“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”-Albert Einstein
June was a particularly interesting month in terms of its album releases, the most favourite of which, make a journey from ethereal folk towards doom post-rock.
During this month, I found myself delving more into the condition of ‘post‘ both in music and in art in general. It was actually a definition of ‘the post’, that was provided in one of the numerous student projects at the Architectural Association, combined with a memorable variété/architectural event inside the Hippodrome Casino about post-modern architecture, that enlightened me in such a way that I can now ‘see’ post music with new eyes.
One of the multiple definitions was: ‘A post is a position or a state that defines where or how something or someone has to be, as it was meant to be’. Another one said ‘…a post is a node, a meeting point, a gathering spot. A post is where people converge towards…’.
The releases of Band of Holy Joy, The Membranes, Red Velvet Deception, Vlimmer, The Man&His Failures, BLVCK CEILING, Death’s Head, VOID//GIST, Constant Mongrel, PLAID and Such Beautiful Flowers all tap into different aspects of post music by stressing its ‘heavier’ industrial side, the more emotional coldwave side or even its more vindictive punk side.
May is usually the time of year when we start preparing ourselves for our annual visit to the beautiful city of Leipzig. The 28th WGT is less than a month away and we’d just thought to give you a summary of the highlights of the festival for this year.
The festival’s line up accommodates once again, every taste from power electronics to dark ambient and rock. There are 20 bands from the UK (Alien Vampires, Am Not, Arhai, Cradle of Filth, Cubanate, Darkher, Double Echo, Empathy Test, Empirion, Evi Vine, Inkubus Sukkubus, Lene Lovich band, New Model Army, Nitzer Ebb, October Burns Black, Sad Lovers and Giants, The Adicts, New Model Army, UK Decay, White Lies), that will perform in the festival this year and several bands which have been in a hiatus for many years but will reunite and perform exclusively for the festival. Let’s not forget the famous after parties, which will feature favourite UK-based DJs behind the decks as well.
We had been waiting for this gig ever since the debut album of Whispering Sons was released in October 2018. The initial line up for this gig included Ice Baths, the debut album of which we also loved and were looking forward to listen to it live. Ice Baths were not included in the line up after all but this meant that we got to know the music of Ilia Gorovitz instead. Humble and without engaging too much with the people that had already arrived early at The Lexington, Ilia took his place at the front of the stage behind the drums and for the next 30’or so, created an improvised industrial sound which became more dynamic through the live drums that he had incorporated. The set did not have any vocals and Ilia often had to reprogram the pitch of the drums in between songs which became a bit distracting. His debut album entitled ‘The Noble Rot‘ was self released a few days after the gig and it is the first recording of an improvisational set. His EP entitled ‘A Dose of Uncertainty’ also contained recordings of improvisational sets and we had the unique chance to enjoy glimpses from both during this gig. Despite the fact that the sound in this debut album is very ‘dry’, during Ilia’s live set, his sound had much more depth, giving a captivating power to the beats. This is a promising musician and we will definitely have more chances to enjoy his music in the future.