Breakcore Island (part 2)

The second round of Breakcore Island shows kicked off on Thursday 11th February with Escape the Bowels of Noise Island which was held at the Wine Cellar, again in St Kevin's Arcade.

I was playing at this one, so I got there very early and sat through a lot of sound-checks, most of which involved live sound engineer k5k having to tell Nomex to turn it down just a little more and a little more...

Yeah, Nomex made it to Auckland this time, and a lovely and dapper gentleman he was too. Robert Inhuman of US gabber-punk-noisecore outfit Realicide was also there. Robert was very impressive as he set up with lyric-sheet posters and stickers at the door to give away free to people. This is an old anarcho-punk trick that I've heard about but never seen done before - where you consider your message so important that you make sure that people can take it away with them; that they can participate. Particularly if you know your lyrics are going to be indecipherable. Everyone should do this really, but then when was the last time you saw an artist with a serious political message? Would you even know if you had?

The show started with ¡Recuerde! who performed a set of textured-and-layered noises, with some vocals even. I believe this is typical output from this artist. This was followed by my own set, which was a learning experience. Armed with a Casio SK-5, a discman to sample from and the kalimba I picked up in Uganda, I managed to not get too defeated by my own hardware, but when the microphone for the kalimba turned out to not be turned on at the mixing desk, I just gave up. Only Softsmell and Robert Inhuman were really paying attention anyways, so it's not like I lost some fans or something, and I learnt some things about the limitations of my hardware.

Anyway, what everyone was really here for was to see the fancy international acts, and first up was Realicide. This is where Robert Inhuman impressed again, as he greeted everyone, explained how excited he was to have come half-way around the world to be here; explained how this was the punk for right now and right here, not some retro guitar music; invited everyone to participate. This entailed pounding beats, noise, and very energetic but indecipherable vocals. Excitement. Energy. Those things that are lacking so often in this tiny scene. Infectious.

Nomex followed this up with brutal harsh noise, using a contact mic attached to a 12" vinyl that he ended up smashing, and some other device that he'd fashioned which was a kinda stick thing that he waved around. Certainly the most impressive noise set I've seen yet in my life.

Spent a few hours after the show hanging out with Robert and a group of other insiders at neighbouring Area 26, just talking about stuff. This guy is really right-on with his attitude and politics. He's living the dream, or at least a dream that I had that I couldn't realise for myself with my circumstances.

The next night, being Friday the 12th of February saw Return to the Conquest of Breakcore Island, which was another house party at a K' Road dive called The Brothel. House parties mean loading in your own sound-system, and for reasons that remain obscure, this involved me helping k5k lug big speakers up and down various flights of stairs.

Once the party finally got underway, it begun with N.U.T.E playing their industrial-metal. They are polished, professional... but for me too soft, too slow... I'm not their target audience, this stuff is for goths; allegedly they lap it up.

They are followed by Incredible Hexadecibels with Creassault, and people dance, and for once everyone's eyes are on the Hexadecibels instead of their visuals, because the visuals are being projected on the wall behind the crowd instead of behind or beside the Hexadecibels like it usually would be; it gets me thinking about the lyric-sheet I got last night and of course actually bothered to read and think about, and the Realicide songs Everything is a Camera, and The Audience Sucks... contrasting approaches to music and interaction...

Realicide was brutal again, and in this smaller venue the audience was closer, and a spontaneous mosh-pit broke out, which was just what this sort of hardcore music needs. I'm deeply respectful of what this guy is doing. Nomex made sure that everyone in the crowd was given the lyric-sheet poster, which I believe speaks highly of him.

Nomex had the same set-up as the night before. This time, before his set started, I did the trainspotting kind of thing and went and looked what vinyl he was using. It was a Stiff Little Fingers 12". Anyway, this time Nomex had incorporated beats into his set, I guess via the laptop he had, so the set was more of a breakcore style, although still with massive noise running over the top. The vinyl got chucked on the floor and Robert and Nomex stomped on it a bit, before Nomex totally destroyed it by ramming it in this large gap in the floorboards. It was a good set from Nomex, although it was the kind of fractured breakcore that you can't really dance to that well. Which is fine. After the set was over I grabbed a chunk of vinyl off the floor as a souvenir.

The USA Kings, a Hungarian act that are also touring here for Breakcore Island were supposed to play next, but there was some sort of technical issue, so DJ Beatmeter ended up spinning records, as he had been between all the other sets. This continued for probably an hour or more, as everyone drifted away, but at this stage we were under the understanding that he might help unpack all the PA gear from the venue and get it safely back to where it belonged. Which didn't end up happening, so it came down on me again. Very late night...

These guys all flew down to Wellington the next day for a Saturday night show at the Happy venue, and when I spoke to Robert later he said it was probably the best show of the tour for him because it was the loudest.

Maybe there will be some more Breakcore Island events in March. The USA Kings still have to play sometime. Keep watching the sky....

Breakcore Island (part 1)

Summer in Auckland means "Breakcore Island".. that time when international artists get poached from their Australian tours or from Camp a Low Hum and play a show at some K' Road dive. This is all we get in this faraway corner of the world.. it's lucky that the local talent is so good here..

