United Forces of Industrial IV London 29.04.2017.

United Forces of Industrial IV London 29.04.2017.

UFoI setlist.

Attending the Saturday of United Forces at Electrowerkz in London was a bittersweet event. The impressive footage  of the previous night makes me very aware I only saw one great night of two. EDGE OF DECAY, ARMOUR GROUP, SHIFT/KOUFAR, KEVLAR and KE/HIL were all said to be on impressive form. 

Military Position is the project of Australian based artist Kate Harriet Morgan. PVC clad and pissed off Morgan gave an angry set that combined harsh, repetitive electronics and rabid vocals. Knives and chains were rubbed against contact mics until they gave out. Military Position’s set intensified to a climatic end with Morgan swinging way too closely at the audience with her chain. The institution themed background film’s female narrative wasn’t present, it was replaced by Military Position’s fucked off, threatening barrage. Morgan was confident, strong and in-control. Her set was impressive through its’ sheer dominance and aggression.

She Spread Sorrow is Italian based Alice Kundalini, formerly of Deviated Sister TV, has released one album ‘Rumspringa’ on Cold Spring and is soon to release ‘Mine’ on the same label. Her whispered vocals and low level Deathscapes worked in perfect conjunction with her background videos. They featured a young girl moving and posing in a kind of abstract narrative that was contextualised further by Kundalini’s whispers and chimes as electronics rumbled and echoed in the low levels. She Spread Sorrow delivered a fractured nightmare of a performance, clearly a leader and not a follower. 

Haare is the project of Ilkka Vekka from Finland. For this live appearance Haare was a duo, with another guy on laptop and electronics while Vekka played guitar. The guitar work was digital and affected, it wasn’t all riffs and solos, more in line with how Sutcliffe Jügend use electric guitar. The set was abstract, psychedelic, occult laden topped with complex visuals. I had a 'whatever' attitude to Vekka's crowd glaring, but the confrontational, menacing factor added another dimension to their layered performance. The sound was slow and expansive with a lot of intricacies gradually woven in as it constantly shifted and developed. 

Isomer from Australia was one of the most surprising acts, in contrast to the online tracks I have heard, David Tonkin’s performance had a compressed, hidden emotive, layered quality. Tonkin was an impressive frontman, but that indescribable something woven deep into the sound was there.  It wasn’t anger or aggression, but something other; a deep and heavy context which you could close your eyes and absorb as the core of the performance. Sharp, repetitive frequencies and contact mic abuse built things up. Isomer is well worthy of further investigation; another epic performance to the night.

 Isomer photo by
Marcin Klimek.

Following such a solid batch of impressive younger acts, headliners Genocide Organ had a lot to live up to. Past glories of the last 30 years wouldn’t be enough after what came earlier in the night, tonight was the acid test. I was immediately thrown as G.O. didn’t wear masks as I thought they would. The four members combined electronic noise that immediately ripped into an impressive set that was a barrage of their trademark abrupt, urgent style of Power Electronics. Both lead singers took turns to whip the audience into an intense frenzy, Wilhelm Herich on the edge of the stage shouting into the audience which stirred things up and slight chaos began to erupt. I don’t know what happened, the audience became further frenzied into a pit as Genocide Organ dug well into their back catalogue right from Leichenlinie up to Obituary of the Amerikas. I was impressed by their direct audience manipulation/confrontation. Genocide Organ’s complex, multi-faceted collective sense of self intensified the night’s proceedings relentlessly through layered visuals that consistently intensified the atmosphere. This brought United Forces of Industrial 2017 to an impressive and frenzied finale. 

Choppy Noodles 2017

all photos by me, Isomer one used by kind permission of Marcin Klimek.

Links:

Unrest Productions 

Unrest Facebook 

Trapdoor Tapes 

Isomer Facebook
She Spread Sorrow Bandcamp 
She Spread Sorrow Wordpress 

 

Empty Chalice overview.

Empty Chalice – Emerging is Submerging – The Evil. Industrial Ölocaust Recordings. 2017.

Track listing.

A1. Look Into My Eyes.

A2. Muffled Scream.

A3. Sidereal.

B1. Emerging is Submerging.

B2. Stolen Breaths and Destroyed Hope.

I was contacted on the blog recently by the project Empty Chalice off the strength of my Atrax Morgue review. This is an Italian project of Antoine A. He has done 5 releases as Empty Chalice and Gopota. This most recent album is Emerging is Submerging and this was recorded between 2015-17. 

It’s good to be approached by projects like this instead of buying and picking what I review, sets a challenge. So it stands as my first real review request. On first listen, Emerging has an immediate ethereal beauty with lots going off in the background. Massive, spacious atmospheres build up on ‘Muffled Scream’, ‘Sidereal’ juxtaposes grunting vocal noises and ethereal ambient sound. At first this track stands out as it feels slightly sullied compared to the others. This contrast appears in other parts of the album, particularly the more industrial Emerging is Submerging, which varies things with clear electronics. 

Throughout the album, I found myself focused on the background details and then suddenly pulling to the forefront of the sound - I was constantly emerged in its depths, It was as if I constantly descended and submerged through the album. Along with a subtle track variety and moments of beauty; these depths are the album’s main strengths. 

Empty Chalice – The Way is Called Black. Cvlminis Records - self one copy only release– 2015

Track Listing.

1.     This Way is called black (Evil Seeker).

2.     You knock on the cross.

3.     Nebel XX II MMXV.

4.     Distant Sun.

5.     Ibex.

6.     Blue Instill.

7.     Wieviel Bist du Bereit zum Sterben?

Emerging is Submerging stands in massive contrast to the sonic violence of the previous Chalice recording from 2015 – The Way is called Black. The Way begins quite dreamily but soon grows into some very raw assaults of noise, particularly ‘You Knock the Cross’ which is violent electronic insanity, effective through its' minimal palette of sound. The walls static of noise and looped repetition made me think that Bandcamp had hit a glitch. 

Combative walls of noise are toyed with to form Nebel, continuing the album’s primitive assault. Radiating drones are rudely interrupted by sharp frequencies in Distant Sun before Ibex goes insane. Rather than the traditional radiating keyboards of Distant Sun, Ibex contains piercing, progressive scales of noise within which the volume is fucked with to create a spewing radiation of noise. Blue Instill goes off the scale. This demonstrates tracks feeding off and progressing on from each other. The final track Wieviel Bist is like a slow death, unkindly winding things downto an end.

The two albums stand in contrast to each other; Submerging’s ambient beauty, and Black's radiating violence; I truly and equally loved both approaches. Sonically both albums work brilliantly. This is an intelligent, impressive project that has set my Sunday off to a good start. Thanks.

Choppy Noodles 2017

Links:

Bandcamp 

Industrial Ölocaust Recordings

Facebook

Soundcloud