The
Nigerian monstrosity that is Billy Bao returns in agony. Bleeding.
Pointing a colossal black finger at global capitalism, regular music,
non-music and anti-music, at the food crisis of 2008, the moribund
spirit of 1968, and especially at you, the record buyer, who maybe
"really dug" his first LP, Dialectics of Shit, and will come back for
more, or perhaps "heard a lot about him" and his bandmate Mattin
in the "blogosphere" or even in print media (ooh!) (whatever that is),
and are "curious to finally hear his music" because you find the
stories "interesting" and this is even heavier and more fucked up than
The Brainbombs at their heaviest and most fuckeduppednest, and you "get
it," right? Yeah!
Or wait, let me guess, you got the record for free
along with this press release because you're an influential but
too-modest-to-admit-it journalist or music critic or program director
and so far you've had something to say about Billy, or not, and this is
a wonderful opportunity for you to comment upon the work of someone
whose primary subject is his own work, so that you can enter into a
"dialogue" with "him," or maybe "introduce new audiences" -- maybe even
some "kids"! Hooray for the kids! -- to some "awesome" new sounds that
"engage the listener in a perceptual tug of war, a struggle to make
sense of the unnatural experience of playing audience member to someone
else's performer" -- or even better, outsmart Billy, outsmart this
record, and call it out as bullshit or play along and pretend that
you're in on some "joke" that, let's be honest, you sometimes suspect
you don't really get yourself.
It don't matter! We're all human beings here, except for those of us
who aren't, and none of us is more human than Billy.
What matters is the way Alberto Lopez pounds the drums, the way Xabier
Erkizia rips up the guitar, Mattin and
Xabi's computer dicking, and Billy right in the middle of it,
channeling a desperation so total it's embarrassing.
This
LP is so angry the songs don't even have titles. Some of 'em are really
long, some are really short, but they're all pretty goddamn
infuriating, as they oughta be.
The Dialectics of Shit LP and the
Accumulation 7" didn't go out of print as quickly as any of us would
have hoped, but at least the 10" on SS and the seminal and
almost-legendary Bilbo's Incinerator EP that started everyone puckering
their cornholes are now almost impossible to get.
May '08 is
actually surprising, which is pretty goddamn surprising, because where
do you go after those first four platters, honestly? Well, fuck, you
make a record that's somehow noisier than all of those, more tweaked
and fucked-with and digitally distorted than anything before it,
crammed with grotesque and sublime samples from the noise of
yesteryear: Nono, Kuti, Whitehouse, Brainbombs, and Billy, Billy Bao.
What? What do you want?
Look at the kindsa shit people said about Bilbo's Incinerator:
"Nigeria’s
answer to Stickmen With Rayguns-era Bobby Soxx -- abhorrent pummeling
scuzzrock that is [...]extremely harrowing." -Art for Spastics
"He might not wallow in the same cesspool as Bobby Soxx, but Billy Bao
has the shine." -Siltblog
"Billy Bao is identical to Bobby Soxx of Stickmen With Rayguns in every
conceivable way." - Acapulco Dance Party
"Punishingly
prescient. Vocals sound like the second coming of Kickboy Face, and
this as a whole comes off as a terrifyingly real example of what human
beings are capable of if pushed far enough. The real world equivalent
to the Pissed Jeans 7”. An important record." - Dusted Magazine
Wow!!! Punishingly prescient!!! Important!!!
And whattabout Dialectics of Shit? That one came out on Parts Unkown
too!
"One heckuva magnificent achievement. " -The Wire
"Difficult and entertaining, there is nothing here that would ever be
mistaken for easy listening. Punk +
experimental + challenging what you think an album should sound like."
- Scott Soriano's Webtoons
"When
Billy Bao isn’t making me blow nonexistent fluff off my needle, they’re
swamping my stereo with a sickly twenty-generations-removed blues
vomit. It’s violently dissociative in the most life-affirming way." -
Z-Gun
It should be pretty goddamn clear to you why you want and
need to purchase this record. If you don't care about "enjoying" May
'08 the way the artists "intended," go download the music for free and
completely miss out on the experience of listening to this record on
your turntable in "glorious" analogue sound while fixing your gaze on
the epic violence of Billy's 12 x 12 cover artwork. Don't play this
record if you don't want to.
