Jägerblut * Tannöd (cd 2008)
I heard of Jägerblut linked with the so-called “Alpine folk” trend that comes from Steinklang and I did not pay much attention. Then I understood that Jägerblut actually consists of Thorofon members and I listened to their music a bit. Indeed the debut release of this project is a split 7″ with Sturmpercht and the music sounds like Sturmpercht. On the first album Jägerblut made more neofolk-like music, but that is usually not my thing either. Still, on the UMB compilation the second track is more experimental and less typical which is actually what I expected of Courtman and co. “1896-1906” Is not really an interesting album, but more interesting than “Tannöd”. The good thing about “Tannöd” is that Jägerblut hardly looked at their past. There is no “Alpine folk”, almost no neofolk, but a lot of dark ambient and soundscape experiments. It is just that this is mostly quite boring…
Link: Jägerblut / UMB Kollektiv
Pasquier’s new release is a 35 minute “ep” that comes in a cardboard box with some additional sweet-stuff. The music is in line with previous albums, electropop with an industrial edge. The songs are nice and catchy, but unfortunately not as industrially dirty as her show last night in 
I got this wonderfull compilation when I bought the new Geneviéve Pasquier which is released on United Manipulation Broadcasting. It opens with a great and noisy version of Pasquier’s “Existance”, they way I like her. What follows next are mostly exclusive tracks or alternative versions of The Musick Wreckers (very nice), Tonal Y Nagual (including their apparently only good track), Thorofon and Dogpop. Then the sound gets more industrial noisy with Kommando and M.A.O. After this we go to the neofolk project Jägerblut which is not my thing. To close off we get a project that is new to me: Lambitani, a true UMB project with a weird combination of industrial and folk. A very nice compilation, especially when you get it for free! I guess that if you want a copy yourself, you should just order the 
After a vinyl and a very limited cd, this is the first release that might bring Dogpop under the attention of a larger audience. DAF-like music, but with industrial roots and some other experimentation makes Dogpop a strange project in our scene. Slow disco beats, German vocals, strange sounds, silly humour. Two old tracks on this 55 minutes album that has the better tracks in the second half. The album is still “85% perfekt”, but indeed, it is getting better, so maybe the “100% perfekt” release will be the mindblower that I hope for. As for now, like the previous albums nice to play, but not “100% perfekt” yet.
Yesterday the first day of the Tesco Festival took place in Antwerpen with Ure Thrall, Dogpop and Galerie Schallschutz. Unfortunately I cannot go to see Genocide Organ, Janitor and Post Scriptvm tonight. I was interested to see Dogpop. Their “Popgod” debut 12″ may not be brilliant, but it surely is refreshing and interesting so I was curious what these industrial veterans would do on stage. Well, the LP contains strange experiments with a sound somewhere between old synthpop/electro and industrial and maybe what some people like to call “antipop”. If you know Thorofon and Geneviéve Pasquier, you might be able to get an idea of the sound. What was most remarkable yesterday, was that the sound is much more (back to) industrial with almost noise tracks even. Also there were silly tunes. Maybe for their tour, Dogpop released a “live without band” cd, limited to 100 copies with 11 years of material (!!). I don’t know if this cd is only sold at concerts. Also on this cd, the sound differs a bit from the LP, but of course the music remains that weird Dogpop sound with dance, acid, synthypop, etc. sounds and industrial, ambient and a bit of noise, all in all: Dogpop. Very nice and interesting enough to keep an eye on.
“This record is the end of Thorofon and the beginning of The Musick Wreckers. Anton Knilpert transforms to Dan Courtman. Sound transforms to Sound.” Thus says the back of this 7″. Thorofon delivers two rather typical and not too good industrial tracks, The Musick Wreckers come up with two weird tracks that are hard to describe. Batcave-like sung/spoken vocals, a strange sampled country-guitar and a weird poppy industrial sound. I don’t know what to call this. There are terms going around such as “antipop”, “angstpop” or “krankpop”, but I don’t know what people mean by them, so I cannot say if they would apply to The Musick Wreckers. Still I guess you can now form an idea of the music, being it only a bit.