Chaos music magazine 1994
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:44:43 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:41:43 EST
Subject: Chaos6.CabaretVoltaire
To fans of electronic and experimental music, Cabaret Voltaire are truly
legends. Since 1978, the Sheffield-based group has been using technology to
push the boundries of music to the absolute limits. Originally a trio of
Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Christopher Watkins, Cabaret Voltaire
ar.e right up there with Throbbing Gristle as the pioneers of "industrial"
music.
The band, now consisting of just Kirk and Mallinder, has continued to evolve
over the years and expand out of the "industrial" genre. Cabaret Voltaire has
released two albums in the past year and half - "Plasticity" and
"International Language"- and in April will complete the trilogy with "The
Conversation." The three rele
ases show that Cabaret Voltaire are right at home with todays styles of
electronic music
In Britain, Cabaret Voltaire are releasing on their own label (their music is
licensed to Instinct for American distribution). Kirk says that having their
own label allows them the luxury of putting out as many CDs as they want,
bringing back the highly prolific nature that Cabaret Voltaire displayed in
thei r early years.
"Ultimately, I feel happier not working with the framework of a major
because they don't like you to make too many records," he explains. "They
prefer you to do like one record and spend the next three years promoting it.
It's frustrating to me as an artist because I like to be const
antly working on new music, and if you've got no outlet it's frustrating."
Another advantage that working on their own label provided was the chance to
get away from the highly structured, song-based style of their past few major
label releases in favor of a more experimental, soundtrack-style sound. The
music on "International Language" and "Plasticity" fuses together trancey
dance beats and analog synth sounds with spoken word samples and ambient
noises. Kirk feels that trying to force traditional song structure onto these
compositions would not have worked, so it was decided to keep the CDs
instrumental. The upcoming "The Conversation" CD with carry on these same
musical themes, and Kirk says that it wil
l then be time to re-think the sound, possibly returning to the use of sung
vocals.
On the trio of new releases, the vocal and spoken-word samples play an
integral part of the sound. Sometimes they carry the tracks along, while
other times the words themselves serve as background noise. Kirk says that
the samples come from a variety of different sources and there is no set way
the group goes about us
ing them.
"Basically, I've been collecting things, taping things from TV, collecting
movies, ever since I got a video player in the late 70s," he says. "I've got
a huge source to draw upon in terms of finding dialog or spoken work or
whatever. Also stuff from radio, from shortwave radio, or whatever. It really
depends, sometimes you get a piece of dialogue and then you construct some
music underneath it. Or other times you construct a piece of music or a
rhythm, then maybe you want to sample just one wo
rd and repeat that in rhythm with the track. There's no rules."
Kirk currently sees Cabaret Voltaire as mainly a studio project, although
live performance has been part of the band ever since they first started.
They haven't played live since the end of 1992, and don't see themselves
doing it again until the end of the year. While the technology has advanced a
great deal since since they began, Cabare
t Voltaire still find it limiting in terms of live performance."
"Obviously the stuff you do in the studio is a little bit sophisticated and
doesn't often work very well in the live context because a lot of it's
computer-based and that equipment doesn't like to be transported around,"
says Kirk. "It gets a knock and the thing gets screwed up. So we tend to put
some of it onto DAT and use that as the basis for the performance. Obviously,
there's a lot of stuff going on on top of that which is live. But it would be
nice to try and make the concerts more live, but it is very difficult at the
moment, which
comes down to the technology."
Cabaret Voltaire's new releases are the logical extension of the
experimental work they began creating in the 70s. At the time, they were
among a small handful of
bands using non-traditional techniques and new technology to re-define
music."
"A lot of it is accidental. When we first started out we weren't hearing a
lot of things that were interesting," says Kirk. "We had a lot of diverse
influences and it was like we were trying to express those influences within
some kind of framework that we could actually work within, because no one was
a musician. It was all kind of pretty basic stuff and we were using
synthesizers and tape recorders and tape loops . We couldn't play
instruments as such so we just made a noise. It just kind of got more
refined as we went along."
By 1987, Cabaret Voltaire's sound was refined enough to get them a major
label release in American, "Code" (EMI/Manhatten). The LP had a highly
technological feel but also strong song-based form. Kirk acknowledges that
this was a very commercial recording, while he says he is still proud of it.
"Code" also had a strong house influence, an influence that has remained with
the band on subsequent projects.
Cabaret Voltaire are currently working on a video companion to the
"Plasticity" album. All the footage has been shot but needs to be edited. The
project should see the light of day by the end of the year. Video is
something that Cabaret Voltaire has worked with extensively in the past, to
the point
where they had even run their own company.
"We were actively working in video until '85, maybe '86," explains Kirk.
"Again, that was something that as scaled down a little bit when we started
getting involved with major labels. We set up a video label called
Doublevision in the early 80s and released a Cabaret Voltaire 90-minute
video, which was like a multimedia thing. Also, there were a number of other
releases by other artists, different filmmakers and bands. The last thing we
commercially released was, I think in 1985, another long-form piece called
'Gasoline in Your Eye.' That was the last thing we did commercially but we
still use visuals for the live performances and constantly collect it and put
together visual imagery. A lot of it is only seen at the concerts. Nothing's
been made available for people t
o buy."
Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:45:00 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:43:20 EST
Subject: Chaos6.DieKrupps
For over a decade, Die Krupps has been at the forefront of industrial music.
