As much as I am all in favor for small & intimate gigs, of all types, in context of our genre, there is nothing quite like international festival. It never takes just few hour slice of your day, but totally interrupts daily life. Often for days. It is often opportunity to catch multiple good bands at once. It is often meeting of dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of people who are unlikely to meet too many times in their lives.
Festivals what happen more than once turn out to be best. Perhaps experience of arranging, but also possibility to build somewhat loyal base of visitors. I don't know could I say out of those I have visited, that any festival was bad per se. Some may have been different. Others may have had less bands I'm excited of, some atrociously bad artists too, but as opposition as utterly excellent ones what balance overall impression to highly positive.
Be it NO FUN FEST, LAFMS Fest (Harbinger), NO TREND (Harbinger), UNITED FORCES OF INDUSTRIAL (Unrest), HEAVY ELECTRONICS (Tesco), NORDIC AUDIO MODERN (Autarkeia), CONSUMER ELECTRONICS (L.White), TOWER TRANSMISSIONS etc... They have proven to be something to be remembered.
In the end, I don't even have preference of how fest will be. Will it be 50 bands chaos with short sets or more focused 4 bands a day doing longer sets kind of stuff.
This year so far visited (excuse re-post):
UNITED FORCES OF INDUSTRIAL II : LONDON 1-2.5.2015
Preparations for the festival were pretty minimal. Whatever reasons keeps one buse, has resulted that Grunt has not had rehearsals for the new sets at all. Clinic Of Torture made video back drop and short equipment test on wednesday and Pain Nail rehearsed the set wednesday evening.
Thursday morning still little work to be done, before heading to airport with rest of finnish delegation. Focusing on finishing leftovers of couple whisky bottles before reaching airport set the tone of upcoming festival, hehe...
Minor nuisances of london public transportation was easy to deal with and arrived to hostel where Concrete Mascara and Kevlar was already present. Kevlar guys took some rest while rest of us headed to town for drinks and food. Good times catching up and drinking. Later in evening hard men of Alfarmania arrived to hostel and drinking continued till late with sharing stories.
My friday started early morning with finishing the beer that was open since previous night sudden sleep. Guys had found me sleep with half bottle in hand. Some kebab for breakfast and picking up drinks from off-license. In traditions of lazy tourist, it was cheap drinks at hostel until it was time to head to venue. It was excellent to be part of festival, where soundman is industrial music maker. Meaning that technical matters of fest was handled by AM NOT. With such guy behind table, proved to be among easiest and best what I've seen in this country. No explanations was needed beyond the basics. Things were quick and there was no fear of playing it loud enough. Video footage was large and set up properly so it covered entire back wall.
ARKHE started festival. Sound was surprisingly low compared to loudness of soundchecks. It was ok. But things like too short backdrop ending before gig (with "dvd menus" appearing on back for a while), drinking on stage, low levels of volume, were things what made sure that set was much less than it could have been. I'm sure it works better when listened from tape. With small adjustments it would become much more intense. Of course he stepped in with very short notice after Taeter cancelled.
Not sure if Vinciguerra spirit was still lurking at the venue, as you'd find turds in toilets, what wouldn't flush down. Just reminding of bowel documents time after another on this fest, haha!
KEVLAR did long soundcheck earlier at the day, and it proved to be correct choice, as set went with firm and tight style. I had never heard their works, but what we had, was solid set of 90's heavy electronics. Think of Ex.Order, Genocide Organ, Operation Cleansweep, Survival Unit and such. Two military thugs on stage, heavy walls of electronic sounds and commanding voice. Throbbing sequences and combat training videos.
AM NOT continued this atmosphere. His sound has very little of "noise". Perhaps even less than Kevlar. It's very precise, very technological. Loud volume and live vocals add much more aggression than in his studio works. Less of talked narrations, more aggressive shouting. Just like in his studio works, his live relies much on possibilities of modern technology. Video footage and audio is in sync. Throbbing beats, slogans appearing on screen and such things happen simultaneously. Even some spoken word samples you see and hear at the same time. Kind of reminds me of how Sektion-B has done things. What bugs myself, is the mundane feel of "daily politics". As little as I wanted to see Sektion-B doing songs with George Bush face on videos, equally little I need to see Obama. Just personal preference. Luckily there was much more than contemporary USA politics. I recognized some tracks of the new album. People were satisfied.
