von_geisterhand

A quite readable article even if they leave out a chunk of how things developed between the time that Cosey took her kit off in an artistic way and the recent Nachtmahr-Combichrist-Adversary conflict. That stuff did not happen overnight, you know? There was a logical and fairly depressing development.

On Misogyny in Industrial Music"

Funnily enough, some of the arguments in this discussion match the constantly regurgiated discussion on "Nazis in Goth", particularly when it comes to the demand that an artist should step away from their work and comment on their actual opinions/thoughts on the matter in order to quell a possible suspicions. Laibach, as the article states, "hasn’t broken character in over 30 years of interviews" and still nobody seriously suggests they might actually be Nazis or calls for them to unambigiously distance themselves from the Nazis that attend their shows.
Death In June/Douglas P., on the other hand, has (admittedly reluctantly) stepped away from and commented on his work on occasion, as well as confronting fans that found the rainbow flag onstage incompatible with their political beliefs. Yet, his explanations are simply discarded as false excuses, his contradictions are seen as invalid/irrelevant and he remains the poster boy for Nazis in Neofolk. Frustrating!
YMMV on this, but IMHO there is nothing wrong with an artist presenting him/herself onstage as a baby-eating, this-that-or-something-else-hating, satanist monstrosity calling for death, destruction and eradication of this, that or something else. That stuff has worked well for decades in metal and it probably will remain popular. As long as they don't show the same attitudes off-stage as well, it's fair enough. (Or if they do, they have to live with the consequences. That is what distinguishes Varg Vikernes from Marilyn Manson.)
This approach requires the listener/fan to critically approach the material, though, to not raise their arm to a salute when the artist does. Think of "Tomorrow belongs to me" from "Cabaret". It is rousing and if it is staged well, you do want to join in and the moment you catch yourself wanting to salute, suddenly forced to face something dark inside yourself, is the moment when the magic happens.
Reaching this critical moment is hard, particularly if the artist in question has built a complete entity that almost entirely lacks any "cracks" to begin an analysis/deconstruction with. Laibach's "cracks" are things like their avantgarde past and their usage of seemingly innocent pop songs. It bewilders the listener, thus making him/her think.
Death In June, on the other hand, have been fairly consistent and "crack"-free since essentially becoming a one man show.
Zentriert Ins Antlitz's "Geschäftsfrau" drags you out on the dancefloor with its catchy beat and then faces you with a fairly tough conversation, which hopefully let's you hesitate for a second and go "Hang on, what am I dancing to? What have I been dancing to all night for that matter?"
(To be continued)

We went to an alternative culture place yesterday to listen to a lecture about Neofolk and its supposed inherent right-wing tendencies. In fact, let's just quote the entire text advertising the event here:

Thursday 07 June
EAG-Tresen Diesmal mit Infoveranstaltung ab 20.00 Uhr. Die „Schwarze Szene“, wie sich das Milieu der Gothics und „Gruftis“ selbst bezeichnet, wird wegen rechter Tendenzen immer wieder von Antifaschist_innen kritisiert – meistens völlig zu Recht. Besonders unangenehm fällt in diesem Zusammenhang die Stilrichtung „Neofolk“ auf, der unter anderem die bekannten rechten Musikprojekte „Death in June“ und „Von Thronstahl“ zuzurechnen sind. Der mit ein paar Bildern und Hörbeispielen garnierte Vortrag wird darüber informieren, was Neofolk eigentlich ist, woher die rechten Einflüsse kommen und was das Ganze überhaupt soll.
Danach noch ein bisschen düstere Musik und gruslige Cocktails wie „Zombie“, „Suicide“ und „Bloody Mary“ (angefragt).

For a start, the mentioned cocktails were not served and those that were, were lacking in quality. But that's besides the point now and in any case, beer was cheap.
Even if I had no particular feelings about Neofolk, I think I might have been enticed to attend on the strength of the first sentence. Allow me to translate: "The 'Black Scene', as the subculture of the goths calls itself, has repeatedly been criticised by anti-fascists due to its right-wing tendencies - mostly absolutely justifiedly."
That is quite an accusation to make, isn't it?

The lecture that followed did not live up to this level of vitriol, was rather half-arsed, not terribly well researched and preferred to suggest and insinutate rather than analyze any band or song in detail. In fairness, I have heard worse discourse on the subject but remain convinced that I could have made a better case accusing the bands of using images and ideas questionably while defending them than the speaker did just accusing them.
Where said speaker really let himself down, though, was when we corrected him on certain details and disagreed (politely*) with some of his suggestions. As he later told us, he had not expected to have somebody who already knew about the subject present and would have much preferred if we had not been there. Of course he would, it's much easier to "teach" people if they just unquestioningly accept all you tell them.
Will I have to write the final word on neofolk myself?

To cap it all off: You will have noticed that the lecture was held in the context of the "EAG"-group. That's short for "Emanzipative und Antifaschistische Gruppe", in other words: anti-fascist and anti-sexist. And ye verily, out beloved speaker did say at several points that he really wasn't all that interested in what artist said what when and why (after doing just that making his case) but that he was rather interested in equal rights and lack of prejudice.
At the same time, his girlfriend was spreading flyers advertising her events all over the place, which sported the picture of a woman cutting the throat of another, deep-clevaged female on the front. Lesbians as psychos, psycho females, the male gaze on the suffering female, the murder of the confident female, you take your pick.

*Okay, slightly less politely when he suggested that Current 93 are actually a Nazi band. Why? Because they have a song and an EP ("a whole album", in his words) called "Hitler as Kalki". What is that song about? He could not tell us.
You do not insult David Tibet lightly in my presence.