American Psychos: Fascist Hippies coming to Town

Guest post by Jack Dash

Stop Press #2: The venue, The Green Note, made the following statement: "We at Green Note are committed to running our venue in a way consistent with our beliefs and world view. This article was recently brought to our attention, and while its accuracy has been disputed by the organisers, we at Green Note reserve the right to err on the side of caution in the name of our venue, the hard work of our staff, and our place in the community. While we had no prior knowledge of the history or politics of this band, if there is any truth to the extreme political views held by the members of Changes, these run in contrast to our beliefs and we felt unable to go ahead with this show." Risa / The Green Note, 2013-08-08

Stop Press #1: The venue, The Green Note, have now pulled the concert. Keep your eyes open for any attempt by the promoters to move to a new venue. 2013-07-19

nb. This article has been edited to change the incorrect attribution of a couple of quotes. This mistake has no bearing on the accuracy or argument of the post as a whole. 2013-07-23

"None of this had any real connection to integration or peace between races. Integration did not occur -- flight of the whites occurred. It was no secret that once blacks predominated in an area, the crime rate would soar and the streets would become dangerous to walk." Robert N. Taylor - Chronicles of Chaos, 2006

Booked to appear at a small venue called the Green Note in Camden, London on September 6th 2013 is a shadowy American folk duo known as Changes. Cousins Robert N. Taylor and Nicholas Tesluk started playing together in coffee houses of their native Chicago in the dusk of the 60s,in an America redolent with the bad vibes of the Manson Family's 'Acid Fascism' and as the hippy dream turned bum trip.

Taylor and Tesluk have a history of fascist involvement stretching back to the very early 60s, originating in their membership of the Chicago chapter of the Minutemen around 60-61, a vigilante militia group founded to combat what they saw as the communist threat to America. Here is Taylor in an interview with the fascist neofolk/industrial music magazine Stigmata in 2005 talking about the organisation and his significant role in it:

"Minutemen drew from the full scope of those on the right. From "Barry Goldwater" type conservatives, Objectivists and libertarians, anti-communists,constitutionalists, Christian Identity, neo-Fascists, Nazis, gun-owner advocates, etc.."

"My involvement in the Minutemen was considerable. I became a member of the newly formed organization at about 14 years old. I first was a member, then became the principle organizer and leader in the Chicago area. Then I became a member of the Executive council of ten as the director of intelligence. By the time I was 24 years old I was the editor of the organization's publication, On Target as well as the national spokesman for the group. My involvement lasted through most of the years of the organization's existence."

"What made On Target uniquely different from other anti-communist or right-wing publications was that in addition to articles and commentary on various current issues, it also contained names, addresses and phone numbers of its assumed communist and liberal enemies. Often literal dossiers on such people were featured. Combine the slogan, cross-hair masthead, and such detailed information on perceived enemies, and the potential threat was implied, without ever being actually stated."

"We have studied your Communist smirch, Mao, Che, Bhukarin. We have learned our lessons well and have added a few homegrown Yankee tricks of our own. Before you start your next smear campaign, before you murder again, before you railroad another patriot into a mental institution...better think it over. See the old man at the corner where you buy your paper? He may have a silencer equipped pistol under his coat. That extra fountain pen in the pocket of your insurance salesman that calls on you might be a cyanide-gas gun. What about your milkman? Arsenic works slow but sure. Your auto mechanic may stay up nights studying booby-traps. These patriots are not going to let you take their freedom away from them. They have learned the silent knife, the strangler's chord, the target rifle that hits sparrows at 200 yards. Only their leaders restrain them. Traitors beware! Even now the cross-hairs are on the back of your necks..."

The publicity for this upcoming tour makes reference to Italian facist philosopher Julius Evola, describing the evening as "An intimate evening of music for aristocrats of the soul" and calling the tour the 'Ride the Tiger World Tour', both taken from the title of one of Evola's books, Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul (published in 1961). Evola's fascism was esoteric and Brahminical, and although he had close ties with Mussolini and the Nazi Party in the 30s and 40s, he considered both to have failed the cause of fascism because they were too proletarian in ideology and structure. At the bottom of the poster is printed 'Kali Yuga' (the Age of Vice), a pointed reference to current era of the Hindu calender constantly referenced by fascists like Evola and esoteric Nazi Savitri Devi as a prophecy of the decline of world into decadence, reliance on technology, and descent into materialism and greed, as predicted in the Mahabharata Hindu scriptures written around 400 BC, and a favourite touchstone for post-Nazi fascism because of its place ancient Aryan history and its narrative of decline, a constant refrain of fascism. In the past Changes also toured under the banner 'Men Among The Ruins', the title of another of Evola's books.

