Dogpop * In God/Dog We Trust (cd 2007 umb)
Yesterday the first day of the Tesco Festival took place in Antwerpen with Ure Thrall, Dogpop and Galerie Schallschutz. Unfortunately I cannot go to see Genocide Organ, Janitor and Post Scriptvm tonight. I was interested to see Dogpop. Their “Popgod” debut 12″ may not be brilliant, but it surely is refreshing and interesting so I was curious what these industrial veterans would do on stage. Well, the LP contains strange experiments with a sound somewhere between old synthpop/electro and industrial and maybe what some people like to call “antipop”. If you know Thorofon and Geneviéve Pasquier, you might be able to get an idea of the sound. What was most remarkable yesterday, was that the sound is much more (back to) industrial with almost noise tracks even. Also there were silly tunes. Maybe for their tour, Dogpop released a “live without band” cd, limited to 100 copies with 11 years of material (!!). I don’t know if this cd is only sold at concerts. Also on this cd, the sound differs a bit from the LP, but of course the music remains that weird Dogpop sound with dance, acid, synthypop, etc. sounds and industrial, ambient and a bit of noise, all in all: Dogpop. Very nice and interesting enough to keep an eye on.
Links: Dogpop, UMB Kollektiv
After a few times having quitted the project, Albin Julius again anounced a few last releases. Here we have a 7″ with the title of the upcoming cd (and cd+7″ box) with one track of the cd and of course one exclusive one. Der Blutharsch again managed to sound like Der Blutharsch, but different from before. As anounced, there are no more “martial” influences in the sound. The two tracks are rather soft experimental industrial rock or whatever you want to call it. In the line of the last material, but a bit different. The tracks are not bad, not great, but I find that Der Blutharsch’ music usually comes out better on an album where they are in line of the other tracks, so I have no fears that the next last release, will again be a nice one.
Also Galerie Schallschutz played in Antwerp last night. Amazing when you think of it that their last cd is of 2005. I (thought I) knew Galerie Schallschutz, I was even under the impression that I had one of their two albums, but when I wanted to play one last week, I discovered that I actually didn’t own anything of them… This German project gave away a nice show. There thematic dark ambient soundscapes has some industrial and sometimes noisy influences and works around the subject of secret governental projects to influence their citizens. The first cd HAARP is about high frequency experiments to use as a weapon, with the Montauk Project the US government supposedly tried to create ‘psychological weaponry’. Musically this is poored into dark and eerie soundscapes, that are sometimes a bit too monotous, but nevertheless pretty interesting. For the show of last night, the band seems to have combined the themes and the music of both albums and added a piece of theater in which they tried to create ‘a 1984 atmosphere’ with three actors, mirrors, light effects and night-vision live images of the audience. Like the music, the show was sometimes a bit too long, but interesting still. The cd, by the way, comes in a luxery DVD size digipack with quite some information about the thematics and one of these images that changes when you look at it another way. Well done, surely thoughtfull and interesting and I guess it is about time for a new album.
“Iznutri” is a Russian compilation “dedicated to the happy end of times”. It contains 16 bands in a variety of styles. Most tracks are ambient soundscapes, though, and too monotous too. For the rest you will hear some neofolk, industrial and more experimental things. However there are some ‘big names’ here (Cisfinitum, Allerseelen, Reutoff, Sal Solaris, Troum, Cyclotimia and O Paradis), the compilation is not good at all. There are only two alright tracks (O Paradis and Neutral, bands that I am usually not too fond of). For the rest, not for me…
No wonder that I never heard of this project, it is from the metal scene. Trist brings a double cd of which the first is called “Hin” and the second “Fort”. The first cd contains one one hour long track, the second cd shorter tracks (but still upto 15 minutes). The style is what I would call “noisescapes”, monotous noisy dark ambient. The first cd is way too long and too monotous, the tracks on the second cd often open very dark with horror samples and a great atmosphere, but unfortunately, also these tend to become a bit too monotous. Yet, this double cd is not bad at all, especially not for people who like extremely dark ambient.
I have known Thorofon for years, but haven’t really known them. I have some tracks on compilations, but they never really caught my attention. A while ago an lp of Dogpop was announced which is described as: “between minimal cold electronic classics with a distinctive German voice and soundtrack-like dreams with a touch of antipop”. I was interested enough to order a copy, but I got a note that it was sold out (it seems to be available (again) from different distributors though), so I looked for it with P2P and actually found it too. Indeed, “Popgod” is a strange release with strangely accessible sounds somewhere between old-style industrial and electro/EBM, or maybe more a Neubauten sound. Nice, but not great, so I didn’t get myself the lp yet, but maybe when they play in Antwerp next week. In any case, probably because of the involvement of Thorofon in Dogpop, I apparently also downloaded “This Summer Suicide” and completely forgot to listen to it. When I later had to fill half an hour (I always play music when I am at home) and saw Thorofon I thought: “oh well, nobody has died yet from half an hour of power electronics” (usually I spare my girlfriend). I was still under the impression that Thorofon was one of these old noise/power electronics projects with chaotic sounds and screamed vocals. To my surprise I heard music that I had hoped Dogpop would sound like! From old fashioned (I mean: retro) industrial to nice accessible dance sounds (Neubauten-like?) and here and there some harder industrial and noise tracks. “This Summer Suicide” is really a great album, an industrial classic even! It all reminds a bit of the later material of Haus Arafna, balancing between harsch electronics and more ‘easy listening’ material, but with the difference that Thorofon’s accessible tracks are more accessible than Haus Arafna’s and the industrial parts have a more classical sound. To my surprise there are still copies available of the 500 that are pressed of this album (I got my copy from Steinklang) and it comes in a very nice A5 packaging too. If you are looking for a great industrial album with a refreshing sound, get “This Summer Suicide” (meanwhile I have downloaded another album which is more an old fashioned noise album with indeed chaotic sounds and screamed vocals) and maybe if you like the less-industrial tracks, you may want to listen to Dogpop and The Musick Wreckers (Thorofon is dead and they became TMW).
“This record is the end of Thorofon and the beginning of The Musick Wreckers. Anton Knilpert transforms to Dan Courtman. Sound transforms to Sound.” Thus says the back of this 7″. Thorofon delivers two rather typical and not too good industrial tracks, The Musick Wreckers come up with two weird tracks that are hard to describe. Batcave-like sung/spoken vocals, a strange sampled country-guitar and a weird poppy industrial sound. I don’t know what to call this. There are terms going around such as “antipop”, “angstpop” or “krankpop”, but I don’t know what people mean by them, so I cannot say if they would apply to The Musick Wreckers. Still I guess you can now form an idea of the music, being it only a bit.
This is the first DVD in a series of eight with ‘view and sound’ of the Steinklang festival of October 2004. The first half hour is for Operation Julmond, a not too appealing noise show, neither visually nor musically. The images and sound is good though, so watching the show it no punishment. Of Wappenbund I may have had too high expectations, but their hour on this DVD isn’t that interesting at all. The sound is by far not as good as with Operation Julmond, the music is mostly nothing compared the to albums and the show isn’t too appealing either. For both shows go that they have been filmed with several cameras and the montage is very well done. For the rest, this DVD is just live footage of industrial shows. They were probably better when you were there.