[kj] article/review in german VISIONS mag

[Brendan]

Ausgezeichnet, dankesehr!


>   Hi there,

> this is from the german alternative rock magazine VISIONS.

> Sorry for the shitty translation, my english has seen better days. The

> only thing I can say in my defence is that some of it sounded already

> pretty awkward in the german original. :-)

> I'll scan the thing when I get the chance...

> btw, does anybody know what he got the grammys for?

>

> Marcel

>

> Killing Joke -- Visions 211 /10.2010

>

> Nature has the last word

>

> Three decades of Killing Joke -- and something special for the

> anniversary: The first album by the original members in 28 years. With

> this one the old heros are reaching new heights -- Absolute Dissent is

> the most thirring in at least a decade. In the interview band-boss Jaz

> Coleman describes the journey to a monster turned into music -- and

> explains why the world is in for apocalypse soon.

>

> /Jaz, no matter if one likes or dislikes you (the band), no matter if

> it's a strong or a weak KJ-period, one thing's always the same: There is

> a subtle feeling of dark matter (sic) in your music, like claustrophobia

> turned into sound. Why is that?/

>

> When we're together in a room something happens. These boys are my

> lifelong education; there is nothing in my like that's not connected to

> them. I've spent more time with these three guys then with my whole

> family.

>

> All of us wouldn't exist without Killing Joke, there would be no

> conscience.

>

> This is not a band, this is a way of life, a worldview/view of life.

> Everybody who has recorded an album with KJ speaks of it as a traumatic

> experience. We literally go through hell every time. And that's what you

> hear on the finished record afterwards; something that you've described

> as claustrophobia quite fittingly. It feels similar to me, however it's

> more of an inner claustrophobia than an outer claustrophobia.

>

> /As if you'd rather run away from yourself?/

>

> Not run away, but to gain more distance. It's such an inner pain to go

> through it every time, you'd rather be an observer of the process and

> not a person concerned. At the same time I know: It's only because I go

> through it the music that we're looking for can be created. But it fucks

> us up every time.

>

> /No idea how to change that?/

>

> No idea, no. We don't know how it evolves, but it's there. We're

> shouting at each other until we lose our voices, throw around stuff and

> get to the borders of our capacities. With this comes what we call the

> "unforeseeable". Not one KJ album even begins to come close to the

> concept I thought about beforehand. Obviously this band is also about

> the constant destruction of all of your beliefs and ideas.

>

> /No way to compromise without intern struggling?/

>

> No, that doesn't work for us. Especially this time I wanted to focus on

> - and follow a few things, to stick to some ideas. One had been to have

> the better part of the album with precomposed structures. I had written

> about ten of those as a basis beforehand. Now there are two structured

> songs left on the album. The rest of them are jams. The unforeseeable

> has occurred once again. As a matter of fact all the songs that we think

> of as being the strongest in our career have been the result of such

> jams. It seems that we are on top of our game when we achieve a

> collective spontaneous combustion (sic) of our egos and personalities.

> Into disaster without preparation: That's the way KJ-music emerges.

>

> /Desaster is pure chaos. Your music on the other hand brings structure

> to chaos -- where does the structure come from?/

>

> We have two antipodes whenever we work creatively: At least one of us

> takes the revolutionary point of view, another one the reactionary one.

> That's not planned or a conscious decision, these parts aren't always

> assigned in the same way. But there are always these two points of view

> about a piece of of music. When we manage to combine them we get a song.

> When we don't - we get noise, nobody has uses for. The structure comes

> from these contrasting opinions that we have to find a common ground for.

>

> /Well, it remains amazing, how stabilized you keep your agressions even

> beyond the age of 50. So you're not getting milder?/

>

> Not with KJ. It's the audible face of all that is evil and dissatisfied

> within me. It's the channel that allows me to get rid of my demons,

> without having to hurt others.

>

> /What exactly is pissing you off, that it brings out your pure

> aggression./

>

> There are a lot of battlegrounds /unnerving topics for me. It only takes

> a picture of the Rockefeller family in a boulevard magazine to ruin my

> mood in a catastrophic way for days. Or the profit report in the

> quarterly period of one of these banks, that have just cost us billions.

> Or a picture of african landscapes that have been contaminated by

> Oil-barons. Hardly a day passes without me coming across something that

> drives me crazy. It's this unbearable injustice of the distribution of

> chances within the human race.

>

> And this mindless destruction of the basic fundamentals that's growing

> faster and faster.

