I'll combine Thursday Unrest event with this, even if it isn't related to fest - but as attender, I experienced 4 days.
Unrest event Thursday 3rd.
Venue was pretty good. Hall capacity of probably 100+ people, small - but real stage making possible to see performances. Video projection, decent PA system. There was pretty good crowd. 80+ I believe? Making it appear popular, yet not claustrophobically packed.
S.T.A.B. Electronics started and suffered from technical problems. Vocals often not audible and while video and sound itself kept audience fairly entertained (assuming harsh gay fisting and such are your cup of tea!?), the visible confusion and endless attempts to get tech work, was reducing the impact of set.
Luckily all this was gone when Hal Hutchinson took the stage. Flawless, intense, rich textured metal junk noise. With ear-plugs on, it appeared kind of old days TNB'ish wreckage wall, but with ear-plugs off, you could witness extreme high pitch fierce distortion layer piercing through your head in finest tradition of old Incapacitants live assaults.
SHIFT has been increasing their live presence with additional members and the industrial tech. 3 masked hoodie thugs with extensive smoke and strobe light inferno created very good dark atmosphere, which would walk hand in hand with brutalizing bass loaded industrial sound. Rhythms, occasional metal junk noises, aggressive vocals, deep synth pulses.. Good stuff, and most certainly sets Shift closer to bands like Sunn o))), Genocide Organ or such, than the "grunge noise" of jeans and t-shirts jumping around.
Iron Fist Of The Sun had teamed up with the man behind Cities Prepare For Attack. This was possibly the best IFOTS show? Additional guitar drone/noise provided good "humane" element to cold and piercing electronic signals and rhythmic pulses.
All bands stood apart very different from eachother, and being the currently active forces - with recent impressive LP/CD releases on their discographies, it was good to see they pulled near flawless sets one after another.
Friday -4th, Broken Flag event
SEWER ELECTION / TRERIKSRÖSET had the pleasure to start the set. Swedish noisemongers had set up two tables on the floor, in front of main stage. It took merely few minutes to SE to trash his equipment to state of abrupt end of sound. Treriksröset continued alone. Sound together was great. With SE dropping out, volume dropped to... hmm.. half? And therefore it took few moments to catch up. Just as the sound was reaching the blissful noise, Carlsson jumps on the table and ends the set. Treriksröset was highly distorted and grainy harshness, while SE element was more active and wild movements. They complimented eachother perfectly and therefore would have been nice to see noise continue as duo little bit longer.
LE SYNDICAT has drifted from their old days so far to the broken beats and DJ cd turntable scratching that I have hard time associate them with the phenomenal early tape material. Without doubts, the amount of details and textures was huge, yet for my own tastes, the digital scratching and extensive beats was not what I want to hear. I heard few fellow Finns like it, though.
CON-DOM is Con-Dom! Perhaps one of the only bands, who could actually authentically pull out set, which is not only total Broken Flag era, but not a nostalgia trip, but accurate view to Con-Dom's approach still today. Get Right With God! Jesus Penis! How can you go wrong? For those who expect massive blast of heaviness or such, it should be understood it's hardly possible when the approach is the loop tapes, walkmen playing hissing old tapes etc. It is the grain, lo-fi crudeness and intent what makes it superior.
SKULLFLOWER. Some people said it was crap. I disagree. I liked this much more than any recent CD's. Massive live sound complimented the material very well. First part with drums and all was dark and good sounding stuff, but even more the long drone piece of feedbacks, violins, voices, etc. Simply sitting down and being buried in flow of sound made in trance inducing experience. It may not offer the violent rush of climatic noise burst, but being able to calm down and focus on the sound is rewarding. More noise of solitary experience than fistbanging moshpit kind of stuff.
RAMLEH power-electronics set.. seen some of them. And this is the best yet. On the negative side, it was way too long and while for example recent "guidelines" mCD gave just perfect 4-5 min track lengths, live set consisted pieces extended over significantly longer periods. With extensive chaos-pad woosh woosh, they were at weakest, with Anthony's mayhemic bass noise storming, at their best. Vocal performance remained introverted or should I say flegmatic? Often clumsily changing from clean vocal mic (loud in mix) to distorted/effected vocal mic (barely audible) over and over and over and over again. Tall man standing behind table, reading lyrics from papers, sometimes looking as if he forgot or ignored there is perhaps 400 people watching this. It was good, but also question remains how good? Remove one crucial element (be it LOUD sound or boost given by legendary status) and feelings could have been entirely different.
