XI Wrocław Industrial Festival

Sound and vocal duo of the mysterious name 11 is a unique phenomenon on the grounds of Polish experimental music. It is hard to even call this formation a “band” – it is rather a form of musical and verbal play, set up by the responsible for the composition, sound architecture and production Pawel Cieslak (known from various groups such as Fonovel, Blisko Pola, Almost Dead Celebrities or TRYP to name just a few) and author of lyrics and vocal passages – Marcin Pryt (19 Wiosen, TRYP). Their only album up to date, Gettokosmos, is intended to be an experiment, the creation of an universe where they can easily propagate the ideas of cosmic liberation and the area for transmitting informations from parallel worlds. If listeners of this material will reflect for a moment the status of the human-ghetto prisoners, the “cosmic ghetto” and feel empathy with the characters of short stories from the disc, the objective of the authors can be considered as achieved. Surrealistic stories are accompanied by music definitely referring to the industrial tradition, but presented in a distinctive, modernized and very original way. Analog and digital sounds are combined, melody collides with noise, drastically sound-reverbed melodaclamations are backgrounded with noise passages. Raw energy and originality – this is the easiest way to describe this project in one sentence.

Kaleidoscopic journey, dark version of lounge, morbid bits dipped in tradition of the sixties, postindustrial sexadelics, unhealthy embient and heavy, heavy lyrics – this is music of one-person italian band called Ait!, brought to life by Tauro Ceron. It is not easy task to categorize this project – one can call it as multiheaded sound hybrid, born from various elements from postindustrial scene, filtered through prism of experimenting and searching for the new ways of expression. This music is a journey to a dark carnival from an alien land where time blends between ages and everything that is sleazy, dark and playful is somehow preserved against erosion. Decadent atmosphere of all project’s compositions summons visions of old pink movies, denny night clubs and forgotten cabarets. Ait! cooks his music from concotion of neofolk, neoclassicism, circus music, lunge, vintage soundtracs, jazz noise and different faces of experiment. If you are looking on industrial genre for something really fresh, new and innovative – then you have found it – the darkest disco ever.

Boyd Rice is one of the most provocative and debatable underground figures of the post-punk era. A pioneering noise musician and countercultural maven, from the late 1970s to the present he has worked in an array of capacities, playing the roles of: musician, performer, artist, photographer, essayist, interviewer, editor, occult researcher, filmmaker, actor, orator, deejay, gallery curator and tiki bar designer, among others. First coming to prominence as an avant-garde audio experimentalist (recording under the moniker NON), Rice was a seminal founder of the first wave of industrial music in the late 1970s. Rice’s influence on subculture was further exerted through his forerunning exhibition of found photographs and readymade thrift store art, as well as his adamant endorsements of outsider music, tiki culture and bygone pop culture in general. Rice continues to explore these and other realms of artistic and musical expression as the decade nears its end. Boyd Rice has proven one of the most consistently influential and contentious characters of the last 30 years of American counterculture. He’s covered an incredibly prolific amount of artistic, conceptual and ideological ground, and his work continues to profoundly affect the countercultural underground at large, inspiring and enraging in equal measure.

There were bands like Can in Germany, Nurse With Wound in UK, The Residents in USA, and there were Déficit Des Années Antérieures in France. Formed in 1979 by 3 artists from the Beaux-Arts of Caen: Jean-Luc André, Sylvie Martineau-Fée and Jean-Philippe Fée, DDAA was one of the leaders of the independent, experimental, industrial 80s French scene with their highly artistic, peculiar and thoughtful vision. From a music post-punk/avant-garde/surréaliste made improvisations and collages, DDAA creates a world of the strange, captivating, borrowing naivety and emotions. This is a music mixture concocted from experimental electronics, avant-punk, free improv, industrial, lo-fi-no-wave and other ingredients that makes DDAA so unique. Thre is no other band on the whole music scene of the world like DDAA – there is no corresponding music act at all.

Industrial project from France, active from 1986. La Nomenklatur is part of the Les Nouvelles Propagandes – family around Tiburce (La Nomenklatur, Minamata, Sonntag, Tiburce). The sound of La Nomenklatur can be described as a very intensive mix of old school industrial sounds, extreme vocals, atmospheric and melodic parts, metal percussions and intelligent used samples. La Nomenklatur seems to be a project between old school industrial and post industrial genres like power electronics and martial industrial.

