The dilemma of whether to listen to electronic music sitting down in an environment with good acoustics or standing and dancing in an environment with not so great acoustics, will remain unresolved. But what is certain, is that once you get to listen to electronic music with great acoustics, this dilemma will puzzle you no more.
Das Ich, Red Sun Revival, Astari Nite, Machine Rox live in London 2018
Posted: 4th March 2018 by blaue-rosen in Live reviews,InterviewsTags: Astari Nite live in London 2018, Das Ich Astari Nite UK tour 2018, Das Ich live in London 2018, Electrowerkz gigs 2018, Flag Promotions gigs 2018, Red Sun Revival live in London 2018
If only all the gigs in London were as good as this one! We had an amazing time at this gig and so did everyone else who made this, a sold out gig. Apart from a few, quickly resolved, technical problems with the sound for both Red Sun Revival and Das Ich, this whole evening went exactly as planned. The announced stage times were fully respected, the music in between the bands’ appearances was great and relevant and apart from very few exceptions, everyone was well behaved.
Sadly I had to miss the futuristic show of Machine Rox and their special live cover version of Iggy Pop’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog‘, but I managed to be on time for Astari Nite.
Word Made Flesh-Album review and interview
Posted: 23rd January 2018 by blaue-rosen in Album reviews, Live reviews,InterviewsTags: Gabriel Edvy video The Forest, Gabriel Edvy video Word Made Flesh, music interview, Phil Barry interview, Word Made Flesh debut album 2017, Word Made Flesh interview
As Bacon said, ‘The ideas in the Unconscious mind are far more interesting than from the Conscious mind.’
There is something fascinating about a ritualistic atmosphere and I think that people who do not engage in rituals, experience it differently and dare I say, perhaps more intensely. In short, just approach this album cautiously unaware of the fact that at the end, it will have such a strong grip on your mind that you will have to invoke all of your different types of strength in order to set it free!
The debut album of Word Made Flesh a.k.a Phil Barry and Keith Baker, that was released in October 2017 and is entitled ‘Word Made Flesh’, was included in our soundtrack for 2017 because we loved the conceptual and emotional weight its rhythms have placed on our psyche.Both musicians are involved in other projects, Phil Barry in Cubanate and Be My Enemy and Keith Baker in Nimon, Displacer, Be My Enemy. The sound of the album ‘Word Made Flesh’ is very different from all the other projects of Phil and Keith. With its 10 soundscapes, this album feels as if it is creating a musical wormhole that pulls us in, at times with the chaotic energy of power noise, borrowing from the aesthetics of psych trance (i.e. first half of ‘The Clock Stops‘, ‘Death Posture‘), other times with the mind-numbing energy of a slow moving wave (i.e.’The Process‘) or even by creating a powerful vortex made of repetitive sounds (i.e. first half of ‘Black Mirror‘). There are noise industrial parts throughout the album that increase the tempo momentarily and add a rusty, flaky, metallic texture to the grave sounding, strategically placed, vocals (i.e. ‘Heretic‘) that talk ceremoniously about cryptic things. Each song is like a many headed hydra, constantly reinventing itself throughout its duration. This is in short, how the energy of this album is structured and these are the elements with which Word Made Flesh, create a highly ritualistic album, ‘borrowing’ equally from the aesthetics of religious ceremonies and psychedelic ones in order to talk about an approach to life.
Trisomie 21 live in London 2017
Posted: 15th January 2018 by blaue-rosen in Live reviews,InterviewsTags: Oslo Hackney gigs 2017, Trisomie 21 live in London 2017, Trisomie 21 world tour 2017, Trisomie 21 World Tour 2018
Pas une fête triste mais plutôt une fête émotionnelle, mélodique, dynamique et merveilleuse par voie sonore…
The show of Trisomie 21 in London, was much anticipated by at least two generations of music lovers. People had travelled from Oxford, Liverpool and other parts of the country, in order to see the legendary band of the French new wave scene of the 1980s perform live.
The mood was very positive in the venue while people were communicating the surprise and joy for seeing this band perform live. The rich 
merchandise at the entrance was attracting a lot of interest despite the fact that the first two reissued LPs of the band were not available. Three guitars that were placed at the back of the stage underneath the band’s banner, were already framing our views.
The Frozen Autumn-Interview
Posted: 6th January 2018 by blaue-rosen in Live reviews,InterviewsTags: Diego Merletto interview, Froxeanne interview, music interview, The Frozen Autumn interview 2017, The Frozen Autumn The Fellow Traveller, The Frozen Autumn The Fellow Traveller 2017
After listening to their latest beautiful album entitled ‘The Fellow Traveller‘ a few times, I just wanted to, theoretically, pick up the phone and congratulate The Frozen Autumn in person. It is precious to come across such inspired work.With this album, it is as if the band created an area of ‘light’ in this dystopian world. This is not an album that makes a critique to the conditions that envelope all of us, it is an album that makes us look ‘up’ and ‘over’ what is here now.It glorifies the synthesizers, it talks about voyages, it talks about space and most importantly it has humour, not dark humour but this gentle and kind humour that lifts the spirit up and soothes the heart.Because we liked this album so much that we included it in our soundtrack for 2017, we wanted to speak with The Frozen Autumn about their work and show them through our questions how much we appreciate what they have created.
