GRIM MACHINE-Ghost Industrial-(E.T.C.-Greece-2017)+Hiss Tape-(Concrete Noise/E.T.C.-Greece-2018)+Exotica Mystica-(Concrete Noise/Ru.Mor.Re-Greece-2018)

This is the second post about Grim Machine, in fact, I posted already quite a few of his early productions + the first part of this well-done biography written by the Alexander himself, you find that post here.

A very big thanx to this amazing artist for his contribution and digital gifts.

Grim Machine is a solo project by Alex M. (The Zyklons, Black Faun)
through found/modified instruments and homemade/readymade sounds it deals with noise and improvisation as machinery made to attack reality, more or less, a useless skronk of freedom. I swapped a few emails with Alexander, the headmaster of this project, He kindly wrote a biography based on his releases.

"Ghost Industrial, which followed shortly after, is an experiment on duration and continuity, a mechanical transcending wall of noise made from MRI scanner loops saturated and manipulated to the point of total destruction/ no recognition, where machine signals become the howling sound of human absence.
The next release was Hisss Tape, February 2018, an experiment inspired by Giacomo Leopardi’s thoughts on Philosophy of the Useless. It is the presentation of a sound/noise archive of every day and “useless” sounds by means of music concrete synthesis. The idea was to form a psychological palindrome narrative of sound itself, with no entry point and no way out. Side A is a 30 minute amplified total distorted cut up pastiche and side B consists of an everyday found-sound collage.
At that time GM started to explore furthermore the use of non- electro-acoustic devices and small instruments creating noise-scapes resembling natural and ethnographical or imaginary world sounds, questioning the distinction between the artificial and natural environment, perception and false identification. Following a growing interest on Field recordings and world traditional music from a sociopolitical point of view, 2018’s Exotica Mystica is the first step towards the idea of OTHER WORLD MUSIC, a “theory in practice” concept based on pan-ethnological primitivism, the primeval impulse of expression and creativity found in common universal roots, sound in ritual acts, a multi-layered experience of self -identification and social identity. The ideological standpoint of OTHER WORLD MUSIC is to utilize sound like an eternal instrument towards total freedom, to blend elements of universal heritage, cultural and artistic, in a free interpretation /statement constructing a collective subconscious soundtrack. To eliminate race, colour, gender, language, time, space…Every sound is played by real instruments or analogue gear and then processed in order to construct a new faux traditional field recording of a hypothetical lost unknown tribe, sans ethnicity and location, a future omen.

Nowadays GM’s main source of inspiration remains ancient art, symbols, myths, and rituals. Though the album releases of GM are conceptual and thematic, live performances are totally improvised rituals where primal form and structural narrative can be organized into a language addressing issues of spontaneity, evolvement, and deliverance. By blending sequences of sound in an unbroken continuity of loop layers and real-time processed physical sources, GM explores the use of noise as a medium of communication and improvisation as a way of storytelling.
Apart from the Grim Machine project, Alex M. also runs Concrete Noise DIY label and is a founding member of the long-lived Greek noise entity BLACK FAUN and the free jazz/improv duo The Zyklons. From 1998 and on he has been in many DIY HC/punk bands with varied discography. As Grim Machine he has 6 releases in E.C.T/ E.D.A and RU.MO.RE cassette/cdr labels and a split tape that includes his soundtrack version to the film Begotten by E.Elias.Merhige. He also participates in NOISE FROM THE RUINS OF EUROPE compilations #1 & 2 that present experimental music from the Balkan and Eastern Europe area. As a live act, he has played RTP festival, Noise Annoys fest, Kino-Bruitism, Multidom/Multeece, Signal Noise Soundsystem and lots of live concerts all around Greece."

To complete this post I am including a video of one of his performance taken from his Youtube channel.

