13/14th September 2024
Text, photos, videos: Mikko A
I do not remember exactly how I got to know about Tower Transmissions festivals. It is likely that I missed two first ones and only heard about it back in 2013 when Grunt had been invited to play. Since then I have attended to every TT festival that has been organized. Covid resulted couple years break, but festival returned strong with the new bigger venue. Dresden is very good, since it feels pretty close to east european vibe. For many years I have had pretty much zero interest to travel to most of countries or locations. Visits have been mostly to north – Lapland of Finland or Norway. Another alternative has been baltic countries and eastern europe, Poland, Czech Republic and so on. Liking the drinks, food, landscape and so on. In place like Dresden, you can go to a bar to drink beer than is about one third of cost compared to venues in Helsinki! Same for food. Not only about getting some real deal stuff that you never see in Finland, prices are good. Despite costs of travel and place to stay, spending five days at Dresden probably saves you money compared to staying home, or going to gig at some Finnish city, hah…
Arrival was already at Wednesday and since had not arranged meetings with anybody couple days was spent on walking around the city fairly randomly. Just seeing whatever comes and going into shops, bars, beer gardens, restaurants and so on. This meant that friday would not be so urgent and stressful that it usually has been when flying in same day you need to be at the venue.
Compared to what we have going on in Finland, TT Fest is characterized by these long flowing ambient/experimental/industrial sets and less about physical and short harsh attacks most people get to see in Finland. Reithalle Strasse E is located outside town center, but merely couple local train stops away. Old multiple story industrial building that can take several hundred people in. Massive PA system suitable even for mainstream artists. Huge video screening behind the stage and so on. The audience in Germany has this quite familiar look. When riding the train and thinking about which stop to get off, was able to conclude that it must be at the same time as those side-shaved goth hair people dressed in camo- and leather gear are leaving train, heh! Way less of ironic mustaches and hipster looks here than at the noise shows.
FRIDAY
THE BLACK MAGHREB was brought to Germany all the way from Indonesia! It displays the spirit of the festival: They are not playing safest way, but may invest money into curating something that may not be exactly ”profitable” or make sense financially. Simply offer something that would not otherwise happen! Who’d bring relatively unknown artists from other side of world, if people mostly know one 7” on Tesco – if even that? Well, lucky for us, Tower Transmission did! Set was indeed a smile-inducing take on the old ways of industrial-noise. The video backdrop revolved around autopsies and conflict history. Synthesizers perhaps rather static and traditional manner, yet in simplicity hits the sweet spot. There was a short burst of shouting within almost instrumental set. Good start for the fest.
The latest SARDH records I have been listening are from the early 2000s. Haven’t listened to project in years but learned at the festival that there are actually couple fairly new releases. It was also quite a fun surprise on stage! A four-man band with a guitarist, a modular-synth guy, vocalist/effects guy and the one who played woodwinds and other acoustic sounds. Style is somewhere closer to likes of Contrastate, NWW and perhaps also early Current 93 abstract records came to mind. Experimental, but not very noisy textures. Some names I mentioned because the vocalist. He had very vivid, colorful and experimental way of voicing. Vocals went from phonetic sounds (almost nodding in the direction of sound poetry) to howls and sighs to narration, speeches, melodic singing and eventually shouting. Even if certain things are somewhat a challenge is not a disadvantage in itself! More like displaying guts to do things in the other way. My own dislikes were when singer starts to pretty much address the audience in ways of ”What is beauty? What is this?” gesturing the stage, the gig itself taking place. Sort of ”meta art” so to say. Not to drop complex terms here, but everybody knows the self-conscious, self referring level of art. Or the moments when suddenly line of fiction and real world gets distorted. ”Breaking the third wall” -type of situation. Breaking the fiction is not the problem for me. Almost opposite! I tend to think most of industrial/noise would by default operate in ”the real world” so to say, and in moment that hints there is somewhat fictional element to it… not ideal! That all said, very neat and unusual set!
WUORNOSAILEEN BANDE was a three women plus one man band from Italy. Rough and simple synth oscillation on the back, with two female vocalist doing a page after page full of lyrics. Although in some places reading from an A4 in one’s hand, or from ipad, was a bit awkward, it didn’t matter so much. I would assume that part of vocals were less about song lyrics in traditional sense, but some kind of information read out loud? In all its simplicity, and specifically due its noisiness, it seemed that the audience might have been the most excited about this set? And that applies also for myself! Italian ladies on stage screaming over loud electronics – works!
AFRICAN IMPERIAL WIZARD is sort of costume electro beat that I had some challenges to keep watching it all the way through. Costume looked like the result of colorful african fabrics was used to make the klansman’s outfit. Aesthetically neat videos with professional editing filled with african footage. Semi danceable beats floated from one to another without too clear song breaks. There were songs, yet they seemed to bleed into eachother seamlessly as different beats and exotic sounds cross-faded or mutated into next thing. For me, this appears similar to the current Black Metal costume bands: There is a hat, some sort of theatrical mask, robes, perhaps choreography and video/light-show. Everything done professionally, but leaves me totally cold. For me, mask is not there as hiding something or as ”act”. I see good mask use as possibility to reveal something. Instead of hiding identity, actually displaying the inner essence of the author in a way that the mundane civilian face does not necessarily show. Of course this line is blurry. Yet it is there somewhere. Many times I just see something exotic and cool, but its more of show-biz, somehow detached from artist. Indeed a costume, not a ritual object that reveals something in ceremonial manner.
