HARSH WAYS FEST III – 2025
Text & videos: Mikko A
Photos: Voragography
With fifteen bands on its line-up, Harsh Ways Fest III certainly belongs among biggest noise events ever organized in Finland. Of course, one can debate what exactly constitutes as big, as there has been shows with bigger audience or bigger venues. Including equally legendary names as Harsh Ways Fests has had. I consider this huge simply due number of artists who all operate within realms of noise, power electronics and post-industrial soundscapes. There isn’t really anything like this happening.
Last year I wrote more details about Turku as city and the stores worth to visit. I’ll skip that one as same info remains valid. You can check out text from: https://special-interests.net/main/harsh-ways-fest-2/
FRIDAY
FRIDAY VIDEO DOCUMENTATION HERE!
This time there wasn’t much free time for me to hang out in the city. All the mandatory things I needed to do were barely done when venue doors already opened and people started to come in.
Opening for friday was Tähtisiemen. Project that was while ago described by foreign dealers as ”Finnish underground noise”, making me amused and wondering who are the non-underground noise acts of Finland? Is there such thing as mainstream noise in Finland? As appreciated as Finn noise is at this moment, I feel that its success is strictly limited inside the underground scene and moments when noise makes it to bigger media or music events, are anomalies.
Certainly Tähtisiemen was mystery when first tape came out. It may be so for most people. Those who keep eye on the scene it was quickly revealed that the black industrial noise created by Tähtisiemen was more like spin-off project of Petoluonto. That project has also played in Kammio venue. Instead of rhythmic industrial sound of Petoluonto, Tähtisiemen leans towards more abstract experimental soundscapes. Noisy, but not noise. Plenty of experimental synths and electronics combined with documentary sampling and film soundtrack fragments, I’d assume. On tape and Terässinfonia compilation you can hear slightly more structured or coherent material, while live gig was mixture of seemingly improvised electronics. Any time he would find a good pattern or texture, he’d quickly move on to something else. Most often something pointless. Set indeed had good moments, but he just didn’t appear to cultivate those moments when being busy tweaking sound into something else. Long set was resembling jam session or equipment test.
We didn’t need to wait for long to have guys on stage who can handle their thing in more coherent manner. YANA is noise duo of Amek-Maj & Kitu. YANA was doing material before they both started to do solo noise. This experimental interaction of two guys seem to be their strength. Sometimes when there is noise collaborations, their formula tends to be 1+1=2. In case of YANA, it was first and foremost project of its own and not really collaboration of their solo projects. They have played many types of shows and always appear to have an idea they have rehearsed or planned before. Something they will attempt to play again. There is flexibility instead of being tied to exact composition, yet there is an idea. With live electronics, effects, physical objects, amplifiers and so on, it all is about controlling the chaos. This was what YANA was doing. Clearly playing songs or patterns, yet also improvising and reacting on what was happening on stage. Very good!
Manifesto from Sweden is a curious project. Not long ago I was listening his 20+ year old CDR release and wondering what happened with the project. Its one of those death industrial/heavy electronics projects that may be known for die hard followers of the genre, yet are not exactly names wider audience knows. He started his set with more aggressive sound. Heavy electronics with loud powerful vocals on top of everything. It was surprising that after such blast, he toned down set into moody and slow paced death industrial. Even if set did return into vocal dominated noisier sound, most of it was bleak dark sound closer to even dark ambient. Most people I talked to, felt that set was too long. I do agree. Songs themselves and the set overall was too long, but I did like what it was in general. It is not that often these days when you get to hear composed and stylish death industrial/dark ambient at the Finnish noise gigs. He would use both heavy synths as well as acoustic sources, and often cinematic feel to it that was combined to video footage. It felt like he had been planning the set beforehand, into form where visuals and sound are bound together. This means it was going to go like it was planned to be.
Tantric Death isMax Julian Eastman who returned to Finland very quickly after previous visit. Now shows were played as Tantric Death. Or.. was it? I associated TD to be sort of traditional pedal noise, yet his gig in Helsinki was not that far from broken noise sound he does also under his own name. This HWF set, was more like Bloodyminded meets The Gerogerigegege, sounding nothing I would expect from Tantric Death. He announced song, usually something fairly amusing or occasionally retarded, and then blasted raw and fierce noise for couple of minutes and doing vocals on top of it. Very much like Bloodyminded live sets have been, yet with the little goofy element added to it. Spitting beers on the audience and jumping in the crowd and succeeding to get chaotic ”mosh pit”. I liked it.
