Cosey Fanni Tutti - "Unclad" Scans (1970s)
"Cosey Fanni Tutti (born Christine Carol Newby, November 4th, 1951) is an English performance artist, musician, and writer, best known for her time in the avant-garde groups Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey. Her name came about in 1973 (before which she performed under the name Cosmosis), and comes from the opera 'Così fan tutte', meaning literally 'Thus Do They All'.""Tutti had a long career as a stripper, as well as the fields of pornographic magazines and film, stemming from a desire to incorporate her own image into collages she produced in this period. Some of her performance art has also drawn on her experience as an adult performer."
http://www.mediafire.com/file/6aq12cc25h6wbw1/Cosey_Fanni_Tutti_-_P%2Arn_Mag_Scans.zip/file
Bocksholm - "Excursions By The Bank Of The Black River" CD 2002, "The Sound Of Black Cloggs" Live CD 2003, 2-Song "Demo" (Year?)
"After some years of confusion by having two persons with the name Peter Andersson, both grown up in the small industrial town called Boxholm and making industrial music on the CMI label, there was almost no choice but to collaborate with each other in a project named Bocksholm (the old spelling of Boxholm). This collaboration between Raison D'etre and Deutsch Nepal started in 1998 and reflects the bad childhood environment of the ironworks in Boxholm." -- Peter Andersson (Raison D'etre) / Lina Baby Doll (Deutsch Nepal)
Strike Records - Labelography 1993-2008
Loooooooooooong running Deutsch heavyweight of the hardest breakin' speed,
funded by extreme techno's Atlas, Sound Base Music, and partially
distributed by fellow titans Planet Core Productions (WHEW, quite the
trio of terror here!). In other words, if you're jonesing for the most
splattery-suicide-by-kickdrums imaginable, I'll be your Kevorkian yo...Part 1:
Rottrevore - Live 7-13-2013
Clean, but distantly recorded reunion set, performing their
only LP "Iniquitous" in its entirety. "Behind The Music" Interview
stolen from Laurent Ramadier's "Voices From The Darkside" Web-Zine. SEWERCORE!!! http://www.mediafire.com/file/po2p01ficzf5jne/Rottrevore_-_7-13-13.zip/file
The first time I heard about ROTTREVORE was when you released the "The Epitome Of Pantalgia" demo back in 1990. How long had the band been together at the time? Was that your debut release or did you put out anything before already?
"The "Epitome" demo was the first studio release for the band. I think we may have done some rehearsals and a live show or two that may have been circulating through the tape trading scene, but other than that, the demo was the first thing we recorded as a band in the studio. Before the release of the demo me and Chris Webber had been writing some songs for a few months until we found Chris Free to play bass for us, Nick E. was a friend of Chris W. for a long time before that, so as a complete band we were together for around 6-8 months before the demo was recorded."
What have you all been doing prior to forming ROTTREVORE? Any other bands that you've been involved in?
"Before ROTTREVORE was formed I was doing a zine called INFERNAL BLEEDING. I only did two issues with some help of a few local death head pals. At the time we were all huge tape traders, and it seemed like the thing to do to get some exposure for alot of killer bands that were out at that time. It was alot of fun and we met some great people and got some contacts as well. Chris Webber was in a band called CHAOTIC PLAGUE [I seriously cosign them! --S] before we formed ROTTREVORE, they put out a few really heavy demos, they are very rare so more than likely only the hardcore traders will have them."
Which bands did inspire the ROTTREVORE style or even made you form the band back then?
"I think early on it was a combination of bands like slayer, celtic frost, death, kreator, candlemass, bloodfeast, but as the mid to late 80s started to really form an underground scene it was bands like Autopsy, Carcass, Nihilist, Grave, Dismember, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower, Immolation, Necrophobic, Crematory, Macrodex...Basically it was any and all guitar heavy catchy as hell time change bands from that era that was circulating in the tape trading underground. Honestly it was so many I have to limit my list because I could go on and on...tons of kick ass old school shit."
Your next release was the "Copulation Of The Virtuous And Vicious" EP, that got released by Relapse Records back in 1991. How did you hook up with them and why didn't it work out in the long run?
"The Copulation EP was released on Relapse Records shortly after Matt / Relapse relocated from Colorado to Pennsylvania. I used to correspond with him (through snail mail of course back then). He asked us to do an EP with them so we agreed. It was a good offer at the time and he did a great job with promotion and layout etc. It wasn't an issue of not working out in the long run, just after the release it was time to move on for both Relapse and us. We probably would have done a full length for them if we were asked to, though no hard feelings."
That EP featured three previously unreleased ROTTREVORE tracks and a re-recording of the demo track 'Intimidation'...When did you write those tracks and what made you re-record 'Intimidation'? Was that the band's most popular tune at the time?
"The songs on that EP were new except for 'Intimidation'. We decided that the demo version of the song wasn't as good as it should have been, so it was re-recorded and re-mixed, much better I think. The popularity of all the songs from the demo was great, 'Disembodied' got a good response too."
How about ROTTREVORE live shows around that time? Did you play any real tours in the US (or even outside the country) or just one off shows here and there? With whom did you share the stage? Any cool memories on certain gigs that you'd like to share with us?
"At live shows we always got a great crowd response. At the time it was hard in the Pittsburgh tri-state area to get a large crowd. Some were killer though...Cleveland, Rhode Island, Buffalo were always good crowds, some bands we've played with are Incantation, Mortician, Impetigo, Sathanas / Bathym, Phlegm, Disharmonic Orchestra, Lethal Prayer, Hideous Mangleous...to name some. The show that really sticks out for us, is when we played an open mic night at some Heavy Metal Rock'n'Roll poser club. We told the promoter that we're a Rock'n'Roll Metal band. When we got on stage after the other bands who were playing like Pat Benatar, Kiss, CheAp Trick, Mötley Crüe covers, we crushed them with ferocity and brutal heaviness. They totally hated us - WE LOVED IT!!"