Well
that's it folks. All bets are off, the bookies have gone home and any
further punting on your behalf will be considered null and void. May 08
is the second full length release from Basque noise/punk/rock band
Billy Bao this year and certifies their position as the most
significant, rewarding and exciting musical act this year. I ranted on
about Dialectics
of Shit
when it came out earlier this year and was kindly sent an advance of
this release which will see the light of day on cd and wax before the
year is through.
Many
listening hours this year has been spent devouring music with a
political leaning. This can be edgy territory, often with results that
are naive, didactic or simply ridiculous! On the final menu we have the
likes of Nina Simone, The Pop Group, This Heat, Robert Wyatt, Fela
Kuti, The Art Bears, DG307, NWA and Ice Cube. These humans made works
that are a by product of the social circumstance, they are made out of
necessity. What Nina Simone was seeing around her and in her own
country (black neglect and mistreatment) was the key component to how
her 'art' developed in the 50's and 60's, DG307 and the Plastic People
of the Universe were appalled at the Russian invasion and loss of
individual freedom and their music seethes with anger directed at the
forces governing these decisions. NWA is the perfect sound of
nihilistic urban frustration which lead to reckless confrontation (not
to mention considerable sonic innovation).
All of these
artists exist beyond mere entertainment with an agenda attached to the
art that is so 'real' that it makes for something suitably
uncomfortable.
With this in mind, along with the current state
of mass confusion via power, corruption, lies and greed i have often
thought "where are the artists with something to say today?" The cult
of the individual has become so commonplace that most artistic wares
are a mere reflection of a spoilt, narrow mindset. To think of the
external and to comment on injustice seems redundant in most quarters,
unfashionable at best.
You, who so loudly proclaims being an
'artist' at first meeting. You, artist, please attempt to think beyond
your marshmallow existence. I am sorry dear artist but if you are
making music, if you have the ability to record and by chance you are
lucky enough to have it released or whatnot then you must realise this
is a luxury. A total luxury. The time and money required for such
'luxury' does not enter into the lives of many people on this globe. I
am so fucking bored of artists complaining about recognition, why this
went wrong, why do have i not this, i deserve this if such and such has
that etc etc.... Excuse me mofo - please pipe down. The majority of
music today is the sound of big mac's. The independent scene is nothing
but a micro copy of the big wig formula - cheeseburgers if you will.
Self centered plastic drivel born into a system, gently shuffled along
the standard mechanisms and spat out the other end.
Where is the
subversion, where is the commentary, where is the ability to articulate
a relationship between oneself and one's environment?
Originality in music - wah? Progression - forget about it! Reference,
cite, copy, paste, release, gloat, strut - GLUT!
I
work at a large independent music distributor here and i swear the bulk
of titles we get in wear the influences so loudly . When digesting 1
song it takes aprox 1 minute to spot the reference. Popular bands cited
in these pitiful works include, Suicide, Modern Lovers, Jesus and Mary
Chain, My Fucking Valentine, Black Flag etc This is fine if you like
these bands - do your thing, but why the overt reference? Why not add
something - ANYTHING to the brew!
I am perplexed that these
folks are putting energy into making their 'own' releases only to make
a weak copy of a romanticized past. I am sick of it. Zero tolerance.
All 'pieces' of musical ideas may be out there but at least put some
effort into organising them with some degree of originality. Retro
reference has been the vogue for a few years hand in hand with 3 drops
of irony and 6 drops of vacancy - an escape from the unpleasant
external environment.
Surely it can't all be as bad as this?
MAY08.
I must say I was surprised to learn that B.B were releasing another
record this year, i thought if it's good they are set to clean up the
year it was. It is good, very good. They win. Competition was not so
fierce.
If enjoy your house, car and family - if you are happy
to isolate yourself from how the majority of the folks in the world
really live then do not get this record. Go buy the new Sub Pop,
Matador alterna-subversion and creep back into the mind that feed you
in the first place.