VOID OV VOICES is The True Mayhem and Tormentor singer Attila! Perhaps among his most abstract works are these experimental ritualistic sounds that are largely dependent on the vocals. The sound is looped and processed in various ways with multiple layers chanted and shouted over the emerging soundscape. The man actively processed and build out the set of his vocalization for almost an hour. I can’t say if there’s a backing tape/sampler, but for the most part it seemed to be live creation. Even surprisingly good, but perhaps close to one-hour set could have been shortened a bit? No complaints, though!
GEOGRAPHY OF HELL was the headliner of the night. Apparently quite a big name in the world. Finland has a bit different situation like many countries do. Over here people have been excited about it, but maybe it doesn’t cause quite the same fervor here as in the United States, etc.? The albums released by Hospital Productions are all really good stuff and I don’t think many releases are missing from your own collection? However, the notion of fine line of something being ”too good” is curious! Maybe that’s the only problem here. When the video projections are so over the top, covering entire back wall as well as cloth set on front of table being projected moving image.. and a line-up of four men in their neat robe-costumes stand…. hmm… Professional light show and video matching the ongoing sound. It is suddenly way less dark that a tape or LP format that maintains rawer feeling. The men had several acoustic elements there. The marching drum beat, cymbal was used, various metal objects were played and so on. At its most musical moments I felt as if there was quite a Les Joyaux De La Princesse vibe? Eerie historical samples and dusty nostalgic sounds echoed from such a big PA that it certainly worked perfect. Perhaps it just needed contrast? If there was set of shorter harsh noise before them, creating a contrast to the previous three-quarters long brooding sets, GoH would have had better starting point? Even doing exactly what they did would have stood out more positively.
I went through merch counters but had to be extra careful with purchases since I had no checked bag for plane. Merely little back-bag with spare clothes and had already done some purchases around the city. I got a couple of used out-of-print cult neofolk CD plus I finally got a book and a couple of tapes from Styggelse counter! Late night return to the air b&b, soaked in the rain. Watching homeless man screaming to group of police who just arrived to wake him up when passing that location.
SATURDAY
Saturday morning started like all the mornings, opening bottle of good german beers and eating some tasty fresh german sausages. Walking around the city for dozen kilometers, finding couple interesting things and eventually heading to the venue. Saturday it happened hour earlier so I got to talk to some of the artists. Festival like this has basically one flaw: With merely 10-15 minutes between artists, you really got to choose do you watch the live sets or mingle with the international industrial network, hah.. I tend to watch the sets, so like last year, also this year from corner of my eye I see a lot of guys I should at least introduce myself and say hello… or… well, fuck it, haha. I would guess there would have to be arranged meetings besides festival days, since there simply isn’t that much time if one wants to see the bands! Luckily some important discussions was done and catching up with few people before it was time for the first band.
ESPECTRA NEGRA from Mexico, a one-woman industrial project. There were dark synth oscillations and sometimes beats. At its most violent there was heavy electronics vibe, even close to contemporary power electronics. At its lightest, this might be suitable for a industrial-dance club? PVC mask on her face she was mixing and creating sounds. Several analogue boxes full of buttons, whatever brand, no idea. In the middle of the gig appeared a sudden speech against misogyny, exploitation of women and children and also evils of fascism was addressed. Somehow the set got a whole new energy from it! The best material came after the speech. The background videos were really terrible digital graphics. Occasionally tolerable, sometimes even intolerable.
I was almost surprised how the Spanish DA-SEIN was playing this early? Of course there is not many options to choose from. Plus, it can be better to play earlier to have people alert and hungry, not yet filled their ears with hours of loud sound. Their cold industrial music has firm Galakthörro feel. Cold, sort of emotionless female vocals that may be traditional to the style, makes me think November Növelet and Ordo Equilibrio. The breaks between the songs were a bit longer that one would expect. Synthesizers were adjusted for the next song in silence. That tells you how the set was not primarily about playing the backing tracks, but about actually doing it properly with actual live creation! Good!
TEATRO SATANICO had shrunk to three person line-up, but that didn’t matter! Female member on the front handled the percussions with skill! Not that it would have been hugely technical, but the main thing in this type of music would be that percussion is solid. Strong, no fuck ups, tempo keeping steady and so on. That was what she delivered! Seen many times ”industrial percussions” that are out of tempo clumsy fuckery and none of that here! Depending on the song, roto toms, a shaman drum-type thing or a large cymbal hanging on a stand was used. Other members had a guitar, synths, flutes and more. Hypnotic songs that grew intense and noisy at times were almost the best part of the evening! Everybody was doing things live. Main vocalist indeed had both guitar, plus handling synth and also processing vocals. Before the fest, I did listen CD that Old Europa Cafe put out recently. Live was perhaps noisier and more energetic.
