Tag: review

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Nachtmahr – Electrowerkz

Last night was a chance to listen to some classic Austrian Industrial music at Electrowerkz. It’s in Torrens Street, Angel, which is a tiny little cul-de-sac with a smart pub at its entrance and an Alien-themed industrial-alternative club for other people at the other end.

I think last night was the forth time I’ve got clothes on and ready in another person’s driveway. I park in spaces that people don’t use, but I’m not a thief, I pay for the privilege to keep my car there.

First band on at Electrowerkz was Dunkelsucht. This probably translates to either dark thoughts or depression. I’m not sure and in this day and age it’s terrible that I haven’t looked up which it is. Maybe I’m too lazy. OK, I just went and did it and it apparently means Dark Investigated. I suspect not!

Dunkelsucht
Dunkelsucht

This band comprised a male singer and a female computer controller type person. They are from Switzerland and I quite enjoyed them. It seemed quite pop-like to me, but I suspect that in reality it’s quite heavy stuff? I’m never sure and I hate the fact that it’s all so subjective. I wrote in my notes that it was OK, they had good beats and I enjoyed it overall. I did find that in the middle of a few songs it suddenly went strange with melodies that seemed out of place.

The next band on were DKAG and I’ve seen them before a number of times. Smith and I stayed in the bar. I spent thirty seconds watching them, just to check they were the same. There’s a limit to how much I can take. I’ve kinda come to the conclusion that I really enjoy about forty five minutes of any band and show but after that I start to get bored because all the songs sound the same. I think that’s either because I enjoy M’era Luna and the shorter sets that I generally see there or the causation is the other way around and I just find shorter sets more interesting.

The headliners were Nachtmahr. As with the last time I saw them here there were only two of them. The singer, Thomas Rainer, and the computer controller were all by themselves. I know there were about five people on stage at M’era Luna although two of those were female stage show actors.

Nachtmahr - March 19
Nachtmahr – March 19

Nachtmahr played for a solid ninety minutes and if I’m honest I only started to struggle in the last fifteen or so, even given my rant a couple of paragraphs ago. They were pretty good, but I don’t think Rainer is a natural frontman. To me he looks like he’s playing an act, which all singers are to an extent, but he seems uncomfortable with it. I don’t mind that though. I’ve paid to see a show and I don’t want my musicians to look like they aren’t enjoying it.

Hello Crowd
Hello Crowd

This set had a load of classic songs you would expect to hear. I enjoyed it a lot.

What I found most interesting at the venue was that I would say it was easily a 50-50 split in the sexes of those attending. There was also a wide age spread from around 18 to around 65 from the looks of the people I saw. It was quite probably the most diverse audience I have seen yet for a gig. It was such a nice atmosphere, really enjoyable. A good night.

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Live In The Raw – W.A.S.P.

Ah, when I was young W.A.S.P. were seen as a dangerous band. They were edgy and scary. We heard rumours they threw raw meat into the crowd and they swore a lot. Nowadays I look at things like that and yawn. I mean, it’s all been done hasn’t it? Every generation has to find their edge and music performances get reinvented all the time.

When I saw Slipknot at Download in 2013 I thought it was going to be an edgy show, because Slipknot had that same feeling as W.A.S.P. – a band on the edge trying to go further than others and trying to make a statement. Now, their performance at Download was excellent and I was certainly made a stronger fan but was it edgy? Not really. The next morning in the B&B, I’m old and camping seemed a bad idea, there was a young couple talking about the performance and they were really impressed with the percussionists kit going into the air and turning while the guy played. This impressed me not as I saw Tommy Lee do that with the Motley Crue back in 1991 or so when they played Wembley Arena, but then, I reminded myself, I’m old.

If we want to see the proper shockers then I think we need to look at the generation before mine. Alice Cooper scared the world with his stage magic shows and ritual beheading. Throbbing Gristle combined music and performance art in the 70s with overtly sexual body mutilation. All this stuff is nothing new it’s just that every generation has to find their own way I guess.

I now inhabit a world of people who would be called freaks and perverts but I don’t really see it that way. It’s just people who dress a little differently and enjoy different things. What you may think as strange and shocking is just another person’s every Saturday night out. What I can say is that the community and safety in these environments is better than just walking down the high street on a Saturday afternoon. People’s inability for empathy and tolerance saddens me.

Long Beach Arena, for the final night of their 1986 87 world tour the most outrageous band in the world – W.A.S.P.