Along with fellow German band Einsturzende Neubauten on others, Die Krupps
was one of the pioneers of the noisy, highly percussive style.
Although their music has never gotten wide release in America until now, the
group has built up quite an underground following here. Now they have just
released their US major label debut, but the content is quite surprising;
it's an album of Metallica covers titled "A Tribute To Metallica."
Releasing the album is an unusual move, as it will provide many listeners
with an introduc
tion to the band that is not really representative of them.
"Of course it's a problem, because a lot of people might really think we're
a cover band but we're not," explains frontman Jurgen Engler. "
I hope the press is going to get it right."
The album itself emerged out of a project Die Krupps had been just doing for
fun. Jurgen had been getting interested in heavy metal in recent years,
startinig up a metal label and incorporating elements of the music into Die Krupp's
sound.
Being a Metallica fan, he decided to record some covers so that he could
give them to Metallica on cassette when they toured Germany. Die Krupp's
label, Rough Trade, heard about the recording, expressed interest and ende
d up releasing it.
When Metallica heard it, they liked it and asked for a box of 20 CDs to give
out to people they knew. One day Jurgen got a call from Metallica's
management company, telling him that one
of the discs had been given to Hollywood Records and the label wanted to
sign them.
When Die Krupps first emerged, they created very noisy music that defied
tradition song structure and instrumentation. The would use guitars, but not
in the normal manner, as they did not find that interesting anym
ore.
"I was very, very bored at playing the normal chords because I'd done that
for too long with my punk band and I just got bored," says Jurgen. "When Die
Krupps started, we were very experimental a
nd industrial"
Shortly after getting started, the group began experimenting with the now
affordable synthesizers. Die Krupps fused the new technology with the
metallic percussion and noise they had be
en using to create a new style for the group.
In the mid-80s, the group took a few years off, during which time Jurgen
became interested in the new wave of metal music. When they re-emerged in
1990, the sound was changed once again to incorporate metal elements.
The current line-up of Die Krupps is rounded out by Lee Altus (guitar),
Darren Minter (drums), Ralph Dorper (samples) and Rudiger Esch (bass.) . The
Metallica tribute was a one-off project that saw Die Krupps creating their
music differently, but their upcoming release (already out in Europe) will be
more conistant with the way the group has been
evolving.
"The Metallica album was done mainly on keyboards, because why would you
cover a Metallica song with guitars?," says Jurgen. "But the last album that
came out in Europe before the Metallica album we had a mixture of electronic
music and heavy guitars, and the new album will be too."
Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:44:48 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:42:30 EST
Subject: Chaos6.KMFDM
Since their beginnings in Hamburg, Germany, KMFDM have proven to be a
driving force in underground electronic music. Now permanently based in
America, KMFDM have a new album, "Angst" (Wax Trax/TVT), and are preparing to
once again hit the road.
Speaking from a cordless phone in Seattle (that would prove to
accidentally disconnect several times during the interview), co-founder
Sascha Konietzko talked about KMFDM, his own side project and the current
state of the music industry in general.
The core of KMFDM is Sascha and En Esch, with guitarists Mark Durante
and Svet Am rounding out the line-up. They started out releasing material
through such European labels as Play It Again Sam and Rough Trade. At the
time, they were also licensing their music to Wax Trax in America, a label to
which they later s
igned to.
"In '89, I called them up and said we're like really bored here in
Germany, so just get us out," says Sascha, who also has a side project called
Excessive Force. "So they put us on this tour with Ministry, and late in 89,
we came to the US for the first time and quickly developed a go
od relationship with the Wax Trax guys and early in 1990 we decided to sign
direct onto Wax Trax."
In the late 80s, Wax Trax boasted a roster that also included such
electronic heavy-weights as Front 242, Meat Beat Manifesto and Front Line
Assembly. Now, most of these bands have moved to other labels, leaving
KMFDM as one of the few original "Wax Trax bands" to remain. Sascha says that
despite being slowed down by Wax Trax's bankruptcy (the label was later
picked up by TVT), the group has never
had the desire to leave.
"We have been offered substantial amounts of money to switch, but it is
really my belief that no one could do a better job for us anyway," he says.
"The more really corporate stuff that's going on, the more it sucks. I'd
rather be self-conducted and independent and do my stuff directing my self,
following my own guidelines and just cooperate with the label, rather then
told 'you have to go on tour,' 'you have to do a video,' 'that's shit
really.""
On the surface, "Angst" sounds more guitar heavy than some of KMFDM's
previous work, though Sascha points out that "it's just that you can hear
them better." About a year ago, the group began working with engineer Chris
Shephard, who has made the guitar parts sound more crisp and stand out more.
In creating "Angst," KMFDM spent about a month just sampling guitar
parts directly to the hard disk of a Macintosh. Sascha explains that while
everything the band does technically involves sampling, they use the
technology to manipulate their own music rather than steal from others.
Sascha's own set-up is pretty low-key, consisting of the Mac (capable
of 8 hours of digital recording), an Emax II, Roland JD 800 and Emu drum
module. The
group still works with tape loops, which Sascha calls "the greatest thing in
the world."
"You always have to duck in the studio," he says. "There's gigantically huge
tape loops all around."
While KMFDM chooses to use a fairly modest set-up of equipment, the
group has always had acce
ss to the latest electronic gear.