In 1992 Hollands Cenotaph Records released another ROTTREVORE 7"EP entitled "Fornication In Delirium", which only featured two tracks...How did that co-operation come about and why did you only use two songs for that release?
"Well as far as the Cenotaph EP, we only did two songs because the other releases had alot of songs on it. I think if we could do it over again we would have only put three songs on the demo and two on the first EP. We were writing kinda slow because we wanted the songs to be done right and not just thrown together quickly. I haven't spoken with Adwin of Cenotaph since shortly after we did the EP with him... If you know of his whereabouts, please let me know."
As far as I know you always managed to keep your line up pretty steady throughout the years, apart from the split with Nick Esquival, who was your drummer at the time of your debut demo... So, was the chemistry between the rest of you guys just perfect or how did you survive the usual line-up changes that other bands constantly go through?
"Nick was our first drummer and probably the best as far as chemistry goes. He was a very creative drummer and had super input. I haven't seen him in years. Hey Nick!! The other two drummers Bob O. and Jason G. were also local death head friends who filled the spot...but the input was shallow. Jason G. was a good drummer though."
In 1993 you finally unleashed the one and only ROTTREVORE album "Iniquitous" through Spanish Drowned Productions... How did you hook up with them?
"Well now you've hit a sore spot, hah. The Drowned release was the worst fucking nightmare company we dealt with. I mean, it was a totally funded CD by them, but: the contracts on their end were never filled to their agreement!! We only received 20 copies of the CD...That's it! The company fell through the cracks and we got screwed, it was a very low pressing CD. The original copies did not have the Repulse logo on the back cover, from what I found out later on, Dave Rotten had pressed them on his own label. As far as I'm concerned they are bootlegs! Also who the hell is Mastercult Records??? A bootleg of our demo, two EPs and a live show is on it, but I cannot find Mastercult Records anywhere! If you do a search for it on the web, all links go right to Repulse Records! I have no use for any of them rip off labels, any info on the Drowned former owner, please let me know. Fuck all bootleggers!!!!!!"
The album was basically a compilation of all available ROTTREVORE material up to that date, except for 'Intimidation', wasn't it? What made you do so? I mean, have you been slow songwriters or was it more or less meant as a gift for all the die hard followers of the band at the time, who wanted to hear the material with a proper production after all? Did you exclude 'Intimidation' because it was already re-recorded on the EP?
"The songs on the CD were definitely a collection of our better tunes, plus we were a bit slow with new song writing. I think we had a few more that were almost done, but not polished enough for the CD. 'Intimidation' was left off because it was on two other recordings and it came out well on the other one."
With 'Jesters Of Recession' and 'Incompetent Secondary' the album also had two brand new tracks... did they represent ROTTREVORE best at the time? When did you write them?
"Yeah, I think they were a good representation of our style at the time. We were trying to get some heavy parts that were catchy and fit the style we were playing."
It seems that many people had problems in pronouncing the band's name properly as you even had an explanation on the album's sleeve... Who came up with it and what actually inspired that name?
"The name ROTTREVORE was a Chris Webber and myself creation, hah. It is a made up word that does not mean a damn thing. We spent one night in a local coffee shop over about two pots of coffee trying to come up with a totally original name that was catchy, that was our baby. The original name was much longer of an ending added on to rottrevore, but it sounded stupid as hell, so we dropped it from the ending. I won't say what it was, we'll keep that in the closet, ha."
Are you aware of the fact that there's a record label and a zine of the same name by now? How do you feel about that?
"Now you hit another sore spot...yeah I'm totally aware of the label's name. I wrote to them asking where they got the name. They said one day they were looking through a Relapse catalog and seen our EP on sale, so they just took the name for their label. It's really a compliment I guess, but it's a made up fictional name, damn guys, have some originality."
I always thought that your lyrics would also be in the typical guts'n'gore type direction, but then I read an interview somewhere and found out that you were actually writing a lot more about things that were obviously pissing you off, like rich fags, society, politics etc. – very Punk type lyrics... Tell us a bit more about that and why you didn't like to write about Satanic or gory stuff?
"Our lyrics were always a topic for alot of people. We didn't write about much gore / black type because that's not who we were. Most of them were about things that pissed us off, government issues, doomy...We didn't care for the black / gore lyrics much because it's been done and it wasn't what we were about. I think most Black Metal bands that have that stereotype about them aren't really into that life style as though they portray it I guess. We decided to write our lyrics about our everyday surroundings, likes, dislikes etc..."
What is the story behind the song 'Clogged Sewer Pipe', which you never recorded, but played live a few times? It pretty much seems like a fun track to me, almost in the vein of S.O.D. and the likes...
"Hah, I'm surprised you know of this song. It has only been played live a few times and is a rare tune. We did the song for Slap A Ham Records. We were asked to be on the compilation EP, but the song had to be no longer than ten seconds or so. It was kind of a joke 7'' EP for all the bands to do such a short song, but fun as hell. Also it was cool to do live, a lot of people liked it...and sometimes requested it."
I noticed that you are also a very talented artist and that you even did the cool coverart for the "Fornication In Delirium" EP and also for the album. When did you notice your talent, who inspired you at the time and did you do anything else besides those covers?
