Tidal Promotions presents: COLD SPRING AT ULU
MERZBOW / SUTCLIFFE JÜGEND / SATORI
ULU, Malet Street, London - 19th April 2008
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Merzbow
/ Sutcliffe Jügend / Satori - 'Split'
(CSR102CD) - 19 April 2008
Released at the concert, with each patron receiving a free
copy.
Japanese Noise, Power Electronics and Fortean Electronics
from these 3 giants of the Noise / Industrial scene, with one exclusive
studio track from each act. This CD was presented in a full colour card
slip and shrinkwrapped. Limited to 1000 copies only!
Full release information here! |
All images are copyright of the photographers. Please
do not use any images without prior permission!
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SATORI - myspace.com/satoriofficial
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SUTCLIFFE JÜGEND - www.sutcliffejugend.com
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MERZBOW - www.merzbow.net
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REVIEWS
From Londonist:
by Jo Tacon, Kai Hoffman and Dave Knapik
On Saturday 19 April, three of Londonist's
bravest aural explorers arrived at ULU to undergo some serious sonic
punishment in the form of Satori, Sutcliffe Jugend and the unmistakeable
king of Japanese noise, Merzbow. For fun, naturally; people are strange,
as Jim Morrison once said. Whilst Time Out placed the event in their
"Rock, pop & dance" section, we assume that's only because
the "My Cock's On Fire" section was full. Strange is probably
also a good way to begin to describe the first opening act we saw, having
sadly arrived too late to see Satori; let's just say that Sutcliffe
Jugend aren't going to be profiled in the Mail on Sunday any day soon.
The band's sound is dislocating, alienating and profoundly unsettling,
not to mention so loud that merely standing in the audience became a
test of endurance.
A power electronics project named after Peter "Yorkshire
Ripper" Sutcliffe and fronted by Kevin Tomkins, Sutcliffe Jugend
had no traditional rhythmic structure to speak of, with Tomkins' vitriolic
vocals spitting over the harsh hiss of static and bass-heavy rumbling
produced by collaborator Paul Taylor. This formidable duo made the most
lo-fi and primitive black metal demos we'd ever heard sound like a Mozart
sonata by comparison.
The band began the set by layering the sound of a clarinet with
a delay effect into a cacophonous mass over which Tomkins screamed,
at times with two microphones. The lyrics were aggressive, with lashings
of sexual hatred ("were you surprised when he wore your mother's
clothes?") and violence, along with unhealthy doses of paranoia
("they're shutting it away"). We were reminded, thematically
and stylistically, of extreme metallers Stalaggh, who recorded inmates
in a mental asylum and used their demented howling as vocals.
Despite (or maybe because of) being so inflammatory and filled
with rage, a Sutcliffe Jugend concert would probably easily work as,
say, a performance at the Tate Modern. So much of the power in their
performance, however, comes from having to consume it in a rock, pop
& dance context as a gig. In a gallery as an installation, it would
be castrated. Because of the strong performance art aspect, the audience
composition therefore wasn't a surprise—a mixture of old punks,
some metalheads, arty Shoreditch types and a variety of others all wishing
to experience an act that goes beyond music to something more visceral
in its unpleasantness.
Tomkins and Taylor left the stage after about an hour, but purposely
left the deafening feedback loops running, giving the audience no respite,
as well as giving the sound engineers a hell of a job to try and stop
the noise. After a quick break where we repeatedly thanked the powers
that be for the invention of decent earplugs, Merzbow took the stage.
Merzbow's recordings and live performances envelop the listener
like a sea of noise, in more recent outings punctuated by a slowed-down
jackhammer-like chugging beat. Strands of violent ululations and squeals
rose out of that sea like malicious waves. It was an intensely challenging
listening experience that left us feeling empty and shellshocked. Our
attempts to formulate descriptions of the sound yielded phrases like
"the sound of the panic inside the mind of a priest who has just
lost faith in God", which now that we think of it, would make an
excellent Striborg song title. Masami Akita, standing over two laptops,
was completely in control of the horrific aural assault he was unleashing
on the audience, like a sadistic high priest of noise terror. The imagery
on many of his albums explores bondage and S&M, a fascination which
clearly extends to the sonic relationship he shares with his audience.
If Merzbow is the punisher, then we were all masochists by not only
enduring, but also paying for and enjoying this experience.
Merzbow's set was fully instrumental in that it featured
no discernible vocals. The multiple layers and forms in the noise functioned
as the structure in Akita's work, comparable to brush technique in an
abstract painting. At the abrupt end of the set, hands in the audience
rose and clapped, accompanied by a hoarse cheer that few could actually
claim to hear.
Whilst it's hard to think of a more extreme form of music than
Sutcliffe Jugend (and its infamous relative, Whitehouse), Merzbow can
actually be cathartically soothing, especially live. Being crushed under
a heavy noise onslaught from a massive sound system can never measure
up to headphones or anything anyone sane has at home. Sutcliffe Jugend's
relentless violence is terrifying and harrowing, but Merzbow's abstract
noise can be anything you want it to be. The moment the sound begins
is incredibly harsh, but once you overcome the initial shock, it can
be a wonderful place to lose yourself. As Whitehouse's William Bennett
once barked in their song "Mindphaser", "You like that,
don't you?" Strangely, we do.