"We actually were probably one of the first bands to use MIDI
instruments and samplers, that, at the time, did not even have any storage,
it was more like a delay with a freeze action," explains Sascha. "Pitch
changes were done by control voltage keyboards, such as the SH101. We had
things like the MIDI Bass Master or little wierd devices that had the
strangest sounds. First-generation drum machines, things like beat boxes with
pre-programmed rhythms where you could only change the speed. We started
working with 707, 808, 909s."
KMFDM have always been known for intense
live shows, where the music is often presented in a very different from than
on their albums.
"Live mixers tend to turn the guitar way up, as guitar is like the big
masturbation instrument," says Sascha. "People don't seem to have a problem
recognizing the tune. It's like the first four bars and they know 'oh, this
is 'Sex On The Flag,' or this is 'Naive'" Of course, for recorded stuff, you
can sometimes just create a little air with a nice sound or effect, but live,
you're pretty much depending on constant action, so the concept of KMFDM live
is just condensed, very right-at-your -ace. Hence the white lights and
everything."
On the last tour, KMFDM added a live drummer and created a sound that
would impress even the most technophobic guitar rock fan. Live drummers are
sometimes used and sometimes not, depending on who is available at the time.
For the upcoming tour, Sascha says that he will probably handle the drum
parts himself.
The group never wants to go back and tour Europe again, due to an
ill-fated venture with My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult in the fall of
1990.
"They were under the impression that they should be headlining, and they
got booed off the stage all the time," explains Sascha. "Then we started
headlining, and then they left the tour and then we stopped the tour because
it made no sense. The promoters were really disappointed in just seeing good
old KMFDM from Germany again but without the famous most enjoyable TKK, but
boy, what did they know. It was just a disaster s
o we decided not to tour Europe anymore."
"Angst," like all of KMFDM's recordings, features cover art by Brute.
Sascha says that the artist is considered a member of the band, since he is
shaping the appearance of the their presentation and is part of the
ideological backbone of the group. His
work has become something of a trademark for the band.
Brute's work has been collected and brought to life in the video of "A
Drug Against War," which has received MTV airplay despite KMFD
M's past problems with censorship.
"All the covers that he's ever done for us, there are like 18 of them
now, they're all sort of woven into a little story, everything comes to life.
There's basically a lot of explosions, guns, big chicks, strong female
aspects, like the dominant woman. People still have a problem and think that
KMFDM's some sort of sexist bullshit. Just open the eyes."
In addition to their own releases, KMFDM have appeared on a great deal
of compilations. Sascha says that while the record company may get a bit
concerned about this, the group enjoys gaining more exposure and helping out
the often small labels that put out the compilations. KMFDM can currently be
heard on Re-Constrictio
n's "Shut Up Kitty" CD doing a cover of U2's "Mysterious Ways."
"It was about spring '92 that all these articles were in the papers
where U2 said that KMFDM was a great band and an influence in the making of
'Actung Baby'," says Sascha on the decision to cover that track. "And we were
just like 'yeah, right' so we just said, ok, let's play a U2 song, a tribute
to U2. And we did the one that was everywhere, like they would use the intro
to that song on MTV every five minutes or so. So we took that and sort of
took the piss out of it, played it live and En Esch would say things like
Bono could suck him or whatever, and this guy Chase from
Cargo/Re-Constriction in San Diego saw us and he had in mind to do this
compilation and he probably needed a band that would make the compilation
kind of worthwhile. So he called us up and said he liked the way we did
'Mysterious Ways' and his compilation was just consisting of cover versions,
so we did it for no money at all."
copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.co
m
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:44:52 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:42:59 EST
Subject: Chaos6.Sect
The past few years have seen a tremendous growth in the field of
electronic music, with industrial and techno coming together to create a
multitude of hybrids. On their debut album, "Telekinetic (Third Mind), Sect
prove to be a good example of this by bringing together the intensity of rave
music and the sonic experimentation of industrial.
Sect was first started up as a solo project by Mike Victory in 1989.
Bruce Young joined the group in 1991 and a third member, Jason McEvoy, came
along in 1992. The three members rotate around in terms of specific roles
within the band, usually depending on who was
most skilled with the equipment needed to add a particular part to a song.
The Vancouver - based group managed to land their deal with Third Mind
without too much effort on their part. After spending six months carefully
developing their demo, Sect has just began the process of sending it out when
they got a call from Third Mind. It turned out that a friend of theirs had
made some friends at Go Bang while on a trip to Europe and given them a tape.
That label liked it and passed it on to Third Mind.
"It was quite surprising, but we put so much energy into it that we
needed it to happe
n," says Victory. "It just seemed natural."
Victory cites a combination of interest in experimental music and acid
house as the main motivation for starting up Sect. By spending his days
working in a record store and dealing with DJs, he has been able to keep up
to date with the constantly changing state of electronic dance music,
"There's a lot of hybrids," he says. "There's enough people involved in
music globally that there isn't a lack of at least one or two interesting
combination of styles at least a month, if not a week. Industrial and techno
have come together, and I think it's a little bit more
diverse. There are other references to tribal and experimental."
Sect's music is created at The Interlab, a collective studio set up by
the band members and other electronic musicians in Vancouver. By pooling
resources and rotating time, the members have access to a decent recording
environmentt without having to rent an outside studio.
While Victory has performed solo sets in the ambient rooms of clubs and
raves, Sect has yet to play out as a band. They don't rule out live shows,
but they don't see it happening in the immediate future.