Enjoy it.
:f(a*r:a)w:a{y~
click me 

_

https://grimmachine.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/grim_machine
https://soundcloud.com/thezyklons
https://www.facebook.com/BlackFaun/
https://www.discogs.com/label/1264202-ECT

 

GRIM MACHINE-Decay-(Concrete Noise-Greece-Mini Cdr-2013)+Still Lives-(Concrete Noise-Greece-Mini Cdr-2013)+Ancient Future(M/Stick-Not On Label)+ Heterodoxa-Une Totale Midnight Chamber Music-(E.D.A./E.T.C. Tapes-Greece-2017)

Grim Machine is a solo project by Alex M. (The Zyklons, Black Faun)
through found/modified instruments and homemade/readymade sounds it deals with noise and improvisation as machinery made to attack reality, more or less, a useless skronk of freedom.
I swapped a few emails with Alexander, the headmaster of this project, He kindly wrote a biography based on his releases.

"Grim Machine started 2013 as an HNW experimental project dealing with noise as a way of protest in music, an anti-silence statement, opposed to the cultural and moral deprivation that occurred during the worst years of Financial Depression in Greece. Also, it was –and still remains- a political entity, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist and supporting the DIY ethos. The name is a metaphor for the human condition, the man seen as emotive machinery overwhelmed by negative feelings. The first releases were self-made cd-rs, hand painted or printed and distributed hand by hand in DIY concerts, squats and counter culture spaces. Decay and Still Lives are the documentation of that period, existential and strongly political in nature, made from urban sounds loops, broken toy instruments, and noise generators.

 
Along with those came the Ancient Future USB memory stick that included 3 digital mini albums and a folder of GM’s art inspired by rock drawings, prehistoric art, and Art Brut.
In 2016 GM cooperated with EDA/ECT TAPES label in Athens, sharing ideas, organizing gigs and forming a coherent circle of like-minded artists. Heterodoxa is the first tape release on ECT label, mixing a wide range of diverse references such as sound poetry, industrial noise, children’s music, circuit bending, the Dogon Nommo mythology, and tribal fetishism. B side Une Totale Midnight Chamber Music is a live recording from Villa Zwgrafou squat in Athens shortly before it was evacuated, and the title is a schizophrenic homage to three of GM’s beloved artists, Ghedalia Tazartes, SPK, and Violent Onsen Geisha."

I have split his introduction according to the various releases,I will make another post about his more recent releases in the near future. 

To complete this post I am also attaching a video.
Enjoy this amazing artist.
~f*a"r~a)w¬a}y)
click me 

https://grimmachine.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/grim_machine
https://soundcloud.com/thezyklons
https://www.facebook.com/BlackFaun/
https://www.discogs.com/label/1264202-ECT

STRAITJACKET FIT - #0 -(Self Released-Greece-2006)

Straitjacket Fit is a Greek Hardcore/Punk band formed in 1999 in Patra, Greece.
They self-released their music and do gigs in squats and free places with no forced economic payback. They do not sell their music through the "music industry network" and do not play in clubs for money. They refuse to participate in the "music labels slavery trade".(from  Discogs)

I am lucky enough to know the singer of this band, in fact, I have already written about him when I posted the music by Grim Machine and Black Faun.
Straitjacket Fits play a form of very personal punk mixing various influences waved within great English lyrics.
Since I was very interested to know more about this amazing band, I asked Alex to answer a few questions, so you can read here a small yet interesting interview. #0 is their first album available on their Bandcamp Page as a free download just as all their other productions. A big thanx to Alex for passing me such a great band and for the relevant interview.(f*a¬r{a*w~a:y)

1000flights-When do you formed and how long have you been together??

1. We formed at 1998, on the remains of a previous band we had, Alex (voice), my brother Dimitris (guitar) and Argyris (drums) playing post-punk/darkwave since 1995-6. It was called PICKMAN'S MODEL and unfortunately, there is only a cd recorded back then, not on the internet yet, but you can get an idea here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMNqfDKdUlk

Around 1998 came Yorgos "Pontikos" from THE DALTONS (hxc punk) and replaced our bass player, so we changed the name and became Straitjacket Fit, focusing on a more post-hardcore/experimental punk sound. We played at literally every squat/steki in Greece from 1998 to 2013 where we ended playing live shows and disbanded.

1000flights-Which one are the bands/artists that most influenced you?