Even more I liked Karmic Delusions. It is curious that this artist, also working under name Decondition, has never played live before. Not as Karmic Delusions, but neither under any other name. Decondition is known for doing albums on Freak Animal, but also Karmic Delusions released first album under FA. The second is coming during 2025 as soon as graphics are finalized. Knowing how strong his new material has been, I knew this could be very good, but I didn’t expect that he could pull off this sound so successfully live. Live information promised heavy power electronics in 2000’s Finno-German fashion and that’s what we got. Perhaps I would add remark about crunchy harsh noise production values as addition to that. Somewhat buried vocals, heavy tones and crunchy distorted loud noise. Excellent.
Slow Slow Loris from Germany was surprise for many. I know some people want uniform and genre conscious events as opposed to mixed bills. Still, to make noise event good, it may need variation. Dude after dude with shaker and distortion box ain’t necessarily recipe for great noise event. Slow Slow Loris felt exactly the kind of addition that could stir some unexpected reactions. It may have been strange idea to throw in gothic experimental theatrics into HWF, but it succeeded to make contrast that made evening more interesting as a whole. I personally was not fan of the sounds themselves, polyphonic clean synths and pads with percussive noisy samples and so on, but I did like a lot how they actually played their set. It wasn’t just loops or playback, but actually performing the song live. Female member theatrically singing her parts with various levels of intensity and dance moves, while they would play the soundscapes. It was visible how specific sounds or hitting sample pad, contact mic’ed cymbal was manually played and they managed to create tension that would be unlikely if it was just playback. Being in sync, in timing of vocals and playing appeared to be in key role. If the sounds were more acoustic or rougher sounding electronics, I could perhaps even name drop Ultra or Sodality as names that I was thinking. Not that Slow Slow Loris sounded like them, but it just made me think about some work of the bands.
Hal Hutchinson did not play solo. He had assistant who had almost similar role in crafting cold industrial experience from bunch of metal junk. They started slow, pushing onwards with little steps, more and more intense. Barely distortion. Just large objects that were used to create pure metal junk sounds, resonating, ringing, clanging, some howling feedback going on on the back. No harsh noise, but almost atmospheric industrial noise Hal Hutchinson was doing on later phase of his releases. Minimal and textured at the same time. Not dominated by obvious loops, but using also some pedals in their sound to create machine-like vibe to it. It was said to be his final live action and it was good to see it!
SATURDAY
SATURDAY VIDEO DOCUMENTATION HERE!
Had booked two different band rehearsals for the saturday morning, plus had to be ready for soundcheck already in the afternoon. Day felt really packed as also was handling merch sales, plus being driver, so drinking was pretty minimal and focusing on consuming warm non-alc beer. This also meant that I watched every set of this festival from start to finish. Was discussing about the set with Finn artists and most felt that they will consciously avoid playing too long set. That was my own feeling too and I was confident that within maximum iof 25 minutes one can do all things that needs to be done in festival consisting 15 projects!
Commando 15 isn’t know for stretching his sets. Short and to the point, high pitched screeching noise that has element of old school industrial power electronics in it. Perhaps less this time, more leaning to harsh approach. There is something in it that makes me lump C15 among things like early days SJ, Victor/Victim, Kraang or such, and not the Japanese noise or US harsh noise. He had minimal gear he knew how to work with. Painful and challenging sound, certain tricks were heard multiple times during the set yet due compact length, it worked out pretty much perfectly. Ending of the set is like text book example how it should be done. No slow “should it end or should it not” drifting, but just sharp fade of sound and indication its over.
Previous show of Fricsvel was decent, but nowhere near as great as this time! Psychedelic death industrial noise. Roaring, chanting vocals came out perfectly in the mix. Blend of noise and atmospheric slow pace of noisy electronics and contact mic’ed bird cage worked well. It is hard to pinpoint any exact category where Fricsvel moves and this is clearly their strength. It could work in pure noise event, but also in context of industrial event.