PAIN NAIL set consisted songs that are alternative versions of recent album and older 7" material as well as completely new tracks which do not appear in any releases. Things went roughly as planned and it was good PA system to work with. One could control easily live gear without any obstacles of (unwanted) feedback or such. Less than half an hour later, set was done.
ALFARMANIA delivered better set than in Finland. Perhaps Swedish trademark of on stage drinking. Colorful collage video, two vocalist shouting over rugged slowly moving sound layers of industrial waste. To me this worked best when was not watching, just listening without seeing anything. Balances where handled better than on recent gig in Lahti. Due lo-fi nature of their sound, Alfarmania doesn't often compete with sound pressure of more high fidelity bands like Kevlar or Am Not, but provides complexity of textures and slowly shifting organic movements what rarely is achieved with synths.
Good ending for first night, what proceeded into drinking at bars and eventually in hostel. Alfarmania and Pain Nail went to bar late night, myself and mr. Vanhala staying at hostel.
Saturday was good to start with finishing the remains of bottle of 7% cider what was found next to bed, hah. Breakfast with guys of Kevlar provided some details of this previously unknown band. Early start at venue meant that had to go to soundcheck while most of others went to city.
Soundcheck was merely to see that everything is connected right. CLINIC OF TORTURE doesn't use backing tapes (beyond the sounds of whipping etc..) nor have prepared anything in advance, so every gig has been about creating things from scratch. This time mini synth, loop pedal, scrap metal, couple pedals and filter. Raw industrial noise made out of semi-unexpected sounds emerging from minimal gear. Apart from sloppy last "track", it felt going well. Spontaneous element was that apparently sounds went accidentally through Martin Bladh's vocal effects, providing few unexpected difference between right & left channel volumes, hah...
MARTIN BLADH did performance of vocals & backing videos & pre-recorded sound. Self mutilation, tension of vocals and experimental sounds. Only braking atmosphere by moments of man drinking beer in middle of songs. Don't really get the idea of right after moment of self mutilation and intense atmosphere to step down to moments of.... satisfying thirst for beer...? When we don't really talk about rock'n'roll live shows, but in this case basically performance art, otherwise very solid set suffers from such minor details. Clarity of sound was excellent. Very sharp distorted voice and highly echoed voice being used. Half of set I listened, eyes closed, in semi-conscious state of mind on back of room. Very professional video material was perhaps missed, but it worked also as purely sonic experience.
This early-day event was merely 2 bands, as Stark had cancelled in last minute. I guess, same morning? I was ready to head into nearest bars and gallery. The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities was located less than 1km from venue. Bar with lots of oddities and even more in the basement gallery what cost 3 pounds to enter. Amputee sex. Tribal relics from exotic lands. Occult. Porn. Bizarre taxidermy. skeletons, skulls,...... all sorts of morbid curiosities filled the basement from floor to ceiling. Purchased bunch of postcards, including couple cards of Austin Osman Spare drawings what were on display at the bar. Just around the corner from venue was very nice bar. Tasty beer, several noiseheads hanging out. With finnish delegation with assistance of obscure finn noise Moozzhead, created quite neat exquisite corpse drawing on the spot. While others were destined to drink further, I wanted to see every group of fest.
Night show started with BROOD being the first. I was under impression that it would be dark ambient. Don't know why, but when it turned out to be some kind of beat-music, it was nothing I'd watch more than few minutes at the time, returning to check out if there is anything else coming than relatively clumsy beats. Some bodies were moving and full room watched, so I assume people liked. I have very hard time adjusting myself to rhythmic electronics of this type.
CONCRETE MASCARA live show in Finland was fueled with alcohol, and not so memorable. This time, strengthened with mr. Hutchinson with metaljunk, stone and hammer and Si Clark with vocals and noise. Mastermind himself delivering solid background of pre-recorded electronics, processed vocals etc. and result was very good! It has basically the elements I appreciate: Aggressive voice. Physicality of making noise. Form, but also enough of live modulation. Backing video was quite horrid, though. Just like with Am Not case, to me seeing familiar face like the pretty boy Ryan Gosling from his 2013 thriller film was quite turn off... I'd like to connect all noise to something less of contemporary pop culture. Apart from video, show was very nice. Perhaps to be heard from live release as I believe recording was pretty good quality?