"Yeah I did all of the ROTTREVORE artwork from the logo, demo, two 7"EPs...But I think the background art on the "Copulation..." EP behind my drawing was done by another guy who Relapse Records had previous been dealing with. I had no problem with it. They wanted more fill in behind my art. I also did the logos for IMMOLATION, CHAOTIC PLAGUE, DERKETA, EXIT-13, FUNERUS, ABOMINATOR (AUS)."
You already mentioned the ROTTREVORE bootleg CD on Mastercult Records, which is entitled "The Epitome Of Vicious Fornication" and features all your pre-album releases and a bunch of live tracks, so I suppose you're aware of it. How do you feel about it?
"Yes I am very aware of this bootleg. I found out about it shortly after it was "distributed" through Repulse Records. The band nor I was informed of it. I had to find out through other sources the hard way. The only place that it was available is through the label I mentioned earlier. On the actual CD (I'm sorry, it is a CDR copy and a very poor production CDR at that, with very shitty booklet and xeroxed covers), it says it is put out by Mastercult Records of Mexico. But I cannot seem to find any info of the label at all. All web searches for Mastercult Records seem to point in one direction. Seems very strange, if anyone knows of who actually put this out or who bootlegged it, please let me know. A ROTTREVORE early releases will be put out by Necroharmonic Records in a few more months with much better production, packaging, live shows and some other stuff as well. Do not buy this shitty Mastercult Records CDR. Die you fuckin' rip off pigs!!! I obtained a copy of this bootleg from a real cool guy, Andres of the bands GORETRADE and INTERNAL SUFFERING and the label Goregiastic through a trade we made together."
What caused the break up of ROTTREVORE in the end and when exactly did you stop?
"I left the band around '95 I think. It was partly due to me and Chris W., the other guitarist having a bit of musical differences. We were starting to head in different directions, plus I was going to start a family with my wife Becky. I now have two great kids, a boy and a girl. Toward the end I was starting to get a little burned out. I decided to take a permenant leave of absence. All is still good with the other members though. Everyone has their own lives I guess."
You have a new band now, called EVISCIUM. Is that your first project after ROTTREVORE's split or have you done anything in between as well? Who else is with you in the line-up, what kind of musical style do you play, is it musically in any way connected to the stuff you did in ROTTREVORE? Have you already played any shows and / or recorded anything?
"Yes my new band is called EVISCIUM, it's the first project I've done since ROTTREVORE. It is in the vein of older school early 90s Death with the brutality of some of todays bands. We will be doing a promo mini CD that Still Dead Productions will be releasing some time in the early months of 2003. I guess after that we will be shopping for a good full length CD deal. The members of EVISCIUM will be John Scagline (guitars), Jarod Altamare (drums / backing vox), Sharon Bascovsky (bass) of DERKETA and myself on guitars / main vox. We haven't played live yet, but I think we will be doing some shows in early 2003 with a few local Pittsburgh acts."
What are the other old ROTTREVORE members up to these days?
"As far as the other Rottrevore members, Chris Webber is a truck driver, Nick E. is missing in action, I haven't seen him in years...last I heard he was in the Boston area, Chris Free is a cable internet installer / tech, Jason G. is in construction and Bob O. is in some kind of fashion design shit."
How do you feel within the Death Metal underground these days? Has it still the same magic for you as it had back in its early days? Do you prefer the good old days, with xeroxed fanzines, writing letters, tapetrading and word of mouth promotion or the current situation, with internet, websites, emails and MP3s etc.?
"The Metal scene is a different game now. Back in the late 80s - mid 90s it was really intimate. The whole snail mail, tape trading, getting flyers of bands, zines, shows seemed more magical than it is today. Almost like when you were a kid Xmas morning. The mailman was your greatest hero. I remember getting packages in almost every day with something in it: a zine, tapes, promos, flyers, upcoming shows, things for trade etc. I remember sifting through 1000s of hours of tape trades to get a few good demos in. Today it's as if that underground feel is diluted a bit. Things move at 1,000,000 mph. If you're curious about what a band sounds like, just simply right click...download, in seconds you're listening to it. I guess you have to go with the times. The old school days seemed a lot more special, everyone who went through it would agree I guess."
Any new bands that impressed you lately? Do you still listen to any of the old stuff from back then, when you originally started out?
"I still listen to the old stuff a lot. I really need to convert my old demos like NIHILIST, ABHORRENCE, DEMIGOD, DEMILICH, MACRODEX / CRYPT OF KERBEROS, CREMATORY, NECROVORE to mp3, in fear of loosing them, of getting old and eaten buy my tape player. Some of the bands I listen to these days are UTOPIE, INHUME, MANGLED, DISGORGE (HOL and MEX), FUCK IM DEAD, FUNEBRARUM, LAST DAYS OF HUMANITY, RETCH... and a ton of others that are drop tuned brutal heavy sewage core."
Ok Mark, I think that's all for now. Thanx for taking the time, all the best for you and your new band EVISCIUM. If you would like to add something to this interview, feel free to do so now. Keep it brutal!
"Thanks alot Frank for the great interview and interest in the old band! Look out for EVISCIUM sometime in early 2003. Also if anyone knows exactly who Mastercult Records rip off bootlegging dicks are please let me know."