May 08 is no 'ordinary' record and this is a
different machine to the one that gave us Dialetics. Familiar elements
remain: tunes, noise, fuckery, politics and bile. On 08 the bar is
raised, the notch is loosened and the ride is thrilling . Side A has 4
tracks - each referencing and sampling 4 artists that one can assume
has had an influence on the band. Luigi Nono, Fela Kuti, Whitehouse and
Brainbombs each have a soundbite stolen and a pint raised. Each of the
samples are taken from a politically loaded release corresponding to
the year it was released - 1968,78, 88, 98... The use of sampling is
blatent, mostly underlining the chaos of Bao's tunes - It is possible
to cite influences without making a copy of a copy of a copy. Large
chunks of Fela Kuti's 'Zombie' provided off kilter percussion and horns
to a pummeling machine snare, Whitehouse's 'Just like a cunt' is the
plank on to which Bao launches into his own attack.
Side 2 is a single long track - The aftermath of the sonic carpet bomb
that is side A.
The
overall sound of this record is a big, dense gnarled mess in which
lyrics are spat at the edge of tolerance. This is no Wacom tablet
approach to 'evil' - this is a sincere effort to inform and adjust
various ailments within the world in which we all exist.
The
cover is an intergral part of May 08 with a diatribe/rant by bao
highlighting various examples of greed, corruption and destruction.
There are references to the Basque region and the ETA - Fela Kuti's
mother being thrown out of a window by police, commerce as financial
godzilla etc ... It looks beautiful and reads like wake up call to the
living dead. This essay makes up all lyrics 'sung' on this record.
For
us Billy Bao is THE most vital musical entity on globe earth today. The
essence of my enthusiasm lies in the fact that within the current
cultural void of historical reference, irony and pastische it is truly
rewarding to have a record which is intrinsically tied to the time and
place, which is sonically challenging and one that deals with 'real'
issues in a manner that is not forced or cliched.
A glorious warning to you all.
The Wire (UK, November)
Selected as one of the 50 records of the year 2009
At
its most exaggerated, which is to say exhilarating, there was always
an element of parody to punk rock. It was a hyper-vision of rock
music, with everything necessarily inflated, debased, turned up to
ten. Billy Bao, a phantom punk rock group that may or may not exist
outside of the fevered brain of Basque avant provocateur Mattin, take
five decades of insurrectionary music and push it so hard that they
manage to rebirth the genre by the force of their critical vision.
Mattin
is a musician who regularly takes a scalpel to the social, cultural
and musical presuppositions of underground music. With Billy Bao he
presents a group supposedly fronted by Bao himself, a politically
radical ex-pat Nigerian who’s “so fucking depressed that he could
die.” The group play ludicrously overdriven two chord fuck-up rock
’n’ roll while Billy explodes over the top like a politico Darby
Crash, ranting about environmental pollution in Africa, Spanish
bombs, food scarcity in the Third World and violent insurrection. The
music uses snippets from a series of key sub-cultural flashpoints as
fuel for the fire: Luigi Nono’s Non
Consumiamo Marx, made
with recordings from the riots of Paris 1968, Fela Kuti’s Zombie,
which caused riots in Accraa in 1978, Brainbombs’ 1988 LP Second
Coming, a major
influence on the Billy Bao sound, and Whitehouse’s 1998 track “Just
Like A Cunt”, which Mattin says “calls us all stereotypes. And
we’re trying to do something about that.”
Indeed,
the arc of the album works to reconnect Noise and experimental music
with African-American traditions, starting off with primitive two
chord blues married to the feral saxophone style of John Coltrane as
retranslated by The Stooges, until by the second half of the LP,
where Billy starts to echo the Whitehouse track with lyrics like “you
fucking cunt... you fucking stereotype”,
it feels as if they have accelerated rock ’n’ roll to the point
of noise noise noise.
