Published on June 17, 2019 by
Richard Gleim
(aka 'ar/gee gleim')
Punk's political message was not to
name political atrocities
and to condemn,
but in doing its own thing
independently, and so to stand above the things
and get in action.
That's what my books are trying to remind
you.
This is their value. A frequent exclamation of the viewer of these
books is: "Damn, I was born in the wrong time!"
What conclusion do we draw from this that
shows that something is possible?
in
memoriam:
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
(note taken from 'TG CD1', Mute, 1986)
thee industrial records story
...It's an investigation. We wanted to investigate to what extent you
could mutate and collage sound,
present complex non entertaining noises to a popular culture situation
and convince and convert.
We wanted to re-invest Rock music with content, motivation and risk.
Our records are documents
of attitudes and experiences and observations by us and other determinedly
individual outsiders.
Fashion is an enemy, style irrelevant. We want to also investigate
music as a business phenomenon
and propose models for entirely new and innovative modes of commercial
operation. A parody and
an improvement....We want to make music and records more effective
and relevant to our Industrial
society, and we want to make business more efficient and creative as
well....big records companies
produce records like cars; we are connected to a contemporary social
situation, not a blues orientated
past style; we work hard for what we want, we are industrious; we parody
and challenge large industrial
companies and their debasing ethics and depersonalisation; we work
in an old factory; industrial labour
is slavery, destructive, a redundant institutione ... our records are
a combination of files on our
relationship with the world and a newspaper without censorship ...
INDUSTRIAL MUSIC FOR INDUSTRIAL PEOPLE. You get what you deserve. Or
do you?
Well, from the people with a vested interest in controlling and guiding
society to follow their
recommendations as to what attitudes you should have, what motivations
should govern your
behaviour and what goals you should be satisfied with, you DO NOT get
what you deserve.
You get what you are given, and what you are given is primarily conditioning
that pushes you
towards blind acceptance, wasted labour, frustrated relationships and
a vast sense of hopelessness.
We are trained to feel we are not responsible or in control of
our society and world so that we
will continue to let "Leaders" look after us like parents with retarded
children. Leaders are not
essential, we are TAUGHT to believe we need them, that we are not able
to assume responsibility
for ourselves. Lies created leaders, lies perpetuate leaders, lies
destroy joy and creativity and hope.
There are NO LIES on this record, no one here is a leader. We assume
full responsibility for ourselves.
We will not be deflected from our destiny. OUR LIFE. There is currently
a trend back towards
total
control and safety in the record and music industry. Groups are styled,
hyped and successful before
they even release a record. Old outlaws and thinkers are opting for
security, comfortable records
that apply radical discoveries to banal musical ends. Show business
and its inherited goals and
justifications are triumphant again. The public is seduced and cheated
by emptiness packaged
alluringly in cheap tinsel. Fear is the Government once more. On this
record are people who
were not afraid to think, did not avoid risks. People of all ages are
here, from 16 years old to
70 years old. Truth and hope have no boundaries, no set style, they
are implicit most clearly
in the way you choose to live. The title of the last record issued
by industrial tells the rest.
"Nothing here now but the recordings." Or perhaps there is...
monotonous
industry
of cultures
fight folgt uns
distrust
tout a remettre
le jeu
kontakt
"The (still perceivable) world is a
complex mixture of many systems. They cooperate, come into conflict
with others, overlap, are deleted and re-established again, from time
to time. People have constituted their economic, social, cultural
politicals systems to ease their existence/subsistence. Historical
rules can't be noticed, a class of people, which should plan something
revolutionary, seems to be a peril for those like us. Dominance of
people over people, but also over the other objects of our world, and,
informations are not excluded, is a principle of structure, which is
used in almost each "modern" society as a highly effective tool. A
permament memory for this fact,the permanet criticism at the "ruling
situations", to swap into really different systems makes it possible
for a personal structure to survive in the rooms of dominance, which
had been constructed by so called "majorities". There resistant
behaviour might follow, but also allows an adaptive one, to supply
more social-partners with this possibility of this kind of approach.
First established in the cultural area, this vision is able to develop
as an "subcultural" hold point, can agree to the newest "style", can
negate it. Call of programmes, now sound-events, their configuration,
new order. Reorganisation until dis-identification, alientation. But
must stand the accusation: "What do you really want?" But isn't
ashamed of not giving a distinct answer - is more ashamed, if
nationalism, racism, capitalism turn somersaults in the heads of our
fellow men. If a movement (to name only one: "Punk") is lead to the
feeding bowl of the "Rock-music" and music again becomes something,
which the brutal rulers of the occident have already once celebrated
with a merciless cynism: As the music to salute the maltreated,
grated, suppressed. To perceive - to bear - to hold it out - he who
doesn't close his eyes may turn. The world isn't yet in (best) order.