The band were rediscovered by Michael Moynihan of Blood Axis notoriety in 1996, who then produced and released their next album on his Storm label alongside other far-right acts like Allerseen and David E. Williams. They quickly became revered in the scene as the progenitors of neofolk.

Austrian label HauRuck! started by comedy neofolk Stormtrooper Albin Julius rereleased Fire of Life in both LP and CD form in 2001, before releasing a new full length Changes album, Orphan In The Storm.

In 2005 they released an untitled CD with British fascist folk musician Andrew King (Sol Invictus, Brown Sierra) on the Portuguese Terra Fria label. King was recently sacked from another neofolk band Sol Invictus (a band with its own seriously fascist history) because he recorded a song by David E Williams called 'Wotan Rains On A Plutocrat's Parade', in which he amended the lyrics to make the song unambiguously racist and Nazi.

The event is obviously being promoted quietly so as to avoid the unwanted attention of anti-fascist organisations like Searchlight and Antifa. For example Michael Moynihan is referred to as "a friend" and not by name in the biography on the venue's site, presumably because of his own involvement in far-right politics. No mention of their history in the Minutemen is made , and they are presented as a straight-forward folk act. Tesluk talked about the unwanted attention of antifa protesters in the same Stigmata interview quoted above:

"As for the actual antifas congregated a block away, Douglas, of Death In June, walked over to confront them and they all faded away and acted like he was the invisible man. I passed them at least three times and they wouldn't even look in my direction. No one there was afraid of those punks."

The concert, featuring Death in June, a famous British fascist neofolk band, in Changes' hometown of Chicago, was cancelled in the end because the Jewish venue owner became aware of the bands' political affiliations.

Unlike many contemporary neofolk groups Changes seem relatively comfortable talking about their far-right politics, and specifically how with Moynihan's help they reached a young neofolk audience that includes plenty of radical traditionalists, Asatru practitioners, esoteric fascists, neo-Nazis and Third Positionists who are the natural audience for Changes' Eurocentric fascism:

"In the early to mid '70s the audiences were alright, but I doubt that most of them knew what our music was all about. The folk music scene was pervaded with leftists at that time, both as performers and as audiences. That has radically changed. It was as if Changes had to wait over thirty years to find the real audience it had been seeking all those years." Robert N. Taylor - Chronicles of Chaos, 2006

At the time of writing the tour will also include in concerts in Lithuania, Germany, Moscow and Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Austria, and Greece.

Green Note venue >>

Karl Blake Comments

I thought it might be useful to collect together a group of comments made earlier (16th-21st May) on the blog by Karl Blake, a onetime member of Sol Invictus-AS: 

[An earlier comment had mentioned Karl's presence at a festival that Boyd Rice played at in London recently]


"... having been alerted by a friend I just have come here to reply to the above poster - Ben 14th May, above.

I was at the Mute 'do' because a friend of mine has made a film about Mark Stewart of the Pop Group and Maffia. He is over from Berlin for that purpose and I am giving him somewhere to stay. He asked me if i wanted to go and I said I didn't mind either way. I would have gone on friday and was quite prepared to confront the piece of shit that is Boyd Rice - I am, contrary to your suggestion, unhappy to even share this earth with him - and as down as I am on myself at times for once I am elitist enough to believe I rate more worthy of survival than that particular specimen - And I was quite prepared to look for [and confront] other pieces of crap that might be adhering to the jerks coattails too. I am also disgusted by Daniel Miller's attitude - but as was pointed out of course he'll defend the 'not needing defending' boyd rice - I can speak from experience that he can be very charming and very funny... BUT... I like to imagine Boyd on the Mrs. Merton show: 'so, boyd, why are you so nice to the multi-millionaire [probably], promotor and financer of your records, payer of your occasional wages, and Jewish[?], Daniel Miller?'

I do understand Daniel Miller. I too defended an undeserving creep for far-too many years. THE INTERNET WASN'T THEN WHAT IT IS NOW THOUGH - IT DIDN'T HAVE WEBSITES SUCH AS THIS THAT DO A VERY MUCH NEEDED JOB.

