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JOURNEY THROUGH A BURNING BRAIN

GENT Balzaal Vooruit | Th 13 Nov '08 (20u00)
UTRECHT Theater Kikker, Fr 14 Nov '08 (20u30)

“In the liner notes to the Revisited label’s reissue of Klaus Schulze’s second album Cyborg, Schulze himself summarily dismisses the term “kosmische musik,” first coined by the legendary owner of the ’70’s German label Ohr, Rolf-Urich Kaiser. In fact, Schulze makes no effort to mask his obvious disdain for the term: “It makes me sick, even today... it reminds me of the cheap popular sci-fi novel series Perry Rhodan... so one could have been written that Cyborg is a kind of electronic dime novel.” It’s not so unreasonable for Schulze, throughout his nearly forty years as an electronic musician, to draw such conclusions regarding the general catch-all phrase coined by music writers astute and otherwise. He’s been there from the beginning: engaging the post-psychedelic birth pangs of the ’70’s, shucking off the vestiges of what was euphemistically labeled ‘krautrock,’ weathering the corporate venalities that ushered in “new age,” and unwittingly branded by a ’90’s generation of computer cowboys who’ve since dubbed him “the godfather of techno/ambient/spacemusic.”
- Darren Bergstein, 2006

 Genres and musical definitions more often appear to create a schism between music journalism and the actual music scene instead of being than that they are an adequate description for a certain sound or style. Many times these so-called genres are the product of all too arduous authors, label bosses or blog-nerds trying to spread their sudden enthusiasm. It leads to wide-ranging distribution of these idioms by promo machines worldwide that abuse these terms to shove their awful music up the naive listener's ass. The last couple of years we have been having got to digest a to endure an amazing rash of new weird americanism, folktronics, weird punk, shitgaze and dozens of other genres and subgenres. Now, with one of the many re-emergences of the German synth and rock movement from the seventies, terms like "krautrock" and "kosmische musik" are re-appearing in reviews and articles, both appropriate and inappropriate. This evening is a middle finger towards at genre-thinking, a middle finger towards and at ourselves, but most of all it is and mostly an evening full of mind mind-expanding kosmokrautdroneambient and a littlesprinkled with fx fx-driven psychedelic industrialweirdosludge.
WOODEN SHJIPS [us]

Wooden Shjips is like pure charm. For these new born hippies, the summer of love isn't a time document, but rather a way of life. Their self self-titled debut-LP on Holy Mountain Records convinced psych lovers all over the world that psychedelic rock can also be boogiedanceable. Their music has got all the necessary ingredients: repetitive drums, funky bass licks, fuzzy guitar solos, far-out vocals and lots of delay-ay-ay. Wooden Shjips are the best ever cross breed between the Doors and Spacemen 3 in the year 2525. After a very short après-ATP tour this summer, they are finally touring the whole of Europe. For Benelux exclusively on Pauze festival.

[Youtube]

ARP [us]

Alexis Georgopoulos once was a founding member of the band Tussle, but in 2006 he decided to concentrate on his personal artistic activities. His fascination for the search of spontaneity in electronic music lead has led to his album "In Light" (Smalltown Supersound), a brilliant record on which he blends a synthesis of Alice Coltrane alike experiment, minimalism and seventies synth music. ALike a 2008 version of Manuel Göttsching and Dieter Möbius,. Arp is at the forefront of a legion of new contemporary musicians that aim to bring back the early spontaneous feeling of the seventies and early eighties into today’s electronic music.
[Youtube 1] [Youtube 2]

KOHN [be]

Jürgen De Blonde is practically regarded by many as the godfather of Belgian electronica.
Although During the long silence following his epic double-cd "Koen" was followed by a long silence, in which he particularly focussed on music for theatertheatre and dance productions in particular, and De Blonde has now returnednow he returns with an amazing come-back lp titled "We Need More Space in the CosmosWe need more Space in the Cosmos". On this album he declares his love to his oldest old old idols, e.g. Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schülze and Jean-Michel Jarre. The result is a synth-driven album, that which has as much to do with eighties electronic music as with the unique Köhn universe. On Pauze festival he presents this synth fetish release for the first time to the public for the very first time.
SWORD HEAVEN [us]

Sword Heaven originates from the flowering scene of Columbus, Ohio, which was already represented at the Kraak Festival in March this year with performances by when Pink Reason and Psychedelic Horseshit performed. However, the music of two-piece Sword Heaven has little similarity with the new generation of lo-fi punkers, but rather focuses on slow, tribal and rather physical noise. Think of a more percussion -oriented version of Yellow Swans or Lightning Bolt after swallowing an overdose of valium supplemented with distorted death cries and a tonal mush of sound effects. Their sound is often compared to the early work of industrial rock bands such as Swans and Godflesh. Without any doubt Sword Heaven is one of the most interesting contemporary musical vehicles when it comes to bloody noise.
+ VISUAL STIMULATION

N E T Z H A U T R E I T Z U N G [ger]
+ FILMS

GENT : 13 NOV '08, 19u BRUGZAAL VOORUIT
UTRECHT : 14 NOV '08, vanaf 20u30 THEATER KIKKER


THOMAS DRASCHEN [aus]

To the Happy Few - 5’, 2003
Begegnung im All - 7’, 2004
Influence of Ocular Light Perception - 6’, 2006
Delight - 3’, 2008
The Germany-based Austrian artist Thomas Draschan makes collage films in which he cuts up and recycles existing visual footage. His films typically contain a constant stream of iconographic images rushing in front of the viewers’ eyes in a rhythmically pulsating montage. Nearly all of the footage is from the pre-video era in which celluloid still reigned supreme and was widely and frequently used. Scientific experiments, First Aid education, cheap B-movies, soft pornography and nature documentaries; they can all be found in the rich visual archives used by Draschan in his films. The influence of Bruce Conner, the godfather of collage film, clearly echoes through in his films, but whereas Conner shot all his films in black and white, and sepia tones, Draschan’s work shines in glamorous Kodak and Agfa color. By means of suggestive sequences and visual rhyme, Draschan manages to provide the film material with an additional layer. Camera angles, gestures, movements and looks which would hardly catch the eye or only had a functional meaning in their original context, start a new life in the hands of Draschan. They lose their innocence, unintentionally become funny or are suddenly laden with eroticism. [www.languagerecovery.org] [saving.blog-city.com]

NATHANIEL DAVIS [us]

Dança Angola (numuw mix), 5’, 2008
Naniou Mougne, 7’, 2008
Daniel, 1’, 2008
Tend My Garden, 7’, 2008
The American Nathaniel Davies, more widely known under his video pseudonym NUMUW, is just like Draschan engaged in making collage films but yet his approach is completely different. Whereas Draschan can be described as a celluloid fetishist, Davis goes for the lo-fi aestheticism of home video and trash television. Time code, tracking lines, drop-outs and on-screen display are equally part of his pallet of images as the grubbiness of VHS tapes copied five times too many, slow-motion car crashes and touristy video images of the Neuschwanstein castle. The soundtrack, featuring music ranging from the Senegalese artist Ndiaga Mbay, Dança Angola and Davis' own mixes of funk and spineless metal, seems to be wavering loosely above the images and gives an ironic and alienating touch to the whole. [YouTube]

HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT

John Heyn & Jeff Krulik, 17’,1986 (usa)
Heavy Metal Parking Lot is a short underground documentary from the eighties in which two young men interview some metal fans gathered on a parking before a Judas Priest gig. Most interviewees look rather wasted already and show their passion for the heavy metal genre uninhibitedly. [YouTube]