Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: celeste, leipzig, zoro
Celeste (click to resize)
It’s pitch-dark, except for some strange red flickering lights. Dense the fog and as dense the noise. Celeste were coal mining and devastating Leipzig’s punk vespiary Zoro with their well grounded, sincere and overly raw and ruffian storm and stress black metalesque sludge. Celeste say: ‘We try to get darker and darker, but maybe one day it this will not be possible anymore. Then we will just stop.’ Let’s hope they won’t as this concert was more than a mere hardcore show, it was a catharsis bringing you back down to earth. Feels so good, feels so good… l’hyène et les trois paresseux.
Needless to say that you can download their records for free at Denovali.
Celeste - Live teaser
múm (click to resize)
I must admit, I haven’t yet listened to their latest output „Singalong to songs you don’t know“, but eventually I don’t need to as seeing them playfully messing around on stage gives me the impression that this coltish fellow bunch must be some kind of ambassadors of sheer naive far outness (hey, they singalong about funny things like fish, exploding frogs and apocalyptic breast milk). I bet they never had to declare a personal loss or defeat. How’s that even explainable facing their bankruptcy back in elfland. Do they smile and snuggle away their problems in reverie? Fuck it, giving a múm record or concert ticket as a gift to your friend, family member, co-worker, pet, fellow commuter, teacher, student, or Oprah is like giving birth to that person. They will be so grateful that they may come to look at you as some kind of god that has ushered in a new era of enlightenment. This is when you have the unique opportunity to take advantage of their goodwill. Cool, aight!? You’re welcome.
múm - Green grass of tunnel
Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: düsseldorf, festival, open source, tocotronic
Tocotronic (klicken zum vergößern)
It’s only been a recent evolution that Tocotronic has literally grown on me. At first this superficial unmotivation just sucked the hell out of me before the vibe of the rejection of the daily (german) workday grind or culture to the self-reflective point of view and sloganeering totally hit on me. Recently Tocotronic’s lyrics rather tend to dwell on introverted reverie or the fact of thinking (maybe too much). A clever move though. You name it, I’m rather a second generation aficionado.
At the Open Source Festival situated on a picturesque scenery of the Düsseldorf horse racetrack, parks and golf courses, Tocotronic were the headliners. This evening they celebrated an inspiring yet festival compatible best-of set with anything you could ever wish for (except Jackpot maybe!?). They’re always best when they don’t noise around aimlessly, but play on a concentrated, controlled and purposive level. This is when a fascinating symbiotic link between their music and lyrics grows and shows what a brilliant songwriter Dirk von Lotzow actually is. His dedicated performance with his characteristic laconic vocal panache was in perfect harmony with the straight forward rocking sound of the band. Obviously Tocotronic will never join the pantheon of the most virtuosic musicians ever. But fuck this fact, Tocotronic played as stirring as you’d expect from the good conscience of german indie music.
This one is one to remember.
Setlist: Angaben ohne Gewähr!
(Tocotronic, Setlist – Open Source Festival: klicke auf das Bild zum vergrößern)
Tocotronic – Explosion (Berlin String Theory Version)
Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: black metal, cologne, underground, wolves in the throne room
Wolves in the Throne Room (click to resize)
In fact, Wolves in the Throne Room were my very first black metal experience. But as greenhorn as I am, I dare say that this one kinda blew me away and changed my perception on this very dark and gloomy sub-genre of extreme metal. After eventually 40min of sheer raw an honest shredding, often not that metal at all, but rather razor-throated postrock in a drone disguise (hence the hater’s nickname Puppies in the Living Room) all was said and done an I couldn’t care less about the band’s tree-hugging tendencies, what the lyrics are, the saturnine stage design with 40 lit candles and dense swathes of fog or just what the hell that bass dude in the skinny leggings was representing – I was too busy being awestruck by the music. Far beyond any cliché of misanthropic hatred, religion, satan, war or similar mundane superficiality, Wolves in the Throne Room actually felt trve in the original way – spiritual and pure.
