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Galakthorroe

Subliminal * Under Pressure (7″ 2012)

Albert Fisch’s musical outlet is with distance the roughest remaining project on Galakthorrö. Subliminal is harsch like the early records of Haus Arafna and actually the sound reminds quote a bit of this project. “Under Pressure” is not as extreme as I thought it would be though. Actually it contains a bunch of very nice and pretty dark noise. Not bad at all! I especially like the highly distorted vocals reminding of the good old days of power electronics.
Links: Subliminal, Galakthorrö

November Növelet ‎* Heart Of Stone (7″ 2012)

This 4 track ep opens with two soft NN tracks on side A which are nice. Side B opens more lively with a more danceble (but nothing like the “Magic” title track) “Dancing Queen”. The last and least typical track is also the most interesting. In “Up To Date” mrs. Arafna uses another way of singing which I prefer over her usual use of her voice (or is it just the echoing effect?). Also the music is a bit different, a bit more “minimal wave”, but still with the melancholic NN feeling. Like “Sacred” “Heart Of Stone” is a very nice ep, but does not reach the heights of the “Magic” album.
Links: November Növelet, Galakthorrö

Maska Genetik * Strada (cd 2011)

The contribution of Maska Genetik to the “Kosmoloko” compilation (2004) belongs to my most favourite tracks. The 2006 7″ “Quarantine” is a great one too. Still for many years it never seemed that there would ever be more material of Maska Genetik. As far as I knew, the project ceased to be. Then I got the Galakthorrö newsletter that announced the “Strada” album. I never even dared to hope for it! Yet the story behind this cd is a tragic one. The material was recorded between 2002 and 2005 and is older and newer than the tracks on “Quarantine”. In that period “Butterfly” was released and who knows how the two projects influenced eachother. After three years of hard work, Amon Radek told Galaktorrö: “I’ve reached the limits of my strength”. A perfectionist as he is, he decided that it was better for his health to abbandon the project. All these years Galakthorrö had “Strada” on the shelf with the idea that Radek would come back with one or two reworked tracks. He never did… After all these years, the material is made available for the world. Maska Genetik is a real Galakthorrö project. I wonder how the label found a Moscowite making music similar to themselves. I find it a strange idea that this is the album that the artist was not completely satisfied with. Indeed, “Strada” is not the masterpiece I hoped for. Especially the first tracks are nice, but nothing like the material that I already knew. Towards the end come a few masterpieces. The sound is that of angstpop of years back, from before Herz Jühning and the time that Haus Arafna perfected the style. It is less catchy, less ‘poppy’, darker in a way, more industrial perhaps. Maska Genetik also sounds more desperate, the mood reminds of the older November Növelet material. Dark industrial music with vocals and soft rhythms and strange sounds. Radek surely was a mastermind of dark electronics and I am extremely gratefull to Galakthorrö that they decided to release the album afterall.
Link: Galakthorrö

Haus Arafna * New York Rhapsody (cd 2011)

When you think that there was a big gap between “Butterfly” (2003) and “You” (2010) you may, like me, not have heard of a little Haus Arafna side project. Our good Arafna couple was asked to do the music for the 12 September 2009 New York Fashion Week show of Katie Gallagher. Because the result is (of course you would almost say) quite different from the usual Haus Arafna sound, mr. and mrs. Arafna delayed the release untill after “You” on purpose. So, what is it then, this “New York Rhapsody”? The 45 minute album opens with a coule of strange soft industrial sound collages nothing you are familar with of Haus Arafna (but when you know the Herman Kopp album…). The fourth track “I did it for you” begins more familiar. It is a nice soft angstpop song. “You know how to destroy me” is a dark industrial track, a real Haus Arafna piece of electronics, again with vocals. The next one is a softer track and then comes a new floorfiller. “Heart beats blood flow” is a brilliant dirty dance track. From then on the sound becomes softer again.
The booklet has photos that I suppose came from the show and they fit well in the Haus Arafna concept. “New York Rhapsody” is a real Haus Arafna cd, but the circumstances forced or allowed our “Industrialists” couple to think over the presentation. The result may be ‘softer’ for Haus Arafna standards, but this sure is no November Növelet. “No sign of “Screams ‘n’ Shouts” here. Instead Haus Arafna created Angst-Pop hits and Industrial Monsters with an extra dose of darkness, almost as if the March into Destruction has to be sweetened somewhat. Well-dressed, of course…”
Link: Haus Arafna, Gallakthorrö