ULVTHARM is the solo of the one of MZ.412 members. A headdress made of twigs and a small head-set microphone on the cheek. Typical of current day, resembling the film soundtrack with obscure spiritual-esque slow-flowing synth & colossal rhythms. On top of that appeared reverberating chants, recitations, violin, accordion, etc. For me, the contemporary sound is little minus. It sounds professional and neat in loud PA, yet feels like a bit same way like photoshop covers looked in mid 90’s! Just about everybody enthralled – myself included – by suddenly having all these options! Glow, shadow, 3D, transparencies, wow… But eventually, it become clear how a lot of the material did not survive test of time. Digital effect background videos and cool costumes and synth & percussion parts that feel as if taken from a slightly too ready sound banks.. Shimmer echo / digital choir vibe stuff… hmm.. Nevertheless, I watched the whole set from start to finish and the accordion + drone thing at the end was actually the best and should have lasted longer!
There was no doubt about the best of the evening. MAYUKO HINO pulled so sovereignly great set that if there were any doubts before, they were gone in a few minutes. Theremin and several other noise devices controlled by physical hand movements and the end result was full and electric harsh noise. From deepest sub-bass rumbles to highest treble electronic distortions. The set was always going on. Hino was clearly doing what she wanted, and masterfully controlled and “composed” the set. Sometimes slowing down to a bit more static roar, and then bursting into frantic storms of electronic chaos. Being absolutely fan of the early CCCC, I don’t say it as negative sense, just as observation: Due CCCC was multiple member band, it meant that Hino could be focusing on one thing. Screaming or shaking scrap metal or doing synth oscillation, etc. Now she had the whole arsenal in her own hands. Thats entirely different game. It wasn’t just one thing, but much more action and dynamic changes than on CCCC records. Also not to mention, lady is 65 years old and her stage presence was one of the most active during whole fest! Exploding energy and body movements while creating the sounds. The massive PA was in good use during this gig. Subwoofers plus a reckless amount highs produced a clear but at the same time bassy roaring sound. Crowd went nuts during the set, clearly displaying how a bit more of loud noise could be used for Tower Transmissions. Killer!
BLOOD OF THEE CHRIST was in a difficult situation when Hino was clearly headliner, right down to fact of having name on the top of the festival poster! The men from Sweden had all sorts of chaos before gig, but the they managed just fine! Absolute core of the post-mortem sound, and no modernized crowd pleasing! Master Control cassette tape being re-created in its ugliness. Harri roaring on microphone few times, the background videos filled with familiar cut-and-paste art from BotC tapes. One of the shortest sets of the festival had no highlights or showmanship. Just two dark silhouettes behind the table playing the suffocating old school bleakness. Every now and then the channel crackles or the panning/volume fluctuates a bit but that’s about it. Ruggedness of no-tech, 80’s tape rawness well presented. After Mayuko Hino, very few would really had a chance to top it with doing noise. I’d say. In that sense, BotC’s rugged and quieter tape-hiss-pause-button-analogue-synth screech was good as an antithesis to take atmosphere into diametrical opposition.
During the fest one man said that this is starting to be an old men’s party. But really? When you think about it, the “old men’s festival” interpretation may not be accurate! Saturday, six bands, four of which were either solo by a female artist or included a female as leading figures or an active player. Only two were an older group of guys. Also, if it meant the people… looking at the crowd, could it be that third of it was women? Not to mention young female with a Vomir patch on her sleeve! In a way, you often see what you want to see. Indeed there are lots of old men, but that ain’t full story here.
The fest was really great. Eric, Ina and the whole Tower Transmissions crew really know their stuff! Changeovers and schedules work quickly. With this schedule, when you watched all the bands from start to finish, you didn’t really have time to talk with a lot of people. Tower Transmissions is certainly happening next year. Dates are already set and there will be at least the Sigillum S 40th anniversary concert that includes all the four protagonists. Also a bit of rumors about other cult names, but confirmations should be coming later on. I would strongly recommend taking a look for travels in advance to secure affordable flights and accommodation. Dresden is a remarkably fun place in September. Not too hot, not too cold. City is easy to manage, venue and arrangements good. I recommend keeping an eye on Tower Transmission’s social media groups. They have also updated news on the SI forum when they remember.
It should also be mentioned that it can be wise to bring cash with you for merch. This year Total Black had stacks of new and old stuff. There were all kinds of old rare tapes and cult 7″ releases to fresh new vinyls. One dealer sold used CDs from suitcase, including out-of-print neofolk to noise and even a bit of goth cd’s. L.White, Loki Foundation, a bigger EBM/industrial distribution Aufnahme + Wiedergabe that also had many used LPs with really good prices. Artists counters had plenty of good stuff. Geography of Hell selling some fest-only reprints of old tape, on Mayuko Hino’s counter the new stuff was at a normal price, but there was also rare old ones priced accordingly. Moral Order had also some rarities. Basically most of artists had something for sale. Of course nobody knows who’ll be selling there 2025, but never left venue empty handed.
VIDEO COLLECTION: SATURDAY HERE