Psychosomatic electric no muzik – it is the best way to describe Nonstate – audio-visual project of Maciej Ozog (the former member of Spear, ben zeen and Aural Treat) and Bartłomiej Kuźniak (the composer and musician, the leader of 2g and 3 Metry, co-founder of Sub Spa, QKS, Golden Nine and zajeb.mu). Nonstate’s music is a result of the exploration of liminal spaces “in between”: between noise and silence, between audible and what is beyond the range of human hearing, between flesh and bit of information, between analogue and digital. Nonstate uses sound as a tool for transgression of these binary opposites as well as the space for experimentation and analysis of the network of constant flows between them in relation to human perception. The play of opposite forces and the playing with them produce an extreme psychosomatic experience on the border of trans and meditation. Nonstate uses analogue and digital synthesisers, prepared and bended electronic tools of various kind as well as prepared acoustic and electronic instruments. Nonstate’s live performances join sound with multiscreen video projections made of pre-recorded and real-time generated images by VJ Mac Umatik.

Uncompromising attitude filled with punk rebelliousness and heavy rhythmics electronics – this is the best decription of Portion Control, warhorses of british industrial scene. The band calls its music style electropunk or hard rhythmic electronics. They have been honored and name checked by the likes of Depeche Mode, Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails among others and also as being responsible for sound tracking the entire cyber-goth genre, and helping craft early techno. The energy, dynamics, creativity and immediacy of Portion Control does not waste any time getting right to the point. After all this years since their beginnings in 1979 music of the project is still fresh and powerful. Their songs, incorporating drum’n’bass, electro, noise and ambience are still unequalled standard in merging of experiment with non-pop dance music. This lasting for over 30 years living legend is one of the most important milestones on the path of industrial movement and connected stylistics of electronic music.

Prague based duo Radio Royal uses all the kinds of waste sound (audio feedback, hiss, hum, scratched vinyls) and found audio (old cassetes, magnetic tape and vinyls) and turns them into the specific mixture of noise and easy listening. Quite contemporary sound is all created by digging into old media and using some old fashion equipment like tape echos and cheap reverb. Music of the project is an erratic blend of psychedelic and spaced-out propulsions, chameleonic improvisation sections, psychotic squeezing noise forays, mesmerizing repetition-heavy electronica, however, ideologically resulting from the tradition of early electronic days (regarding the academic or classical music circuits) and the synthesis-induced krautrock alchemy (Conrad Schnizler, Roedelius-Moebius) and the tradition of NY, California and Chicago-based improvised noise and sound art.

Even today one can create music filled with nostalgia, beauty and melody and without cheap and tender stardust – Rome, leaded by Luxembourgian Jerome Reuter, is excellent example of this fact. In our times, when neofolk genre was considered dead and eating its own tail, Rome seems to be a future and rescue boat for the whole neofolk scene. There is no place here for plain guitar chords. Music of the project transgresses conventionality, enters the grounds of postindustial esthetics and adds experimental quality to it. This fresh combination of sounds – crafty guitars, martial rhythmics, accesible melodies and entrancing dark voice – can enchant the listener and take his mind on a trip to other worlds. In some songs combinaton of guitars and synths Rome goes far beyond neofolk, and embracing dar and new wave. Sound atmosphere, which is offered to us by tha band, is full of intimacy, contradictory emotions, gloominess and harmony. This is a fresh breath of neofolk.

Scattered Order, formed in 1979 in Australia, was at the moment of creation presumed as something quite unusual and extraordinary in their homeland. Too harsh or experimental for the post-punk indie rock scene or too rock/pop for acceptance into the more traditional experimental scene, they’ve become enfant terrible of australian underground. As their name suggests, Scattered Order’s input comes in apparently random scoops from here and there to be shaped and assembled under a grand design of their own. Confounding and surprising listeners for decades with their genre bending approach to sound and blending together noise and tune, the music of the project is a sonic assault of loops, samples and distorted guitars.Using “tried and trusted” but ageing samplers, MiniDiscs, audio cassettes and other deleted media mixed up with a whole lot of guitars and held together with some new found computer technology string, their plan is to DIY reverse engineer their way to the summit, demolishing and building tunes on the way.