Solution: he who will not turn - will not change anything ! After
Auschwitz there's still a place like Guantanamo. And there other games
played than "Blackjack" ..." (Sea
Wanton, 2011, Berlin)
Aims/Views/Conception: From historical point of view we don't live anymore
in a pure physical world, we're now (in highly
developed countries) surrounded by signals, symbols:
we live in a symbolic world. Processes of differentiation have lead to a highly
complex world with an individually incomprehensible
quantity of such signals and symbols (and finally
information), where reduction of complexity is the
instrument to survive. This concentration and
channelization on a special level is controlled mostly via media.
P16.D4 tries to counter-act these processes,
while aiming to get such signal/symbols as a status of processed perception, which are
pushed aside by the information and communication pools.
So P16.D4 works in a field emphasizing just other
structures of selectivity, X-raying the routines
of perception, leaving the security of the usual
paths and is highly interested in unexpected events.
From this point of view it seems more sensible
for us to explore the possibilities of noise and other
"non-musical" material with "non-musical" techniques
than carrying on the banner of "music". This doesn't mean to exclude the enormous possibilities
rock/jazz/classical music gives as elements of others, of course...
(all words by kindly permission of R. Schönauer
(P16.D4), on the making of the DISTRUCT-album)
religion
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITIQUE OF HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT
Introduction
by Karl Marx
Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher
February, 1844
...
Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man
who
has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself
again. But, man is no abstract being squatting outside
the world.
Man is the world of man -- state, society. This state and this
society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the
world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general
theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular
form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction,
its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and
justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence
since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The
struggle
against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that
world whose spiritual aroma is religion.
Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of
real
suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the
sigh of
the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul
of
soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is
the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give
up their
illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a
condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is,
therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which
religion is the halo. ...
half dark room-.
the personal perception: as charles entered the half-dark room he forgot about the endless waiting
queues.
a round empty table in a contourless room. 19 characters seated in
front of it.
thin wires from above wound their way into the headphones.on the heads
of the figures.
he assumed his (still vacant) place. he placed the phones on and experienced
the sounds.
Meanwhile Mr. Wanton forced his machines its utmost extrication.
the room was deathly still. only the patter of his feet reminded him
of his world.
countless photographs on the horizon indicate that the models were
not to be fed.
he stared at their slim tender fingers. the noise reverberated in his
ears.
his hands clapped to the beat of the future. Supplement: place
and time are unknown.
Tapes and synthesizer produce tones. Is it music?
the idea behind the perception: "half dark room" is another concept for NTL's live performances. thereby,
we think
of a room, which keeps its connection to the world by only ONE entrance,
exactly. in
the room, the members of NTL work, while 19 puppets sit still on their
chairs.
connected to a central mixer, a great number of headphones is fed up
with sounds.
some of them are placed on the puppets' heads. others wound their wires
from above
somewhere into the room. meanwhile, NTL play their music into the mixer,
directly
and plugged. there is no accustic amplification. at any moment, there
is only one
person in the audience. he's free to move, to check the phones, to
talk to the
musicians, and so on. so, the participants have the chance to interact.
only if this
person leaves the room, the next one will be allowed to enter. "half
dark room" is an
attack against the principles of crowd-reception, unplugged nostalgia
and
commercial rock business, in general to (re)define interaction and
curiosity.
M.T. and the "PATH TO POWER"---...In 1936 when I was 11, I was given a special edition of Bibby's
Annual,
a religious magazine which was an odd combination of character building,
homespun philosophy and religion.
I t taught me some verses which I still use in off-the-cuff speeches,
because they came to embody for me so
much of what I was brought up to feel. One ship drives east, another
drives west, by the self same gale that
blows. is the set of the sail and not the gale, that determines the
way she goes? Or again; The heights by
great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight, but
they, while their companions slept,
were toiling upward in the night. Whether it was that early exposure
to Bibby's Annual or just a natural bent ,
I was soon fascinated by poetry."
Marilyn Monroe (anonymous writer): "One of her biggest roles was in How to Marry a Millionaire, but when
Marilyn Monroe
died she had just $3.50 in her apartment.Her image now generates millions
of dollars
in licensing fees and advertising revenue annually. Monroe's voice
and
likeness are used to sell Chanel fashions, Mercedes cars, Gateway Computers,
Mikimoto pearls and Levis jeans, while her
picture adorns some 2,000 slot machines in LasVegas."
The Fugs "It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest"
the FUGS,
LP, Reprise RS-6305,
(liner notes)
ONWARD EARTHLINGS (by the FUGS)
generation of savage Honko-Cossack marauder pirates poisoning our air,
murdering ouryouth and defiling our ethics, we declare our continuing
commitment
to the possibility of a benign civilization and the absolute
right of each an on earth to
1) a guaranteed grope,
2) land and money,
3) longevity,
4) happiness,
5) freedom,
6) supplies for his art,
7) sheep.
We wave the banners of these god-lit principles even now while
Dom Dom Doom marches in waving a carrot and in the dreams of
war lords mutant fruit flies devour syrup-coated telephone poles.
