The Brotherhood of Pagans – `Only Once` review

02
Table
of
ConTenTs
s uriCaTes
s uriCaTes – “r adio r adio r adio ” album review
l uiza f ria
l uiza f ria – The firsT demo review
m onozid
m onozid – “s ay h ello To a rTifiCial G rey ” album review
J oy d isasTer
valery and The G reedies
T oT l iChT
T oT l iChT – “i n fear of The liGhT ” album review
ParaliTikos
ParaliTikos – “r oma n o PaGa T raidores ” review
m adre del v izio
m adre del v izio – “u n m ondo d ove …” review
b urninG i maGe
f rakTure
f rakTure – “C heCk P oinT ” Cd review
T he b roTherhood of PaGans
T he b roTherhood of PaGans – “o nly o nCe ” album review
C asTraTi
C asTraTi – “l eT The C aT ouT of The [ PlasTiC ] baG ” Cd review
a lone P rod l abel
n eva – “i ndividu ” review
o nly T heaTer of Pain T ribuTe
C omPloT – “r ouGe r eve ” review
G roTesque s exualiTy – “a s Pell by lauGh ” demo review
C amP -z – “u-b orTChed ” sinGle review
T he f orCed o sCillaTions – “G arliCs ” review
(((s))) – “G hosT ” album review
- 04
- 07
- 08
- 12
- 13
- 16
- 19
- 22
- 25
- 28
- 29
- 32
- 33
- 38
- 39
- 43
- 59
- 50
- 55
- 56
- 62
- 63
- 66
- 67
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
03
Suricates
04
http://www.myspace.com/suricates
Nattsol: For a start, tell me, please, how you have
grown up as the music fan/performer? Who were your
“teachers” in it and how you have faced them?
Laëtitia: Hi Nattsol! Thanks a lot for your interest, it’s
a big honor!!
So, Suricates is formed with 4 persons from different
ages and univers. But music collects us : particulary the
80’s post punk or new wave, cold wave like bands such as
the cure, killing joke, joy division, bauhaus, siouxsie, pil,
dead kennedys... and from the 90’s : fugazi, sonic youth,
portishead, etc... We listen to music from the 60’s to today
(from Pink Floyd to Prodigy)... We prefer dancing on 80’s
cold wave and batcave music... We make some parties very
often. But I think we have no “teachers”: “hey teachers!
Leave our kids alone!”. We make music with our feelings,
heart and soul... We don’t perform and prefer to find
sounds and atmospheres we love.
Nattsol: When you seriously took a musical instrument
for a first time, what was the music you wanted to play?
Laëtitia: It’s difficult to answer for me because I play
guitar for 6 years. In fact, I never played a guitar before
playing with Suricates!! It was the same thing for Faiza
(the ancient bass player). For other members of the band,
it’s different, they began to make some music when they
were 20 years old about. Regio and Fred made a band
called Post Scriptum and Den played in Soup Toxic, with
Chris (Guitare Noire, Walked in line...). In the starts of
Suricates, we wanted to do basic punk rock such as Ramones, Buzzcocks...
Nattsol: How the “Suricates” was formed? Why such
a strange name?
Laëtitia: It was on 31st December, 2003... We spoked
about music and the one of us said: why not to form a
band? It was very simple. And as we were friends, it was
easier also I think. Even if at the beginning, we spent time
in try to be together played. Then in 2005, we have begun
to make concerts! And we took taste there! The name suricates was proposed by Regio, the drummer. As we found
all the nice animal, we kept this name. Suricates lives in
community, they are very social in the way they live. The
reports of National Geographic on this subject are very fascinating.
Nattsol: Well, you began to give shows. What public
have you faced there? Has it changed? Can you say that
Suricates have their own fans?
Laëtitia: For the first concert, it was especially our
friends in the room. Then, we played with the other groups
and necessarily when we do not play near at home, we are
in front of an objective public. And the effect was always
positive. It is necessary to say that generally we play in
front of a public who listens to of the punk rock or the punk
post... It is easier for us in these cases there. At first, people
were a little surprised seeing 2 girls and 2 boys on stage.
Today, I am the only girl... We shall see in time if that
changes things. We have some fans among our friends, finally it is people who come to attend all our concerts or
almost! And then other persons testify of their support via
myspace for example. That widens a little our horizons because it remains difficult to find concerts except our region... But we well intend to remedy that and to play in the
South of France in 2009!
Nattsol: What is your attitude to appearance? Does the
image play role in your music (on shows, for example).
Do you use some other visual elements?
Laëtitia: So, as regards the importance of our image, we
learnt to pay it attention according to concerts. At first, it
had no importance for us. It is true that the fact of seeing
2 girls and 2 boys on stage already made its small effect... We did not really need to add it :) We made a photography session last February and I have to say that we
do not very feel at ease in front of the objective, without
our instruments, we feel a little bit bare. We do not necessarily want to seem joyful or to smile on photos. We
prefer to adopt an attitude a little more in retreat and to
make speak about us by our music and not for our physical appearance or our clothing dress. Even if when we
look at the groups which are successful today, we realize
that that has of the importance.
Nattsol: What were the first development points of the
band in its start? The first achivements?
Laëtitia: We always want that at the beginning: make
some music simply without taking itself the head. But to
make a group it is not easy. We are 4 with 4 different personalities... It is sometimes complicated to be all at the
same time on the same wavelength. We recorded 4 tracks
in our premises of repetition, which we engraved on a CDROM, in October, 2005. Then in September, 2008 we took
out a mini album with 9 tracks recorded still in our premises of repetition. We advance slowly but certainly!
Nattsol: Ok, so tell me about this album. What is it for
you and other band members? What does it reflect? What
stuff it contains?
Laëtitia: We absolutely wanted to put our fragments
on an album to pass in the other thing, to be able to say
himself «Here we are, that it is made ". We needed to advance what by concerts. To record it live was something of
evident for us. There are several reasons in it: our lack of
control of our instruments and the sound generally, and
then especially a big urge to keep the initial energy. I think
that even if it is far from being completed, our album is
warm and completely done wonders for the self-confidence. It looks like us a little. It is a photography of the fact
that was Suricates in 2008 : with its defects and its qualities.
Nattsol: There’s the Soup Toxic cover on the album.
What are your relations with this band except one exmember?
Laëtitia: Then, as regards the relation between Suricates and Soup Toxic, there are many things to be said! By
where to begin?? Soup Toxic existed well before Suricates. Chris, the guitarist singer, is my boyfriend for soon
15 years. Fox, the second guitarist was the husband of
Faïza. In fact we are a small family. We had the idea to
make cover of Soup Toxic «why not?» on the occasion of
a concert together. It was a surprise for them. As the public
very well reacted, we kept it in our list set and then we
recorded it for the album. Today Faiza does not play any
more in Suricates, and Den, the ancient bass player of
Soup Toxic, joined us. The buckle is buckled! Maybe not
still! Faïza and I sang for the Chris's
new project, Guitare Noire, on the resumption of
Kraftwerk "les mannequins". And other things still will
come. I am also involved in Walked in Line with Chris. I
even chronicled some disks, made some interviews for the
fanzine and participated in the organization of concerts, in
the distribution of disks etc.
Nattsol: What other bands (the ones of your friends
and the world legends as well) can be considered as your
friends or musical relatives?
Laëtitia: We know quite a lot of groups of our region.
And necessarily have seen them in concerts when we were
younger for example was able to influence us. I do not
know too much what to answer this question, then I put
05
06
you a part of the groups which have of the importance for
us, for various reasons : The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, B 52's, Bauhaus, Pixies, Dead Kennedys, the Clash,
Noir Désir, the Strokes, Killing Joke, Joy Division, New
Order, Radio Birdman, Gang of Four, Christian Death, the
Smiths, Interpol, Queens of the Stone Age, Girls Against
Boys, Sonic Youth, Jesus Lizard, Fugazi, Minor Threat,
Bérurier Noir, Monochrome, the Smiths, David Bowie,
Portishead, Blondie, Cocteau twins...and more...
Nattsol: Well, are there some plans about the next release? Or about other band’s steps?
Laëtitia: We have some new fragments among which
some some that we would like to register. However, Den
joined the group in December, 2008; he thus had to learn
our set list. At the same time, we created the other fragments which still ask to be to polish up. Then, we work seriously. We also have all a work and sometimes we miss
time... We would like to work more regularly.
Nattsol: What are the things except music that make
Suricates the real band?
Laëtitia: Suricates, as I said it higher, it is at first pals
who want to spend time together. Before creating the group,
we were already friends. We did not change our customs
and spend still quite a lot of evenings together, to drink
beers and to dance ! Often, we go to see concerts all together also. It is sometimes a true adventure! The evenings
are often enlivened.
Nattsol: Can you say that you keep your punky attitude
in the backstage life? If yes, how it is reflected?
Laëtitia: We are the same persons in the daily life. Our
attitude does not really change, even if sometimes we have
to make concessions, with regard to the work often. But the
state of mind remains the same. It is the lifestyle, that personally is very well convenient for me ! In time, we assert
ourselves as we are really. We are done wonders for the
self-confidence with regard to one "politically or socially"
correct. We can say to those who judge we: and yes, I am
like that, it is my way of being, it is what I want to make
and to live.
Nattsol: If you could choose time to live in, which period would you choose and why?
Laëtitia: Without hesitating, the end of the 70s and the
beginning of the 80s. For the music obviously! All the
groups which we appreciate most are of this period. See
them live, there in the time, when they were young and
beautiful... What a happiness! And then, maybe that people
more dared to be themselves, in the direction where they
were maybe less as sheeps which obey media, which undergo the effects of fashion... I think that they had more
drop, more critical spirit. And live without mobile phone,
what a freedom! Leave on roads without GPS, what risks!
That it was rock 'n' roll!
Nattsol: Well, is there a question I’ve missed, but you’d
love to answer?
Laëtitia: You forgot to ask me this question: " do you
Think of making some music in 10 years still? " Then I
would have answered you: " yes, it is in me, even if I realized it enough late. That is a part of me and I think that it is
the same thing for the other members of the group. "
Nattsol: Thank you for the interview, Laëtitia. And your
final words for those who read us. :)
Laëtitia: Thanks to you especially to have relied on us
for this interview. Long life to your fanzine and if you pass
by Bets, come to drink a beer with us!
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
07
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Luiza
Fria
http://www.myspace.com/luizafria
09
Nattsol: Hello! Let’s start traditionally with the question about your appearance in the post-punk music as a
listener and then as a musician.
F.Rodríguez: First of all, thanks a lot for interviewing
us! The post-punk thing is directly connected to my
lifestyle, I myself played in many other post-punk bands
and invest good part of my time in listening to bands like
Vex, Ethiopia, Siekiera, Cabaret Voltaire, The Cure and
Sisters of Mercy.
Luc: We kind of fell at home within this environment.
As listeners we really enjoy the genre and are involved
in it for a long time; even before Luiza Fria each of us
has had own personal experiences with other projects and
bands in this medium. As musicians, we make use of
many elements from the raw post-punk… The counterpoint between instruments for example… As if each instrument had a unique personality and content to express.
That’s important for us.
Nattsol: So, some previous projects. Could you tell a
bit more, please? What were (still are) they, is that possible to find some records…. And in common, a few words
about the “lives” of these projects.
Moiirah: In my case there was a band named Unbrall,
a kind of industrial act I’ve been playing to by 1999/2000.
That was actually my teenage years ‘experimental project’. That made me grow considerably as musician since
it worked as an impulse for me to get in contact with diverse musical genres.
F. Rodríguez: I formed my first band when I was 13,
it was called “Medo do Fim”, brutal noisecore, something
between Crippled Bastards and Armagedom. The first experiences are always productive, they work as a draft for
coming projects. With the pleasure of playing you end up
having problems with jerks and unmotivated players, but
everything ends well when you get some things, like playing in another cities. There’s a saying here which says
“Having a rock band is asking for the worst to happen and
liking it”... More or less how it works.
Kell Kill: Well, I played to a post-punk band (early
2000) named Morffina. That was my music school, I
haven’t had good vocal control yet, and felt really shy on
stage, in front of all those people. We recorded a demo
tape in 2001 containing 5 tracks; even though both lyrics
and sonority had nothing to do with my actual band, this
band had songs I consider great. What makes me to recall
this band and this time enthusiastically was exactly this
very first contact with public, after that I never even considered abandoning the stage.
Luc: I’ve been playing for other projects. Punk, postpunk/coldwave, deathrock… Some of them lasted more,
other could badly become concrete, were relegated to the
realm of ideas… I played alive with three of them. That
was definitely an excellent apprenticeship in musical and
performatic/corporal terms. The band Rosa dos Ventos is
the only one (of those projects) that ended up releasing a
demo (before I join the group); and on internet, there is
an alive video on Youtube (search “Rosa dos Ventos
FNAC”). Well, sometimes it happens that you play for a
three-men crowd, bite the floor so wasted you are, you
know! The most frightening case I’ve experienced so far
was playing alive at FNAC, in the official release of the
Portuguese translation of the book Harry Potter (lol);
that’s ok, we survived!
Nattsol: So tell me more, please, about the gathering
of the band members. It’s written in your bio that the musical result was unexpected. So what did you expect then?
Kell Kill: That is not only unexpected, but I still cannot help explaining how that happened. Even Freud cannot handle this one. In my opinion, our music is
something oddly achieved, product of a unique relation
between band members as persons and as musicians…
Luc: We always wanted to form a project that really
worked (that was not really happening in our past projects
for varied reason). Personally, I had already given up
from this whole deathrock thing, I simply didn’t know
about a one in my city who could be interested in it. One
day I got acquaintance with Kel and Moiirah in a party,
and as a matter of fact they expressed their wish to play
in a deathrock band. I made them know about my bad
taste in music and we ended up creating the band. And
that worked out pretty well, and we are ‘alive’ up till
know! Today we count on Rodriguez to play drums, we
were quite lucky of meeting him right after a miserable
moment when some members left the band. From this
point another pals played with us in the band… A guy
who had lived amidst the old mess from dark movement
here in our city Brasília… a Dadaist hamster-man… A
number 13 boy… And a devilish jazz musician. All of
them were quite helpful, we fell really indebted for this.
At the beginning, the only thing we made up our minds
to do were “playing something deathrock”. What we had
as referential were merely our past experiences, intuition
and temerity, the band’s developed came out of nothing,
the whole thing simply *puff* happened… Which is fine,
we’re still excited about it, especially in being the first
guys in our region playing this kind of music and making
our trad-rock’n’roll public perplexed (lol).
Moiirah: Well, as mentioned, the result was really unexpected, especially the fact the whole band shares a common interest. In particular, I was expecting to play
something dirtier and heavier – with influence of Californian Deathrock, Horror Punk, 77’ Punk… Plus the old
B-movies thematic. But at each rehearsal we tried to get
in some unique sonority, and ended up mixing a lot of different sonorities… For example Alvarenga & Ranchinho,
Secos e Molhados, and the French sparrow-woman Edith
Piaf. In this point the resulting sonority that we identify
as Luiza Fria’s become something unexpectable even for
us.
Nattsol: Talking about your references, can you say
that you’re more oriented on the 80’s stuff or on the contemporary one? In your opinion, what are pluses and mi-
10
nuses of each of them?
Kell Kill: Both go together, most of the bands today
base their sonority on the 80’s. It is the absolute referential
today. What would be from the contemporary music without it?
F.Rodríguez: For sure, 90% of what I listen to comes
from the 80’s, I guess in that time bands had a whole special feeling that we from later times, even having a lot of
technological advantages available, cannot achieve. The
bands didn’t permit bad songs in their records, it was a
unique opportunity for expressing something, for me that’s
the main difference between the 80’s and the contempo-
rary stuff.
Moiirah: I see equilibrium here. The 80’s is a mainfold
of cultural references, everytime we find out about bands,
movies, artists… Something really new and fresh in it.
Luc: We cannot deny our admiration for the 80’s. Although we use to research new stuff coming up so as never
to be stuck in time, you know. But even so… 80’s were
just great. One of these days I heard from a guy working
on a counter in a diner that musical taste comes from the
liver. Being so, I’d say there are 80’s and contemporary
cells in our livers.
At Cambridge Hotel.
Nattsol: What role does Brazilian folk tradition play in
your music? What is your national in it, and what is foreign? (And how do you manage to combine these aspects?)
F.Rodríguez: Brazil owns a rich cultural scene in every
aspect, and I, as student and lover of Brazilian music, am
indirectly influenced by it. Maybe even unconsciously by
the cultural scene. That influences the Luiza Fria sonority,
no doubt... It is hard to differentiate what is a local aspect,
what is a foreign aspect… We have influence even from
other galaxies. (lol)
Luc: There is a duo from folk artists in Brazil who work
as great influence for us, named Alvarenga & Ranchinho.
They were guys from extreme country-side that recorded a
plenty of cunning satirical and a sinister songs with sense
of humor… in the 30’s. One day Moiirah showed us their
songs and simultaneously we become cart-carrying adepts.
Moiirah: Dunno, the Brazilian folklore has huge impact
on our ideas, especially concerning stage attire and lyrics.
We use to combine the mythic beings of our culture and
stuff from abroad, but not really systematically. The song
“Turbantes”, for example, mixes Arabic sonorities and leitmotivs. We are working specifically in harmonizing those
tendencies for future works.
Nattsol: To continue the previous question, where is
Luiza in your music? Can she be found in it by a listener?
And outside of it?
Moiirah: She’s simply everywhere, and due to this we
dedicate our work for her! Luiza is like a joker that spies
us, pokes fun on everyone, swear, work on night-shifts,
scare the hell out the kids, complains about past life. Now
you can find here in our songs, also.
Kell Kill: It depends a lot upon your imagination.
Everyone keeps asking the very same question: Who the
f*** is Luiza? She can be a pet, an alien... Pick and choose.
Luc: Probably between the lines. She ends up to be
something floating unconsciously that we might reach out
(as a Buddhist Satori). Outside of the music… it might be
11
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the everytime
rhythm. First
songbands,
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e “Turbantes”
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Luc: We
denycharacter
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use toI would
research
new
stuff
up so as never
to
posed
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some
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know. But
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so… 80’s
were just great.
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in
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whatsoever…
withcomes
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in aliver.
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ences,
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our livers.
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was What
the kind
description
to justify
Nattsol:
roleofdoes
Brazilianyou
folkgive
tradition
play why
in yoursis…
music? What is your national in it, and what is foreign?
you
Pretty
abstract,
to spell it
(Andskip
howclasses
do youeveryday.
manage to
combine
thesehard
aspects?)
out.
far asand
I‘mlover
concerned,
you’remusic,
working
F.Rodríguez: Brazil owns a rich cultural scene in every aspect,Nattsol:
and I, asAs
student
of Brazilian
am on
Kell Kill:
Good by
question
(lol)...
repercussion
thecultural
next demo.
SoThat
this influences
question is the
partly
similar
the preindirectly
influenced
it. Maybe
evenThe
unconsciously
by the
scene.
Luiza
Friato
sonority,
within
the public
andtoeven
local mainstream
mediaaspect,
was what
viousis one,
but also
couldWe
youhave
tell,influence
what’s the
usefrom
in the
no doubt...
It is hard
differentiate
what is a local
a foreign
aspect…
even
fantastic,
we couldn’t
figure out how the release was second demo, and are there some plans to move on a
other galaxies.
(lol)
awaited
till is
wea saw
the results.
Concerning
higherinfluence
level? for us, named Alvarenga & Ranchinho.
Luc: There
duo from
folk artists
in Brazil“success”…
who work as great
The
the one country-side
of that I consider
closer to a plenty
Moiirah:
Yeah!!!
I guess
will be
more
pleasant
Theysong
were“Cinzeiro”
guys fromisextreme
that recorded
of cunning
satirical
andLuiza
a sinister
songs
with
sense
it.
a cute
waltz-like
aboutshowed
the goddamnit
with and
the guests.
Or not! we become cart-carrying adepts.
of Because
humor…itinis the
30’s.
One daysong
Moiirah
us their songs
simultaneously
“end
of theDunno,
world”the
syndrome
ironizing
fact
it canon ourF.Rodríguez:
I became
a bandstage
member
September
Moiirah:
Brazilianand
folklore
has the
huge
impact
ideas, especially
concerning
attireonand
lyrics.
be
real or not,
deep down
that
matter…
2008.
this upcoming
work Isystematically.
put more punkThe
characterisWewhether
use to combine
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beings
ofdoesn’t
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and stuff
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The
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its end mixes
anyway,
so thesonorities
lyrical voice
in tics. The
relationship
betweeninband
and new those
mem“Turbantes”,
forfind
example,
Arabic
and leitmotivs.
Wegood
are working
specifically
harmonizing
the
voice (Ifor
asfuture
vocalist,
in the case) invites everyone to bers also helped a lot for us to achieve a good result in the
tendencies
works.
have some coffee and watch the world crumbling down. new songs.
And there’s this song “Luiza”, explaining everything (and
Luc: In this upcoming demo-tape, there are two songs
nothing) about the name we gave to the band.
recently composed and two songs we composed a long
time ago, but forgot to record. We are looking forward to
Nattsol: So you touched the lyrical aspect. What are achieve the summit of poltergeist music!
your text about? Who’s the writer? And what poets, writers
or someone else (maniacs, politics, aliens… Luiza? =0)
Nattsol: So when it
influenced on the lyrics?
is going to be out? What
other differences, musical and conceptual
ones, can be expected
in the stuff in comparison with the first release? (Will it be the
self-released CD too?)
Moiirah: We’re
still working on the
new album.
Kell Kill: Soon,
pretty soon it is going
to be out… We are in
the mixing phase!
Concerning
the
sonority, the essence
remains the same,
the songs sound
even more demented, I’m sure
they are much bet-
pating of it… We wish all success to Grave Jibes,
thanks a lot for the invitation and attention!
F.Rodríguez: Thanks Nattsol, success with the
Nattsol: This question is about your live shows and zine, good noise for you and when we step on RussBrazilian post-punk scene in common. So what is Luiza ian sole we hope to meet you personally. Cheers!
ter than the previous ones. This release is also independent.
Fria on stage? Is the band a part of the scene (movement?)? Do you have a fan base, or some friends among
the musicians?
Luc: We keep in touch with a bunch of bands and cool
people from the whole country who share the same taste
we have for music. Especially in our city Brasília we use
to play to quite diverse crowds.
