg usually also means to have incredible power and strength, to be »exotic« and (through it) erotic. – This could maybe serve as an argument why Cyborgs have gained so much recognition within the field of narratives…
Depending on the point of interpretation, a Cyborg is the incarnation of a positive or negative connotated understanding of nowadays technology as a Cyborg still is a translocated simulacrum of human thoughts, wishes and imaginations. How do these two entities interact?

3 The Man-Machine-Interaction: An Iconography of Waste

Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding.[9]

This quotation from »Neuromancer« illustrates a setting of interactions between »regular« people, transferred in a mathematically reproduced reality. Technology is meant to be a tool to be used, a device that makes life easier. It is a prolonging of some sort of human behaviour to the machine. The Man-Machine-Interaction (MMI) works on rationally driven thoughts, people stay themselves whereas their surrounding becomes highly artificial.
In »Tetsuo« the viewer is confronted with one of the most dense MMI’s ever seen in film-history. For further better understanding, I want to point out that for the complex of the MMI in the context of »Tetsuo« it is important to bear in mind that we have to deal with exterior connotations, with a translocation of the body towards an exterior body which is concrete, analogue and figurative. Not the surrounding but the body itself becomes highly artificial. The organic body becomes metallic and illustrates the mimetic structures of changed states of reality. We not deal with abstract (like in the digital version of the MMI) but with concrete (= analogue) metaphors: The nervous system is substituted with wires, veins become tubes, blood transforms to oil, the whole body consists of all varieties of metal junk.[10] Here, »Tetsuo«[11] signifies a break with the long tradition of the topic: Thinking of more or less highly artificial robots like the »Machine-Maria«, »Robbie«, the three »Terminators«, the »Blade Runner« or even »Robocop«, »Tetsuo« on the contrary generates its MMI via junk, via materials we are surrounded by day by day. »Tetsuo« exemplifies the apotheosis of a new version of human existence not via a rationalized techno-dream (in terms of common understanding) but constitutes an iconography of the superficial via an ensemble of wasted goods.
At this point, Cyberpunk comes in.[12] As the original Punk in the 70s, old and useless materials were used in order to re-contextualize the signs of waste, to re-territorialize the body as a political field and to put a sign against established values. The body-concepts in this film are crude, but/ that’s why they combine all the »negative« affects that machines in their sterile self-understanding should have had wiped out: tactile qualities, pain, death and the visibility of body fluids. A.R. Stone summarizes the lacks: »[…] structures of individual caring, love, and perhaps the most poignant, of desire«.[13] »Tetsuo« in all its compound textures and layers of iconographic, narrative and filmic codes is not interested in an updated »C3-I«-language (Computer Communication Control Intelligence) but quite strictly maintains an MMI which is disconnected from certain paradigms of time and space.
With its bizarre and rhizomatic structure the film is associated with other surrealistic representations. Concerning its MMI the film could take place in the 30s as well as in the 70s or the 00s, because the technological framework of the story and the narrative has been »out-dated« since the very beginning. The grainy B/W-images together with a highly poetic use of lightning enforce the suggestive feeling of a film from the 20s, intensified by a highly dramatized contrast-montage of stroboscope-like flicker effects.[14]
Der Schnitt schafft die rhythmisierte Verknüpfung, die dem Zuschauer die reizlastige Bilderflut ungefiltert ins Gehirn hämmert – zur Verdeutlichung einer “Quintessenz” der Megalopolis Tokio. Tsukamoto kreierte so die denkbar eindringlichste filmische Umsetzung einer zeitgemäßen Industrial-Ästhetik: Fleisch und Metall verschmelzen in einer sexuellen Konnotation letztendlich zu einer biomechanischen Waffe«[15]