The
cover art presents the full text of the tracks, in Anarchist red and
black, and it reads like an over the top parody as much as a call to
arms, just as the sonics combine a withering critique of noise rock
with a bolstering of its most outrageous modes. Punk rock has always
relied on parodying what came before in order to internalise and move
beyond it. Like The Germs on Lexicon Devil, a group that Billy Bao
have much in common with, May
08 bolsters the
tradition by demolishing it completely, by pushing revolt to the
point of camp so that it becomes even more revolting. That Billy Bao
manage to does this with a virtual, computer-edited version of rock
’n’ roll, a precisely cut-up, digital-sharp take on crude
destructo rock, suggests that the future of rock, the future of
culture, lies in its continual explosion. Vive la revolution? Ha ha
ha.
Permanent Releases Disclaimer: Obviously, we love
the records we released on our own label this year, but you won't find
many of them included here. It goes without saying that they are
definitely favs for us.
Lance's Favorite New Records from 2009 (in alphabetical order)
Billy BaoMay '08 LP
Noise rock brutality with a lot of repetition. There were a bunch of
records similar to this that came out this year that I could've
included on this list, but I chose to limit myself to just this one.
Fans of this sort of stuff should definitely take note of the Rusted
Shut, Twin Stumps, and Homostupids LPs that came out this year as well.
Intense.
not enough ugly in yr life?
hankering
for some misanthropic abuse? well be prepared to wipe the
foamflecked
bile from yr diseased faces coz there’s a double dose of mattin heading
your way like derby crash’s gnarled death dick.
billy bao is not real. doesn’t
matter. provocative or provocateur? doesn’t matter.
it’s conceptual
see. a dissection of what it means to be political, to be
underground,
to make noise, to sell shit, to ignore, to take part. hardcore
taken
to it’s near-ridiculous but logical conclusion.
may
08
came out not long ago, cocking a vicious snook at everything and
nothing. an off-kilter howl of stupid/clever rage and empty
despair.
it’s noisy. see how ridiculously reductional i can be. but
it is.
fucked distortion. grotesque bloozerry. blownout
electroniks.
managing to be both difficult and almost moronically monosyllabic at
the same time. everything drips with bilious skuzz.
it’s as crude sounding a record as it
is intellectually exhilarating. as much a pastiche of itself, and
the
culture that surrounds it, surrounds us, as it is a complete debasement
of everything good and decent with life in the noughties.
consists of five tracks. the four
on
side a (it’s vinyl…) reference four other subversives from year eights
past (hence the may 08 title). so 68 is luigi nono. 78 fela
kuti. 88
brainbombs. 98 whitehouse. 08 (side b for the logically
incoherent)
is billy bao. it’s a reference as much in attitude as
samples.
unpicking the dense mess is a challenge in itself but the theft is
obvious and precise, politically as well as aurally.
but if it says anything (and it says
many things) may 08 says that forty years can pass and people are still
fucking shit up musically and socially. flipside, it says forty
years
and the more things change the more they stay the same. hoom…
Brand new album from this ferocious avant-hardcore group featuring
Mattin on guitar, Xabier Erkizia, Alberto Lopez on drums and Inigo
Telletxea on bass. This is cruder and more flat-out destroyed than even
Dialectics Of Shit, with gnarled hardcore riffing that combines the
accelerated style of Black Flag’s Greg Ginn with the mono braincell
violence of The Stooges Ron Asheton. But it’s still The Germs
that
seems like the presiding influence, the primitive military drum
tattoos, the leery out of control vocals of ‘frontman’ ‘Billy Bao’. And
the production is just as primitive/sophisticated as previous releases,
beautifully confusing avant and dumbo styles with sudden scalpels of
computer feedback bisecting the track or the whole thing fading up and
out into a murk of digital overload. Gloriously out of control hardcore
freedom from one of the best ‘rock’ bands on the planet. Highly
recommended.
Our favorite record this week is the new Billy Bao LP. Billy Bao is
a Spanish group of nihilistic mofos. May 08 is probably our
favorite record from them to date. Imagine Brainbombs,
Whitehouse,
Shit &
Shine, and Fela Kuti(?)
getting together and destroying everything in their collective paths.