SEARCHLIGHT MAGAZINE, FOR EXAMPLE - SHOULD PUT ALL OF ITS BACK ISSUES ONLINE

However, I could not get in on the Friday. I toyed with the idea of waiting outside for my ex-friends to arrive so as I could spoil their days in however small a way but as it was still early and the prospect of seeing the moron parade depressed me I went instead to the wonderful Morrisons supermarket, and thence home. Another friend who was there on the Friday reported that Boyd was flouncing around the building as you reported. He also said that, pleasingly, and contrary to what you said, ANTIFA did make an appearance outside and there was trouble between them and security - the latter of which was particularly large in number. My other friend didn't see anything. I suppose it depends where you were. Its perfectly possible for people to be unaware inside a very noisy big building - what is happening in one small corner - when I shouted at the fuckwit mentioned above the people I was with not far ahead were unaware also.

I did attend saturday, however, and had the pleasure of telling a traitorous creep exactly what I thought of him [he is the subject of a blog on here] - I had to hurry to see the film or I would have spent more time on him. Later I spent time walking round the edges and at the entrance at the back of the Hall when Laibach played looking out for his and any 'faces' I knew may be there to share 'thoughts' with - but there were none further - unless you, 'ben' were one of the three largish men one with bluish camo trousers who went through the other door and looked and sounded as if you were going to come over but changed your mind ... you should of: I welcome telling people what and why I believe what I do.

But I suspect your motives for coming here instead... and I have theories of who you may be. The bit about Asians at the front doesn't surprise me in the slightest - or prove anything. Its odd that someone as well informed as you on other matters seem to think it might - were YOU there to protest?

I am increasingly being driven to give account for my past. I am quite open to doing an interview about exactly what my position is. Ironically it is a friend of a friend of Wakeford who has been pushing for this to happen - I look forward to giving him exactly what he deserves - soon. I did do an interview for a book mentioned within this site [in 2006 I think] - and not unconnected with what I said earlier, but my comments and those of Eric Roger also were ignored. I also did an interview for a mag in Germany - but the subject of Sol Invictus must have been so boring or my rambling so unbearably tedious and hard to follow that I was 'nowhere' - its still a bloody good mag though...

I'll give you one or two quotes - I was always convinced the man [Wakeford] whilst remaining stupid in his opinions - nevertheless was inactive in Politics - in fact I was assured of this by both him and David Tibet [1987]. I hold up my hand and say I was politically almost totally ignorant, but my attitude was that as long as people were not pouring petrol through peoples letter boxes they were entitled to their opinions - as long as I wasn't helping promote such disagreeable opinions. I didn't see the codes or whatever contained within the music. When i said to Wakeford, why don't we play that song "LONG LIVE DEATH' from the first album he didn't enlighten me [I wasn't on the first album, by the way, and the first gig I played was in Tokyo at the end of '88 I think - there had apparently been Sol gig[s] before - at least he [Wakeford] said - "private parties" - singular or plural I cannot remember...

Maybe there is a tape of these - maybe a release? "down on griffins farm" as a possible title - I wonder?

Wakeford said to me when he was due to marry Renee Rosen [who is jewish] that "I've lost friends as a result of this " [or words to that effect] - this was in 1998 - I replied "well, they are friends not worth having, aren't they, Tony?" to which he merely grunted. At some time prior to this Tony had warned me off of doing an interview for a [possibly belgian] magazine, as he was aware it was politically dodgy. So there did seem to be indications that he was learning, and after all his mate Richard Lawson and his funny [i mean that in a good way] wife seemed perfectly reasonable types] and many others thought the same. It wasn't until I had a meeting with Stewart Home after a chance meeting at a party in late 2005 that I knew who he REALLY was. Wakeford also made disparaging remarks about Combat 18 after some documentary on TV, which I hadn't heard - and I went to a pub with him once in Borough High Street and he recognised people who came in as Charlie Sergeant and other Combat 18 people and he got quite agitated.

