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Tesco

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

Genocide Organ * Obituary Of The Americas (cd 2016)

However I can enjoy some pretty extreme music, this German project is often too much for me. Their sound can be chaotic and extreme with high frequencies and little structure. GO also has darker tracks that I do like, but also among their more extreme material there are tracks that I like. The thing is, an album contains perhaps a few tracks that I like and a lot that I do not. Hence, GO albums are a bit of a risk to my ears.

27 Years after their first release (!) there comes an album that is perhaps GO, but maybe not too typical. “Obituary Of The Americas” has more of a wall-of-sound type of noise than their usual chaotic power electronics. Not that this album sounds like Ex.Order, but their style is more comparable that some GO tracks. Compared to other GO material, this new album is easy-listening. You still have to be able to be a musical masochist to enjoy this album though, so be warned! “Death industrial” is probably a good description. Anenzephalia but somewhat harscher.

A track like “I Don’t Wanna Die” is really my kind of noise. A static, pulsating sound, very extreme vocals, a wall of lower frequencies and a lot of samples. Also other tracks are pretty good, extreme, but not over my edge.

I like the ‘new’ sound of GO! It comes as a limited lp and an unlimited cd.

Links: Genocide Organ, Tesco Germany

Ebola Disco / Rope Society * Flies For Friends (12″ 2015)

Tesco ‘went Bandcamp‘ so there is now a whole range of releases that you can buy cheaply to download or play through the Bandcamp app. But not only old releases are available, also new ones.

Ebola Disco and Rope Society are two projects I was curious about and now they released a split 12″ that I can conveniently buy the Bandcamp version of. Both projects are from Australia and Tesco describes them as “two of Australia’s hardest industrial acts”. Indeed, the music is not exactly popmusic, but none of the tracks is so unstructured and harsch that I do not like it.

Ebola Disco contributed one 17 minute track that starts as if the artist’s equipment malfunctions, goes over in dark death industrial with extremely distorted vocals and then continues with the more chaotic not-my-kind-of-noise. Fortunately the end is death industrial again so I can say that this track is quite alright.
Rope Society, then, made slow and minimalistic noise which halfway the first track has fits of power electronic mayhem. The other track is very noisy, but not too extreme and also pretty nice.

So indeed I quite enjoy this release. Now I have to think if I like it enough to get me a copy of the vinyl as well.

Links: Ebola Disco, Rope Society, Tesco

Anenzephalia * Instrumentalities (Singles Collection 1991-2008) (cd 2014)

I guess the title is a pun to best-of popgroup-compilations. The current cd is not (I think) as much a collection of singles, but rather a rerelease of old and not-too-easy-to-find old material. This concerns the four tracks of the 1991 7″ “Lyse”, all four tracks of the 1998 12″ “New World Disorder”, all four tracks of the 2002 10″ “Die Sender Müssen Schweigen!” and both tracks of the 2008 7″ “Projected Void”.

The older tracks are clearly somewhat primitive and less worked-out than later material, but from the 12″ (which I bought at Staalplaat a long time ago when they still had a shop in Amsterdam) the sound of Anenzephalia becomes recognisable.

So if you are looking for older Anenzephalia material or you simply like to get the music from the vinyls on cd, here is your chance.

Links: Anenzephalia, Tesco

Ke/Hil ‎* Zone 0 (cd 2015)

Ke/Hil is one of the monickers of the people behind Tesco (Genocide Organ, Dogpop, SK1005). For some reason I had the idea that Ke/Hil was more of a death industrial project where GO is more power electronics and Dogpop lighter and more dance-oriented (I do not know SK1005 yet).

Ke/Hil indeed seems darker and less extreme than GO and here and there indeed touches upon death industrial, but several tracks are much less extreme and can (almost?) be termed ‘dark ambient’. The overall description could perhaps be ‘dark industrial’, a term that I do not use a lot, but you do not have to be afraid of some earcracking noise if you want to try this album.

A nice, not-too-extreme album.

