After enjoying the Quay Brothers’ movies at Cinema Nova [review] I headed for the Magasin 4, where Noise Destruction Syndrome (Tour 2007) had landed. As Nyko (Ripit, Riposte Recs) who swapped Paris for Brussels some time ago, was one of the co-organisers, this fest promised to become a beatnoise/powerelectronics-event. I had expected some breaks too, but nothing of that sort happened (I don’t dig breakbeats anyhow). And come thinking of it, I didn’t spot that many beats at all actually.
When I arrived at the M4 Tzii and Nkondi had already finished their respective sets. The first project that I saw was Flutwacht, who I had already met last year, when I was on tour with Crank Sturgeon and Gastric Female Reflex – In comparison with the one Flutwacht gig that I had seen so far [at Gazoil Organ in Vreren, at a fest carrying the same name as tonights' event - review] Flutwacht had much less pedals with him, and threw in a bit more body in his set, banging and scraping a sheet of metal and an empty oil barrel. He did play quite long (some 60 minutes, cool thing is that he pushed his set another 15 minutes beyond the moment when they came to tell him that it was about time to stop).
Pitty he didn’t get the soundvolume he deserved (Diskoster went to the PA a couple of times asking for more volume, but he got ignored).
Your show being killed by some dude behind the PA is one thing, but there are a couple of things that you really shouldn’t do as a band, like wearing shorts on stage (they make you look like a roadie, unless you combine it with a bandana, like Axl Rose does), wear a T-shirt with the name of your own band on (in full-fledge Iron Maiden-font) and play for more than an hour. It’s commonly known that people’s attention starts to fade off from the 20th minute on, unless you start to show dick – Instead of showing dick, Antracot (vs Antrox - starting your name with ant seems to be quite hot, pitty Anthrax was already taken), who broke all of the above rules, started a green lasershow – in 1993 or so I’ve seen The Sisters of Mercy do exactly the same thing, only on a larger scale. Speaking of names, with a name like Antracot you get the risk of getting this kind of scenary:
Girl: “Do you know the next band – Antracot?”
Me: “What? Entrecôte?”
(If you don’t know what Entrecôte means, and hence are missing the pun, check it out in wikipedia ).
All that put aside Entrecôte’s set wasn’t that bad, it sure had some strong moments, deep basses (coming out of a thing that looked as if was once part of an U-boot) and straight forward electronics – the main problem was its length (more than 60 minutes – this seems to be a problem of many German bands), so much of the good parts in it where smothered by the lesser parts.
Mourmansk 150 vs Ripit didn’t push their set further than some 40 minutes, which is quite right as length (within the limits – most bands I know don’t push their sets further than 15 to 20 minutes). Power electronics, some beats (not as much as I had expected) and Mourmansk 150 on vocals, screaming the guts out of his body, something that was necessary as at one moment the guy at the PA decided that he had to turn down his mike.
I kinda understands Andrew Seals’ frustration (Praying for Oblivion, Tote Stadt) – who, pushed in a corner of the stage, had big troubles getting his sound right and apparently was plagued by a bunch of technical problems. I don’t really think people at the M4 minded that a lot, and I think things could have been saved with a bit of body and a bit of impro (by getting of the stage f.i.), but instead Andrew turned his frustration onto his gear, throwing his pedals in the audience, almost knocking down some stuff of people that had played before him – he had better thrown his stuff at the PA cause that’s where the main source of frustration was situated.
Bitter, another act that I’ve already seen a couple of times before did a straight forward power electronics set (actually I’m more into his harsher stuff), him too screaming the guts out of his body – at one time jumping of the stage and yelling “You are the problem!” in the ears of a couple onlookers. Pitty his microphone cable wasn’t long enough to reach the PA-desk, cause the main problem of the evening was situated over there. Bitter didn’t get spared either: soundvolume could have been a tad louder, and those volume-fluctuations during his set were quite disturbing – at one moment his mike got turned down, as was the case with Praying for Oblivion and the Mourmansk 150/Ript-collab-set. The Magasin 4, situated in an old warehouse, is a friendly place and a cool hang-out, but one advice: bring your own sound-engineer (preferably a sturdy one) with you and post him next to that of the M4.
Also worth mentioning is the nice selection of Japanese gore-movies that Nyko had selected to serve as an intermezzo between the bands. Puss a galore!
Links, pictures etc up soon.
Mourmansk 150 vs Ripit