Here's a statement from Dave Rotten (ex-DROWNED PRODUCTIONS / REPULSE RECORDS) regarding the things that Mark talked about in the interview above:
"I saw the interview with ROTTREVORE and there was some surprising bullshit told over there. First off, the ROTTREVORE album was released on Drowned so it's impossible that it would have the Repulse logo on the back. I never re-pressed that CD on Repulse!! That's a huge bullshit!! As for their royalties, well, they were paid like 6.000 US$ (back then the dollar was cheaper) for the recording studio, so they were entitled to royalties in money, not CDs, but we were kind enough to send them 20 CDs for themselves. Shortly after I left Hard Vinyl in very bad terms, because they were the rip-offs, they didn't let me run the label the way I wanted, so after that I didn't have anything to do with that. The rights for the label name was owned by them and of course all recordings!! If they have to claim something, they should contact Hard Vinyl!! Their logo & address is on the back of the fucking CD!! I also must mention that there were only 1,000 copies made of that CD!! Believe it or not!! I kept a very sporadic but cool relationship with Mark Mastro through the years, and he even wrote me back in March 2002 asking me about the Mastercult CD-R bootleg, so everything was cool, but after that I never heard of him again until this stupid answer from his side. As for Mastercult, well, the fact that I'm selling them doesn't mean I'm the one doing them!! Apart of this, I have absolutely no time to do things like this!! I don't own so many cult recordings myself and I cannot even pass a tape to CD myself, so what the fuck is he saying?? Accusing with no proofs is too cheap and easy."
Nikoteens - "Aloah-Oehh" LP '83, "Skate Tape" '84, "Slamdance Party Vol. 3 (A.K.A. Hardcore Holocaust)" LP '86
Fuckin' HARDCORE, fuckin' THRASH, fuckin' P-U-N-K, these fuckin' Germans ollied off busted mugs in whatever fuckin' genre they fuck well fuckin' pleased (even PROTO FUCKIN' GRINDCORE!!!). Until some fuck...ANY FUCK...gets off their dead slug fuckin' ass for a proper fuckin' discography (WHY THE FUCK HAS IT NEVER FUCKIN' HAPPENED???!!!), YOU'RE FUCKIN' WELCOME...(And fuckin' THANK Y-O-U to the armada of fuckin' blogs who kept these fucks alive before!)
TT Task - "Varför Luktar Det Skit" Demo 4 & Live '87
Huh, I thought most people's introduction to these Swedish scumpunkers was on the "Varning" boxset from '94, but it seems I misremembered that appearance for "Ta.S.K" (Tatuerade Snutkukar being illiterate with their own acronym). In actuality, TT Task were bootlegged on the "Son Of Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!" 7" from '92, with Chris Dodge's itchy fingers choosing a pair of joke tracks not representative of the group's regular sound: upbeat core-ish snot, possessed of a "lifer purity" that even the most curmudgeonly of collectors could never deny...http://www.mediafire.com/file/5exod4ftrnohgj2/TT_Task_-_Varfi%25CC%2582r_Luktar_Det_Skit_Demo_4_1987.zip/file
The Decay Of The Angel - LP Compilation 1988 (Tape Version)
International cataclysm of industrial noise, released by Trevor Ward ov The Grey Wolves himself, starring: The Grey Wolves, Ramleh, L.S.D., Con-Dom, White Hand, Terre Blanche, Psy Phalanx, Uterus 28, Information Aggression, Vidna Obmana, The Psychic Workshop, Ice Crystal Sun Dog Formation, Subliminale, and Sigillum S."All tracks more or less morph into another."
http://www.mediafire.com/file/hf7fs3cizp54csb/The_Decay_Of_The_Angel_-_Tape_Version_1988.zip/file
Cultural Terrorist Manifesto
A terrorist who hijacks an airplane or plants a bomb in a crowded shopping centre apparently doesn't care who gets hurt as long as he achieves his aim. That innocent people are turned into bloody corpses or maimed for life is not his concern. The cultural terrorist is no different. The cultural terrorist, an assassin of the future, an executioner of morality. Cultural terrorism, an attitude, a state of mind - not a set of values to be dogmatically followed. Cultural terrorism is a celebration of the power of the individual.Our aim is to pollute the minds of the public, to sow the seeds of insanity into society. Our victims are of all ages - everybody from the cradle to the grave. Man cannot bear too much reality and as a result of this the cultural terrorist is in the business of providing a reality attack. An over exposure of reality - the dirt behind the day dream. No subject is taboo, all must be exposed. No one is sacred. Everybody as well as everything should feel the wrath of the cultural terrorist. The object of cultural terrorism is to exploit situations and people in order to cause a reaction, preferably negative. Our aim is to make money in order to finance our war which we wage upon society, The money is required so that we can purchase the technology which will tear into the heart of all that is considered normal. We are the cancerous cell that would painfully destroy all that is in contact with it. We are working to erase the conforming instinct. To prevent humanity from ever acting with a common will.
The cultural terrorist's weapons are anything that enables him to inflict his views upon others or make him money. Be it film, video, audio cassettes, music, photocopiers, printed words, pictures - any media whatsoever is acceptable as long as it achieves the objective. We are little concerned how violent, how perverted, how degenerate, how much our material appeals to the very lowest of emotions, or how much the material twists and pollutes fresh young minds and further warps those already in trouble. If it makes money it will eventually achieve our aim and we will use it. We believe nothing is impossible, there is no god, there is no morality so we manipulate our environment to its fullest extent. Plagiarism is not only acceptable it is welcomed with open arms. We believe that you should not be afraid to steal from anyone. Our way is that of the liar and deceptor. We also know that the bigger the lie the better the chance of people believing it. Under cover communication is enemy crime not politics.
Elaborate safeguards may be placed at airports to separate would-be terrorists from their weapons. But we the cultural terrorists are free to distribute our soul destroying weapons to whom and where we choose. The cultural terrorist is both benevolent and evil. Pull the wool over your own eyes in a call to arms. We feel very strongly that an active role of participation should be taken in this struggle by people already interested in this form of warfare. The cultural terrorist is involved in an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhuman world. Cultural terrorism is alien to this society and our technology will tear into it to open up wounds that may never again heal. Tomorrow belongs to us. Confusion as a weapon/Confusion the key word.
