Af Alexander Julin

Intonal Festival startede i 2014 med en hjælpende hånd fra bl.a. CTM Festival og Unsound. Festivalen er med årene blevet et mere selvstændigt foretagende, hvis kuratering vidner om en særegen profil, der ikke blot er sammenfaldende med de aktører, der i sin tid bidrog til at etablere Intonal. For fjerde år er Intonal med til at sætte Malmö på landkortet og derved gøre op med enhver given antagelse om, at de mest interessante kulturelle begivenheder nødvendigvis finder sted i eller omkring hovedstadsområdet. Læs resten

The Home Current ”Another Way of Falling Apart” (Polytechnic Youth, 2018) – anmeldelse af Mikkel Arre

Omgivet af rumklang ringler og klirrer syntetiske klokker og vækker mindelser om 80’ernes børne-tv: Sådan her lød det, når man som seer skulle forstå, at der altså nu var ved at ske noget magisk. Men selv om albummet er blottet for den slags staveplade-pædagogik, er det nu alligevel, som om det er et lignende signal, der bliver sendt af de første sekunder på The Home Currents debutalbum: Velkommen ind i et univers, hvor den elektroniske musik er genfortryllet. Læs resten

Reportage from The Empire Line, Varg, Croatian Amor, Vanity Productions at Blå, Oslo, 22.03.2018. Text and images by Cameron Pagett.

There is a river which runs through the heart of Oslo. Beginning in the mountains and trickling its way down from the Artic sea on the northern tip of our continent, past fjords and craggy peaks which carve the stocking shaped country’s landscape into an epic, serene and quiet place. The sun is out and snow covers most of the hilly and forested terrain as we begin our final approach into Oslo. The closer we get to land the more visible the open spaces cutting through the trees reveal themselves as ski slopes and the entire country begin’s to resemble one giant ski resort. It’s early afternoon when we land, and I am seated some way behind Posh Isolation founders Christian Stadsgaard and Loke Rahbek, who after a decade of releasing music out of a DIY-ethic in Copenhagen are now traveling with international acclaim. It’s my own first time in the country and for Stadsgaard his first in 11 years, and a first ever showcase here for Posh Isolation. After a brief rendezvous at a convenience market in the airport we separate without words to our lodging places beginning what would be an interesting evening in the last major city of the North. The sun is shining, the snow is melting and the river runs with momentum along the clean and well manicured banks before meeting the inner fjord on which the city stands. Somewhere near the end of the river is a brick building covered in graffiti named Blå. Now an establishment, and opened since 1998 this river-side, somewhat historic and unassuming space would be the host for our evening.

Children step into the train with ski’s and snow-suits (quite regular I hear) as I exit into the city centrum and head to my Airbnb. There are a few hours to spare before the show, and walking around feels like visiting an old friend in a new place. Passing the Nobel Prize house and the Museum for Surrealist Painter Edvard Munch, I get the idea that this place holds everything I have heard about but couldn’t locate from first-hand memory. Slinking atop a small table in the dark my Airbnb host who closely resembles an opiated railway worker from the 1800’s crossed with mid-life Gollum looks at me suspiciously when I arrive. After some convincing that it was me he was hosting, he asks me if I can just come back later because he is not ready. I am not too fond of the idea, and I am put in a made-over closet for the night. Luckily the bed isn’t half bad, and even though he won’t stop staring at me from his table-top perch by the corner near the door I feel happy that the night will soon begin. Oslo is a small city, smaller then Copenhagen, I am staying on the opposite end of the city from Blå and its only a 20 minute walk. Camera is in my backpack, time to move, it will be a tale of two or possibly an endless night. Læs resten

Kvartalets bedste singler – udvalgt af Adam Thorsmark

Fire gange om året samler jeg – med afsæt i det, man vel i lærebøger om videnskabelig metode ville betegne som en ekstremt subjektiv udvælgelsesstrategi – op på en god håndfuld af de nye sange fra ind- og udland (samt en enkelt perle fra arkiverne), som har sat det tydeligste præg på mig i det netop afsluttede kvartal. Herunder får du en blanding af oversete og mere kendte sange, men den røde tråd er simpel: ren kærlighed til det, der har ramt allermest plet hos mig.
Her er de højeste højdepunkter fra første fjerdedel af 2018. Læs resten

By Emil Néné Rasmussen

In the always peculiar legal world of the USA, a particularly odd system is set in motion almost every time someone is held in custody or otherwise detained. The system is called bail, and it is the procedure of letting the detained person pay a deposit to the court in return for being released until their trial. While the exact cost of this procedure varies from state to state, depending on the severity of the crime, it has potentially destructive financial consequences for those impacted by it. No matter where one stands on crime and punishment, the matter of the fact is that 1: “We do not tend to confine the most dangerous – we jail the poorest among us”, 2: “Our jails are disproportionately filled with Black and Latino men” and 3: “Defendants sit in jail for long periods awaiting trial. Some defendants have even waited in jail for more than four years before trial”. (Alexander Shalom, “Bail Reform as a Mass Incarceration Reduction Technique”, 2014)

So what can you do? Læs resten

From minimalistic set up to extraordinary executing on the stages. This year’s edition of the annual festival MaerzMusik in Berlin was a hydra of different kinds of political critique of modern culture through contemporary music and sound. Sandra S. Borch highlights a carefully selected set of key performances during the 10-day long festival.

Læs resten

Yves Tumor, Khalil, Scandinavian Star and Soho Rezanejad hosted by Lowlife Scum and Knife Magazine at Mayhem 23.3.2018. Review and all photos by Cameron Pagett.

“Don’t fuck with my shield! Don’t fuck with my shield! …”

It’s the fourth and final set on a crowded Mayhem night and the headliner Yves Tumor has broken or rather, ripped his way through his plastic cage which had separated him from the audience for much of the first portion of his set. The music, or rather the drilling, cerebral, sordid symphony of siren like noise complete with jackhammering, invasive vocals called from the fog for a sense of security. Young men scurried from the imaginary room once partitioned by painter’s plastic which still adorned the majority of empty wallspace in the room.

“Don’t fuck with my shield! Don’t fuck with my shield!” Cries for respect in the midst of full body assault sound filled the space momentarily. Yves stares into a young woman’s eyes standing beyond the table with his controls resting on it. Stares into her eyes possessed with the same madness jolting from the speakers. This is aggressive. Engage or leave.

Mayhem. Læs resten