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Raubbau

Am Not – Auto (7″ 2021)

  • noise

Am Not comes with a luxuriously packed 7″. The 7″ itself is plain white, but the 100 copies come with a printed acrylic glass plate each with a unique colour. Mine is a bit brownish red. The print on the plate is information and apparently lyrics.

There are two tracks, “Autopia Now”, which, I suppose, gave the title to the release. It is a recognisable Am Not track with a pulsating wall-of-noise type with vocals. The vocals are not as heavily deformed as Tamon sometimes uses.

On the other side there is the track “Bioluminesence” which is a bit more ‘tranquil’ with more heavily edited vocals and a lot less noise.

Am Not keeps the standards high and “Auto” is again an excellent noise release.

Links: Am Not, Raubbau

Trepaneringsritualen / Distel ‎– A Knife In Sound (12″ 2018)

I have shaped vinyl, even a square, flexible one, but I do not believe I ever saw vinyl which has the music on the outside and the shape on the inside. As you can see on the image that I got from Discogs, there is no material surrounding the arrows. A nice little joke.

Distel usually ends his shows with a Coil cover, but I must say that I am not sure if that is the track that he put on this Coil inspired split 12″. Distel took a stab at “Solar Lodge” and Trepaneringsritualen (on side A by the way) at “A Cold Cell”.

Both tracks are alright, but in my opinion not the best material of either project. The Distel track is ‘wild’ within his discography, the TxRxP track is fairly tranquil within his.

Links: Trepaneringsritualen, Distel, Ant-Zen, Raubbau

Michael Idehall ‎– Aion Reborn (mc 2018)

This is not Michael Idehall’s first tape on Raubbau. Here we have a 41 minute tape which regarding style holds the middle between the more soundscapish and the more ritualistic style of Idehall.

I have said something similar about several previous releases, so I just might accept that this is Idehall’s style.

That said, I really like the analogously humming opening soundscape. After this follow tracks which often have the more rhythm-driven style and usually with vocals, but not as dirty as on “No Man’s Land” and not as ‘pompous’ as on “Deep Code”. The tracks are fairly dark and minimalist. Very good to read by!

Links: Michael Idehall, Raubbau

Michael Idehall ‎- Machine Spirit Transmission (mc 2017)

So how could I miss the latest Idehall until he informed me about it himself? “Machine Spirit Transmission” is a tape on Raubbau, but it is also available on Spotify and I believe I noticed it there, but forgot to listen to it (or something)… And when I look at Discogs, there are more releases that I missed!

Now Idehall is a bit ‘difficult’ to me. He has great ritualistic industrial tracks in a unique style that I love, but also more soundscapish tracks / albums that do not really ‘work for me’. When I put on this release, I expected it to be of the soundscapish type and that I only skipped through and forgot about it. This is not true though. Not entirely at least.

The album opens with a dark and noisy “Opening” with Idehall’s voice. It is obviously Idehall, but slightly different. Then we go to the great “Ma Kra Oum Ka Bra Nha” which also appears to be Idehall in a somewhat more industrial mood. “Power Mantra” is a very good, somewhat more typical track with a slow rhythm and vocals. Then one more great track and then the style starts to change. “The Singing Of Machines” is a dark and slightly noisy soundscape, not bad at all. After this come more ambient tracks which are somewhat dark, not all that bad, but not too interesting to me either. Particularly the 17 minute closing track is not really my cup of tea.

So about half of this album is great and the other half is descent or alright.

There is an album forthcoming on Ant-Zen by the way.

Links: Michael Idehall, Raubbau

Geneviève Pasquier * Live One (mc 2016)

Discogs.comYou have to be patient for releases of Pasquier (under her own name at least). “Handle With Care” is already from 2010. This new cassette does not even contain (much) new music either.

Side A mostly contains reworkings of old tracks such as Blitzkrieg Baby and Warm Leatherette, but also new (or at least unreleased) tracks like Douleur and 8 P.M. Daily News. This side has more of the ‘soft side’ of Pasquier with also a bit of new elements here and there.

Then we flip over to side B which contains a live recording from a Wien/Vienna show in April 2011. The tracks here come both from earlier and more recent albums. Live Pasquier can be nicely industrial, raw and energetic (I remember a great show at the 2010 Summer Darkness Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands). The recordings do not sound as raw as I remember the Utrecht show, but I prefer this side over side A. The live recordings have an alright sound, but the oddly faded applauses are a bit strange.

“Live One” makes a nice album, an overview of Pasquier’s discography. I am curious if there will be new material some day though. There are only 100 tapes, so if you are a collector, be quick. You can also buy a Bandcamp release.

Links: Geneviève Pasquier, Raubbau

Thorofon ‎* Live N’ Buried (mc 2015)

On a mailing order list I saw a Thorofon tape that I did not have. It proves to contain recordings of two live shows, one of which I actually attended! In fall 2013 me and my girlfriend took a massive detour home from Scotland to be able to see Thorofon live in Paris.

Side A of the tape is a recording of the 2011 show at Maschinenfest, so side B is for the Le Petit Bain show. I must say that the recording captures the lively show well, even when I am usually not fond of live-recordings. Raubbau/Pflichtkauf did a nice job with a good-looking tape in a slipcase with nice artwork and a printed tape.

A nice addition to the Thorofon collection.

Links: Thorofon, Raubbau

Thorofon ‎* Nice N’ Sleazy (mc 2013)

When was the last time that you bought a cassette tape? The funny thing is that this tape comes with a download link like you see with vinyl. Welcome to the age of digital music! Well, it is a normal tape, not chrome or metal, so that is perhaps for the better.
“Nice n’ Sleazy” is a 60 minute tape with live recordings, trial recordings and unreleased tracks and versions. It is not a step forward in the musical direction of Thorofon, so “Nice n’ Sleazy” is not more poppy or discoish. As a matter of fact, the live version of “Riot Rude Dictator” reminds of the noise of early days. Most of the tracks are in the ‘intermediairy’ industrial style. Sometimes a bit rougher, sometimes less so. There are some experimentations with different approaches such as the somewhat ‘rocking’ opening track.
As we are used to of this great project, this newest offering is a good release. Not brilliant like “Exkarnation” but certainly a thing you should have when you like Thorofon or ‘modern industrial’ in general.
Links: Thorofon, UMB Kollektif, Raubbau