20:00 Jenny Hval
21:30 .John Bence
22:15 .DAF
after in the Foyer: Haya33 (DJ Set)
DAF (DE)
DAF have made history. The title of their song “Verschwende Deine Jugend” was made into a book and film title and has become a household phrase. “Der Mussolini” is still the only dance floor hit with a refrain about two despots and a saint, while “Der Räuber und der Prinz” was probably the first homoerotically charged German pop song. Alongside Kraftwerk, DAF were the second German contribution to the emergence of techno, but they also anticipated the dark electro pop subgenre EBM (Electronic Body Music), which is close to industrial music and is currently experiencing a comeback with artists like Helena Hauff. Whereas with Kraftwerk, the disappearance of guitar from the music led to dehumanized coldness or at least to detached cyber-eroticism and industrialisation, with DAF, the reduction to a beat and vocals brought sex to the forefront. DAF’s live performances were an adventurous undertaking in their early years: Robert Görl sat at the drums, Gabi Delgado stood at the front of the stage with the microphone, and the electronics were played off a cassette. This meant they had as many cassette decks on the stage as there were pieces in the set, so they would not need to wind or turn around a cassette and could choose the order spontaneously.
DAF’s image was also influential: their appearance between militarism and leather machismo caused confusion in the somewhat innocent pop scene of the early 1980s. DAF’s impact can currently be heard, for example, in the punk sound of Sleaford Mods, stripped down to vocals, beats, and bass and synthesizer runs.
Jenny Hval (NOR)
The Norwegian Jenny Hval plays ambiguous pop music. This is something she has in common with the American musician St. Vincent, who she did a joint tour with. Jenny Hval began her career as a singer in a goth band, published two novels, and went solo a dozen years ago. Initially as Rockettothesky and as Jenny Hval for her last five albums, she mixes experimental pop sounds, folk, avant-garde song-writing, noise, and electronica. The latest works – released by Sacred Bones Records, who are also responsible for the musical outpourings of Zola Jesus, David Lynch, and John Carpenter – consolidated her reputation as Scandinavia’s new avant-garde pop queen. Her latest record “Blood Bitch” deals with vampires, menstruation, and capitalism, she says.
John Bence (UK)
John Bence from Bristol has a background in classically composed music. The record recently released on the Yves Tumors Grooming label has already sold out again, and that might be a good thing, because “Kill” should not be heard as a recording, but experienced live. “Sepulchral, majestic. He shapeshifts from something like prime, latter day Coil in a section of reverberant cello and ghostly keening, to erupt in Prurient like howls and psychotomimetic scat like a possessed, Welsh mining choir. (…) Pure entropy, vocals layered and decaying into extremes of the soundfield” (Boomkat). In a nutshell: not to be missed!