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From The
Wire: by Nathan Budzinski
Opening the evening, Satori's Dark Ambient
rumblings fittingly provided the spooky aural equivalent of a foyer
or waiting room for the mingling crowds. Accompanied by visuals of pale
skinned waifs, white haired wolves and other Gothic atmospherics, their
low bass drones shuddering through the gathering audience were occasionally
interesting and unsettling but somehow fell flat in the environs of
ULU. Ideally, Satori would have benefited from a smaller and more personal
space, their intimate, Isolationist music more suited to a domestic
hi-fi, headphones, or anechoic chamber than a student union. Instead,
the hypnotic nuances and expansive sonic tectonics evident in their
recordings was lost, leaving the sounds to drift along politely as an
unresolved soundtrack.
Sutcliffe Jügend's histrionics provided
the flipside to Satori's relative quietude and creepy stylistic. Acting
out a Dionysian impulse, the ecstatic hollering of Kevin Tomkins and
Paul Taylor could be more at home in the glossolalic surroundings of
a cult than on campus in Bloomsbury. Driven by an idea of transcendent
trangression, Sutcliffe Jügend's intelligible yelping hit the physical
limits of the ULU sound sytem while also entering them into the realm
of camp. One man needing three microphones made for a hilarious sight,
evoking images of bathroom mirror rock fantasists, but, at the same
time there was something genuinely exhilarating about Tomkins's performance.
His rapid alternation between falsetto squeals and baritone yelling,
inflected with a mocking and aggressive tone, was also an interesting
improvisational riffing between the cartoonish and the antagonistic.
Merzbow straddles the approaches of Satori
and Sutcliffe Jügend, managing to jump between two laptops while
remaining intensley engaged with his music. His set consisted of a prolonged
toxic hiss that maintained a painful and physically intrusive level
of volume punctuated by scrapings on a small, elecrified contraption
that resembled a homemade scrap metal mandolin. The ongoing blast of
grating noise blew through the crowd, creating a stunned blackness or
confusion in some, while others embraced the static. A fellow near me
sloshed about in a Sufi-like trance, translating the sounds into fits
of animalistic gesticulations. I'm not too sure how long the performance
lasted, but it was a genuinely harmful experience - not having remembered
earplugs caused me to spend the next day feeling as if I was 12 feet
away from the world. But this invasive harm was part of the set: Merzbow's
music found a resonant frequency of the body and forced its way into
the flesh, lingering there like a Dianetics engram, extending the experience
long after the event.
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From Musique
Machine: by Roger Batty
This was Merzbow’s first show in London
for 6 years or so and my first live merz experience, with support by
considerable atmospherics and sleazy/violent respectively sets fromSatori
and Sutcliffe Jügend.
First on the stage was the laptop duo of Satori who conjured
up an effective dark and atmospheric shifting and morphing soundscape
of beats, dark ambience and noise touches. But what really made their
set enjoyable and lifted it above two guys staring in screens was the
impressive, disturbing and hypnotic video project going on behind them-
one particular memorable moment switched from imagers of dolls head
been submerged in a water bath, to Concentration camp acid showers like
footage to a baptism in a wood surrounded stream the camera following
the baptism under water in a very disorientating way. With both audio
and visual elements complement each other nicely.
Next up was Sutcliffe Jügend with the lead depraved mind
behind the project Kevin Tomkins up front holding two micphones together
as he launched in his demented, depraved and at times darkly comical
rants. With some quite simple if effective noisy electronics and single
fired up guitar backing his fellow derivate Paul Taylor. The pair are
certainly trying to doing something a little different and creative
with-in the power electronics sound frame and at times they do succeed,
but ultimately the anger and intensity of it all becomes a little one
dimensional and tiresome over the sets running time.
Lastly of course we had Merzbow who appeared on stage between
his laptop and equipment desk, he started his 50 minute set with a grittier
Merzbeat type chopping rhythmic beat pattern which he slowly built up
layers of sound and noise around.From the outset it was clear the sound
tonight was a lot more rhythmic and pulse driven really simplifying
his sound from his more textured and varied work of the last few years.
Tonight’s show felt like a throw back to a mix of already mentioned
Merzbeat material mixed with Pulse demon/ relapse era- whether this
was down to Merzbow feeling he had to create something more approachable
for the 600 plus crowd or this is just his next twist in his sound is
unclear, never the less for what it was it was a satisfying show. Later
on in the sets proceedings he was up on his feet rip into his self made
merz guitar/machine with great gusto- sending shards of burrowing noise
out into the collective craniums, though it certainly wasn’t as
loud or unbearable as I was expecting as I stayed quite conformable
at the front for sometime
All in all an enjoyable and varied evening noise and atmosphere
from all parties involved, though I would have liked to seen Merzbow
doing a more complex and textural varied set- it was certainly great
to see this legend performing his art in the flesh.
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