S.F.: We were all avid music consumers(ha!) so the sound was a mix of what we listened to and everything else we thought would fit regardless of the style. Post-punk, anarcho-punk, hxc crust, post-metal, ska, jazz, apart from the big names such as Neurosis, Faith No  More, early Sonic Youth, Gang of Four, etc, it's useless to keep namedropping since we were very different in our tastes but very close in our purpose and vision. Let's just say, from Grind to Ambient and back, hehe!

Also lots of anarcho/DIY bands that toured around Greece and we played with, had been an influence in one way or another, such as the mighty JE M'EN FOUS from France/Switzerland.

We were  doing the original artwork for every release,(well, I was..) from the photos, collages, paintings to the final graphic design and packaging to distribution, a mix of art-loving provocation, Ad Busters magazine aesthetics, Dada collage, artists such as Yoshitomo Nara, stencil art and a healthy dose of dark humour or just dark.

 

1000flights: Were you active in Villa Amalias or any other squat in Athens??

S.F.: We played Villa Amalias the first time in 1999 I think, and then many many times followed. We consider ourselves, up to this time, a brother-band to the people that run the place, very close to us, and to bands that played there, ANATELLON TROMOS (Rising Terror), CHASMA, THE PARKINSONS, VALPOURGIA NYCHTA (Valpourgis Night), TIMETRAP and more that we felt we were doing something meaningful together at the time.

Right from the start, we took part in the first anarcho diy space"steki Sachtouri" kind-of-squat in Patras , from its beginning in 1998. We had our studio there and did a lot of gigs, as well as involved in the diy concert organising team "Porto Patrasso", at Parartima in Patras, a major anarcho-political concert place. Learning to record, sound engineering, set a gig or a recording session from scratch, it was all part of the game.

For me personally the Villa years, from the first gig up to its evacuation, was a period that had a great impact on me as a person and as an artist.

1000flights: How many gigs did you play? did you ever played outside Greece??

S.F.: We had played, I don't know, more than 50 less than a hundred gigs around Greece, squats, free spaces, open areas, public squares, only political DIY. We played in Liege in Belgium first time in 2002 if I am not mistaken since our bass player lived in Amsterdam for some time. We toured 2 weeks Holland-Germany-Belgium in 2008 with KILL THE CAT (ska-punk).

1000flights-The releases available on your Bandcamp page were printed as tapes/CDs or vinyl or were these released only as digital files??

S.F: All the releases on Bandcamp- except the last one "The End" which is a digital one- are on CD format. Also, the comps we have participated are CDs but not available now I guess. We consider releasing "The End" on vinyl by the end of the year, maybe early 2021..we'll see about that.

 

1000flights-Are the lyrics political orientated or what are the subjects in there??

S.F: The lyrics are totally political, dealing with two main concepts from personal to public, alienation and social revolution.

I will not repeat the too commonly used anti-nazi, anti-species, anti-capitalist, anti-whatever the slogan, we were all that, since contributing to the whole DIY ethos-self organization and keeping a strong stance as a band from the beginning to the end. We felt that a more personal way of writing about these themes was the best to express ourselves artistically and not losing the target. So the lyrics are a bit more surreal and existential than straight forward, but still political and direct on their message. Yet not preaching but questioning and inspiring, I suppose.

1000flights-After that the band disbanded, you Alex started a few industrial/noise orientated projects (Grim Machine, Black Faun, The Zyklons)...would you like to say what inspired you to start such projects ??

Is any other members of the band at the moment active in other music/artistic projects/bands?? If so, which ones??

S.F.: While being at Straitjacket Fit, I started a duo of experimental/playful noise called Black Faun with my crazy friend Charis (hELLaSH), around 2007. Since then we do live acts and we have 4 releases. It all started as a parallel project to Straitjacket Fit, so as to express a different point of view soundwise and artistically speaking. It was the first vehicle for me to play free improvisation and noise music.

In 2013, in the middle of the financial crisis in Athens, I started Grim Machine, my personal project, because I wanted to try playing on my own after the band disbanded, and also to express my personal emotions about the political situation we were living at. It started as an industrial/harsh noise project and now it has evolved into more ritual noise/free impro territory.