Saturday 5th, Broken Flag event
KLEISTWAHR. What was just said about Ramleh above, could be said about Mundy's solo. Man standing behind the table, reading lyrics from papers, doing surprisingly clumsy moves of sound. You could think that recording the set with walkman and listening at home - without doubt - it would be very neat raw PE. But when clarity of massive PA and the stage presence is entirely different situation, it was ok, nothing more nothing less.
LETTERA 22 in other hand was much more than ok. Should it be said: brilliant? These two Italians know their business and they can handle their gear. No confusion, no looking notes and guiding papers, both live sonics and processed tapes. Their technical performance was beyond my understanding. I could not fully understand the method how mixer was connected, yet the tricks performed with volume slides etc created very unique results. On surface level one could file it as mix between field recordings and harsh noise, but Lettera 22 is the band to keep eye on. It's beyond the regular routine harsh noise production lines.
M.T.T. from Italy started well. Some kind of string instrument close to citra or such created neat colossal rhythms and the introduction of sample strings and classical elements didn't ruin it. But closer to end, especially with amusing moment when between tracks DJ hits some background music and artists yells "wtf?!?! I'm still playing!!!!" distracted from the mood.
JFK belongs to the primitive industrial metal meets "noiserock" type of bands. Anthony known from Ethnic Acid, Ax, Ramleh etc was leading one of the loudest pieces on festival. Drum machine playing easy rhythm while basically riff-per-song approach slow bounding heaviness continued for pretty long set. From all the more rock'ish sets, this was one of the most successful. Certainly miles above of shameful clumsiness of upcoming Ramleh rock set..
BLACK SUNROOF! was Cindytalk + Voltiguers? So, in other words, some drag yelling near vocal-poetry vibe non stop sing/talk/yell/chanting while Bower handles the guitar feedback/bow droning and violing player stands motionless screeching minimal drone/screech from her violin. I found this very enjoyable set all in all.
GRUNT
My own set consisted pretty much just new (unreleased/unheard) material, with exception of "Fucked By Steel", but also that being alternative version compared to one heard in "Ritual Of Mortality" live tape. Grunt has played shows with assisting members before, but this was first with Jaakko Vanhala. Hoping to have time to make proper studio versions of some of the tracks what only exists in form of live & "rehearsal" tapes.
ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO. Wasn't sure if I was going to like the techno set during festival, yet this was great. It was long, but I was mesmerized by two guys blasting the militantly aggressive loops/beats with additional industrial noises and occasional vocal performances. Even if sometimes looking like two DJ's (one sometimes with headphones on) in action, there was energy and joy on stage what was absent in many of the weaker bands sets.
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS certainly was not one lacking stage energy. "We are Consumer Electronics and you are bunch of fucking CUNTS!" and so starts the set of fierce electronic sound created by DiFranco, Mundy, Best and some girl. Consumer Electronics is a theatrical show. It's sometimes hard to say if it's really a "noise show", but rather a sleazy and demented theatre of lowest urges. Nipple twisting, lip licking, appreciation of male physique, licking scrapbooks of little girls, energy filled vocal performance of well written obscenities. I heard someone criticize CE isn't really "angry", he just pretends to be so. I wonder was this meant to be "angry"? I have my doubts. To me it seemed more of intensity, sleaziness and abusiveness. Not about someone being angry. Most definitely among the top sets of entire festival!
Sunday, 6th, Broken Flag event
TOMMI KERÄNEN suffered little from brief soundcheck. Like on every day, soundchecks simply delayed. I managed to catch his soundcheck and it was intense as fuck. Unfortunately the gig itself started very well, but remained on that level. It didn't catch the climax of things sparkling restlessly to all directions. I personally think there was nothing really wrong with what he did. It was most definitely among the top noise shows of weekend, but the stage action showing confusion, pulling random cables from chaotic gear table, not being able to get few pieces to work and facial gestures showing more of disappointment than extacy, was perhaps only real flaw of set! Richly textured and brilliantly busy dense harsh noise would satisfy anyone, yet bleak disappointment of performer will instantly effect the experience.
I Tommi didn't have any proper reason to feel show disappointment, VORTEX CAMPAIGN most certainly would have had! What a terrible gig! One guy playing crappy rhythm loops and other noodling shitty guitar sounds. I have seen many bad shows in my life, but this was bad. Thinking of scale and profile of festival, even the veterans should have some sort of proof they can pull shit together at least on tolerable manner.