Healthy confusion, some call it "evil". Confusion that sparks the need to question. Confusion calling fear, the adrenalin to flow, the blood rush and the life force to sit up and take notice. Confusion making us question everything in search of some (un)sense. Everything to be probed into. Indulging into whatever subjects we feel like. Making our lives that much more interesting for ourselves. No subject should be taboo. Spewing it out in our writings, in our "artwork", in our aural pieces. Digesting and regurgitating, sometimes in almost original form and other times in unrecognisable confusion. Leading to questions from others, not sure of where we stand, their need to know, pretending not to care, yet seeking the safety of answers that fit their way, the safe way of thinking.
We stand everywhere and nowhere. We wade in cool rivers/we tread in dogshit. Creating only for ourselves. Taking anything from our surroundings we desire or find necessary...Alternative media...Mindfuck to oblivion...A disjointed, chaotic view of this fucked up, ever decaying globe. Gladly we take our part in the information/disinformation war in a fearless way. Ours is a wide open mouth sucking deadlife media cock. Ours is a wide open arsehole shitting out deadlife media junk food. This here is the stink and defiance of a blanket protest. A big fuck off to "peer group pressure". No attempt is made to conform, to speak your / their words. Always the fight against those who would control our minds and our bodies. In this our weapons are our very lives.
"The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom"
By Brian Duguid (1995)
No, not an article on Test Dept., for those of you who expected such a thing! Instead, inspired by The Grey Wolves, I'd like to take a look at fascist imagery in "industrial" and experimental music.As most of you will be aware, this kind of music is riddled with such imagery, both overt and covert. Experimental musicians, most notably Throbbing Gristle, have used the symbology of fascism, claiming that they desired to challenge preconceptions and to create a more open-minded audience. The punks made extensive use of the swastika. As part of their nihilistic rejection of society's established values, they felt the need to espouse the unacceptable, in order to adequately express their disgust with the world in which they lived. Victims of what they saw as authoritarian aggression, they responded instinctively by reflecting back that social violence in the form of an anti-social shock.
Yugoslavian avant-garde rock band Laibach adopt the appearance of totalitarianism to explore both our authoritarian society and the authoritarian nature of "rock" music. Often accused of being fascists, their extensive use of ironic humour acts as a reminder that they are not what they seem. They use the symbols both of Nazism and religion, and are clearly of the opinion that to be able to subvert and destroy the state you must first enter and understand it. Others use not the superficial imagery of fascism but the real ethos of dictatorship in their attempts to provoke a response and expose control mechanisms. One example includes Non, who in the early eighties played concerts consisting of unbearably loud and physical rhythmic music. Audiences either fled from this authoritarian onslaught or accepted and explored the pleasure of submission.
Many of the hardbeat groups look distinctly jackbooted in their espousal of extreme physical discipline, and their replication of fascist chic throughout their presentation. Given that most of them profess to be opposed to the existing social order, they spend a lot of time replicating its style and symbols. Bands like Manufacture, Front 242 and others use hard, militaristic rhythms, coupled with samples of rightwingers and religious nutcases, presenting the raw data of their info-environment without comment. We are "expected" to understand that although these bands look like fascists, they are in fact opposed to fascism. Inevitably, they attract neo-Nazis to their music whether they like it or not. Even socialists like Test Dept have been described as "thugs of the new left" due to their masculine, angry, violent presentation.
Others are even more dubious. Death in June pepper their albums with skulls, runic images and paramilitary style, and have appeared on stage in brownshirts in the past. Their love of seemingly fascist gestures extends to what they lovingly describe as "the European dream", a pan-continental supernation. Depending on your point of view this may seem a noble goal, a right-wing insanity, or just a particularly naive piece of romanticism. Staying in a similar musical clique, Whitehouse and their label Come Org have used sufficiently extreme rhetoric not only in public but also in private for even the most forgiving liberal conscience to shy away from giving them the benefit of the doubt. The blatant racism of Whitehouse's William Bennett appears to have few pretensions to being a sophisticated cultural critique, despite many fans' illusions. Whitehouse's live events frequently involved lavish helpings of racial abuse, alienating many of those who were sufficiently liberal to give them a chance in the first place.
And there are others: cassette artists working in this area include the likes of the AWB group, extreme right-wing racists who have chosen to work in the experimental electronics world, and Con-Dom, a solo project from the British Isles, which attempts to explore themes of control and domination through the use of a primitivist wall of noise. The cassette underground contains numerous examples of artists exploring this sort of territory, and whilst it's certainly a valid expression, it all begins to seem a little samey and unimaginative after a while. As T.G. made clear, surface Nazism is very stylish. Black and red and silver make a very attractive colour scheme, and fascist insignia are extremely powerful symbols. The imagery can be traced back to the Italian Futurist movement, with its love of striking, dynamic art. Most users of motifs like the swastika, like Jim Thirlwell, of Foetus, explain their use simply in terms of a desire to use visuals that they like, that they find psychically resonant.
Even four decades after what the Allies ridiculously claimed to be the death of fascism, the imagery retains its powerful fascination. Extremism of any sort reverberates deep within our psyche: it touches parts of the unconscious that more moderate philosophies are unable to reach. And of course, the punks reminded us of just how provocative the swastika remained after many years. Throwing the establishment's own excrement back into its throat is sure to result in a nauseous reaction. For groups intent on outraging society, fascism was a powerful weapon. Time at last to stamp in turn on the boot that had stamped on you, even if the only methods you had for doing so were those that the authorities had themselves taught you.