Around 2016-7 I met Perseas Rizos, a poet, visual artist and sax player, and since then we are playing together as the free form/exp.jazz duo The Zyklons.

I consider it as an evolution in my playing and interacting in terms of improvisation.

After Straitjacket disbanded, me and Yorgos played together at the band SARKA STO ZWO (post hxc) for 3 years and after that we recruited with Argyris in HAUTE TANZ (post-punk/noise rock). Argyris also plays in a punk band and Yorgos never stops practising! Regarding the Straitjacket Fit members, the important thing is that we are friends first and foremost, so we will never stop playing music together one way or another.

GRIM MACHINE - Secret Oestrus Live Sessions -(Athens-Greece-2023)

Great gig of ritualistic noise industrial by the Greek artist Grim Machine.

I wrote about him when I posted his releases Decay(2013),Still Lives(2013),Ancinet Future and Heterodoxa(2017) and again Ghost Industrial(2017),Hiss Tape+Exotica Mystica (2018). You will find in these posts an introduction by Alex himself about his projects and related info. Alexandros was also singing in Straitjacket Fit.

 

I was lucky enough to attend this fantastic gig in Athens on friday 22 September 2023. Video and sound recorded and mixed by Antonis Vasilakos and Kostantinos Katsantonis. A big THANKS to Alexandros for passing me this excellent video. Enjoy it.

:f(a*r^a:w)a*y^

Protuberanzed-Doomsday Machine-(Absetzer-Russia-2008)

Protuberanzed "Doomsday Machine" is album, released in 2008 by first Russian Rhythmic Noise label "Absetzer".

Doomsday Machine is an hypothetic device that could destroy the life on Earth or even Earth itself when the machine is activated - it's the apotheosis of mutual guaranteed destruction doctrine.

Protuberanzed is the second project of Nullklever (after Fornax) that was created on the 31.08.2007. Differences from Fornax are: rhythmic and harsh sound, grim atmosphere.

-Arkady Nullklever - 

Absetzer is a digital label (netlabel) dedicated to extreme forms of rhythmic electronic music, such as rhythmic noise, hard IDM, and digital hardcore. Absetzer is the part of Alter-X Promotion Project. The label was managed by Seclorum (a part of Frequency Alcyone) until AB-006, by Denoizer and Nullklever after.           click me  

Ατοπία – Ατοπία - (Do It Yourself-Greece-2012)

 ATOPIA is the evolution of a legendary 90s Greek anarcho-punk band ANATELLON TROMOS, before Alexandros joined in. I wrote about Alexandros when I interviewed him about another of his ex-band Straitjacket Fit.

At the moment Alex has 2 interesting tribal/industrial projects : Grim Machine and Black Faun, both projects already covered in this blog.

Atopia plays a personal form of HC punk mixed with some prog-thrash metal, interesting is the use of the violin played by Despina,it comes out as a special sound but somehow it fits there,making this cd well worth exploring.

I have to admit that it took me a while to get the whole picture of their music,somehow it is intense.Probably understading the lyrics will make a huge difference.

A big thanks to Alexandros for this great gift sent to me via d E last summer and a big thanks to Ion of E.T.C. for writing in romanic characters the Greek titles and traslating them into english + translating the introduction for this cd by the band: 

I'm scared of the nice words

that can't stand the weight of the moments

I'm sorry for the lovers of the Truth

that deny to see its ugliness

I'm boring of the big feasts-

the addicted clients of the Arena

I want my screams 

to not be accessible to everyone 

I admire the wounded birds

that dare to feeded by their flesh

There are no able-bodied(/wellshaped) winners

There are no "magic" solutions

 

To get the music ,please visit Atopia Blog where you will find this album in streaming and as a free download.

Enjoy it.