The first show The Great Wall of Noise Island was on the Thursday night of 28th of January, a noise show in Alleluyah Cafe in St Kevin's Arcade; more specifically in the atrium outside the cafe, which was walled off from the rest of the arcade with sheets strung from a line. Nomex didn't show up after some sort of private drama, so Toecutter and last-minute addition Daedelus both agreed to play improvised sets at the last minute as replacements.

Joining them on the bill were long-time and establishished (establishment?) noise scenesters Duncan Bruce, and Richard Francis with Clinton Watkins. They played the sort of noise you would expect: Bruce more experimental, Francis & Watkins more harsh; all based on sounds and textures and stuff.

Also on the bill for their first time out together in several years was Tumour & Beard, two young men who previously played together as pioneering NZ breakcore outfit Anti-Kati. These guys are long term friends of mine, and to be honest I expected big things. Their set was instead more in line with what I had already heard that evening.. entirely adequate, particularly given the setting lovely atrium setting and the other artists on the bill, but once upon a time I feel like I could have relied on these guys to shred speakers. ..

The speakers did get shredded somewhere along the line, and Daedelus' set was rather quiet and possibly compromised because of that. The dude did a pretty good job of doing some glitchy beeps and blips and stuff; I'm fairly sure he doesn't usually roll like that.

Toecutter's set involved a short amount of harsh noises, a whole lot of incense, and ended with a piece involving Toecutter and several audience members, including myself, dragging tables across and around the atrium floor in a synchronised fashion under Toecutter's direction. Very interesting, although tables were broken and the cafe owner was a little annoyed; mainly at how profusely Toecutter apologised about it.

Directly following this show was the last-minute Daedelus Surfaces on Breakcore Island show at Whammy, which for those who don't know is also in St Kevin's Arcade. This had secured heavy radio promotion, and Whammy rapidly filled up with kids. Happy kids, who danced the night away to future music. P.P. Flo was followed up by Manaia Toa with DJ sets; Manaia Toa with his usual old-skool jungle kinda thing, P.P. Flo his regular pop/breakcore mash-up.

Toecutter was playing as DJ Anal Erection, which apparantly means he plays more dancefloor friendly stuff. The kids were loving it. About 1 in the morning or thereabouts, when the oh-so-punctual kids had been thus warmed up for a few hours, Daedelus did his thing. Someone had predicted somewhere on the spectrum between Ninja Tune and Tigerbeat6, and I guess that was some way to being accurate. Definitely it was somewhere on the spectrum between electro and dubstep which is where the kids are at these days if this crowd was anything to go by. k5k took me and Roxy Riot out the back behind the bar to this little broom-closet that the staff sometimes use. It was weird.

The crowd basically left after Daedelus' set; I didn't realise until much later that it was mainly to do with it being a Thursday night. Manaia Toa played a bit more and then k5k took the 3am to 4am floor-clearing set. k5k's fakecore is brutal and tight, and the test for whether NZ audiences truly get breakcore is whether or not they ever start staying to see a local master like k5k do his set.

The next night on Friday the 29th of January was The Curse of Breakcore Island at Area 26, again in St Kevin's Arcade. This was house party, at the same venue that Belgian breakcore poster-boy Sickboy rocked at this time last year.

I arrived in time to see Glottis, which I am led to believe are a two-piece who are one half of teenage rave crew Ponny Fight (who were who were billed to be playing) and one of their other mates. Glottis do throat-singing. There's video on youtube. Anyway, the lounge was filled with their parents and younger siblings (!) so I stayed at the door and talked with Toecutter and Softsmell and Creassault and Audioslut and the other long-term scenesters, and the family all field out, but I stayed there for Gee Gee who is some teenage MC who I assume is friends with Ponny Fight, and even manned the door for a while by myself which I always find kinda nerve-racking because it involves asserting your will over people and capitalism-like situations.

Eventually I filtered through the party, which at some point had become filled up with teenagers from the Shore who were all tripping on Saliva or Salvia or something (allegedly). Whatever, there were some messy people there. Incredible Hexadecibels with Creassault ripped shit up, playing their European-tour-honed tracks off their forthcoming release. This was the first time I'd seen some of their new videos, and I was laughing on the dancefloor as they are filled with people that I know... I became overwhelmed with that feeling of elite and power you get when you have knowledge that other people on the dancefloor don't have... like when you know the chorus to It's Gotta Be the Shoes or when you suddenly remember the time like nine years ago when you went to a family dinner at P.P. Flo's house and his mother served this bolognese sauce with lots of tomatoes in it and Amy just won't eat tomatoes and didn't touch her meal and it was hella awkward. That really cracked me up. On the dancefloor. Good times.

Toecutter, who was also here last summer, ripped it up again. This is why he has a global reputation as the go-to good-time-party-breakcore DJ. Highlights for me would have to include Don't Cry; hell the whole thing was great really. It's a breakcore party. It was loud. At some point I was slam-dancing with myself in the hallway.

k5k did his usual crowd-clearing best. Dance-floor pretty much to myself. I went outside for a bit, took out my ear-plugs and realised just how shredding it was. Very cool. After his set we sat around on the balcony discussing the ramifications of the youth starting to come through and infiltrate our underground and elite scene/community.. the virtues of having an actual scene vs. having a best-kept secret... the sort of conversations you have late at night with drunk people... uncertain future... can change happen? can it be dealt with?

There was another show on the next night, at some shitty downtown bar that has a pentagram painted on the floor. N.U.T.E. played. Some goth bands played. I didn't go.