"Our images and visions that we have for it are quite grand, so as a
matter of realizing it, it's a little ways off," explains Victory. "I think
that watching electronic music being performed is kind of boring. And we
don't want a vocalist and we don't want dancers, and basically what we want
are 10 x 10 screens with computer graphics on them, and a lo
t of work needs to go into realizing that."
Another thing that may not be realized immediately is the group's
interest in making their music an interactive experience. Victory says that
he enjoys it when listeners hear Sect's music and respond to it in ways
different from how the group ever intended it. He feels that listeners
shouldn't be stuck with just that artist's vision but should be able to alter
and play with it at will.
"I think that when I was listening to music when I was younger the
interpretations that I got from it in contrast with where the people were
actually coming from was kind of a great distance," says Victory. "And I
appreciated my own interpretation, or misinterpretation, more than I
appreciated the actual truth of the artist. So it's more of just a doctrine
that I've
expressed to my co-workers and they agree as well."
Several artists have already created products that allow users to mix
and manipulate the music, but for a new band getting such a project
off the group would prove difficult.
"In terms of us being able to do it and create it, I d
on't think it's too far of," says Victory. "In terms of marketing, it's a
little different story."
One market that Victory does see as being open to interactive music is
the DJ industry.
"I listen to DJs criticisms of various new releases," he explains. "And
they're like 'oh, if this cou
ld be a little higher, or if I could take up those, that kind of thing."
Like most electronic musicians, Victory doesn't see himself being
limited to his main band. While the new record deal may not allow for it
immediately, he does want to get into side projects eventually. Victory says
he would like to get into non-dance, soundtrack-style music, an area he is
currently playing around with "just to get
inspired""
"It would be nice to see an industry start up of various other
alternatives for electronic musicians,rather than just a certain set rule,"
says Victory on branching out beyond dance music.
Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:45:05 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:43:47 EST
Subject: Chaos6.Ultramarine
On their latest album, "United Kingdoms," Ultramarine truly bridges the gap
between two musical generations. The group has always been known for creating
a sound that combines very synthetic electronic
sounds with traditional instrumentation and elements of jazz, folk and
progressive rock music.
But this time out, the group has collaborated with one of the legends of the
later genre -- Robert Wyatt. The former Soft Machine drummer/vocalist shows
up singing on two tracks of the otherwise instrume
ntal album.
Ultramarine is a duo of Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper who hail from Essex,
England. Friends since they were 14, they were originally part of A Primary
Industry before starting up in 1988. The group's first release was 1989's
"Wyndlam Lewis," a project that used the spoken words from 1940 recording
s of the artist/satirist of the same name.
A year later, Ultramarine released their first proper album, "Folk." At that
time, the group was a quartet and the paring down of the line-up led to them
using more samplers on the follow-up, "Every Man And Woman Is a Star." For
the new LP, the group cont
inued to use the technology but also made more extensive use of session
players.
"We kind of get the basis for a track together on the sampler, and what we
did for this album is we got a few people in to play live stuff and worked a
lot of live stuff around the framework that we had," explains Cooper, adding
that much of the session playing was then sampled and manipulated to create
the final recordin
g.
Though the bulk of their music does not have vocals, Ultramarine see
themselves as creating "songs," as opposed to instrumental pieces. The group
uses verse-chorus structure and says that they are influenced more by
singer/songwriters than other forms of music. This is particularly evident on
the new album, as the music is very tight and focused.
One track on "Every Man and Woman Is A Star" contained vocals, which were
supplied by a friend of the band. For the new album, Ultramarine got the
chance to have an idol of their handle the vocal duties.
"Unfortunately, it's not a very glamorous rock-and-roll story, it's very
simple really," explains Cooper on the collaboration with Wyatt. "Rough Trade
released 'Every Man and Woman is a Star in the UK and Robert records for
Rough Trade, so when we were thinking about a new batch of stuff, Rob was a
great hero of ours and we thought, yeah we,'ll have a word with him and see
if he's up for it."
Ultramarine and Wyatt exchanged tapes and idea for a while and then they
spent two days in the studio together. The end results were the tracks
"Kingdom" and "Happyland." Cooper and Hammond say that it was inspiring to
get to work with Wyatt and that "he really put a lot into" the collaboration.
Although "Kingdom" has been part of the live set as an instrumental,
Ultramarine have no plans on bringing along someone to sing on the few songs
that have vocals. "Kingdom" is not going to be a big part of the live set now
that it has been recorded in a different form, and "Happy Land" will never be
performed as an instrumental, the band says.
"I think the only time we'd do that would be if whoever sang the
original version would be willing to play live with us," explains Paul
"Unfortunately, that doesn't arise with Robert Wyatt because he doesn't want
to play live again. He's very limited obviously because of his disability.
It's a great shame, I'd like to see him live with us or without us but it's
not going to happen, I don't think, so we just have to put that out of our
heads."
Last year, Ultramarine traveled around the country as part of the
Communion tour, and they just went on the road with Bjork. The group performs
as a five-piece so that many of the parts can be played live. A new addition
to the live band is a member who plays many of the melody lines on the flute
and other wind instruments. Ultramarine run all the sequencers live off of
floppy disk and have an on-stage, 16-channel mixing console so that every
element can be affected live.
"It's quite a complex thing to get to transfer across," says Hammond.
"It's quite complex musically what we do, there's a lot of different elements
in there. We really had to go through each song in depth and work out what
was going to work live and what wasn't."
Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:41:43 EST
Subject: Chaos6.CabaretVoltaire
To fans of electronic and experimental music, Cabaret Voltaire are truly
legends. Since 1978, the Sheffield-based group has been using technology to
push the boundries of music to the absolute limits. Originally a trio of
Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Christopher Watkins, Cabaret Voltaire
ar.e right up there with Throbbing Gristle as the pioneers of "industrial"
music.
The band, now consisting of just Kirk and Mallinder, has continued to evolve
over the years and expand out of the "industrial" genre. Cabaret Voltaire has
released two albums in the past year and half - "Plasticity" and
"International Language"- and in April will complete the trilogy with "The
Conversation." The three rele
ases show that Cabaret Voltaire are right at home with todays styles of
electronic music
In Britain, Cabaret Voltaire are releasing on their own label (their music is
licensed to Instinct for American distribution). Kirk says that having their
own label allows them the luxury of putting out as many CDs as they want,
bringing back the highly prolific nature that Cabaret Voltaire displayed in
thei r early years.
"Ultimately, I feel happier not working with the framework of a major
because they don't like you to make too many records," he explains. "They
prefer you to do like one record and spend the next three years promoting it.
It's frustrating to me as an artist because I like to be const
antly working on new music, and if you've got no outlet it's frustrating."
Another advantage that working on their own label provided was the chance to
get away from the highly structured, song-based style of their past few major
label releases in favor of a more experimental, soundtrack-style sound. The
music on "International Language" and "Plasticity" fuses together trancey
dance beats and analog synth sounds with spoken word samples and ambient
noises. Kirk feels that trying to force traditional song structure onto these
compositions would not have worked, so it was decided to keep the CDs
instrumental. The upcoming "The Conversation" CD with carry on these same
musical themes, and Kirk says that it wil
l then be time to re-think the sound, possibly returning to the use of sung
vocals.
On the trio of new releases, the vocal and spoken-word samples play an
integral part of the sound. Sometimes they carry the tracks along, while
other times the words themselves serve as background noise. Kirk says that
the samples come from a variety of different sources and there is no set way
the group goes about us
ing them.
"Basically, I've been collecting things, taping things from TV, collecting
movies, ever since I got a video player in the late 70s," he says. "I've got
a huge source to draw upon in terms of finding dialog or spoken work or
whatever. Also stuff from radio, from shortwave radio, or whatever. It really
depends, sometimes you get a piece of dialogue and then you construct some
music underneath it. Or other times you construct a piece of music or a
rhythm, then maybe you want to sample just one wo
rd and repeat that in rhythm with the track. There's no rules."
Kirk currently sees Cabaret Voltaire as mainly a studio project, although
live performance has been part of the band ever since they first started.
They haven't played live since the end of 1992, and don't see themselves
doing it again until the end of the year. While the technology has advanced a
great deal since since they began, Cabare
t Voltaire still find it limiting in terms of live performance."
"Obviously the stuff you do in the studio is a little bit sophisticated and
doesn't often work very well in the live context because a lot of it's
computer-based and that equipment doesn't like to be transported around,"
says Kirk. "It gets a knock and the thing gets screwed up. So we tend to put
some of it onto DAT and use that as the basis for the performance. Obviously,
there's a lot of stuff going on on top of that which is live. But it would be
nice to try and make the concerts more live, but it is very difficult at the
moment, which
comes down to the technology."
Cabaret Voltaire's new releases are the logical extension of the
experimental work they began creating in the 70s. At the time, they were
among a small handful of
bands using non-traditional techniques and new technology to re-define
music."
"A lot of it is accidental. When we first started out we weren't hearing a
lot of things that were interesting," says Kirk. "We had a lot of diverse
influences and it was like we were trying to express those influences within
some kind of framework that we could actually work within, because no one was
a musician. It was all kind of pretty basic stuff and we were using
synthesizers and tape recorders and tape loops . We couldn't play
instruments as such so we just made a noise. It just kind of got more
refined as we went along."
By 1987, Cabaret Voltaire's sound was refined enough to get them a major
label release in American, "Code" (EMI/Manhatten). The LP had a highly
technological feel but also strong song-based form. Kirk acknowledges that
this was a very commercial recording, while he says he is still proud of it.
"Code" also had a strong house influence, an influence that has remained with
the band on subsequent projects.
Cabaret Voltaire are currently working on a video companion to the
"Plasticity" album. All the footage has been shot but needs to be edited. The
project should see the light of day by the end of the year. Video is
something that Cabaret Voltaire has worked with extensively in the past, to
the point
where they had even run their own company.
"We were actively working in video until '85, maybe '86," explains Kirk.
"Again, that was something that as scaled down a little bit when we started
getting involved with major labels. We set up a video label called
Doublevision in the early 80s and released a Cabaret Voltaire 90-minute
video, which was like a multimedia thing. Also, there were a number of other
releases by other artists, different filmmakers and bands. The last thing we
commercially released was, I think in 1985, another long-form piece called
'Gasoline in Your Eye.' That was the last thing we did commercially but we
still use visuals for the live performances and constantly collect it and put
together visual imagery. A lot of it is only seen at the concerts. Nothing's
been made available for people t
o buy."
Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:45:00 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:43:20 EST
Subject: Chaos6.DieKrupps
For over a decade, Die Krupps has been at the forefront of industrial music.
Along with fellow German band Einsturzende Neubauten on others, Die Krupps
was one of the pioneers of the noisy, highly percussive style.