>

> /Another fighter for these values is the writer T.C. Boyle who has

> turned to fatalism by now once said: There are simply too many people on

> this world to save it. We are bound to fall down./

>

> That's a scenario -- it's realistic, but too hopeless for me. I

> represent the thesis that there will be apocalypse in the near future.

> Not a religious one, but a natural one, that will reduce mankind at

> least by half. That's our chance to start over, so to say the hardest

> form of a purging thunderstorm.

>

> Off course it won't be easy to bury 3 to 4 billions of corpses at once,

> but those who will survive will come out purified -- most of all morally

> and ethically. They will then understand that you cannot force the

> existence of a race against nature. Nature always has the last word.

>

> /Is it correct to assume that you are able to stand all of this, because

> you find your peace of mind in classical music by now?/

>

> Yes, that is correct. It reflects the other side of my personality, it's

> the realm where I can express all the beauty and the sublime I

> experience. Just because of that it is such a very different world, that

> I can't draw any parallels to my work with KJ. Both of it is music and

> that's about it. Apart from that these two worlds have nothing in

> common. Still -- I don't necessarily need classical music as

> compensation. My compensation is the humour I find in KJ. It's the

> blackest humour you can imagine. More black than black. That's what

> builds me up.

>

> /What advise do you have for younger people on how to create socially

> responsible art?/

>

> I wish for more anarchy and uprising in the younger generation -- not

> only in the arts, but in general. This generation is still under the

> influence of the last effects of the blooming world economy, that

> doesn't exist anymore. This safety of wellbeing and education has made

> them sleepy -- while their chances are a lot worse than those of their

> parents. They haven't realized that yet and I wish that the young rise

> up before they are forced to do so. Because then it's usually too late,

> society is much too deep in shit. The last time the world saw a

> situation like this the 2^nd WW broke out. And we all certainly don't

> want a 2^nd Hitler as an alleged savior from the crisis, do we? So --

> rise up and take care of yourself, before others do it. Interview:

> Sascha Krüger. Shitty translation: Marcel

>

> A classic: Already as a teenager Jaz Coleman won numerous prizes for his

> violin-playing and enjoyed classical training. Later he studied arabian

> music and lengthily studied Klezmer- and Maori-music. Through this

> occupation with world-music he returned to classical music. At first he

> interpreted the work of the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or

> the doors with symphonic orchestras in the nineties, before his first

> own symphony was staged with the Prague symphonic orchestra in 1999, for

> whom he remains the composer in residence and conductor until today.

> 2001 saw his first Opera "The Marriage At Cana" in the Royal Opera House

> in London. By now he has received 4 grammys for his classical work and

> works with the big orchestras of the world on a regular basis as well as

> soloists like Nigel Kennedy, Sarah Brightman or the Kroke Trio. Coleman

> writes operas, symphonies, chamber music, pieces for choir and

> solo-pieces, but also filmscores.

>

> Review:

>

> For their 30st band anniversary KJ came together in their original

> lineup and present themselves less compromising than ever.

>

> Mellowness due to coming of age is not Jaz Colemans kind of thing.

> Beside all his projects, the choir- and orchestra arrangements,

> compositions for others, books and soundtracks the charismatic-excentric

> fan of experimentation still has enough wrath to present an album with

> his band, that not only captures all facets of three decades of Killing

> Joke, but also displays the ongoing relevance of the Brits in a modern

> and varying way. There are influences of all periods of the band to be

> heard on Absolute Dissent: the raw Postpunk from the early days,

> Pop/Wave disco-tunes like in the late eighties, the industrial-Metal and

> Alternative-Rock, with which KJ have paved the way for countless bands

> in the nineties and that has the biggest part here, too - and with the

> final Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove there's also a Dub-song. The rich

> guitar-work of Geordie Walker, who beside Coleman has been the only

> constant member of KJ has to be stressed once again: sometimes

> extensively supporting the strong choruses like in the title-track or in

> Fresh Fever From The Skies, with simple and concise hooklines in The

> Great Cull or staccato-like monotony in Depthcharge that reminds of

> Fugazis Waiting Room. Coleman adds all kinds of singing, he sounds like

> Lemmy Kilmister or John Baizley of Baroness at times, and then comes

> across with innocent melodies and delivers some the most catchy Choruses

> of his career. Cult-status sustained -- and that with an average age of

> 50. 9 of 12 possible points -- review by Arne Jamelle

>

> The review sounds more like 10, 11 or 12 points to me, but these guys

> are known for their greediness concerning points.

>

>

>

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