vivianaball.ro

In 2009, I saw Depeche Mode live in Israel, Italy, Hungary, Spain (two shows). I also had tickets for Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal, but the shows were cancelled due to Dave Gahan’s illness. Still, the trip to Porto was good fun!

I also went to two major Gothic festivals in Germany:

WGT, with 192 artists on the lineup. My review was posted on Darkwave.ro and

Blackfield, with 20 bands on the lineup. My review was also posted on Darkwave.ro.

2010 started well for me: on January 9, I saw Depeche Mode in Berlin, and on January 23, I saw them (again!) in Antwerp. The Belgian Depeche Mode experience was a real adventure that I will never forget! The fake tickets that I paid 500 euro for, Peddy the angel from heaven who helped us get in, the last metro, Andreea, me crying like a baby listening to Walking in My Shoes…it all seems like a detective story with a lot of suspense, and in the end the villain and the detective are a couple and they live happily ever after.

On May 8, I saw In Strict Confidence and Rabia Sorda in Prague at the Abaton electro festival. My review here.

On June 26, I am attending E-tropolis, an excellent indoor festival at Columbiahalle in Berlin, Germany (thank God it is indoors as the weather hasn’t been very friendly lately, and, hey, what’s a Gothic girl with drooling makeup . The lineup of the E-tropolis festival is impressive and compact. I expect to see 13 exquisite performances and take lots of pics! Next, Amphi festival! A new post on my blog will be dedicated to Amphi.

Until then, stay tuned to good music, and check Vivi‘s last.fm and blip.fm profiles!

Washing one’s laundry in public does not always raise a stink. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and domestic partner Mariqueen Maandig, backed up by Atticus Ross came up with an innovative project entitled after Coil’s debut single ‘How to Destroy Angels‘.

Released as a six-track EP on June-01 with a free download option prior to the CD and vinyl release of July-06, the eponymous album from HTDA may not be the latest in post-industrial rock, but it does bring a novel and fresh taste in today’s music. There’s no telling yet of the visual realm HTDA aims at, and it’s bad manners to review their visual artistry by just skimming one single video (‘The Space in Between‘, featuring the beyond cliche hotel room, overflowing sink, a tv left on and a beautiful corpsette that starts singing). But taking into account the sound, we should and why not want to expect beautiful visuals to go with it.

Sound-wise, there is practically nothing not to like in ‘How to Destroy Angels‘. If you were musically active in the 1990′s there are obvious tinges of Smashing Pumpkins and Sneaker Pimps rushing by like rivulets intertwined with classical Nine Inch Nails sonic identity. What is probably unique about the album is that it renders the Nine Inch Nails part almost a far-fetched conclusion because of the powerful voice of a different gender. It’s nowhere else more obvious than in the second track of the EP, ‘Parasite‘, which combines in a typical Nine Inch Nails manner the clashing of violent sounds and undulating overtones.

Just to contradict the above sentiment, ‘Fur-lined‘ comes back with a more pop-ish sound. If you had ever wondered what would Nine Inch Nails have sounded like on a mainstream spree, that’s the song to listen to – and rejoice. There’s nothing demanding about the sound of it, and what is more, it sounds completely fresh and one can only infer, taking into account Reznor’s numerous affairs with the production industry, what a mindset like that would bring to today’s soundscape.

‘BBB‘ does not strike as particularly original, but there is something of a jingle about it. It does, in a way, prepare the path to ‘Believers‘, which is probably one of the best tracks of HTDA’s EP, and to the energetic carelessness of ‘A Drowning‘, actually cutting the album in two idiosyncratic halves. With the Morcheeba sound to it, ‘A Drowning‘ creates probably more harmony than the whole Nine Inch Nails discography altogether, while ‘Believers‘, well, ‘Believers‘ is the hidden gem of the album.

There are not many mythologies to gather round this first attempt from project HTDA, but one can only hope it was meant to last and to have this first EP as a testing rod for today’s musical tastes. One thing for sure, except the Coil tribute (nothing more impressive these days), there is nothing angeloclast to dive in for in the album.

HTDA official website: http://www.howtodestroyangels.com/

Source: VIVA MUSIC

In Strict Confidence

Schwarzes Licht Video

Die Stadt schläft tief

doch du kannst es nicht

weil ich dich rief

und die Gedanken drehen sich

bist unachtsam,

nur für einen Augenblick

und schon kommt alles zurück

Glaub mir kein Wort

und das was es verspricht

dein Herz schlägt fort

doch die Tabletten helfen nicht

du wünschst es dir

nur für einen augenblick

und ich bin wieder zurück

Jetzt bin ich wieder hier

du reichst mir deine Hand

Lange nicht gesehen, doch gleich wieder erkannt

Du willst so vieles wissen

und du willst mich küssen

doch ich brauch dich nicht

tauch in ein schwarzes Licht

Du rufst mir hinterher

und deine Sehnsucht brennt

Willst mich so vieles fragen

willst noch so viel sagen

doch hier hör´ dich nicht

tauch in ein schwarzes Licht

Der Traum wirkt nach

Ich werde dich verführ´n

Dein Herz liegt brach

Doch du kannst nichts mehr spüren

Bist so naiv

Was glaubst du was du schmeckst

Wenn du dir deine Wunden leckst

Glaub mir kein Wort

und das was es verspricht

Wünsch dich weit fort

Nein, nein es gelingt dir nicht

Ich brauch dich nicht

Ein letzter kuss

Ein letztes mal

IN STRICT CONFIDENCE, Abaton, Prague, May 08, 2010

Snow White Video

IN STRICT CONFIDENCE photo gallery – ABATON, PRAGUE, MAY 08, 2010