Although their music has never gotten wide release in America until now, the
group has built up quite an underground following here. Now they have just
released their US major label debut, but the content is quite surprising;
it's an album of Metallica covers titled "A Tribute To Metallica."
Releasing the album is an unusual move, as it will provide many listeners
with an introduc
tion to the band that is not really representative of them.
"Of course it's a problem, because a lot of people might really think we're
a cover band but we're not," explains frontman Jurgen Engler. "
I hope the press is going to get it right."
The album itself emerged out of a project Die Krupps had been just doing for
fun. Jurgen had been getting interested in heavy metal in recent years,
startinig up a metal label and incorporating elements of the music into Die Krupp's
sound.
Being a Metallica fan, he decided to record some covers so that he could
give them to Metallica on cassette when they toured Germany. Die Krupp's
label, Rough Trade, heard about the recording, expressed interest and ende
d up releasing it.
When Metallica heard it, they liked it and asked for a box of 20 CDs to give
out to people they knew. One day Jurgen got a call from Metallica's
management company, telling him that one
of the discs had been given to Hollywood Records and the label wanted to
sign them.
When Die Krupps first emerged, they created very noisy music that defied
tradition song structure and instrumentation. The would use guitars, but not
in the normal manner, as they did not find that interesting anym
ore.
"I was very, very bored at playing the normal chords because I'd done that
for too long with my punk band and I just got bored," says Jurgen. "When Die
Krupps started, we were very experimental a
nd industrial"
Shortly after getting started, the group began experimenting with the now
affordable synthesizers. Die Krupps fused the new technology with the
metallic percussion and noise they had be
en using to create a new style for the group.
In the mid-80s, the group took a few years off, during which time Jurgen
became interested in the new wave of metal music. When they re-emerged in
1990, the sound was changed once again to incorporate metal elements.
The current line-up of Die Krupps is rounded out by Lee Altus (guitar),
Darren Minter (drums), Ralph Dorper (samples) and Rudiger Esch (bass.) . The
Metallica tribute was a one-off project that saw Die Krupps creating their
music differently, but their upcoming release (already out in Europe) will be
more conistant with the way the group has been
evolving.
"The Metallica album was done mainly on keyboards, because why would you
cover a Metallica song with guitars?," says Jurgen. "But the last album that
came out in Europe before the Metallica album we had a mixture of electronic
music and heavy guitars, and the new album will be too."
Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:44:48 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:42:30 EST
Subject: Chaos6.KMFDM
Since their beginnings in Hamburg, Germany, KMFDM have proven to be a
driving force in underground electronic music. Now permanently based in
America, KMFDM have a new album, "Angst" (Wax Trax/TVT), and are preparing to
once again hit the road.
Speaking from a cordless phone in Seattle (that would prove to
accidentally disconnect several times during the interview), co-founder
Sascha Konietzko talked about KMFDM, his own side project and the current
state of the music industry in general.
The core of KMFDM is Sascha and En Esch, with guitarists Mark Durante
and Svet Am rounding out the line-up. They started out releasing material
through such European labels as Play It Again Sam and Rough Trade. At the
time, they were also licensing their music to Wax Trax in America, a label to
which they later s
igned to.
"In '89, I called them up and said we're like really bored here in
Germany, so just get us out," says Sascha, who also has a side project called
Excessive Force. "So they put us on this tour with Ministry, and late in 89,
we came to the US for the first time and quickly developed a go
od relationship with the Wax Trax guys and early in 1990 we decided to sign
direct onto Wax Trax."
In the late 80s, Wax Trax boasted a roster that also included such
electronic heavy-weights as Front 242, Meat Beat Manifesto and Front Line
Assembly. Now, most of these bands have moved to other labels, leaving
KMFDM as one of the few original "Wax Trax bands" to remain. Sascha says that
despite being slowed down by Wax Trax's bankruptcy (the label was later
picked up by TVT), the group has never
had the desire to leave.
"We have been offered substantial amounts of money to switch, but it is
really my belief that no one could do a better job for us anyway," he says.
"The more really corporate stuff that's going on, the more it sucks. I'd
rather be self-conducted and independent and do my stuff directing my self,
following my own guidelines and just cooperate with the label, rather then
told 'you have to go on tour,' 'you have to do a video,' 'that's shit
really.""
On the surface, "Angst" sounds more guitar heavy than some of KMFDM's
previous work, though Sascha points out that "it's just that you can hear
them better." About a year ago, the group began working with engineer Chris
Shephard, who has made the guitar parts sound more crisp and stand out more.
In creating "Angst," KMFDM spent about a month just sampling guitar
parts directly to the hard disk of a Macintosh. Sascha explains that while
everything the band does technically involves sampling, they use the
technology to manipulate their own music rather than steal from others.
Sascha's own set-up is pretty low-key, consisting of the Mac (capable
of 8 hours of digital recording), an Emax II, Roland JD 800 and Emu drum
module. The
group still works with tape loops, which Sascha calls "the greatest thing in
the world."
"You always have to duck in the studio," he says. "There's gigantically huge
tape loops all around."
While KMFDM chooses to use a fairly modest set-up of equipment, the
group has always had acce
ss to the latest electronic gear.
"We actually were probably one of the first bands to use MIDI
instruments and samplers, that, at the time, did not even have any storage,
it was more like a delay with a freeze action," explains Sascha. "Pitch
changes were done by control voltage keyboards, such as the SH101. We had
things like the MIDI Bass Master or little wierd devices that had the
strangest sounds. First-generation drum machines, things like beat boxes with
pre-programmed rhythms where you could only change the speed. We started
working with 707, 808, 909s."
