Gangleri – musicreviews

I have had this compilation on the computer for some time, but good things I want to have ‘for real’. This compilation celebrated 10 years of Galakthorrö and opens with an old style harsch industrial noise track of Haus Arafna. The second track is also for Haus Arafna, but this time more the ‘new style’. Subliminal continues with two harsch noise tracks, but things get more tranquil with Karl Runau. Then follow two magnificent tracks that were mostly the reason for me buying this cd. Maska Genetik is unfortunately no longer on Galakthorrö and even seems to cease to excist, but his two noisy disco-industrial tracks are very much Galakthorrö and some of the best tracks this label released. Of course the compilation would not be complete without November Növelet, two great “angstpop” (and/or “kalte welle”?) tracks in the “From Heaven On Earth” style. Unfortunately the running time is only 38 minutes…

Those who fear that Galakthorrö is becoming soft with the newer sound of Haus Arafna and November Növelet, releases of Herman Kopp and Herz Jühning can rest assured tonight: Subliminal made another total noise album. The first two tracks lets you get used to the fact just mentioned, but from track three on, you get some rather harsch noise with distorted vocals. Subliminal has released another album on Galakthorrö (“Gracebudd” 2000), but I don’t know it and they appear on the excellent “Galakthorrö – Kosmoloko” compilation (2004, which I have no legal copy of yet, so I haven’t reviewed it). “Coping” reminds quite a bit of the harscher side of Haus Arafna here and there. I wonder how it comes that Galakthorrö projects somehow all seem to have a sound based on whatever sound mr. and mrs. Arafna have produced. Does the label manage to track down such projects, are they involved in them theirselves, it this a group of friends working in the same studio? Whether it is noise, “angstpop” or “Kalte Welle”, it is not too hard to recognise a Galakthorrö sound in projects. As long as it is good, this does not matter of course. Subliminal is surely no Haus Arafna copy and like I said: if people think that Haus Arafna got too soft, they can now buy “Coping”.
Links: Subliminal, Galakthorrö

A long time I didn’t really know Haus Arafna, their other project or their label. Almost five years ago I decided to buy a Haus Arafna album and reading back my review of that time I found the album just fine at the time. I guess the cd grew on me, since I consider “Butterfly” to be a masterpiece nowadays. I didn’t come to buy more Haus Arafna music, but apparently started to look for their material on the P2P network that I use sometimes (rarely actually). I have some other Haus Arafna albums on the computer by now, some are nice, some are too noisy and none is as good as “Butterfly”. I suppose in the process of looking for Haus Arafna material, I also ran into the sublime album “Magic” of November Növelet, which I bought immediately. Somewhere along the line I also pulled “From Heaven On Earth” off the web and this album is not only definately good enough to buy, but also still available even though it’s quite old. “From Heaven On Earth” is not as much a disco cd as “Magic”, but has more of that odd Galakthorrö style of music: minimalistic, a bit ambient, a bit industrial, some soft rhythms and a lot of weird sounds. The style is dark and charming, elusive and provocative and most of all: very original. “From Heaven On Earth” could be an album for people who don’t like the harscher side of Haus Arafna (you just have to get used to it!) and perhaps also for people who find “Magic” too poppy, but “More Satanic Heroes” (1994) too harsch. It’s quite a typical Galakthorrö release, but as long as it’s only Galakthorrö releasing this kind of stuff, I don’t mind the ‘typicallity’.
There is a 7″ just released, I hope to be able to review it soon. Two of the four tracks can be listened on the band’s Myspace, check out the links.
Links: November Növelet, Galakthorrö

Murpey’s Law caused some delay to this release, but I finally got my copy yesterday. In the series of DVDs with reports of the shows at the October 2004 Steinklang festival in Vienna/Wien, this is the second. Here we have to rhythmical industrial/noise projects. Tormentum is not too great, only a few nice tracks in their 41 minutes. The sound-quality is not too good either, the right speaker sounds really flat and no, that is not caused by my equipment. Thorofon is more interesting in every way. The sound quality is much better (fortunately), the visuals are more interesting (two persons on stage and they even walk around, plus they include a woman and that helps too), the music is more interesting. It is no This Summer Suicide, but Thorofon showed both their old fashioned noise side and the more rhythmical sound. 52 minutes, not such a bad deal!
Links: Thorofon, Steinklang

For their hundreth release The Old Europa Café label has released a 7-cd compilation with a track of each band and project they have been involved in during the years. However looking around the internet it seems like the bands are featured alphabetically, this is not the case, the cds are ordered somewhat thematically / according to style. “Somewhat” I say, since it is not completely that there are industrial and folk cds, there is some overlap. That is only for the better, the compiler of the cds has a rather good ear for things. In the beginning I had the idea that there are alternally more industrial and more folky cds, but this is not entirely true. The compilation opens with a cd with mostly not too extreme noise, a nice cd. Then follows a cd with more (neo)folky music, but not the too typical sounds of a compilation that I reviewed a few days ago. Then we have cds with power electronics and the extreme, chaotic style that isn’t mine, but also more old industrial things, strange experimental soundscape music and more of an old neofolk cd that I find awfull (Ain Soph, that sort of bands). Having heard the whole thing, my temporary conclusion is that the first cds are the most interesting and towards the end are some cds that I will probably never play. I think that four out of seven cds are enough of my taste to put in the player every now and then, so the “price/quality balance” is not that bad.