It's debatable whether such tactics were ever productive, however. Certainly, they didn't change the system, only reinforcing its repressive desires. The desire to shock seemed frequently to be born more out of a rejection of society than out of any embrace of a positive alternative. Mummy won't let us play so we scream and shout - this is all that provocation often amounted to. It was based on the same emotions as those of the screaming child. Our environment is unpleasant and destructive, but we do not feel we have the power to do anything about it. In such a situation, nihilism is the only viable option, but it rests upon a false assumption. We are not powerless, and to accept that we are, and do nothing but complain, can only further set back our chances of realising our true desires. Nihilism is counter-revolutionary, disempowering, and to this extent the widespread adoption of fascist imagery as a shock strategy was doomed to miserable failure. Additionally, in adopting the violent tactics of the oppressor, punk and the other protestors were admitting that they had no alternatives to offer, thus validating the initial oppression. The authoritarian state thrives on violent rebellion, using it as its own justification.
However, many scions of industrial culture would claim that their attempts to shock were more than just screams of outrage. They would claim, as for example S.P.K. did when exhibiting violent sexual imagery in their work, that the intent of the shock was to jolt people out of their everyday slumber, to awaken in them the idea that perhaps all this extreme material could be treated objectively, not just the subject of a knee-jerk reaction as was usually the case. Personally, I find this pretty doubtful, as the repetition of any image tends only to reimprint the associations that it already had. In other words, people who found the imagery disgusting in the first place are unlikely to change their minds just because they see the imagery again. I'm going to leave a consideration of the adoption of an aggressive, possibly fascist, style by groups like Laibach, Test Dept and the various hardbeat bands for another time. Instead, we have in front of us an example of the use of extreme imagery taken towards one logical conclusion: The Grey Wolves.
By now, a century after literature and art experienced various outbursts of taboo-breaking extremism, all this may seem to be a case of retreading paths that have been walked too many times already. It may seem fair to criticise those who are still exploring the dark side of humanity of substituting the use of originality with a formula known to be good at attracting attention. Is this a fair comment on Thee Grey Wolves? Named, if I'm not mistaken after a right-wing Turkish terrorist group (much as fellow extreme electronics outfit Terre Blanche adopt the moniker of South African fascist and head of the terrorist A.W.B. commandos, Eugene Terre-Blanche; or as S.P.K. claimed the name of the Sozialistisches Patienten Kollektiv), Thee Grey Wolves began life in 1985. Its two members have also worked on solo projects as Tactical Aid Group and Nails Ov Christ, and run their own cassette labels Artaman Tapes and Strength Through Awareness.
Claiming to be manifestations of the "Cultural Terrorism Network", The Grey Wolves try to adopt a uniformly extreme attitude to what they release. Their crude mail-order catalogues are peppered with crypto-fascist symbols, pictures of terrorists, Nazis and the like. Their cassette releases include "Red Terror Black Terror", "Atrocity Exhibition" and "Legion of Hell". Amongst the current projects of David Padbury (alias Crystal Knight) is "120 Days of Sodom" a planned exhibition of extreme (and probably illegal) mail-art. The intent of this last seems to be to test the limits as much as possible - to break taboos and air issues by the use of shock treatment - but whether or not this bears much relation to the Marquis de Sade's infamous novel of the same name is debatable. There was far more to "Sodom" than the desire to shock and test boundaries.
The music? Oh yes, the music! Like many other groups producing "extreme electronics", their sound is that of the inside of the experimental animal's head, the scream of the gas chamber and the agony of civilisation collapsing. At least, that's one interpretation. Alternatively, I could succinctly describe it as "unlistenable noise". In reality, the music falls somewhere between the two. Harsh, painful, chaotic noisescapes, not sufficiently disjointed or extreme as to be really unlistenable: amidst the sonic sludge there is a latent structure lurking somewhere. Out of the chaos you feel almost able to pick out subliminal themes and elements - but it's possible that this is aural hallucination. Although primarily designed, it seems, to repel the listener, the music is listenable enough that it can seem almost beautiful once you've reeducated your ears. As atmospheric music it's fine, if a little crude, if the kind of atmosphere you like is that found inside an abattoir. As a soundtrack to apocalypse it's a failure, coming nowhere near to reflecting the horror that hides in real life. To a certain extent, it could be argued that if you've heard one wall of noise, you've heard them all, but this isn't fair. Noise music contains a far greater array of possibilities than might seem immediately evident. It can be mindless, violent, serene, obnoxious, beautiful.
As far as noise = music is concerned, other artists have explored that idea far more than The Grey Wolves have done, a personal favourite being the American musician PBK, who has succeeded in his attempt to develop an attractive noise aesthetic. And, as I said above, as far as noise = statement is concerned, I believe music of any kind is never capable of presenting anything other than a debased form of real extremity. It's easy to react to the group's imagery on a simple, instinctive, and immediate level. The imagery is repellent (to any reasonably socially aware conscience) and so why should anyone bother to look further into it? If you are opposed to fascism and are unable to decide on the basis of what the group is saying whether or not they are fascists, shouldn't you err on the side of caution? Even if you believe they are not, why should you be interested in all this unpleasant imagery anyway? If, as they claim, The Grey Wolves see it as their role to present us with information which we would rather ignore, to remind us of the true face of fascism, doesn't it seem sensible to say: "Ok, that's the true face of fascism - I know what it is, and I don't want anything to do with it"? And if I want to see what fascism's about, I don't need The Grey Wolves to tell me: there are plenty of real examples to choose from without needing their secondhand representations.
