VARIOUS ARTISTS

Broken channel

CD+DVD, C0C0S0L1DC1T1

Because if there ever was a musical genre whose protagonists tried to remain very much on top of technological and scientifical progress, then it was / is the electronic scene. Filled with geeks, nerds, artists and cyber-cowboys / -girls, using state of the art technology has always been a prerogative for electronic musicians. Why then was it ever so silent in regards to politics, when it could have and should have been the perfect and first part of the spectrum to sit down and think about the inherent logic of its tools and then get up and use them against themselves to bring them to new levels of functioning.

Politics are a good thing as of themselves, even if the transgression into everyday life and practical work proves to be difficult to say the least. Putting politics into electronic music is even harder, though nowadays, with all the mindless rock- and pop-bands and the girls-beach-fun-punkbands, electronic artists seem to be one of the last parts of musicians still standing up for something now and then, and there are a lot of issues worth opening up your mouth for and shaking your fist for. (And I’d be very unhappy if that field was left to bands that make me puke like Coldplay or, worst of them all, U2.) Apart from arguing that producing a subcultural alternative to actual society and thereby proving that different forms of working together are possible, electronic music as a hard time of conveying political messages. This is not only because of its obvious and regular lack of vocals but also because a lot of that scene has drifted into a worldless twilight zone of otherworldly aesthetics, meta-lifes and self-satisfactory numbness – both the protagonists and the listeners. Therefore it is good to see a compilation filled with experimental electronic music that also has a meaning.[1]

“Broken Channel” has chosen the theme of surveillance and the loss of privacy as its core issue. An interesting thing and ever since the first dramatic public appearances of Scanner also one deeply inherent into the electronic scene. Moreover, both the electronic music scene as well as surveillance for sake of safety have their focus on urban centers, lively streets and places, late night and seedy characters – but of course from different angles.

The music is mostly minimal techno and straight forward lush electronica, but almost every track uses some field recordings, vocal samples and other bitparts that add an atmosphere of noise, dissent and energy to the music. The mixture of synthetic and organic works very well. Everyone knows where the chants of “bring down the wall” on Ultra Red’s first tracks comes from, but it is good to hear them again. You’ll also get rioters and organisers of demonstrations talk into microphones “live” while things are still happening. (The frozen frame of history happening right now has even further aesthetic and artistic implications, that would lead me to far away to get into them now.) Kampuchea uses sounds from an immigration office to construct a soundtrack with. Kaffe Matthews is as consequent in being experimental as always, using sounds from CCTV.

There is an enclosed DVD with various visuals and experimental movies about the same issue. I’ll admit that “Imperial Beach”, a video-filmed study of a part of the Mexican / USA-border, bugged me out big time. After seeing the same shot over and over again for the umpteenth time, I skipped. The other entries were more varied, more experimental and more visually challenging. Especially “Aprotic” by Battery Operated is as close to a leftist mindwash as you’ll get, comprising so much visual information into cheap digital video-trickery as is possible. And still fun to watch.

“Broken Channel” was commissioned by Futuresonic / Futuresonic Festival (UK) which explains the somewhat unfinished character of some of the pieces. I hope this will not recede into the background as mere music.