On the 14th April 2012, Laibach presented a unique show at the prestigious Tate Modern Turbine Hall, with an overview of their history, from 1980 to the future, with music from their latest release, the “Iron Sky” soundtrack. This historical event has been recorded and is now available to order as a double CD Limited Edition or download released by Mute and Abbey Road Live Here Now.
Laibach is history. The Slovenian avant-garde music group was formed on June 1, 1980 in Trbovlje, Slovenia, at the time SFR Yugoslavia. They represents the music wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) art collective, of which they was founding members in 1984. The name “Laibach” is the German name for Slovenia’s capital city, Ljubljana.
The band’s first work was a multimedia project called “Rdeči revirji” (“Red District”), but the performance was banned even before its opening due to its “improper and irresponsible” usage of Malevich’s black crosses as symbols on the posters. The first live appearance and an exhibition entitled “Žrtve letalske nesreće” (“Victims of an Air Accindent”) the group had in January 1982 at the Ljubljana club FV, followed by some now legendary performances in Belgrade and Zagreb. At that point, the group’s musical style was characterized by the critics as “Industrial Rock”, and Read more Laibach – Monumental Retro-Avant-Garde, Live at Tate Modern (2012)
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Karnak Seti – In Harmonic Entropy (2012)
Metaaaal!! Straight, powerful, merging the modern sound with classic, traditional approach, emerging from the exotic Madeira Island in Portugal, Karnak Seti present themselves as a solid, modern and persevering metal act.
With 10 years existence several releases, including the thriving full length “Scars of your decay” of 2009 distributed worldwide by the British Casket Music, “In Harmonic Entropy” is the band sophomore and looking further album including 9 killer Metal tracks.
For this album the band worked with renowned producer Daniel Cardoso at the UltrasoundStudios Braga. The process of composition of “In Harmonic Entropy” started in mid-2010, and the band splitting time between the promotion of the album “Scars of Your Decay” and writing the new material. The recording session took place during two weeks in April 2011. The cover of the album is the artwork of Ana Gomes. Read more Karnak Seti – In Harmonic Entropy (2012)
Echancrure – Discours sur le colonialisme, EP (2012)
Aimé Fernand David Césaire (26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique, being “one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature”. In 1945, with the support of the French Communist Party, Césaire was elected mayor of Fort-de-France and deputy to the French National Assembly for Martinique. He was one of the principal drafters of the 1946 law on departmentalizing former colonies, a role for which independentist politicians have often criticized him.
Like many left intellectuals in France, Césaire looked in the 1930s and 1940s toward the Soviet Union as a source of human progress, virtue, and human rights, but Césaire later grew disillusioned with Communism. In 1956, after the Soviet Union’s suppression of the Hungarian revolution, Aimé Césaire announced his resignation from the PCF in a text entitled “Lettre à Maurice Thorez”. In 1958 he founded the Parti Progressiste Martiniquais.
His writings during this period reflect his passion for civic and social engagement. He wrote “Discours sur le colonialisme” (Discourse on Colonialism) in 1950, a denunciation of European colonial racism, decadence, and hypocrisy that was republished in the French review Présence Africaine in 1955.
This work inspired Antoine from Echancrure to build up this 20 minutes long musical incursion into modern capitalist decadence. Read more Echancrure – Discours sur le colonialisme, EP (2012)
Atomik Clocks – Magdan in Charleroi (2011)
Literally mind-blowing Funk, some pumping Punk energy and pounding Rock attitude, Atomik Clocks delivering a quite refreshing mixture of Jazz, Funk and Rock, merging the spirit of free, improvised music with the power and weight of experimental spiced, Progressive Rock, eventually reminds me of Morphine.
“Magdan in Charleroi”, their first full-length release is available as digital download for only €3 on their official Bandcamp page, and definitively it worth every single penny of it!!
We’ve got 10 groovy, sometimes pretty Psychedelic taste-like, experimental, but not pointlessly abstract songs, an exciting mixture of styles and approaches, the saxophone playing the main role, but the killer funky bass is equally present while the drums offers the solid bases for these sonic jams. Read more Atomik Clocks – Magdan in Charleroi (2011)
Mombu – Zombi (2012)
I had listen this project last year and it nailed me down, Mombu’s debut effort made it to my list of favorite albums of 2011. They are back now and although “Zombi” seems to be the re-edition of the debut album, the only major difference is that “Intro 253” has been dropped and it was introduced the title track “Zombie” as a gift for the Black President Fela Kuti: mixed from Husky Hoskulds (Mike Patton, Tom Waits, Fantomas).