JAAKKO VANHALA had been lost on his way from bar to venue, hah. Finally finding the place, moments before he was about to go on stage. Gig had to be stopped twice before set could really start. First there was no sound on PA and things were re-connected. Then some gear turned mute. But like professional noise performer should, he had guts to simply stop in front of full room of audience and see what is wrong, and re-start when all is in order. Just recently saw atrocious set of someone who just continued the failure, even if correcting could have been just brief stop away... Vanhala knows this, and when everything was ready to go, what a set followed! Restless harsh noise to the bone. Full on physical action, utmost care of effects, filters and sound sources including tapes, little use of sampler and lots of live noise. Many times there were moments that this must be the ending climax, but no. Just throw some new elements into mix and re-build it again to sheer maximum tension. Audience reactions was most frantic to be seen during the festival and perhaps easy to say also gig was the best at the festival?! Scrap metal floating among audience and screams, spilled beers, mosh pit and general havoc in right in front of stage. Now that his CD's have been sold out from Freak Animal, I urge to grab them if you see somewhere! Certainly harsh noise name to stick out in our times!
CREMATION LILY was another name what step up to fill slot that Puce Mary left with last minute cancellation. It's probably challenge to suddenly set yourself ready to perform in like... one day notice?! CL for me has been always sort of hit & miss. Overall, I like what he does, but it seems to be so close to certain period of Prurient and also pretty close of what LR from Denmark does too. Simple ethereal keyboard melodies and emotional screamy vocals, rattling noises. Not bad. Not bad at all, but this type of melody patterns with smooth sound, below noise is something I don't care much. I like it as rare and occasional element, but seeing it develop almost as subgenre of noise, isn't too interesting. Of course one can't blame band, as combined with just experienced utter rush of utmost noise set and necessity to set up gear for Grunt gig put me into position of not being able to check out entire show. Certainly not with full attention. But people liked it a lot, that I can tell.
Due long distances and shortage of time, we haven't had time to rehearse GRUNT sets this year at all, so things are thrown together with pretty casual style. Previous Turku show belongs to one of best gigs we did recently. Working in different set up provided little challenges, but nothing what couldn't be overcome. Playing set in different track order than was originally agreed was perhaps little surprice, and necessity of correcting minor details on spot takes away some stage energy. It's hard to be ever fully satisfied with my own sets, but after listening recordings, it seemed to work out just fine. I could trust Vanhala to keep up with any spontaneous changes in set that was never discussed.
In my experience, most gigs in UK that end late, have people leaving before last band. Now firm schedule and dedicated international audience probably secured that it was packed till last minute.
Unrest team did great job in setting things up. Venue was much much better than I expected. Stage would be nice, but it was good already as it is. Relaxed atmosphere, good location, sound guys knowing what they do and schedules being firm. Which is almost miracle in UK gigs as far as I have experienced! I was told crowd was bigger than last year, and now it was very close to maximum capacity. Room couldn't take much more. Maybe dozen or couple dozen if it would be totally packed. Room for live gigs was separate from bar and merch area. I believe artists did very well with merch.
Concrete Mascara & Finnish crew was in need to leave early in morning to airport, like 6 o'clock. Alfarmania were still prowling on the streets at night, and times when we were waking up, them and Kevlar guys were barely ready to go to sleep.
I seriously hope they will have energy to put together United Forces of Industrial III for next year! Big thanks for Martin and rest of Unrest crew + all the artists of the fest.
HEAVY ELECTRONICS III - Mannheim 26-27.6
Festival was excellent!!
Started our long journey about 4:00 in morning, drove to Helsinki airport, took plane to Frankfurt. Trainride to Mannheim was delayed for whatever reason, but luckily just 15 mins stop in middle of nowhere.
There was one of organizing crew already waiting and took us to hotel. Opportunity to rest, maybe, but as this was free day without any obligation, German beer was more luring!
Venue was very nice. Located in industrial/warehouse type of area, behind fences you could sit outdoors or go inside in large enough, but not too large venue. Great PA system, big video screen, etc. basically all one would need for proper industrial show.
Fest started with THO-SO-AA, which was not bad, but I personally have not been so big fan of the work. Latest LP release was while ago on my playlist, and not that much to complain, but remains sort of anonymous work, as there is not so much of human element, more of technological feel to me. But nevertheless, I watched part of the show and not bad. Perhaps just plague of opening band to not be yet 100% in the mood.
Alfarmania was very nice! If I have to judge this as comparison to their shows in Finland and United Forces of Industrial, they did it much better! Not that it would have been too bad before, but now it seemed like vocal balances are better and less drinking etc. More focus?! Who know what exactly. Perhaps also strong PA and large video screen.
