| To cut one's throat then scream incessantly with each breath being a last dying gasp but never quite finishing off and instead always living an immortal life wounded by the knife which burnt her and the life which we lived by as children. The night when fiction became reality and identities were hidden behind make-up and synthetic strands exploded with a start. The phantasmagoria began...... "We fell into it on fire" Disrepute At The Hands Of My Idol are fast becoming known as the biggest underground prospect in the UK and their storming set demonstrated this. Playing a 30 minute improvisation loosely based on the recorded songs; Syrian, Kayon Noir and 1/1. These three were combined and intertwined with new elements played by a spiritual Grimalo Georg and the present bodies of Gordon Sweeney and Chris Lowe (both from Kuhl Goyim Chien) and Dominick Allen and Matt Alston (both of Oswald III). The set started with a piece of poetry by the Sycopoent and took the audience through a sheer stretch of emotions with intricate leit motifs frequently descending into an array of beautiful noise held together by the complex crossrhythms of two drum machines and the constant E minor pedal played by Sweeney. The music transformed in minimalistic style with drums speeding up and slowing down and souls being taken over with the ultimate desire to exorcise the flaming rage and beauty of intranced impulses and translate the inner music of their souls into a universal musical language. The set finished with a frenzy of sequenced drums cyclically repeating and falling in and out of time to create lush new rhythms which cannot be thought of in humanistic or mortal terms. This was accompanied by an ever intense ambient noise decaying into the sound of a million souls screaming and beautifully summed up every emotion anyone has ever felt. Aphasiac were next on. These special guests were quite different to the improvisation of Disrepute but were not out of place alongside the #3.02 artists. Their structured songs were tight and an eerie stage presence whereby the only movement was the constant actions of Julia Vergho swinging her hips and chain-smoking. The performance was a personal one with emotion linking to every member of the audience conveyed with the upmost sincerity. Lead singer Andy Thomas was dressed in a wig and black dress, Julia Vergho taking centre stage playing and dancing ritualistically and Tom Manning the quiet presence in the background cementing the performance with a cohesive, constant, dark bass sound. The show mixed poppy tunes with darker moments and too see the trio lost in the music was a thrilling experience. This band is one of exciting prospects and their musicianship, frightening stage presence and artistic power was well demonstrated at a night devoted to music characterising rebellion against an oppressive system of music, sounds and closed minds. Aneubis also played. The most talked about performance before the gig was the debut #3.02 performance of a reformed Oswald III. Their music was markedly different from previous performances but overwhelmingly more powerful. The sweet yet droned vocals of Lucy Humphrys were set through a flanger and combined expertly with sonic guitar playing by Dominick Allen whose experimentation with sounds is comparable to Glenn Branca and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen but with a beauty which neither of the previous could ever fully capture. His masterary of effects and of pure sounds is as finely crafted as an mirco-artists sculptures and his playing achieved new levels at this virgin performance of the new line-up. Matt Alston's bass playing underlined the performance and the deep, distorted sounds he made with his bass were incredible. Him and Adam Bird the new drummer kept the experimentation of Allen within the music in an amazing way and glued it all together. Throughout the performance a shy Humphrys' rarely made eye contact with the audience and looked away with a forlorn beauty which somehow expressed her emotions and being in a musical way through the telepathic frequencies of the mind and soul. Allen was hunched over his effects and was completely lost in himself and the music while Alston stood stationary like the rock his playing was to the music. Bird hit his percussion with the regularity of a metronome and his complex crossrhythms and polyrhythms amazed. Despite all these acts the night was far from the controversial affairs that captured the rebellious spirit of early #3.02 in the 1970's. All this changed no more than a minute before Kuhl Goyim Chien were set to start playing. The performance art crew Fragmenta Minimus Levo who are amongst the longest serving of all #3.02 artists resurrected themselves from their elusive state where they have been missing without sight for the last six years. Maeonides L th led the other two members D tis Lesbia and Catullus Vitium onstage to a somewhat shocked crowd who had not expected these legends to make an appearance. They joined Chris Lowe, Gordon Sweeney and Chris Lowe to play a gesamtkunstwerk with a large array of percussive instruments, dancers, poetry, sounds and live painting. A constant record loop combined with tape, guitar, percussion and voice provided by Kuhl Goyim Chien was complemented with Lethe's sacrificial burning of sheep's bones while Lesbia painted paper, sheets and eventually her whole body black and Vitium read poetry while acting out his own suicide (by hanging) and then his demise into the grave. However before this piece could be finished and indeed the conclusion could be seen as to Vitium's final destination of Heaven or Hell a member of the audience let off a firework which prompted a small section of the crowd to inspire a full on riot which spilled over onto the streets. Just as Vitium laid himself into his grave and shouted out his final words of poetry "let all that suffer do so at my hands/let all who believe in the ultimate timely betrayal of the shrouded darkness which constantly envelops my decaying soul stray again into the womb/of their mother" the anarchy broke out and the organisers pulled out the plugs and ejected the group from the venue to the sound of inhuman screams from the members of the combined artists of Fragmenta and Kuhl. These riots continued through the night and many people saw it as a fitting end to capture the previous spirit that Fragmenta used to inspire before they went missing. #3.02 has never been far from controversy since it's initial start in the 1970's and this was proof that none of the revolutionary embers had faded during the quiet years since Ree Piztonna's death. It was hailed as a triumphant return by all who witnessed it and understood the significance of the performance. The reputation may have been tarnished amongst some due to the way in which the gig finished but for those who understand the deep rooted stories, myths, legends, history and musical philosophies of the label this was the only way such a powerful gig could finish. The power to shock and disgust is still there and the sounds expressing the painful tune of Lethe's heart may not have been as pleasant as a hopeless, prospectless and death row band such as Aneubis but this was pure music, real by it's definition of many individual's torment united on stage with a power that mortals cannot even dream of. |