Taboo-breaking is usually acknowledged to be a worthwhile activity. Groups like Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth promote it as a means of ridding ourselves of social indoctrination and rediscovering our "true intuitive will". As far as most taboos are concerned, this is fine, since most taboo actions are not in fact anti-social. Taboos against violence are another matter, since they crystallise what even many taboo-breakers would consider to be useful principles. How far do you go in your search for your inner self? Can you justify behaving in a "bad" way because you feel it is necessary to explore both the dark and light sides of your personality? Are the results of such self-exploration so important as to outweigh the effects on others of that exploration? Many of the earlier "industrial" artists explored these areas: Throbbing Gristle and Monte Cazazza are amongst the best examples. It's arguable that their exploration of the extreme went further than The Grey Wolves would ever go since as well as just flirting with the imagery, they privately experienced and publicly performed any number of sadistic and taboo activities, of which, Cosey Fanni Tutti's exposure in pornographic magazines is probably the best remembered. And they're far from the only ones.
Out with the musical ghettos, artists like Rudolf Schwartzkogler have explored extreme areas in depth. Schwartzkogler, an Austrian, died in 1969 after a series of performances involving self-mutilation. His compatriot Hermann Nitsch is particularly well known for his 1970s projects, in which the public participated in cathartic rituals involving real animal sacrifice, attempting to communicate with instincts generally anaesthetised by Western social alienation. Time after time those members of the experimental music underground with an interest in Charles Manson, Jim Jones, Hitler and the other popular icons of extreme evil, seem to justify their interest in such things with the simplistic and idiotic "it's what I like, so it must be all right", appealing to the anarchistic belief that everyone should be allowed to follow their innermost desires. When those desires lead them to express fascination with mass-murderers, I begin to wonder exactly where we can draw the line. Knowing your enemy is all very well, but the interests shown by people like Boyd Rice (Non) frequently seem to cross the border that separates morbid from obsessive and dangerous. But it's not just a question of how you or I or the groups themselves react to fascist and violent allusions. How do others react upon coming into contact with these bands?
Some people are attracted by the simple clarity of fascism expressed within the style of bands like Front 242, Last Few Days and many others. Fascist rhetoric attracts fascists - a simple equation. If you don't want to attract such people, then you shouldn't use their rallying imagery in your publicity. This implies that anyone who uses such imagery is happy to associate with fascists, and willing to be labeled as such. Clearly, they don't find this insulting, or presumably they would do something about it. Others are repelled. If you have suffered the effects of racism at first hand, then you may find it hard to find any liberal sympathy for those supposed sophisticates who plaster their album sleeves in swastikas. You may say this is just the result of their inability to challenge and overcome their conditioned preconceptions. I agree. I also suspect that anyone saying this would be showing a complete inability to understand exactly what it is that has produced this conditioning in the first place. If I had learned to associate the carving of NF on my door with the pushing of burning rags through my letterbox, I don' think I'd have much time for anyone asking me to challenge my preconceptions when presented with a pseudo-Nazi record cover.
It is perhaps reasonable to claim that it is desirable for the audience to reach their own conclusions about the information a band presents, rather than having the band's "right on" opinions shoved down their throats. Nobody likes to be preached at after all, and the mutual back-slapping that is the essence of a socialist band playing to a socialist audience is never going to provoke any thought in either party, only reinforce their prejudices. But should bands be so afraid of expressing their own opinions that they have to shelter behind the expression of supposedly "objective" information instead? I'm happy to accept a bit of subjectivity from the group's I listen to. If I want pure facts I'll go to a library. This particular problem is acute for The Grey Wolves, who do try to present their material as simple documentation. Their own opinions are rarely expressed, as they feel it is better to let the information speak for itself without any distorting subjective coloration.
Nonetheless, even The Grey Wolves have been forced to declare themselves opponents of fascism, as it has become clear to them that if they do not make their position clear then their audience will err on the side of caution, and stay away. This means that, like Laibach with their irony, they have had to temper their deliberately confusionist stance with a certain disclaimer, and as a result what they present can never again be so challenging. If we know that they are not really fascists, then the ambiguity of their presentation is removed - we know that they disapprove of what they are releasing, and we know how we are "expected" to react. The necessities of real life prevent them from adopting the absolute statement that they seem to desire to make. Confusion as a revolutionary tool has a long history.
Within the present century it has been well documented, from the dada art movement (and others) onwards to fluxus and beyond. In Zurich and Berlin, the Dada movement hurled abuse at its audience, shat on the art of the past, and gleefully espoused every paradox it could find. While Kennedy and Kruschev faced off in 1962, flux-artist Robin Page turned what seemed like a rock gig into a potent experience when he kicked his guitar out of the building and down the street, the bewildered audience following close behind. Never let the audience know what is going on, since that way lies certainty, safety, and the end of anything challenging. This motto has served large numbers of artists well in the past, and, applied particularly to controversial and ambiguous politics, it creates a vigorous and interesting result. If people are sure of what you are saying, then it can be argued that they will accept it at face value without thinking very deeply about it. If your statement is not clear cut, then they have to decide what they think it means, and this immediately forces them to give it deeper consideration. In other words, confusionism is a tool for provoking thought.