 

:f*a^r"a¬w:a{y_ 

 

songtitles:

Εισαγωγή - Eisagogi - Intro

Καλοκαίρι - Kalokairi - Summer

Σιχαίνομαι - Sichenomai - I'm sick of

Πυροβολήστε τον - Pirovoliste ton - Shoot him

Παιχνιδούπολη - Paichnidoupoli - Toyland

Δεν είμαι είδος - Den eimai eidos - I'm not a species

Στην αυλή των παρείσακτων - Stin avli ton parisakton - In the court of the intrusives

Μία στιγμή - Mia stigmi - One moment 

Έγκλειστος κόσμος - Egklistos kosmos - Detained World

Αντίλογος - Antilogos - Contradicting

Υπέροχη θέα - Iperochi  Thea - Marvelous View 

 

 

BLACK FAUN-Live 09022018-(E.C.T.,Concrete Noise-Greece-2018)

Black Faun is yet another project by Alex of Grim Machine, already fully covered in this blog.

In this tape, Black Faun(which appears to be a duo) offers us the live recording of their gig at Sticky Fingers in Patras, Greece (09/02/2018) and was released in 50 numbered copies as single side cassette.

The long track consists of found sounds slowly evolving from quiet noise to an assault of deranged brutal distortions and chaos.

E.T.C. is Cassette label orientate in noise, power electronics and industrial. Active from 2017.

Concrete Noise created by Alex M. (5) to host his sound and music works, as well as his collaborations and split releases with other artists.

A Fb page about Black Faun is here.

To complete this post I am attaching the video taken from the Concrete Noise Youtube channel about this tape. 

Big thanx to Alex for donating to this blog this great cassette.

Enjoy it.

~f*a)r_a¬w{a:y_ 

click me 

GENOCIDE ASSOCIATION-Sonik Lobotomy Tape-(Self Released-UK-1983)

A bootleg of Genocide Association caught me by surprise. From the shit-fi perspective, this “band” was one of the most notable of the 1980s hardcore scene in England. While Genocide Association existed, the band was a joke and played live only once, unlike their brethren in musical destruction, Skumdribblurz, who seem to have played nearly every show for a while. Genocide Association were Digby Pearson, who later ran Earache Records, and Dave Smith, of the band Verbal Warning, fooling around as a studio-only project. (G.A.’s one gig was a major one at Leeds Bier Keller, on May 19, 1984, with Kalv from Heresy on bass, Tim from Skumdribblurz on guitar, and Dave and Dig on vocals, all of them together making random noise. The line-up of that gig was—get this—Black Flag, Hagar The Womb, Mau Maus, Newtown Neurotics, Rattus, Cult Maniax, Nig Heist, The Bleed, 13 Horses Legs, Chronic, Crucified By Christians, Stagnant Era, The Abused, Obesa, Genocide Association. Not that Abused, but what a gig! There’s a DVD available of the Black Flag set, mistakenly listed on the case as having been in Bradford. Also, I recall Rollins saying that the Newtown Neurotics were one of the best bands they played with in the UK.)

I first obtained a dub of their 105-song “Sonik Lobotomy” demo several years ago from a tape (err, CD-R) trader who sent it to me out of the blue. Immediately, the “music” struck me as odd. There was something familiar, and when it hit me, man, was I astonished. Genocide Association’s demo was basically a recording of what could be considered a cross between karaoke and tape-loop experimental music: they used classic hardcore tunes that had been released recently (up to October 1983) and chaotically shouted their own lyrics and nonsense over them. Terveet Kädet, Crude SS, Urban Waste, Kansan Uutiset, Impact Unit, Riistetyt, and other bands make appearances on the demo, only with crazed British dole-queue punx doing their own vocals.

Here is what Dig told my friend when I had him inquire about Genocide Association a few months ago:

Genocide Association was definitely not a real band. Your friend is one of the few who has it sussed—quite correctly—it was an amalgam of riffs from many other bands' demos, hand sampled on a tape-to-tape boombox and then shouted over with our own political lyrics, by me and Dave (Verbal Warning, local Nottingham anarcho band). It was hard work as samplers did not exist then! It was kinda a practical joke/hoax on a local friend who ran a zine, but it also served a purpose, cos it was a forerunner of exactly the kind of noise I wanted to hear—and would eventually years later release on my label.