Kell Kill: Our concerts rely a lot upon performance,
the crowds fell at home watching them for some reason,
we just enjoy talking to those people and interacting. We
have a lot of support from friends and fans who end up
being the Brazilian post-punk scene.
Moiirah: On stage there’s great chemistry with the
crowds and a sort of curiosity due to our emphasis on performatic eccentricity, we kind of differentiates us from the
rest of local bands. We count on the help of a lot of people.
Nattsol: Moiirah, you mentioned some eccentricity.
What kind of?
Moiirah: I mean, there is this cabaret ‘touch’ all mixed
up with circus imagery (and behavior) spread among the
band members.
Nattsol: Could you tell me about the band personalities apart from the musical activity?
Kell Kill: I’m DJ and event promoter, I’m playful and
kind of hysterical (not in a negative sense, I hope)!
Luc: I “live in another word”, read books, study cinematography...
F.Rodríguez: I study, work with serigraphy. I’m finishing a new zine, also, named “Ampulheta Imóvel” (Immovable Hourglass).
Nattsol: If a one (a magician, Luiza or whoever) told
you that any your artistic wish can be realized, what
would you ask?
Kell Kill: (Lol) I’d ask for her autography, my childhood’s dream is meeting her personally!!!
Moiirah: I’d love to have our album cover drawn by
Tim Burton or Victor Hugo Borges (a Brazilian artist),
that would be great.
Luc: For me, besides the subjective questions, certainly that would be playing with bands we listen to, meeting interesting people, discover things...
F.Rodríguez: Each time composing better songs and
living out of music!
Nattsol: Thanks for the interview. Wish you all
the best in your artistic way or so. And your final
words.
Luc: I loved this zine and the fact we’re partici-
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
Luiza Fria – the first demo review
Luiza Fria is the Brazilian deathrock-cabaret
band, which music has quite “early Cinema Strange”
approach in style, but on the other hand, it has the beginning of the XX century cabaret thing. The remarkable fact is that in spite of the band’s minimal sound
and above-mentioned “early CS” thing, the band
members know how to play there instruments, as the
contrary to many Cinema Strange followers.
The demo itself consists of five tracks, the opening
weird and tense cabaret “Luiza”, decadent “De encontro com o medo”, thoughtful deathrocky “Tela”,
moody “Cinzeiro” and obscure and wild “Turbandes”. All the release is filled with the atmosphere of
the beginning of the XX century, cabaret and weirdness, but is has some uncatchable spirit of something
primary and natural. One more strange fact of the release is that its stuff has the arrangements which are
actually perfect for a demo. So the first “Luiza Fria”
release is well thought out and a kind of… mature…
. But on the other hand, demo is demo, and this release doesn’t let a listener forget that. So, let’s wait
and see what the band will present to a listener after
such a decent start, but take your time to have a look
at the current release as well, it exactly has a worth
of at least a paid attention.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
12
13
.com/monozid
http://www.myspace
agazin
tra
.com/ nsmission_m
http://www.myspace
Nattsol: Greetings, Franz. For a start, drop a few
words about yourself please: How have you faced the
post-punk music? And what made you being involved
into it? How have you started?
FRANZ: o.k. when i was a young teenager at the
age of 14 i discovered bands like SISTERS OF
MERCY, JOY DIVISION and THE CURE. for some
strange reason they seamed to appeal to the way i felt
at this time. a melancholic young boy in a boring city
in eastern germany. so i became a goth-kid for many
years. after some years i felt a bit bored about this
scene, moved forward to bands like THE SOUND
and CHAMELEONS and as my mind opened more
and more i discovered the various and exciting faces
of 80s postpunk with bands like AU PAIRS, ESG, A
CERTAIN RATIO and so on... but beside this i listen
to a lot of different stuff, too. from postrock, early
hc/emo-core, shoegaze, 80s new romantic and trashydance stuff, to electronic music and whatever.
when i left my hometown and moved to leipzig i
met the right people and we started to set-up danceparties and concerts in a local squat. also i became
friend with the "d.i.y. - do it yourself" attitude (a thing
i was mostly missing in the goth-scene), started to set
up more shows and worked voluntarily in self-organized places. all the time i wanted to start a band (after
some unsuccessful tries in my hometown) and when
i organized a show for our drummers former band
FORMFLEISCH i met this crazy guy and we started
MONOZID as well as the only postpunk-fanzine in
this country, called TRANSMISSION.
that s the beginning of the story. but it took us 6
years and many many bandmembers (especially on
bass) to reach the point where we are now as a band.
finally with our debut-album out. we are very happy
about this!!!
Nattsol: Let's talk about the band itself. Tell me,
please, about the band's very beginning. I mean, what
were the references and how they were improved in
the creative process, what was the public's reaction
when you started etc. In common, how the band was
standing up and taking its level.
FRANZ: Well i think when Max and me started
we were in fact much more inspired by the
(cold)wave/new wave bands as we are today so the
first songs were quite melancholic and also more pathetic stuff. for me it was important to write the lyrics
in german. so there are just a few bands who sang in
german who i liked a lot, like MALARIA! or XMAL
DEUTSCHLAND. they managed to say a lot with
just a few words. so it was like a challenge for me. it
is in fact harder to write lyrics when you know that
everybody can understand the words. singing in english is easier as you can hide behind some common
phrases like "oh baby i miss you so much" or "between the devil and the deep blue sea". so the first
songs were in german and i tried to make the best out
of this language. it is hard to sing in german as you
can hardly get a melody into these words. the peoples
reactions... it is hard to say. we got positive feedback
but we were often fixed onto bands like FLIEHENDE
STUERME or EA80 (in germany very famous dark
punk bands from the 80s), maybe because there are
not so many bands singing in german and playing
some sad punk-influenced music. we got bored about
that. also about "oh you sound like THE CURE.
which other influences do you have beside THE
CURE?". don t get me wrong, we like these bands.
but you really get bored when you hear that all the
time. i think there are a lot of other bands and sounds
that also influenced us.
i don t know exactly why, but later i started to write
in english. most of the lyrics i write don t have a special topic. it is just more to describe a special feeling
or atmosphere. although there are some songs with a
political or personal message. so singing is much easier with english words.
for the music. it took shape when ralf joined the
band 3 years ago and the line-up was complete. he
brought more different influences as he is a serious
noiserock and no wave - fan. also i think our minds
opened much in the last years for different kinds of
music. when you are just focused on one "scene" it is
really the end for creativity. you always have to look
for new shores!
Nattsol: Monozid has quite interesting style - cold
(wave) atmosphere, post-punk approach, some "pop
enough" elements and many other details. So how can
you describe the band's style and sound? Were (are?)
there ever some things with the style you'd love to try,
change or improve, which you didn't manage to (or
failed in process)
FRANZ: to describe our sound. this is really hard
as i can t look at my own band from an outside point
of view.... well it is some kind of melancholic stuff.
that s for sure and this has its roots in the minds of all
the band mates. there is some pop but also some noise
and some atmospheric sounds. just listen to it
yes, i want to change our sound. we just have
reached the first big stage: our debut album. i really
don t want to record the same songs again. so the new
songs should sound different. for the moment i would
like to go more into dancy, strong, rhythmic stuff. a
bit funky in the vein of THE AU PAIRS or A CERTAIN RATIO. more experimental and weird without
losing the catchiness. i hope we can manage this....
Nattsol: Could you represent and tell the stories
of the band's EPs, 'Erstens' and 'Waiting For The Circus'. Are there some other band's EPs, demos or
something like that?
FRANZ: The songs on "Erstens" were really our
first songs that we have written in the beginning. The
song "Erstens" means "the very first". It is about starting to write again. when i was a teenager i had so
many emotions inside of me that wanted to be written
down. so i wrote hundreds of lyrics for imaginary
songs. then after some years i stopped writing. but
when we started MONOZID i was in the situation to
be forced to write again. so i was asking myself "Why
14
did you stop writing? Is there nothing left to say?". i
had to find some words again. i had to look for my
emotions deep inside.
we just listened to these songs again on the way
back from our tour and it was quite funny as we didn’t
listen to them for a long time. i think the songs are
good. the only problem was, that we recorded them
with an electronic drum kit. i prefer a real one.
"Waiting for the circus" is about the feeling that
nothing special happens in your life and you are always waiting for the "big thing" to happen. "The circus" coming to your town is a metaphor for that. but
if you want some change in your life you have to do it
by yourself. very simple. ;-)
"Auf hoher see" is about beeing a shipwrecked person. you are swimming in the ocean but you don t die
because of being cold but you fall asleep instead as it
is so boring. it is a strange dream. "vier waende
weiter" was written by max so i can t say much about
the lyrics.
we didn t record stuff beside that which is worth
mentioning.
Nattsol: So the debut album. Could you represent
it to a listener? What it contains in "inside" and "outside" aspects?
FRANZ: we recorded the songs last spring and it
took us more than a year to release it. so the songs are
about 1-2 years old and "waiting for the circus" is even
older. we are really happy that we finally managed to
get an album together. i think the 12 songs give a wide
range of the sounds that stand for our band. from more
pop songs, to epic postrock stuff and some more
strange songs, too. i don t really understand what you
mean with " "inside" and "outside" aspects" but if you
are talking about the cover, this was made again by
our good friend alexandru from romania. he is really
a great artist and also a passionate musician (with ROMANTIC JURGEN www.myspace.com/romanticjurgen). beside that he is one of the main characters in
romanian underground scene.
Nattsol: Let's talk about the band's concert life.
How has it happened that Monozid began to give
shows outside of Germany?
FRANZ: the main idea about having this band was
always to play as many shows, as possible. and playing outside germany seemed to be the big adventure
for the band. so two years ago we were planning our
first trip which was leading us to france, spain and
switzerland. we only got 5 shows together but it was
great fun. the possibility to tour came mainly through
personal contacts. friends and bands we know and for
which we have set up shows here in leipzig. that s the
way how these things work if you are a small band
without any name or big promotion.
the next tours to italy, eastern europe or this year
again to france, spain and switzerland were even better
and we were surprised that we could find so many
gigs. playing outside germany is always much more
fun (and i think it is even easier to find gigs with the
“foreigner-bonus”). it is like being on holiday. you always see new and often strange places, you meet so
many nice and friendly people. That’s what makes it
worth to run such a band. also for the band itself it is
good to travel around and spend some time with these
3 crazy other people.
Nattsol: You had the tour just recently - so what
"have you brought" from there?
FRANZ: from our last tour we brought a lot of
sweet memories. we shared such a great time with our
friends THE HOLY KISS (www.myspace.com/theholykiss). they are amazing!! beside that we saw so
many places which were really great. we played in a
lot of different venues. squats, bars, normal clubs. we
stayed with very friendly people. we were swimming
in the atlantic ocean on a rainy night after we didn’t
have a shower for 4 days. most of the shows were really great. although there could have been more people
showing up at the show here and there. sometimes we
also had to cope with a bored crowd. but that is what
happens from time to time.
after the half of the tour the 5th gear of our van didn’t work any more so we had to drive the last 3000km
of the tour with about 80/90 km/h. so it took us a
while...
Nattsol: Well, every activity has its good and bad
sides. Regarding to playing in the band, if have a look
at the entire band's history, what are the positive and
the negative sides? In your opinion, is that possible to
improve these bad aspects if have a try? How?
FRANZ: In general, there are no negative sides to
play in a band. I can’t see why there should be negative sides. Of course it takes time and you spend a lot
of money but that’s the way it is. For the positive
sides: Playing in a band allows you to create something on your own. I always wanted to play in a band.
So i am happy that i found some people to share this.
Of course you have to get along with each others personality and you have to manage with the different
ideas everybody has. But that is nothing special. If you
want to do something with other people you have to
work in a team. If this works, you can see the positive
effects. You can travel to other cities and countries,
play your songs, meet a lot of people, record your
15
16
music and so on. these are very nice positive aspects.
DEAD, TOTEM or BLOODSTAINED TEARS. soon
they all disappeared and there was no fanzine anyNattsol: After the album and the tour, does it mean more. so we had to do the job. with the years we
that the band will bury themselves in rehearsal room moved a bit away from the goth/deathrock stuff, so we
for a while, or you have some other plans? May be, tried to discover more various sounds out of the postsome crazy ones? ^^
punk-area. we made 7 issues. the last 4 issues included
FRANZ: After the album we really have to think a compilation called "awake in the greylight". you can
in which direction we want to go with the band. I don find them also for free download on our website
t want to go on in the same way. but find some new www.transmission-magazin.net
musical ideas. i think we will include some other inalso we tried to include other topics beside music,
struments. we will see.
like arts, political things and so on.
due to other things we have to do, we will have a
in the last two years we got lazy with the zine bebreak from touring during the summer. so we will have cause we were involved in too many other things. so i
time to work on new songs. there are no more plans at don t know at the moment if there will be another
issue... in the last years we focussed more on setting
the moment.
Nattsol: Let's turn to your another activity, I mean up gigs under the name "transmission". so we had
TRANSMISSION fanzine. Tell me, please, about its shows with FOR AGAINST, THE HOLY KISS,
foundation and about the purposes you gave it. Can VARSOVIE and many many more. in june we will
you say that these purposes got some shades during have a noise-festival called "CLAWS OF SAURTOPIA" with a lot of crazy bands like NED or DON
your work?
FRANZ: max and me we started TRANSMIS- VITO.
SION about the same time when we founded
Nattsol: As I know, TRANSMISSION is the only
MONOZID. the idea was to support underground
bands. about 10-15 years ago i was reading a lot of post-punk fanzine in Germany. Tell me, please, how
small german gothic-fanzines like GOTH S NOT it "stood up" and took its place. You must be faced
many difficulties, so it's really interesting to know how
you managed to solve them. Who helped you in it?
FRANZ: well in fact there is no real interest in a
postpunk-fanzine. we knew this before. the “big time”
of the printed fanzine is long gone. the new generation
was grown up with the internet and so young people
probably don’t understand the idea of a fanzine. so it
is hard to sell this stuff. we got some help from
mailorders like STROBELIGHT which was cool.
i think the difficulties beside that are to find time
and to motivate yourself to be creative.
Nattsol: So you mean you want to reform the
fanzine into the concert agency? In common, what are
the levels you'd love to spread this your activity and
what kind of borders you'd love to found?
FRANZ: No, we don t want to reform the fanzine
into a concert agency. "agency" sounds like a business.
we are doing all these things "just for fun" and without
getting any money. it is the "do it yourself" idea which
forces us to do these things. in fact we pay money for
doing this stuff like having a band or doing a fanzine.
it is a hobby you spend money on.
we are setting up shows and organizing dance-parties for years and in the last time organizing concerts
was getting more important for us than doing the
fanzine. that s all.
the problems we have in doing this are... if we are
talking about postpunk-scene in the more dark/goth
orientated way is that 1.) people are not interested in
seeing new bands they don’t know yet. people just
want to go to a dance-party and listen to all the songs
they know from their stereo or see a cool, trendy and
stylish band. 2.) also the bands are not touring. if you
want to have a band from that kind of scene you have
to book them for one gig on the weekend which is too
expensive for us. we are setting up shows in nonprofit/d.i.y.-places so we can’t pay much for a band.
so usually we can’t invite (a foreign) band for just one
gig. 3.) also a lot of the bands from that scene want
too much money because they think they are cool
rockstars or whatever. so in general i would say, that
the whole goth/deathrock-postpunk scene doesn’t have
much of the underground/d.i.y.-spirit. that s why they
are mostly not connected with this scene and these
places. those bands usually don’t play in squats or nonprofit places. but that’s what we are doing. so most of
the times this doesn’t fit together.
anymore it will die. sad but true.
Nattsol: What do you think, what's the situation on
the German post-punk and gothic scene nowadays?
And what're the differences between post-punk and
gothic?
FRANZ: well i was saying some words about this
topic already in the question above. in general i am really bored about this scene so i don t care much. in the
last few years i was not involved in that scene anymore
so i don t know. to me most of the people seem to be
just into fashion, styling or whatever. also i don t like
95% of the bands of that scene. I think the best german
band in that direction are MURDER AT THE REGISTRY but unfortunately their keyboarder died so I
don’t know if they will go on.
Differences between post-punk and gothic?? hard
to say. I think “post-punk” is a very wide label like
“new wave”. it can mean all and nothing. in general
gothic is more about the dark things and often has
some pathetic elements. but these are things you know
;-) but also, what do the VIRGIN PRUNES and for example ROSETTA STONE do have in common?? both
bands labeled as “gothic” but totally different. but you
could also label the VIRGIN PRUNES as “postpunk”….
Nattsol: So, the scene you’re interested in – does
it have some musical borders, or just this underground
D.I.Y. approach? Tell me about it. What were the most
remarkable for you bands you were working with?
FRANZ: For musical borders: Of course there are
some everywhere. So for example if you are setting
up shows in a place where usually hardcore, crust and
punk bands are playing it can be hard to get people listen to a more “soft” sounding band playing like new
wave, shoegaze or whatever…also there is of course
the problem you have everywhere that it is hard to get
people to a show of an unknown band.
The most remarkable bands we’ve worked with
were all the bands from “hungry eye records” (in my
eyes the best label for postpunk at the moment). bands
like BLACK ICE, SIXTEENS, MT.SIMS, THE
WEEGS, HOLY KISS and related acts like SWANN
DANGER and NORA KEYES. these were impressive
shows and all of them really nice people!! that?s the
most important thing. that you don?t have to deal with
arrogant assholes. also I have good memories of the
shows we did for THEE IRMA AND LOUISE, BEN
Nattsol: Well, if you abandon the fanzine, is there ET BENE, FOR AGAINST and the crazy PSYa possibility that a one will keep up this work, or it CHOCANDY from perugia/italy. but all the bands we
had were great!!
will die?
FRANZ: well it is our fanzine. so if we don t do it
17
18
Monozid – “Say Hello to Artificial Grey”
album review
… to go, away
That’s far too late
“Lets shake hands and wonder”
Nattsol: Now I want to ask you the “traditional”
personal question – tell about yourself. Whatever
you want, but apart from your music activity.
FRANZ: Well, what do you want to hear?? I am
living my life, drinking, dancing, loving. trying to
survive in this shitty capitalist society and this fucking state. I am trying to be creative in some ways.
trying to think about the things going on around me.
that?s it. nothing special.
Nattsol: Thank you for the interview. And, again
traditionally, your final words?
FRANZ: Yes, nattsol. thanks a lot for your interest in our music and our band!! keep going on supporting underground music!! that’s the coolest thing
people can do. hey and I hope we will meet one day
in Russia!! I was never there but really like to go!!
ralf was traveling through Russia and he liked it a
lot there. so we have to come soon!!
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
“Say hello to artificial grey” is the first
full-length album of
“Monozid”, a German
indie/post-punk band
which is already
known by its EPs “Erstens” and “Waiting
for the circus”, released on a French
web-label “Zorch Factory Records”. So, the
first album can be
considered as a logical continuation of these releases, in which the band
reached its peak. The band developed its musical ideas
in a really best way it could. Indie rock “softness” is
combined with post-punk dynamism and noise-rock
guitar additions which fit the music and don’t seem
harsh. But on the other hand, the album, as the “peak”
one is also very contradictory. The musical pattern of
the release sounds much unified as if there were no
separate songs. So, this unity “swallows” many potential hits, such as lyrical “Lets shake hands and wonder”,
post-punky driven “Du bist mein mann, Sabrina”, instrumental coldwave masterpiece “Stanislawa popielska” and many others. So the band still has many
things to solve. However, “Say hello to artificial grey”
sounds very fresh, attractive and interesting, and can
be extremely highly recommended to those ones, who
enjoyed the previous band’s releases as well as to
those, who look for something new in indie, post-punk
or early coldwave music.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
19
http://www.myspace.com/joydisaster
http://www.joy-disaster.com/
http://www.zorchfactoryrecords.com/
Joy/Disaster
Nattsol: For a start, tell me, please, how the band
was formed. How did you gather? Did you have previous musical experiences?
Nico: JOY/DISASTER have started at the end of
2004 with Franz (bass) and Nico (sing-guitars) because we made music together in another band
(Palinka)
but at that time we just imagined it was the end.
After that, we've decided to create another band together with use of our rock and post-punk influences.
Nattsol: A listener can notice many echoes of different styles in your music, like indie rock, postpunk, gothic rock…. What was the original
conception of the band? Did you try to reflect your
influences in your music or you tried to be apart from
them?
Nico: The start was quite New-Wave and PostPunk but I think now we goes to something between
Post-Rock and Indie music but we always have a
Post-Punk touch back to our new sound.
Nattsol: Well, so you quite quickly recorded your
first demo, then ‘JD’, your videoclip of ‘Lobotomy’.
How did you manage to reach that quality for a start?
Was there any support from bands/people?
Nico: We have many good friends to help us to realize the projects we wish and by the end, the start
was made by many people ready to help us. We met
some Djs from many countries who played our sound
Nico: So, since the beginning we do everything
by ourselves and we made many things, Tour Management, band organization, we've created our own
label “ZEITGEIST?” to manage us. We have an association “FAKE RECORD” to organize gigs in our
city.. we are really active since four years now.
But of course, the Eastern Europe Tour 2009 is
very hard to manage because I have started to organize this Tour from September 2008 and we have
booked the last gigs in February 2009.
It's a lot of wok and we are thinking to find a label
to help us because we really want to be concentrated
on our music and preparing more original live versions of our songs.
And I think we want to start to make new stuff this
Nattsol: Could you represent your studio releases
summer.
separately? What are they?
Nico: Between the J.D. Album (2006) and ParaNattsol: Now I’d love to ask you about your attinoia (2007)... mmhhh... I think the approach of the
sound and music was quite different... we have prac- tude to musical formats. Web label ‘Zorch Factory
ticed five songs of the Paranoia album with Malik Records’ is considered to be your ‘second home’
our old drummer during few months and after that though you have several official CD releases and
(Malik left the band) we have recorded the album your latest single is limited edition vinyl 7’’. So what
with drum machine and make the three other songs makes you to choose a format, and what does it mean
of the album during the recording with Franz (bass). for you?
Nico: Oh, we have project to make a limited EdiWe have used the sound of the drum machine to have
a cold color for all the songs... it was a great experi- tion Vinyl 7” but we didn't have enough money and
we are looking for money to realize the format we
ence.
I can't prefer one of the albums because they are want for the new album.
We have finished the last year without money and
different and I don't listen a lot our music after the
recordings... I prefer to play songs on stage... more we found a good guy to help us to record the new
stuff. But for this year we try to have a new start and
exciting!
