Can't find the "live show report" thread so fuck it, I'm writing here.
A great night all in all at Mayhem, once again. Managed to catch a bus from the station so for once I didn't arrive covered in sweat. Beautiful weather too, half the evening spent outside. SKULL DEFEKTS opened for the then very small crowd (more Swedes than Danes at that point). Nordwall and Kirstein behind the machines, drone with a simple rhythm repeating and evolving throughout the whole set, with Thomas Ekelund of TREPANERINGSRITUALEN reading some occult text and screaming his lungs out. Have only seen them as a rock band before, so I didn't know what to expect but this was amazing. Floodlights glaring into the audience that made your eyes hurt after a while. Very minimal, very powerful.
Second set was SEWER ELECTION + PUCE MARY. Again extremely minimal and powerful; a sharp droning tone, some organ sounds, a few muddled tape loops and some thudding synth bass sounds. Minimal in sound and performance, they hardly seemd to touch their equipment. Far from the filthy harsh sounds of SEWER ELECTION recordings, this was soundwise mostly similar to the PUCE MARY/LR collab lp (which is still the best Posh Isolation release). Unfortunately their coming collaboration will not sound like the gig, but I'm expecting a lot from this unholy wedlock anyway.
Centre of the night was the two sisters of ECTOPLASM GIRLS. Had no idea what to expect, except some kind of experience of ghosts. Listening to their album on Ideal right now, a cheap comparison would be AGHAST and LFY. Lo-fi electronic pop music with an otherworldly, eerie atmosphere. The performance was a bit unfocused, but a bit of sloppiness comes with the genre, right? I'm sure hipsters love this band. I think it's great. As if MOËVÖT would hook up with a minimal wave band from the early eighties & jam in a spectral basement.
As more people was congregating, especially to visit the reggae club next door (whose bassy sound system cut through both the SE+PM and Ectoplasm sets), it was due time for ALTAR OF FLIES. He blasted away all competition in Malmö at the Rodger Stella show a few months ago, and damnit if this performance wasn't even better. Not based as much on loops but on noise proper, this humble ginger from Mjölby pulled off some of the nastiest, crunchiest noise I've witnessed live. Impeccable performance, even though he was just sitting down / fetching a beer at the bar / tidying up his work area / standing on the chair. Every movement was completely filled with meaning, somehow. Even if he's just chewing his mustache. No noise karaoke here! Haha. MIND-BLOWING!
Closing the night was TREPANERINGSRITUALEN, who's done well the two other times I've seen him the past 6 months. This was the best set of his so far, even though it didn't top the competition from previous performers (including his own w/ Skull Defekts). Again, all music was pre-recorded, the only "performance" was the vocal one, and hell this guy can be intimidating. TPR is like the ceremonial left hand magick-counterpart of SHIFT's militant domination - very loud, very menacing. "Crushing". The set might've been a song too long, but there is clearly an arch in the performance that needs to be followed through - nothing left to coincidence, everything is thoroughly planned. Which has it's positive and negative sides. At this point the hangover from the night before was making itself known, so I lost my concentration towards the end.
But what a spectacular night for industrial music! No wankery, no frills or bullshit; straight through impeccable sets, great variation and focus simultaneously. The cheap-ass merch table wasn't too bad either, with tapes & singles at 20 dkk (approx 3 euro) and cd+lp at a measly 6-7 euro each. 5-6 different kinds of beer as well, which is great for a venue that's technically a squat.
