Genre/Influences:

Format: Digital, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Hugues Villette and Phil Von are companions knowing each other from their involvement with Von Magnet. But they’re now getting back to Meta Meat unleashing four new tracks.

Content: The work reveals 4 short, but heavy cuts driven by a sonic fusion between Industrial and Tribal. I also noticed a few Ritual chants, samplings and manipulated vocal effects.

+ + + : I was always into Tribal/Industrial music and there are not enough artists dealing with this kind of music. Meta Meat perfectly knows how to create a hard-terrorizing sound mixing different influences together. I especially recommend listening to “Acute” for its harder rhythm but also for featuring efficient Ritual chants on top.

– – – : By the exception of the last song the tracks are definitely too short.

Conclusion: Meta Meat will catch the attention of Industrial-Tribal fans and they are going to like it!

Best songs: “Acute”, “Worth”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.facebook.com/somevon

Label: www.ant-zen.com / www.facebook.com/antzen.official

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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The Avignon, France based label Unknown Pleasures Records announces that Phil Von will release his all new album “Von Magnet” on September 1st via its imprint. A rather bold choice since Phil Von is part of the Von Magnet collective.

This is his 7th solo album. His first was “L’Autre Nuit” (2001) with Gnawa music and the musicians of Fès (Prikosnovénie records), followed by the “Deadline Now” (2006) soundtrack of performance for the Portuguese company Persona (Thisco records) and in 2015 the more intimate “Blind Ballet” on Ant-Zen Records. A selection of his best soundtracks written for the street theatre company Underclouds, entitled “Made Underclouds”, was released in February 2019 on Zona Music (LT) and Ant-Zen. In 2019 Phil Von self-released the album “Imagerie”. The album holds a selection of experimental & abstract soundscapes written for art projects and visual environments. His concert collaboration “Eiti Ramyben” with classical piano musician Rokas Zubovas revisiting electronically some piano works of famous Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis was released on vinyl in 2021 on Zona Music.

With his latest solo album “Von Magnet”, a way of closing this artistic life chapter as well as giving another token of his love for intertwined flamenco and electronic music, he again combines electronics with Arabo-Andalusian music. On the album we find contributions from such musicians as Hugues Villette, Tit’o, Flore Magnet, Def, Hugues Vincent, Dani Barba, Yana Maizel and Algirdas Klova. The mastering was executed by Norscq while Svetlana Batura covered the photo work. The design was in the hands of Karim Gabou.

You can already check a few tracks below.

About Phil Von

Parallel to his work with Von Magnet Phil Von is composing as well as performing for different dance-theatre and street-theatre companies. He worked together with Norscq on the “Atlas Project”, wrote the piece “Compass” for Art Zoyd and the Musiques Nouvelles Ensemble of Jean Paul Dessy which was performed in Brussels. With Mimetic he created “Groundspace” for the GRM (Group of Musical Research) and the Radio France festival.

He was also a musician and performer with the Russian/German company Do Theatre (Anatomy of Fantasy), French performance company Materia Prima (Body Without Wings, Insomnia, Eternal, Batailles, Choir, Cabaret Rouge), Street Theatre companies Entre Terre et Ciel (Neige de Feu, Physalis, Alma, Envol) and Underclouds (Funambus, Petites Histoires sans Gravité, VerSant) & U-Structure Nouvelle (Strip-Tease Forain, Melankholia).

In 2016. together with Somekilos from 2 kilos & More, he created the tribal electro project Meta Meat and released the album “Metameat” on Ant-Zen and Audiotrauma.

In 2017/18 he wrote and performed the music of the theatre play Medea written with rage in London for François Testory (DV8 Physical theatre, Gecko, etc.) which they toured in Great Britain. He worked with butoh choreographer Sakurako in Paris for her company Re-United Now-Here (Banzaï 2.0, Corsonor, Not a Love Story) and in Lithuania he was composing for Sakurako and her new Baltic butoh dance-theatre company Okarukas (Now-Here, Voyager, Dolls, Spells, Here-After, Birds).