The new album is called "StäyGätôW". This we really want to find the way to finalize our projects
album is another side of our music... there is a lot of for summer 2009: Vinyls, albums re-editions, new
different songs, we have including keyboards, back- album too.
ing vocals from Lily Water (singer of TOXIC KISS
Nattsol: Joy Disaster is exactly successful band.
band from France) and we have tried to find a new
way with a best recording and more work with sound. You have releases, tours all over the world. Could
This album is very different of the others and I think you tell the secret of your success, or you prefer to
that probably people who loved JOY/DISASTER on hold it back? ;)
Nico: I think in general people enjoying our sound
the two others album should be dislike this new one...
and our attitude... we have a good communication
we will see !
But by the end, we won't use keyboard on stage with people and fans and on stage we are more rock(only for one song) and we will play more guitars one 'n’roll than many gothic bands... we don't have make
stage because we have including Simon (guitar on up and there is nothing theatrical... I think there is
something like truth in our music and in our attistage) and it will be more powerful.
tude... but we are working a lot to made/make good
Nattsol: Are there some conceptions you’d like to things... this is maybe the reason of a success?
try in Joy Disaster, but haven’t managed to do it yet?
for parties and it was the start of crowd and first fans.
We really had this chance to have some help from
many people that we always thanks a lot.
Nattsol: Your lyrics and your music, what are they
about?
Nico: Lyrics and music comes from our feelings
about the world, people and our own experiences.
I write the lyrics after we made music... I use the
feelings and the emotional way to write and keep the
sound to find the words... but lyrics and music talks
about people, love, society, religion, psychology,
world and really often about our frustration with the
world where we live.
20
Nattsol: Looking four years back to your start,
what has changed to the moment? And is there something which is going to be changed for the nearest future?
Nico: Four years in our faces!!! But to be honest
I think the wish is the same... we wish to have some
pleasure together in the J/D and we wish to share our
music with people.
One thing has changed... the line up of the band...
and more maturity in our music/lyrics.
21
Nattsol: Are you involved in any other musical
activity except JD?
Nico: For now, we don't have any side projects but
I wish to find the time to work about an acoustic
album... something between country and rock like
Johnny CASH or Lou REED... but it's in my head...
not in time to be recorded now.
Nattsol: What are your interests and hobbies except music?
Nico: Cinema, especially horror movies between
Nattsol: What is Joy Disaster on stage? Which of
your previous shows you consider as the most re- 30's & 60's but we don't have any other hobbies after
music... maybe beers... if we should talk about this
markable?
Nico: Rock’n’roll on stage, Punk in the backstage, like a hobby?
Post-Punk during our practices and probably Funky
Nattsol: What would you like to add about yourin our lifestyle.
The most remarkable gig was in Creeper Fest in selves in music or apart from the music?
Nico: Take the time listen to our sound in general
Vilnius (Lt) the last year... it was a very wonderful
but be sure that your best experience with our music
experience with a lot of nice people.
is to come to one of our gig.
Nattsol: Do you have a plan about a new release?
Nattsol: And your final words.
What it will be?
Nico: Hope to have the pleasure to talk and drink
Nico: The new release was finished the last month
and it will be ready in CD and Vinyl 12' format this some beers with you guys !
Thanks a lot for this interview and I hope that you
Summer... this is the first start but the new release is
very different of the two others albums... we have know more of JOY/DISASTER by my answers.
Best regards.
recorded 10 songs with many influences of experiNico
ences of the last year.
We are really proud about this new stuff because
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskity
there is pop-music, rock music, new wave music,
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
post punk music mixed with the JOY/DISASTER
touch !
Nattsol: It’s interesting to know your opinion –
do you think that a musician should earn a living by
his music or money should stay separately with art?
(Do you earn a living by your music?).
Nico: So, we don't earn a living by our music...
but I think if you get money with your music... it's
completely honest to admit that we should live by our
music.
Many mainstream bands says “we don't want to
get money with our music !” it's ok, I can admit this
way but if maybe tomorrow they could pay their bills
with music and play everyday something that they
really like... by the end who never want to get money
and make what they love to do ?
22
Valery & The Greedies
http://www.myspace.com/valeryandthegreedies
Here is my opinion that is now perspective to be engaged —
not to make something in a direction of music,
but make directly music because music is boundless
and barriers do not exist
(с) Anatoli`, Valery & the Greedies
Not a secret that every band has a different way
of its development. Some collectives work for years
before going on the stage and it is necessary to wait
when a debut album is out, sometimes for 5 or even
10 years. Other bands, on the contrary, start very actively also write down first plates in a year-one and a
half of persistent rehearsals. Number of the last also
concerns collective which this article is devoted to.
This band in its present structure does not exist even
a year, but it’s already known within the entire country. This is Valery & The Greedies. Their music represents at present melancholic post-punk with the
spirit of Joy Division.
Surprising, first of all, is the high level of quality,
uncharacteristic, unfortunately, for the majority of
young bands and also improbable speed with which
the band develops: it is less than a year of rehearsals
— and they already touring all the country. Naturally,
occurrence of such bright collective could not remain
not to be noticed. Video shootings, interviews, notes
in magazines — integral part of a today's life of mu-
sicians. However, Valery & the Greedies are modest
and do not like to extend too much about themselves,
so we had to address for the information to the vocalist and front man— to Anatoli`:
Sorrow: To start with, explain, please, sense of
the band’s name. If I am not mistaken, Valery among
participants of group is not present.
Anatoliy: At once I wish to dispel some doubts!
At some concerts on posters organizers thought out
legends about certain Valery, without knowing actually sense of the name of our band. And when we
acted in film for telecast «Sound pickup» one of TV
channels, we have supported this idea. But actually
all was not so. Earlier we in our band had a girl
Valery, she played bass.
When we thought of that it is necessary for us to
be called somehow. The guitarist Lум had an idea
concerning with the word The Greedies. And one of
translations of a word «Greedies» isn’t good and I
said that we can’t be called because Valery is girl.
Maybe Valery & The Greedies. But it not so is pleasant to me, to tell the truth.
Sorrow: The name actually is enough difficult to
pronounce. It’s never late to be renamed, especially
with recording of the album. Do you think about it?
Anatoly: Yes, and difficultly remembered! Many
people in our town have a problem with it, as far as I
know. Apropos recalled we have definitively solved
that we wouldn’t do it. This is label and about it all
the same knows.
Sorrow: When there was an idea of creation of
band?
Anatoly: It’s a difficulty to tell how much for a
long time… There was an idea to create the project
there were no even style frameworks.
It was the autumn of 2007, the idea was extremely
painful, that is I did not know that I want, similar
doubts remained to thresholds of rehearsal base)
There I have understood that the way back is not
present.
Sorrow: Tell me, please, about your band members.
Anatoly: I’m Anatoliy) I sing! Lev plays guitar,
Grisha is the drummer and Sasha Shultz is our bass
player.
Usually our guitarist writes the music; he thinks
out all the basic riffs, we only are engaged in arrangements.
Sorrow: And words for songs are thought out only
by you?
Anatoly: Not only me, Lev writes some songs too.
Those songs which we now have in our arsenal are
cast by own experiences. If all the same to speak to
23
the point, texts of songs are probably about fears, regrets and disappointments...
Sorrow: And what from music has affected most
of all your creativity?
Anatoly: Many people say about us that we are
Joy Division. It I heard likely billion times if it is no
more.
I did not consider). And it’s an interesting question
about inspiration. The matter is that strenuously the
post-punk we listened before we began to play it.
After have played — listened in the given key
ever less and less. It is difficult to tell, than we are
inspired. Joy Division became the basic factor, of
course, I will not argue. But it was, more likely, at
the earliest stage. Then we began to take many a little, from different records any different counters and
so on. There are hundreds of these bands groups. And
all of them are so different that it is difficult to present
to it. Each our song is a mosaic, consisting of hundreds different smallest elements.
Sorrow: With whom you would wish to appear
on stage?
Anatoly: About bands from the west I do not
know... I am not too familiar with the western scene
now (young teams) in spite of the fact that we have a
lot of friends on myspace.com from Europe and the
USA.
And here in Russia there are good bands! Especially I will allocate Zeberti from Saint-Petersburg
and The Cavestompers from Moscow.
And to speak about dreams absolutely transcendental, that, perhaps, would be cool to play with New
Order.
Regarding to Europe I will tell easier: we simply
very much would like there to act and be apprehended by public.
Sorrow: What can you tell about rock scene in
Petrozavodsk?
Anatoly: For the population in 270 thousand people the scene in Petrozavodsk is developed very
strongly for such small town.
Sorrow: And what’s the difference between the
audience in Petrozavodsk, in Moscow and in SaintPetersburg?
Anatoly: The difference is quite small! Everywhere an audience is cold enough, sleepy and sleeping. Therefore all should be warmed up properly! As
a whole, an audience is almost identical. On concerts
many people listening many of different music go.
Difference the basic that at us to the people in a
city is less and all anyhow communicate with each
other and the same people go to the majority of concerts. As far as I know, In Saint-Petersburg the similar
unity already in my opinion is not present, in
Moscow especially.
Sorrow: What were your impressions of your
debut performance?
Anatoly: It too should be recollected) I remember
that before it strongly were afraid! I’m always afraid
before a debut exit with any project on a scene! Well,
naturally, feeling of simplification. Public accepted
us well, there were many people, and they thanked
us for the performance.
We played not bad, but still very uncertainly for
that time. Yes, and then we were as like as two peas
similar to Joy Division.) Since then fear of a scene
and any audience has disappeared at all! It is a very
positive moment! We always behave equally at any
concert.
«Freaks on a secular reception!» has written about
us one local magazine in December of the last year.
Sorrow: And what about plans for the future?
Anatoly: We plan to make round across Russia,
there is a desire to go to Europe but while there are
no such communications. And besides all will rest
against record of a new album, therefore the main
plan — to release an album!
Plate release is planned for the end of spring —
the beginning of summer. When there will be it then,
I think, there will be also a food for reflexions about
сoncerning the new fulfilments, new concerts and
possible round (and probably not one).
Sorrow: And the last question — what can you
esteem to readers of our magazine?
Anatoly: I want to wish the readers of magazine
successes in private life! That the roof in the house
did not proceed and that wives and husbands don’t
fool around.
Take care, my dear!
Victor Sorrow Nikolaev
Grave Gibes Fanzin.
24
25
Tot Licht
Bars-Ursula: Your group has formed in 2006. Tell
about that time for group. In what atmosphere the collective was created? Why You have decided to play such
music?
Tot Licht: Tot Licht’s foundations have been formed
thanks to a chance meeting in 2005, born from our common passion for horror films, gothic art and decadent poetry, moreover from the implied passion for all the 80s
dark sounds which range from gothic to post punk, gothabilly, new wave, techno pop, batcave. At the beginning of
2006 we tried to play together and we loved the result, so
we started to devote ourselves to our project with body
and soul. We started to play this genre because it’s the only
one we can really do, since it’s the mirror of our souls.
These three years of activity haven’t been a cakewalk because of our personal engagements, but the time we’ve
been spending together has made us like two brothers!
Bars-Ursula: «In Fear of The Light» - not the unique
release of group, could You tell in more details about two
others relizes. Whether there were they on any label?
What about their concept? And what main thing in your
opinion difference “In Fear of The Light” from them?
Tot Licht: In Fear of the Light is the first full length of
our band whereas Tot Licht and In the Dead
Light are two demos fruit of a first approach to the
music, maybe sometimes wild, but with these demos
we’ve completely expressed our most introverted feelings.
We think that In Fear of the Light is Tot Licht’s most mature and various work both in the sonority and in the lyrics
and maybe it’s less experimental than the other two previous.
Bars-Ursula: In this case, tell us about the lyrical part
of Tot Licht. What does lyrics mean for you? What gives
you the sorts of inspiration?
Lou Rumble: The lyrics draw theirs inspiration from
personal experiences and horror films, from books and
from life itself, for what concerns me.
Lover Morkt: Lou writes most of the lyrics, in the ones
I write I tell about whatever obsesses me, about my fears
or I try to describe the mood I can’t hold back.
Bars-Ursula: There are two members of the band
marked on your disc cover, but there is one more member,
Valery Morkt , Female back-vocal, mentioned on your
MySpace page and we can hear her voice on «In The Fear
26
of The Light». Is she an equal member of the band? How
important is she in the creation of your music?
Lover Morkt: Valery is a vocalizer but all the voice
lines are made by Lou Rumble. We’re thinking about removing the female voice, perhaps for a period or forever,
we’ll see. However, we thank her for her participation in
recording.
Bars-Ursula: The only one of you composes the music.
Tell us, what instruments, programs do you use? How do
you manage to create such minimal and very atmospheric
sound simultaneously, if it isn’t a secret? How do you give
performances with this staff? Is there any need in the help
of other temporary musicians?
Lover Morkt: I use a synthesizer and a sound programme of synth and drum machine, then I employ my
beloved bass, but I use the guitar to produce effects, my
favourite guitarist is Daniel Ash and I’m obsessed by the
sound he succeeded in creating in the famous track Bela
Lugosi’s Dead. So I employ my guitar trying to merge it
as much as I can and to make it part of the musical atmosphere.
For what concerns the sound I create, I just try to find
the best atmosphere for our lyrics, trying to identify myself with them or turning some of my feelings into music.
Sometimes Lou Rumble reads me one of his lyrics while
he describes me the atmosphere he would like to call up,
and I get down to work: obviously I consider Lou’s opinion as well and if he has an input to give me I always try
to pick it.
In live performances I prefer to play my bass because
it makes me feel more in contact with the music and freer
in movements, Lou is the voice and my PC gives the
bases!
Bars-Ursula: Tell us, about your live performances?
Whom would you like to perfume on the same stage with?
Where would you like to perform, what country, place?
Tot Licht: Frankly our live performances aren’t regu-
larly because of our jobs but we are trying to organize ourselves to perform more times and we’d like to so much
playing out of Italy to travel and meet new people.
Bars-Ursula: Your album can be found on the webpage of the Zorch-records. How did you get acquainted
with Manu?
Lover Morkt: I’ve read about his band on a French
fanzine, A Gore Hurlant, afterwards I read about Zorch
Factory on Ascension Magazine in an interview done with
Manu, then I understood at once that he’s an approachable
person truly interested in music, and the rest came by messages exchanged on MySpace.
Bars-Ursula: Nowadays many bands, even such commercially successful as NIN, Radiohead, spread theirs
records in Internet. What do you think about it? The future
is in such web-labels as Zorch records even in the underground world, don’t you think?
Lover Morkt: We think that the future will be that, but
in our opinion a true fan must have CD, CD are things that
remain and last for a long time: they contain lyrics, sleeve
and buying those gratifies the hearer and the band. But net
labels like Zorch are a great device to become known, especially for self-produced bands like ours that aren’t able
to produce a huge number of CDs and have trouble in
finding contacts.
Bars-Ursula: You indicate your stile as darkwave, but
your music is very close in features and atmospherically
to post-punk/ batcave. How do you obtain this? Are there
still darkwave in your music or you play high-quality experimental music, with the roots in old school gothic?
Lou Rumble: Our music is darkwave with all the influences of background, even if the simple definition of
darkwave is tightened to me. We are a band that likes to
attempt and express various feelings and this makes us
produce tracks which wander from common darkwave.
Lover Morkt: I agree, the approach to the music is
darkwave, but there are various influences and we often
stray to other genres, we like to experiment and we always
try to do new things, keeping our personal style and giving
our brand to the tracks.
Bars-Ursula: Do you think the modern darkwave is in
the dead end now? All the German bands, appearing like
copies of something like Das Ich, Sopor Aeternus, are
sooner only images with the loud signboard “Gothic”. Is
it just an exploitation of this term and making money?
Lover Morkt: I think that all the ties with the past are
lost now, the bands you mentioned have a strong bond
with the past and I admire them, but so many people and
groups start now wanting to be like them, without having
bases and losing the ties with the true gothic.
Lou Rumble: Everyone lives it the way he wants, I
think that music is life and I don’t dare to judge, each of
us does what he wants and has his personal ideas about
music.
Bars-Ursula: Italian darkwave is world-wide famous
thanks to The Frozen Autumn. How do you treat them?
Also, our zine’s editors and readers highly evaluate such
Italian bands as Il Giardino Violetto, Bohemien, Chants
Of Maldaror, Le Vene di Lucretia… What do you think
about them? Are there any unity in the Italian scene?
Tot Licht: You have mentioned great bands that we
hold in high esteem, there is unity in Italy but we think
that it could be better because people are too much linked
to their own region.
Bars-Ursula: Northern and southern Italy differ much
historically, economically and politically. Are there any
great difference between the life in this two regions nowadays? Is it reflected in the regional music?
Tot Licht: Yes, there are big differences, a band like
ours finds it difficult to stand out in the southern region
of Italy, in some south towns they are still suspicious of
gothic and we are talking about that consciously because
we used to live in the south and now we live in the north!
Bars-Ursula: We know about the awful earthquakes in
Italy recently. Please take our condolences to all Italians
and the victims. Would you like to say something about
that events?
Tot Licht: We are with our fellow countrymen and
women in their sorrow
Bars-Ursula: There are a very strong influence of the
catholic church in Italy. Is it reflected in the foundation of
stupid stereotypes about youth subcultures? (In Russia we
have thanks to the orthodox church a law, forbidding to
wear gothic, football-fan’s , emo attributes. Gothic subculture became equal to extremism).
Lover Morkt: Yes, there are some stereotypes, but I
think that they are everywhere. I’m sorrow for your situation in Russia, I just can say that anyway who feels and
decides to wear goth knows it’s a hard way and knows he
will draw on himself judgements and looks.
Bars-Ursula: There are a very strong influence of the
catholic church in Italy. Is it reflected in the foundation of
stupid stereotypes about youth subcultures? (In Russia we
have thanks to the orthodox church a law, forbidding to
wear gothic, football-fan’s , emo attributes. Gothic sub-
culture became equal to extremism).
Lover Morkt: Yes, there are some stereotypes, but I
think that they are everywhere. I’m sorrow for your situation in Russia, I just can say that anyway who feels and
decides to wear goth knows it’s a hard way and knows he
will draw on himself judgements and looks.
Lou Rumble: Of course the Church has a huge influence. There are also extremist followers and I think that’s
not good, like all the extremes.
Bars-Ursula: What is your personal opinion to the
catholic church? I think, The church in Italy even nowadays deals not only with the businesses of religion. I
know, in Italy there is a blocked law by socialists about
the abortion legalization (it is blocked by that social institute which is to blame for inquisition victims, witch hunt,
religious wars, supporting Italian and German fascists during the World War II). And how do you treat the question
of the abortion legalization?
Lover Morkt: I’m against any religious institution, I
think that priests, who don’t have children and wives, cannot tell people how to behave in their sentimental life and
how to bring their children up. Here abortion is allowed,
but before doing that women are obliged to go to some
courses where everything that may dissuade them is done.
Lou Rumble: Everyone has the ideals he wants. The
freedom of each person finishes where the one of another
person starts! I am a believer but I dissociate myself from
the catholic outlook on that: I completely agree with the
abortion legalization and I am a supporter of it, I think that
each one of us has the right to choose if he wants a child
or not and none can decide for the others, because that’s
an inviolable right.
Bars-Ursula: Do You have any interests, besides Your
music? Have you ever wanted to try yourself in other
music styles? Or to create other projects?
Lover Morkt: I have a great passion for horror movies
from 30s to 90s, I like reading horror an philosophy book,
and goth fanzines, but I also love buying e listening to
CDs. Since I’ve been playing in
Lou Rumble: Tot Licht I had no other bands or projects, I’m very busy and satisfied of it.
I adore horror movies from 50s to 70s as well, I also
like drawing and recently creating and modify photos on
the computer too. I also have a one-man band that plays
primitive rockabilly called Billy Storm.
Bars-Ursula: And your final words…
Tot Licht: Thank you so much for this article and the
support for the goth heart, we are so sad because this interview is end! We invite everyone to listen to our CD on
www.zorchfactoryrecords.com
And
on
www.myspace.com/totlicht,
or
write
to
[email protected]. A warm embrace to everyone and
stay goth!
Questions: Vadim 'Bars-Ursula' Barsov
“Grave Jibes Fanzine”
27
28
Tot Licht – “In fear of the light” album review
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Vadim 'Bars-Ursula' Barsov
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29
http://www.myspace.com/paralitikos
http://www.musikaze.com/paralitikos
Nattsol: Let's start our interview from the pre-'Paralitikos' period, I mean the band 'Vacaciones en una
Silla de Ruedas’. What was this band? How did the
band members gather together?
Ricarditiko: The members gathered together in
1989 in Ricarditiko´s bar. They were mates of Sunday’s hangovers. “Vacaciones en una silla de ruedas”
was one of the names that the band had before
adopted the name of “Paralítikos”.
Nattsol: You began in the late 80’s. It’s very interesting to know what the atmosphere about deathrock
and post-punk in Spain was then. Could you try to reflect it?
Ricarditiko: There weren’t so many bands of that
style then, but the ones that played then were better .
More creative for being less commercial. But one
thing better than now then was that there were more
places to organize concerts and people cared more of
the music and cultural matters than of the superficial
things.
Nattsol: Now the question is about turning ‘Vacaciones en una Silla de Ruedas’ into ‘Paralitikos’. Tell
me, please, how and when it happened and what the
initial difference between these two projects was.
(And what does the band’s name mean?)
Elizia: There was no difference between “Vacaciones en una silla de ruedas” and “Paralitikos”. “Vacaciones en una silla de ruedas” (that means Holidays
on a wheelchair) only was the name that the band
chose to start the project, but the first concert they
played was under the name of “Paralitikos” (that
means Paralytics). As you will have notice the meanings of the two names are very similar, but “Paralitikos” is shorter and easier to remember, too.
Nattsol: What were the most important and interesting moments in the life of the original ‘Paralitikos’? May be, some funny ones? :)
Elizia: I think that something important in Paralitikos´ history was the fact of compilated in one cd
(Recopoilacion de resurreccion) the two previous tape
recorders because was as the returned of the band and
most people knew the band for that compilation cd.
Nattsol: How and when did it happen
that the original band’s line-up decided to
split? Do you still keep in touch with the
past band members?
Ricarditiko: people that formed the
band in 1989 dindn´t have any interest of
keeping on playing because they did it as
a hobbie and not as something more serious. That´s why the line-up has changed a
lot of times. Some former members left
the band because they got married, others
for different opinions, and others only
were mercenarians that played for a
while. So I´m the only one who continues
with the project since the beginning but I
write the lyrics and create the music, so
the sound of the band in that sense hasn´t
changed.
