Maria Am Ostbahnhof : Dienstag, Oktober 23 – 2007
Daniel Higgs (of Lungfish) Dischord/Thrill Jockey – (USA)
——————————————————————
dan higgsWith
the appearance of a heavily bearded tattooed prophet, Daniel Higgs
emerged from the early-'80s hardcore punk scene as an underground icon
with a near-mythological status. He sharpened his teeth in the music
scene as a wild-eyed vocalist in the legendary Baltimore hardcore group
Reptile House. Brewing a dark psychedelic sound with early-'80s
hardcore energy and aesthetics, they earned a solid following and a
lasting reputation due to debauchery at their live shows.
As the
lead singer of the definitive band Lungfish, Higgs' stage presence was
part Jim Morrison stream-of-consciousness poetry and part G.G. Allin
unbridled lunacy. In his shows, he evoked specters of Franz Kafka and
Walt Whitman in his lyrics while performing outrageous shenanigans like
rolling his eyes back like a madman and trying to pull his own tongue
out, or stabbing himself in the forehead with a safety pin while
spouting rants about the Antichrist. Some consider his unabashed
freakouts nonsensical; others consider them an art form of the purest
kind. After ten records with Dischord, Higgs dabbled in conceptual art,
formed a side project with his brother called Cone of Light, and
created several books of poetry. His first solo album was recorded in
2006 and released on Holy Mountain and combined minimal meditative
hillbilly blues, Eastern mysticism, and lyrics about physical and
ethereal demise at the hands of demons. The beautifully packaged Atomic
Yggdasil Tarot is newly released by Thrill Jockey in June 2007, and
combines a book of his art and poetry with a CD of abstract lo-fi
instrumental drones, with intentions of conjuring a tarot-like force
when experienced simultaneously.
Vanishing Voice (of Wooden Wand, Magik Markers) 5RC, Important — (USA)
———————————————————————————————-
vanishing voiceVanishing
Voice originally played with Wooden Wand, beginning around 2003 in
Staten Island, New York. Wooden Wand & Vanishing Voice jammed,
recorded and toured extensively, the lineup fluctuated, but the road
dogs were usually the same. In the last couple years, since Wooden Wand
and Satya Sai moved to the south and worked on their solo side of
things, the Vanishing Voice has continued as a band and kept on playing
with Pete Nolan/Magik Markers. Our recordings have generally been a
core of four people, though the band has varied at times (recent
releases include “Stone Tablet” on Important Records and “Nordic
Visions” on Gipsy Sphinx). Heidi Diehl and G. Lucas Crane/Nonehorse
will use treated guitars n tapes for the drone side of the Vanishing
Voice project and extensively screen their selfmade new videos.
“On “Stone Tablet”, their debut outing for Important, Vanishing
Voice (sans Wooden Wand) give us another heaping spoonful of freaked
out forest psyche madness. Composed of two tracks (with a mysteriously
extra song title but no song), the first is the epic 40 minute title
track (or it could be called "Peace Symbols", -we're very confused on
the song listing), which takes on a long whirling vortex of clattering
percussion (provided by Magik Marker's Pete Nolan) and damaged
electronic passages before propelling momentously forward with a
Krautrock-like acid jam. The second song (we think it's called "The
Last Evil") begins with a twisted sing-a-long that reminds us of "On
Top of Old Smokey" but perhaps sung by the mutant children from the
recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes, before developing into further
mutated lo-fi weirdness.”
Aquarius Records
Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat (Kraak, Implied Sound) Belgium
——————————————————————————————-
Kiss the AnusThe
young Belgian ruler of Apocalyptic Folk, Stef Heeren, after his much
aclaimed debut album of last year, returns with an amazing follow up.
“An Interlude For The Outermost” combines the dark mantra-ish folk of
his first record with sharpened folkrock, intense melodies and
heart-ripped spleen. His punkroots are still clearly present in his
powerful voice, the themes are still slightly pagan. The difference
with “If The Sky Falls, We Shall Catch Larks” is the fact that on the
new album we much more hear the product of a band, with profound
arrangements and detailed production. “An Interlude For The Outermost”
has become the masterpiece we all expected from Kiss The Anus Of A
Black Cat.
The recordings of “An Interlude For The Outmost”
already started in August 2006, when Heeren, together with guitar
player De Maré and drummer David Stubbe (ex-Thee Plague Of Gentlemen)
took a room in art center Vooruit (Ghent) to record the basics of the
new album. With this rock line-up he has clearly found his thing, and
presents us the new album that is definitely one of the highlights of
the contemporary darkfolk movement.
SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN (Ecstatic Peace, Smalltown Supersound) USA
——————————————————————————————————————————————–
sunburnedSunburned
Hand Of The Man is a legendary collective of changing memberships from
Boston/NYC. Their rhythmic and fluid jams are variations on a theme is
what you might call free improvisational in those upcoming rites of
spring. A cloud of psychedelic raga flow like Miles Davis on Water
Babies and On The Corner – though only their trumpet player had not
gone lost on the long way to Hugmaglog. We heard Herbie Hancock might
jump in, for sure Mick Flower, Paul Flaherty and Christina Carter did.
Thurston Moores next fave band. Check their records on Eclipse and
Ecstatic Peace.
"Sunburned live-set is a lot to take in; the stage is loaded with a
hoard of Sweat-Hog stunt-doubles wading through patch-cords and
toppling over hand-drums, and twiddling knobs, and shaking shakers and
bells and cymbals, and futzing with fritzing primitive drum-machines,
and fingering electric guitars, and dry-humping bass guitars, and
prodding propulsive often-times motorik drum-kit'd linearity. But they
come on slow, whipping sound(s)into stiff-peaks over an intangibly long
time; adding to and subtracting from and fortunately ameliorating prior
sporadic sound(s) to craft a big mass of undulating boogie that
metastasizes through your auditory canals and gets you shaking your ass
just like the I-don't-dance guy right next to you" – Stylus Magazine.
"These guys play music that can only be described as extremely
fúcked up. Either they're rocking it hard with crushing riffs, barrages
of noise, feedback galore, and manic percussion, or they slow things
down for expansive, brilliant psych-cum-avant-cum-what-the-fúck shít."
– Indieville.com
Visuals by Sunburned & Vanishing Voice
DJs: Humdrum Collective
Doors: 9 pm
flyer 23.10.