Wolves in the Throne Room – I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots
Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: berlin, magnet, matula, rolo tomassi
Rolo Tomassi (click to resize) – pictures from drownedinsound, Tom Barnes & Tom Lowe
Actually I don’t know what to write in the first place. The opening act, Matula (do they know that it is a technical term for urinal!?), played the sort of north-germany oldschool hardcore, somewhat trendy and with loads of singalongs which you listened to for days back in the nineties. You loved it because of their sincere and honest acting – and now? It feels like nodding in the sleeping bag you first had sex in. Awkward, ain’t it? Rolo Tomassi probably still sleep in those bags, but not because of their nostalgia. I mean, look at their promo pics!? They’re kids. And hell yeah. The kids are riot again. Rolo Tomassi actually did the coolest thing possible out of their tiny little minds. Going topsy-turvy on their very own exegesis of the music culture opened out to be a real blueprint for modern „cybergrind“ far away from the embarassment of 8-bit-arpeggi fighting chuggy chugg-guitars. This one has the idealism most of the so-called nintendo-abusing prefixcore-faggots lack. Big up kids, big up.
Rolo Tomassi – I love turbulence
Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: berlin, squarepusher, volksbühne
Squarepusher (click to resize)
Actually there are time machines. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. A few years ago french electro pioneers Daft Punk travelled in a far distant future to witness a superbelting band on their interstellar 5555 discovery tour. Electro aficionados claimed it to be outstanding. Squarepusher on his behalf took a similar journey yet to the year 3000 where he attended an ultra-gig of an obviously unknown utopian band. After returning home he recorded his memories of this exciting trip on his by now 13th longplayer „Just a Souvenir“. Geez, nerd alarm. Squarepusher is, let’s admit upfront, challenging. And yes, that’s the snag. The outwards seemingly improvised freejazz intermezzi clashing on ultragranular high-speed beat barrels are far beyond any mass market ubiquity. For those lacking the ability to do complex math or not bringing a shitload of openmindedness, this colorful and gaudy live experience may have sounded to weird and far-out yet distracting or even spoofing. However Tom Jenkinson, even if he uberpolarizes, in fact proved over all these years that he’s a whiz unlike any other, so frankly this „petite faux-pas“ can be forgiven. What a pity that „Just a Souvenir“ can’t keep up with masterpieces like „Ultravisitor“ and the likes and the associated live performance didn’t manage to reach such an eschatological feel as an Autechre rave. Nevertheless, any Squarepusher output is an experience worth trying. Make up your own opinion and don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Squarepusher – Come on my selector (directed by Chris Cunningham)
Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: berlin, dj scotch egg, drum eyes, festsaal kreuzberg, kreuzberg, lightning bolt, ovo, trencher
Lightning Bolt (click to resize), photos by Hani Eid
I used to play Diablo 2, a pretty epic hack & slay video game, for a long time. I always listened either to ambient or some drony doom-reverie as it felt astonishingly right slaying giant mosquitos, grotesque wyrms and corpulent regurgitators to this wavy yet steamrolling tunes. As my items were the best in game I made a huge amount of damage to evil’s minions. But from time to time some dudes from the crypt showed up and kind of dwarwed my overall damage. These must’ve been Chippendale and Gibson from the avantgarde band Lightning Bolt. Even if they’re only a twinheaded hydra, they sound like a whole army of bulldozers. To achieve such a massive wall of sound both websites laserblast.com and loadrecords.com explain that the group’s vocalist, Chippendale eschews a conventional microphone, instead using the type of microphone built into a household telephone receiver, held in his mouth or attached to a hood, which is then run through an effects processor to further alter the sound. Chippendale has also used a KMD 8021 Drum Exciter, a simple drum-synth module, triggered by the bass drum. Gibson plays his bass guitar tuned to cello standard tuning, in intervals of fifths (C G D A), using a banjo string for the high A. He used this four-string setup for several years, but has recently been seen using a five-string setup, tuned to C G D A E, with banjo strings for the A and E. Gibson also uses several effects pedals, including overdrive pedals, an octaver, a delay pedal, and a whammy pedal (pitch shifter). Sounds pretty weird, but this phenomenon is an experience unlike any other.
