WHITEHOUSE ::

WHITEHOUSE / DAS FLEISCH
fluc mensa / vienna, austria
12th dec. 2004

bouril, this one goes out to you. ;)

the legendary WHITEHOUSE, precursors of what turned into noise, originators of "power electronics", played for the first time in over 10 years in austria again.

they were supported by an act going by the name of DAS FLEISCH, who were more into ambient noise manipulations with live objects. 2 people, one massive bit of real-time sequencing- and effect-machinery, a microphone and several objects. it started off pretty tamely, with chinese massage balls being rolled around in steel plate, the noises they made being amplified and sent through effect loops, making it sound a little eerie, what with the feedback and curvature noises they were overlaying. that was followed by some experiments with water and tin cups, which still wasn't too spectacular. but the next part was interesting. the "object-manipulator", as i call him lacking his real name, put an underwater microphone in his mouth that was hotwired to a distortion-board and just screamed off his friggin' lungs! they had manipulated the sound so cleverly that it did not sound anything at all like a human screaming but more like something dark and massive roaring deep under the sea. they did this over and over again, heightening into a crescendo of feedback loops and sawwaves and distorted yelling, adding some real-time visuals (waving a webcam over dead spiders, old books and living locusts in a jar) to the mix. not really new or aweinspiring or special, but interesting for its own sake.

and then william bennett and philip best got on stage in a choking cloud of stage-smoke and flashing stroboscope light. punching their feedback fist deep into our guts, a cacophonous array of sonic impulses, bursts of artificial noises and rythms, mad polemic ravings about sex, death and violence, delivered like the last speech of a death-fearing, panic-stricken hitler, perverting the very essence of rock-stardom by posing to the humongous wall of distorted noise they had created, dismantling pop-ease by gloryfying themselves to their own sounds, grabbing their dicks through their pants, performing in unmistakable sexual ways (pretending to shag their amps, twisting their nipples). two old geezers from great britain, still energized by their own deeds, still being in the midst of controversy after all these years, when so many other, young, intelligent artists fail to incite the audiences disgust and shock. and all of that using only noise, slants and nothing else - the sound of what it meant to rattle at the memetic cage doors of modern existence. the power that was bundled in that mesmerizing show could have toppled mountains, i swear. there's not much i can or want to say about WHITEHOUSE. while i can understand how, "musically", this might only be to the taste of a few, i think it is rather ironic talking about musical inclination in this case. after all, industrial is all about destroying music and stripping it of its boundaries so it can function as communicative transmitter without its inherent boundaries and rules. this is not music as we know it anymore. this is either the ur-soup of music or maybe the other end of the spectrum, the end-mass of music - whatever it is, the next step out of it is pure originality and that is something to admire... even if it is as nihilistic and uncompromising as it is with noise and industrial bands. i guess, the real problem, the reason why it is so often misunderstood, is the simple fact the it cloaks itself in "music" while it really isn't music in a common sense at all. it is more of a intelectual theory on music. and as with any other theory you can either agree or disagree. in that respect it is like any other music: you like it or you don't. :)

side story: i was introduced to someone at the concert by the name of markus, who djs. his story was pretty fascinating (whether it was true or not): in the early 90ies he used to be addicted to heroin. once, at an industrial concert that featured one or even more of william bennett's side projects (i'm not sure, it was pretty hard to understand the guy), he left the venue to get something from a friend's car and was driven over. badly. a couple of minutes clinically dead, 4 months comatose, 3 years rehabilitation. these days he makes a pretty good impression. he said that the accident was very good for him. i asked why he'd say that? and he answered: "well, for one thing it made me stop shooting up. that alone was worth it. but the other thing is even better. william bennett had asked the venue's promoter why half of the audience had left the venue when he got on stage and was told about my accident. so, a couple of months later, i received a letter from mr. bennett in hospital, wishing me speedy recovery and offering me to come and stay at his place, should i ever visit great britain. well, i never took him up on that offer and i think he has moved to the states by now, but i still have that letter. framed. that was worth the accident all the way."
imagine that.