PUTREFIER set sounded more like he has been doing as Mark Durgan. Synth pulses, oscillations, plib/blob type of "academic" stuff which took a long time to really get up into more busy and textured form. Never loud, but eventually it got proper form. With such "quiet electronics" approach, I feel the sit-though gallery environment would be more suitable. In hall filled with drinking noise fans, it gets buried in people talking and impatiently waiting when show really starts.
SIGILLUM S was one of the things I waited in horror. Their "comeback" albums has been so diverse, there could be almost anything coming. But it was good! Charisma of vocalist was very strong and deep (although digital) synth/drum machine/keyboard tones made this cinematic ritualistic atmosphere. Digital keyboard "modulation" was horrid, but thanks to horns, vocals, video projection etc Sigillum S simply delivered one of the top sets of fest. I'm sure it may have been too "gothic" for some.
GIANCARLO TONIUTTI used room differently than others. PA speakers were not only on stage, but also both corners at back of the room. He was in mixing booth (not on stage), creating full surround mix of sounds. It was highly noisy and rumbling, but also with metal noises and other physical sounds (although played from pre-recorded sources). Best choice was to stand in exact middle of room. Panning and surround sound was unique.
I enjoyed the fact that CLUB MORAL brought their performance art act to fest. Of course that IS the Club Moral, but perhaps people who listen their albums may expect just "band playing". No. It was most of all performance piece with electronic musical elements as little side-note. Judging merely on musical achievements, it was not memorable, but charisma and physical action carried it so much further than flegmatic and distant anti-performances.
RAMLEH rock set was atrocious. I remember loudly explaining the superior qualities of old Ramleh rock 7"s and greatness of Switch Hitter 10" outside before the set. Trying to "defend" the band from doubtful opinions. But when the band played, what a high-school music class jam it was! I could not believe how they (read: drummer) could simply fuck up simplest song structures. Removing the layers of guitars/feedback etc, stripped down to one guitar, bass and drums (+ PB occasionally providing vocals/electronics) it revealed the bare bones of material. It was hard to get excited of band what barely was able to keep some lazy 3 chord "riff" based song together. I watched almost entire set, but had to give up simply of being embarrassed behalf of the group. In front of audience of this size, it was unforgiven failure. If it was bunch of 15 year olds at their school party, situation would be different. Thinking mostly the same crew managed to do JFK, CE and Ramleh PE set decently made it very weird.
Last band was THE NEW BLOCKADERS and I have slightly hard time thinking what exactly to think about it. In some ways, I liked it more than purely playback oriented 2003 show I saw in London. Now 3 guys doing live noise and stage full of weird metal junk. Masks, suits and ties, full set of absurd actions... but was all this weirdness and incoherent chaos intentional? Some of the sounds and moments were brilliant, yet it was so much about seemingly drastic technical errors and unplugged gear/objects, that many times set just stood still. Sound what just was perfect in finest tradition of TNB, suddenly transformed into merely goofing in middle of stage with unplugged metal junk. Elements like guys reading magazines on stage, while equipment played itself, seemed conscious anti-performance. But the search of why gear appears to be mute, or what line goes to what piece of equipment... pfff.... I mean, I may be wrong, but if there is people with equipment, with possibilities of soundcheck, with decades of know-how, how come they don't execute it with intensity and determination? This set was all the time on the edge of being potentially one of the finest noise shows ever seen, but on the other side of that edge is the "ok,... fine". It is unfortunate that it simply didn't get to harness the phenomenal sounds and energy of 3 man line-up into something what matches TNB recordings at their best.
all in all:
I salute the organizers for this massive task. Pete, Gary, Steve, all the others involved. Once in a lifetime kind of thing, and I literally watched everybody from start to finish (With exception of rock Ramleh), not even allowing too much of beer blur the perception.
Venue was good, I didn't mind the delays. Everything got played and most often catched up the schedule.
Ramleh "awake!" box looks killer. Vinyl On Demand CD re-issue of Broken Flag box seemed to be crucial to get material in hands of wider audience. Bunch of other items from various labels. Con-Dom "have complete faith" CD, JFK double LP, Kleistwahr tapes pressed on LP's... ahhh.. !
Also, not to forget to give strong compliments to unrelated thursday Unrest night, which in my own, and several others (whom I talk to) opinion ranked in quality right there with BF saturday night, well above friday or sunday. Showing that we ain't depending on legends and heroes of genre, but there is active new forces bubbling under, which deserve your attention just as much - if not even more - than the ones who gained their status 20-30 years ago.