I had heard Lauri Ainala’s Orpokotijuhlat Saarella live tape, but this set was marked in live poster as project under such name. There exists also Lauri Ainala studio album under name ”Orpokotijuhlat Saarella”. I am not sure is it now project of its own, or should we rather consider this Lauri Ainala gig? Nevertheless, I was both surprised and totally captured by it. Eerie and haunting soundscapes was mostly pre-recorded. He was actively manipulating the material and most of all the strength was the most disturbing video material that had been filmed in old deserted house where animal carcasses, remains, rats and all sorts of stuff was nailed to the walls. Obscure and disturbing, yet also demented texts and art drawn to the walls. Everything very much in ”Blairwitch project” type approach, yet of course what was happening, was real.
I did ask artist if there is any other place he could display video like this, and he replied no way. Even if Ainala has presence in more arty indie realm, material he was showing this night was dark. Not only it created aura of dark and weird… but feeling of something wrong happening… and I am damn sure that screening material like this would be rated just about as unwanted as Grunt screening ”Trite” many years ago. Several guys I talked to considered this among very best of the festival, comparing it with Kristian Olsson set some months ago. Sure, there is a bit more glitchy element of digital processing of choirs and religious chants and such, but at the same time nearly lo-fi element to it.
If only complaint about Ainala was stretching his set a bit too long, Hingst from Sweden know how much harsh noise is good for live setting. Ripping harsh noise is the name of the game. Duo with table full of gear and blasting restless full energy noise. It may be that Hingst is at its best in live situation. If it is loud and crisp, it adds extra power compared to already doubtlessly good CD and tape releases. With live sets they played in Finland, I didn’t feel any nuance or detail of noise would be lost due loud volume. In fact, it may sound even better than very good ”Absolute Hingst” CD I grabbed from the show.
I was talking with duo line-up SSRI before their set. They were discussing about cutting set shorter. This is for me the inspiring element in live noise. You can stubbornly create what you intended to, without any consideration of audience or the other artists. Just doing your thing as planned. Yet, reality is, that the audience and the other artists are there, and possibly they set up specific mood that may be good to be recognized. If you are able to harness this situation, feel what is the energy and vibe, and change your plan accordingly, that is talent in my eyes. SSRI still did just about what they had rehearsed, as far as I understood. Simply picked up pace, compressed then overall duration by moving faster, keeping it vivid, colorful, weird. Very much hands-on sounding. Occasionally they briefly entered into crunchy loud harsh noise realm, but those burst were short. Their more experimental approach suited well to settings on stage. They had set large painted folding-screen on the front of stage, basically hiding artists from view of most of the audience.
Impakt is harsh noise duo consisting Stinkfinger and Umpio. Their high speed harsh noise was perhaps little less high speed than at very best, but it was great set nevertheless! I was not turned off by moments where apparently mixer wasn’t working as hoped for. For me those moments functioned as more calm fragments before unleashing the storm. We would se the biggest audience ”mosh pits” during this set, and it was indeed noise suited for crash and collision of junk metal and human bodies.
Knowing that my set would be between energetic harsh noise of Impakt and massive set of experimental power electronics of Sutcliffe No More, I knew I should not do material like that would be too much like either direction. Not try to bring vivid harshness or aggression and stage presence… Simply stay faithful for the bleak and unentertaining sound of Clinic of Torture. Under this name, I have made plenty of releases since summer 2000. Five gigs were played, three in Finland, plus one in UK and Germany. Original idea of CoT was a tribute to the old s/m films. That specific atmosphere you had, especially in the VHS series, that were far from ”entertaining”. Often just 60 minutes of whipping, needle torture, hot wax, whatever. Most often things were being done vastly longer than what would be ”interesting”. Many times they would be merely live sessions recorded as is, with little if any editing. Most of the films were not really cool by any standard. Merely procedure taking place with certain atmosphere that you simply watched through even if it was not really going anywhere. This was what CoT was trying to express in form of industrial noise. All releases were studio-live, no overdubs, nothing nice, no tricks to show, nothing cool happening. Just sort of ordeal of pain electronics.
This gig did mark 25 years of CoT, so there was more to it than with former shows. All previous shows were different of eachother, most often improvised on stage. Usually short. Now material was partly using sources from old recordings. Besides new material, some raw material was being sampled from oldest releases to sort of re-visit the vibe of ”Clinic Of Torture” or ”Whip And Pierce” LP. Video material filmed for this gig consisted also references to ”Whip And Piece” super-8 loop plus displaying some of my own old materials of the time. Sadistic, torturing, and suffocating industrial noise said the festival ad, and that’s about what it was, but many were surprised of atmospheric parts that were connected to Whip And Pierce LP era.
