Backengrillen: Backengrillen
Out Now
Proudly anti-fascist and anti-racist death jazz, most of Refused get back together for a tour of the darker side of our current political reality. MK Bennett finds solace.
“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. … Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Suppose that our cultural existence or evolution is a cycle that simply repeats itself ad infinitum, then you stand up or you dance in the ashes, or if you are an artist, you can do both. Backengrillen, emerging from the mighty Refused, have something to say and a broadside of cacophonous beauty with which to say it. Experience plus brilliance equals class, and so it is, born from apparently one weeks work. Essentially the band plus saxophonist Mats, fresh from his work with the awesome Zu, you suspect that this is only the beginning of something truly glorious.
We start with A Hate Inferior, a ten minute scene setter & scene stealer, doom metal that is completely lacking a guitar, a riff driven relentlessly into the ground, a feeling of deep and heavy dread as the repetition circles back on itself before several calms before storms, the sax starts slow and angry like a lone dissident in the town square, before the rest of the band join in again, amplifying the anger and the hurt until it crawls home, broken and brutalized but its work done. It sounds like the Jesus Lizard beating up Albert Ayler in a garage. Immense. Dor For Langsamt ( “Dies Too Slowly”, possibly ) starts with a flute and a man in distress before enormous tribal drums stomp into view, sitting in a rhythmic groove until an anguished vocal settles like early Can. Brutal and mesmerising, it sticks to its guns with determination and zeal.
Repeater II is the single, a more straight forward and bass led tune, this time mixing in the Can influence with clearer hardcore and no wave sounds, Lydia Lunch and The Fall and especially The Cramps. You can hear half the history of 80s American punk and punk adjacent music in its six minutes, as well as more modern sounds like Viagra Boys. All with added saxophone. In this setting, the sax will always be reminiscent of The Stooges, and that can never, ever be a bad thing. The shortest and obviously the most immediate song here, it still emerges triumphant, loud and stupefying.
Backengrillen itself comes next, a slow build and atmospheric run into a monumental cry of despair. A hulking great bass riff, closely followed by the sax helps to colour in the background to the singers litany of horror, as he goes from boyish Nick Cave crooning to full on inarticulate speech of the heart, all the while matched by the band. Like the God Machine gone to church, it is a masterpiece of retention and release, repeated dynamics and breathtaking control. Socialism Or Barbarism ( via Rosa Luxembourg via Karl Kautsky, often misattributed to Engels ) is a magnificent howl into the abyss, two minutes of post-apocalyptic wind and rain before a staggering and staggered drumbeat kicks in and the sax rumbles into view like a drunk reaching home. This beautiful and relentless drive through self-described free form death jazz is both the sound of improvisation and of seasoned, hardened hands and minds expressing themselves. They list both John Zorn and the Misfits as influences, and they’re both apparent at different points.
They say ” Backengrillen‘s music is a paean to chaos and destruction. The basic idea is to take a death/doom metal, or noise rock riff and play it until it loses meaning and then break it apart like a ravenous cat would a tiny forest mouse. It’s filled to the brim with the self-hatred endemic to the province of Västerbotten from whence the member’s hail “ If Swedish television has taught us anything, it’s that the people are complicated, multi-layered. The range this record displays is incredible. From King Crimson to Sonic Youth via Ayler, Zorn and Refused themselves, it’s a very real statement of intent.
Essentially, it is almost impossible to describe. It defies categorization and genre and goes wherever it finds itself. Its freedom lies in exactly that, because these musicians have been everywhere and seen everything and now they are reporting back the only way they know how. It is an unfathomable but not unknowable noise of some distinction.
Backengrillen’s Bandcamp |
All words by MK Bennett, you can find his author’s archive here plus his Twitter and Instagram
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