Somehow great slurgul-slurguls of glee, humor, horniness and peacecraft
can still escape our lips, for you, for us, for the love that can spurt
and flow
from the surfaces of song and poetry. The benevolent city of
ivory colored
grope spires is our vision. And all of us, all lovers and drooling
minstrels
aboard the Chariots of the Abyss, bend back into the terror, take knowledge
of the City of Love we wish to create, flash in the fig fist, and spew
onward,
attempting radiance, into the skush. Onward! Grope for peace.
Love the earth.
We have escaped the crone drivel. Up against the wall motherfucker!
press release of the organizers of the "ATONAL 2" festival in Berlin
(1983)---"ATONAL is an independent event of the non-conformists, an atonal opportunity
for creative musicians, painters, film producers and female hairdressers.
the stinking attempts of conceited cynics and phonies working in the
mass-media
and behind the scenes every attempt at alternative action with business
methods
will be overcome. they will not be allowed to force upon ATONAL their
unorientated
"bla bla". this is confronted with the serious motivated musical and
artificial
cooperations. ATONAL means to listen for yourself.
the freedom to develop thoughts and opinions of your own and not to
enter into this miserable, prefabricated system of these idiots.
listening and watching. ATONAL is what we need to understand what we
are doing.
ATONAL is not a comfortable fiction and not a regulated agreement.
there will be a new way to listen and to see..." (adi atonal)
"Reichstag" lange nicht gebrannt---which translates to: "It took some more years until the "Reichstag" was set on
fire"
story by Sea Wanton, 20.1.2006, Berlin Tired, his eyes scan the skyline. There, either motions nor a glimmer
of light is to be noticed.
Only the flickering of the candles burns into the glass of the window.
In the distance - NOTHING moves.
After the last wick is gone out, he drives away. He uses the build-in
"long-distance-dial-service".
He must talk to her. Nobody there. He decides to improve his mood in
the nearest "dance-palace".
Some fine, thrilling drink, smashing music with some swing and danceable
rhythm. Afterwards,
he rushes back into the unsmart appartment. Only one call arrived.
The call-box flatters his ears
with a cool "see you later". Perhaps...Surprise (negative): a furious
hit on the back of his head.
He looses his consciousness. Woke up. The clouds flow by his airoplane
compartment. Below,
the contures of the arabian peninsula. His head buried between the
shoulders of his guardians.
A nice young man talks to him. In German, laptop, suit by "Armanie",
an unobtrusive after-shave
lotion. Asks him for origin, intentions, ideas, opinions.Without recognizable
dialect and without
mentioning his personal data. Off and on the questions are accompanied
by painful ellbow-check
of the left sitting guardin. When finally the (eye-shade)??? is taken
off, he looks at the endless
sand in front of him. His companions wave from a distance, but
they let have him two water-cans.
The road to the skyline seems to be the target, is lined with skeletons,
death's-heads. Estimated 30000
(in words: thirty thousands). Somewhere stands a weather-beaten cross
at the road's border.
Carved in: 1904. But only in 1933 a fire would destroy a little part
of the german "Reichstag".
In the evening he arrives at the best bar of the city. Satelites broadcast
the reality on the
"over-dimensional" sized monitores. At the moment, a big, handsome,
yes, charmant man sings a
song, wearing a "folkish Loden"-outfit...And she smiles at him,
funnily wagging her chaste
"Dirndl"-costume. All stare, hungry for love, on Marianne's decollete.
Unintentional, he has
touched the remote control. The channel switches and shows an image
of "Carl von Ossietzki"
(in the KZ (concentration-camp) "Oranienburg"). A known image. An ancient
image. A forgotten image.
He asks himself, who could be this SA-man, who pushes the fear of death
into the face of his victim.
He decides to answer this question when he's "back". His view escapes
the boredom. Red stools,
red bottles, red windows - all in RED ! "The colour of danger" a warning
flashes through his brain
. But "lucky lips...(red lips) you should kiss" the huge loudspeakers
buzz in the corner of the bar.
Slowly he unties his fingers from the glass of water. It rushes down
and breaks to pieces on the
dirty floor of the bar. From the left, a shapeless spider approaches
and refreshes at the cold draught.
Her web flutters spiritless between the mirror of the bar and empty
whisky-bottles. The service asks him.
What he wants. He answers: money, power and love. You can't get
it here - short reply and he's alone,
again. He steps out into the night. The view is conducted to the moon-disk,
which hangs above the
dreaming city. He's sad, that's certain. And he is also tired. Many
nights before, nightmares had
robbed him the sleep. Inmidst, he had all seen, all felt but not found
any solution. Searched in the
past, planned for the future. A slight pain in the left lungwing causes
some sorrows. His insurance
police will come to an end at the end of the year. A nail drills itself
through his sole, distributing a
stebbing ache. The smooth stream of the wind becomes entangled in his
ears. Creeps into the
windings of his brain. Invitation to leave the jungle. It's time to
find the thread, to return. The first
part of the way is still done. The end of the world ist reached - once
again. Another skyline. High
waves pile up in front of it. On them little fishing-boats stagger
like moths in the light. How many
young girls will wait in vain for a kiss, this evening? 1?2?3?4? Someone
grasps him by his sleeve,
covers his head with a perspired steel helmet. Laces the belt of grenades
around the hips, presses
the antitank grenade launcher in his right fist. If the tank has then
turned for a thousand times
over his command post: would he be found like this? He decides to switch
the "camp", the party.