Desire is a motion that keeps us going. Without desire, we would be… what? Robots? Machines? Is that the striking difference? Is it enough just to take e.g. a human head and a non-organic body to avoid being reduced to a »stupid machine« from which at the same time it is said is at least as intelligent as humans? In the analogue version of the MMI interactions we know from human behaviour transform into machine-driven ones: Desire – ranging from its most simple to its most complex connotations – becomes in »Tetsuo« an act of violent fetishism and self-mutilation. The film locates the MMI on a level of degeneration, where language has changed to some syllables without meaning. They resemble more to sounds of an animal or a machine than to a human being. »Tetsuo« is an audiovisual feast of the transformation of an »useful« member of nowadays’ society – a Business Man – to an useless metal-monster, merged together with a metal-fetishist, ready to change the world into rust. What an affront. This affront is as big as to keep desires in a completely techno-mediated surrounding…
The term »machine« should not be taken literally. »Machine« means a complex cluster of non-organically mediated spheres of existence, both on an individual and on a collective level. Of course I refer to the theories of the »machine-phylum«, postulated by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari[16] as a main source. But for the purpose of this paper, I have to direct these theories in a certain direction: The machine is understood as an abstract – in the context of »Tetsuo« – yet organic metaphor for a technically generated body.
»Tetsuo« clearly can be identified as a symptom of a crisis in Japanese society. Looking at the past of Japan’s Horror-movies, the invasion of the country and the Atom bomb became paradigmatic topics. But today the 'invadee' is not primarily the geographical Japan, but the mental Japan. Japanese technological progress is galloping like a paranoid mustang and many feel technology is invading their personal life. The subversive elements in »Tetsuo« become apparent if we keep in mind that Business Man as a paraphrase stands for the traditional way whereas Fetishist is the incarnation of the new way. Another path of interpretation is the paradoxical liberation of Business Man from a somehow »robotic« everyday-life into a more »human« condition through a Cyber(-punk) environment. In the end, they melt together but it is clear that Business Man before that has to undergo a change towards the ideals presented by Fetishist to become part of this new, modern type of society. We can estimate that the film is mostly viewed by an audience who is in their 20-somethings. This group is confronted with huge cultural changes, made visible in the conflict between the generations. »This age group, which is seen a being mostly concerned with computer games and loud music, is described by the Japanese media as “shinjinrui” which means “new type of human being”. Although both of the main characters appear to be the same age, it could be suggested that Salaryman (=Business Man; H.D.) is representing the epitome of the former generation, whereas Fetishist is the shinjinrui.«[17] In its typical way of deviant sexual connotations in the very end of the film the hybrid of Business Man and Fetishist repeats the mantra pronounced by every new generation: »Our love will destroy the whole fucking world!« – And, finally, as they have become unbeatable metal monsters, they turn back to the blueprint of Mangas: »We can rust the world into the dust of the universe!«
Partly the subversive moments in »Tetsuo« are due to its old-fashioned style. But the main part is due to the use of everyday-junk to illustrate the transformation from a nobody to a somebody. You don’t need half of the gross national product of a certain country to make this dream of mankind come true but it’s enough to have some wires, tubes, cylinders, screws and chains. Here the complete devotion to metal by the counter-protagonist leads to a fetishist allegory of the metal: This character, simply described as »The Man« and »Fetishist«, is the mythical figure of one who has access to alternative wisdom, to secret knowledge. He is the one who knows about the pleasures and lusts of the transformation for to become a Cyborg. Fetishist is the Alter ego, the »doppelgänger« of the protagonist. It is not clear who’s the good guy and who’s the bad one. We here deal with interdependencies, with two poles that configure each other: This process is fantastically made visible in »Tetsuo«: As a showdown, the two melt into one gigantic hybrid, one big colossus of steel, ready to take the world apart. At the same time, it is the principle of Zen to have the diversities combined together in one entity. The face of Business Man becomes visible in this big ensemble of rotten metal, his transformation is complete. Having undergone the initiation and feeling his new power, Business Man says: »Ah, I feel great!«. In these images the MMI has come to an end as man and machine have become identical. At the same time, this big hybrid indicates a »false path«, an error in evolution, a side-product which has been created by cheap industrial metal waste, by junk, not by high-class research. The hybrid can be seen as the incarnation of a not wanted by-product in a society trained for rationality and efficiency. The hybrid represents the »New world«.

4 Sa, Koi!: Holes, Loops and Sex exemplified

That what has good shapes in the living nature has bad ones in its symbolic representation.
Jacques Lacan: Psychoanalysis& Cybernetics. 1955.