Lightning Bolt – LIVE @ Peel Session
Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: a. armada, berlin, café zapata, from monument to masses, tacheles
From Monument to Masses (klicken zum vergößern)
Wenn man sich mal durch die Adorno-Gespräche und den nebelartigen Zigarettenrauch der Philosphiestudenten durchgekämpft hatte und endlich freies Blickfeld auf die Bühne hatte, wurde man unterrichtet was guter und was schlechter Postrock ist. Die schlechte Variante wurde eindrucksvoll von A. Armada vorgestellt, die sich in ihrem episch-tranischen wohl sichtlich selber langweilten, wogegen die gute Variante vom San Francisco-Trio From Monument to Masses präsentiert wurde. Sie verzichteten weitestgehends auf ellenlange delayschwangere Tonteppiche und ließen sich lieber auf rhythmische und vertracktere Kompositionen ein. Das erwies sich als Trumpf, denn so überzeugte ihr kurzweiliges Set und lässt die Vorfreude auf das neue Album, welches Anfang nächsten jahres erscheinen wird, in’s Unendliche steigen. Auch wenn man die politischen Statements nicht unbedingt teilt.
From Monument to Masses – Deafening (LIVE)
Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: berlin, digression assassins, magnet, russian circles, these arms are snakes
Fotos von Mikosch: Digression Assassins, Russian Circles (klicken zum vergößern)
Es gibt Abende, die verlaufen anders als erwartet. Voller Hoffnung und durch viele Empfehlungen den Mund wässrig gemacht, sollten die Russian Circles meinen Postrocküberdruss besänftigen. Im Endeffekt hat die langatmige und innovationslose Performance des Postrock/Prog/Metal-Trios wieder das unendlich tiefe Stagnationsloch, in welchen sich das Genre seit mittlerweile ein paar Jahren befindet, bestätigt. Wenn Malen nach Zahlen auf die Musik zu applizieren wäre… ach, ich lass es sein, es macht eh keinen Sinn mehr – ich stehe ja sowieso als Einziger mit dieser Meinung da. Mich vor dem Langeweilesuizid retten konnten mich aber glücklicherweise die Mathcore-Techniker von den Digression Assassins, die trotz Bassabstinenz enormen Druck erzeugen konnten und die positiv energiegeladenen These Arms are Snakes. Den Abend abgerundet haben dann die beiden französischen French-Touch-DJs von Teenage Bad Girl im Icon Club. Das ich im Endeffekt da gelandet bin, hätte ich auch nicht gedacht. Es gibt Abende, die verlaufen eben anders als erwartet.
These Arms are Snakes – Horse Girl
Gespeichert unter: 01. concert reviews | Schlagworte: andorra~atkins, berlin, cassiopeia
andorra~atkins (klicken zum vergößern)
Mitte November 2007 erhielt die Band Kill.Kim.Novak einen Brief der Anwälte der Schauspielerin Kim Novak, in dem sie die Band aufforderten, ihren Namen zu ändern und jegliches Merchandise nachweislich zu vernichten. Als Begründung gaben die Anwälte an, deutsche Fans der Band seien auf das Privatgründstück von Kim Novak gelangt und hätten versucht, die Schauspielerin zu töten. Das Alveran Records-Sublabel A-Team forderte daraufhin scherzhaft die Fans auf, den Versuch, sie zu töten, zu unterlassen. Dies führte im Endeffekt dazu, dass sich die Band in andorra~atkins umbenannte.
Glücklicherweise war diese Veränderung, auf den Sound gemünzt, nicht so dramatisch und andorra~atkins bewegen sich weiterhin im Spannungsfeld zwischen Screamo und Hardcorepunk. Was auf CD zwar noch ziemlich annehmbar klingt, offenbart sich live, und besonders drastisch wurde es bei der langen Spielzeit von über einer Stunde, als ziemlich altbacken. Kompensiert wurde die fehlende Abwechslung zwischen den Songs durch viel Pathos und Gefühlsdramatik. Nach einer halben Stunde jedoch hatte man das Meiste gesehen und man hätte sich das restliche Programm sparen können. Besonders nervig waren auf Dauer auch die internen Selbstgespräche der Band.
andorra~atkins – Gefühle