I’ve been told that this album was recorded while W.A.S.P. supported Iron Maiden on their world tour and I haven’t checked it but it sounds legit. What a gig that would have been! I first saw Maiden in 1988 and it was good but two years earlier and I would have seen W.A.S.P. rather than White Dwarf!!

W.A.S.P. were most famous to me as a teenager for two main things and they are both song based. One was the song officially called “Animal” but really it’s called “Fuck Like A Beast”, what an outrageous title! The song is so-so but it’s good fun. They also had a song called D-B Blues and while I have no idea what that is there was a line about pussy juice. I mean, how bad do you want to be? [It’s probably best to not mention the cover art for the song Animal].

I love that whole trashy 80s metal sound. I can’t help it. It does something to me. This live album has it in buckets. Plenty of simple chugging and gang vocals. I love it. I have played this album over and over and I definitely have it in different formats. I think it’s amazing.

You should get this album and play it loud while drunk on JD. It’ll really take you back to the 80s. As a native bass guitar player I like the steady combo of a bass and drums and this album has plenty of that. It works really well from a song construction point of view. I love rolling bass lines with drums blatting away being the force behind the main song. It almost doesn’t matter to me what the guitars do. It’s probably why I love AC/DC so much.

I’m not going to do a song by song breakdown of this album. There are some bad songs but mostly they are great and this has such a summer feel it’s good for playing in the garden while you relax on a nice summer’s day drinking Pimms or a bottle.

Now, W.A.S.P. have been accused of being named after a selection of religious idiots who are White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Now, there may be a selection of people out there who would happily wear this label it’s quite likely they are racist pricks. This band can’t be accused of being like that, their singer is a native american FFS. The mainstream likes to pick on all of that which comes across as a little different and demonise it because it’s a good feeling to be outraged by something and when you get to middle age you can’t stand the fun that the youth have.

Go and stream this album or even better buy the damn thing and make sure that the artist gets a fair reward for causing you some moments of joy.

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Live MCMXCIII – Velvet Underground

I’m pretty sure a friend gave me this album after he tried to clear away some of his music. I have listened to the whole thing a few times and it is quite nice. It’s a live album recorded in 1993 which I think was long after the Velvet Underground had exploded. This is an album of early rock music recorded in the 90s and is pretty good. You can see how this band influenced an entire generation of music makers. It’s worth getting.

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Captain Marvel

This afternoon, St Patrick’s Day, I went to the cinema to see the latest Marvel super hero offering – Captain Marvel. I noted the state of the tide and it was low, but there was also a new area of the mud bank that had been dredged and two barges were anchored in there properly afloat. I rated this film on IMDB and there’s a communication dealing with how the system works here.

I note that the poster for this film outside the cinema had an F-15 Strike Eagel based at RAF Lakenheath on it and this excited me, I thought I might get to see some decent military flying by the USAF but there wasn’t really any. Also, all the flying action took place in sandy places, even when returning from space because it would be impossible to associate any other kind of land type with aliens.

I really enjoyed this film. The first thirty seemed a little slow and I did think about having a nap but I didn’t want my head to lay on either person at my side so I forced myself to stay awake. I’m glad I did because I really enjoyed this film. Well worth watching.

The best thing about this movie was the positive and strong female role models within. Most of the soundtrack was by female artists and the whole thing effused oestrogen. This is how films should be. Strong positive female role models. Women should be doing these roles and they will kick your butt. Such a force for good in society.

Obviously there’s still all those issues about winning by hitting someone until they don’t get up. I’m not keen on those messages. I think we see enough of that from the G5 in the world. Oh, there was Jude Fucking Law, yeaugh.

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Live At The Underworld – Senser

I saw Senser at the Underworld when they supported the mixer chap from Slipknot. That was the first gig I ever took my niece to. I think she enjoyed it. I’m not sure where this CD comes from, it might be an extra as part of a DVD I bought. I’ve not really listened to it. I like the studio stuff very much.

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Live at Drury Lane – Monty Python

This is an album of a live comedy show. By Monty Python. At Drury Lane Theatre.

It’s fucking genius. I loved this after I bought it in my late teens and I listened to it a lot. I hadn’t really ever seen Monty Python on television and so this record of sketches really made me laugh and imagine the action on stage. The songs are still brilliant and I listen to it still.

I once tried to decode the Bruces’ Song and I played it over and over trying to work out the lyrics. I think I drove my mum mad with the repeating Aussie music. The best part of this was that I didn’t even really know a lot about philosophy and I certainly didn’t know what all the main players were called.