Events in 2005 finally swung my opinion [I was still in the band at this time - my last gig was Leipzig in May 2005 - the tour prior to this had been disrupted [in retrospect] by what I now know to be perfectly reasonable antifa action - and this is an odd one - we were told that it had occurred as a result of a stirring up of action by a certain Vienna-based musician who himself was a raving nazi who hated Wakeford for various reasons - Renee being jewish one of them and the other as I thought recently as possibly a result of the exclusion of a prospective musician from Sol because of his presence on said persons label. Eric Roger did tell the story of his story on a french forum but sadly it was taken down - it is quite right that both of our stories need telling. I will stress though that If Wakeford dropped dead tomorrow I would continue to try to find out more and expose all the other people for doing what they are doing and have done. There is updating needed [connections are not old and dusty cobwebs whatever people may say] and the problems that other people mention are equally relevant it doesn't diminish the significance of this movement - a lot may just be unfortunate fashion victims and others, such as Wakeford, may now be still keeping his/their rightist connections partly only for the money - small beer though it may now be. As Eric Owens said to Wakeford in 2000 "you may not like it, but unfortunately for you we are your audience". If I saw mention of Sol being fascist I would alert Wakeford to it and expect him to do something about it - it was his baggage not mine - or, for that matter the baggage of the people I recruited to the band whom I forewarned of Wakefords past. He asked me why I told them and I said that it was only right and proper if we were getting gigs cancelled at times for what I believed was him being an idiot at some point in his life. In retrospect I was an idiot. This probably strengthened his 'need to know' basis [or I possibly I was the not-need-to-know bassist from then on...] as I presume was the case when I asked whatever happened to that nice chap Tony Williams who we shared a holiday with in 1991 in Cornwall "because he had a car"
 ...some sort of evasive and effective answer obviously, because I didn't know the answer to that until 2005/6 -[see David Copeland - Bomber].

Enough. For now. So - if any genuinely antifascist magazine, individual, website or whatever that I am convinced of wants to talk to me about this who like me believe in 'NO PLATFORM FOR NAZIS' [to me - I will not argue about satanist nazis or anti-satanist nazis - they are all morons and all nazis - and I use that word because I want to - irrespective of 'theoretical inaccuracy - as Alan Trench said - if it looks like a Nazi, it is a Nazi].

OK - FIRSTLY - As regards Wakeford - - I think I'll christen him 'TEFLON TONY' - from what I can ascertain, going by what he said in "Englands Hidden Reverse" about being put away [by the police] for a very long time, this does not add up. He says this was for petty crime and it doesn't explain, why, in about 2000 he was briefly taken to one side by two police on entering the country. He returned to us [some of the band] visibly shaken and said " Err, they said "WE KNOW YOU". His constant "Leagas and Pearce were wholly innocent - it was just me" smacks to me of mutual silence being beneficial rather being than being motivated by friendship. On the quiet his talk about them was - "Dougs lost the plot" - when Douglas was fighting World Serpent, and anger at bootlegs of DIJ that Patrick had put out without paying anyone else.

He is morally lax and totally defined by heightened self-interest, and because he dislikes certain kinds of confrontations is inclined to be two faced in his actions. Curiously, I noted in the booklet you mentioned [Satan etc.] that Sol Invictus were mentioned - but in no depth whatsoever - merely as a link to get to the subject of Ian Read - an enemy of Wakefords [as a result of real jealousy - not the 'supposed' jealousy I suffer from]. He was also too loose-tongued in public for Wakeford's liking]. I suspect, therefore, that Wakeeford keeps a foot in many camps rather than taking sides: one camp being the Nazi who wrote the booklet "Satan etc... which incidently does supply valuable info on the "enemy", despite having a bizarre theory about Paul Macartneys "Mull of Kintyre"!!!

Some time after my tenure with the Sol Invictus ended I discovered a Searchlight article from 1997, or maybe 1998, that dealt with Wakeford, Read and Freya Aswynn and others, which Wakeford undoubtedly knew about. This is one example of his total selfishness - rather than inform us [the rest of the band] about the article and let us decide about our position in the light of its publication ['we' = the band - you should note that all the releases read "Tony Wakeford with..." in other words he was Sol Invictus]. When it suited him we all were Sol Invictus - ie. when he wanted to prove to antifa that he couldn't possibly be fash of any kind. To give an example; there was an incident in England, early in the band's existence, when we were told of a threat to firebomb the queue for a gig with Death in June in Clapham Junction. [The Sol gig was cancelled the DIJ moved] - Wakeford used the band to claim - "We're not fascist - i've got an anti-apartheid'[sic] on cello, a chaos musician on drums, and a nutter on bass!". This has been his regular defense technique ever since - to hide behind his ill-informed band's ethnicity, faith or whatever.

