Testing Vault & Michael Isaak – God Ebbels, or a Dystopic Radio Drama.

Testing Vault & Michael Isaak – God Ebbels, or a Dystopic Radio Drama. CDR (limited to 40 copies – 2017 - Looney Tick Productions ‎– EAFMC0171

The latest release from Testing Vault is a collaboration with writer Michael Isaak who is also linked to the massive TV Disintegrator set of works. God Ebbels also follows on from some impressive recent Testing Vault collaborations with Allan Zane and Ira Cohen. 

Made up of three movements, the work is based on an apocalyptic dream of Danielle Santagiuliana in which the behaviour and actions of Maldoror took the physical shape of a thin, crippled Nazi; Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. It delves into the secret Aryan cults linked to the Third Reich and pays homage to Comte de Lautréamont's Les Chants de Maldoror. Izaak wrote his spoken word passages from notes and information supplied by Santagiuliana. They create an impressive dialogue that narrates Goebbels thoughts and revises his history.

This is underpinned by nightmarish soundscapes which on this occasion are a lot more dramatic than usual; they are interrupted by sudden shifts in mood that frequently backtrack as if nothing ever happened – distorting the work’s reality. This occasionally entwines with Isaak’s vocal to abstract the work’s whole and make for one complete form that is something other than vocal and musik. The music pays reference to Maurizio Bianchi - Symphony for a Genocide and Premature Ejaculation’s – Anaesthesia in parts, however it remains its own throughout. 

God Ebbels raises many questions such as; is Isaak Ebbels and Testing Vault the dream? Is the work about the self as much as the dream’s vision? From my time knowing Isaak, I recognised several points of self-reference. There are Rozz Williams reference’s a plenty such as the Third Reich, Holy Water, the vocal style and Chants of Maldoror which was the lyrical influence of many Williams projects. Is this album political in terms of present day dictatorships, Williams and references to longer living contemporary fascism? Is the dream wider distorted present day reality? Are Isaak and TV accidentally presenting the now and not the dream? This album leaves the listener thinking about the work.

This is the best Testing Vault work since the Disintegrator and TV’s strongest collaboration. It is strongly conceptualised and the vocals are excellent. As a coupling the results are strong, both artists have woven themselves into a tightly woven tapestry of sound and word.  

Choppy Noodles 2017. 

Looney Tick website: Here
Testing Vault Bandcamp 

Sutcliffe Jugend Live Plus MORE, Club Kolis, February 3rd, 2017

Club Kolis is an old club in the Archway area of London, the aged dark atmosphere was fitting for the gig. Upon arrival Robin Chuter had some excellent pen and ink drawings on display, these were on A3 sized paper and others sprawled over record covers. The work was good to see and more can be seen here.

First act was a Belgian project called In Search of Death, named after the seminal Atrax Morgue release. This is the project of Xavier H who runs Death Continues Records of whom I own a release by their excellent Nekrofellatio project. Xavier constructed an impressive, intense passage of sound through his laptop and effects. 

Next up was who I came to see ACL, aka Antichildleague. I am very familiar with their releases, but didn’t know what to expect in a live context. ACL proceeded to deliver a sonic tantrum of a performance heightened by a throwback to the extreme emotional context of the project’s classic debut Hellworm. Samples and noises were shot through lines of effects. Battered, Miked up cymbals were whipped and hit with chains to give shattered eruptions over the electronic hell. ACL delivered a conceptually loaded, highly strung, vicious display of violent electronics. 

The incredibly pissed off Dead Normal shuffled up the variety even more. They used Power Electronics with blasts of distortion working as Beats. The male vocals were sarcastic demonstrating shitty attitude, the female vocals were cutting, clear, very angry and cold. The sheer assault of Dead Normal is intrusive, fucking horrible and hateful. The combative, relentless sonic abuse of the electronics provided an abusive backing. This was an ugly, nasty sound, the vocals taunted, accused, exposed hypocrisy and because of that, they did a good job. Dead Normal works well as a whole, I was left with a lot to think about, this was an impressive London debut. 