Nattsol: Ricardítiko, you formed the band ‘Vampiros en la Habana’ in 1997. There’s just a short mentioning of it in the ‘Paralitikos’ bio. So could you tell
some more details?
Ricarditiko: Vampiros en la habana was a project
that I created when I moved form the place I was living (Santander, north of Spain). But it was a fun project and
we played covers from other bands, such as misfits,
Eskorbuto, The cure, primitivos, the cramps, and
songs from Paralitikos, too. lol
Nattsol: How ‘Paralitikos’ was resurrected?
Ricarditiko: It was a creative resurrection because
of the musical scene was full of commercial bands.
Elizia: When I first joined the band in 2005 I had
very little time to prepare the songs wih them be-
fore
playing in a concert in Madrid, but in spite of that fact,
it was a great experience to me, and dayly Paralitikos
continues meaning something stronger than a passion
. That´s Paralitikos for me. And that´s the reason why
I involved since the first moment in such a special
way with the band, trying to do the best, and do it in
the best way I can, and learning new things related
with music and manager aspects in order to improve
Paralitikos and have a better level and things
like that. Since I joined the band I have been
always busy with several aspects of it, I am the
one who take care of our webs, and promotional issues, and more, and that´s another reason why Ricarditiko and me shared feelings
and continue playing together against all the
misadventures.
Nattsol: The works of resurrected ‘Paralitikos’ seem more mature than the works of
the original line-up. In your opinion, what has
changed? And what is the direction the band
moves?
Ricarditiko: The band moves without a
specific direction, only following the guidelines of the creativity.
Elizia: The last CD “Roma no paga
30
31
traidores”, is harder and more
critical. With more directed
lyrics against the social system. The cd we are preparing
right now, that is going to be
called “La Senda de los Antiheroes”, has critical lyrics,
too, but with a lot of goth and
dark atmospheres.
Nattsol: You use your native language for your lyrics.
What are they about? Would
you like to try writing in English?
Ricarditko: the lyrics are
inspired on the cruel reality,
in poems or tales of some
writers as Becquer, Poe,
Lovecraft, Byron, Baudelaire, Larra, Nietzsche,
Bukowski, … They are in
general decayed and sinister
lyrics.
Elizia: We preferred to
write the lyrics in our language because we can express what we want in the
best way. People express in
the language they feel more
comfortable with in order to
transmit their ideas. Anyway,
the language your lyrics are
written is not the most important in music.
Nattsol: What are the
band plans for the nearest future?
Elizia: as I told you before we are preparing our
next cd, “la Senda de los Antiheroes”, and we have a
lot of songs to include in it. Our plans now are to play
in several gigs here in Spain, play pour new songs,
too, and start to record the cd.
scene nowadays? Do you have some friends on this
stage? And apart from it?
Ricarditiko: the Spanish dark scene nowadays has
a lack of creative and original bands that is a symptom
of the speculation in the dark music scene itself.
Elizia: in spite of that fact, we have a good relationship with bands such as Lobos Humanos, Error
de Visión, Phantom Vision, …
Nattsol: Are you involved in some other activities,
connected with dark music? What role does it play in
your lives?
Ricarditiko: paralitikos is the ony band we dedicate our time, and we have a lot of things to do with
it ;)
Nattsol: What other music except ‘goth’ you like?
Ricarditiko y Elizia: Punk and post-punk music
in general, but we are open-minded with other styles.
Nattsol: What can you tell about the Spanish dark
Nattsol: Are you interested in other art aspects ex-
cept music, such as photography, literature…. Do you
have favorite art actors? Or may be you’re personally
involved in some of these aspects?
Elizia: of course we love art in all its aspects, photography, literature, films, painters,…One of our favorite actors is Vincent Price, well known for his roles
in horror films of the 60´s, 70´s and so, of the director
Roger Corman. Writers, the ones we mentioned before are the ones we enjoy the most.
Nattsol: So you play deathrocky music, use
deathrock/post-punk image. But who are you in the
backstage life?
Ricarditiko: We are a post-punk band, not a
deathrock one. And our image reflects our personality.
But image is not what we give more importance. We
care more for technical aspects in music.
Nattsol: And traditionally, your final words.
Ricarditiko y Elizia: thanks for the interview and
we´d love to be in a future playing in your country for
you. Thanks to all the people that support us.
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
Paralitikos – Roma No Paga Traidores review
Los Paralitikos – is a
Spanish band, formed in 89.
Their influence on the
scene is as huge as the Paralisis Permanente’s one is,
and it can be purely seen in
all south-American, Spanish neo-batcave/post-punk/
modern deathrock bands.
Last year they released EP
«Roma
No
Paga
Traidores», which contains
6 tracks. During the years
of its existence Paralitikos
have made a huge way,
their musical development
has been reflected not only
on the band itself, but also
on the Spanish, South
America scenes at all,
therefore, this release also
reflects the state of this
scene as a unique phenomenon.
«Roma
No
Paga
Traidores» begins with «La
Resistencia», which has already become a hit among
fans of such music, aggressive feeding and unforgettable melody creates the
appropriate mood of a listener. The next track «Licantro Punk» is not less
memorable and melodic. At
«La Sombra De Vincent
Rice» the group reduces the
rate, and gives excellent
portion of great obscurantism instead. The next song
in the album titled «Roma
No Paga Traidores» the
most aggressive and angry
theme of this release. «Anubis» - is a very slow and in
my opinion tedious and
boring song, which helps a
listener rather breath, before the climax track «Venganzas y Sentimientos»,
this is my very favorite
song on the album, rhythmic shifts, acceleration ,
holding the guitar and keyboards lines.
The album, like all
band’s releases is in Spanish, and if you like, for example, Alas De Cuervo
2006 this work should be
up to you to taste.
Melodic guitars, ubiquitous, and highlight the complexity and diversity of the
keys, creating the effect of
a combination of several
melodies, while all the
music is very complex and
aggressive, it is equally
suitable for single reflection
and, in order to jump, wrestle and slamming. The very
group positions itself as the
Post-Punk, I agree with this
definition, but one can un-
derstand those who feel that
the team now plays (modern) deathrock. Roma No
Paga Traidores - it is not adjusted to the attempt to
fashion the sound, not release from fossil relics, it is
the spirit of time and a retrospective of the past, this
release will give an example for young and aggressive groups like Gorgonas,
Los Carniceros del Norte
and at the same time is worthy of the ears of fans, Paralisis Permanente, the early
works of Paralitikos.
Vadim 'Bars-Ursula' Barsov
“Grave Jibes Fanzine”
32
33
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Nattsol:
elves, ple he well. A
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band.
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they face
itself.
34
Nattsol: It is always
interesting to ask a successful band how it
achieved this success. So
could you tell this story a
bit more detailed, please?
Fulvio: We are not
successful in a commercial way through the
charts. The band and its
music is supported by the
fans.
Nattsol: So the original ‘Madre del Vizio’
broke up in the second
half of the 90’s. Could
you tell more about this
brake-up? What were the
most remarkable moments and achievements
of the original MdV?
Fulvio: In 1996, Kain
and I didn't see any future
in the former formation
Reb -photo by A.Berthel.
to find out that they
considered myself as
non-professionalenough. Fact is: they
were not able to meet
the demands to play
live.
of the band.
Nattsol: MdV came
back with the shortened
name ‘Madre’ and released the CD ‘Mesmerismo’. Though the
title had changed, the
music of this release can
be considered as MdV
classics. So what are the
differences
between
Madre and MdV, and
what was this band itself?
Why it broke up in 1999?
Fulvio: You can not
say that Messmerismo is
a regular MdV longplayer. It was recorded in
times of change. In times
when the musicians of the
band didn't like each
other very well. By the
way, the musical style is
completely different to
the other records.
Nattsol: The next
question is about the next
comeback, which happened in 2005 with the
CD ‘Antonomasia’. This
release has a bit softer
sound than other MdV albums. So what had
changed with it? What is
this CD about? And why
you didn’t give support
shows to this release?
And what were the reasons of the break after
this release?
Fulvio: By recording
the CD Antonomasia I
tried to express myself in
a new way with a new
crew. Unfortunately, the
members of this crew
where the wrong persons
to do this. These two guys
didn't have enough time
to go on tour. Later I had
Nattsol: So Madre
del Vizio appeared with
live shows, new material and the renewed
line-up in the end of
2007. How did it happen?
Reb: KaiN and Fulvio had the idea to start
the band again. Due to
the fact that I made
music with KaiN and
Upiry before, I was the
perfect person to do the
job. The former guitarists of the MdV were
not willing to enter
stage again.
Upiry: KaiN, Reb
and me played together
in the band 'Desert +
Fortune' for a few years.
During the years after the
band had split I was
working on my solo project 'Upiry' until
KaiN asked me to play
bass guitar for MdV. Due
to the fact that I'm a fan of
this band since the early
1990s, I had not to reflect
whether to do the job.
Nattsol: Now I want
to ask you about the past
members. Why did they
leave the band? What do
they currently do? Do you
keep in touch with them?
And the single question to
KaiN – you left the band
several times, but finally
came back. How did it
happen?
KaiN: Actually, I only
left the band one time.
These days, there were a
couple of press statements by Apollyon about
my opt out of MdV. Truth
is that the original formation of MdV split in 1995.
Then, Fulvio was looking
for other creative people
who wanted to share the
following part of his musical career with him.
Fortunately, I was one of
them. After the tour and
album
for
Messmerismo/Madre, Fulvio
wanted to start a new
project with Christian and
Kreisi. The drums were
only based on programmed samples so
there was no job for me.
During this time, I had
the chance to play with
‘Desert&Fotune’
that
ended after 6 years of
drumming, recording 2
CDs and going on tour for
three times. In the end of
2007, me and Fulvio met
again. We talked about
the release of ‘Antonomasia’. There were many requests for concerts based
on the last album. The
musicians who recorded
the CD maybe didn’t
have time to play the concerts or they were simply
not in the mood to do the
jobs on stage. I had the
time to do the job. Due to
the fact that I had played
so many MdV shows, I
knew exactly Fulvio’s
preferences for playing
life. I helped him to find
tour-proofed musicians
who fulfilled his expectations of a functioning
band. And so I’m back
again in MdV. It’s like
coming home.
35
Nattsol: As I know,
Upiry has the solo experimental project, Reb
played in ‘The Bates’.
Are/were there some
other side projects, or the
projects you participate
in? Could you represent
them to a reader?
Reb: We both played
in ‘Desert + Fortune’ together with KaiN. Short
before I became a musician in MdV I played in a
local Band from Kassel,
our hometown, called
Nirgendwo.
Upiry: The work on
my solo project expresses
my thoughts, feelings and
my view of social life in
general.
your lives and in your
music?
Fulvio: That's wrong.
I'm a happy person. I like
it to act this way. It's a
kind of therapy for myself.
Reb: Humor is everything especially when
your on tour. We laugh a
lot during our rehearsals.
Especially Fulvio is alNattsol: So you work ways funny.
on the new stuff. Tell me,
Nattsol: It’s not too
when we should expect
the release and what it hard to notice religious
and mystical motives in
will be.
Fulvio: We work on your works. What is your
our new album -amare l attitude to religion and
Nattsol:
Another amore-. Basically, love is mysticism?
Fulvio: I use these be‘show question’. Could the best thing in the world
you tell me about the Ger- and this is what the now cause: a) my childhood
album tries to memories come back acexpress. I think, cording to the rituals and
the
album's extraordinary impressions
gonna be re- I had during this time. b)
leased by the I try to be a good man.
end of the year. I'm not interested in poliReb: I think, tics, religion, rituals and
we try to find a mystic. c) I use its symway back to the bols as a kind of pop art
roots of dark recycling.
music. I try to
Nattsol:
Many
play a sound
that is similar to deathrock bands prefer to
the old new use batcave image, but
wave
sound you ignore all batcave asplayed in the pects (in sound and in
early 80s. Even image). What is your attiif it does not ex- tude to batcave? How has
actly sound like your image been changthis I try to do ing through years? Was it
the best to make ever important for you?
it sound similar. And what about current
period?
Fulvio: I'm the same
Nattsol: If
read your texts, person like the years beit could seem fore exept my shoe size
that you’re very has changed.
obscure and deNattsol: Tell me,
pressive persons. What role please, about your culplays humor in tural backgrounds.
Nattsol: During these
two years you played in
many countries. What
were the most remarkable
shows for you? What is
your public nowadays?
Fulvio: For me every
show is unique and not
comparable to another
show. Every live event is
a great experience.
Upiry: Every concert
has its unforgettable moments. However, our first
gig in Milano was something special. This concert showed me what
MdV means to our fans.
man scene? You haven’t
played in Germany for 11
years. Why do you avoid
it?
Reb: There is not a
scene for Goth rock with
Italian lyrics in Germany.
Most of the German audience only accepts German or English sung
songs.
36
your atti
t
r
a
p
t
a
Wh
our
Nattsol:
lays in y e
p
c
i
s
d
u
n
o
m
he
mak
d sec
tude to t
n, does it
nly passe
o
io
I
in
:
p
o
io
r
are
lv
u
Fu
if comp
fe? In yo
li
l
a
u
s
b
u
u
l.
n
s
es u
ary schoo ou talk about my
lives?
your liv
n
a
y
c
f
rdinary’
I
y
o
fe
:
l
‘
n
h
o
it
Reb
I
w
,
nd
all my li
em
u
d
th
o
r
n
e
g
p
k
ll
s
c
o
a
l
b
I’l
am
’ n’ R
cultural
Fulvio:
do Rock
music i
to
t
u
d
o
d
ie
h
n
t
tr
i
a
I
’
w
c,
Bates
say that
for musi
ed ‘The
s
r
a
e
t
w
n
e
I
I
h
tant.
g
since
ry impor r.
. Althou
nothing.
e
e
r
v
o
e
f
is
r
e
e
b
h
ic
t
s
t h e t i m e ypical German,
Reb: Mu ause I teach guita
r
e
t
e
a
p
s
y
f or
a
e bec
raced
t is good .
ople in m y of It feeds m
I
e
.
p
e
f
s
li
y
a
y
es m
aning
were alw d me the wa
It enrich
ife a me
l
y
e
m
w
o
s
is,
h
e
that s
e. It giv y is able to say th
m
,
.
d
ll
o
o
o
Rock’n’R ince my childh rt Not everybod has perfect living
S
pa
:
y
e
rson
r
r
Upi
lture we
en the pe
u
v
c
e
d
n
..
a
..
t
rts
s.
music, a I lern to Jobs, bu
condition
.
e
f
s
i
of my l
inal word
f
r
.
u
e
f
o
li
y
y
d
m
An
music is
Nattsol:
u
o
y
view.
usic do
this inter ain thing in life is
m
r
t
o
a
f
h
W
em
ts/com
Nattsol:
Reb: Th d to have fun.
ds/projec
n
a
b
t
a
h
happy an the colour green
listen? W ke?
e
b
to
,
r
u li
rde
hy is
e
posers yo siouxie, new o e,
Upiry: 'w will never be th
g
:
reven
n? It
imply
Fulvio
not gree
tood or s
he wants
s
s
r
e
,
s
d
r
n
o
u
t
i
ch
r
...... ed
very mu
me, neve
a
s
s
k
n
a
f
h
o
T
nres
best
ded.'
......
most ge
not inten view and all the
e
k
i
l
m
’
I
I
t
Reb:
our coun
e fact tha el for the inter
y
th
r
e
n
v
o
o
d
ll
e
a
sp
as
music. B hoir, I like the go f for the people
o
c
e
it
singing in l stuff. My favor
.
inds try
ica
s
k
s
l
l
kiy
la
c
A
.
d
c
n
i
a
ol’ Zaruts
mus
s
r
tt
a
a
t
s
i
N
e
u
‘
d
g
ll
a
s: Pa
l dec
course is
e’
Question
l from al
l
o
R
’
n
es Fanzin
’
ib
k
J
c
o
e
v
R
a
f
r
o
‘G
1950s.
nds of
i
k
l
l
a
since the
r
prefe
f
Upiry: I n every kind o
i
to
a
i
ol
ortant
melanch
isn't imp
e
r
n
e
g
nced
o
music, s
as influe
w
y
ll
a
n
o
ozz
rs
me. I pe i c a n d a r t o f R
us
by the m
.
Williams
ns
ave passio
h
u
o
y
o
D
Nattsol:
they?
What are f time in
t?
r
A
t
p
ot o
exce
pend a l
. N ot
Reb: I s
ter screen s, I
u
p
m
o
c
y
r
front of m xpert in compute e
e
n
im
a
s of mult
that I’m
n
to
e
m
u
ons
love to c
ovies.
nisdia like m he 'Wiener Aktio y
ks b
Upiry: T
the wor
y
l
l
a
i
c
e
ador
mus' sp
9), Salv
6
9
1
(
s
Bru
liams
Gunter
Rozz Wil
y
b
s
k
r
o
w
ion).
Dali, the
s and vis
d
r
o
w
,
d
(in soun
37
38
Madre del Vizio – рецензия на “Un Mondo Dove…”
…la notte e stata consumata, la notte d’un passo va
(“Bestie Metalliche”)
Madre del Vizio, the cult and the first in Germany
deathrock band is considered by many journalists to be
attractive and successful because of their “American”
sound. But that is not the entire truth. The band’s uniqueness is that they sound as if they invented deathrock independently, without that “Christian Death” basis
(though some relations, of course, take their places).
Deathrock of Madre del Vizio has very similar sound to
the classical one, but glam rock influence doesn’t play
such an important role, and hard rock backgrounds are
more on the surface.
“Un Mondo Dove…” (“A World Where…”) is the
compilation of the original Madre del Vizio best of
(1990-1997), and it can exactly be called the best and
the most comprehensive representative of this vast first
chapter of the great band’s activity.
The compilation’s stuff has plenty of different shades,
which could be interesting to be noticed for a real
deathrock fan as well as for any individual rock lover.
The deathrock side is accented very clearly in most of
the songs, the most typical representatives of which are
probably such songs as “Madre” and “Visione 1”. Some
songs have more horror and heavy sides, and the influence of old heavy bands which were flirting with darkness and Satanism goes on the very surface in them. This
aspect is better reflected in obscure, tense and infernal
songs ”Un Mondo Dove…”, contrasting “Tenebre” and
especially “Entra Nel Mondo”. But on the other hand,
the release also contains imponderable sounded hits,
which could be priceless for any decent “goth” DJ, such
as the most covered band’s song “Magico” and the
catchiest “Stanza”, which makes a listener repeat “un
sogno, sogno, sogno” with the vocalist Fulvio Tori and
keep it in memory long after the listening. But there’re
the 100% hits of other kinds as well, which are not less
catchy. Of course, it’s foremost the first band’s hit, the
penetrating “Amore, Fede, Speranza”, which can exactly
take its place among the greatest deathrock hymns, but
it’s also horrorish “Bestie Metalliche” with its catchy “oh
bestie…” and the sensitive “Sudore and Sangue” with
unexpectedly lyrical guitar sound and female vocals addition.
All the lyrics of the presented songs, except
“Reprise” are written in Italian, and the lyrical aspect is
the band’s very single and very personal one. Actually,
most of the lyrics are the subliminal obscure poetic images, reflecting the themes of death, darkness and so on,
not on their primitive levels, but mostly metaphorically
(as it could be well seen in the headline track “Un
Mondo Dove…”, which talks about “a world where all
humans are vampires”). Some lyrics appeal to a listener
in other ways (for example, “Amore, Fede, Speranza” in
its lyrical and performance contrasts).
The music of Madre del Vizio is the music of death,
but it descries all the death sides. The band’s songs are
not the reflection of a concrete moment, but they live
their lives from birth to death, and growing up while they
last.
This compilation is the one of “must have” for any
deathrock lover, though, as it was said, the band’s style
is quite individual to be put in any strict borders and to
be attractive for deathrockers only.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
39
Bars-Ursula: Burning Image gathered in the sum- http://www.burningimageband.com
mer of 1983. Tell please how did you begin.
http://www.myspace.com/burningimage
Мое: In the summer of 1982, I had a band called
"The Pictures" along with Tony Bonanno, the guitarist
in the band. we are from Bakersfield, California in the
U.S. at that time the deathrock scene in Los Angeles
was starting to happen and I remember listening to
Christian Death and I was so taken by their music.
Tony and I asked Paul Burch and Joe Sparks to join
40
"The Pictures" and we were very influenced by the
deathrock scene in America and the batcave scene
in the UK.
Bars-Ursula: Now, when Burning Image is
known as some kind of cult, what do you feel?
Have you ever thought you’d be fathers of the
genre, and your example, your music will inspire
vast of people?
Мое: ...at that time , I never would have thought
that we would be included as fathers of a genre
along with groups like Christian Death, 45 Grave
or Kommunity FK. To think that people around the
world are inspired by our music is amazing. but
then, our fans in the deathrock scene are the best
fans. we would be nothing without them.
Bars-Ursula: Could you tell us about the
deathrock era in the USA?
Мое: I was drawn to the deathrock scene at that
time because of its sincerity and honesty in the
lyrics and the music. I will never forget listening to
"Only Theatre of Pain" and just being in awe of
Rozz Williams's voice, the lyrics that he was
singing and the incredible music.
it was hypnotic, brutally honest and pretty scary
for the time. but the whole scene was like that.
Bars-Ursula: You shared the stage with 45
Grave, Specimen, Butthole Surfers, Dead Kennedys.
Do you still communicate wih these bands? Do you
like Penis Flytrap? How do you treat the politic position of Jello Biafra & hardcore- punk? What do
you think about the last Specimen album «Electric
Ballroom»?
Мое: Well, the new cd is going to be released on
Alternative Tentacles records, which is Jello Biafra's
label. and because of that, I keep in contact with
Jello quite often. I agree with much of jello's political opinions. he is a very intelligent, witty and articulate man. I am glad to know him. I also have kept
in contact with Dinah Cancer and have seen a few
of her bands play. we played a show with Penis Flytrap back in 2002. of course I love 45 Grave. I have
not heard "Electric ballroom yet, but I will.
francisco, Joe Sparks gave Jello a cassette of some
of our music, but he wanted to hear more. I told him
that I own all of the master tapes and that I had quite
a bit of unreleased material. one thing led to another
and he asked me if Alternative tentacles records
could release a collection of our music. of course I
said yes and thats when "1983-1987" came out.