In 2019, he created in Lithuania his first solo dance-music performance “Human, Lost and Found” which was performed in MO Museum Vilnius, Post Gallery Kaunas and Menu Spaustuvè Vilnius. In 2020, he produced the solo album of Lithuanian folk musician Algirdas Klova.

About Von Magnet

Von Magnet is a theatre music band originated from the post-industrial musical current from the 1980s. Founded in 1985 in London, the group gathered around Flore Magnet (stage direction, actions, vocals) and Phil Von (composition, feet percussion, vocals) initiating a style of their own which they named “Electroflamenco”. Becoming rapidly well known in the underground because of their new approach to electronic music, firstly by incorporating the bases of flamenco (rhythms, dances and melodies) then later adding influences of Middle Eastern music.

Their compositions, either instrumental or vocal melodramas, poetic, lyrical, cabaret crooning are sung or spoken in different languages; English, Spanish, French, and also in Arabic, German, Turkish or Russian. Since 1985, even before the “Computer music” era, they experimented within the likes of the post-industrial musical movement (Greater Than One, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, Coil…) using intensive sound collage and sampling techniques. This work would give birth to their motto: “Sample us as we have already sampled you”.

After a collaboration with Robert Rental with whom they prepared their first demo tapes, Von Magnet, helped by Hugh Griffiths at the Remaximum studios, composed their first auto-produced E.P : “I”.

The band’s last release was the 2012 album “Archipielagos”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Genre/Influences: Tribal, Trance, Industrial.

Format: Digital, Vinyl.

Background/Info: This is the second album by the french duo Hugues Villette (2Kilos & More) and Phil Von (Von Magnet). The album has been released by Ant-Zen together with Le Label Beige. “Infra Supra” comes five years after the self-titled opus.  

Content: Both musicians are used to mixing electronic gear and real percussion. It creates this heavy and explicit Tribal sound, which sounds as the guiding line through the work. The percussion is progressively built up in a way it now and then creates a transcendental feeling. Some songs have been accomplished with a kind of Neo-Classic touch adding a Cinematographic feeling to the work. 

+ + + : Meta Meat is a fusion between 2 French artists I like for the global approach in sound and making music; a different and original approach, which comes through I this new collaborative opus. The songs are elaborated and especially the dynamic, Tribal rhythms are simply great. The opening song is a kind of intro, which clearly reveals the direction of the album, which on “Resurgent” is directly reaching a first climax. “Dichotomy” and “Trampled” both are other attention grabbers. The songs are meticulously built up with powerful and frenetic rhythms. But the album is more than simply great percussion and also features alluring Electronic atmospheres covering the songs with darkness and mystery. 

– – – : I don’t have real minus points, but I think this duo even has the potential to do better. 

Conclusion: “Infra Supra” is a noticeable album in a genre wherein less bands are active so I can only encourage Meta Meat to pursue their collaboration. We need more music like this. 

Best songs: “Resurgent”, “Dichotomy”, “Trampled”, “Animal”. 

Rate: 8.

Artists: www.facebook.com/phil.von.3 / www.facebook.com/2kilosMore 

Labels: www.ant-zen.com / www.facebook.com/antzen.official / www.facebook.com/lelabel.beige 

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Out in a few weeks is “Maschinenfest 2017”, a compilation including all artists who have performed at Maschinenfest 2017. You can order this set right here. This year’s event will take place from Friday 27 October 2017 until Sunday 29 October 2017 at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany

On the compilation you’ll find material from the following bands: Ah Cama-Sotz, Alarmen, Aphexia, Dive, Empusae, Esplendor Geometrico, Gatto Nero, Geneviéve Pasquier, Gold, Goreshit, Greyhound, Haus Am Rand, Horskh, Imminent/Synapscape, In Slaughter Natives, Lustmord, Meta Meat, Mono No Aware, Monolith, Nur Zwei Linien, S.K.E.T., Siamgda, Somatic Responses, Suicide Inside, Sutcliffe Jügend, Yura Yura and more.

Maschinenfest is a yearly, 3-day underground music festival in Germany, featuring industrial, power electronics, noise and other alternative electronic performers.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

side-line.com