»Sa, Koi!« means »Come on!«. This phrase is quite often used in »Tetsuo«. It makes no sense for the story of the film, it is more a vocal effect, a sub-textual narrative to spur on the tension of the spectator to become part of the transformation process.
The film »Tetsuo« by Shinya Tsukamoto[18] (born in Shibuya, Tokyo in 1960) is an artistic articulation between digital and analogue body-relations in time and space: The act of transformation equals a re-birth through technology with a high portion of creative violence around it. »Tsukamoto sexually fetishizes machinery – pistons, oil, the gleam of chromium, jagged edges, tangled wires – and equates it with wildly repressed desires – it is constantly trying to burst from inside human skin, run rampant and absorb everything into its mass. Indeed what more potent an image can such a regimented society as Japan have produced than that of a white collar worker engaged in a ballet of wills to stop his flesh being taken over by machinery that insists on erupting from within.«[19]
The organically based orgasms become semi-organic, they mutate to ill-directed eruption of raw articulations between each entity. There is no more what so ever »sense« in reproduction, it merely has changed to procreation of a feverish dream of pure lust. This lust is released by the new capacities of the Cyborgs and would not be imaginable in the context of a framework of traditional values. This search for to overcome canonized ethics through the power of the machines instead of alternative gender-concepts is not new: In Italian Futurism there also was a strong occupation towards topics like recreation without the need of a female body but to adopt a steel-constructed body instead. These ideas go back to a quite (proto-)fascistic zeitgeist in terms of the treatment of women and of the (blind) enthusiasm for the capacities of technology. Looking at the actors in »Tetsuo« it becomes apparent that they combine the mechanical way of performing from the European theatre-tradition of Constructivism (Meyerhold, the FEKS et.al.) with the static movements of Chinese ghost films and the traditional Japanese kabuki theatre. Another important direction leads towards the Japanese »New Wave«-cinema/ -theatre in the 60s with protagonists like Shuhji Terayama and Nagisha Oshima. »[…] it is the mise-en-scene and feel of the film that is most important of all. The film is polysemic which is a result of the ambiguity of parts of the narrative, whereas the imaginary and sound in themselves are very bold.«[20]
»Tetsuo« wants the viewer to comprehend the erotic qualities of prosthesis, of non-organic extensions of the body in an environment of Industrial Ecstasy. The soundtrack by Chu Ishikawa aims with its hammer-like, tribal metallic rhythms, contrasted with highly dramatized electronic sound effects and its small melodic loop-repetitions towards a piece that could be called »metal symphony«.
»Tetsuo« is an obsessive film about holes and openings: The orifices of the organic bodies become one with the non-organic ones. They do not substitute each other but one system is exchanged with the other. We find different forms of deviant sexuality: The snake-dance, in which Girlfriend wears a long dildo that has come to life and that penetrates the formerly completely average white collar Business Man from behind; The metal-fetish of Fetishist, when he inserts bare metal parts into his flesh; In his act of transformation, Business Man’s genitals change to a big driller with which he hunts Girlfriend (»Do you want to taste my sewage pipe!?«) and later in an act of auto-destructive love she kills herself by riding the driller[21]; Business Man and Fetishist become one entity because of the help of »homoerotic« metal-junk... The car-crash has linked these two characters so closely together that we can assume that in this non-existing future procreation through coitus will be replaced by semi-organic sexual practices like a car crash.[22] Psychoanalysis knows a big deal about the problematic relation between genders towards the orifices of the body: In case of »Tetsuo« we have a nightmarish version of a phallus that becomes a noisy driller and of a vagina dentata that is made out of pulsating metal and buries two males in her. The significance of sexual images is prolonged to a merely abstract i.e. surrealistic stage, a strategy quite well known in Manga-/ Animé-Films. But here the images do not deliver a cartoon-like liberation but enforces the dark and brutal vision of a time and its sexuality that has lost control over themselves. Even the intercourses of the couple are shown in a gone wild, lust-driven way. Here, »Sa, Koi!« starts to become a metaphysical meaning as it signifies the demand for changes in a sexual and sociologic framework: Come on, overcome your old rules to make place to the new.
»Tetsuo« does not play with a certain sexually connotated iconography: the signs are quite crude, desire is transferred in a wild, more animal-like behaviour for to get pleasure. This desire not necessarily means sexual or destructive pleasure, it is a part of the strong need to get into contact with each other – more or less in any way possible, whereas the way how the protagonists meet is all but »regular«, so maybe another indicator for a social system which has become unbalanced.