 My own theory is that Wakeford is first and foremost a casuist [but one that he would prefer that some kind of fascist state existed]. He bites his lip and writes pap about a mythical world of kings, queens and fools. I think he feels that way politically irrespective of any nonsense about his wife being Jewish or his bassist being a lesbian [and I bet he never told the latter that the title of her photo exhibition was lifted from a line of my Underneath project in 1986 - 'World Turn Green' - from the track 'Smear Ghosts' - he did ask my permission at the time]. He hides behind the laymans view of 'fascism' . A recent posting on Stormfront England said that his friend Richard Lawson's wife Eve was in fact part-Jewish - which in turn made his daughter, who the poster also said was an activist - Jewish also - and yet he [Lawson] is credited with anti-semetic writings in the 70s and 80s [aside from being the [ghost] author of a pamphlet called 'Lifting the Lid on the Anti-Nazi League' - and his mate Patrick Harrington - NF and latterly a BNP defender from the position of boss of the 'fake' union - Solidarity], worked with Jewish activist [and separatist] Rabbi Schiller. This again is rambling - but there are facts that need to be aired.
Anyway, music is part of the unifying zeitgeist and as a part of a cultural organism is open to infection, which is exactly what is happening and I don't think it is just tied to the neo-ghetto. This site makes an error at times of knocking the music - and that is neither a here or there - it's the Vessel and not the Essence. I too grew through a loose reactionary culture of transgression and believe in the flag of freedom... but only up to a point. The far right use civil rights for their own ends as well - use tolerance to defend their intolerance. I recall again how the KKK was represented by a black lawyer when fighting for their right to have their own public TV in the U.S.A. - and government repression is used as a shared bogey man to hide in amongst or alongside the extreme left, for example Casa Pound in Italy. My response about "looks like a nazi" in that case may well be sorely tested. If I come out with "hate-speech against hate speech" it is my reactionary shift against all of that - I've got 'Neo-poisoning' if you like! I really am fed up with it and a lot of that is down to feeling thoroughly used and duped. I hold my hand up and say I enjoyed going abroad and playing all the time - and recording. Its my own fault that I took the path of least resistance and sat back and took the easy option of just turning up and playing bass and laughing at all the idiots with silly haircuts and anal-aryan uniforms. I will agree that I am now, by contrast - guilty of "kill 'em all - let God decide" type reasoning here with the comment I made in an earlier post.

One other thing - the compilation "Not Alone" - a five cd benefit album put out in 2006 (http://www.discogs.com/Various-Not-Alone/release/638749) - and compiled by David Tibet. Profits were/are to go to medicin san frontiere to combat aids in Africa. How many compilations are Sol Invictus on? Loads - but not that one - even though Wakeford had his own studio at that point or could of, like my own Shock Headed Peters, given an old unreleased track - his reply to me when I mentioned it at the time was [talking about Tibet's request for a track] "you know what my response was, don't you" - so, no Sol on that release.....
Anyway - to Ben, again -

I advise you further to try to contact the webmaster here to do a piece about Jobbik and any cultural sources they may be feeding on and music they may like etc..

And you asked about Laibach - to me on cursory glance they are the musical version of "Romper Stomper" or "American History X" - supposed moral counters critiquing the far-right but 'turned around' and used as visual/aural pornography IN PART by the far-right [as sadly I have seen this website described as 'making fascism sexy";-{ ] - in the same way peedos might use innocent pics of babies for their own ends. I liked some of Laibach's music at the Roundhouse - I didn't like the literal porn [the blow job footage - but thats just my own prejudice] - I don't know what they [Laibach] actually represent - I have heard rumours about some people connected to them - I prefer truth and facts however and will continue to look...
So - in answer to your last and probably most important question:

"Fascism needs opposing and tackling where it is developing an organized and coherent political program and political force, is this music scene a real site for that type of development?" - Yes it should be tackled even if it apparently doesn't apparently conform to the "organised and coherent" dictum for, as ROBIN RELIANT said above "Can we get beyond this semantic hall of mirrors and look at ways in which dangerous ideas are drawn from 'politics' and amplified in 'art'? To suggest that anything exists in isolation these days is equally disingenuous: just look at the CV and 'political' associations of someone like Alex Kurtagić (Supernal Music) -and I'll say also if people like Troy Southgate, Jonathan Bowden - friends and associates of Kurtagić as well as would-be politicians [or activists] first and foremost are connected and interested to this area of music then yes - opposition and investigation and taking it seriously is needed however small and insignificant the scene may seem... the old English saying "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves" - i'd say look after the pennies as well as the pounds... I'd call what we are taking on here a form of "investment fascism" - all these idiots with their uniform and badges today are the middle-management, bankers, scientists, web designers etc. of tomorrow

