Power Electronics is Dead.

[XXX]

dead? no. misunderstood by most? yes.

person who hears for first time a PE track & thinks "noise + screaming = PE"

i think this old post sums it up better than i could say

re: Tough Guy noise - in my circle of friends this wasn't a pejorative 20 years ago and now it is. The difference being that the old "tough guy" stuff was complex, provocative, ambivalent, confusing, vague, conceptual, contradictory, idiosyncratic, etc (Whitehouse, S Jugend, Con Dom, MB, Genocide Organ, et al) while now there is an extremely high amount of just shallow, same-ish, on the nose, jock type "tough guy" PE. It's like a generation of artists that misunderstood their inspirations. No thanks.

[Bigsby]

dead? no. misunderstood by most? yes.

person who hears for first time a PE track & thinks "noise + screaming = PE"

i think this old post sums it up better than i could say

re: Tough Guy noise - in my circle of friends this wasn't a pejorative 20 years ago and now it is. The difference being that the old "tough guy" stuff was complex, provocative, ambivalent, confusing, vague, conceptual, contradictory, idiosyncratic, etc (Whitehouse, S Jugend, Con Dom, MB, Genocide Organ, et al) while now there is an extremely high amount of just shallow, same-ish, on the nose, jock type "tough guy" PE. It's like a generation of artists that misunderstood their inspirations. No thanks.

 you mean ^ "misunderstood by most" contemporary pe artists?

 I agree, well put by wfn

[Theodore]

Fat is the new pussy.

In this age, calling things by their name has became the most insulting, provocative, rebelious, thoughtful action. No need for hidden passions, dark explorations, fetishes, flesh, blood etc. - Just state the obvious. What do you see. How you call it. - For those of some age is how we are, how we learned, how we grew when societies didnt bother about nosense -for whatever reason- . Sounds easy, natural. For todays kids, i dont know. I guess the most bizarre fuck 'shocks' them less than a blatant 'bigot' ? Or i 'underestimate' them ? I see the result of the campaign against bullying here is kids forming 'gangs' and robbing each other more than ever ! Although dangerous, still a glimpse of hope that some react to the forced-fed 'education' .

[Moran]

What would be a reason for thinking the genre is dead?

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I recall back in 2013 it stirred a bit discussion when Wolf Eyes John Olson was saying "noise is over":

Is noise over?

Completely, 100 percent. That's part of why I'm quitting the label. All the categories, everything has run its course. The whole solo culture of it has invented a million people playing by themselves trying to be geniuses. You're getting a million one-way conversations.

Same logic could be used for power electronics, yet, it is barely true.

We could also say tape is dead. If tape used to enable this flourishing form of culture, where people around the world would communicate and exchange interesting sonic (and other) ideas, with affordable, even cheap medium that was accessible to anyone, doable by anyone. Encouraging into DIY, alternative for commercial business. What is tape now? It is certainly not that. For major part of entire noise tape phenomena, it is something totally different now.
However, to declare tape dead would be odd. Meaning has changed, sure, but also there exists still plenty of people who do self financed "artist tapes" and trade with others like that, labels who do not operate solely on contemporary ways of quick turnaround business transaction.

[Spectral_Hiss]

It's pathetic to imagine an 80 years old guy scream "FUCK" or "CUNT" really loud over feedback

To be honest I'd be more disturbed by a 80 years old screaming insanities on P.E than by the youngster. Maybe because the old man is NOT supposed doing it ?

[Moran]

On old people, power electronics has relatively few works about aging and other thoroughly unglamorous themes compared to themes where some would engage in vanity like mass murder, fetishes, etc. Con-Dom's last album concerns aging and death explicitly; its sounds, samples and images are the most miserable and dreadful I've experienced in the genre. Wide-scale promotion of previously taboo sexual acts and political beliefs made many of the original themes of power electronics culturally acceptable to relevant demographics, but there still are subjects that can't be adequately sanitized or glamorized, and subjects one really isn't supposed to be immersed in, which could inspire new, good power electronics for now.

[Spectral_Hiss]

The infamous "Lemon Party" video would be less shocking with young actors. That could be an idea of artistic renewal for retirement-close PE musicians.

[Penon]

It's pathetic to imagine an 80 years old guy scream "FUCK" or "CUNT" really loud over feedback

To be honest I'd be more disturbed by a 80 years old screaming insanities on P.E than by the youngster. Maybe because the old man is NOT supposed doing it ?