In another e-mail, Dig explained exactly how it is that the unlikely notion of sampled, tape-loop raw hardcore managed to become something worth listening to:

Listening back I think the only reason it even worked was I had such a shitty, cheap, run-down tape-to-tape player. Every time I recorded anything it got unintentionally sped up and had extra hiss and shit added. It kinda made the edits blurry and meshed the sampled riffs together in a wall of hiss, which made it passable to listen to. . . [It] took forever to stitch each riff together to form each song simply using a shitty tape-to-tape deck. It was time-consuming as fuck, a real labour of love.

This is a letter/interview by Dig that has been
circulating on Soulseek. Oddly, some portions of
it have been blanked out. Thanks to Zach for the
contribution.

Click to Enlarge

I’ve never seen an original copy of “Sonik Lobotomy,” but the CD-R dub I got years ago did not include a tracklist. I found one later in a fanzine, which was included in an advertisement for the demo. This ad provides the artwork on one side of the bootleg 7" sleeve. Needless to say, it is virtually impossible to follow the tracklist while listening to the madness on the demo. Still, one wishes the bootlegger, who ostensibly cares about the music, had made some effort to identify the songs on the record, or at least distinguish them from those not included. It seems to me the songs on the record are mostly from the first quarter of the demo. Unlike as reported in some distro listings for this EP, the entire demo does not appear on the vinyl. But some of the songs recur with different lyrics, which is unsurprising, as the sessions that produced the demo spanned several months.

I won’t ruin the fun of playing “name that tune” by identifying every original song on this bootleg (actually, several stumped me). But I must point out a few noteworthy songs. Unfortunately, the blank labels and useless tracklisting aren’t helping us in this endeavor. One side of the record, let’s say it’s side B (the matrices are obliterated, natch), begins with a Crude SS riff. The other side is the one to follow closely because it has the best tracks, five of which just blaze. I’m providing these for download here: Prostituted By The System, Grim Brutality, War Machine, Sonic Lobotomy, They'll Do It Again.

I believe it's worth looking at the notion of reusing already released songs. It certainly shares common characteristics with rap, a form of music that was achieving widespread recognition by 1983, as well as many avant-garde artistic practices, but I have doubts that Dig intentionally made such connections. It would be a mistake to ascribe conscious radical aesthetic intention to Genocide Assocation. Rather, they were poor punx living on the dole who could not afford to buy instruments, so they used their DIY ingenuity instead. G.A.’s use of already available music, the band's choice to deconstruct the music and reassemble it into a new piece proves wrong stereotypes about the aesthetic conservativism of hardcore. In fact, it seems to me that G.A.’s practice was deployed directly against such stereotypes. By October 1983, it was rather pervasively believed that all fast hardcore was beginning to sound the same and was increasingly unoriginal. G.A. lampooned this very notion by intentionally making generic thrash that was unoriginal and sounded the same as other bands’ songs. Over 20 years later, the “karaoke” versions are not necessarily “better” songs than the originals. Most would probably prefer to listen to Crude SS directly, but the ideas behind G.A.’s music are actually much more fresh than those behind the original tunes, which have by now been repeated endlessly (with good reason). Who would have thought that such “experimental” hardcore could actually have adhered so closely to the roots of the hardcore sound? The idea of taking something old and making it new persists across music, film, architecture, literature, and other artistic practices because it catches our attention by reminding us of the past (for better or worse) and then maintains our attention by leading us to a novel conclusion that is familiar but original. I personally am always on the lookout for punk rock that dispels familiar notions about punk history, and this G.A. bootleg fits this category quite nicely. It may sound like shit, but after all these years, it’s a fresh shit indeed.

The fact that members of the current European bootleg cartel would put the band on vinyl today shows how much times—or, rather, tastes—have changed. Just a few years ago, this bootleg would have been considered by most to be a waste of vinyl. Maybe that will be its reception today, but I do believe it shows that what listeners are seeking in old punk rock is evolving. Incidentally, Dig told my friend that he considers the G.A. demo to be in the public domain, and, anyway, the original songs used to create G.A.’s “songs” were themselves stolen. So don’t feel bad about supporting a bootlegger this time around. As if…

Read more: http://shit-fi.com/Reviews/GenocideAssociation/GenocideAssociation.htm#ixzz6sfMAozkP

 (article taken from Shit-Fi.com)   click me