It is not a given that a band replies sincerely to questions, it is not a given that a band will find an interview interesting and it is definitely not a given that positive feedback will be provided. All these great things happened and created the 
impression that the new year will be very exciting. The Frozen Autumn offered us their time in order to discuss about the new album, their new explorations as musical ‘travellers’, the visuals of the new album, the merits and complexities of the distribution of music on the web and their previous gig in London. If there is one extremely important conclusion to be drawn then it is this: unless ‘we’ (and by ‘we’, i mean organizers, venues, promoters, technicians etc) here in London get ‘our’ act together, we will not get to see this amazing band perform live again!This is what Diego and Froxeanne told us:
Boy Harsher-Interview
Posted: 23rd December 2017 by blaue-rosen in Live reviews,InterviewsTags: BOY Harsher 'Country Girl EP' tour 2017, Boy Harsher european tour 2017, Boy Harsher interview, music interview, post punk bands
A few days before the end of this musically beautiful year and following their sold out show in London that was one of the most memorable live performances of 2017, Boy Harsher took the time to join us in an interview. The live at The Shacklewell Arms was a unique opportunity to see this band perform live for the first time in London even though the experience was challenging both for the audience and the band for different reasons. We can only hope that there will be another gig in London in a bigger venue more suitable to accommodate the growing audience of Boy Harsher.
In the interview that follows, Jae and Gus talk about their recent EP ‘Country Girl‘, their tour in support of this release, their experience from London, a gig that played an important role in the development of their shows and their philosophy. Boy Harsher will be joining The Soft Moon in their US tour later in 2018!
The Eden House,The Skeletal Family, The Society, Siberia live at O2 Academy Islington 2017
Posted: 4th December 2017 by blaue-rosen in Live reviews,InterviewsTags: Siberia live at O2 Academy Islington 2017, Siberia live in London 2017, The Eden House live 2017, The Eden House live in London 2017, The Eden House Songs for the Broken Ones UK tour 2017, The Skeletal Family live at O2 Academy Islington 2017, The Skeletal Family live in London 2017, The Society live at O2 Academy Islington 2017, The Society live in London 2017
It is quite hard to describe the psychology of going to a gig of a band that one loves, especially when this gig is about the presentation of the band’s latest album. I consider ‘Songs For The Broken Ones‘ to be the best album of The Eden House to date and it has been too long since the last time I saw Monica Richards (who is playing a major role in this album) perform, so this gig had all the ingredients to be a perfect one. Apart from The Eden House whose show was both mesmerizing and beautiful, this was an evening with many surprises, but let me take things from the beginning.
KALEIDA live at Birthdays
Posted: 7th November 2017 by blaue-rosen in Live reviews,InterviewsTags: KALEIDA live at Birthdays 2017, KALEIDA live in London 2017
I had no intention of writing a review about this gig as I was not sure whether I would be there, so I arrived at Birthdays relaxed and without my camera…what a big mistake that was!
KALEIDA had impressed us with the release of their debut album Tear The Roots in September so, the humid and heavy atmosphere of that night, did not stop people from 
completely filling the basement venue in order to see them live. 20 minutes to 10, the lights were turned off and a caped figure holding a bouquet of 
white dahlia flowers, appeared amidst the crowd. Christina Wood, the caped barefoot figure, then took her place on stage and started placing some of the dahlias on the edge of the stage before giving three of them to people at the front row.
This entrance, had already won everyone over, even before the first song was finished. Christina was dressed in white, while Cicely (Goulder) and Zosia Jagodzinska (cello and drums), were dressed in black suits.
IRFAN live at 100Club
Posted: 9th October 2017 by blaue-rosen in Live reviews,InterviewsTags: 100Club gigs 2017, IRFAN live at 100 Club 2017
IRFAN is a band from Bulgaria that does not play live very often but their music and especially the atmosphere they create while on stage, is unique. Audiences had the opportunity and pleasure, to see IRFAN perform at the Schauspielhaus in Leipzig during WGT in 2012.Since then, the band has released their latest album entitled ‘The Eternal Return’ which was closer in terms of style and musical references to the debut album entitled ‘Irfan’ and quite different from ‘Seraphim’. The influences in the sound of IRFAN are many and craftily combined to create a unique sound that has elements from eastern liturgical chant (more prominent in the debut album), eastern folk music and neoclassical/ethereal music.
It is not often that I am impatient about a gig, but this was one of those times. IRFAN is a band whose music style does has an audience in this country but this audience is very rarely given the opportunity to watch such a band play live. Taking this aside, the fact that a band like IRFAN would play live at the notorious (for jazz gigs in the late 40s and for punk gigs during the 70s) 100Club, would inspire someone to write a surreal poem…or that’s what I think. And yet, all these unlikely events happened on a magical September’s night.