Bars-Ursula: Tell us please about tracks
Haunted, Zealot, Nightmares.
Bars-Ursula: The compilation «Cultivation 91»
appeared in 1991. Tell us about it in details, please.
Who and how has chosen tracks for the compilation?
Мое: Cultivation 91 was a compilation cd done
locally here in bakersfield. I had written some new
songs and i was looking to put them out either on cd
or album. we were invited to contribute a song for
the compilation and I chose "Prey" to be on it.
Bars-Ursula: When the band has broken up,
what did the band members do after the split?
Мое: After we broke up in 1987, the band memebers went their separate ways.
Joe Sparks and Paul Burch moved to San Francisco. I lost contact with Tony Bonanno for quite
some time. I stayed in Bakersfield and played and
wrote music for future projects. It was very strange
not playing Burning Image music with the guys.
Bars-Ursula: The name of your compilation, released in 2004 is «1983-1987». How and whom
this idea came from?
Мое: I went to see Jello Biafra perform his spoken word show in Hollywood. I had not spoken to
Jello in a while, so I wanted to say hello and of
course to see his show. After the show, he invited me
backstage to talk.
One of the first things that he asked me was "do
you have any more Burning Image music that I can
listen to"
when we played with the Dead Kennedys in San
Мое: Haunted and Zealot were originally written
for a proposed compilation on Alternative Tentacles.
unfortunately, that compilation never happened but
to my surprise Strobelight records got a hold of me
and asked me If they could put "Haunted " on the
Kaliffornian Deathrock compilation. that was very
cool.
"Nightmares" was actually written in 1987 but a
new version of "Nightmares" is going to be on the
new cd "Fantasma".
I am very happy with the new cd.
Bars-Ursula: Your music is concidered to be
rather uneasy in technical aspect. Do you have profeccional music education?
Мое: I am a self taught musician as are the rest
of the band. we have always wanted to challenge
ourselves when we write songs in order to make the
music interesting and different.
Bars-Ursula: There are your new tracks on
your Myspace page.When the release will appear?
41
How the recording of the«Fantasma» was going ?
Who is produser? What Lable will be engaged in
distribution of your album?
Мое: the new cd "Fantasma" should be out very
soon. It is being released on the Alternative Tentacles label. we are done recording "Fantasma" and
the cd was produced by Burning image.
As you know, the economic times in the United
States and the world are very bleak and uncertain. I
have seen the fear and desperation in the people of
this country and it is heartbreaking. The situation gaves
us a lot to think about when
we were writing the new
songs for this cd. like I said in
our bio on our official website, "this cd is a the soundtrack of a world in pain"
Bars-Ursula: Judging by
your tracks on Myspace page,
we can call the new album
great & a very gloomy at the
same time with the oppressing atmosphere, rather harsh.
How you managed to achieve
such effect? What main concept of new release?
Мое: there a quite a few new deathrock bands
that I really enjoy listening to. some of my favorites
are: Miguel and the Living Dead, Last Days of
Jesus, and La Peste Negra .
I said in an interview recently, that if you going
to call yourself a "deathrock band" than at least try
to sound like one. I believe that if you want to play
some other genre like EBM or Death Metal and want
to portray yourself as a deathrock band, then thats
not right. let deathrock be deathrock!
Bars-Ursula: How do you treat the new bands
from the Strobelight and other modern bands, trying
to make deathrock/post-punk? Are there any modern
bands you like? What do you think about additions
of some new elements into deathrock/post-punk etc
by many bands, like electro-samples and dancetunes, or making the music heavier?
Мое: We dont play very often, but the shows we
have done recently have been great. the crowds have
been fantastic. they know the songs and they are
very receptive to us. We played the "Wake the Dead"
festival in Hollywood in april of 2007 and it was an
amazing night. my thanks go to Nelson, Eric Dead
and Tony X for wanting us to be a part of the festival. We also played with Christian Death 1334 in
November of 2007 and that show was also great. we
have a few shows planned for this year here in California. .
Ultimately, we would love to play for our fans in
Europe. that would be incredible.
Bars-Ursula: By our chatting in network, it’s
easy to make a conclusion what you are a very kind
person. Do you open as well with your fans in reality?
Мое: Thank you for thinking that I am a kind person.
thats very nice of you to say
that. nothing makes me happier than to talk to our fans
before and after a show. Our
fans are awesome.
I think all bands should be
cool to their fans.
It makes me angry when
someone tells me how badly
they were treated by their favorite band. thats not cool.
Like I always say "without
our fans, we are NOTHING"
Bars-Ursula: Some personal questions. What
literature do you prefer?
Мое: As far as what type literature I prefer... I
enjoy reading biographies and books on architecture.
I also love learning different languages.
Bars-Ursula: How do you treat the USA president elected Barack Obama?
Мое: I think that Barack Obama has some good
ideas and i hope that he can make them happen. I
think the most important issue in the United States
is to get proper healthcare for its citizens.
We also need to take care of the homeless and the
elderly. and we need more money spent on education.
Bars-Ursula: And your final words…
Мое: My friend, thank you so much for wanting
to do this interview with Burning Image and for supporting the deathrock scene.
and thanks to our fans for being so cool. we appreciate your support.
I promise, "Fantasma" will be out very soon on
Alternative Tentacles records.
Questions: Vadim 'Bars-Ursula' Barsov
“Grave Jibes Fanzine”
42
43
http://www.myspace.com/fraktureband1
il
a
p
a
P
i
e
rg
e
S
h
it
w
w
ie
rv
Inte
(Frakture)
44
duce
Nattsol: First of all, intro
yourself, please.
i PaSergei: My name is Serge
. I’m the
pail, I’m now 50 years old
a French
singer and bass player in
d Frakcold new wave band name
77. I’ve
ture which was born in 19
French
been bass player in the
79. I
19
band Marquis de Sade in
n 1981
had a solo career betwee
Sergei
and 1983 under my name
I played
Papail. During this time
became
with Pascal Trogoff who
(girl)
r
next the French singe
th FredSapho’s sax player, and wi
r/Mareric Renault (guitar playe
d Anzia
quis de Sade/Les Nus) an
arc Se(guitar/Marquis de Sade/M
se muberg). My last gig with the
1983’s
the
was
sicians
Transmusicales.
(from
I played so with the first
the birth) Marc Seberg and we prepared
with members of Frakture its first
album in 1983.
Nattsol: Frakture began in 1977 and
was one of the first French new-wave
bands. So tell me about that time and
the new wave atmosphere. What was
actually that?
Sergei: Yes we were (with the first
birth formation of Marquis de Sade
named Gang Rennes – a French word
play meaning « gangrene ») the first
formation in Rennes, and as I know
now one of the first in France. At that
time, french bands oscillated between
jazz/rock music with guitars, drums and
bass demonstrations, and post Woodstock dusty and bad rock’ n roll. They
had nothing to say, nothing to play interesting. No creative too.
At that time overseas in England
we’ve heard about Sex Pistols band
with its provocation and its destructives
guitar riffs. The first time we listened to
this band we had a lightning in our
brains. We discovered that their music
and their words were on another way to
criticize the politics and a criminal
world. They ejected too the Woodstock
flower’s gun.
One day we were playing in a bar
when members of Gang Rennes asked
us to play on our guitars. TV Eyes from
the Stooges I remember. It was a flash
even if they didn’t play so good. From
this moment we decided it will be our
music and our philosophy to play guitar
down on our knees! The public didn’t
understand what happened, with this
new energy and violence on stage. But
they went to our gigs. Next other bands
do the same later. We played 4 times at
the famous Transmusicales.
Nattsol: How did the musicians of
Frakture meet each other and how was
the band formed?
Sergei: I began to play guitar and
next bass when I was 14 years old. I
met Pascal Perree (Frakture guitar
player) who came to listen to my first
band in a garage. He took my guitar and
played. I was down. I didn’t know it
was possible to play rock’n roll like
that. We were used to play some Beatles hits (even if I already hated the Beatles...). I asked Pascal to play with us.
At that moment we began to play another music even if it was not good. But
we got out step by step to Ice candies
and other girl sweets!
Nattsol: What were the first
achievements of the band?
Sergei: When we recorded our first
EP « Sans Visage/Nagasakind » in
1980. A great moment to see our single
in the music shops (and girls around
!!!...). It’s more common now.
Nattsol: As I know, you were the
45
bass player in Marquis De Sade for six
months in 1978 (right?). Tell me, how
were you invited to the band and what
were your achievements there?
Sergei: Yes it’s right. We are there in
the heart of Frakture philosophy. Frank
Darcel (Marquis de Sade/guitar) contacted me when the band threw away its
bassman. It was the second bass player.
Marquis de Sade
wanted to have a
bass player used to
play a new philosophy music and able
to go beyond strictly
music. They were on
a European philosophy artistic movement.
A
grey
universe between
Brecht, Conrad Veidt
and expressionist art
movement of the german 30’s.
That’s the reason
why they asked me
to play with Marquis
and because I spoke
German and sung in
German. I was so very close to these
German artistic movements. Some medias tell now, as well as Philippe Pascal
(the singer), I’ve been the « architect »
of Marquis de Sade philosophy. Perhaps. But without P. Pascal, Marquis de
Sade would never become this particular band and this new form of music.
I left the band because Frakture was
absolutely mine. However, I have good
remembers about Marquis de Sade. We
worked very hard. The music and the
gigs were straight and black. Frakture
too but with a highest degree of violence. Our words were more political.
But I think it is the same music. I’ve
had some regrets to have left Marquis
but no more now.
Nattsol: So once again about your
public. I’d love to know, has there been
existed any movement? Or just some
individuals and most of people visited
your shows just because of curiosity?
Sergei: There was not really movement at that time. I think it appeared later
but not really in France. In England yes.
At first it was a curiosity. And later we
got a real public. It became quite different with the Marquis de Sade and Frakture cold era. The French rock magazines
helped in it. This more
« intellectual » era attracted a new public, a
real movement.
Nattsol: You already mentioned the
reasons why you used
German language. But
were there some other
artistic backgrounds?
Your native ones, for
example.
Sergei: Yes. We
also sung in French.
But we’ve always preGerman
ferred
Independsounds.
ently of our text messages, we’ve always
thought that words and language was inseparable of music. We’ve only « used »
English in the last years of Frakture survive… Very closed to Dead Kennedys
philosophy. We can’t do that otherwise… I’d never like singing in English.
It has no sense for our music. Russian
too would have been very closed to our
music, but I don’t speak Russian.
Nattsol: What was the band on stage?
Did you have some tours to other countries? And did you have any contacts
with your foreign musical colleagues?
Sergei: We didn’t play on foreign
stages. We cancelled a set in London at
the famous Marquee, but I don't remember why. We got some opportunities in
Germany but Frakture split before. Frakture career was very short. We made a lot
of concerts in France, alone and with
Marquis de Sade, and few festivals. We
had some contact with German bands.
46
47
We had a contract proposition with a
German label but the band split at this
time.
Nattsol: So Frakture broke up in
1981. What were the reasons?
Sergei: It’s a brain storming… As
mentioned before, we’ve tried to come
back to our punk roots, but it was not
convincing. At the same time, I began
to have a solo project and in the same
time I began to write songs with Anzia
for Marc Seberg. That’s the two reasons. I preferred Frakture died in a Hiroshima death… It was not that.
Pascal (singer Marquis de Sade) was
about to stop with its band. He prepared
a Marquis de Sade exit because Marquis de Sade began to « fly » too far
away its roots. I wrote music with
Anzia and P. Pascal went « in secret »
working with us. At the beginning it
was exciting. But not later. It was difficult to work with Anzia. Musical space
misses me. After, we (Frakture’s guitarist and drummer) recorded the first
pre-Marc Seberg LP. And we went
away.
Nattsol: As the history shows, the
80’s was the new wave explosion in
France. Many bands had appeared in
Rennes, such as Ubik, Complot Bronswick and others, and in the whole
France as well. So could you describe
the situation of the movement in common and tell me about those bands.
What were they? Were there relations
among the bands? And was there any
unity?
Sergei: These bands came later. I
don’t remember exactly. All I can say
is that we had good relations as with all
new wave bands at this time. There was
no competition. Every band had its
identity. And there was respect between
us.
Nattsol: Tell me more, please, about
your solo project.
Sergei: At that time I needed more
musical serenity. I needed a softer
music. I wanted to be closed to German
artistic movement, more musical as
I’ve played with Marquis de Sade. I
began to play with a saxophonist (who
played later with Sapho). It was a kind
of « German dandy » music. I was in
love with Marlene Dietrich songs and
the pre-world war two troubles. I had a
lot of things to do and to say. The heart
of expressionist and Marquis de Sade
philosophy I’ve lost. I remembered the
public love. It was mysterious, black
and cold. I made a few performances
(with members of Marquis de Sade and
Les Nus), a single. It was never released because the French label Pathe
wanted the songs in French. I played
for the last time at the 83’s Transmusicales. And after I closed the door…
(A French label contacted me recently to release one of my recording
concert in 1981. It will be associated
with the actual French revival movement « les jeunes gens modernes »
which is actually doing a film)
Nattsol: You mentioned that you
played with Marc Seberg. Could you
tell me about this band?
Sergei: I began to play with Anzia
(Marc Seberg guitarist) while Philippe
Nattsol: I didn’t find any mentioning about your activity in the period of
1983-2004. Could you improve it?
Sergei: Nothing interesting. Except
one contemporary music performance
(Requiem) and a film music.
Nattsol: Could you tell me more details about your contribution to the film
you have mentioned?
Sergei: I made the music for a film.
I was contacted by the producer who
wanted soft and cold sounds in cold
wave/Marquis de Sade philosophy. I
accepted. It was a strange experience
playing music while looking rushes and
attitudes of actors. It was great and at
48
the final very interesting and different because I was used to play on stage and
recording. The music was closed to
jazz/cold wave/Sade feelings.
Nattsol: As I know, Frakture was resurrected in the XXI century. Tell me please,
how did it happen, what’s the line-up and
what music do you do now?
Sergei: A French label contacted us to
perform our unissued songs. We accepted.
We are now working on new titles. There
are less « mathematic » and broken than before. But our philosophy is intact. Because
the world had never changed. There is so
much energy for some titles, and sad and
dark sounds for others. I’ve a trip to Hiroshima last year. Perhaps that was impor-
tant to play Frakture music again…
Nattsol: Do you keep in touch with
some musicians you shared the stage with
in the 70's-80’s?
Sergei: Yes. We're very closed. For example, Philippe Pascal, singer of Marquis
de Sade accepted to sing a song on our next
album. Great. Music family of that time is
very closed.
Nattsol: So when we should wait the
new band's release, and what stuff will it
consist of?
Sergei: The members of the band have
a job and it is more difficult now to record
in the best way. However we think that now
is the good opportunity to give more of our
history. Our next album will be quite new
and as violent as the beginning. But more
around words than sounds. Thanks for our
beautiful world to give them that...
Nattsol: In your first answer you added
the term ‘cold’ in the description of Frakture. But as I informed, this term hadn’t
been used in the 70’s-80’s. So is that for
you just fashionable word or something
more?
Sergei: No we used this word at that
time, as others like black, dark and so on.
Nattsol: Is there any possibility to see
Frakture on stage again?
Sergei: Perhaps. When in St Petersburg?
Nattsol: What do
you think about the
contemporary new
wave scene?
Sergei: I don’t
listen to contemporary new wave excepted sometimes
on Myspace. I’ve
never listened to too
much music… excepted Bach and
Baroque that I love
too much… Sorry. If
you have something
so interesting like them, tell me!!
Nattsol: The interview shows that
you're into Art very much. So could you
tell me more detailed answer about your
Art preferences (music, cinema, paintings,
literature...)? What is it for you?
Sergei: Yes, Art has been essential for
my conception of music. I've tried to do
my best to get no more influences from
other musics and so on. My first way of
inspiration in music was (and is) Baroque
and contemporary music (especially
Bach, Rameau, Scarlatti...) It seems
strange for a rock', roll man but I think
that music roots are there. Sounds are just
sounds. No more. With that and concept
49
(political for us) you can do what you
want. Others members of Frakture
were more influenced by bands like
The Who, Rolling Stones... Not me.
Sorry...
Nattsol: Well, on the other hand, the
interview clearly shows that you're
quite close to politic. What is your political attitude?
Sergei: It's difficult to say. My roots
are with my grandfather who was active with the French 1936's movement
People front . It was just before the
World war two. It was closed to prewar Communist's movement. Personally I am very impressed by Karl Marx
and Rosa Luxemburg. But late, Communism gave a very sad history. However, I think it is the better way to save
humanity. But not as it has been. Anarchy could be so a good way. But I think
that peoples could'nt save themselves
without communities against any forms
of powers. Power killed (and kill)
many peoples. In fact, we hate any
forms of powers. They destroyed Indians in USA, Jewish in Europe, Russians in Siberia, Japanese in
Hiroshima, and poor under the
bridges...
Nattsol: Well, what would you like
to add about yourself personally?
Sergei: No, nothing, except it is
great to speak to russian people. A real
pleasure. Thank you.
Nattsol: And your final words.
Sergei: Just a few words I talked at
the beginning of the Marquis de Sade
song « Conrad Veidt » : Todesangst und
Todesraserei erf?llte die Stadt. So gehe
an einem Kreuzweg und rufe in an
dreimall. Conradt Veidt, Conradt Veidt,
Conradt Veidt…
I’ve nothing to say more…
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
D review.
C
t”
in
o
P
k
ec
h
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–
Frakture
bands of the late
atest French post-punk
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70’s-early
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try to improve the sit
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ve
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’t belong and wave
ibly vast musical ran
able that Frakture doesn
ark
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ore
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19
t
tan
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untries. But in general
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ich balances Dead
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a kind of that middle wh
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but during listening
Kennedys and Marquis
a chronological order,
ve
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and raw, so a listener
d becomes more wild
un
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int
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ck
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to “Che
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can notic
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ry different, partly du
ich actually sound ve
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Ba
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nal way it could. On
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nd couldn’t be imagine
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t who knows. But it
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rld
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t Frakture is a punk ba
tha
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nk
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ngs,
e
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on
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ou
if
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ntains
be wron
ve”, and this release co
wa
old
“c
as
lled
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rke
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ers which
ires du temps” and oth
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,
e”
re
mo
sag
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in
s
ed
an
rm
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such as
but perfo
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se
clo
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he
ve
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wa
rly
old
ea
“c
by
of
a kind
s performed
if Marquis de Sade wa
aggressive manner as
ay
Stooges”.
historical injustice. M
ture faced this kind of
ak
Fr
d,
y
ye
wh
,
pla
say
nd
to
ba
rd
Ha
when the
y “wave” in the times
an
no
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re
ere
the
(th
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se
us
ea
be beca
gth rel
didn’t have any full len
nd
)
ba
es”
the
nn
e
us
Re
ca
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oc
may be
tion “R
d a song on the compila
an
e”
n
sag
ca
Vi
ich
s
an
wh
“S
sic
EP
the 7”
the band’s mu
exactly not because of
before 2004… but it’s
ve music.
nk
s of (post) pu / wa
fan
ny
ma
by
ted
cia
be appre
iy
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutsk
’
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine
50
The Brotherhood of Pagans
http://brotherhoodofpagans.free.fr/
http://www.myspace.com/brotherhoodofpagans
Nattsol: Tell a few yourselves for a start, please.
BOP: We leave in the countryside near Compiègne, 100 km (in
the north) far away from Paris. We are happy in family with our
wives and children. A job... not very interesting to talk about!
Nattsol: As it could be noticed, you took nicknames, but don’t
reject your original names as well. Could you explain what do your
nicknames mean, if it’s not too personal?
Sailor: My name is Jack… (That’s a joke for those who heard the
CD ! :o))) )… No… My name is “Marin” and I have always been
nicknamed as things linked with sailor’s themes. Popeye was too
ridiculous… “Neptune the god of water” was too long and arrogant.
LOL :o))))
Coccs: This nickname is old and due to the VW car that he
loved… while he had a 2CV…
Vox: Vox Populi at the beginning because when someone had to
know something, or if something shouldn’t be known by someone… Vox told you what you should or shouldn’t have to know…
It was Our Vox Populi (the “voice of people”). Vox stills
Nattsol: Before we start talking about ‘The Brotherhood of Pagans’, it would be lovely to know more about two pre-BOP bands
– ‘Itchy Souls’ and ‘Nuits Heretiques’. What can you say about
these bands?
Sailor & Vox: “Nuits Hérétiques” was our first band with Elrick
and Vox… It was more a training band than a real band. It permits
us to learn how to be a band member… And it was the first time we
dreamt to succeed in music, as wide-eyed boys :o). But nothing really concrete was able to be… That’s why Elrick, notably, took his
Pilgrim’s staff to look for a singer and why not a keyboard player.
Then He met Alien during a party. He and Coccs were in the same
quest. So merging us with the birth of “The Brotherhood of Pagans”
met our expectations (even if the band was unnamed as yet).
Coccs: We had many bands with Alien, and we wanted to build
something more serious, secure, because we knew that we weren’t
in the good way.
Nattsol: The next question is about the name of the band. It’s
quite clear why it is ‘brotherhood’, I suppose. But why ‘pagans’?
Is that your attitude to religion? Life at all? Or something else?
BOP: The main idea is to find a name which could be suitable
for what we have to say about these fucking religions and politics…
The “pagans” are less than human from the Catholicism’s point of
view. So we wanted to tell that the truth is not in the preaching of
all those old and grasping religious and politics (two words for a
same thing). In another way, we wanted to find a name which could
be associated with medieval, Dragons, magic, Tolkien…
Nattsol: Tell me more, please, about your first gigs and those
ones which made you famous (is that the correct word?). What was
the public there? And what was its reaction?
BOP: I think the public was always happy to see us, even if they
didn’t know “Brotherhood of Pagans”. But we didn’t tour enough
in the goth scene area, to say that we were awaited for… So the
public was varied with different moods, but with great feelings
while listening to us.
Nattsol: You said that there were not many goth-oriented shows
with you. So what was the scene you gave shows for? In your opinion, did you fit there?
Sailor: I’m sorry for not being very fluent but what could we say
about the scene? We didn’t tour all over the world during several
months (we are not professional), so, when the scene was not oriented at-all (festival…), we can’t say what was on their minds, we
weren’t in the crowd brain so it’s very difficult for us to talk about
that. A gig we made in Dorsten, was pretty cool because there was
a goth-party at the first floor (playing music like Sisters, Virgin
Prunes, Siouxsie…), while we were playing at the second floor with
51
two other bands. Our room was full during all the gig anyway. So we
were very happy and sure the public liked our show.