...thats the problem with not having constant linkage to the internet. Someone asks you something and a whole load of other people respond in the interim - and I am afraid I haven't the time to do an in depth reply to all now.
But I must say this - my 'being sacked' from Sol Invictus came about as a result of a couple of things - the specific one relating to this being that Eric Roger was sacked for objecting to the [i'd say] 95% fashtype line-up we [Sol] were being grouped with in a particular hall over 2 days as part of the Leipzig Gothik Treffen [2005]. Eric spoke to Wakeford about this first and he agreed that it sounded bad. Eric himself then contacted the promoter - which caused considerable flack - the first I heard about it was to get a phone call from Tony saying " hes gone mad!!" Wakeford then sent Eric an email telling him as much [that he'd gone mad] but that he could continue in Orchestre Noir as he valued his abilities... Eric understandably refused Wakefords 'kind' offer by not reponding at which point Wakeford had a further meltdown.

I had agreed to do the gig so honoured my responsibilities, but not without aggravation from Wakeford as It had already been arranged for me to be in Paris to rehearse with Eric before his 'departure' so transport became more complicated. When I eventually got to Leipzig I had with me a list of the bands and dodgy connections that Eric had done for me - as these were European and some [most] I hadn't heard of before. I offered it to Wakeford to look at but he refused to do so. He also failed to confront Albin Julius who was at the top of the stairs at the venue having said when I told him about Albin's presence that he didn't see him - he was still only a few metres away. Wakeford previously had said he would do various things to him as a result of the tour problems that we had been told were caused by Julius, and neither did he seek to avenge comments made sometime earlier by Julius to a World Serpent Person [I believe] about Wakefords wife].

I decided to leave Sol Invictus myself soon after this gig - and mentioned this to a third party who may well have informed Wakeford. I refused a [Polish?] gig we were offered in October '05 and Wakeford [on the phone] said he was thinking about changes - he wasn't sure what to do about Sol - this was the last time we spoke. I found out from the same 'third party' above in Jan or Feb of '06 [who contacted me to complain about Wakefords behaviour to them and a friend] that this [around the time of the Wakeford phone call] was when I was sacked!. This is a boiled-down version of events - I'm sure Eric can fill in [and I hope he does] - we have emails to prove this chain of events and no doubt will have to do so etc. etc. I must hurry - my access is very limited - they rush at me wanting to re-attach the straight-jacket and feed me pills - as they see the slight glimmer of carpet tile in my eyes!! ;-}

So - I am mentally ill, am I ? Seems a particular Nazi type of accusation - and no doubt the person who said that has a particular Nazi solution to that problem. After all, I may be dangerous, you know...

The tiles in question took a maximum of say one minute to mention on that fucking awful tour I did because I needed the money. I should have paid attention to Wakeford that time ["oo-er you knew what they were like!". Just to establish - they really are interesting carpet tiles - Heuga Felt - made with boars hair, pitch [thats tar] and hessian - and need a light watering every month to start with. The only consistently decent company on that tour was John Murphy - Ian Read went on about things such as why he was in the Masons, the Hollow Earth theory, dissing Albin's ex-girlfriend because her facial shape showed that she was a 'Slav' or somesuch, theories about if a black man had sex with a woman some chemical trace remained??? - and [admiringly] about two old men he had met who had head calipers to measure someones aryan status - and it was he [Read] and not I who had the piss ripped out of him. He said to me as a result - "You know, Karl, they are like this because this is all they have but I have this and also am the sixth most important person in the occult world today!" [or words very much to that effect]. Then he came back home and spoke to one of World Serpent - who we were united in being angry with for different reasons on on that tour - and told them the carpet tile story.