I always felt the opposite. I know it is quite common of especially rock / pop punk musicians to admit that as they get older, more comfortable and, invariably, wealthier, the rebellious spirit disappears along the way (pretty sure The Offspring pissed off a lot of fans by saying that at some point). But I think a lot of PE is less about teenage angst and more about more calculated (?) anger towards the state of the world, peculiarities of modern culture etc. That message certainly comes across as much more credible when delivered by older generation. To put it simply, to be angry at the world, you need to first understand how the world works and what exactly is wrong with it and why. It takes years and decades to acquire that knowledge or even, dare I say, wisdom. So angry screams from a grandpa make sense - angry screams from a clueless youngster much less so.

[Spectral_Hiss]

That makes sense too, I admit.

(but I was talking about pure silly insanities & obscenities, so, we aren't really contradicting)

[Andrew McIntosh]

Personally, I see PE as a younger man's game, but only because I'm a lot less pissed off and a lot more resigned these days. Maintaining the rage takes effort for some of us. For others, perhaps, it's more natural.

I wonder if it's possible for PE to be expressed in ways other than just someone shouting? One of my biggest issues with the genre these days is the vocals. Too much the same, for mine. But then, isn't that one of PE's attractions, that there's someone yelling frantically on top of it? Taking it away could take away a lot of PE's power. It's a bit of an open question, for mine.

[moozz]

I wonder if it's possible for PE to be expressed in ways other than just someone shouting? One of my biggest issues with the genre these days is the vocals. Too much the same, for mine. But then, isn't that one of PE's attractions, that there's someone yelling frantically on top of it? Taking it away could take away a lot of PE's power. It's a bit of an open question, for mine.

Slogun is powerful and often more just talking than shouting. Nicole 12 is also powerful without shouted vocals. But it is not very typical power electronics. Which is kind of the whole idea of this discussion?

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I wonder if it's possible for PE to be expressed in ways other than just someone shouting? One of my biggest issues with the genre these days is the vocals. Too much the same, for mine. But then, isn't that one of PE's attractions, that there's someone yelling frantically on top of it? Taking it away could take away a lot of PE's power. It's a bit of an open question, for mine.

I tend to think, this is one of the flaws of current day power electronics OR heavy electronics. Idea that it is mostly about shouted vocals, and also, that there are very specific vocal styles or efx that needs to be used. There are other topics about different vocal styles, which could be also combined with different lyrical styles. Perhaps also innovative ways of doing vocal editing. Anything from narrative, to just... bestial noises or sort of vocal controlled electronic effects.

If you put together line of bands ranging from Con-Dom, Grey Wolves, Iugula-Thor, IRM, Sodality, Intrisic Action, Final Solution, Brethren... very few of them really do the "whitehouse" or "sutcliffe jugend" vocals. Everybody has something quite different. And furthermore, it is not even mandatory that every song has vocals or that they would be the same. It appears more like later days development when kind of samey vocal performance of shout-your-lungs out are delivered over synth oscillation. When thinking albums like Operation Cleansweep or something, it is quite rare that there even is vocals.

Paradox may be, that when wanting less vocals, would one then associate it as.... merely "noise", hah..  For me, newers bands like Heydrich (as one example) certainly reeks of old school PE even without vocals.

[Woundfucker]

There's a lot of new PE that I'm not interested in, but I certainly wouldn't call it dead.

In terms of depravity and desperation intersecting with top-tier craft, the  Interracial Sex material on 'Jackaholic' and 'Lacerations' is serious business.

Also, the two Augmented Atrocity releases on Aussaat are pummeling and deliver the fucking goods, even if the visual presentation isn't hideously confrontational. For someone like me who seriously prioritizes the audio over the visual aesthetic, I'm not really that concerned about that classic tradition bleeding into 2024, but I could see the tame album covers failing to lure in a lot of PE maniacs.

As far as a current label that's truly dedicated to presenting PE in the most unsettling way possible, you can't really look away from what OMM has been doing. It's not a style I'm seeking out, but you can believe that I'm checking out each new drop announcement to see what kind of new poison will be drilled into my eyes. Without fail, there's almost always something that fills me with absolute repulsion and it will take a couple weeks for me to shove it out of my skull. Like I said before, not my style and not really something I'm seeking out unless I hear it first and it makes an impact, but this is also  the kind of shit that keeps PE alive.

And obviously, having someone with resources and decades of experience—like Mikko—continuing to fly the flag for reckless, uncompromising PE of past and present is absolutely essential. Jim from Fusty Cunt hasn't been around as long as Mikko and definitely runs a much smaller operation, but I would also put him into this category. It's a dirty job, it can put ones personal life under public scrutiny, and it can probably feel thankless at times, but the spirit of PE dies without people like this. For these reasons, I've gotta tip my cap to these folks.

[Moran]

Is noise over?

Completely, 100 percent. That's part of why I'm quitting the label. All the categories, everything has run its course. The whole solo culture of it has invented a million people playing by themselves trying to be geniuses. You're getting a million one-way conversations.

The bolded part sounds like a healthy culture.