Gets rid of all, of (his) utensils. Pulls some "fresh" cash out of
the the next ??? cash-machine.
Gets himself dress-shoes, scarf and wrist watch. Plus a chic (swell?)
smoking. Then, he makes
the children fight and kill (for him?).
song of the "kokopera", words by ???, sung by Christopher
Jeffrey---pakawulu kotera winjandee yahe ee pulu kelem awanadee patekerija pa
keni keni kunda rima kunda rima keni yahe
kuti keni keni ii patewalke pinenke winjenke puluhee
kuti keni keni ii patewalke pinenke winjenke puluhee
eaglehawk two were facing each other (a man) was lying on his back
they both from the west were coming
clear sky high up they both fought they both fought high up
dive high up they both getting homesick
(?) took they both dive high up
they both getting homesick (?) took they both
Non Toxique Lost
liner notes by T. Pargmann and C. Ressler (2006)
In the beginning of the 80s, the band NON TOXIQUE LOST (short name:
NTL) was founded in Mainz, Germany.
The eponym for this project was taken
from the term "mustard gas", a chemical weapon, which had been invented
by the german scientists named "Lommel" and "Steinkopf" during World WarI
under the acronym of "LOST" .
Though the band's name refers to the "unperilous"
character of this music, in the end NON TOXIQUE LOST
also acted as a means
for a fight, the very fight against the deadlocked patterns of the
culture of music of that time.
Formed by members of some local "Punk"-bands,
founded bei Sea Wanton and A. Wollscheid (aka S.B.O.T.H.I.).
Later on,
S. Schütze joined to play bass, violin and special (electronic) effects
and P. Prieur, called "POGO", did the vocals.
Although NTL often has been
labelled as part of the "NDW" (= "Neue deutsche Welle") and sometimes even
influences of "Jazz music" have been (wrongly) mentioned, the band
saw its position in the first instance
in the context of an "industrial
movement". When NTL was founded in 1982, its uncompromising musical
approach
was significantly inspired by pioneers of the "Industrial Music" like Throbbing
Gristle, SPK and Whitehouse.
Out of these influences, NON TOXIQUE LOST
developed its sound as a trance-esque cocoon of clashing
sounds of walls,
pulsating synthethizers and angry vocals, which draws the listener into
an emotional maelstrom,
leading from fear, pain and desperation to rage
and unlimited aggression. From time to time very static and
pushed on by
brute rhythms, NTL's music is uncompromisingly tough and this is exactly
why it can be considered
as an anomaly of that Germany of the early 80s.
Similarities are seen more with bands like PACIFIC 231 (from France)
or
ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO (from Spain). In essence, there are two important
ideas crossing the band's whole oeuvre:
the processing of the "everyday
life" experience, interweaved with an explicit political attitude. A large
impact came from
J. Stender, who had been a member of P.D., then. His talent,
to create german lyrics on "everday life" "on the run",
conveying the "concrete"
and "direct" contents, had been a adequate stylistic device to handle the
facts of a
"grey german reality" of those days. But in contrary to P.D.
and P16.D4, NON TOXIQUE LOST objected
to being classified into the "art"
genre. Indeed, there were some references to the current "art"-movements,
but the music was not to be "avantgarde", even if some external observers
could get this impression.
But NTL combined its conceptions about music
with the idea to be creative using existing objects and to,
aside from
instruments, also use unconventional sound sources - this is another example
for the realisation
of the "concrete" and "everyday life". At the same
time, the music has been the radical expression of
an oppositional attitude.
With NTL, Sea Wanton (the singer) realized his intention to found a band,
which dealt with the social and political boredom of its reality in a challenging
way. NTL did not only
intend to distance itself from the reception of music,
in general, but it provoked a concrete hassle
with those crusted forms
of understanding music and the culture of the youth. The band was permanently
confronted by an environment which was deeply into the "Rock-music" culture
of the 70s, public places
like pubs and youth-centres were dominated
by the "Hippies" and "drug-abuse" cosiness. For a project
like NON TOXIQUE
LOST that meant a struggle for "free-spaces", not hostility, but also the
neccessity
to become accepted as something new. To a certain extent, as
an idea of the
"Punk"-movement, the philosophy
of NTL aimed at provocation
and the radical realisation of its own ideas.
Accordingly, the turning
away from the established mechanismn of the "music-business" did
not only affect
the musical style, but also the production and merchandising
of the sound storage medium. It was logic for
NTL to select the compact-cassette
as a medium for its music. This was "the" medium, which allowed the
musicians
as opposed to anything else, to keep in control over their musical and
creative work and a direct
merchandising, without being forced to take
part in the profit-orientated "machinery" of the "music-business".