KMFDM have always been known for intense
live shows, where the music is often presented in a very different from than
on their albums.
"Live mixers tend to turn the guitar way up, as guitar is like the big
masturbation instrument," says Sascha. "People don't seem to have a problem
recognizing the tune. It's like the first four bars and they know 'oh, this
is 'Sex On The Flag,' or this is 'Naive'" Of course, for recorded stuff, you
can sometimes just create a little air with a nice sound or effect, but live,
you're pretty much depending on constant action, so the concept of KMFDM live
is just condensed, very right-at-your -ace. Hence the white lights and
everything."
On the last tour, KMFDM added a live drummer and created a sound that
would impress even the most technophobic guitar rock fan. Live drummers are
sometimes used and sometimes not, depending on who is available at the time.
For the upcoming tour, Sascha says that he will probably handle the drum
parts himself.
The group never wants to go back and tour Europe again, due to an
ill-fated venture with My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult in the fall of
1990.
"They were under the impression that they should be headlining, and they
got booed off the stage all the time," explains Sascha. "Then we started
headlining, and then they left the tour and then we stopped the tour because
it made no sense. The promoters were really disappointed in just seeing good
old KMFDM from Germany again but without the famous most enjoyable TKK, but
boy, what did they know. It was just a disaster s
o we decided not to tour Europe anymore."
"Angst," like all of KMFDM's recordings, features cover art by Brute.
Sascha says that the artist is considered a member of the band, since he is
shaping the appearance of the their presentation and is part of the
ideological backbone of the group. His
work has become something of a trademark for the band.
Brute's work has been collected and brought to life in the video of "A
Drug Against War," which has received MTV airplay despite KMFD
M's past problems with censorship.
"All the covers that he's ever done for us, there are like 18 of them
now, they're all sort of woven into a little story, everything comes to life.
There's basically a lot of explosions, guns, big chicks, strong female
aspects, like the dominant woman. People still have a problem and think that
KMFDM's some sort of sexist bullshit. Just open the eyes."
In addition to their own releases, KMFDM have appeared on a great deal
of compilations. Sascha says that while the record company may get a bit
concerned about this, the group enjoys gaining more exposure and helping out
the often small labels that put out the compilations. KMFDM can currently be
heard on Re-Constrictio
n's "Shut Up Kitty" CD doing a cover of U2's "Mysterious Ways."
"It was about spring '92 that all these articles were in the papers
where U2 said that KMFDM was a great band and an influence in the making of
'Actung Baby'," says Sascha on the decision to cover that track. "And we were
just like 'yeah, right' so we just said, ok, let's play a U2 song, a tribute
to U2. And we did the one that was everywhere, like they would use the intro
to that song on MTV every five minutes or so. So we took that and sort of
took the piss out of it, played it live and En Esch would say things like
Bono could suck him or whatever, and this guy Chase from
Cargo/Re-Constriction in San Diego saw us and he had in mind to do this
compilation and he probably needed a band that would make the compilation
kind of worthwhile. So he called us up and said he liked the way we did
'Mysterious Ways' and his compilation was just consisting of cover versions,
so we did it for no money at all."
copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.co
m
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:44:52 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:42:59 EST
Subject: Chaos6.Sect
The past few years have seen a tremendous growth in the field of
electronic music, with industrial and techno coming together to create a
multitude of hybrids. On their debut album, "Telekinetic (Third Mind), Sect
prove to be a good example of this by bringing together the intensity of rave
music and the sonic experimentation of industrial.
Sect was first started up as a solo project by Mike Victory in 1989.
Bruce Young joined the group in 1991 and a third member, Jason McEvoy, came
along in 1992. The three members rotate around in terms of specific roles
within the band, usually depending on who was
most skilled with the equipment needed to add a particular part to a song.
The Vancouver - based group managed to land their deal with Third Mind
without too much effort on their part. After spending six months carefully
developing their demo, Sect has just began the process of sending it out when
they got a call from Third Mind. It turned out that a friend of theirs had
made some friends at Go Bang while on a trip to Europe and given them a tape.
That label liked it and passed it on to Third Mind.
"It was quite surprising, but we put so much energy into it that we
needed it to happe
n," says Victory. "It just seemed natural."
Victory cites a combination of interest in experimental music and acid
house as the main motivation for starting up Sect. By spending his days
working in a record store and dealing with DJs, he has been able to keep up
to date with the constantly changing state of electronic dance music,
"There's a lot of hybrids," he says. "There's enough people involved in
music globally that there isn't a lack of at least one or two interesting
combination of styles at least a month, if not a week. Industrial and techno
have come together, and I think it's a little bit more
diverse. There are other references to tribal and experimental."
Sect's music is created at The Interlab, a collective studio set up by
the band members and other electronic musicians in Vancouver. By pooling
resources and rotating time, the members have access to a decent recording
environmentt without having to rent an outside studio.
While Victory has performed solo sets in the ambient rooms of clubs and
raves, Sect has yet to play out as a band. They don't rule out live shows,
but they don't see it happening in the immediate future.
"Our images and visions that we have for it are quite grand, so as a
matter of realizing it, it's a little ways off," explains Victory. "I think
that watching electronic music being performed is kind of boring. And we
don't want a vocalist and we don't want dancers, and basically what we want
are 10 x 10 screens with computer graphics on them, and a lo
t of work needs to go into realizing that."