In this arena, The Grey Wolves succeed, despite the seeming lack of originality of their subject matter. Unlike the various industrial bands who have dabbled in extreme areas, (with the possible exception of Whitehouse), The Wolves make it the sole focus of their art, and in doing so focus on all the questions which surround the area. It is also fair to say that extreme situations demand extreme responses. And surely anyone who still believes that we do not live in an extreme situation has had their eyes and ears tightly shut for most of their life. Increasingly complex formal social organisation has created an environment where the stresses and strains of everyday life that would be easily dissipated by a more flexible and responsive political system are routed into artificial outlets. These stresses accumulate in the gaps between the hierarchical lines of communication, unable to be dealt with by a fixed system that cannot adapt quickly enough to new problems. As a result, the cracks begin to show more and more often, as our entire social structure suffers a nasty form of stress fatigue. The problems are there, as everyone knows, and as everyone knows the problems are not being dealt with, but wallpapered over in the hope that some future generation will have the ability to deal with them.
But extreme responses do not necessarily mean an extremely violent or nihilistic response. There are other forms of extremity. If our only desire is to draw people's attention away from the television set back to reality, to expose the civilised world as a sham, then nihilism is a good way of going about things. In the dark form favoured by many industrial artists, it represents an expression of discontent that cannot be easily repackaged and resold by the establishment, as punk was, for example. However, it's debatable whether it achieves anything else. Negative criticism is never enough on its own. Many of the groups frequently lumped in under the "industrial" banner appear to have recognised this to some extent. Test Dept, whose original performances and records were brutal expressions of anger, have softened their work as they have progressed, attempting to put out a more mature statement of their position. On their album, Terra Firma, they adopted a "green" awareness, but in general they have remained most comfortable as critics of oppression rather than attempting to offer solutions to it. To a great extent, this is a fear of becoming didactic, of telling the audience how they are expected to respond instead of leaving them to make up their own minds. Equally, it's because the group have no real political program to offer, only a rather simplistic form of socialist consciousness.
Similarly, Nocturnal Emissions have moved away from the tactics of information overload, and from their aggressively presented reaction to their world, adopting in the last few years a more atmospheric musical style. Having decided that their is no future in just shouting against injustice, NE have tried to explore a more personal field, using instinct and the unconscious as their route to a more positive philosophy and a less reactive source of strength. So clearly, there are problems with trying to create a more positive response to post-industrial society, with everyone who has rejected the extreme approach shying clear of preaching their personal solution. Maybe they just don't have the courage of their own convictions, and so are afraid to lay them on the table, open to criticism. Or maybe they appreciate that there is little point moving into a situation where both performer and audience explicitly share the same opinions, becoming trapped within their mutually reinforcing ideology.
But can replicating fascist ideology ever lead to its destruction? Are the supposed liberals only doing the Nazis' dirty work by creating a climate where the expression of fascist desires is deemed somehow made acceptable? Doesn't violence only breed violence? Many, including The Grey Wolves argue that violence is the only solution we have left to face up against the Godzilla state. Anyone who believes that a rebellion in this country wouldn't be met by the armed response familiar from Tianamen Square, Jerusalem, Kurdestan and elsewhere is living in a fantasy. Riots in Philadelphia, USA, led to the military being called in to "restore order", with tanks on the streets to keep the populace submissive. The only difference between that and China is a linguistic one: we call it "rioting" if it happens here, and "rebellion" if it happens anywhere else; "terrorism" if it happens here, and "guerilla warfare" elsewhere. Investigations into the P2 masonic conspiracy in Italy uncovered links with the Italian extreme right-wing Gladio organisation, in turn linked to paramilitary forces in Britain which train regularly to ensure readiness for any "communist" takeover. The world we live in is a far more violent and oppressive place than the dailies would have us believe, and the argument that such a state can only be fought by using its own tactics is a powerful one.
Violence is inevitably authoritarian and repressive: it is the forcible destruction of another person's freedom, even if only their freedom not to suffer pain. The question is not whether use of violent imagery is "good". It is not. It is a question of whether or not the ends desired justify the use of such means. And still there is the unspoken assumption that there is no alternative: we can only destroy thestate by taking on its mantle. Is this the only choice we are left with or are there other alternatives?
Response from The Grey Wolves to Brian
"In your letter you seemed to suggest that The Grey Wolves hold a basically nihilistic outlook on life - this is not the case at all. Whilst basically our approach is anarchic we deal in the ambiguity that you spoke of for several reasons: if anything we do makes just one person think 'What the fuck is the point in them doing that?' it has all been worthwhile, because it has made people question. If people are questioning then they are alive and thinking. Confusion is the key issue. It was recently pointed out to me in an indirect way that the majority of our work deals with the subject of control. If I could use the example of control and how we use ambiguity in a positive way, it may make things a little clearer. There is a poster we did showing some bloke being arrested by plain clothes cops - his arms behind his back, face shoved to the ground, cops with pistols drawn - the caption over this picture reads 'Say No to Democracy'. Anyway, the point is that some people thought we were advocating a totalitarian state whilst other people thought we were being ironic in as much as we were trying to say 'Look, this is what democracy is really about!' Either perspective we are quite happy to live with, as the objective of the poster was to make people think about democracy, even if it was only for a few seconds."
Ikkashinju - Complete Discography '85-'89
Hella nihilistic Japcore classic(s)! No metal or noise, but plenty of black eyes and teeth embedded into fists (I'd seriously entertain chisme of these guys boxing entire squadrons of Bosozuku). Definitively ebaycore, why blow a year's worth of childcare for your ugly kid when you can have the soundtrack to your cokehead snapper life for free? http://www.mediafire.com/file/crjw9wmhhws8hnj/Ikkashinju_-_All_EPs.zip/file
Hell - "Satanic Death" Demo '85
Slayercore? Check.Germany? Check.
Grotty recording and dupe? Check.
Only release? Check.
Completely forgotten? Check.
Actually semi-good? Check Check Check Check double-Check CHECK!!!
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