Totem records, Vienna

Other purchases in Vienna include:

Nocturnal Emissions : Duty Experiment


I've only ever heard of Nocturnal Emissions on the liner notes to Front Line Assembly's Millennium album, where it is nestled inside a mini-NWW list of bands FLA liked. This list has, for many years, served as a shopping list wherever possible (best finds were Bourbonese Qualk and Cabaret Voltaire, though).

Picked up this disc of studio offcuts and rejects, really enjoyed it because it's truly corrosive -all acid synths, petulant drums, squalling effects and that great, disorientating feeling that these post-punk, early industrials albums have of genuinely throwing you off-balance because they shock and jolt the listener with their sonic leaps; drum patterns and structure one minute, blurts of electro-snot coughs the next, then a sample, then some funk, then some noise and so on.

What else?

Der Blutharsch - Der Sieg Des Lichtes Ist Des Lebens Heil!

Fucking cool. The 1st Der Blutharsch album (untitled) was great, a seamy mix of taboo-tottering German War anthems, skewed sampledelica and nasty noise with bombastic orchestral samples...really weird. This is no different, just better organised. Heavy on the sinister orchestral business, a Swiss-version of the WWII German song and some proper post-industrial neo-folky chanting such as "You are Odin's son" and "Be careful with your blood" (or something to this effect).

I also picked up the weirder:

Der Blutharsh: Everything is alright!

A bit of a change in tone, this is a collection of inaccessible one-offs, rarities and great lost tracks. The 'Everything is alright' no doubt refers to the relief of completists who're unable to hear any of these tracks because the 200 ltd 12" sold out or, more likely, because Der Blutharsch is proper fucker and leaves all of his songs 'untitled' so, when you hop on Discogs, you don't know if that £180 split 12" rarity you've never heard of is a track you have or not.

This rectifies that, though I only wanted it because it nearly sits between his brutally martial period and his new, psychedelic 60s freak-out phase of late. So, this is still focused on sample-manipulation and neo-folky themes, but with a lighter tone and the inclusion of some warped, skrewed rock/folk/soul-sounding samples (though, Jungle this ain't). There's more emphasis on vocals from Albin Julius (DB himself) and friends who're droning, chanting, repetitive lines in a spooky apocalyptic manner but with a bit of wry humour. Sort of if Crazy World of Arthur Brown hooked up with NON for a play fight.

Enjoyable and varied, if sometimes a bit too bonkers.