Link: Tesco

Post Scriptvm‎ * Benommenheit (cd 2014)

I had no idea that Post Scriptvm had a new album coming until it showed up in the Tesco newsletter. It is even released by Tesco. Well, the previous two albums were too, so this is not too strange.
I love “Marginal Existence” (2005), from then on Post Scriptvm seemed to become less dark and more experimental. The following albums were all interesting, but I mostly like this project for the older material. When I put on “Benommenheit”, I was pleased to hear some pretty dark material, somewhat noisy even, great! A bit furtheron this album reminds more of the previous album “Grey Emminence” (2010) which is alright, but less interesting to my ears.
All in all certainly one of the more interesting releases in the style that I will for convenience sake call “dark ambient” and especially the first tracks are great.
Links: Post Scriptvm, Tesco

Anenzephalia * Funkspiele (lp 2013)

When I ordered this lp I did not realise that it does not contain new material. That probably means nothing more than that I did not read well enough. Tesco started the Archaic Documents series through which they make classic material again available. “Funkspiele” contains live material from a show on December 1 2001 in St. Petersburgh. The lp is comparable to the 2001 cd on Death Factory (CMI) as this also contains live material from the same period. When you like the old material of Anenzephalia, you might want to add one of the 250 copies of this lp to your collection.
Links: Anenzephalia, Tesco

Objekt/Urian * Agitation (cd 2010)

A couple of years I ran into a rerelease / compilation of a old records / something, of Objekt/Urian on the Hermetique mailorder list. I did not know the project, so I got “Tonfragmente II” and it proved to be a weird industrial album. Some tracks are nice, others less so. To my surprise Objekt/Urian was announced to play at the 2013 Wave Gotik Treffen and however “Tonfragmente II” is but a nice cd, Objekt/Urian immediately became one of my most anticipated shows for the WGT. They where listed for the “noise night” together with projects such as IRM, Con-Dom and Sutcliffe Jugend, but they do not really make noise, so what would this strange project do? I was not disappointed! Objekt/Urian undoubtely gave the best performance of this years’s WGT! These two guys obviously enjoy playing live and they also love to experiment with self-made air-raid-towers (with light), a transportable effect machine, leaves-blower (of whatever it was), an iron plate and mixing this together into a pretty noisy piece of old-style industrial with screaming vocals from a running-around vocalist. The show was great! From rhythmic noise to soundterrorism to more tranquil experiments.
At the merchandise table there were shirts, but also a cd that I did not know. Ironically “Agitation” was released in the same year that I found “Tonfragmente II”, but did I miss it, or did I think I had enough Objekt/Urian with the other cd? Fact is though, that “Agitation” shows the industrial weirdness of Objekt/Urian even better than the other cd. It comes quite close to the energy on stage making this cd very enjoyable. So, if you are interested in some funny and noisy industrial (can I throw in a comparison to Thorofon?), try this album.
Links: Objekt/Urian, Tesco Organisation

Anenzephalia * Kaltwelt (cd 2012)

Released as a 12″ and on cd with similar packaging. A hole in the cover shows a part of the foldout poster inside, well done. Anenzephalia made the great opening show for the 25 years of Tesco festival in november 2012. Anenzephalia is a classic German noise outfit that is aggressive in another way than the many projects that just produce an unstructured and brutal heap of noise. Simple, industrial rhythms, sometimes samples, but most notably are the aggressive vocals. “Kaltwelt” is no exception. After having seen Genocide Organ live, “Kaltwelt” is an easy-listening noise album, but I can assure you that this is not the kind of album that you want to play for your mother. If you know and like Anenzephalia, you can order “Kaltwelt” blindly (you may find it less brutal than earlier releases though). If you are trying to find your way through the jungle of musical masochism, you might find in Anenzephalia something quite harsch, but still enjoyable. I certainly like sound of mr. Moloch!
Links: Anenzephalia, Tesco

Propergol * Paradise Land (cd 2012)

Six years after “Ground Proximity Warning System” first a live performance was announced for the 25th aniversary of Tesco and then a new album to be released at that very festival. Jérôme’s Tesco show started off very ambient, a recognisable Propergol sound with stretched sounds, samples and low frequencies. This was nice, but instead of having a show with tracks running over in eachother, there were pauses between the tracks and only after a “come on” from the audience, the sound got dirty. There is close to nothing of the dirty sound on “Paradise Land”. Like the last album, the new one is mostly dark ambient, but in the Propergol way. Carefully built up tracks, making a great, dark atmosphere. No outburst, like I said. I would not mind if those came back, but “Paradise Land” is a bit more of ‘Propergol light’ for people who are not too good with extreme electronics. If you are one of those, try this album first and work your way back in the catalogue of this great, French project. To old fans I will say that in the lengthy last track, some unexpected elements appear. Propergol does not stand still.
Links: Propergol, Tesco