Nattsol: Now I’d love to ask about the first ‘Brotherhood of Pagans’ album, ‘Tales of Vampires’. Could you represent this work in
your own words, and tell what it is for you now?
Sailor: Now it’s the past. We think is a super thing that happened
for us, because it was unbelievable but true! Wow! We got our own
CD! And it seemed liked by many people, and gave us a place in the
goth scene! But unfortunately, it was a waste because TOV was not
well supplied enough… The difficulty to buy it was a shame… And
unfortunately, the band exploded just after the release of ToV… Another waste…
Nattsol: So the band broke up in the mid of the 90’s because of
Elrik’s departure. As it was said, you just couldn’t keep up without
him. But in 2006 you decided to reform the band without two original
members. And you mentioned in the influences ‘Brotherhood of Pagans ‘95’. So are two these bands different? Or it’s the one band with
two faces? What has stayed and what has changed?
BOP: First, things are different because we took 14 years in our
faces!!! As well, the fact that the lineup was about 4 then 3 members
(when Alien decided not to continue, in nearly 2006), changes the way
of making music.
You can’t make the same music when you are in a rehearsal configuration (with each instrument played at the same time) than when
you are only 3 to play all the instruments in a home-studio. So, the
birth and growth of each song of “Only-Once” were totally different
than they use to be during the first step of the early Brotherhood of
Pagans. As well, now we are 3, things get better because we are in a
perfect symbiosis, and that’s the most important!
Nattsol: Now let’s move to your ‘Only Once’ album. It is said that
you decided not to involve other musicians but learn playing new instruments by yourself. Why so? And what is your attitude to these new
for you instruments? Why you have chosen them?
Sailor: The main reason is we felt that if we wanted to survive, we
wouldn’t have to manage other problems than ours. Involving other
musician implied to share everything (good times but also problems).
And we thought we had enough work by managing ourselves. As well,
considering that in this band, we didn’t express ourselves as we
should, due to our hibernation time. BOP is now Coccs, Vox and Sailor
as if we were the last in the boat… Our duty was to continue alone.
Nattsol: Well, now about the album itself. As it was said, it doesn’t
have too many relations with the previous BOP. So what have you
tried to express in this album? Does it have a conception, lyrical and
musical?
Vox: As we always do, nothing is planned in advance. So there’s
no conception. We have the main ideas such mixing dark or/and weird
ambiences with a bit of humor. If things are not well defined it helps
the listener to built his own idea, and feelings.
Nattsol: This album is your step aside from quite orthodox gothic
rock, how could you characterize its style? In your opinion, is there
52
something related with what you have done? If yes – what is that?
Vox: It’s the result of not calculating anything! Neither, ToV wasn’t
in the straight line of goth-rock. The remaining thing is that we like to
give a whole universe through different ones instead of a succession
of songs based on the same sound and ambiance. Maybe it’s a bit more
difficult to appreciate our music immediately, above all if you want to
find only one theme.
Nattsol: I always ask the bands which describe their style as ‘goth’,
what does this word mean. There’re no any strict borders of this genre,
so the meaning is always personal. I’d love to hear what this word
means for you.
BOP: Recurrent question about what is “Goth”… First Gothic is a
way of life, and thinking but cannot exist without considering…
MUSIC! … Rather than only FASHION! “I’m dressed in black; I wear
New-rock shoes, a fetish collar… Yep, I’m a goth!” Bullshit… Music
prevails!
Then, for us “Goth” is at the beginning, the straight continuation of
what we used to call “cold-wave”-music, with dark, strange, ethereal
& bizarre atmospheres, always with a sense of oddness. So, because
everyone needs to “store” each bands in a style, we can say that Brotherhood of Pagans is a goth-rock band (that’s ok if in this case gothrock means cold-rock :o). But now, Goth (in the cold-wave sense) is
dead, since it was phagocytized, vampirised, by (black-)Metal music.
Now what is the Goth-type if not someone who listen to Metal-music,
but dressed in black? In most cases that is a gothic people. Of course,
every goth-people are not like this and of course everyone can listen
to Metal-music! But those who keep this oddness, and not follow the
herd of “metal-music at any cost” are the guardian of the gothic-temple!
Nattsol: Which musical experience apart from BOP you have?
Which of it you consider as the most exciting? Or which could be the
most exciting?
Sailor: Vox plays guitar in Jacquy Bitch band. Coccs and I have no
other musical experience apart from Brotherhood of Pagans.
Nattsol: There’s no any mentioning about your contemporary live
shows. Do you ignore stage? If yes – why?
BOP: We are now in rehearsal for this! The aim was to compose,
to record, and then to release “Only-Once”. And because it was the
main goal, and because we had nothing to show except the songs of
“ToV”, we decided not to make live show, while “Only-Once” wasn’t
released. The first one may be in a few months.
Nattsol: Well, so how are you going to have these shows? I mean,
what will BOP be on and what metamorphoses of your past stuff a listener should expect?
Sailor: The difference will be what you find between the 2 CD. It
will be less “garage” and more mature I think. The fact that we can’t
play the entire instruments will be mainly noticeable with the lack of
drummer. Sailor is now the singer, Coccs takes the bass and partly the
keyboards, Vox keeps the guitars… Any laptop PC will play the rest.
53
54
Nattsol: In your opinion, will the BOP fan base stay or it will be
changed? (Or it already moves?)
Coccs: They’re all probably dead! LoL… I have absolutely no idea
about that!!
Nattsol: What are past, present and future for you in music and apart
from it?
Sailor: If you mind about Time… that’s the end… So we all have
to coexist with the “time-machine”. For the rest, we are about to be on
stage and we start to compose for the next CD. Apart from it… That’s
our private garden :o)
Nattsol: How does your music influence on your backstage lives?
Sailor: We all need to try to succeed in something. Music offers a
sort of second life. But it drastically changes your life only if it takes
the near-whole part of your life. Because life is not as Manichean as
that, we have to deal with all the "rest" (our beloved family, our notbeloved job...). I think if you want to devote time to music (or any other
art), you must abandon family (unless if your wife really shares the
same thing, and that is more difficult with children...)
If we weren't musicians we probably find another "drug" (Sailor:
painting or stone-sculpture maybe…
Coccs: Metal-sculpture yes… Why not…
Vox: I would have said “what an ass, I am!” while seeing such band
like Brotherhood of pagans… “That’s very cool… If only I had learnt
an instrument I will be on stage rather that doing my bloody job!” :o)
)
Nattsol: What other art aspects are you interested/involved in?
Sailor: Nothing in particular. . To take care of our family!! (That’s
not very rock n’roll, isn’t it?)
Nattsol: So you’ll have live shows soon. What next? Have you already thought about it?
Sailor: No plan at the moment. We will make some gigs according
to our possibilities, Maybe in November. A live show with several
bands.
This will be an “Alone-Prod” and “Une nuit Cent Lune”
co-production.
We started to write new songs in order to release a CD under 10
years ! :o)
Nattsol: Thank you for the interview, wish you all the best in your
work. What are the last words for this interview you’d love to say?
BOP: Thank you for your interest and kindness… Tell everyone:
Please buy Only-Once don’t hack such bands like us! CDs are available
on our sites!
Thank you! Hello from France to Russia!
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
55
How could I choose a face
When they are both the same?
‘I’ll dig your grave’
The Brotherhood of Pagans – ‘Only Once’ review
14 years after their latest release, The Brotherhood of Pagans is back with the new album,
called ‘Only Once’. It should be said for a start that this album should be considered as the beginning of a new way rather than keeping up the previous band’s direction. ‘Only Once’ shows
the band’s individual side much more than their ‘gothic rock’ one. The energy of the music became more tempered, physical and mature though it keeps quite unexpected ‘angry’ reflection,
while the lyrics combine irony, black humor, obscurity and poetical images. However, there’re
some relations with The Brotherhood of Pagans’95, but later about this.
The start track ‘Am I a Blow Fly’ probably is the most decadent song of the release and exactly one of its best ones. String tempered start with ‘whispering’ vocal line and tense cello additions fluidly grows into the powerful song with majestic and impassive vocals, suddenly
dropping and growing up back again. The following track is the headline song ‘Only Once’. This
song with synthy and guitar basis can be considered as the most ‘weightless’ song of the album,
which refers us to the original BOP stuff. Then there’s the song ‘The Garden of Alkinoos’, which
begins with slow obscure background melody and so much accented and moved forward vocal
line that it makes the impression that Sailor sings a capella and all the music is nothing but decorations, when appearing of the shamanic drum rhythm turns this song to a kind of invocation
of sincerity and passion. ‘As The Serpents Do’ is the band’s step back to its gothic rock origins,
which is done very confidently and professional with great atmosphere and melody. Regarding
to the next track, it is very correctly said in the band’s bio that it is “very personal cover version
of the mythical track “Resurrection””. If compare this track with its original, many aspects of
the band’s development will go closer to the surface. A listener will hear tempered track with
noisy guitar and keyboard basis and strict a bit ‘steelish’ vocals, with the tense depressing atmosphere instead of light lyrical one as it was in the 95 version. ‘I’ll dig your grave’ is another
hit song of the album. Probably, it contains the answer about that angry tension of the album in
the words ‘We’re the evil simply ‘cause we are’. However, the track itself has a bit meditative
atmosphere with ‘crawling’ sound, greatly added with melancholic keyboards, which make possible changes of the song’s atmosphere. ‘I am his voice’ corresponds the hard a bit schizoid track
with post-industrial backgrounds as well as its follower, called ‘Get Off’ which moves the sound
to more oppressive with hard guitar chords additions. The following ‘The Fate’ moderates that
post-industrial frenzy with more rocky sound. This song shows in the best way the band’s ‘brand’
thing of this album – to make the sound more moderate from the main line and then suddenly
stretch it to its maximum. “Death Row” is one more step to post-industrial direction, but more
tempered for this time, though it can be used for dance as well. ‘Jack’, which finishes the ‘official’
part of the album is the mix of the album’s swelling obscurity, tempered sound and dynamism
in one “Jack’s” face. It is exactly one of the best album’s songs and the catchiest one. The untitled
bonus can be considered as the album’s epilogue and as the cheer to The Brotherhood of Pagans
’95 with its epic medieval ‘battle’ thematic of the sound canvas.
So the album is out, and it’s hard to say what place it will take in the world of music. It can
be hardly considered as the representative of any particular style with its experiments and musical
maturity. Probably, the only work I can call quite related to ‘Only Once’ is the ‘Gotterdammerung’ last album ‘Of Whores and Culture’.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
56
Castrati
http://www.myspace.com/castratimusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/Castratitheband
Nattsol: For a start, introduce yourselves, please,
and mention your musical experiences before ‘Castrati’.
A: Nothing to looooose!! I play bass guitar, I’m
one of the band’s foundator, I used to play in a metal
band before (“brand new virgins “) but for fun ... I
was so innocent these times…. Now I’m mad. I like
to listen to organ sounds and melodic basses but I like
McDonalds and Alien sex fiend too.
B: Our musical project started in Lyon May 2007
.4 musicians (but most of all friends) decided to concretize their artistic ambitions by forming a
band.Önuk played in a Jazz band ….Aleks slided
alone some chords on violin and bass guitare … Divine played guitare in “ brand new vurgins “ …
Herman (who’s got some guitare knowledges)
chose to start keyboards. .. Tess who sang and played
guitare in “Orange Gaz” joined Castrati. in the middle of the year 2008.Sam ( “Le Parti” and “The
Clean Cuts”) joined us at the end of 2008 …
I was born in Lyon in 79 and I always be rocked
by my old sisters’ cold-wave and post punk vinylesJ.
A big city is always bringing you many different access to musical and art cultures .Many shows at many
times , always something to do,to see, to buy or read
...
I worked with Alan Woxx and MacGregor( ex Eat
Your Make Up ) by adding guitares on a special track
called " Bloodrain (from hell to strobelights)" in 2004
on the Strobelight's "New Dark Age Vol2".It was my
real first musical experience.
Ö: Yop, I’m önuk, I’m juste here to sing and
scream. I played some years ago with classical or
jazzy formations and I love to play with Barbie &
Ken when I go to the beach.
P: Hey! I’m Pugsley. Call me simply God.
Nattsol: Now let’s talk more detailed about the
band’s foundation. Tell me please, how the band
started and what its original conception was.
B: At the beginning, the meaning was to play live
during the “2007 summer music fest “. In France,
each first summer’s day (June the 21th) , all musicians / bands got the possibility to play free in the
streets / bars in order to provide their own directories.
During this summer, Önuk used to work as a barman
in the “ Bauhaus Bar ”, an eclectic undeground place
where bands , painters, photographs could perform
their arts in the center of the city .So, it seemed that
Opportunity has simply forced the Castrati.’s fate .
Let’s talk about the name now: A night in the
“Bauhaus Bar”, the original members watched
Gérard Corbiau‘s Farinelli, making jokes about desperate psychological states the character endures
from his childhood to his death.For more details, a
friend talked about a kind of “castration complex“ alcoholic guys suffer when they drunk in pubs...The
name of the foundation was found...
Ö: Some years ago, I just wanted to play or sing
in a deathrock band, the first experience (with Borderlein) was not the good one. We had fun, but no
ideas.
I tried to play the bass in this project, but Aleks
fast replaced me. So I quit. Then, I just took a trip
with Mr Presley on Venus, and I met a cat, called
Pugsley… Very smart, this cat. He said to me: “hey,
now your name is önuk. Go back on earth and try this
new pub : the Bauhaus Bar”. After endless tearful
good-byes, I went to this pub. Aleks was there. He
told me that Broderlein and himself have left the
project too, and that he wants to record some of his
songs with us. Ok. Let’s rock, little guy.
Nattsol: As I know, there were several line-up
changes. Tell me about the members, who’re not in
the band any more. And I also would like to ask the
members who were not in the band since the beginning to tell the story how did they joined the band.
B: I met Önuk after a Swann Danger Show in
Lyon. He introduced some words about Castrati and
the possibility to join the band in case Divine left the
project by consecrating his own energy to his other
formation ( Undercover Sluts ).It was fun because the
day before,I received a Myspace invitation from Castrati. and I was surprised to know that a kind of
deathrock band already played in the city I leave
without hearing any words about them before.I remember me thinking : “ Wohw ! It sounds well … I
hope I could see them “live” one day …” I ‘ve never
thought that I ‘ll cross the mirror to play with them
at the other side really promptly .
Ö: For me, music is just a friendship affair, when
there are some tensions, there’s no good work, we’re
not an experimented band like Cure or Bauhaus that
can record and compose without talking… Every
person I invited to play with Castrati is a person that
I admire for the fire he got inside for music and arts.
Each of them has something inside I really want to
have too. But I can’t. So I need them. Pugsley, the
cat, told me where I have to find them. I just follow
its instructions.
Nattsol: Well, so the band was formed. What were
the first steps? How did first shows go? Etc.
Ö: I just miss first steps. Now, my leg is broken,
and my head hurts. I don’t remember first shows. I
don’t remember any show. I think that I’m asleep on
stage, and that Pugsley’s spirit possesses me.
B: We essentially played in Lyon first times
.Booking a date and searching anotherone is taking
too much time .Castrati ‘s got no manager so we took
most shows anybody purposed to us .3 shows got all
my attention.
1/ oct 2007 with “Faith and the Muse”:it was my
second show with castrati..I’ve never expected to
play with William Faith and Monica Richards one
day.Even if short conversations we shared with them
proved me that they are realy kind and true persons,
I was pertrified and I played like a shit!Thanks god ,
they came back late from the restaurant ,missing our
miserable set.I remember Monica saying on the scene
just before starting “ I’m so sorry for the missing ,
could you send me some MP3?”...Since this moment,
I decided to play my next shows in playback J !!!
2/ New year’s eve in Zürich 2007 .It was our first
professional conditions (a big stage, our 1st contract,
450 kilometers in a van...), we met good persons and
friends we haden’t see for a wild ...More details about
the end of this week-end are related in the last Mick
Mercer’s book “Music to die for “( I spread a word
for the promo of this fantastic Bible !!!:) héhéhéééé).
57
58
3/ Febuary 2009 , La Mannekine II :A great place , great conditions, an amazing musical sub-genres staff .A perfect night!
The honour to share the Neva’s song “ Vision” on the same
stage with 2 original members of “ Brotherhood of pagans “ and
“Jacquy Bitch “ ( true people I appreciate so well too)...” I had
a dream ...” ( now I got to search for anotherone ! J)
P: And so even though we face the difficulties of today and
tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in
the Feline dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that the night, all Cat are equal and grey."
Nattsol: Looking back to the beginning once again, what
things were changed or developed, and what is kept since the
beginning?
B: Since Sam joined us, we abandoned our beatbox and finally, this way forced us to leave the kind of “minimal-wave”
we used to worked with.Tess brings more melodic organs parts
and for us , it sounds well.
A band is a perpetual evolution ... Even if we want to concerve imperatively some kinds of roots , things change irremediably .What Castrati. finally will be at the end of the year? I
don’t know, we don’t know. Only time will tell ...Or won’t ...
P: I will always stay. That’s the only point to know about
Castrati.
Nattsol: Castrati is considered foremost as the live band. So
it’s really interesting to know something about your shows
themselves. What is remarkable in them except the good music?
59
B: Our “Live band” label was given by critics
after shows we performed .It ‘s paradoxal because
we really hadn’t any demo or cd to broadcast before
our first one “Let The Cat...”.I guess people made
comparisons between what they could hear ( on myspace for example ) and what they could see during
one of our shows.The fact is that we could make
songs more powerful or give more feelings during
a set because , inevitably , bodies are mooving,eyes
are searching ,people’s got a visual with lights in
front of them...But something is clear for us : We
love performing live !!!Perhaps you will be able to
develop this answer by yourself one day ...
Ö: We’re a live band, because we don’t have the
occasion to be a studio band. In two years, we just
recorded something like ten songs, we don’t have
time to go in studio. And we love the public emulation, the rush of adrenalin which comes from the
fear. That’s just like to be on Venus with Pugsley :
not the same way to breath, to move, and people
don’t look at you for what you looks like, but for
what you perform (I hope). For these reasons, we
owe give to the public all that we have
A: It works well! We gain many experiences after
each show and it’s a gas!!!
Nattsol: Now I’d love to ask you about the French
scene. In your opinion, is it unified? What are your
friends there (on stage and apart from it)? How did
you meet them?
B: The French scene is totally dismembered ...
Unfortunately, I ‘m disgusted with some good bands
I met in the past... A famous guy told me one day :
“7 years that I played dark music !!!My music is precursory ...Each new band is a copy from a copy from
a copy ...” He forgot to tell me that he added “electro
sounds” in his last albums in order to be “ in “ ; being
himself a copy from a copy from a copy ...Everybody’s got his own influences ...
I could tell you more about bands who refuse to
play in a fest because they will not play at “the top
of the bill” but I’m fed up with this state of
mind.Music is Art !!! Art is made to be shared, not
for including it in classified levels of idiot Megalomaniac popularities...
But sometimes, people cross your way in concerts,in audiences,in backstages,in your favorite
record shops,in bars.... Those people have something
to teach and have something to learn (the meaning of
every conversations), they are true .I keep contact
with people I like and so do they...
Ö: I don’t know if it’s really a French deathrock
scene now. There’s some good bands in different
cities that never meet themselves, that’s what I see.
But I hope to think wrong…
A: Unfortunately, there’s no communication between bands playing in the underground
scenes...What a pitty!
Nattsol: What other musicians on the native scene
and apart from it you’d love to meet and play with?
B: Too many ... But we could start with Andi Sex
Gang ,Super Heroines,Dinah Cancer,Madre Del
Vizio,Bloody Dead And Sexy,Deep Eynde,Chants of
Maldoror ...
Ö: What a question… Rozz?
Nattsol: The next question is a bit my personal
one. I faced your music in the beginning of autumn
’08 (thanks to Corine of Exces Nocturne) and you
were really unknown for many people. Now I see absolutely contrary thing. So I can’t ignore the question,
how did you manage to achieve this success?
A: Honestly, We really don’t know because we got
no time for promoting ourselves (even if , at the begining of the adventure, we wanted to became great
, clever ,famous, amazing heros ,Sexual GODS!!!).
Ö: What? Now we have success? What a wonderful news! Where are my fans?
B: C°rine... another lovely true person...
I’m not persuaded that Castrati.’s got succes ...
The band was formed 2 years ago .During these times
we get only 13 live performances and recorded a 7
tracks EP.At our last show, most part of the audience
didn’t know us .It was good because it permitted to
us to test our potential ...and read good critics after
...Pfffiiiiuuuuuuuuu...........!
Nattsol: Now let’s talk about your debut EP ‘Let
the Cat out of the [plastic] bag’. Tell me, please, how
it was done, what are the songs, etc.
B: I let the pleasure to answer this question to my
Önuk...J
P: fuck off.
Ö: Holy Shit… I’m not very good to this game…
Ok, it was recorded in two days by JF (Eat Your
Make Up) for Lonely Beat Records. In the first time,
Britz presented JF to us to record a demo cd, but at
the first listening, we just decided to keep it like a
mini-cd. It was recorded during in ’07 near Lyon.
Every one of us had so much to do last year, that why
we forgot to produce it.
And someday, on a beach following a red and purple lake, Britz told me :
“Hey, Alone Prod is interested by our LP!
-Oh, yes, I have forgotten this fact ! we could have
a cd… Didn’t we produce it by ourselves?
-No, I don’t think so…
-Ok, let’s go with Alone Prod!”
Then we go back to our shiny dreams…
Every song was dictated by Pugsley. That’s just a
biography. Not very well written.
B: What kind of weird things did U smoke just before writing that my dear Sweety-Honey ???
Ö: the last song “operating table” was recorded at
home several months after the others. It’s about a
dead friend of mine. She’s living on Venus now.
Nattsol: Can you tell me about the EP’s universe
and introduce the characters of your songs, Pugsley,
Mr. Quidja, Gregory… (are there others?).
B: I let the pleasure to answer this question to my
Önuk too...JJJJ
Ö: Pugsley is a vicious purple cat. Sweet fur,
weird looking, purple eyes. He walks on two legs,
like us. He’s God.