In 1982,
the first recordings were published on the "d.i.y."(=do it yourself) founded
"cassettes only" label called
"CAN CAN", which were to be followed by ca.
30 further releases. Inspite of this high grade of productivity,
encompassing
mostly the studio- and "live" material of NTL, but also some cassette-compilations
featuring some
"international industrial" bands, NTL and "CAN CAN" remained
a creative "action-area", which was not perceived
as a "full time job"
or even as the "meaning of life". For a first vinyl release, a strictly
limited edition, you had to wait
for some years. The songs on the lp-album,
called "Wanton", released in 1986, a selection of material, which had
been
published earlier on compact-cassette, expresses something like a "subtile"
toughness (on a long range),
which drills slowly in your auditory canal
and the band herself accurately characterises it as "industrial muzak".
As opposed to the high output on sound-medium there were only rare chances
to experience the band on stage.
Only a few events like those in Mainz
and Trier (Germany), at the "Recloose Festival" in London, in Amsterdam,
at the "Geminox-Festival" in Frankfurt (Germany) or at the "Berlin Atonal
2 Festival" took place. Even though the
performance at the "Berlin Atonal
2 Festival" got an especially good reputation and positive feedbacks with
those
"friends" of "abstract music", NTL remained true to itself and did
not devise any ambitions to change its strategies
of merchandising. The
band was more interested in the construction of a national and international
community
of producers and listeners of "abstract" and "experimental" music.
There was a little network(ing) in the Mainz,
Wiesbaden and Frankfurt -
area (Germany), e.g., in the atmosphere of the "Selektion" label
(with
groups like P16.D4 and S.B.O.T.H.I.), resulting in friendly contacts and
sometimes personal cooperations
within the music processes (including some
sessions and live-performances). More contacts were established with
"Graf
Haufen" (Berlin) and soon reached out to "cassettes only" labels, based
in France, the U.K. and Italy.
Besides his membership with NTL, Sea Wanton
had started publishing a fanzine called "Handbook of Fun" in 1983,
which intended to be a medium for subversive communication. The fanzine
had been a means to distribute words
and artworks ("collages"), which pointed
out the protest against the established structures of the societies and
understanding of "art" or crusted "music-cultures", and thereby it can
be interpreted as a printed form of "the same",
which was also articulated
by NTL's music. Furthermore the "Handbook of Fun" constituted a forum for
experimental music,
distributing contact-addresses (with different "cassettes-only"
labels or juicy record-shops), thus being part of an
international network
of the "industrial scene of the 80s". NTL came up against those established
patterns of their
environment with a radical "musical" denial,
even though expressed in a distinct (german) language, only very few
could
understand. You could say, that this pull-esque, rhythmical toughness of
some tracks, which meanwhile
is an essential part with numerous "industrial
bands", appeared some years "too early". The fact, that this music
caused
more embarassing to irritating reactions by most listeners, plus the consequent
policy of publications
and the responsibility for the "subversive underground",
are (presumably) the cause for being known by the
"in-crowd", until now.
Even though or exactly because the "hearing customs" have changed
in these last decades,
the music of NTL has kept hold of its attraction
as a "pioneer" achievement of the so-called "rhythmical Industrial".
Since
some years, Sea Wanton, accompanied by new companions, is again active
as NON TOXIQUE LOST.
While now using contemporary sound sources like samplers
and computers, it is (as always) bound to the idea of
electronic
toughness and a political attitude and, thus, creating its own musical
cosmos. Parallel to this, a selection
of early tape-recordings has been
re-released on vinyl and gives a fine overview on the complete works of
the band.
terre et argent (liner notes by
Thomas Beck (2003)):
I read about NON TOXIQUE LOST (NTL) for the first time in the German music magazine "SOUNDS". There, SEA WANTON (GEN 82) did reviews on compact cassette (d.i.y.) productions. This was a highlight for me, since I released own music on compact cassettes. Here you could find the creative in-crowd, because in the beginning of the 80s it was unbelievably expensive and very complicated to produce fine albums. The "industrial-music" scene had been mainly a "cassette-scene" too, because this media offered the possibility to determine the output in a spontaneous, direct and independent way (with a small financial risk !). NTL distributed on their own and sometimes contacts turned into friendship. Often, the cassettes had been packed like gifts for friends. NTL published some cassettes, and the rare long-play album "WANTON"; they acted like a typical "cassette-band": independent, taped in the rehearsal room, the songs found their way out of isolation. furthermore NTL played live (i.e. together with BOURBONESE QUALK - London, with P16.D4 - Amsterdam, with DER PLAN - Frankfurt, and together with PSYCHIC TV / ZOS KIA - Berlin), but those bands with electronic equipment were not used to it at that time, a MIDI had not yet been invented. GEN 82 even published a cassette-fanzine called "GUTE UNTERHALTUNG" (good entertainment) and the cassette-label "NEUER FRÜHLING" (=nouveaux printemps) published some authorized live takes from THROBBING GRISTLE, SPK , DAF, SUBURBAN PUNX, PD and other bands. What made NTL internationally important, was their political sophistication. The lyrics had often been very direct, which you couldn't find too often (at that time and today). Influenced by industrial music, punk and critical theory, they developed a popular energy, which lay beside those conceptional bands like P16.D4. NTL worked in Mainz (Germany), where Achim Wollscheid (nowadays in guidance of the SELEKTION label) was busy in some art projects. This was the time when most of these songs on the lp were born, and they are documents of a creative energy and the wish for independence. enjoy it !
