Saturday 19 November 2022

Various Artists - Καθαρος - Emanation: Treasure The Fertile Soil In This Barren Land, And Receive -1986- (Cassette, Katharos Foundation), Netherlands

 

The Katharos Foundation was a collective of audio-visual artists and musicians from Tilburg, The Netherlands, established in February 1986. They used performative, conceptual and multi-media aspects in their work which incorporated transgressive elements. There were different musical guises of which a notable one was the industrial Sluagh Ghairm. That band would later turn into the tribal techno act Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia which would gain both domestic and international fame. Some band members were apparently part of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth.

During the phase of the Katharos Foundation exhibitions and concerts took place a.o. alongside bands like Étant Donnés, Coup de Grace and Zombies Under Stress. The Katharos Foundation also functioned as an imprint releasing a number of cassette compilations during their short existence. All in all they can be viewed as another group of industrial culture representatives in The Netherlands.

Καθαρος - Emanation: Treasure The Fertile Soil In This Barren Land, And Receive is a compilation that brings together the different acts under the Katharos umbrella. It displays industrial electronics, home recordings, live recordings and performance sounds. It came with a large booklet with artwork which unfortunately is not included here.

 Kindly donated by The Y Create Archive

Get it HERE

Tuesday 15 November 2022

Naomi N'Uru - Wurm -1989- (LP, Überschall Records), Germany

 

Naomi N'Uru was a project by Caroline Frerichs and Rasmi Nithokar from the Northern German town of Bremerhaven. They released a couple of cassettes as well as this record and a CD. They also recorded under the name Cosmic Dance Society which I highly recommend to check out. 

The music on Wurm consists of late EBM style music with lots of cut-ups, sampling and strange transitions. Occasionally it becomes a little more melodic gothic wave-like, but maintains its EBM core. Ofcourse iconic bands like Front 242 or Front Line Assembly come to mind, but it mostly fits that 80's into the 90's transition phase on the still more industrial side of the electronic music spectrum.

The record was hand-numbered and quite a fragile pressing. My copy was a bit warped unfortunately so the sound quality isn't the greatest throughout. 

Get it HERE