Tetsuo – Iron Man. Japan 1989. Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto. B&W, 67 min.

Cast:
Business Man: Tomoroh Taguchi
Business Man’s Girlfriend: Kei Fujiwara
Woman in Glasses: Nobu Kanaoka
The Guy/ Fetishist: Shinya Tsukamoto
Doctor: Naomasa Musaka
A Tramp: Renji Ishibashi

Produced by Kaijyu-Theater
Music: Chu Ishikawa
Distribution: Kaijyu-Theater; ICA Projects, Image Entertainment

Some Awards:
Grand Price at the 9.th Rome International Fantastic Film Festival. 1989
1.st Prize The Sundance Festival 1991
1.st Prize The Avoriaz International Fantastic Film Festival 1992
Grand Price at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival: Audience Award Best Feature 1998

Some selected further sources:

Bergson, Henri: Von der Auswahl der Bilder bei der Vorstellung. 1896. In: Pias, Claus/ Vogl,
Joseph/ Engell, Lorenz/ Fahler, Oliver/ Neitzel, Britta [Hg.](1999): Kursbuch Medienkultur. Die maßgeblichen Theorien von Brecht bis Baudrillard. DVA, Stuttgart.
Bowlt, John E. (1976): Russian Art of the Avantgarde. Theory and criticism. 1902 – 1934. New York.
Butler, Judith (2000): Antigone’s Claim: Kinship between Life& Death. Columbia University Press, New York.
Deleuze, Gilles (1991): Das Bewegungs-Bild. Kino 1. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main
Goldberg, RoseLee (³2001): Performance Art. From Futurism to the Present. Thames& Hudson, London.
Haraway, Donna: Cyborgs at large: An interview with Donna Haraway. In: Penlex, Constance/ Ross, Andrew [Ed.s](1991): Technoculture. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Richie, Donald (2001): 100 Years of Japanese Film. Kodansha International, Tokyo.
Stone, Allucquère Rosanne (1995): The War of Desire and Technology At The Close Of The Mechanical Age. MIT Press, Cambridge/ Mass.
Zizek, Slavoj (1995): The Metastases Of Enjoyment. Six Essays on Women and Causality. Verso, London/ New York.

Records:
Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine. EMI, 1978.
Chu Ishikawa: Tetsuo. Soundtrack. Japan Overseas, 1990.
Franz Pomassl/ Kodwo Eshun: Architectronics. Craft, 1998.