Mombu is a duo made of Luca T. Mai (of ZU) playing baritone saxophone and Antonio Zitarelli (of NEO) playing the drum and merging the explosive and subversive spirit of improvisation and Free jazz with the grinding and furious raging of (Post) Hardcore, but including tasty aromas of Afro beats and hypnotizing Voodoo vibes. This is something absolutely fresh, genuine and…. murderous. Read more Mombu – Zombi (2012)
Abandon All Ships – Infamous (2012)
Ten tracks, 32:41 minutes, the sophomore album by the Canadian Abandon All Ships are a tumultuous merging of electronic layers and grinding Hardcore raging. Labeled “Metalcore”, Post-Hardcore, incorporating Trance and even Electro-Pop elements, this new type of Metal targeting a new generation of teenagers lost between Facebook and escapades down in the club with fake IDs. I do not mean to be Infamous, but no sneakers, no cry!!
The music is dark, furious, noisy and more heavy then electronic, the Trance inspired breakdowns, breathing pauses are only accentuate the violence and explosion of the contorted, heavy parts.
While the opening Read more Abandon All Ships – Infamous (2012)
Serj Tankian – Harakiri (2012)
Although to put together a Rock album seems a quite simple thing, to be honest, it’s been a while since I didn’t heard a good Rock album. Maybe because everybody pretend to be somebody else, maybe because music isn’t art anymore, but business and industry, or because everything became patterned, excessively target oriented, predictable and plastic taste-like. Tankian – once again – seems to put his thoughts and his soul on the table, while he’s completely cut off any ties to any particular genre, style and expectations and focused on the music and his message. “Harakiri” isn’t a “complicated” album, but a honest one. And “Harakiri” isn’t a classic Rock album in its pure conservative sense, but a colorful, tripping, searching and experimenting material, each and every song have its own soul and style while all together is absolutely and unmistakably Serj Tankian. Read more Serj Tankian – Harakiri (2012)
Rockman – Search and Destroy, EP (2012)
Contorted and blunt, Rockman’s “Serach & Destroy” gonna melt down your loudspeakers and assassinate your neighbors, before set on fire the dance floor down at the club.
R. A. Navarro, aka Rockman, is a producer originally from Colombia. Rockman composes on software and hardware both vintage and new, performing his own sounds and recording his own voice for each piece while avoiding a pigeonholed sonic aesthetic. He explains: “My music is a fusion of Drum & Bass, Dubstep, Electro House, and 8-bit/Chiptunes. I can go from 174 bpm to 140 bpm with a smooth transition in just one song” – while he’s principal influences are: Aphex Twin, Shigeru Miyamoto, Prodigy, Koji Kondo and Autechre. Read more Rockman – Search and Destroy, EP (2012)
The Contortionist – Intrinsic (2012)
Positioned right between bands as Between the Buried and Me and Cynic, The Contortionist sophomore album “Intrinsic” is a 10 station journey to the outer limits of Deathcore rooted Progressive Metal. Quite disturbing, twisted in and out, upside down and back and forth, complex and technical, but power and soulful, focusing both on intensity and subtle, gently layered atmosphere, “Intrinsic” is a refreshing search for authentic expression in a patterned, predictable and rarely creative world – strictly profit oriented music industry. Also blinking to artist as Rush and Dream Theater, and sometimes reminds me of the early VoiVod (“Nothingface”), The Contortionist deliver an extremely inspired and complex Progressive Metal product, the perfect blending of brutality and edge cutting, experimental, boundaries shattering music. Read more The Contortionist – Intrinsic (2012)
P.O.D. – Murdered Love (2012)
P.O.D. anybody? Remember them – or their hypnotic/anthematic “Youth of the Nation”? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems (at least) a lifetime ago. Although “Satellite” was the band’s fourth studio album and it was released in 2001. “Satellite” went on to become RIAA-certified triple platinum while the author of “Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music” has described P.O.D. as “One of the biggest success stories in recent Christian music.”
Their previous album, “When Angels & Serpents Dance” was released in 2008, “only” 4 years ago and that album also marked the return of the original lead guitarist Marcos Curiel and the departure of his replacement, Jason Truby.
The band’s name, Payable on Death (P.O.D.), derives itself from the banking term “Payable on Death” and they chose this name to be a direct tie in to Christianity, which explains, that since Jesus died on the Cross, Christians inherit all of his assets – Heaven. Well, I do not buy products at my door from traveling salesman, and well, I do not buy salvation from (Rock) bands. Still, they sold over 10 million records worldwide. 😆 Christian Metal actually it’s not a genre oriented music, but targeting a huge market of believers and eventually, ultimately non-believers. Read more P.O.D. – Murdered Love (2012)