Another thing that may not be realized immediately is the group's
interest in making their music an interactive experience. Victory says that
he enjoys it when listeners hear Sect's music and respond to it in ways
different from how the group ever intended it. He feels that listeners
shouldn't be stuck with just that artist's vision but should be able to alter
and play with it at will.
"I think that when I was listening to music when I was younger the
interpretations that I got from it in contrast with where the people were
actually coming from was kind of a great distance," says Victory. "And I
appreciated my own interpretation, or misinterpretation, more than I
appreciated the actual truth of the artist. So it's more of just a doctrine
that I've
expressed to my co-workers and they agree as well."
Several artists have already created products that allow users to mix
and manipulate the music, but for a new band getting such a project
off the group would prove difficult.
"In terms of us being able to do it and create it, I d
on't think it's too far of," says Victory. "In terms of marketing, it's a
little different story."
One market that Victory does see as being open to interactive music is
the DJ industry.
"I listen to DJs criticisms of various new releases," he explains. "And
they're like 'oh, if this cou
ld be a little higher, or if I could take up those, that kind of thing."
Like most electronic musicians, Victory doesn't see himself being
limited to his main band. While the new record deal may not allow for it
immediately, he does want to get into side projects eventually. Victory says
he would like to get into non-dance, soundtrack-style music, an area he is
currently playing around with "just to get
inspired""
"It would be nice to see an industry start up of various other
alternatives for electronic musicians,rather than just a certain set rule,"
says Victory on branching out beyond dance music.
Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com
From rsgour@aol.com Tue Mar 1 22:45:05 1994
Return-Path: <rsgour@aol.com>
From: rsgour@aol.com
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Sender: "rsgour" <rsgour@aol.com>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:43:47 EST
Subject: Chaos6.Ultramarine
On their latest album, "United Kingdoms," Ultramarine truly bridges the gap
between two musical generations. The group has always been known for creating
a sound that combines very synthetic electronic
sounds with traditional instrumentation and elements of jazz, folk and
progressive rock music.
But this time out, the group has collaborated with one of the legends of the
later genre -- Robert Wyatt. The former Soft Machine drummer/vocalist shows
up singing on two tracks of the otherwise instrume
ntal album.
Ultramarine is a duo of Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper who hail from Essex,
England. Friends since they were 14, they were originally part of A Primary
Industry before starting up in 1988. The group's first release was 1989's
"Wyndlam Lewis," a project that used the spoken words from 1940 recording
s of the artist/satirist of the same name.
A year later, Ultramarine released their first proper album, "Folk." At that
time, the group was a quartet and the paring down of the line-up led to them
using more samplers on the follow-up, "Every Man And Woman Is a Star." For
the new LP, the group cont
inued to use the technology but also made more extensive use of session
players.
"We kind of get the basis for a track together on the sampler, and what we
did for this album is we got a few people in to play live stuff and worked a
lot of live stuff around the framework that we had," explains Cooper, adding
that much of the session playing was then sampled and manipulated to create
the final recordin
g.
Though the bulk of their music does not have vocals, Ultramarine see
themselves as creating "songs," as opposed to instrumental pieces. The group
uses verse-chorus structure and says that they are influenced more by
singer/songwriters than other forms of music. This is particularly evident on
the new album, as the music is very tight and focused.
One track on "Every Man and Woman Is A Star" contained vocals, which were
supplied by a friend of the band. For the new album, Ultramarine got the
chance to have an idol of their handle the vocal duties.
"Unfortunately, it's not a very glamorous rock-and-roll story, it's very
simple really," explains Cooper on the collaboration with Wyatt. "Rough Trade
released 'Every Man and Woman is a Star in the UK and Robert records for
Rough Trade, so when we were thinking about a new batch of stuff, Rob was a
great hero of ours and we thought, yeah we,'ll have a word with him and see
if he's up for it."
Ultramarine and Wyatt exchanged tapes and idea for a while and then they
spent two days in the studio together. The end results were the tracks
"Kingdom" and "Happyland." Cooper and Hammond say that it was inspiring to
get to work with Wyatt and that "he really put a lot into" the collaboration.
Although "Kingdom" has been part of the live set as an instrumental,
Ultramarine have no plans on bringing along someone to sing on the few songs
that have vocals. "Kingdom" is not going to be a big part of the live set now
that it has been recorded in a different form, and "Happy Land" will never be
performed as an instrumental, the band says.
"I think the only time we'd do that would be if whoever sang the
original version would be willing to play live with us," explains Paul
"Unfortunately, that doesn't arise with Robert Wyatt because he doesn't want
to play live again. He's very limited obviously because of his disability.
It's a great shame, I'd like to see him live with us or without us but it's
not going to happen, I don't think, so we just have to put that out of our
heads."
Last year, Ultramarine traveled around the country as part of the
Communion tour, and they just went on the road with Bjork. The group performs
as a five-piece so that many of the parts can be played live. A new addition
to the live band is a member who plays many of the melody lines on the flute
and other wind instruments. Ultramarine run all the sequencers live off of
floppy disk and have an on-stage, 16-channel mixing console so that every
element can be affected live.
"It's quite a complex thing to get to transfer across," says Hammond.
"It's quite complex musically what we do, there's a lot of different elements
in there. We really had to go through each song in depth and work out what
was going to work live and what wasn't."
Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com
Comments
Post a Comment