When I saw Sutcliffe No More play in Tower Transmissions 2023 (https://special-interests.net/main/tower-transmissions-ix-2023/ ), I did mention to HWF organized that you guys need to get this to Finland. Sure they knew it should be brought here, but I assured it will be worth it!
I was fan of old original SJ sound already in the 90’s when band had sort of mythical status being project that had disappeared long ago. As testament of passion for the maliciousness of the early works, I suggest reading SI article that was posted in 2022: https://special-interests.net/main/malicious-electronics/ Death Mask in 1996 marked their return with new material. WSOTG compilation CD in 1997 put some of the old material into widely available form. I was never particularly enthusiastic about 1997-1998 material, since I was still so obsessed about the early 80’s sound and felt it was too ”clean”, despite several friends praised albums very highly. However, when band made sort of new comeback and live show for London was announced, I knew I had to be there.
This is something I have talked with a lot of people: Even if we do not have shortage of great new noise out there, I do feel that very few new power electronics acts that are on the level of pulling international crowd, from all around the world! Many times I have discussions with people, asking what it takes for you to fly to UK, USA, Germany,.. perhaps Finland? There are bands like that, but not that huge amount. I have felt it mandatory to travel other countries, to see Ramleh, Incapacitants, Consumer Electronics, SJ, The New Blockaders, Hijokaidan, Grey Wolves, Con-Dom, Slogun, Sickness, Genocide Organ, and so on. Even when being asked to play abroad, the main demand is that I need to see artists I want to see. Situation has changed a bit. I do not dismiss the new acts, but it is also realistic assumption that the five year old power electronics act ain’t exactly Con-Dom!
Perhaps another, and more important point is that may be valid especially in Finland: 20 years ago, there was so much less noise gigs and festivals, that when something happened somewhere, there would be people who’d travel across the continent to see it. Now, over here, we are pretty much spoiled with opportunities. With Harsh Ways Fest, there was like 9 days of noise shows in Finland during two weeks! I went to 5 days of noise gigs within 9 days. It’s not like I would absolutely need to fly to other side of Europe if I can barely catch half of shows happening in Finland! So while Finns perhaps need to travel less, I assume there are many countries where very little, if anything happens. Like many of Finn shows display, people still travel from other countries to see noise. My own visits have been limited to Tower Transmissions that always puts line-up where are things I have never seen before.
Anyways, when SJ returned to live activity, I got to see them couple times in UK and also USA. Looking some of old photos and remembering how first gigs were and listening to the live material, it is clear how much they have evolved. This is something you can’t say about many of the veterans. Sutcliffe No More, ain’t the same band per se. They evolved beyond what was done as SJ. I don’t think every release is pure gold, but there is so much of good stuff that I don’t think any project of that era has been able to match the quality nor quantity in same way.
Live shows are vastly better than they were 20 years ago. It is almost unreal to say, that men that are growing older, are actually growing to be more intense, more energetic, more confidently in heat of the moment happening on stage than they were decades ago!
They kicked set immediately into high pitched old school feedback power electronic mayhem. High pitch screams.. and then moving into their later style of heavier, more dense and technologically advanced songs. We got some of the same songs that I heard at Tower Transmissions, but also other things. Kevin Tomkins had done vocals for some songs and set was on second song of Paul Taylor doing lead vocals when suddenly his mixer dropped from table, cutting off cable and electric short-cut burned fuse somewhere in the building. Entire space went dark and set was over in mere 25 minutes. I think it was enough to constitute as full se. Just knowing, that their style is to build and build, even more intense, even louder and more in-your-face approach when set is developing further, it would have been great to see what else was coming!
Harsh Ways Fest III was successful and I had no complaints even if headliner played maybe only about half of their set? We had again people from various countries. Lets see what Harsh Ways Syndicate has in plans for the future. I recommend to keep eye on Special Interests forum gig announcements and there is also social media options. There is also topic dedicated to noise gigs happening in Finland.
Keep eye also on this SI website. There should be more reports coming soon. Reminded by fairly recent book of Kevin Tomkins, maybe there will be time to do the long planned ”Noise book” feature for Special Interests and go through various recent years noise related publications!
As usual, if interested in tapes, cd’s, vinyl, most of Finnish noise in physical form can be bought from nhfastore.net