RAMLEH

[HongKongGoolagong]

I would be surprised if there weren't analogue sound sources used on 'Guidelines' but could be wrong, it's so hard to tell. I agree there are similarities with the Novatron sound. Incidentally Anthony has a blog at http://anthonydifranco.blogspot.com/

As far as 'nostalgia' goes: it's just my opinion, but I think Power Electronics as a living genre died back in the 80s. Everything now is rehash for obsessive hobbyists: like recreations of Delta Blues, it's all nostalgia. Way back when The Grey Wolves came out with Punishment around twenty years ago the cliche and cheese levels were already ridiculously high. Not to diss that record, it sounds great, but it was a many times copied xerox that degraded the original image. I have a love for the style, why else would I be here, but wouldn't try to kid myself that it exists as anything other than a quaint and harmless museum piece.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

It could be said almost about anything associated with any human creation. What is the living genre and what is the noise museum.

Some people look for freshness of avantgarde - the vanguard forces who got some idea first and did something nobody (supposedly) did before. Yet it rarely stops there. Consumer simply get bored and jaded when he is not entertained enough. Ideas and substance itself is not enough, but there needs to be always something "new". And often the new is not enough - if someone doesn't come up with new terms and manifestos.

While I fully agree and admit some of the problems of consumption of "average genre products" - be it punk, metal, power electronics, art in general or whatever....  I don't think such problems are non-existent among those who obsessively look for "new". Their consumption and hobby may not be "power electronics", but constant seek of "new" or "revolutionary" approaches may blind from what lies behind material. Their answer to presented material is gut reaction to surface, not being really interested what the piece ACTUALLY is or what lies behind material.

I would believe, power electronics is no more what it used to be. But there are still so many people who has pushed the sound and substance beyond what was done or what was possible to do in... lets say 1985. It's up to debate can many of these be called "power electronics", yet it's like (yet again) punk or metal - where the new approaches of genres have very little if anything to do with the original form. Some people approach the music as shallow replicas of the past, some manage to add either new sound or substance and some go further, where there is very little, if any real similarities to Whitehouse, Ramleh or such.

I see in all sorts of music, they get re-labeled based on some vague "new thing". You know, just about every year you get some new genre of grime, dubstep, crabcore, or whatever... Single new idea and it gets new genre name. Luckily within PE, there has been possible to re-invent it little by little without need to always call it something else. This nevertheless results that a lot of people wouldn't give flying fuck about what interesting things have happened since "genre died".

Of course, it's not really problem of mine, since I'm happy to admit a lot of things I like to listen to, are not to be labeled among innovative art, but really just the gutter trash that will still inspire few wankers.

[Tommy Carlsson]

Regarding my spiteful little comment about nostalgia, I am not talking about "power electronics" or any other kind of genre -- that's an altogether different discussion. I am simply saying that band reunions are hardly ever valid or necessary. They never bring anything new to the table, and they never are as good as they used to be. All that is left is nostalgia, and I see no intrinsic value in that.

My favourite bands are usually the ones who split up hating each other, with members refusing to ever talk to each other afterwards.

[ConcreteMascara]

Music evolution is happening at a faster pace than ever before

[Jarl]

there is Ramleh material on spotify, both old material and later material

[bitewerksMTB]

Maybe it was just the British PE scene that died back in the '80s & now the same guys are trying to live off their past otherwise no one would give a shit. Kind of hard to believe that for so long they had no interest in PE then all of a sudden, they do.

[Bleak Existence]

yeah maybe ... but if they want & can do good PE right now why not ?

[tiny_tove]

personally I think this is the third greatest moment for PE.
many kick ass releases and, more than anything, several project who are developing personal concepts.
of course there are tenths of useless projects, but my idea on this is to just avoid them and focus on the good stuff.

there are copies, there are uninspired projects, but there are many that stand out and are not ripping of neither the first wave nor the second 80s/90s stuff.

personally I still enjoy several brit combos (con-dom, grey wolves, content nullity, shift, ironfistofthesun, etc.) and I think it is a matter of taste.
to me Punishment was a classic record in sound and visuals... although earlier stuff suits more my tastes.

I think it always depends on what you look for in a genre/environment.

I have been listening to the genre for over 2 decades and I still get hard ons for several newcomers, so I will keep on being focused on that until there will be no longer erections, something that happened with other scenes I have been into.

[P-K]

ah, the beauty of 'different tastes'  lol

[HongKongGoolagong]

I am simply saying that band reunions are hardly ever valid or necessary.

With Ramleh it wasn't really a reunion. They were having a hard time finishing an album towards the end of the 90s (and the lack of interest in their amazing work of that era must have been demoralising) so took a break for a few years as everyone had other projects anyway.

The live rock version with drums of the final track on Valediction is I think superior, although I've listened to those PE style discs a lot and Guidelines is sounding better every play. I think I have listened to Be Careful What You Wish For well over 100 times and hear something new every time.

Everything about Ramleh is psychedelic in the extreme to my mind. I'm sure there is an alternative universe where they are as big as the Beatles, and their unfinished Twins album, like the Beach Boys' Smile, will one day appear. Evidence of alternate universe: hordes of teenage girls reposting Ramleh artwork on their tumblrs. WTF?  http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/you+people+are+poison

[Bleak Existence]

anyway i don't like most PE now but still like 80's 90's europe & america PE fuck yeah!  

[GEWALTMONOPOL]

Maybe it was just the British PE scene that died back in the '80s & now the same guys are trying to live off their past otherwise no one would give a shit. Kind of hard to believe that for so long they had no interest in PE then all of a sudden, they do.

There is a typically British and not a little bit snooty attitude that PE starts and ends in Britain. It's the same with football. Brits still imagine, or want to imagine, that they are a world class football nation even when they haven't won shit in almost 50 years. They just can't accept when others take on their inventions and do it better than them. Someone described it to me years ago as Post Colonoial Stress Disorder. A very accurate description IMO. It's quaint. Sometimes cute, sometimes sad and almost always counterproductive.

[ironfistofthesun]

ha...im staying well out of this one!

[HongKongGoolagong]

There is a typically British and not a little bit snooty attitude that PE starts and ends in Britain. It's the same with football. Brits still imagine, or want to imagine, that they are a world class football nation even when they haven't won shit in almost 50 years. They just can't accept when others take on their inventions and do it better than them. Someone described it to me years ago as Post Colonoial Stress Disorder. A very accurate description IMO. It's quaint. Sometimes cute, sometimes sad and almost always counterproductive.

I was the author of 'Bang Out Of Order' well over ten years ago, although I didn't have anything to do with the online bootleg and thought it worked better as an anonymous pamphlet with reprints of rare early 80s material. I remember writing a ridiculously provocative line in the hastily-written afterword there about Britain being ahead of Europe culturally: it was meant to be a joke, a kind of parody of PE extremism. I also wrote over-the-top abuse of Stereolab, Breathless, Taint and Deathpile, none of which was supposed to be taken seriously.

Don't know many people who think the UK is great nowadays. It's a fucking shithole, and I prefer being just about anywhere else in Europe even if this is my home country. OK, maybe not Belgium.

[P-K]

OK, maybe not Belgium.

interesting !