This night the black room belonged to industrial soundscapes. And they meant soundscapes; this evening was just one big attack on ears and eyes. But we loved it!!! Beautiful, disgusting, disturbing, macabre and colourful old and new videos during the last three bands made their shows even more impressive. The music? Let’s try to capture the indescribable into words…

DEAD MAN’S HILL
The first act tonight pronounces his words like we are used to hearing from acts like Puissance and Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio. The difference is that this guy got some real feelings into it. If you look at his icy gaze into nothingness you know that it’s serious. The most striking however is his fist along his body.

Only a pity that the lyrics are hardly understandable (due to a poor microphone?), so it’s not quite clear why this man is so fucked up. On the whole he appears to be a person who has a big burden on his chest. The macabre lyrics that are understandable fit in perfectly with the electronic music and samples. Only a pity that the attempt to create some extra input with background vocals from a girl and boy during two different songs just didn’t work…

The one man show that DEAD MAN’S HILL is, creates the right atmosphere to go further into the depth of night and although he seems a bit nervous at times the show was ‘pleasant’ enough…

NA-DHA (new project op HYBRYDS)
After a normal gig you got the time to go to the restroom or to drink a beer, but this was no normal gig. SOUNDS FROM DOWN BELOW just went on with the next act’s ambient technicality. At least, NA-DHA decided to start his solo spot with a quiet, but pleasant ambient feel to it.

Therefore a lot of the audience didn’t even realise that the next person was playing. This wasn’t too strange if you realise that his gear was placed next to the stage. NA-DHA didn’t mind the lack of attention and created a set that slowly grew into some different soundscapes. It started slowly, but grew into a more drum ‘n bass oriented electro.

Especially the attention for details created a dark ambient show with a lot of different layers into the music. Although there was nothing on stage the audience also slowly grew into the sounds that were produced. If you see that ability then you just have to respect the man behind the machines…

THIS MORN’OMINA
After a small break we were pleasantly surprised by some distorted noise with percussion added to it. It felt a bit like the music of Feindflug, but without the military precision. The percussion was used in a more fluent way, still with a lot of tempo but with more melody.

The macabre images on screen enhanced the dark mood that was created. Dark and heavy are the keywords for this performance. The three men on stage (percussion, electronic devices and electronic percussions and other sounds) created the most danceable industrial soundscape up to then.

THIS MORN’OMINA proved that even typical African influences (they even got some Egyptian symbols in their artwork) can work well with the mystical, cold atmosphere of electronics.
Their new record “7 Years of Famine” proves this as well (find a review from that shortly on this site).

FRAMES A SECOND
Next in the darkest line was FRAMES A SECOND. One guy and one girl who proved that you can create so much dark wilful heaviness with just two persons (and that you can even use a chain to create some good music). Although the music is definitely moody it’s danceable as well.

It’s difficult to give a good view on what these two created here. You just had to be there. Their latest album “Disorientated Xpress’ gives you an idea of what has happened. Song titles like ‘Cycle Of Misinformation’, ‘Mourning’ and ‘Silence Is Bad’ prove that it was disturbingly beautiful as well.

Their heavy electronics created an attack on your ears that was even heavier than the one on your eyes by the images on screen. Just a great performance…

AH CAMA-SOTZ
Was the last in line. Normally that would have been an unpleasant job if you consider the quality that had been playing before, but AH CAMA-SOTZ blew another heavy tune into the weakened audience. Once again we had to overcome thundering beats, flashy images (mostly of old horror movies) and some distorted voices.

No remorse! The quality was, again, high and it says much for the ‘last rider of the storm’ that he could make people dance (once again). After all that had been, this was a huge achievement. Have to admit that my legs felt pretty tired after a night of absolute brilliant electronic/industrial moments, but I still was impressed enough to squeeze out my last energy.

SOUNDS FROM DOWN BELOW proved why acts like Suicide Commando and Front 242 are from Belgium. This type of music just has a good underground scene in their own country. It’s good to check the agenda of the Belgian scene for more heavy industrial based concerts.

You should at least check noblinders.cjb.net, because this site gives you more insight in some new dates organised by the man behind the (amazing) SOUNDS FROM DOWN BELOW.

(Review & Pics: Beautevil )