Doug and Boyd would be drinking at eleven in the morning or thereabouts. Albin was busy being unfaithful to his girlfriend and exhibiting an ego so large that his partner in Der Bloodyawful was telling us that he'd had enough of him and was thinking of going home. O.K., this will be taken out of context, but here goes: I was intent on making Wakefords life a misery at some point after Liepzig because of the treachery he had shown and lies he had told. However, as a result of what I learnt subsequently, had Wakeford dropped dead say at the end of 2005 I would still be pursuing what I think is a worthwhile activity - and thats fighting fascism in neofolk and elsewhere. What I thought consisted of merely a few idiots, was wrong, which I subsequently learned through discussion with people such as Eric Roger and Stewart Home, and any previous allegiances as mentioned above were purely and simply musical - and a degree of [in some cases] misplaced friendship. I could have just walked away when my time in Sol ended - I could have played up to the neofolkers and done OK had I been so disposed. I didn't take the easy path - and by the way, Shock Headed Peters were effectively "given an offer they had to refuse" in 1997 and were effectively thrown off of World Serpent for poor sales. I have never hidden this nor did it cause any rancour in my relationship with Wakeford at that time - why should it? If you look at my Myspaces it probably says the same somewhere - and I've always made a point of my "arm, a leg and an eye for an eye" policy [boy, the books getting big - payout time soon] - I also have said I have had to cut off from some people who I was to a degree sad to see go. This isn't a career move, this is all to do with conscience and sense of right and wrong - and I really hate liars.

I was politically ignorant as I said - but only up to a point - I was unaware, say, of the political significance of Runes, of 2nd W.W. history, of the Black Sun - I always stood against what I understood as fascism - which was racism and ultra-authoritarianism - Boyd Rice said to to me at the end of this tour "I guess Karl you'll have to be de-Nazified" - and I overheard him talking about me also - "Hes ANTI-EVERYTHING!"...
He also said "You know, he didn't get involved in the thing that united us the most on this tour" - this was reference to the confrontation with three supposed 'minders' of a group of coach party of people of southern Mediterranean appearance in a motorway service station.[which maybe started when the other member of Der Blutwaddever - the well-over 6ft bloke from Tesco Org with alopecia, muttered under his breath when they entered the shop "Untermensch"....] Rice obviously thought that I should have taken their side after this idiot had made this despicable comment...

One last observation of this tour - every place in Germany we went to they [including John] would all visit the Army Surplus stores in search of 'memorabilia' [eg. swastika belt-buckles].

More, MUCH more, later. And I said that I thought the original 'a.julius' was a fake - I think I know who it was - they'll do, anyway. Hi, anyway to the real Albin [Sunlight....] - but I still don't like or believe you [looks like I'm not alone], and you do Sky Saxon a disservice - maybe you confuse him with Kurt Saxon?"

Battlenoise: On the Ideology of 'Martial Industrial' Music

A guest post by Christoph Fringeli of Datacide, originally published in March 2010

Martial Industrial is a small sub-section in and development from industrial music. It is a particular form of industrial focused on a mythisized “heroic” past. As a scene it is related to the Neo-folk and neo-classical as well as the power-industrial scene, by itself it is relatively tiny. In the summer of 2007 a book titled “Battlenoise! - The Blows of Martial Industrial” was published by the Polish label War Office Propaganda in conjunction with the Hungarian MozgaloM. It was a translation from the Hungarian, the author prefered to be referred to only as “PHJ”. The book caused a bit of an uproar in the concerned circles and after Albin Julius of Der Blutharsch threatened to sue for copyright violation, the book was supposedly withdrawn from circulation.

Others, like Stahlwerk9, also issued statements distancing themselves from the book and its ideological direction. The book boasts 330 pages in a hardback edition limited to 500 copies. Only the first 85 pages are the main text about the Martial Industrial phenomenon, the rest is made up of reprinted lyrics, a section of reviews of records, CD’s and live shows, a selected discography, and finally a section of photographs. The main text is structured in 4 chapters, an introduction and a summary.

The first chapter is concerned with the pre-history of the phenomenon, citing classic industrial bands such as Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Test Dept. and Laibach as forerunners. Only the latter is superficially examined, coupled with the charge that they were “plagued” by the “need to open towards the mainstream”, a typical fanzine-type allegation of selling out, which at least in the particular case of Laibach pretty much misses the point. Added to the pre-history of Martial Industrial are Delerium, In Slaughter Natives and Autopsia, a number of power-industrial bands (such as The Grey Wolves, Genocide Organ and Whitehouse - in this order! - and also the rather insignificant Christian power-noise band Blackhouse - for what reasons we shall see later). And finally we arrive at Death In June, who are immediately attributed with “deserv(ing) credit for no less than the artistic and existential realization and presentation to the scene of the content and form of an attitude” epitomized as “‘heroism inoculated into the Black Sun’” (the quote within the quote being by DIJ).