terre et argent (liner notes by
Lorenz Schröter, 2003):<listen with pain>On Sundays, there were eggs and toast and in the background BrahmsBeethovenBach was playing. At the age of fifteen I was interested in rock music and went to a record shop. I wasn't too hip and bought some Ella Fitzgerald, Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan. Later, having reached Chuck Berry, a classmate mentioned: you should listen to the Clash! Then everything went by fast, haircut, spitting at Blondie, punk manners at that time, hitchhiking to London, getting kicked out of school, making music. With everything which was available, guitars, saxophones, children’s toys. There was the one-two-three punk rock, the dadaistic pop and the row. They called it noise or industrial and it was the last exit. The realm of pains. It cleaned your ears out and drove everything away. Death as freedom. While rhythms and breaks existed in free jazz, everything was mercilessly clustered until a wall was built. A house of noise. Like a shell which is held near the ear, there was everything inside, Zen and the criticism of capitalism, but much more volume than the rush of one's own blood. This was a lot of fun, especially if you did it yourself. But in the end, it got on the audience's nerves.
terre et argent (liner notes by
Cem Oral (AIR LIQUIDE, JAMMIN' UNIT) (2003)
I think it was the first "electronic" gig of my music career. I was very excited. Normally, as a bass player, I had an easy job, and now side by side with SEA WANTON in front of so many strange people ?! The performance took place in Amsterdam (sponsored by STAALPLAAT, in 1985) This was even my first international stage performance. In any case, it was great! I collected huge amounts of compact cassettes with sounds, quotations and scapes taken from radio and TV, which I pushed through my KORG MS-20 synthesizer. Added some echoes and my personal psychedelic trip was perfect. Together with SEA and Heiko Wöhler we gave a really wicked performance. Despite the fact that, after the concert, the promoter promised that I, being such a strange German (I'm really half Turkish and half Finnish, hehehe), would guaranteed NEVER take part in any further events. I am quite certain that any future activities wouldn't have been as creative without this experience or that I otherwise wouldn't have developed such a healthy "laissez faire" attitude.
Reverend JIM GATES (THE AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC MAGAZINE,1984)
I find it frustrating when presented with an album such as this. I'd love to be able to tell you what a great contribution NON TOXIQUE LOST have made to Man's strive towards musical enlightment. Unfortunately I'm resigned to meticulously and clinically dissecting this effort in order to find out what's lacking. Suffice to say it grates, from the cover and contents through to the press release. The whole thing recks of pretension, leaving a bitter taste in the mouth and a howl of derision from my speakers. Their calculated approach ensures any real emotion is soon filtered out, and sacrificed in the pursuit of a sound that is designed to be as bland as to please all of the people all of the time. The affected vocals sit awkwardly on a collection of 16 songs that lack inspiration, punch and soul. All in all it's very German.
terre et argent (liner notes by
Achim Wollscheid (2003)):
Guess that NTL was the first (and only) band I played with, that didn't require identification of sorts - neither with a name, nor a principle,
nor a style. What probably united those associated with that name was a shared unease within a cultural rule,
that after the political ossification of the 70s began to spread throughout art and music - the need to even design protest or subversion.
A reaction to this was NTL's 'non'- style - no rock, no punk, no experiments, no recycling and no improvisation...-or bits of each, condensed in a thick amalgam, if needed.
Though most of NTL's pieces didn't entirely cross the borders of the 'song-principle',
the virus of disintegration
was pretty much alive. Within, and sometimes even without...
terre et argent (liner notes by
SEA WANTON (1997)):<...lost signals ?>
some of them might be relevant others not. Sometimes it might appear quite the contrary depending on certain circumstances. We assume that some people need other stronger and more important information about their being. Some of them are looking for something aren’t they? We are offering an entrance into our world of thinking and freedom. At this moment communication starts. We do not intend to get your affirmation. We take the risk to select strange, weird, unpretty sounds. We refuse to fall back into comfortable indifference so highly rewarded by the industries of culture. The signals are born and pushed into the world of information. Finally you are free to determine the relevance of audiovisual information for your life. Where will the journey go – until the end of the world.