[1] A vast collection of research is provided via: http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/works/vbush/vbush0.shtml. Vers. 31.07.2003. Here the highly influential text »As We May Think« by Vannevar Bush from 1945 can be found, too.
[2] Allucquère Rosanne Stone (1995): The War Of Desire And Technology At The Close Of The Mechanical Age. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA/ London. p. 27. Stone herself at this time was Director of the Interactive Multimedia Laboratory (ACTLab) in Austin.
[3] The topic of Frankenstein has fascinated generations of filmmakers: From of the very first in 1910 by J. Searle Dawley to »Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster« (Robert Gaffney; 1965) to Kenneth Branagh’s »Frankenstein« in 1994. According to the International Movie Database, so far more than 80 films have been made.
[4] A certain amount of spirituality – or at least metaphysics – seems to be a constant through the ages. It looks as if there has to be interdependency between highly developed science and its opposition, at least in culturally advanced societies. What is the alchemist in »Metropolis«, is the figure of the Fetishist in »Tetsuo«. These people have a certain atavistic knowledge unknown to regular people as they already have undergone a process, which for me in this context is an initiation in its most tribal sense. Religion has changed its parameters with technology.
[5] Some good sources are: Charles Edwin Price: Monsters, horror movies and the Atomic bomb. 2002. http://vt.essortment.com/monstershorror_rxze.htm. Vers. 1.8.2003 and Jerome F. Shapiro: A-Bomb Cinema. Routhledge, 2002.
[6] http://www.clockdva.com/man.amplified.html. Coincidence tells that both »Man-Amplified« and the sequel of »Tetsuo«, »Tetsuo II: Body Hammer«, were released in 1992.
[7] Adi Newton: Lines notes of the track »Man-Amplified« from the same-titled album. Conte Disc 182, © 1992 Anterior Research.
[8] Donna Haraway: Ein Manifest für Cyborgs. Feminismus im Streit mit den Technowissenschaften. In: C. Hammer/ I. Steiß [Hg.](1995) Die Neuerfindung der Natur. Primaten, Cyborgs und Frauen.. Frankfurt/ M./ New York. S. 36. Original 1985. (Re-translated into English; H.D.)
[9] William Gibson (1984): Neuromancer. New York, Ace. p. 51.
[10] Some of the transformation-scenes are high-class animation cinema. Apparently some of these images trace back to the Czech master of animation Jan Svankmajer.
[11] »Tetsuo« is not a typical cyber film. Films like »The Lawnmower-Man« (1992), »Brain Slasher« (1990) by Steve Barnett or »Ghost In A Shell« (1996) are more close to a nowadays understanding of these subjects. As it was said before, the film manifests itself between important changes in which Cyberculture and VR become part of everyday culture. The intension to analyse certain aspects of this film was to make a statement about historical, technical and sociologic developments that caused this shift. It also could be argued that »Tetsuo« is more an updated »Industrial«-film. I go for that as well. The film came out in a period when society shifted from the analogue, the »mechanical age« (Allucquère Rosanne Stone) to the digital era. As it is suggested further on, the aesthetics of the film are clearly regressive. »Tetsuo« is in a classical sense a »constructivist« film and not a »Neo-something«… The film contains a certain innocence towards technological developments in favour for interpersonal actions and settings.
[12] See for further research: http://project.cyberpunk.ru/. Vers. 31.7.2003.
[13] Allucquère Rosanne Stone (1995): The War of Desire And Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA/ London. p. 36.
[14] On the contrary, »Tetsuo« was at a peak-level concerning its techniques of cuts and montage. There are some scenes in which Fetishist and Business Man follow and hunt down each other. These sequences are done in a very innovative way of montage that give the impression as if the protagonists would stand still while the landscape is running instead of them… This effect is done with a cunning stop-motion animation, a technique usually used in animation-films. Out of the sequences that could be dated back in the classical period of expressionism/ constructivism there is one where Girlfriend performs a strange snake dance. Here the viewer is confronted with the striking poses of a female dancer who apparently has gone insane and with a very dense foreplay for a violent sexual penetration. This sequence quite remarkably could be the result of the updated nightmare of the dance-scene dreamt by Freder in »Metropolis«.
[15] Marcus Stiglegger: Körper der Crisis. Das Cinema pur von Shinya Tsukamoto. http://www.ikonenmagazin.de/artikel/Tsukamoto.htm. Vers. 30.7.2003
[16] Gilles Deleuze/ Félix Guattari (1974): »Programmatische Bilanz für Wunschmaschinen«. In: Anti-Ödipus. Kapitalismus und Schizophrenie. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/ M. S. 497 – 502.
[17] Christina Monk: Ninja Spice’s Tetsuo Site. p. 2. www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/8509/tsukamoto/tetsuo2.html. Vers. 23.7.2003
[18] A good biography of Shinya Tsukamoto is provided by Mark Shilling (1999): Contemporary Japanese Film and the URL-collection: http://web.tiscali.it/no-redirect-tiscali/japop90/Registi/tsukamoto.html
[19] Richard Scheib (1994): Tetsuo – The Iron Man. http://www.ikonenmagazin.de/artikel/Tsukamoto.htm. Vers. 23.7.2003
[20] Christina Monk: Ninja Spice’s Tetsuo Site. p. 4. www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/8509/tsukamoto/tetsuo2.html. Vers. 23.7.2003
[21] It is important to notice that the women in the film can be seen as a very emancipated. Especially the iconography of Girlfriend and the way she acts reveal many implications that she does not act in a typical ladylike way but that she is a resolute person. She moves in some scenes not only in a highly sensual, but even sexual manner, independent from the male protagonist. She is somewhat turned on yet frightened by her boyfriend’s metamorphosis. At the same time, she kicks Business Man at the wall and wounds him with a knife when he in his Cyborgian aggressive vision wants to rape her. The act of killing herself through a sexual act with her boyfriend indicates her liberation from all established systems in favour for her own system. Compared to her boyfriend she can be described as a rather active individual. Did she kill herself for love’s or for lust’s sake and what are the consequences for a patriarchal system? Woman in Glasses represents like the duo Business Man – Fetishist the dark side of Girlfriend. This stylish Cyberpunk is the perfect incarnation of a (male) wet dream of how a tribal Techno-Chic could look like whereas before she was a perfectly ordinary »no-one« in the big halls of the underground of Tokyo. Through her transformation she becomes a character most closely related to Animé-films.
[22] Here of course we might think of J.G. Ballard and his novel »Crash«. The film was directed by David Cronenberg, the »master of new flesh«. This is how circles of shared interests and visions produce feedback

