Tower Transmissions VIII - 2019Travel from Finland started in very good schedule. Plane leaving around 11, so there was no need for middle-of-night wake up and other nuisances. Flight to Berlin, bus to Dresden. Couple beers and ready to hit the venue.
First to play was
Kollaps. Rhythmic industrial. Name probably taken from E.Neubauten album, and many aesthetic and sonic qualities as well. Beats and metal object percussions. Simple bass guitar tones. Goth type of haircut, singer going spastic on stage. Perhaps too much for my taste. I think material was at least partly of Sibling Lovers album. Often quite stripped down forms of songs and simple beat patterns may feel "old" to those who have followed industrial music enough. Not bad start.
I have liked
Moral Order's output. Also his other project improved greatly in new album. Industrial / heavy electronics type of stuff of is better for me than Da-Sein. Mainly because Da-Sein seems overtly influenced by Galakthorrö. If that project sound very much like "designed for Galakthorrö", also Moral Order has some traits of same thing. Meaning, like bands of the label reminding eachother, also Moral Order featured Kas Visions doing vocals for some tracks, blurring the lines of individual personality of the projects. However, good stuff, can't complain!
When
Uncodified played headliner set in London, it felt little toned down. No video, no "show", no action. Just making the raw electronic noise behind the gear. This seemed to be musically advanced. Already few years from seeing it last time, so now it was either sound system of material itself that enabled way more detail and depth into sounds. Also, playing in the middle of event, didn't put any "pressure" to visually entertain. He could just craft the good sounds and triumph in that! Good set!
I have seen
Acherontas before, and was only watching couple of tracks. I was told in the beginning there was quite a lot of technical issues to struggle with. When I went to see band, it was all ok soundwise. It was little strange move to book one Black Metal band into otherwise solid industrial festival. There appeared to be pretty much same amount of audience for them as for bands in general, so I assume there is enough BM & industrial crossover for this kind of thing to work out.
Headlining act was
Grim from Japan. When he did first comeback show many years ago, I was in Japan to see that. Then there was Vasilisk guy helping out and mr. Grim himself was utterly wasted and gig was more goofy than good. Now, it was entirely different thing. Linekraft was doing percussion and Grim doing vocals without any goofing around. Dark and aggressive, old school oil barrel mayhem. Truth to be told, my recollections of what exactly they played - song wise - are obsolete. Enough beers and passing hours, it was just good industrial set I could just trust my instinct that kept telling how vastly better this was from last time seeing them AND latest recordings.
Saturday morning started with beer for breakfast type of decision. Good weather. The traditional Dresden routine of heading to old town and grabbing some german food. Bavarian Schweinshaxe. Not to be found in Finland, where restaurants tend to be favoring boring sterile steak places. Not the bones, skin and cartilage like I'd prefer. Couple international people seen before heading towards the venue.
As usual, soundchecks little late, but things were catching up when for example Sadio barely needed time. When all gear in your own, and having just stereo cables out to sound guy... what really needs to be done at sound check? Just hope volume is turned up. Others seemed to need vast amounts of time to set up, soundcheck and also line-check between sets what made evening be little late.
Sadio gig was all new songs from tape release that came out for the live gig (and will be available next month from Freak Animal). Gig went pretty much as it was intended to be. CDR thrown into audience was the material of the mentioned tape.
Screaming It seemed quite interesting in sound check. Turntable and odd noises. Never heard the band, and probably would not pay much attention to group with that name anyways. Unfortunately I was stuck in merch table for their set, and could only hear the gig, not see what happened on stage. From position I was at, it was good to hear the needed dosage of harsh noise type of stuff.
Burial Hex too long time to set up, and show was also long. At best, it was religious droning and atmospheric music. Playing objects with bow, and using reverberated objects to create eerie and "ritualistic" atmosphere. Then keyboard songs and desperate yelling over soundscapes was less appealing to me. I did not watch entire set, but on and off, which left me impression that maybe I should check what Burial Hex is doing nowadays, since my experiences are mainly for the older stuff.
For
Stromstrad I had no real expectation what it could be. I knew that this was first time they ever played together and that
Strom.ec plays and rehearses very rarely. Did not see the soundcheck either. I was pretty much blown away by this. I have reviewed their collaboration LP/CD when it came out and concluded it to be benefitical for both. Collaborations can be occasionally lazy joint efforts where people just like to "do things together", but the fruits of collaboration are rather tasteless. Less than artists are doing alone. In case of Stromstad, one could say that it is MORE than individual projects are doing by themselves. Collaboration album was success, and so was the gig! The usual slightly nervous beginning of adjusting papers and microphone stands are the trademark of
Strom.ec gigs, but once the first instrumental pieces were done, and sharply cutting loud vocals emerged - they started to loosen up. Great gig!
As I had just been long time away from merch table, only watched part of the
Lydia Lunch & Marc Hurtado play Alan Vega & Suicide -set. Some people concluded beginning was near embarrassing, but soon catch up to be actually semi accurate delivery for vocals etc. Entertaining stage presence from the veterans. Marc (one of the Etat Donnes) was full of energy and enthusiasm. Lydia took the attention of room, whether there was gig or just sitting on backstage and commenting things. I was always fan of Lydia and have big collection of her recordings, books, videos... yet didn't want to go on fan-buy mode. Only exchanged couple words.
I had quite high expectations for
MZ.412. Been listening some of their works recently, both old and new... And perhaps like it even more than I did when it originally came out. Now, I think there was more Svartmyrkr focused stuff in this gig. It was little too "perfect". Costumes that remind of current era of "costume black metal", digital video animations in sync with music that is very much equivalent of movie soundtrack music. There was no dirt, no cellars, no smell of bones and blood. Apple logo glowing on lap top and three figures standing motionless on the stage. I can see why this appealed to people, but knowing how full of energy Nordvargr can be at the best, this seemed least interesting of his live gigs at TT festivals, which are many! I suspect MZ.412 remains the biggest and most known band, but I certainly would recommend to check his other works if someone has not...
Big thanks to Eric, Ina and rest of Tower Transmissions crew!
