BARRIKAD “THROUGH THE VOICE ONE BECOMES ANIMAL” C20 NBM35TAPE

This release is a heavily structured mass of sounds, consisting of pulsating analogue oscillators, field recordings, concrete drones, grinding steel pipes, voice samples from documentary archives, distant screams, oil drums and the vibrations captured by contact microphones. On this record BARRIKAD blends diverse elements of sound, evoking a cold fusion of old school industrial music to celebrate the first 10 years.


Through The Voice One Becomes Animal presents itself on two different formats: a handmade and cut in real-time clear 10” in 10 examples released by Exlibris Nordén, but also as a special package tape on Nil by Mouth. Not giving away too much, the booklet that comes with both releases is impressive and thick! Just plain dedication to heavy electronics.

    // T.A.

Tracklist
A: Freedom is Only Possible in the Struggle for Liberation
B: Utanför Det Samhälle Jag Tvingas Vara En Del Av


Tape: 6 euro plus postage
Vinyl 35 euros + postage


Contact: barrikad@hotmail.com
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MuhMur

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from Swedish noise makers Barrikad.
I first came across Barrikad about ten years ago through the excellent compilation "Krimkall" a double cassette release from Krimljud and then a year or so later they were part of the Segerhuva crowd and appeared on the "Sweetness Will Overcome" compilation CD. The Barrikad sound back then was a tsunami of noise, full on distortion with non-empathetic warbling. Very little to separate Barrikad from the masses of Scando-noise projects that existed at the start of this century apart from some nice and neat tape splicing and sample edits …
Ten years after and Barrikad - the sound of Barrikad - is more focused and refined. Personal and directed.
"Through The Voice One Becomes Animal" is a C15 cassette released by Nil By Mouth Recordings. ("Is It Not First Through The Voice One Becomes Animal?" is a question asked by Gilles Deleuze in "Thousand Plateaus:Capitalism And Schizophrenia"). Two single pieces on each side … beginning with "Freedom Is Only Possible In The Struggle For Liberation", which I believe to be a statement by Ulrike Meinhoff. The piece features spoken soundbites and sloganeering by members of the RAF as well as news reportage. The sound is crunching analog synthesizer with a ticking clock offset against a mechanical pulsebeat. Very Deutsche PE and old school industrial. A well constructed piece with hammer against metal a sound I last heard on a news report from the frontline of demonstration in Kiev, the Ukrainian street beat - the sound of the barricade.
Side two is very similar in sound and construct. "Utanför Det Samhälle Jag Tvingas Vara En Del Av" (or "I am forced to exist outside this community" … apologies if I am way out, my Swedish is a little rostig these days) has the same mechanical ticking, the factory rhythm but this piece builds to the sound of anarchic beatings, all with a narrative in an unrecognisable foreign tongue.
The cassette is packaged in a 7" pouch with 24 page booklet printed in both Swedish and English, there is some sort of Barrikad history / manifesto alongside writings by Barrikad. Sleeve notes that would make Adi Newton jealous! I would go as far to say that this release is perfect.
"Through The Voice One Becomes Animal" has been released before but in ultra ultra limited editions on 10" lathe cut disc and on cassette by Exlibris Nordén.
I am now discovering Barrikad and their "We Make Nihilists Smile" CD that Phage Tapes released in 2011.

Nil By Mouth Recordings are a new label to me, the name cropped up on Chondritic forum board and also SI board but I was slightly put off by the releasing stuff by folk with names such as The Vomit Arsonist & Chloroform Rapist .. I am slightly snobbish when it comes to names but with so much "stuff" being released I have to pick carefully .. now after listening to Barrikad I discover they have released great names like Altar Of Flies, N. and Fear Konstruktor in the past and have just put out cassettes by Arkhe and Uncodified. I have sent off E Mails to Nil By Mouth Recordings but have yet to get a response. If anyone from NBM is reading this please get in contact.
This cassette is essential : www.exoteric-zine.com/nilbymouth or get in contact and buy from Barrikad via Discogs. 




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German Review:
http://africanpaper.com/2013/11/02/barrikad-through-the-voice-one-becomes-animal-tape-und-lathe-cut-ep/
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Crucial Blast:

BARRIKAD Through The Voice One Becomes Animal CASSETTE (Nil By Mouth) 
More killer industrial filth from Nil By Mouth; the sort of primitive din that Barrikad belts out on this tape is the sort of classic, old-school industrial that I really haven’t been hearing much of lately, but which always sounds great blasting out of the C-Blast sound system at top volume. Sweden’s Barrikad has produced some excellent examples of this sort of pulsating, entropic din since its formation, though, and the band’s latest release Through The Voice One Becomes Animal is a primo example of exactly this sort of grungy noise. <br/> This extremely limited cassette release features two long tracks, each consuming an entire side; both are lengthy blurts of corroded electronics and squealing oscillators sending out dim black deathwave pulses from the void, eerie film samples and field recordings layered over clanking junk-noise abuse, and delirious sampled voices that relay visions of evil and inhumanity from the turbulent early years of the twentieth century and beyond. The first side, “Freedom Is Only Possible In The Struggle For Liberation”, starts off with hypnotic electronic tones pulsating beneath the phlegmatic roar of crumbling, collapsing machinery, but then slowly begins to evolve into something much creepier as deep throbbing bass and percussive loops emerge amid layered voices and rattling metal noises, transforming into something that resembles a series of radio transmission being beamed directly out of the cancerous blackened organ at the heart of Western society’s fractured collective psyche. The other side is no trip to the beach, either. “Utanför Det Samhälle Jag Tvingas Vara En Del Av” opens up with a minimal synthesizer pulse and more of those abrasive clanking metal noises, and actually sort of resembles a brain-damaged version of a John Carpenter score stumbling randomly around field recordings of slavering mutants rummaging through the city dump. This one is even creepier, though part of that might be due to the Swedish speakers that begin to emerge from behind the curtain of random clank, the male voice limned with an edge of menace. Then it all suddenly shifts into a crushing din of heavy mechanical rhythms and screaming voices, a massive pneumatic groove suddenly taking over, the steady slow motion clank of war machinery stomping across the bodies of the dead, while sinister droning electronics sweep overhead like swarms of sky borne death machines. Intense. <br/> Like everything else I’ve picked up from Barrikad, both tracks deliver some satisfying blasts of creaking, crumbling death-trance. Comes with a large twenty four page booklet that features a plethora of notable quotes, various demonic and monstrous woodcut images, liner notes written in both Swedish and English that detail Barrikad’s roots in hardcore punk and anarcho culture, and extensive excerpts from the fiery 2007 French anarchist manifesto L’insurrection Qui Vient (The Coming Insurrection), all packaged in a sealed black bubble mailer with printed labels affixed to the outside of the envelope.

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label for industrial harsh noise power electronics drone folk ambient

click on single tracks and artwork for more details

contact: shivernoise@gmail.com

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