hic rhodos hic salta:
http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/quotations/quotations_by_ib.html Hic Rhodus, hic salta. The origin of this odd saying, whose currency is largely due to Hegel and Marx, takes a little explaining. Its original form is 'Hic Rhodus, hic saltus' ('Rhodes is here, here is the place for your jump'), a traditional Latin translation [see, e.g., Erasmus, Adagia 3. 3. 28] of a punchline from Aesop. In the fable 'The Braggart' an athlete boasts that he once performed a stupendous jump in Rhodes, and can produce witnesses: the punchline is the comment of a bystander, who means that there is no need of witnesses, since the athlete can demonstrate the jump here and now. The epigram is given by Hegel, rather out of the blue, first in Greek, then in Latin (in the form 'Hic Rhodus, hic saltus'), in the Preface to his Philosophy of Right. [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts [Sämtliche Werke, ed. Hermann Glockner, vol. 7] (Stuttgart, 1928), p. 35.] He does not explain what the proverb meant in its original context (without which it can hardly be understood); indeed a comment he makes about jumping over Rhodes suggests that he may not have fully understood it himself. At any rate, he then offers an adapted German version with a different meaning, 'Hier ist die Rose, hier tanze' ('Here is the rose, dance here', an allusion to the rose in the cross of rosicrucianism, implying that fulfilment should not be postponed to some Utopian future), punning first on the Greek (Rhodos = Rhodes, rhodon = rose), then on the Latin (saltus = jump [noun], salta = dance [imperative]). Marx adopts the saying in the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte [Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Werke (Berlin, 1956-83), vol. 8, p. 118.], where he first gives the Latin, in the form 'Hic Rhodus, hic salta!', a garbled mixture of Hegel's two versions, and then immediately adds 'Hier ist die Rose, hier tanze!', as if it were a translation, which it cannot be, since Greek Rhodos (despite what all the standard commentators say to the contrary), let alone Latin Rhodus, does not mean 'rose'. The confusion, both deliberate and inadvertent, does no credit to either Hegel or Marx as classical scholars, and the epigram loses much of its original power - as well as its original meaning - in their hands. They were evidently intent on turning it to other purposes, but it seems doubtful whether their attempts to improve on Aesop have been of much use to their readers. Special thanks to Terrell Carver for assistance with this account.
A MOTHER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT NOISE MUSIC I:
"Noise Music" is an awful form of music that is more unpleasant and psychologically destructive than the worst forms of Heavy Metal, Rap,
and Punk Rock. It has no musical structure and spreads a gospel of desensitization, anger, degredation and harm. It is growing in popularity and
is a threat to families and children that can't be ignored.
The main problem with "Noise Music" is that it represents a complete acceptance of a "human order," and a complete rejection of the civilized world, which is
built upon the natural order - Gods Order. We were given harmony and melody to sing joyous songs, not to wallow in depraved human misery and pain. Art
and music was given to us to bring joy, happiness and lift the spirit, it is the sound of our soul. Children always want to rebel against what ever their parents don't like,
this is a natural phase of growing up - people need to walk with their own feet. But this is something else - a systematic distorition away from everything that is good and towards our destruction as a people.
Noise Music is unnatural. It is natural for animals to communicate with sound but to flee harsh sounds and sensations; it is also natural for animals to follow patterns
from previous generations in their communication. An animal that does not protect itself against painful stimulus, and does not behave like the the others in its flock is a sick
animal - possibly suffering neurological damage or post-traumatic stress dissociation. "Noise Music" is a contradiction in terms - since Noise is not Music, and Music is not Noise, by definition!
A MOTHER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT NOISE MUSIC II:
I am here to inform you on this new trend of "Noise Music" that is quickly rising into mainstream culture and stealing the souls of youth. The music industry is currently planning to
market this "Noise Music" as the next ‘new thing' for kids to buy into and once you learn the true history and ideas behind this movement you will see why it needs to be stopped.
During my research I have uncovered the true secrets of a master plan to enslave mankind thru this music. I have first hand experience what this Noise Music can
do to children. Lucky for us parents this trend in music has not really caught on with the vast majority of kids, so we may have a chance to stop this disease before it spreads
any further. If we fail humanity may be lost.
You may think that I am being over dramatic, alarmist, or ignorant, Ihave been called much worse. But I will show you the details of this conspiracy and shed light onto this
dark cabal that has been working feverishly to undermine all that is noble and just. Ultimately our work will help usher in a new reality, by exposing this conspiracy. Those involved
will see the errors in their ways and work to move humanity into a perfected world order. We must stop Noise Music before it destroys us!
What is Noise Music you ask? When I posted my first essay I was slightly misinformed about how wide reaching this conspiracy was, I thought it had originated out
of rock and roll.
I had received hundreds of emails informing me incorrectly, and upon further research--what i discovered was how dire our crusade really is against this so-called 'music'.
Noise Music
holds a intellectual philosophy of nihilism, chaos, self abuse, despair, and a rejection of natural law and delivers its demented message in the same style that a rock and roll act would use.
