Danish supremacy!

[GEWALTMONOPOL]

Is there actually a scene in Denmark now? By that I mean one where there's interaction between projects and labels. Are there gigs and venues where live events happen? Do any of the mentioned projects have local or national following or is it all happening in isolation?

[brutalist_tapes]

Is there actually a scene in Denmark now? By that I mean one where there's interaction between projects and labels. Are there gigs and venues where live events happen? Do any of the mentioned projects have local or national following or is it all happening in isolation?

it is pretty much me and my good friend, at least here in the copenhagen area, who is running sektion 1. then there is a crowd of people that are sympathetic to what we do and let us do shows, but they mostly do some kind of black metal, punk or industrial techno-thing, themselves. after moral defeat practically stopped we are the only ones doing strictly PE/noise. sektion 1 has done two shows so far - mk9/rusalka + support and blackwatch/sarin snow/the wilderness by support. i would like to set up shows at some point, but haven't done it so far - but as i said, i work closely w/sektion 1 in some  cases, although it is separate entities. to lysergikon: i am also having trouble finding it, will notice him of it. 

[FreakAnimalFinland]

First message of topic was posted 6 years ago. Things appear to have changed since then quite drastically. I think there are gigs happening in Mayhem. Just like the mentioned Blackwatch, Sarin Snow, etc gig.

After Posh Isolation changed to be mostly dance music or software electronics, I have not been following releases at all.  Like expressed in the message 6 years ago, there was question whether label could have stayed interesting making same kind of releases, year after year. Who knows, but certainly that style remained interesting for more than hundred releases. Sound nor aesthetics what they have now, doesn't resonate with my taste.

Puce Mary album finally came out not so long ago, and I tend to think it is still good stuff.

Hard to say should it be labeled Danish or Swedish supremacy, but that Cortex A9: Basic Housekeeping - Order. LP is probably the best thing I have heard in 2019! It is Dan of Sewer Electrion, Puce Mary and 3rd guy I am not very familiar with. The noisiest, the most ripping, yet "musically constructed" industrial noise. Musically constructed meaning that every track has clear idea, excellent most painful and decaying sound giving it form. Vocals. Rhythms. I would give reference of mixing old Whitehouse and early days SJ with sonic qualities of "tape noise", yet coming up with songs as opposed to sheer noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1W24fjrGoQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXynIgc0J4g

There are several tracks on album, some with more rhythmic noises. Each song different, but one should get the point. LP sound more dirtier and ripping.

[NaturalOrthodoxy]

Hard to say should it be labeled Danish or Swedish supremacy, but that Cortex A9: Basic Housekeeping - Order. LP is probably the best thing I have heard in 2019! It is Dan of Sewer Electrion, Puce Mary and 3rd guy I am not very familiar with. The noisiest, the most ripping, yet "musically constructed" industrial noise. Musically constructed meaning that every track has clear idea, excellent most painful and decaying sound giving it form. Vocals. Rhythms. I would give reference of mixing old Whitehouse and early days SJ with sonic qualities of "tape noise", yet coming up with songs as opposed to sheer noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1W24fjrGoQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXynIgc0J4g

There are several tracks on album, some with more rhythmic noises. Each song different, but one should get the point. LP sound more dirtier and ripping.

this REALLY hits the spot.

[theworldisawarfilm]

Hard to say should it be labeled Danish or Swedish supremacy, but that Cortex A9: Basic Housekeeping - Order. LP is probably the best thing I have heard in 2019! It is Dan of Sewer Electrion, Puce Mary and 3rd guy I am not very familiar with. The noisiest, the most ripping, yet "musically constructed" industrial noise. Musically constructed meaning that every track has clear idea, excellent most painful and decaying sound giving it form. Vocals. Rhythms. I would give reference of mixing old Whitehouse and early days SJ with sonic qualities of "tape noise", yet coming up with songs as opposed to sheer noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1W24fjrGoQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXynIgc0J4g

There are several tracks on album, some with more rhythmic noises. Each song different, but one should get the point. LP sound more dirtier and ripping.

this REALLY hits the spot.

Wow! Yes!

[Sektion1]

On the topic of Danish industrial... I have been really into the output of Martin Schacke lately

Yeah same, hope he will continue with Moral Defeat and his more noise related projects (especially liking Haraam) and not focus on his Schacke output only.