Haus Arafna * You (cd 2010)

Announced for 1 December, but aleady available (in fact, the vinyl version is already sold out!), after seven years Haus Arafna finally comes with a new album. The snippets that have been available at Galakthorroe.de for some time seemed to suggest that Haus Arafna returned to the harder, early sound, but there aren’t many noise tracks on “You”. After a soft, weird and nice opener, you are mostly presented with more soft “angstpop” songs (indeed, with singing). Only here and there there are some noisy sounds and only a couple of the 12 tracks presented are in the harder Haus Arafna-style. I like the softer style of Haus Arafna, but I surely also enjoy the more industrial noise side of the project, so some more harsch tracks would have been nice. Still a good new album though.
Links: Haus Arafna, Galakthorrö

Herz Jühning * Miasma (cd 2009)

MiasmaFinally a new release on Galakthorrö and “Miasma” is very much a Galakthorrö release. A bit old November Növelet, a bit of Maska Genetik and a lot of Haus Arafna. As a matter of fact, if this would have been released under the name of Haus Arafna, I would have believed this to be a Haus Arafna album instantly. “Miasma” would come perfectly after “Butterfly” with again softer industrial noise and angstpop. The sound, the structure, the vocals, everything reminds of Haus Arafna, the only thing missing is mrs. Arafna. Should this have been a Haus Arafna album, it would have been their best; man, what a great album “Miasma” is! Exactly what I needed. Industrial rhythms, creaking noises, dark drones, deep vocals. Not every track is perfect, but most tracks are great enough to compensate for the one or two less-great tracks. Hopefully mr. and mrs. Arafna will soon take up the task to release an even better album.
Links: Herz Jühning, Galakthorrö

Haus Arafna * Children Of God (cd 1998)

Children Of GodSince the last new album is already 5 years old, I decided to buy some older material and ‘work my way backwards’ to see to how early I like Haus Arafna. “Version 2000” the cover of “Children of God” says, I gues the first pressing was gone rapidly. “Children Of God” “includes the mega-hit Last Dream Of Jesus” and is musically and thematically (artwork) quite extreme. This album is another step forward to the great sound of later material. There are some hardly distorted rhythms in some tracks, others are relatively tranquil and ‘discoïsh’, such as the great “Anatomy of a murder”. Leaving out the really extreme material of the earlier days, Haus Arafna is rapidly becoming one of my favourite exponents of extreme electronics.
Links: Haus Arafna, Galakthorrö

Haus Arafna * Blut + Nachblutung (cd 2006)

Trilogie des BlutesOriginally released in 1995 as “Blut / Trilogie des Blutes”, this 2006 rerelease contains “Nachblutung” as bonus. This results in a nice length of about an hour. Even though this is some of the earlier material, this album is not as extreme as Haus Arafna can get. Mind you, this cd is still a lot more industrial noise than “Butterfly”! The music of Haus Arafna will fall hard on the average music listener, but I personally like it a lot. It is extreme, especially in some tracks of an earlier release such as this, but structured and nicely rhythmical. I must add that I am no fond of the very early more chaotic noise sound, but the tracks here were a good step in the right direction. I never really got to buy more of Haus Arafna than the magnificent “Butterfly“, but this puts me back on track.
Links: Haus Arafna, Galakthorrö

Hermann Kopp * Under A Demon’s Mask (cd 2008)

Under A Demon's MaskOk ok, I take back my words that Galakthorrö projects tend to sound like eachother. Hermann Kopp is something completely different from any Galakthorrö release. In fact, it is different from anything that you ever heard. Using a violin, sampling it and by adding samples and sounds, Hermann Kopp creates strange avantgardistic soundscapes and sound experiments. However the label speaks of “sublime violin playing” I sometimes have the idea that it is out of tone, but that aside. The music is hard to describe and after quite a few listenings, I still cannot really get into the music. There is but one great track, the rest is just alright or downright boring. Nope, this is not the best release from this great label, but definately something different.
Links: Hermann Kopp, Galakthorrö

November Növelet * Sacred (7″ 2008 galakthorrö)

SacredI had to wait a little longer for this 7″ than I hoped, but I least I got one of the 806 copies. Four tracks, two seem a bit like an intto and outro, two others are more full tracks with the sound of the tranquil tracks from “Magic“. The sound is more melancholic (more “Kalte Welle”?) and not as surprising or as good as that cd. NN (and Haus Arafna and Galakthorrö) keeps making its own strange sound, so I am still curious what the future will bring.