We didn’t put limits to the sound stiles, so here you can really hear all the sounds of the Industrial sub-culture featured on OEC !

This is a sure thing and it would be utterly impossible if everybody would love everything on this “mammoth compilation”, but I guess that for people who like the better stuff from the scene, there will be plenty to enjoy on “The Old Europa Café”.
-3-

Those of you who follow these pages will already know that I find the musical current called “neofolk” has been in a downwards spiral for quite a few years. There was an interesting thing when some bands started to experiment with poppy sounds, but after a short trend, also these poppy influences have already been removed. Judging the second half of the fourth Steinklang label compilation, “neofolk” is back to its minimalistic, unimaginable and boring sound. Unfortunately it seems that also kindred musical currents seem to have been infected by the virus of dullness, since the “industrial / noise / electronic” tracks of the first half of this cd are pretty boring as well. Besides a few good moments, this new compilation is an awfull compilation, a downwards trail since number II (I don’t have the first). There are a whole bunch of bands that I didn’t know or that I only knew by name, but this obviously was for the better. So now I wonder: does this compilation represent the poor state of the scene or is it another omen that I am growing away from it?
-1-

My girlfriend wanted to have this cd because she ones wrote a paper about the Austrian poet Georg Trakl and Heidegger’s analysis of his symbolic texts. With three tracks of each band, this nicely packed album makes about 50 minutes. The Allerseelen tracks are not bad, but like usually with Allerseelen, the tracks start with a nice idea, but keep repeating it until the tracks end. Neutral has tranquil piano tracks with the poets spoken on the background. Otzepenevshiye is a strange project with strange tracks. Not a bad cd, but certainly no masterpiece.
Links: Allerseelen, Neutral, Otzepenevshiye.

The Eastern Front has released a very nice double cd compilation with a whole range of famous bands on the first cd, most of them not from their own label. Cd 1 (“Grief”) has bands such as the resurrected Belborn, Cold Fusion, Cawatana, Kammer Sieben and Horologium and includes a cooperation between H.E.R.R. and Von Tronstahl. Most tracks are bombastic and militant, sometimes more orchestral, sometimes more neofolky and in most cases quite enjoyable. The second cd (“Birth of Psyche”) has mostly more minimalistic and ambient tracks from Artefactum, Rose Rovine, Shining Vril, Bisclaveret and a range of projects that are new to me. This cd surely isn’t bad, but less interesting than the first cd, but the projects Wach and Sitra Ahra offer a nice surprise. Both cds have a running time of well over an hour, so you get what you pay for! The simple but very nice booklet looks good, like we get used to from this label and also the limited amount of 1000 copies goes for this compilation. I noticed that it is available from about every descent mailorder, so it shouldn’t be too hard to lay your hands on a copy.
Link: The Eastern Front

I probably don’t have to tell you, but November Növelet is another project of Haus Arafna and Galakthorrö is mr. and mrs. Arafna’s label. It is only since a few years that I got to know and appreciate Haus Arafna. I hadn’t really listed to November Növelet yet, but what I heard it seemed that this was the Arafna harsch noise project while Haus Arafna evolved towards a more accessible sound. This assumption turns out to be wrong, because “Magic” is more ‘easy listening’ than anything that has been released under the monicker Haus Arafna (as far as I know). The album opens with minimalistic and even atmospheric sounds as it can be only made by the couple Arafna, but as the album continues the sound goes more towards 80′ies synthpop with of course an odd twist. It seems that the Arafna’s undergo a similar evolution as for example Thorofon who also started as a harsch noise project, but later got a sound that some call “antipop”. This album of November Növelet will appeal to people who enjoy the last Thorofon album, Dogpop, Geneviève Pasquier and the like. Also where in earlier days mr. and mrs. Arafna were always shown with gasmasks on, they now can be seen in both projects with their real faces and for “Magic” even with an “Austin Powers”-like photoshoot! I must say that I enjoy this development in industrial music, the older the musicians get, the crazier it seems. The music is easy to listen to, but strange enough to avoid the masses (also because of the names they are released under I guess), so if you share that weird musical sense of humour, you might want to get a copy of “Magic”.
Link: November Növelet, Galakthorrö
-4-

Around since at least 1986 with dozens of releases, yet (I think) this is the first time that I hear them. 16 Tracks and 71 minutes with music as strange as Oblivion Ensemble (see below), but Sigillum S doesn’t just make weird soundscapes, because besides theses collages of sounds, samples and voices, there is also pretty loud industrial rock that may even appeal to people who like Marilyn Manson, NIN or Ministry. There are also more jazzy things. The larger part are the soundscapes, either or not with an industrial or noisy edge, but with the completely different tracks there is variety enough to make this an interesting album.

Links: Sigillum S / Verba Corrige Production
-3-