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Death In June

Death In June * Live In New York (dvd 2006)

I did not realise this DVD is so old when I ordered it. Here we have a recording of the November 10 2002 concert of Death In June in New York. The DVD lasts for an hour and a half and has a whopping 30 songs. The show was an accoustic one with Douglas P. on guitar (without talking off his fly-net helmet) and John Murphey for some extra sounds.

There are actually songs on this disc that I do not believe I knew. Like I said, they are all minimalistic in sound which makes the DVD a bit lengthy in my opinion and of course there is not a whole lot to see either. It looks like Douglas was in a good mood, since he introduces most songs and asks for requests. This way you get a little bit of background of the songs. This could be a reason to buy this DVD. When you are not an avid Death In June collector, this release gives a descent overview of the discography of the band.

Links: Death In June / NER, Tesco USA

Death In June * The Rule Of Thirds (cd 2008 ner)

Amazing how this man can keep making the same music for such a long time. I do have a couple of DIJ albums, but by far not all. I decided to have a listen to this new album and all I can think is: “Well, another Death In June album.” The music remains minimalistic neofolk with just Douglas P. on guitar and vocals and on the background sound and voice samples. The songs are not boring, but the sound is too much the same for me.
Just another DI6 album, that is all I can make of it…
-2.5-

Death In June / Von Thronstahl / The Days Of The Trumpet Call / Folkstorm vs MZ.412 * Steel Night 29/11/01 (4cd 2003 cold spring)

This box is a registration of the first evening of the “Stigma festival” in London end november 2001. I’ve travelled to this little festival (see my report here) and I was surprised that after all this time a release dedicated to it comes out. A strange release by the way. Douglas P. asked if he could open the night with an accoustic set. A nice surprise, which you can hear here. The official and original fourth act, Nocturne from Germany, does not have a disc in this box though and I don’t know why. Another thing is that in two years time you would say that the recordings could have been polished through and through. Nothing is less true! It seems as if the recordings are taken from the microphones instead of directly from the PA. Especially in TDOTTC and Folkstorm you can hear the audience talking loud and clear. Further the sound is quite flat in most cases and for example Von Thronstahls ‘soundcheck’ in the middle of the show isn’t cut out. When you’ve been there, you know the situation, but ‘new listeners’ will see no advantage in it I guess.

So, what do you get? Inspite of the spectaculair descriptions you will read, this box is nothing more (but also nothing less) than a small box like TMLHBACs “The Smell Of Blood…” or Sopors “Songs From The Inverted Womb” (cd box size but slightly bigger). Inside are four slips with a disc in it and a small ‘poster’ with some live photos. The front cover is black with black letters.

DIJ has an 11 minute cd with 6 songs. Just Douglas with a guitar. There was almost no audience when DIJ played (even though the doors opened far too late), so the recordings are alright.
Von Thronstahl has a cd of a little over 50 minutes. They played tracks that were not yet released back then and different versions of known tracks. The recording is quite good.
The Days Of The Trumpet Call present their (to me) best material. In contraction to the normal releases there are some guitars and nice vocals which surely adds to the sound. As mentioned, the audience is too present and the sound is too flat. Short too, 16 minutes.
Folkstorm vs MZ.412 had a nice set which slowly builds up from dark industrial to extreme noise. Also here not too good sound and too present audience. The lenght here 42 minutes.

The price of this box is quite impressive, I paid E 40,- for these 2 hours of alright to nice recordings. Of course (again), I’ve been there, which makes this box a nice memory, but I don’t know if I should recommend this box to people who just like the bands presented. Should you consider buying it, be sure to be quick. There are 1500 copies, not extremely limited, but I suppose that with DIJ on it, it will sell out rapidly.

Death In June * All Pigs Must Die (cd 2001 ner/tesco)

After a few re-releases of older cds, here we have a cd with brandnew recordings. “All Pigs Must Die” is a bit of a strange cd and can definately not be compared to the previous cds that were recorded with Albin Julius of Der Blutharsch. There is again a guest musician again though: Andreas Ritter of the German neo-folk band Forseti, but his role is (I think) not comperable to Julius’ on previous albums. Ritter plays accordeon and flute on a few tracks and this actually goes very well with the DIJ neo-folk style.
And there I said it, “All Pigs Must Die” contains neo-folk, somewhat in the ‘familiar’ DIJ style of some years ago, but a bit more experimental in a way. As the cd continues, the songs are getting more and more experimental and eventually go over in a bunch of noise tracks. Not very extreme noise, but still. The last track is what I would describe as ‘ritual’, strange soundscapes with slowed-down vocals and a dark atmosphere.
Nope, DIJ is not easily predictable, so don’t try to imagine how Douglas’ new albums will sound.

Death In June * Take Care & Control (cd 1999 ner)

Hm, I only liked a few DIJ albums and even though I knew that this cd was recorded together with Herr Julius of Der Blutharsch, I wasn’t sure if I should buy it. Then in a shop I heard “Operation Hummingbird” very superficially and I wasn’t really impressed, so I left DIJ for what it was. Now it seems that people are actually right when they say that this cd is actually Der Blutharsch with the voice of Douglas P. and the material is very agreeable. “Take Care” is not a masterpiece, but I like it quite a bit, much more than I expected for sure! And it was only written and recorded in 12 days time! <25/12/00><4>