Heinrich Deisl studied Communication/ Mass Media/ Film/ History in Salzburg and Vienna (A). His thesis (2001) concerned the Man-Machine-Interface and sonic aspects in F. Lang’s »Metropolis« and D. Vertov’s »Entuziazm«. Since 1996 he has worked as a freelance journalist/ researcher in the field of popular culture and writes mostly about music and film.
He is a coordinating editor of »skug – Journal für Musik«

He was research editor of the Austrian music-festivals »phonoTAKTIK’02« and »Prototype. Armaments and armatures against electronic music« (both 2002), and handled press-organisation for the Eastern European music-/artfestival »Serious Pop« (2004). 2004: He received a grant from the Austrian Department of Culture of Vienna for a scientific case-study about Austrian music-clubs since 1955. He also handles press and promotion for the Viennese club »fluc_mensa« 2004/ 05. In 2005 he was responsible for the artistic direction/press and organisation of the symposium »Culture Beyond Political Borders« for the festival »SoundBridges«. He is a co-founder of the »ICRN – Industrialized Culture Research Network» (together with Alexei Monroe an Peter Webb). Other activities include event organisation and lecturing, he is also a part-time musician and DJ and is the founder of the Vienna-based independent media-platform [TextDept].

Email: deisl@textdept.net

[TextDept]: www.textdept.net

skug – Journal für Musik: www.skug.at
»SoundBridges«: www.fluc.at/march05/1-16_soundbridges_web.pdf

deisl@textdept.net.

I.C.R.N. Review 1: KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK

2005-11-29T13:25:00.000Z

KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK. 22.SZ (Mechanoise Labs)

In the early eighties Laibach referred to a ‘magical dimension of the industrial process’, to something uncanny and excessive that emerges from industrial (dys)function (see http://www.ljudmila.org/embassy/3a/10.htm). Laibach operated in a context that was still nominally functional, although its mythical treatment of socialist heavy industry hinted at how it was already becoming archaic (see Monroe, A. Laibach and NSK: “Industrial Diagnoses of Post-Socialism”, M’ARS Ljubljana VIII/3-4, 1996.) The current generation of Russian and post-Soviet noise and industrial artists also operate in an ex-socialist context, but one that has failed on a far more catastrophic scale than in Yugoslavia. Western industrial groups prophesied the sudden and violent collapse of industrial civilisation, but their post-Soviet successors live in and respond to such a scenario. Abandoned bunkers and military facilities, decaying factories that were recently state of the art, depopulated arctic cities and gulags – even those living relatively sheltered lives in the post-modernising cities are surrounded by and aware (consciously or otherwise) of this Promethean debris. For such artists, meltdown and apocalyptic collapse are not aesthetic ideals but an element of everyday reality.