There is something special about the craziness of the action and the sheer stupidity of this album.

“Albatross”.

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Live After Death – Iron Maiden

In this ongoing slow series of album reviews we have reached all those that begin with “Live”. So we now get an eclectic mix of albums recorded live although I don’t think we will cover the best live album, which is probably No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith by Motorhead. I’m not sure how long this project is going to take. This series of communications started on 29 April 2013 and it’s nearly six years later and my music tastes have moved on. This list doesn’t include any albums I’ve purchased since 2013 and there’s a whole new genre to explore and explain. Anyway, onto Live After Death.

This album ROCKS. The gatefold sleeve was amazing and the images convinced me that Iron Maiden could put on a show. Even though all these songs are live and so will be individually reviewed elsewhere in this site this probably deserves some of its own mentions. This double album was recorded in Long Beach Arena and Hammersmith Odeon. Just the idea of having a job where you play an arena in California seemed amazing to me as a teenager. Of course, I also bought the video and watched it over and over.

I’m reasonably sure that W.A.S.P.s Live In The Raw was recorded on the same tour and that album is pretty amazing too. They supported Iron Maiden.

One of the appeals of this music is that it scares your parents. It’s a way of rebelling. It’s new and for you only. While at the same time being what all your mates listen to as well. You don’t want your parents to like this stuff and you want to make that break of the parental bond and music is one way of doing that. Before I was ten I grew up on a diet of ABBA and Jean Michel Jarre. While this is not bad music, I’d even say it’s bloody good, it wasn’t what I was after. I’ve talked about my descent into metal elsewhere and so will save you that story.

Iron Maiden had a monster on their album covers and the detail in the artwork was incredible. We all liked trying to find some new part of the image that no-one else had seen just to stand out, just to impress and show how much we concentrated on the art. Then there’s the stories of devil worship and Satan. The idea that this music was evil itself. I mean that’s bullshit but the puritanical press loved ranting about how this music was ruining the mind of children. The dying age of stiff-upper-lip and backward-repression of feelings and conformism was breaking as a new generation found their feet and wanted to make their mark. This happens all the time. I look at it now and think that I am just not that fussed by the new music. I have my niche and am happy to stick in it.

I think the bigger problem might be that trying to convince me your are weird or different is going to take some doing. I’ve been there and see it all. I’m still part of this counter-culture. I still go to club nights which would be considered “seedy” and rebellious. I mix with people whose day jobs are professional but who live in the boundary of conformism as we struggle to fit in to everyday society. What I do know about this culture is that I’ve never met an idiot or arsehole. Everyone seems to appreciate everyone else and people don’t make judgments. The society is more tolerant by definition and it survives and thrives because of that. It’s a microcosm of a better world where people are treated with respect and trust.

Back to this album. It kinda works on a sense of patriotism and harking back to the good times when Spitfires ruled the air and Britain worked to defeat evil [not my choice of words really and I struggle with the idea that the state can ask me to die for the state]. We start with Churchill’s fight them on the beaches speech with the sound of Rolls Royce engines in the background and BLAM – Aces High blasts out from the speakers.

After that we get one of my favourite Iron Maiden songs, Two Minutes To Midnight and its anti-war message. The lyrics in this astound me.

The body bags and little rags of children torn in two
And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you

These aren’t nice lyrics, they aren’t meant to be. They also don’t glorify war in the way that the popular press might have you believe about metal and heavy rock. It’s a song against war.

The Trooper is a classic. Along with Revelations I heard this album before I had Piece Of Mind. The live version of Revelations is better than the studio version by a long way. Again, lyrically it’s amazing.

The Flight Of Icarus is boring.

Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is a good song and deliberately long. It build the atmosphere for the whole song and comes crashing down at the end.

Powerslave I love. A brilliant song and a masterpiece in how to end a piece of music. I’ve always felt that fading a song out is a lazy way of ending a song but I don’t think you can get better than the last two minutes of this song as a way of exploring how to finish a masterpiece.

All the other songs are from the first three albums and by default are the best that Maiden have to offer.

Number Of The Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name [at about 150 bpm], Iron Maiden, Run To The Hills [a song explaining the mas slaughter of native Americans by white men], and then finally Running Free with its extra long audience participation which Dickinson manages with sheer aplomb.

The only problem with this album is that Sanctuary isn’t on it. But you can get it elsewhere. This is a stunner of a show.