Ke / Hil show was very nice as well. Now I knew what to expect, so perhaps previous time at Tower Transmission I was blown away by seeing them first time. Now, knowing what to expect, it wasn't surprise anymore, but in conclusion that these guys know what they do. Cold and dark heavy electronics, repeating patterns. Laconic, processed vocals by each member, taking turns one song after another.
I didn't have much expectations for Brighter Death Now. I was under impression that it could be just drunken foolishness, but how wrong I was. Brilliant! Excellent gig proved that BDN is still going strong! 3 member line-up. mr. D.Nepal at bass, Roger doing vocals and Trepaneringsritualen guy doing... electronics? Not sure what, but at least 3 members on stage always look good! Very strong and pure sound, heavy throbbing beats, long fragments of samples etc. Nice!
Already close to 24h awake, and countless beers later, was pretty tired at this point. Hotel room was waiting...
Next day started where previous ended. After breakfast, weisse beer was luring... It was several hours until it was time to be at soundcheck. Nevertheless, arrived at venue perhaps first. Short burst of thunderstorm hit in, but luckily had already arrived and brought our gear in. Soundchecks seemed to take forever, but that said, sound of entire festival was good!
Pain Nail was first band, and set was quite close to what was done at London, but little different gear and slightly different structures and additions to songs resulted very good results. Especially metal percussion sounded perhaps better than ever before. Songs consisted mostly new unreleased tracks and couple alternative versions of previous album and 7" songs, which has taken quite different form. Possibly musically the best Pain Nail gig so far?
Trepaneringsritualen was project I had waited quite a lot. I think just about every record he has done is very good. But live show left me quite cold. It was 100% playback. Basically empty stage, where guy screams. One can give credit that he did vocals well. Rhythmic tracks, where vocals were in time, with raw, "black metal"-esque spirit. Despite lots of moving on stage, he could perform songs just like on albums, not miss tempo or such. Unfortunately vocals had quite a lot glitchy crackles. Maybe even broken cable, since there was more crackles when he was walking left side of stage. Sound was sort of lo-fi, less powerful than most of bands, but I'd guess original sound already is slightly more suffocating and then no proper mixer boost/eq'ing to take advantage of massive PA. It was ok, but as albums are so good, I was expecting more.
Propergol I had very mixed feelings like usually with Propergol. At the same time I appreciate his technical know-how. Utmost clarity, utmost care to detail, etc... but then in other hand.. Digital computer sounds in sync with video material which seems to me like modern computer game trailers. Hmm... All in all, people seemed to like it, but I watched for couple tracks and didn't feel like would need more..
I have seen Prurient several years ago. I didn't know what exactly to expect, as actually I have not yet even heard... is it already 2 latest albums. It just seems so "far away" from noise scene, hehe.. You know, I don't know if I have any Hydra Head stuff in my shelves. Or much of Profane Lore. Not that I would oppose those labels, but when releases happens on some other genre label who don't do trades or have much distribution within "noise scene", I never seen those available anywhere where I usually get my records/cd/tapes..
But right from the beginning, his set slayed! This was without doubt the best Prurient gig I have seen yet. Of course it is hard to compare with simple shows of 5 minutes feedback blast. Now, 40 minutes or so, lots of tracks with diverse sounds, great variation in vocal sounds, extremely piercing and loud. Most intense stage presence seen at the festival. Total commitment to both: sound, and physicality. Add also full video screen with collages.
After already full length set, Genocide Organ entered stage. Couple collaboration tracks of G.O.+PRURIENT proved to be excellent. Doubts what I expressed earlier on the day, was blown away by sheer brutality of this material. Then followed shorter, roughly 20 mins set of GENOCIDE ORGAN. What a great set it was! I don't know how much comments it would need? Only band to get pretty rough "mosh pit" moving on front of stage. Forceful electronics, cold vocals, loud sound. Noisy and brutal material. Excellent!! Can't wait to see full length gig later this year...
Next day, we didn't leave that area at all. Just bought beer from gas-station and hanged out in some childrens playgrounds, consuming time. Trip back to finland and return to home after midnight... Consuming, but really good trip!
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I was just looking someone posting two days Seattle fest news on gig section. Hardly recognized any bands. X CONGRESSO POST INDUSTRIALE in Italy. 2 day noise fest happened in Spain roughly month ago. End of this month monstrous two day Summer Scum fest at Brooklyn. Amount of festivals is already quite big.
Impressions of fest? Best memories? Preferences for types of fests?