It is a very deceptive trick that is aimed at corrupting our youth. These people are outspokenly hell bent on destroying our civilization and all that is good. In this post 9-11 world we
cannot let this kind of evil continue, terrorism of every kind must be stopped! We must cleanse the earth of evil for the new world order to exist -degenerate ideas must be removed -or they will consume everyone into a pit of eternal suffering. We are the light and the way. We must fight smarter and harder than our enemies, we will bring truth were others only bring lies.
Some people say, that Noise Music is not the problem it is just a reflection of the world that we live in. In order to take the spiritual temperature of an individual or society, one must
"mark" the music. We all can agree that music is the unspoken language of the soul, it has the power to transmit ideas that are unspeakable, it ultimately affects our reality. Music as
with all art is the backbone of culture. It can bring joy and have the power to heal, but it can also hurt and lead people to sorrow and self destruction. The goal of humanity is to reach its highest possible
potential, and music and art must also reflect that. Celebrating the down side of the human condition is holding us trapped within a doomed cycle. We cannot let this continue anymore. If you
examine music as you would a diagram of social progress it can becomes a road map of human civilization. We can see what is moving forward into liberation and what is a path that is degenerate and destructive.
Lets take a slight roll down history lane, shall we?? Noise was "born" in the early 1900 by Luigi Russolo an Italian futurist and Fascist. He built instruments
specifically to make noise, these futurists proudly proclaimed "We will glorify war -. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism,
feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice. (...) Come on! set fire to the library shelves! Turn aside the canals to flood the museums!... Take up your pickaxes,
your axes and hammers and wreck, wreck the venerable cities" These futurists influenced a whole slew of 20th century anti-cultural musical movements (particularly a group of
draft-dodger who called themselves "Dada") who also sought out to destroy everything they disliked. They tried to create a world were obscene, irrational, and anarchist thought
replaced the traditional, truthful, and orderly one. The set out to destroy all conventional music and replace it with noise. Lucky for us they all died in obscurity never to influence
too many people in their day, except a few credulous fools in academic circles, but this sick and distorted reality continues. One modern composer with direct links to these
movements is Karlheinz Stockhausen who said "the 9-11 terrorist attacks were the greatest piece of art, ever." You get the idea.
In the 1960's these "20th century composers" finally infiltrated popular culture when the hippy movement fused rock and roll with this degenerate Noise Music. This music was
intended to be a soundtrack to a revolution, a revolt against what they viewed as "authoritarian" ideologies, with its eventual goal to be destruction of all that is good and usher in
a new occult age of Aquarius. Its was also a part of the African-american music scene, which included the angry so-called "Free Jazz" (with ties to the Black Panthers and other
militant groups) of certain screaming black jazz musicians that wanted to bring down western civilization and restore a primitive African civilization to power. This revolution almost
happened, because it was supported by the powerful music and media industry, but lucky for us this new freedom in reality only brought Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD), rape,
drug addiction, madness and pervasive social unrest. People burnt themselves out and their reality faded away, and the mental hospitals were full.
In the 70s-90s thankfully this destructive force was mostly contained "underground," a few groups did surface for a few moments but never really held the publics attention or posed a
major threat on popular cultural. This anti-establishment thread slowly resurfaced in late 70's and early 80's, in the form of the swastika-laben "Industrial Music" of bands like: NON,
Throbbing Gristle, Surgical P*nis Clinic, and Einstuerzende Neubauten these anti-musicians sought to tear down the natural order with electronic based music and an extreme displays
of violence, murder, rape and genocide. In the late 80's and 90's these ideas remained pretty marginal and unfocused and were only accepted in fringe circles really having not much influence
in popular culture. We saw punk, and grunge and metal, which were bad enough, but these genres of music only foreshadowed and lowered resistance to the coming rot.
This current wave of Noise Music finds it influence in all of these past anti-cultural movements. These so-called musicians purify the underlining negative meaning of 20th century classical,
Punk rock, Acid Rock, Metal, Jazz, and every possible sub-genre of dissonant music and are making a new deadly strain of music that is aimed at the hearts and minds of the listeners.
By design it is the most dangerous art form to emerge yet, because it takes all the most appealing aspects of these genres and removes the few crumbs of traditional cultural expression that
they contained. These people are dead set to carry out their mission, all of what has come before has been one giant build up to what is taking place right now.
The worst part is these people are not alone, they have agents within the mainstream, who either are fully aware of the final goals and actively promote this or are
unknowingly duped into
his conspiracy. The reason why a conspiracy can exist is by the fact that not everyone involved knows that they involved, for a successful conspiracy to work it must work in layers
and involve unwitting dupes. Also take in account that most peoples actions are reactionary--they respond uncritically to what they are given. The people at the highest levels of a conspiracy
are the ones who fully understand the implications of their actions and manipulate a particular system to reach its goals.
Some people say, why aren't you fighting against rap music or sugar coated pop music which is the real cause of corrupting our youth? I say, the majority of people involved in creating
and marketing these acts to the population are only concerned with making a profit...