Mr Quidja is a poor alcoholic and his pet is Pugsley. He just think that Pugsley is a normal cat.
Gregory is a French figure of the ’90. A little boy
60
tory apart. It’s time to go straight...
Nattsol: You use English for your lyrics. Why so?
And are there plans to use your native language?
B: Önuk???ÖooonuuuuK??? J
Sometimes,we translate 80’s hits english songs
...It’s much more than fun ... The Anglican singing is
more poetic ...
Ö: Even If French is a beautiful language, I think
it’s too “fleur bleue” as we say. To sentimental, poetic. That’s not my way. I have a poor English, but
it’s enough when you’ve nothing to say. And I’ve
nothing to say. If one day, I got something that I want
French people to hear, maybe will I use my native
language. But now, my lyrics are empty.
founded dead in a plastic bag at the bottom of a
river… The murderer, called the Crow, was never
found. But I think that’s Pugsley.
Nattsol: As far as I’m concerned, you have much
more stuff than those 7 EP songs. So why did you
decide to record the EP instead of the entire album?
And what are the songs which were not included in
the EP?
B: There are principal 2 reasons:
1st: The line up changed and we hadn’t any real
demo before .If we chose to record an entire Album,
it implied that we completely crashed the beginning
of the castrati’s story .So without begining, nothing
would be possible .We desired to keep the first chapter of this story by recording our first steps.
2nd: As I said before, our band is in evolution.2
new members (but most of all friends) add us, writting the next chapter.All decisions are not already
made now.Will we keep all the 13 songs we already
got by replacing and modifying all instruments? I
don’t think that’s the way we want to continue our
evolution .We already left some songs of our direc-
Nattsol: Now let’s move to more personal aspects.
Tell me about yourselves apart from the band. (It can
be anything you want – art preferences, favorite alcohol, any hobby or something else..).
A: I’m 23. I’m from Grenoble, 100 kilometers
from Lyon. Besides bass, I play violin and guitar, and
I like listening many kind of music, particularly
deathrock and batcave. I don’t want to make music
for job. I like to be happy, to drink beer and absinth.
I never know what to say about myself...
B: Talking about myself is always hard to do. I
guess that I’m like everybody, watching films sometimes, hearing music, drinking beers or cool water,
searching original records in order to increase my
personal collection or walking and breathing the air
in a street... As most part of the people I got a daytime job ,internet, a girlfriend I love ...Bhaaaaarghhh!
What a miserable life!!! J ...But for sure , I’m not to
blame...
Ö: I’m just full of little hollow that needs to be
filled. So I take everything I like to put it in. Not just
music. All the quality arts.
Nattsol: The next question which I decided to
make as the single one is about your musical preferences and tastes. Could you tell about it? And, as I
know, you play The Exploited cover. What is it for
you? Do you (/are you going to) play some other covers?
B: The video you’re talking about was filmed during a gig we performed in febuary .Aleks had technical problems with his bass guitare after one of our
songs .We looked for something short and easy to
play without a bass part, giving to Aleks few seconds
to exchange the string he broked earlier.What could
be more effective and full of strength than a punk
song all Castrati. members love.
61
62
We Already played covers from Christian Death
or The Cure or The Adolescents.We adore to finish
a set by a cover.That’s showing our influences and
a part of our work.
A: Each memeber‘s got his own diverse influences (even if the most part of influences we got are
parts of coldwave, post punk, deathrock and batcave). I like to melt different genres, with a pinch of
retro-sickness melody
Nattsol: What are the things you love and hate in
people? And in Art? J
B: I like things that push me out of conscience,
make me feel that psychological boundaries are unlimited or non-existant. I love surrealism and burlesque .
I simply like people I can put my trust in, shy or
charismatic, alcoholic or straight, people who shoot
the breez...
I hate vegetebales , liars and profeeters ...
Ö: I just love people who know what they’re
doing. I mean in Art. There’re too many careerists
that never look back on their work. When I see that
what I do is shit, I just say : that is shit. And I hide
or destroy it. But in music, it’s hard to know when
what you do is good or not. I’m not sure to love our
cd, ‘cause we were young when it was recorded and
my voice changes a lot since this time, (and it’s always hard to hear your own voice) but the musicians
are good and our energy was sincere. So, it deserved
to be spread.
Nattsol: Well, now when you have freshly released EP, what are the band’s plans for the future?
B: To continue to work, to have fun too, to play
gigs in Europe and hope that it will go on well in the
future. An album???
A: an Album!
Ö: An album, of course, and many gigs everywhere…
P: Conquer the world!
Nattsol: And, as it traditionally is, your final
words.
B: Just hope U the best in Grotesque Sexuality!!!
Glad to know you ... Really ... and...
Hmmm......Thank you??? J
Ö: See you on Venus?
P: Meow.
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
Castrati - ‘Let the Cat out of the [plastic]
bag’ CD review
I'll buy a little cat
I’ll call “Pugsley”
it will be my new friend
(“Nothing”)
A one can ask the question: “What’s happening with the
French deathrock scene now, when “Make-ups” are split, Deadchovsky is buried…”. Really, what can happen in the country
where the mysterious alko-prophet Igor told his prophesies? For
example, it’s quite logical to surmise that if a cat from another
planet falls on Earth, it will land exactly in France. So did Pugsley, the purple cat from Venus and the great inspirer of “Castrati”,
whose debut mini CD, recorded in 2007, is finally out, thanks to
Alone Prod.
Actually, this release proves not only that the French scene is
alive, but that deathrock itself still has its ways of development.
Castrati took the best from deathrock bands of all the three
decades of its actual existence – a bit glammish and decadent attitude of “Christian Death”, weirdness of “Cinema Strange” and
“schizoidness“ of “Deadchovsky” (as well as the idea of own legend), adding punky “nothing to loose” aspect and very specific
sense of humour. The CD has only one surface minus – it lasts
just 26 minutes. All the seven EP’s songs have the band’s style
basis, but also their very own things alongside with it. The music
is fluid and rough at the same time, every instrument has it’s own
voice, sometimes, accenting, sometimes, “flirting”, as it can better
be heard in the keyboard line of “He’s Vicious”. It all can be noticed very clearly in the accented intros (which are usually keyboard), and less fixed in main parts of songs. Önuk’s vocals are
weirdly murmuring with “stratification” of words on each other.
But the best and the most “Castrati” feature is the combination
of two people’s vocals in the conversation way, as it is in “Don’t
hit my cat” and “Where’s Pugsley?”. It makes a listener being a
kind of spectator of a deathrock play, which can be performed in
his imagination while listening to these songs. Lyrically, Castrati
enters a listener to their own universe with weird characters like
the depressive alcoholic Mr. Quidja, who’s looking for the meaning of life and the mysterious cat Pugsley, who partly gets some
features of the web porn star Liz Vicious by the word-game in
the song “He’s Vicious”. Lyrics also reflects ridiculous situations,
like the parallel with the real case of cat’s death in microwave
oven in “Where’s Pugsley?”.
“Let the Cat out of the [plastic] bag” clearly tells to a listener
that there’s no use in trying to find any conception, all the beginnings lead to nowhere, giving the opportunity to a listener to finish them in his imagination. So let’s draw a conclusion, what the
band is, according to this mini CD, and try to imagine, what will
happen with the band in the future….
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
63
http://aloneprod.free.fr/
http://www.myspace.com/aloneprod
Interview with Helene (Alone Prod)
Nattsol: Introduce yourself, please.
Helene: Who cares?? lol… I’m an old-school
dark wave’s fan. And I try to run a French and
small label, founded by Jacquy Bitch in 2006,
Alone Prod.
Nattsol: How have you become involved into the
post-punk music/scene?
Helene: Everything began with David Bowie. I
was 16 and I was fascinated by Ziggy and glam
rock. One day, I was surprised to hear a strange
Ziggy Stardust’s cover made by a strange band
named Bauhaus… I fell in love in the second…
and step-by-step, I discovered Virgin Prunes and
Christian Death. Today, Christian Death, Virgin
Prunes and Bauhaus are still my holy Trinity…
lol… even If I stay open-minded to discover new
stuff every day…
During long years, I was involved in nothing. I
just listened to some music that was not yet
called gothic music but new wave, Cold Wave
and Batcave.. And I met my husband, Brotherhood of Pagans guitarist. Then Jacquy Bitch
who’s a part of my family now… In 2006, he
asked my husband to play in Jacquy Bitch and he
asked me to help him to run the label, too… and
here we are.. That’s all folks.
Nattsol: So now tell me, please, about the label's
foundation and its first steps.
Helene: I was not here when Jacquy decided to
create Alone Prod. He only needed a structure to
produce JB’s stuff. The very last album «Stories
from the old years». And he needed an official
structure to sell JB’s and Neva’s albums. He called
the label Alone Prod just to say «let’s do it alone
now…». When I was involved in Alone Prod, we
had the idea to work together on OTOP tribute and
to reissue Neva. Brotherhood of Pagans was looking
for a label at the same time and we said okay. For
Castrati, it’s different. They produced the album by
themselves and Alone Prod is just here to help for
distribution and promotion. Now, our horizon is to
produce JB’s next album for 2010.
nning
vity except ru
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Nattsol: Have you ever thought about being a musician? What's your own attitude to it?
Helene: I learnt piano when I was young… But I’m
to shy to imagine one second to go on stage. I don’t
know how they can do that????!!! lol…
rested in?
usic Alone Prod is inte
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Na tts ol: Be ing inv olv ed in thi s
mu sic al act ivi ty,
what do you get yourself?
Helene: Pleasure…
Nattsol: What can you tell me about the French
Batcave/Deathrock scene nowadays?
Helene: Not a lot because I’m not a specialist. I
love Castrati, they are just awesome on stage. I
love The Cemetery Girlz and I’m very glad for
their new album produced by Manic Depression
(great label, really). I’m a Violet Stigmata and
Deadchovsky’s fan since a long time. They rock.
Anyway, I love all the bands on OTOP tribute…
They are all talented and generous…
64
Nattsol: Can you call some stuff, released by other labels you'd be honored to see as Alone Prod stuff?
Helene: Which bands?? In a dream or in real life??
Right now, I will be glad to work with Cinema
Strange, Frank The Baptist, Madre del Vizio, Faith and
the Muse, Bloody dead and Sexy, Drama of the
Sphere, Eat your Make Up, Corpus Delicti (holy
Christ), Deadchovsky, Violet Stigmata, Rosa Crux,
Norma Loy, Gitane Demone, Nova et Vetera… too
much…to be honest. And I won’t forget someone…
Nattsol: Do you have some friends involved in the
scene apart from "the family"?
Helene: I have a lot of respect for Manic Depression,
an incredible French label, really involved. I love all
the Str8line team too (they work with No Tears and
De Volanges), Nordwaves who manages Guerre
Froide. I do love Nova et Vetera (a French band, really
weird and inventive). Worldwide, I have some friendly
contacts with Alex Daniele (Ascension Magazine), a
wonderful guy too, and Woodraf from bat.pl and DJ
Tony X from LA (this guy is rad). But I am about to
forget too much people, I don’t like this exercise.
Nattsol: So Alone Prod is going to keep up its "isolated" attitude? Why you don't want to have a look at
"outside" bands in order to make releases?
Helene: If only we have enough money, we will be
less isolated. Be sure… It will be a blast. Unfortunately, I need to work to eat, and I don’t have enough
time to work more for the label. If I was rich, I would
be ready to follow, produce and promote more, and
more, and more… There are a lot of incredible bands
on earth…
your final words.
And
Nattsol: Well, and
rest and support…
te
in
ur
yo
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fo
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Helene: Thank
who help and supp
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talent… God bless
kiy
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Neva – “Individu” review
Individu was the very first album, in France, to explore the first fusions
of electronic tones with the energy of punk. In my opinion, Individu was
a devilish pioneer, and, now it steps back from the abyss to deliver its
message, a message that points the way for a whole generation.
At last, the witness of the early years of “Neva” is
re-released. This first album actually can’t be called
an album. It consists of two parts – the concert
record of 1987 and the early studio records of
“Neva” (1984-1986). Regarding to the history of
the release, let’s give a word to the band’s leader,
vocalist and bass player, Jacquy Bitch: “When Individu was released, it was just a tape. I made each
original copy by myself, at home, before every
Neva’s gigs. It was a «roots» and very rare material. Since a long time, people asked me to reissue
it on a more long-lasting and remastered support. I
did it for Neva’s fans and I also made it to show the
new generation how Neva sounded live”.
But it must be said that “Individu” will be interesting not only for collectors. If compare its stuff with
the stuff of the band’s first (and the only) “official”
album, “Fausse Conscience”, a listener won’t find
in “Individu” such “level skips” as they were in
“Fausse Conscience”, mostly thanks to such “hit”
songs as “Vision” and “Louchald”. All the stuff has
approximately one level, and it is very high. The
songs are very catchy, hit and filled with drive,
even the ones which sound moderately. The sound
of the stuff is quite rough and though the remastering is perfect, it still sounds very raw and reflects
the atmosphere of the period it was recorded in.
“Individu” also reflects Jacquy’s punk experience
which he got playing in several punk bands before
“Neva”. However, the band’s style on this release is
their recognizable one – Batcave eccentricity mixed
with deathrock attitude and image, punk/post-punk
backgrounds and the line up, which is more typical
for coldwave (bass and two synths).
“Neva” was the flash in the French post-punk
music of the 80’s with its sound, expressivity and
eccentricity. I don’t think that it will be a lie if I say
that “Neva” is the only French deathrock-oriented
band which inspired the entire contemporary
French deathrock scene and this scene just couldn’t
exist as it is now, without “Neva’s” forerunning.
So, “Individu” is highly recommended for all the
post-punky music lovers, no matter if they’ve heard
the band or not. And it is also recommended for
those ones who managed to find unmastered versions of the release, because the mastering of this
re-release makes possible to have all the pleasure of
listening to it.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
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“Only Theater of Pain” tribute.
Cavity – Jacquy Bitch
Figurative Theatre – AinSophAur
Burnt Offerings – No Tears
Mysterium Iniquitatis – Deadchovsky
Dream for Mother – Exces Nocturne
Stairs – AnteA - Rosa Crux
Spiritual Cramp – De Volanges
Romeo's Distress – Noctule Sorix
Ressurection – Sixth Communion – Alien Marteens
Prayer – Skeletal Family
Deathwish – Violet Stigmata
Dogs – Comedie Macabre
Desperate Hell – Terrill
Over 27 years the Christian Death album “Only
Theatre of Pain” is considered one of the most influential deathrock albums if not the most influential ever. Originally released in 1982 by Frontier
records, the stuff of the album was covered probably millions of times by representatives of very different musical genres and several tributes to the
band’s leader, Rozz Williams, took their places as
well.
The European tribute to “Only Theatre of Pain”,
released by Alone Prod Label in 2008, 26 years
after the initial release and 10 years after Rozz’s
suicide, underlines once again the endless influence
of this album on the scene which is now considered
to be called “gothic”, post-punk, deathrock or
whatever as well as on several other musical
scenes. Helene, the label manager, says: “The idea
was to say what’s Rozz legacy in French (or European) scene in 2008, from new wave to horror
punk. And we asked the bands to do a new song
with a part of OTOP”. Actually it’s hard to say if
the tribute stuff consists of really new songs, based
on the OTOP stuff. It may seem that the bands
which participated in the tribute felt the songs so
close to their own musical approach that all the borders between their own and OTOP’s were tore
down for this tribute.
So the release begins with “Cavity”, covered by
Jacquy Bitch, and follows in the original songs
order. Jacquy explains his relations with Christian
Death: “I discovered Christian Death with Only
Theatre of Pain and I was subjected by Rozz’s
charisma. Unfortunately, if Neva played with
Christian Death, it was Valor. I never have the opportunity to meet Rozz personally. It’s a regret. I
don’t know if Christian Death influenced on my
music, really, because I tried really hard to create
my own universe, with substitute-language, strange
performance. I didn’t try to copy or to sound like…
Christian Death played with basic line up (guitar,
bass, drums)… For my part I used to find new
sounds with samplers, keyboards… It was not the
same artistic approach.
On stage, when I used crucifix, I didn’t even
know that Rozz did the same somewhere in USA…
But when I created Jacquy Bitch and included
guitars in the line up, I was really interested in Rikk
Agnew’s sound…”. This cover can probably be
considered as the best example of mixing of band’s
individuality with the Christian Death influence
into one substance. On one hand, the cover sounds
as if it was the song of Jacquy’s latest album “Stories from the old years”, but on the other hand, the
Cavity’s motives and atmosphere are so much recognizable that it’s really impossible to say, whose
song this cover is. “I tried to create my own song
with Rozz’s song. I included keyboards and samplers and translated Rozz’s words in my own language… The stake was that people recognize
Cavity while having the feeling to hear a Bitch’s
original song. So, I changed the singing line and
the tune… But guitars and bass are faithful… But
I felt really shy to touch this symbol…”, - Jacquy
explains. Well, he exactly achieved what he wanted
to, creating the unique alchemy of sound of ‘82 and
‘08.
Next, a listener can discover “Figurative Theater”, covered by “AinSophAur”. It’s always unpredictable to see what a song of this project can
look tike, and the band tried to find a way to cover
“Figurative Theater” several times before they
found the correct approach. ““Figurative theatre”
took a long time to born again in our hands, until
the day Phil said: “try it slower, and in a Spanish
style”. I tried and we smiled!”, - recalls Toy, the
band’s guitar player. So the version which became
the final one doesn’t have much common things
with the original, they seem more as parallels. AinSohpAur added mysticism instead of dark depths
of the Rozz’s version, tempered play instead of the
surface drive and cold, impassive but sincere vocals instead of that deadly sexuality we can find in
the original. The band’s attitude to Christian Death
can’t be called any other, but the great respect,
probably that’s why the cover became such a personal interpretation. Toy says about “Only Theater
of Pain”: “This record is one of the most important
stone in the dark scene. They were, just like their
“friends” from overseas, some of the first to walk
these new directions of music, art and most of all
life, and they leave to the young generations a
legacy that a lot of people should know better.”.
“Same thought: a major influence for a lot of
bands”, confirms his words the band’s vocalist,
Phil.
“Burnt Offerings”, performed by No Tears, the
band which is foremost known as the cold wave
one, can seem the straight follower of the previous
cover, though it sounds much more passionate and
has electric sound. Then, after a while, the rhythmical change to chorus turns the song closer to the
original version, and a listener can see the figure of
Rozz behind this cover. Paul Fiction, the guitar
player/keyboardist, says: “Burnt Offerings seemed
one of the easier songs from the albums for us.
Originally it's very unstructured. We had the good
material too appropriate the song and do something
that we correspond. I think that each band of this
tribute tried to bring its own universe for each title
listed.”, so probably this approach can be consid-
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ered as the explanation of this structural division,
which on the other hand, seems sequential. “Burnt
Offerings” of No Tears has much more “landscape”
melancholic approach, drawing one but finished
picture instead of chaotic insane flashes, born by
rioted minds of the young men who were Christian
Death in 1982. Vincent K., the band’s bass/guitar
player says: : For me, making a good cover means
appropriating the song "as if we composed it", and
it supposes to be able to take enough distance from
the original work”. Hard to say if the band achieved
that, but the balance between “No Tears” and
“Christian Death” is kept perfectly for this cover.
Then a listener can see absolutely another attitude of Deadchovsky, who hadn’t “re-written” the
song, but made it fit to their own style and how!
Obscure intro changes to the main song’s line as it
was in the original version, but in harder and less
“fluid” manned with great additions of the band’s
“labeled” schizoid thing, mostly reflected in the
keyboard line. This insanity reaches its peak in the
end of the main song’s line in the experimental
“sketch” which sounds like a mad nightmare, and
then turns to culmination as it was in the original
(“Peru Resh!”) and finishes with electro distorted
vocal line on the noisy manner. The band’s drummer Divarre comments the song: “Before we made
that cover with Deadchovsky, three of us already
used to play Spirital Cramp with our previous band.
That was some time ago. But we chose instead to
cover "Mysterium Iniquitatis" for this project. Actually, it was the kind of songs we like, twisted,
many different parts. I guess I remember Helene,
who came up with the idea of the whole tribute,
told us it was the best song we could ever choose:
a strange atmosphere, a loud and punk-ish melodies
and a final rush! Too bad we never could play it
live. Well, we wanted to make it sound even more
"out of control" than the original. Lots of effects,
probably too many... or not enough, it depends on
the point of view!”. The general mood of the song
is about to be kept, but Deadchovsky was the band
which never forgot about the real word about us as
well as the inside depths, so the cover became a
kind of “void of wire and microchips for a human’s
soul”.
“Dream for Mother”, covered by Exces Nocturne, sounds very unexpected as Christian Death
song as well as the Exces Nocturne one. Corine, the
band’s singer, still can’t exactly say if it was performed in the band’s style or not: “I don’t think the
cover is in pure Exces Nocturne style (if there’s
any…). I’m still surprised when I listen to it!! It
was more like a one-shot, a real adventure… So
Richard arranged it in an unusual color, something
different from what we usually play. But still, you
can clearly recognize Remy and his guitars! And
I’m sure some people were not happy with what we
did… but it’s the way we felt it …”. The cover,
recorded with the guitar backgrounds has very
much electro arrangement, and its attraction is that
it doesn’t seem modern and fashionable. The
rhythm can be called “wild” and “flirting”,
Corine’s vocals are very sexual and feminine and
electro “jungle” additions only underlines that
primeval dance of passion. One more plus of the
song is that though Exces Nocturne didn’t make
some changes in the song’s structure, text etc, as
many bands of the tribute did, the band gave this
cover all the things it needed to be original in the
sound and the atmosphere. Corine says: “I was not
involved in the lyrics: I chose the song because I
could actually hear Remy and Richard playing it
when I listened to the whole album. It was a musical meeting. And then I read the lyrics and thought
that would be fun …. And then we started working
and I found it real hard to sing it, as they were not
my words! And it was definitely not my way of
singing, nor lyrics I would have written, and it was
hard to relate to it. I find it hard to be comfortable
with someone else’s words… So I almost tried to
keep the meaning away from me when I was
singing it, just like I was playing an instrument… I
had to shrug Rozz’s ghost off my shoulders…! But
then Richard told me to try different effects to sort
of re-create it and give a new sound to it, and it was
a brilliant idea! We liked the idea, and the result”.
The following cover of “Stairs – Uncertain Journey” is performed by the mysterious band “Rosa
Crux”. Actually, the band kept only original rhythmical bass pattern and changed almost everything
– the music arrangements, the lyrics, even the title
(on the tribute this song is titled “Stairs AnteA”).