I think I remember reading somewhere (perhaps the Moral Defeat Facebook page) that he was essentially finished with that. The Schacke stuff is a somewhat guilty pleasure so I'd be bummed if that's where his main focus ends up. Thankfully he does seem to still be releasing material as Prostitutes of the 19th Century, the last release on on Modern Decadence is incredible.

https://moderndecadence.bandcamp.com/album/crepuscular-nature-in-an-era-of-arrogance

In the vein of Haraam, the two tribal techno tapes Moral Defeat put out by Sortlegeme are in a league of their own. Unfortunately that project went into industrial drone territory that is not the same quality as the techno releases, but very worth checking out. Referred to as Danish but i don't think Schacke is behind that one.

Sortlegeme guy is not Schacke, you are right. This guy is also involved in Clinical Traits - industrial ambient/concrete music stuff. Cheers for the nice words about Brutalist! Edit: BTW, Body Stress is playing in Copenhagen in two weeks, don't know if that means project will be more active from now on? I must admit I doubt it, as far as I know he is pretty much 100 % commited to techno now..

Huh, thanks for the insight. I was gonna say, based on the Kisloty Forever EP I had a feeling Schacke was committing to club culture for the time being. Regardless, I enjoyed the rest while it lasted. Do you have any links to the Clinical Traits stuff? Having a hard time finding anything on Bandcamp etc.

Not on bandcamp. But here is a soundcloud link https://soundcloud.com/sektion1recordings

[deutscheasphalt]

Huh, thanks for the insight. I was gonna say, based on the Kisloty Forever EP I had a feeling Schacke was committing to club culture for the time being. Regardless, I enjoyed the rest while it lasted.

Still hard to believe for me this is Schacke...

[brutalist_tapes]

this needs to be said, so i'm just going to say it... noise/PE was a phase, it seems, for many in the copenhagen/denmark scene. and people openly mock it now, deny their past in the genre etc. - truly sad! but each to their own i guess

[GEWALTMONOPOL]

Some of us saw that from the start and distanced ourselves early. It's not that all of the music was terrible or that I disliked any of them personally but scratching the surface a bit revealed a lack of depth and dedication in most of the players from that time.

But who cares? They're trendy and successful pop stars now and I'm sure they're happy how the career plan came together. Industrial has never relied on their kind anyway.

[deutscheasphalt]

and people openly mock it now, deny their past in the genre etc.

"openly" as in privately-openly? Or in interviews? Would like to read if you have a source.
I think most people here would agree with you since this is a noise forum, but yeah to each their own. Couldn't care less about some techno clowns talking shit about noise. The desire to ego-boost whatever one is doing at a point in time (also by talking down other activities that "run contrary") is strong. Not gonna get into it in detail but what shocked me is not that he's doing dance music now but that he apparently planned this to work out for a long time and now it seems like it kinda blew up. Seems easy doesn't it.

[brutalist_tapes]

as gewaltmonopol said... i kind of sensed it early too, but i was very young when this scene started and was kind of naive, i guess.. but around 2012-13 i sensed something was seriously wrong when they started playing with the same indie rock bands our mutual hate was founded upon on.. overall an extremely depressing experience for me. but i guess i learned things the hard way.
and to deutsche asphalt: definitely privately-openly, but after they started going all-in on "PE is nazi-glorification" etc... and i just got sickened and quit it all... but we're still a few hardcore people left in copenhagen... this shit city is beyond redemption though, unfortunately

[Duncan]

It never looked like anything other than a phase at the time.  You could see the same process reflected in the various punk, black metal and whatever else bands all these guys burned through just prior or concurrently to whatever late-prurient/Hospital clone job they were peddling (and that people were lapping up).  The Family Underground interview in Fördamning when the whole scene appeared to be blowing up had some pretty measured and accurate takes on it all from people not in the focus of the popularity and who'd been around making music a lot longer.

None of that is to suggest I didn't find parts of it enjoyable in passing though, and the handful of people I met from that crowd ranged from nice enough to very nice indeed.  As with anything like this I don't think one should overly criticise young people for having thrown themselves into things with that kind of ridiculous gusto then moving on.  There's every possibility that their modern day rejection of that music is based in some private embarrassment about who they were and how they presented themselves at the time.

[brutalist_tapes]

It never looked like anything other than a phase at the time.  You could see the same process reflected in the various punk, black metal and whatever else bands all these guys burned through just prior or concurrently to whatever late-prurient/Hospital clone job they were peddling (and that people were lapping up).  The Family Underground interview in Fördamning when the whole scene appeared to be blowing up had some pretty measured and accurate takes on it all from people not in the focus of the popularity and who'd been around making music a lot longer.