The second chapter titled “Attack!” is dedicated to the “heroic phase” of Martial Industrial with such bands as Les Joyaux de la Princesse, Turbund Sturmwerk, Dawn and Dusk Entwined, Der Blutharsch, Dernière Volonté, Puissance, Von Thronstahl and others. Anyone familiar with the developments in Industrial Music of the last 20 years will have some alarm bells ringing by now, and the author certainly makes no secret of the fact that here we find “the celebration of an increasingly crystallized, extreme right-wing ideology” as he is writing about the work of Les Joyaux de la Princesse, but something that can be attributed to others as well. In his treatment of Der Blutharsch, “PHJ” is also rather upset about the direction his hero Albin Julius has been taking, away from shouting “Freiheit für Pinochet!” at his gigs, featuring the Horst-Wessel-Lied in one of his records, and using Nazi symbols outright, “Albin decided that girls, Italian red wine, and different other kinds of drink, parties, and mates were more important than the early concept” and “Der Blutharsch simply turned shallow”.

But not so the “new” bands covered in the next chapter “The Second Front”, the first one being H.E.R.R., the band of the notorious British neo-fascist Troy Southgate, a former National Front thug who after serving a prison sentence for ABH and affray in the 80’s has performed an oddyssey through various sects of the far right, from the International Third Position via orthodox Catholicism to “National-Anarchism”, and other splinters of the by now not-so-new “New Right”. “PHJ” continues enthusing about “the evocation of Italian Fascist symbolism (…) and the elitist occult-heroic aesthetic of Nazikunst” in regards to the band Arditi, and in addition we are exposed to the anti-American ramblings of other musicians in a text written in a convoluted style and trying to acquire seriosity by adding numerous footnotes.

The direction of the book is pretty clear already at this point, but becomes clearer when one realizes the scorn “PHJ” pours on “satanic” bands (neo-paganism being a big thing in the industrial and the related neo-folk and black metal scenes), and the praise he heaps on Christian bands in the field of Martial Industrial, such as the ones collected on the compilation CD “Credo In Unum Deum”. This ludicrous document of intellectual and mental desintegration in fact collects probably all the bands that adhere to a orthodox Catholicism that is politically situated on the extreme right. One of the bands historified in the book’s last chapter - and contributor to said compilation - is the Hungarian Kriegsfall-U, who think of themselves in terms of reviving the plans of ultra-reactionaries “to terminate the revolts of democrats” in the name of emperor Francis Joseph I. “Kriegsfall-U intends to take the listener from despair to the ‘Truth found on the side of God’”. In fact it is the band of the author, which he is trying to inscribe into his little history.

In his “Summary” finally he is getting altogether incoherent, when he is trying to pretend to distance himself from allegations of fascism. Supposedly - he asserts rather disingeniously - martial bands are basically unpolitical, but only one page later he says that “in the values, messages, and symbolism touched upon by some groups we often meet views known today as right-wing”, and yet another page later he is back at enthusing about “new values, in which discipline, comradeship, power, struggle, will, obeyance, loyalty, sacrifice, and honesty can mature into an everyday practice ordered into a desired hierarchy”. How deeply fascist the author is becomes evident when he declares “it is important to emphasizie (sic) that within martial ‘struggle against something’ often correlates with the struggle of the individual against himself”. The self-hatred of the male and his fear of the female (besides a token vocalist here or there there are no women in martial industrial) leads to the obsession with purity, and with it the explicit adoration of mass murderers and war criminals such as Ante Pavelic.

No wonder some people in a scene already in the crossfire for its far right leanings had some problems with the book. Others didn’t. Despite the claim that it had been withdrawn from circulation, it is still - at the time of writing and over a year after publication - available from some specialized mail orders. It is far from clear if the bands who distanced themselves from the book are honest about this, or if it because so far it is just not good for sales to be too associated with an explicit far right, and it’s better for business to sell “fascism as pornography” (see Stewart Home’s article on Death In June in Datacide 7).

What is clear is that the author himself doesn’t have a critical relation to his role as an “historian”. He is a fan trying to place his own project into a pantheon of idols, going along with all sorts of fanzine type writing known from other subcultures, except he’s doing it from a clerical-fascist political viewpoint. This novelty wears thin after a few pages, and the reprinted lyrics, don’t exactly raise the standard. Record and live reviews are added, as well as a photo section, whereby the pictures are treated to look “old”, the whole thing being appropriately printed brown on off-white paper.

~ Christoph Fringeli