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Licensed To Ill – Beastie Boys

I bought this album on a day trip to France with my secondary school. I remember that I was worried the album would be in French, I was somewhat naive. Can you imagine a band attempting to re-write every song for an album in the native language of every country where they wish to make a release?

This album came out and the band caused a fuss because people over the country started stealing VW symbols from the front of cars to wear on necklaces. Yes, that was a real thing in the mid-to-late 1980s. I never stole a car badge and I’m not quite sad enough to dress up as band members however, I did dress in a way to fit in with the metal crew, I dressed to fit. Teenagers, struggling to be different by rebelling along with all the others.

“Fight For Your Right” blazed through the sound waves and I remember being excited at this odd combination of heavy guitars and rapping over the top. It was good and worked really well. For similar amazement see the review of the album Judgement Night. Then, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” happened and it’s simple beat with crushing guitars and stupid solo was another breath of fresh air. The album had to be bought.

“Rhymin and Stealin” was my first and terrible introduction to Led Zeppelin. It had a drum beat sampled from Led Zep IV and I didn’t know that at the time. I wasn’t aware that bands would steal music or samples from other bands and recycle them. When I first listened to Led Zep IV I was rather shocked that the drum beat had me thinking of a rap band a further twenty years into the future.

There’s some classic 80s sexism in this album and I’m pretty sure, while it was a product of its time, it shouldn’t be erased from existence, all of these things need to be understood in the context of the zeitgeist.

If you like your singers white and shouty along with simple heavy guitars, stupid lyrics, and fun samples then this album is for you.

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Alita: Battle Angel

I’ve been to see the film Alita: Battle Angel at Rochester Cineworld cinema. It was a clear day and one where I actually managed less than 2000 steps so that’s quite impressive. I’ll tell you what’s not impressive: this film. But first, before I moan about this film I need to cover the height of the river. It was high when I went into the cinema, high enough for me to assume the tide was high. The river was lower when I left so that fits with my assumption. I wonder if the amount of rain affects this part of the river which is mostly tidal.

I rated this film on the IMDB site and there is a guide to the rating system, see this communication.

I’d had some hope for this film given it was written by James Cameron but I did know it was directed by Robert Rodriguez, when I saw his name in the credits an awful lot of this made sense. Apparently this film is based on a Manga series and I guess it shows to a certain extent. I like Manga and I like Manga films. Akira is a film I have seen numerous times and there are Manga Blu-ray in my collection. I love what comics do to film. However, this film was shit.

Virtually every plot line of this film was cliche. I couldn’t really see anything new. I got bored about half way through and after that I just kept moving in my seat and wondering when the film would finish. It is not a good film.

I’ll tell you what irritated me most. And that’s apart from the superfast battle scenes [which I’ve moaned about constantly within these communications, just because computers mean we can doesn’t mean we should] and stupid games of rollerball, the terrible dead daughter plot line, the weird emotionally dead like father, the strange nurse, the stupid fucking love interest, the murderer father who isn’t, the references to characters I didn’t understand, Jennifer Connelly is still very attractive which didn’t annoy me but just wanted to hide that fact in text, the poor plot, shit cybernetics, high-tech but poor society, falling rubbish from the sky city, and the what is that jewel in her head???????

I’ll tell you what irritated me. The URM irritated me. The United Republic of Mars might have sounded cool in the test rooms but it’s a stupid acronym and should never be spoken of again. Each time a character said it, URM, it sounded just like a natural pause in their speech. Stupid.

What is it with people falling in love in these films, being betrayed and lied to and then they continue to do their best for these people. If you get betrayed or lied to move on. Tell that person to jog on. Get them out of your life they aren’t worth it. You’ll be happier in the end. These stupid films and their infatuations. She’s a teenage girl with her first crush and yet she’s prepared to die for the twat? Get real, dump the loser and get yourself a decent lad who’s not going to lie or cheat. I was happy when he died. It gave her the chance to get on with her plans.

Why does Alita have to “win” her way to the massive city? She’s an URM [?] battle warrior, she could just go and destroy it. Oh, how I hated this film. why does her heart pump liquid? She’s a cyborg, why would it do that? It seems quite inefficient to me. Why is her heart “heart” shaped? Why is it in her chest? Why is there a panel that opens easily to her heart when it’s her power source? Why isn’t it the most protected part of her body? I hated it.

Get online and watch Rollerball and The Running Man I can assure you those films will give you better ideas of the future than this pile of poo.

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