None of that is to suggest I didn't find parts of it enjoyable in passing though, and the handful of people I met from that crowd ranged from nice enough to very nice indeed.  As with anything like this I don't think one should overly criticise young people for having thrown themselves into things with that kind of ridiculous gusto then moving on.  There's every possibility that their modern day rejection of that music is based in some private embarrassment about who they were and how they presented themselves at the time.

very good take.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

It never looked like anything other than a phase at the time.

I think vast majority of bands, labels and activity appears to be that way. Of course one can see who are the guys who are in-it-for-live, perhaps the no progression, no compromises -type of approach. Yet, you can always listen plenty of great recordings that emerged not only due individual, but due zeitgeist or consequences. Lets say that vast amount of 80's postmortem / power electronics etc. That blossomed when the scene was at its peak, and then simply disappeared or moved on.

Same seems to be with many noise things. Obscure 90's or 2000's harsh noise that emerged seemingly same time, and then most people didn't continue churning more noise for rest of their lives. The ones they did, may be well worthy of appreciation regardless what "artists" become later on.

As example, I would still highly appreciate Uncommunity, despite Tim Gane would be vastly more popular with Stereolab and seemingly leave behind the noise dirt for long time. When one looks at it, it's raw UK pe / industrial band former in 83 and being active mere 2 years, entering the already established styles & aesthetics, and quitting as soon as everybody else stopped or changed style by 1985...
Nevertheless, it doesn't make those masterpieces any less remarkable, even if they are probably result of era more than individual creativity. Same way I can appreciate best moments of the Danish scene, what at peak, was seemingly endless flow of gigs, projects, new (good) tapes etc. Not all gold, but best works can be revisited still in 2020.

As for the new stuff, I did not hear any releases for 3 years now. Back in 2016/2017, while many items didn't seem interesting, there was still several good experimental releases there too. From that era, which is already far from old style, I would still like to get few releases I never got. It doesn't look like Damien Dubrovnik ‎– Great Many Arrows LP would be expensive or hard to get, but haven't yet bought it...

[brutalist_tapes]

It never looked like anything other than a phase at the time.

I think vast majority of bands, labels and activity appears to be that way. Of course one can see who are the guys who are in-it-for-live, perhaps the no progression, no compromises -type of approach. Yet, you can always listen plenty of great recordings that emerged not only due individual, but due zeitgeist or consequences. Lets say that vast amount of 80's postmortem / power electronics etc. That blossomed when the scene was at its peak, and then simply disappeared or moved on.

Same seems to be with many noise things. Obscure 90's or 2000's harsh noise that emerged seemingly same time, and then most people didn't continue churning more noise for rest of their lives. The ones they did, may be well worthy of appreciation regardless what "artists" become later on.

As example, I would still highly appreciate Uncommunity, despite Tim Gane would be vastly more popular with Stereolab and seemingly leave behind the noise dirt for long time. When one looks at it, it's raw UK pe / industrial band former in 83 and being active mere 2 years, entering the already established styles & aesthetics, and quitting as soon as everybody else stopped or changed style by 1985...
Nevertheless, it doesn't make those masterpieces any less remarkable, even if they are probably result of era more than individual creativity. Same way I can appreciate best moments of the Danish scene, what at peak, was seemingly endless flow of gigs, projects, new (good) tapes etc. Not all gold, but best works can be revisited still in 2020.

As for the new stuff, I did not hear any releases for 3 years now. Back in 2016/2017, while many items didn't seem interesting, there was still several good experimental releases there too. From that era, which is already far from old style, I would still like to get few releases I never got. It doesn't look like Damien Dubrovnik ‎– Great Many Arrows LP would be expensive or hard to get, but haven't yet bought it...

huh! interesting... never knew of the connection between noise/industrial music and stereolab. actually i must admit that i think stereolab is a really solid band... not my style normally, but good art rock, 90s style.... although i lost interest by the "dots and loops..." album. and yeah, you are right, merit of releases should not be judged by what people did later, after all, as you said, many legendary releases were made by people who later abandonded the "scene". after all, at least for me, music should be about making art, not sticking to one style, so i guess i am just a little bit sad that style shifted to sound i am not personally interested in... but at the same time, you could say the same about big parts of legendary 80s english PE/noise/industrial scene. i personally think that damien dubrovniks strongest moment is still "europa dagbog", though