The Black Scorpio Underground dragged things down to the abyss. They gave the most hellish performance of the night. The candle lit setting ensured Joe Truck Kasher delivered a ritualistic display of noise, he chanted hysterically; whipping himself into a frenzy with a shredding display of sound that seemed freshly churned from the bowels of hell. I’ve heard many of Kasher’s projects, but BSU in a live context and on record is very impressive. 

Sutcliffe Jügend were synchronized through their matching clothes, this gave that extra touch. I’d heard some earlier material, but didn’t know what to expect in a live context. Their set rumbled around in complex layered lower frequencies with massive eruptions of sound. Paul Taylor’s digital guitar work was impressive, building up a structured impressive set. This wasn’t what I expected, it wasn’t instant, it had a slow build up, it was incredibly layered and there were a lot of intricacies woven into the sound. Rather than just massive displays of rage, there seemed a wide range of emotions happening beyond the usual. Their final track Shame build up towards an explosive sonic climax.

Choppy Noodles 2017

Premature Ejaculation - Part 2 ( a blast from the past 2 2010)

Premature Ejaculation - (Part 2) (1981) - Mal 2. Malaise Music

Part 2 was the second Premature Ejaculation tape released by Rozz Williams and Ron Athey in 1981. It was never officially released, only copied for friends. Here in it's fully remastered double disc form, original artwork; it differs greatly from Part 1.

Part 1 was a series of differing experiments within the noise /industrial /experimental genre. Part 2 is one long continuous 45 minute work; it contains a lot of the methods explored in part 1 and it yet attempts to work them all together. Part 2 functions as a journey (or a trip.) across the American landscape. In-between bursts of frequency assault, wind tunnel like sounds move along changing to engine noise and back. Noise is pushed to unbearable frequencies at various times throwing out sounds that would not be out of place in David Lynch's Eraserhead. Deliberately or because of recording quality, sounds are broken for periods of time, either way it is incorporated into the entire sound.

Fractured voices appear regularly; inaudible conversations, Preachers in the street and film dialogue. The voices are never given full clarity, their speed is mutated to become 'other' sounds that work in the entire equation; the voice is abstracted elsewhere. Although not the first, this predates a lot of current voice based noise (Maja Ratkje, Kylie Minoise, and Massona) and lies in a chain of abstracted voice work within experimental music. The vocals are frequent interruptions or stops in the journey.

Further stops include fairground noise, domestic sounds, train tracks and TV ads. These are not glorified, if anything it is an empty lonely dark trip. More and more upon each listen Part 2 becomes re representation of the American landscape as wasteland.

Part 2's use of noise is not pure or focused enough to be considered pure noise or power electronics. However it is clear that there was already a fully formed awareness of all the electronic extreme genres as there are still some industrial concerns in PE at this point. What is very evident is that after Part 1's experiments in sound, Part 2 is a confident successful conceptualized long passage of work. This is far from fully formed in sound, but it is strong and bares some hints to PE's future work. PE would never really do one long work in their label released work, yet ambient passages of sound became their forte; mental associations could always be made to strong suggestive effect. Part 2 does prove PE to be a project well capable of sustaining works for long periods of time.

The bonus disc is not part of Part 2, but five separate recordings Ron and Rozz made around a year later in 1982 tackle religion and noise.  However these do show a better quality of recording and the beginnings of a more cohesive approach to P.E's work. Choir arrangements are boiled and others turn into hallucinogenic nightmares; further religious torment from Rozz. There is a long track from a sex education video of children's voices describing the process of sexual intercourse, the sample is not touched, just played in its entirety and all the more disturbing after the hellish sermons that came before. There are two final tracks that present a more accomplished and aggressive minimal noise assault, very different to what there is today. This is a primitive important document. The journey begins to find its direction.

Choppy Noodles 2010.