When Section 25, band from Blackpool, debuted in 1977, they gained cult status straightaway. Their dipped in post-punk rebelliousness music was described as something extraordinary. Punk aggression with element of novelity made the band one of the favourite acts of Ian Curtis from Joy Division (he produced their debut single). Their sound, merging electronics, harsh post-punk and cosmic psychedelia, was far beyond post-punk paradigm and closer to experiment. As one of the artists of prestigious Factory label, Section 25 was representatives of its more avant-garde wing. Music of the band was always full of expression and anticipated by a decade massive beats and ambient, so popular in 90s. Hypnotic bass lines, motoric drums and corroded tunes and feedbacks made the sound of the band so unique – even on the rich British scene. After hiatus in 80s the band returned with its fresh version, oriented toward vigorous electronics.

What is the meaning of the word juggernaut? It is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as mercilessly destructive and unstoppable, an unstoppable antagonist, an unbeatable opponent; it is large, overpowering, destructive force or object, one that destroys or that demands complete self-sacrifice. You can imagine that a music project that took this name does not offers easy listening. Musicians behind Belgian act The Juggernauts say: Don’t expect us to play acoustic guitars, flutes or bagpipes and we will also not claim we have come up with a brand new style and sound. This declaration is a pure truth and is reflected in compositions of Borg (from The Klinik and Vomito Negro) and Glenn (Radical G.). Almost complete lack of melodies, accent on extremely strong rhythmics, cold and precise machine beats – The Juggernauts with their uncompromising attitude are one of the most radical EBM acts.

In 1985, Marc Verhaeghen joined forces with two other bands, Absolute Body Control, and The Maniacs to form one supergroup Absolute Controlled Clinical Maniacs. This rather unwieldy name was soon dropped in favour of the shorter name The Klinik. Together with Front 242 and The Neon Judgement, The Klinik can be considered as one of the most influential groups from the Belgian electronic/industrial scene. Coming from the minimal, coldwave, industrial techno space, they didn’t need to resort to cheap tactics such as cranking up the volume to make your ears bleed. Klinik do not need to do that to make an impact as they have a full understanding, appreciation of the constructional approach to composition of electronic music that weaves together original sound creation, efficient (and therefore minimalist) use of recording tracks. There is little to no personal ego involved here, but personal principles are obviously being applied. The result explains why Klinik have been an influence on countless other artists down the years. The best acts know when less is more. Klinik understand this impeccably. Combine that with a rare talent for musical creativity and it should be no surprise that Klinik are as revered as much as they are.

The musical project Tzolk’in is a collaboration between Empusae and Flint Glass – artists who are known in the fields of dark ambient, contemporary ritualistic tribal music and experimental electronica. This project is a conceptual creation inspired by Mayan mythology and the ancient Mayan astrological calendar of the same name. From the beginning their approach to sound resulted in quite a few novel musical perspectives: the merging of Empusae’s distinct dark, oppressive and brooding soundscapes and Flint Glass’s characteristic rhythmic and ambient compositions (which are seemingly subject to an almost alien purpose and theme). The final product is majestic and epic, often martial and bellicose, with a sense of tragedy that at times is even quite meditative. Tzolk’in can easily be viewed as an exotic soundtrack to the phantoms of a dead civilization or more simply put, music that is inspired by a doomed Mayan divination system.

Wieloryb (polish word for „whale”) is without any doubt one of the veterans of Polish industrial scene. Founded in 1994 entered various paths of electronic revolution: from techno-industrial, through minimal techno, hardstep, dub ambient, to trip hop, new electro and thythmic noise – that is why the word „electronics” seems to be perfect keyword to understanding artistic identity of the project. Wieloryb’s sound is saturated with radical experiment and filled with sense of researching for some new ways of expression. Sometimes loud and aggresive, other times tranquil and mesmerizing, but always rhythmic. During its existence project used various stylistics and artistic conceptions – from the hommage to classical electroacoustics, through researching of human voice, to some dance forms.