I believe it was the great Bob Marley who once said:
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
Clearly Bob had never listened to power electronics. Good PE - whether recorded or performed live - can be judged, in part, by how much pain and discomfort it inflicts on the listerner.
Why DO noise/PE fans subject ourselves to the sonic equivalent of the lash? Is it to prove to our peers how much we can take without it "getting to us"? Maybe that was the point in our younger days as rookie noise aficionados, maybe it still is for some of the other punters. But for n0teeth, letting it get to us is the whole point: we accept our punishment - embrace it, in fact - with gleeful masochism.
If it didn't "get" to us the entire exercise would be futile. Like downing twelve pints only to brag that they barely made you tipsy, or splashing out on a thermonuclear hot sauce just to boast that you can barely taste it.
Surrendering, allowing yourself to feel helpless and overwhelmed in the face of music's extreme power - whether that power comes from the eye-watering beauty of a classical piece, a samba beat that makes you dance before you've consciously chosen to move a single muscle, or the deafening, eardrum-piercing, bowel-bothering frequencies of a live power electronics set - is one of the most life-affirming things a human being can do. You don't have to remain cool and aloof; n0teeth is hereby giving you permission to actually feel things when music hits you.
With that in mind, here's a rundown of the delightful power electronics soiree we attended yesterday.
Sutcliffe No More and Brighter Death Now, Underworld Camden, Friday 15th November
And I really am so very truly sorry
n0teeth will cheerfully admit to being something of a noise philistine, generally preferring power electronics' distant, rhythmic cousin power noise, which is a different beast altogether. However, a handful of bands have managed to ensnare our flealike attention, and not just through their endearingly unhinged Vaudeville antics (stand up Whitehouse and Smell & Quim).
Brighter Death Now and The Artists Formerly Known As Sutcliffe Jugend have both, at different points in our life, struck slightly deeper chords than just "hehe, the half-naked bloke said something transgressive", pushing sounds that are as gratifyingly extreme and intense as they are interesting and original. The former can even take credit for Mrs Teeth and I meeting for the first time (long story). The latter are still pushing the sonic envelope after several decades in the game: 2016's Offal is one of the last ten years' most weirdly accessible - dare I say downright catchy at points? - power electronics releases, thanks to a crisp production style and unprocessed vocals replacing the distortion-smothered, tape-deck-in-a-toilet traditions of the genre.
Sutcliffe is the Blur to Whitehouse's Oasis; Ramleh, their Pulp. By this I mean that these are all bands that exist and belong to the same scene, in the same way that those other three bands existed and belonged to the same scene. (Another band which has existed is called "Suede". For more information about bands, visit Wikipedia.)
The artist formerly known as "Bomb the Day Nursery"
Brighter Death Now were on ripping form, if a little hampered by low volume levels. Roger Karmanik was accompanied by Lina Baby Doll prowling the stage like an angry orc, wrenching stomach-churning low end noise from a bass guitar.
In the absence of any discernible rhythm, noise of this kind nevertheless has a brutal, primitive pulse the audience can hook on to, swaying violently like flood victims clinging to lamp posts for dear life.
Karmanik's menancing stage presence masks the fact that he is a lovely chap who's always happy to chat with fans after his set - which we did later, at the merch stand.
When choreography is no longer enough...
Sutcliffe No More took to the stage in the midst of a long, ominous synth drone, over which the charming Kevin Tomkins calmly intoned the sinister ditty "Salt" from the band's most recent album, Cute. Did anyone use to watch Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids? Crank up the body horror to levels unsuitable for a young audience and throw in some droning electronics and you've got the general idea. The even nastier "Blue Rabbit" followed shortly, and not long after that, Tomkins switched to manning the electronics so as to let bandmate Paul Taylor off the leash to shriek and spasm to his heart's content. Taylor's portion of the set mostly showcased older Sutcliffe material, such as the always-delightful "First Victim : With Knife : Left To Die With Many Cuts" from the barrel of laughs that was 1998's When Pornography Is No Longer Enough.
Watching Sutcliffe live is like leaving your two funniest and least mentally stable uncles in the pub for a few hours and coming back to find them well into their third gram / twentieth pint, having hijacked the karaoke machine to scream club-agnostic abuse at the football through a thick fog of wailing mic feedback. However, there is a seriousness to their sound design that elevates the experience above mere spectacle, as glorious as that spectacle is. An old internet acquaintance once astutely pointed out that nobody dances at power electronics gigs; we merely press ourselves up agains the monitors hoping to be triggered or offended. Watching Tomkins and Taylor, I soaked in the vicious verbal & sonic abuse while also nodding my head at the well-crafted waves and modulations crashing over us.
n0teeth has been to noise gigs where the band experimented with interesting and unusual textures but failed to land a satisfyingly intense & abrasive sonic punch to the guts and noise gigs where the initial blast knocked us off our feet but didn't really go anywhere after that. Tonight Sutcliffe No More skilfully brought together the very best of both worlds and managed to be highly entertaining to boot.