This project, released on the French label Mechanoise Labs evokes both the uncanny aspects of industry and the trauma of its operation in an increasingly dysfunctional context. It is sometimes almost overloaded by ghostly radio frequencies that seem to haunt themselves and by grinding oppressive processes. What these might be we can only guess, but it hovers in the imagination somewhere between a grimy noisy nightshift in a provincial factory and some dangerous Tesla style techno-occultist experiment. The heavy bass pulsing of a chronically unstable power supply gives the work its momentum. Over this dense layers of noise and texture emerge. Sonic sparks fly off unnameable ominous processes. Even the more ‘ambient’ (in the stricter sense) tracks such as Radiokatzenjammer tend to give way to the layers of writhing unworldly textures constantly lurking in the depths of the sound-mass. Machinic rhythms sometimes emerge from the fog and Ohne Augen is slightly reminiscent of Techno Animal’s massively overloaded beats. The corroded metal textures and abrasive velocities of Verborgenen Spuren suggest the operation of some demonic particle accelerator built from contaminated obsolete components. Despite the predominantly dark atmosphere, more ethereal tones sometimes emerge from the din, and sublime hints emerge from the machinic carnage. Krampf in particular seems to possess an epic/cinematic quality. Organ type tones swim through a deep pulse wave, and a symphonic/elegiac atmosphere struggles with a constantly grow(l)ing seething sub-layer agitated by deeper approaching and departing pulses. On the closing Goworit Moskwa! the post-Soviet theme surfaces explicitly as a slightly kitschy but melancholic version of the old Soviet anthem battles with feedback textures. All this suggests a stance somewhere between Soviet nostalgia and absolute horror at the consequences of Soviet industrialisation (but also at post-Soviet de-industrialisation). The traumas and the aesthetic opportunities arising from these colossal traumas are inseparable but if it is possible to salvage some meaning from what Laibach once called ‘a mad tale of woe’, there is perhaps room for some perverse optimism. While it does recover valuable elements, 22.SZ is too ambivalent and abrasive to win over the listener completely. The number of layers deployed and the tensions between them give it a productive ambivalence that maintains distance, preventing full identification while still generating fascination.

Alexei Monroe.

http://kr.radionoise.ru

Industrialised Culture Research...

2005-08-24T23:10:00.000+01:00

The I.C.R.N. will act as a network for those engaged in the analysis and discussion of industrialised culture. This is centred on the various forms of industrial and post-industrial music, plus related cultural forms. We encourage anyone working in these fields to collaborate in what should become an ongoing collective project that asserts the continued relevance of "the industrial" as a continued presence in contemporary culture and politics.

I.C.R.N. Test Transmission 1

2005-08-22T23:10:00.000+01:00

“Post-industrial” is one of the most widely (ab)used paradigms of the present era. We are constantly told we live in a utopian post-industrial age of knowledge or information economies. As physical production becomes globalised and outsourced, the physical “dirty work” that sustains our (un)reality is largely done elsewhere. In Britain, as elsewhere in the “First World”, physical heavy industries are now near-extinct, yet the roots of our reality, our society and our culture remain industrial. Outside the gated communities of the West, industrial production remains a vivid and oppressive reality. Even within these enclaves, the paradigms and pathologies of the industrial age continue to exert an often denied influence that is especially clear in the field of culture. Informational commodities such as software, music, art and texts are now systematically mass-produced on a truly industrial scale. Whilst these new industries are ostensibly cleaner, friendlier, and infinitely less oppressive than their physical predecessors, they still contain the negative potentials of mass industrial production – pollution, regimentation, de-humanisation and waste. “The industrial” as a category remains relevant not purely as a metaphor for mass cultural production processes, but also as a simultaneously repressed and repressive cultural undercurrent (which also contains destabilising and liberating potentials). It is the denied and repressed and other that so many (“progressive” as well as reactionary) vested political and cultural interests are in flight from. These factors make urgent the bringing together of all those concerned with analysing and establishing the significance of the industrial as a continual cultural-political presence. Centred on research into industrial and post-industrial music and related cultures, from their origins to the present, the Industrialised Culture Research Network will trace industrial-cultural processes across media and within cultures.