The band refused to give any comments to this
cover, keeping all its secrets. It’s hard to refer the
Rosa Crux version to any musical genre, but it
sounds in very much in the band’s style and could
perfectly decorate and fit their works, such as “In
Tenebris”, for example. Generally, it has plenty of
shades, such as Christian Death (of course), Sopor
Aeternus, Ordo Equitum Solis and others, but just
shades and not the figures. “Stairs AnteA” has inexpressible atmosphere of medieval sacral ritual,
in which angels dance with demons on spike of a
needle.
The next track is the De Volanges version of
“Spiritual Cramp”. The band’s bass player, Yvan,
says: “According to us "Spiritual Cramp" ( the
original one ) is one of the best of the album but we
didn't want to play exactly the same version of
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course! It doesn't have any charm to play the same.
And moreover it isn't an easy song to play like
Christian Death! Their version is the best of course!
And we wanted a version in the style of Nick Cave
and the Bad Seeds...”. Has the band managed to
achieve the Bad Seeds manner or not, - let it be a
listener’s conclusion, but the version sounds quite
related (“of the same family”) to the above mentioned covers of AinSophAur and No Tears because
of its tempered performance, but on the other hand,
this track is probably the most tense one of the entire tribute. The vocals are passionate and anguished, but clear at the same time. The musical
lines has similar “tossing” approach from tempered
accompaniment to culmination, but very accented
drum lines create the anxious atmosphere during
the whole song.
“Romeo’s Distress”, covered by Noctule Sorix
can be called as one of the most contradictory
tracks of the release. The band’s bass/keyboard
player Noctule h. doesn’t hide his attitude to Christian Death: “Noctule Sorix have no really interests
for the Christian Death music. The members of the
band never recognized themselves in the Dead
Rock Music. This is why OTOP never has represented an influence for the music of Noctule Sorix.
So except for “Romeo’s Distress” played on the
dancefloor often, there was not a real face to face
with Christian Death music”. So, this band which
plays a kind of coldwave with a bit mainstreamish
approach took the song to cover it how they feel,
and the result turned out to be even more sincere
than Noctule Sorix probably expected. Following
many bands of the tribute, Noctule Sorix made the
sound more tempered and added their electro based
approach, so on one hand the song hasn’t lost its
dance qualities, but on the other got some different
shades. “Many present groups on the tribute refused
to work on this song because they thought it was
impossible to make another song with this piece
without betraying the spirit of the song… Noctule
Sorix did not have so many doubts”, says Noctule
h. And really, the changes which the band made,
like insinuating, deep and slow voice, repetitions
“after dark” in chorus and so on, made the song
sound as “warm” melancholic and heartfelt hit.
The next cover of the tribute is performed by a
person who has very intimate attitude to the original Christian Death. Alien Marteens, who for the
moment is better known as the original “Brotherhood of Pagans” vocalist and “Jacquy Bitch” bass
player returned to the music and started his solo career with the cover of “Resurrection – Sixth communion”. Let’s give a word to Alen in order to let
him tell his story of participation in the tribute and
his attitude to the band. “I remember myself at college, when we were taping vinyl records we couldn't afford to buy, and listening to OTOP for the first
time. I was like “What the hell is that ? These guys
scare the hell out of me !”. I mean, I was moving
from Heavy Metal and Punk music to Cold Wave
and Batcave as my favourite kinds of music, and
suddenly Deathrock was trying to possess me, disturbing, powerful, dark, original. Kind of revelation, you know.
And to know those guys were barely older than
us then was very surprising. I mean, the whole
album is like a story, you can't listen to the titles in
a different order than the one they are placed, it
would be like reading a book with the chapters all
messed up. The structure of the titles, the lyrics,
and, of course, the way they are performed, made
of this whole album a masterpiece, not one or two
titles, no, the whole album is a true masterpiece,
timeless, priceless, something rare and precious.
So, when Helen told me she was gathering bands,
I told her I was myself planing to go back into song
writing with a solo project and I would be proud to
be part of this tribute. She then asked me if I had
some material she could throw an ear on and I
promptly sent her a MP3 of the demo I was working on. She then just wrote me back those words on
messenger : “OMG ! Deal!”. I guess she was
pleased and so was I. Later came the rough time :
choosing a title ! I mean, as I said, this album is a
masterpiece as a whole, it was awfully difficult to
pick up only one! I then picked Resurrection, for
this made me smile since, according to fans and
journalists, this title's homonym was the masterpiece of “Tales of Vampires”, the album we made
when I was playing with Brotherhood of Pagans.
Nonetheless, this title is also very related to religious stuff, the darkside of religions, you know, so
were the lyrics I wrote in Brotherhood of Pagans.
So it was all good to me: familiar roots with my
past musical experience and fresh work on the
other hand, since it is my very first cover. As a side
note, since I'm performing in Jacquy Bitch's band
(as bass player) as well, I'm also featuring on the
title Cavity. And my best ever reward, as a musician, was to open with this band for CD1334's
OTOP anniversary tour in Germany. I mean, I met
Rozz Williams long time ago in Paris, but I had yet
to meet Rikk Agnew, James Mc Gearty and
Georges Bellenger. The later couldn't make it to the
tour and was replaced by Christian Omar Madrigal
Izzo, a great drummer and close friend of Rozz.
Anyway meeting them and playing with them was
a major privilege. Those guys are legends, and
times you can encounter a legend in a lifetime are
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rare enough to not enjoy them fully in the right way ...”.
Indeed, the cover is very close to Alien’s personal stuff
and to Christian Death at the same time, laying somewhere in between of two “Brotherhood of Pagans” lineups and balancing on the border of energy and mature
moderation, ruling out any “surface” changes of the song
except very personal and individual performing and
Alien’s charming vocals.
The next, and probably, the hardest track of the release
is covered by a band which is even older than Christian
Death is, Skeletal Family. Though the bands are about t
be the same age, they hadn’t known about each other for
a long time. Ian 'Karlheinz' 'Spud' Taylor, the original
band’s keyboardist and sax player, recalls: “I've got to
be totally honest. Here in the north of england we didn't
really know anything about any death rock scene so
Christian Death were just a name you heard of from people who had been to London. Yes I know amazing isn't
it. Not only did we never meet Rozz we'd probably have
been unaware of his existence at the time. We were just
a set of punks really although I suppose you'd really call
us post punks but to us there wasn't much difference.
Mainly we'd be listening to the Cure, the Banshees,
Bauhaus or anything with a bit of a 'punky' spark”. The
band made the cover last more than two lengths of the
original version, rejecting the original’s experimental arrhythmia, adding their own rhythm, and it’s hard to
guess if the band created the new one or developed it
from the original version. However, the cover seems
“Prayer” in spite of all those differences, but performed
in more majestic and mysterious way than dark hysterical one. Karlheinz says: “I chose this song because it
was the most difficult. There really wasn't much to work
with. It was a real challenge. Also even though I am an
atheist I love the version of the Lords Prayer that I use
which is the 17th century English version. I wanted to
use different languages like Mediaeval French ( 1334
LOL ) but my accent is terrible. All the cutting and pasting of the words strips away any meaning from the
prayer. It's just confusion which contrasts with the more
structured approach to the song. I tried keeping it shorter
but this seemed to be about the right length. I don't know
why it just did”.
So, all the songs of the original “Only Theatre of Pain”
are played. Seems to be all… but yet, a listener can go
further and listen to three more covers of the “OTOP”
era songs, which were released on the band’s “Deathwish” EP.
This new beginning starts with the “Deathwish” cover
by Violet Stigmata. Nico, the band’s leader, says: “The
song "Deathwish" symbolizes early Christian Death :
raw and delicate, heavy and cold. We could have chosen
many other tracks, but this one also stands for the very
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beginning of what became a cult band afterwards,
and of course one of our favorites, although it appeared on the “Deathwish" EP and not on the
OTOP album. "Deathwish" is an emotion in itself,
according to its own meaning... It's the attraction
and fear of the unknown, much more than a stupid
"I hate the world and I want to commit suicide"
goth song. With this cover I hope we manage to
make the song ours but still respect the original and
Rozz Williams's fragile vision of life”. Indeed, the
Violet Stigmata’s version represents a very decent
combination of the contemporary sound and the
80’s song without distorting it. The song’s rhythm
became more aggressive and danceable at the same
time, the vocals are performed in frightening clean
way, but in some mystical way, this song stays
“Deathwish”. Probably this ability of “keeping by
changing” can’t be explained even by the musicians. Nico says: “It was a natural process. It was
recorded as if we had to rerecord a VS song, with
our sounds and musical approach”. So, probably,
the band caught the song’s essence. Who knows?
Let it be the listener’s right to decide….
The cover of “Dogs” in this tribute reflects the
Christian Death influences on other kinds of music,
in this case, “gothic” symphonic metal. L.C.F., the
leader of “Comedie Macabre”, the band, which
covered this song for the tribute, says: “Personally,
I find that Christian Death is a very close band musically speaking about Metal, set apart the sound
which remains very Deathrock. But the fact that we
are cataloged Metal, we want stay free of our
music. We have an entitled title “Le sang”, on our
first album, this is pure Christian death influence,
we hope we keep our identity to squeeze this tribute”. So, in spite of its paradox, the cover of a metal
band sounds the most related to the original version
in comparison with all other covers of the tribute.
The only surface difference is the way it’s performed – the song got a bit more hard and “demonical” sound, which partly was achieved my
additions of “gothic” keyboard lines. “In first we
looked for a song very guitar for quotes him Metal
and very unhealthy for highly-rated symphonic,
What we wanted to make, it is to Play the song our
mind, to keep a sound "roots" for " old cemetery "
atmosphere, but rest guitars Metal and keyboards
on base of organ and choirs to return the even more
dark cold murderous atmosphere. To be frank, at
the basement i feel this song like Sabbath under the
fullmoon, this is one of the mystic Christian Death,
this is why we have choosing it”, explains L.C.F.,
and the cover 100% has all the shades he wanted
to underline.
“Desperate Hell”, performed by Terrill, which
closes the tribute, can exactly be called the
strangest cover as well as the most contradictory
one. This horror punk managed to turn the original
song’s beginning to the dynamic horror punk song,
even with additions of some 90’s pop punk stuff,
and make it flow back to the original “Desparate
Hell”. The CounT, the band’s guitar player, explains: “We decided not to do only a cover, but
more to rewrite it in our own style. Terrill is a horrorpunk band, this is the reason why it sounds like
this. But also the melody is funnier as we planed
while we worked on it”. So, this strong separation
“Christian Death intro/outro – Terrill main line”
adds plenty of contrasts to this cover, not only musical, but the emotional ones as well. Probably,
there are some Christian Death fans, who calls this
cover a kind of vandalism, but it can be called the
contrary term – showing that there’re no musical
borders, and the main thing is if a band feels a
song, and that there’s no need to copy the original
version. Terrill, due to strong style differences with
Christian Death, make this challenge he loudest,
and its personal business of any listener to accept
it or deny.
The CounT adds: “I think it’s very important that
kids who follow scenes like Batcave, Deathrock,
Horrorpunk etc. know their own roots, so albums
like OTOP will ever be actual”. Indeed, among
many tributes to Rozz, this one can be exactly
called one of the best. It shows not only bands’ respect to Rozz Williams and Christian Death, but it
also strongly underlines relevance of “Only Theater
of Pain” and reflects the MEANING of this revolutionary work not only to deathrock itself, but to
the entire contemporary stage of the rock-oriented
individual music. This release is not only for Christian Death fans, it probably will fit followers of
many different musical genres due to the very individual musicians’ reflection of the original
album’s stuff.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
73
Complot – Rouge Reve album review
We could say that we have had our periods
(a little as Picasso, in all modesty)
white, brown, again white and red today…Dream..
”Red Dream” But we are always COMPLOT.
(Nikolai Ada)
When I offered the band a review of this work, their
words “CD-book” surprised me very much, but the more
I was surprised when I got the release itself. Indeed, what
could I expect, knowing that one of the band members
(Maurice Chesneau aka Paolo C Uccello) doesn’t play any
instrument, but does graphical works, providing this way
the alchemy of music and image. So I got a 52 page book
with futuristic graphical works and fragments of song
lyrics with the CD of “Rouge Reve” inside. Now let’s turn
to the music itself. With this album Complot proved once
again that they don’t care of being referred to any musical
genre, such as art post-punk, progressive coldwave, experimental, art rock or so. Complot is nothing of it and
everything altogether at once. The only words this band
can be exactly marked with are “Art” and “theater”, especially if not forget their theater performances, such as
probably the most famous “Maiakovskiy” and many others. “Rouge Reve” isn’t an exception as well, its music is
based on the work the band did for the theatrical performance “Iceman” (2006). Chanson-rock start of “Sans Issue”
changes with post-industrial hit “Body is body” and then
moves to the most powerful track of the release, “Vision
of time”, in which we can see great combination of Ert’s
and Nicolai’s vocals. The following “Rocky Dream” with
Ert’s main line has a shamanic psycho pattern, and in
“Tout ce que je veux…” a listener can notice quite unexpected Psychic TV acid thing. In the next tracks, “Petit
soldat” and “La nuit remue” we can see the band’s moving
to more eastern musical traditions, which stops somewhere close to China in the eighths track, about which I’d
love to tell a bit more. In “Les assis” we can hear the first
band’s vocalist, Arnauld le Brusq (the voice on the first
Complot Bronswick’s EP “L’image oubliee”), reading
Rimbaud’s poem. Arnault, who decided to continue his
experiments in literature turned out to be the best person
to read this difficult poem. Arnault reads this work, written
by passionate young boy, in absolutely unexpected for this
poem manner. His “flirting” whispering ironical voice creates the atmosphere that the reciter on one hand is one of
those feeble “les assis”, but on the other hand, it’s clearly
seen that in this “crypt” he is just a spectator, who clearly
understands the reality which Arthur Ribmaud drew in this
poem. And the last track of the main part of the release,
the tense “happy” “Wake Up” leads a listener out of the
“les assis” atmosphere, but still keeping the sense of artistic swindle that the song is not about its words and rhythm
are about. After the main part, four mix follows, which reflects other shades of already known “Rouge Reve” songs,
“Body is body”, “Sans Issue”, “Petit soldat” and “Tout ce
que je veux…”.
Talking about the music in common, this work is very
experimental on one hand, and rock-driven on the other.
Probably, it would be hard to find there post-punk minimalism and other band’s recognizable features of the 80’s.
While many contemporary bands try to sound in the 80’s
style, Complot steps to the future, not in order to follow
the fashion, but to use the musical abilities which the current century offers. So the sound can be called “modern”,
but in contradictory to many bands which lost their
“things” running for modern sound, Complot managed to
stay Complot.
In conclusion, we have a great work of five great masters who don’t want to be the best in the band, but do their
work in the best way they can, without glancing back to
any musical borders. And their contribution can be simply
recognizable, so, for example, Ert’s experience with “End
of Data” and experimental electronic projects can be easily recognized. The “guest-musicians”, the famous Gilles
Martin and Pierre Fablet, added to the album their own
colors which finally organically fit the entire conception.
Actually, I could write as much as my review is about each
song of the release, so deep they are, but it’s better to give
a chance to a listener to make own opinion. Art is never
felt the same way, and Art is always worth.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
74
Grotesque Sexuality –
“A Spell by Laugh”
(demo) review
Grotesque Sexuality is a young band from St. Petersburg, which has appeared in the end of 2008 and
has already recorded a demo-release which you can
download on the official site of the famous weblabel Zorch Factory Records. Musically, GS is a
vanguard mixture of coldwave, post-punk,
deathrock, no wave. Of course nowadays nobody
will be surprised by eclecticism; most of the modern
neo-batcave, neo-deathrock bands work between the
borders of genres, but GS manages to simultaneously reflect qualities of these genres as they should
be and were in the 80-s.
The first track is a cover of «Little Girl», the song
of the famous French coldwave/experemental-band
Complot Bronswick. According to Complot’s
words, they enjoyed the version, and it speaks for
itself. The next track is the song where the lyrics are
the poem of the Dadaism founder Tristan Tzara,
«Mr. Aa The Antiphilosopher», conceptual and musical base of which has pure Dadaistic character and
qualities, as it seems to me. Despite the French-English translation there is still an impression that the
text is in French. The same I feel while listening to
all the tracks, even when Nattsol sings in Russian,
and the music also sounds very French-like. The
third track - Razrusa Moshenie, this next dada – puzzle, musically and lyrically has become my GS’s favorite one. And the last song is «Заклятие Смехом»
with Velimir Khlebnikov’s poetry, perhaps, is the
most complicated, emotional and likable song of the
demo.
Let’s sum up: Grotesque Sexuality is Dadaism
and France, eclecticism and seamlessness, it’s an
emotional music for admirers of musical schizophrenia. I hope the number of tracks will be increased and GS won’t move closer to a more
modern and adapt sounding but on the contrary, will
lose in the vanguard jungle and lead their listeners
the same way.
Vadim 'Bars-Ursula' Barsov
“Grave Jibes Fanzine”
75
Camp Z – “U-Bortched”
single review.
This single announces that Camp Z
is back to experimentations, post punk
and a great variety of ways of sounding!
Manu/Zorch
It may seem that Manu/Zorch has chosen the
purpose in his musical way, which can be marked
“impossible” for the XXI century – the creation
something brand new. Indeed, starting his experiments with “Zorch Factor”, Manu was mixing musical ingredients in different proportions, trying to
find the optimal ones. And the new Camp Z single
“U-Bortched” lets believe that the balance in these
proportions is finally found. Both songs, the moody
and dark “U-Bortched” and the tense “light” melancholic “Further Schizo” are kept somewhere in between of post-punk and post industrial, but don’t fit
any of these genres and can even hardly be
marked as “referenced” by them. So, this release
says that Camp Z finally took its place in the musical universe. And the only thing we can do after
listening is to wait and see if the full-length release,
which is expected this autumn, confirms that.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
76
http://www.myspace.com/theforcedoscillations
The Forced Oscillations –
«Garlics» compilation review
The first impression can’t be made twice.
Popular wisdom
«Garlics» is a promo-compilation of a not much unknown in some circles Russian band «The Forced Oscillations». It includes songs from the band’s EP and concerts of the latest two years.
«Garlics» leaves behind very mixed feelings of itself. Evident troubles with record’s quality forms the first
impression unpleasant from the very beginning of listening to it. In this regard vocals especially suffered, because it is sometimes really indistinguishable against the bass background. Bass is another problem, in some
compositions it is more powerful than it is necessary and spoils main melody, prevents to reveal itself. However,
maybe someone catches sight of peculiar chic.
Instrumental compositions «Arctic bloodred moonlight sadness» and «Northern lights» provoke some incomprehension. This melody may be good for some intro and outro stuff, and these songs are used in this capacity in band’s last EP, but it isn't enough strong to be full-fledged elegy, and it sounds quite strange in the
middle of compilation, especially the short «Northern lights».
Live tracks have a disappointing quality of sound, sometimes with obvious fails of musical equipments.
Who forced «The forced oscillations» to include these tracks in this compilation, and why these tracks may
not wait for the times when they will be recorded in a better quality, that’s a mystery. To be honest, live tracks
on this CD create a disgusting sense that they were added just to top it off, and only overload quite enough
boring compilation.
However, the main problem of «Garlics» is not a record quality, but that they have sufficiently boring sound.
Compilation consists of 18 tracks and lasts 70 minutes, and listening it as a whole is really wearisome. Maybe
the reason is that the uniformity of sound is not equal to sound’s atmosphere. Maybe it’s because of lack of
some final traits of composition, which can give some individuality and brilliance to songs.
For all that, this band has a real creative potential. «Garlics» contains a number of comparatively strong
tracks: Acids (not by a chance you can find there 2 versions of this song), «Free», «Diaries», «December»,
mix of «Ash mylejau tave» with a female vocal part is quite interesting as well. And, in general, pretty
much all the track have pleasant post-punk guitars and good rhythm drums, well, sometimes to hear that
it is necessary to overcome some negative impressions.
As the final result despite all listed above shortcomings, this promo permit to assume that «The
Forced Oscillations» are capable of greater things, than that this promo can demonstrate. That’s why
I’d rather keep myself believing that this band will not stop at what has been accomplished and will
continue to develop itself.
Nikolay ‘Tacitus’ Polyakov
Grave Jibes Fanzine
77
http://www.myspace.com/fustydk
(((S))) – «Ghosts» album review
Listening of music is the kind of activities akin to take cocktails. It often appears as if beverage carries
notes of some accustomed things, but in the same time sensations which it gives in whole can’t be given by
it’s components separately.
It happens that it is necessary to taste the music. Some part of music may get stuck in the perception and
haunts until you mark out it, and only then you get the real taste of that music, and feeling of delight appears.
Album «Ghost» by the musical project (((S))) consist of 11 tracks, which possess the marvelously solid
general sound’s atmosphere, which allows perceiving it at one breath. Unhurried but quite enough dynamic
melodies immerse deeply in the mood of conciliative estrangement and quietism. Themes of hidden passions
burning out the soul, nonmutual love and heart’s desires run through all the album, and the track’s order form
some kind of item’s dynamic. Songs take us from anguish of concealed feelings in «In the Shadow of a
shadow» and «Mesmerized» through theme of fall and collapse – there is necessary to mention «Help», Beatles’ song cover which in (((S))) performance completely new sound and perfectly blend with album’s atmosphere, - to the extinction of the zest for life and to the calm spleen in « When the well runs dry» and «Dying».
Nevertheless this music isn’t depressive, it’s as dark and wistful as it needs to create unsteady ghostly and,
very likely, pleasing sense of light melancholy.
«Ghost» is a compound of Cure like post-punk guitar parts and quite Pink Floyd manner of performance,
rhythmic drums, atmospheric bass and some synt elements which bring finishing strokes in compositions.
Bass deserves particular consideration, because its full-fledged sound is a substrate upon which guitar accords
act and superimposes music humor on listener. It is just the element without catching that all sound’s profundity can’t be perceived.
In the total enigmatic (((S))) music project’s album «Ghost» is an excellent musical beverage which from
the first sip wins favour, and with each next more and more discovers its rich flavour. It’s a cold sound which
conciliates and gives comfort. It’s atmospheric music which is pleasant to listen to. Just taste it!
Nikolay ‘Tacitus’ Polyakov
Grave Jibes Fanzine
78
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