There are performers who are patterns in certain musical genres. 1 of them is definitely Douglas Pearce, creator and presently sole permanent associate of the Death In June team. It was he who set the European neofolk standards in 1980. This time, however, he returns with the album at all with this current unrelated. Just in time for fresh Year's dances.
Scandal Inscribed in Creation
A 66-year-old British musician in his respective decades of artistic career caused controversy not only music. Death In June is simply a task that he set up to live in 1981. He previously performed in the punk band Crisis, having an unambiguous anti-fascist profile. In his ranks he played with another musicians who after respective years had undergone a akin evolution, especially with Tony Wakeford, present the leader of the Sol Invictus group.
Pearce is simply a planet of political correctness that is controversial and constant scandal. It is besides a origin of questions, presumptions, mysterious theories and ambiguities. Is the name of his band ("death in June") a mention to the night of long 1934 knives (studenting history, after a period of fascination extremist leftist musician betrayed interest in national Bolshevikism and characters specified as Ernst Röhm and Gregor Strasser) assassination of the Archdukes Mr Ferdinand in 1914, which started planet War I, or was it just a random catch of words, heard as a consequence of a misunderstanding during a 1981 music test? Is the symbolism utilized by Death In June a mention to the national-socialist and 3rd Reich threads, or alternatively a circumstantial pastis, which might propose its connection with the symbolism completely contradictory? On the 1 hand we have in it Totenkopf, explicitly associated with Waffen-SS, but Pearce himself recalls that precisely specified a corpse of the head appeared in the Prussian army inactive during the time Frederick the Great. As if it wasn't enough, the colour of sexual minorities appears in this context, and the musician admits homosexual orientation. There's more questions. Are the patterns of uniforming in which Pearce performs on the covers of his albums and concerts truly ErbsenmusterThe 1944 Waffen-SS camouflage pattern? Do any of the lyrics of the band actually contain anti-Semitic themes and others carry a burden of nostalgia towards the 3rd Reich?
Nonconformism?
Questions and doubts are besides vain in Pearce’s lyric. And that's most likely why Death In June concerts have been cancelled in the past in the United States and Switzerland, and any of his records are banned in Germany. In 1 of the fewer statements addressed to the German authorities, a British musician writes: "My father was a professional officer of the British Royal Air Force, fought as a pilot against Hitler's Luftwaffe during planet War II, was shot down twice but survived. His first wife was not so fortunate and died in the London bombings. I have a half-sister in their relationship. All my father's brothers, my uncles, were front soldiers, and the youngest of them, serving in the British Royal Artillery, was 1 of the first to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and push the bulldozers of the prisoners into mass graves. They all thought a good German was dead German. Coming from specified an anti-German family, I have always considered myself a typical of a generation that is liable for reconciliation between our countries. I feel like specified reconciliation has already happened".
The usage of runic symbolism, so frequent in the case of Death In June, is, according to the statements of the founder himself and now the sole associate of the group, a mention to European traditions. Pearce does not hide in the text layer his attachment to the widely understood legacy of the Old Continent, in which his full work is embedded. At the same time, its message contains rather clearly defined definitions of this Europe of Tradition. However, it must be admitted that the last albums recorded by the British are more individual in the text layer. Douglas Pearce, however, tries to pass on even interior emotional states through symbolism, sometimes esoteric and ambiguous, derived from a peculiar civilizational circle. Despite declared nonconformism (Pearce's hero is invariably a nipponese author – a code promoter Bushido, Yukio Mishima), in the political sphere, Death In June may go with the mainstream alternatively than against it. At 1 time this was demonstrated by sympathy for the Croats during the war in Yugoslavia, and late by the demonstration of the Ukrainian flag on social media, although until late Pearce kept an equal distance, touring both Russia and Ukraine.
The musician himself urges clearly that we realize the essence of his art, which is to be far from propaganda clarity. He believes that it consists in the freedom of interpretation, the presumption that everyone can read it in their own unique, individual way.
Nadaisation
In 1985 1 of the loudest albums in Death In June past was released, Nada!. Pearce walked distant on it from the post-punk sounds or the current Cold wave. He combined neofolk threads with the industrial, at the same time giving the full hit, dancelike character, mainly due to the repetitive character of characteristic rhythms. The band's later albums are variations about the neofolk mentioned, sometimes classical and minimalist, sometimes avant-garde and amazing listener. Nada! However, she was in discography a milestone and a position allowing Pearce to occupy 1 of the most crucial places on the 1980s alternate music scene.
After 41 years of operation, the Douglas Pearce squad decided to return to the classics. And he recorded 11 tracks coming from typically neofolk albums in the band's achievements in a completely fresh arrangement. Actually a new-old one, due to the fact that previously played on acoustic guitar, minimalist, somewhat drowsy tracks gave reinterpretations in the spirit and sound of the classical album of 1985. So here we have rhythmic beats, almost dance music, accompanied by the melorecitation of the band's leader. The exception is simply a return to the past and a fresh recording of the song “Heaven Street” (according to some, in a somewhat light speech referring allusively to the extermination of Jews by the 3rd Reich) from the earlier times Nada! plates The Guilty Have No Pride 1983. The remainder comes from newer, acoustic releases: album The regulation Of Thirds 2008 "Their Deception" with elements of entertaining jazz and "Last Europe Kiss" in the spirit of the dusk of the West", Peaceful Snow / Lounge Corps 2010 (notable, most likely the best in Nada-ized! The song "The Nausea" and "Wolf Rose" and "The Maverick Chamber") and yet from the last album, originating in 2018 Essence! "Going Dark", "The Trigger", "The Pole Star Of Eden", "God A light Curse" and "No Believe".
It's nothing fresh here, but... Pearce created fresh arrangements with Austrian pianist and keyboardist, Miro Snejder (the Herr Lounge Corps team) he had worked with years ago. Snejdr, much younger than Pearce, was erstwhile a fan of British music and played it at his own concerts in a way that impressed the first artists. On Nada-ized! The duo succeeded in returning to the 1980s climate. and make an highly brilliant, danced sound that they call militaristic electro-dance. All of this makes Pearce’s previously known text-intriguing melorecitation a background to which you can dance at many parties. And those who are alien to avant-garde sounds and do not perceive to the lyrical layer, will tug at these sounds, not realizing that they hear the work of 1 of the most controversial music makers of the European alternate in the last 4 decades. "Dance In June"...
Mateusz Piskorski
Death In June, Nada-ized!, fresh European Recordings 2022, premiered 13 December 2022.