We're including Fela Kuti only because there's some Fela samples being
playing in the background on a the A-side and because the Bilbao thank
him, Brainbombs, and Whitehouse on the cover. This is the kind of
record where you would expect some sort of crude drawing, a grotesque
photo, or just plain blank album art, but the jacket is simply red text
on a background. Within the text, the author goes on an extended
diatribe about how fucked the world is and has been. This could be the
record that kills the summer and everything else for that matter. Billy
Bao just gave Rusted Shut
and Brainbombs a run for their money and we couldn't be happier about
it. One last note: we referenced Brainbombs three times in this
paragraph and we did so for a reason. May 08 is a must own
for fans of Brainbombs music and a perfect substitute for those of you
who dig the jams, but can't get down with the Brainbombs lyrics. So is
Rusted Shut's Dead for that matter, now get on it.
Please, Billy, stop yelling at me. Please, I feel sick, I'm nauseated. I can't stop shaking my head. Do you know why? Of course you do. What's that sound? What are you doing in there? What's that noise, Billy? How are you doing that? How are you making those noises . . . and why? Where are they coming from? No, no: I don't mean literally. I mean where do they come from in you?
I think you need to talk to someone about this, Billy. I think these
episodes point to a serious problem, especially that 15-minute one at
the end. Was that a saxophone I heard somewhere in there? I'm glad
you're trying new things, but--why do you keep screaming at me? It's making me feel bad about the world. -FSS
Billy Bao "May 08" (Parts
Unknown) lp $12.98 Brainbombs
meets Fela meets Whitehouse! Sound too good to be true? IT IS!!! Too
good to be true AND totally true!!! Heavy and twisted and far out.
(Vinyl-only, sorry cd folks).
We
were definitely a bit skeptical when we read descriptions of Spanish
noise rockers Billy Bao as sounding like Brainbombs, Fela and
Whitehouse. Even more so when we got the record in and noticed those
were the three bands BB thank on the sleeve, we figured, okay, lazy
reviewing, BB love those bands so heck, they probably sound like that,
or at least sort of. So imagine our surprise upon actually hearing
this, and realizing that the Fela / Whitehouse / Brainbombs was
somehow, pretty right on. At least in as far as one can actually
describe a band as awesomely weird and fucked up as Billy Bao. The
core sound is definitely Brainbombs, low slung fuzzy sludge bass, in
the red, super distorted and impossibly blown out. The drums a
Neanderthal pound that borders on the machinelike here and there,
howled vocals, alternating shouting and sort of crooning a non stop
stream of invective, the sound crusty and filthy and punk rock and
garage rock, but with a weird electronic vibe, bordering on industrial
now and again. The relentless crunch occasionally screeches to a halt,
and launches into a weird super dynamic stop start thing, sometimes
even getting all stuttery as the guitars dissolve into fractured
electronics. And
the horns, did we mention the horns? Not like the moaning bleat of the
Brainbombs' dented trumpet, these are full on festive high life horns,
buried way down in the mix, sampled we're guessing, quite possibly
actually Fela, but low enough in the mix that only the horns make it
through the murk, except for a few moments where the horns / samples
slip into the stuttery spaces, only adding to the off kilter chaos. The
B-side sounds like Burmese on angel dust, and since Burmese ALREADY
sound like they're on angel dust, BAD angel dust, you can get an idea
of how fucked up and fierce and bass heavy this side long jam is, the
music a wall of blown out, super tangled, in the red bass riffage and
low end buzz, so noisy that the song teeters back and forth between
intense riffage and full on speaker shredding NOISE, over which the
vocals are a feral frenzied Whitehouse style yowl. Heavy
and fucked up and noisy and genius. WAY WAY WAY recommended. A few more
listens and we might just have us a new favorite band. The
sleeve is just a single long missive from the band, there are liner
notes and thanks lists in there, but for the most part it's all a
stream of consciousness rant against war and government and industry
and copyright and loads more, the inside cover features two full color
photos of just the sort of death and destruction and human misery
they're talking about.
No
todos los días se encuentra uno con que su tienda de discos
favorita de
todo el universo recomienda a su clientela un grupo de Bilbao. De
hecho, a mí es algo que sólo me ha pasado... hummmm...
ayer: Aquarius
Records, establecimiento de California especializado en músicas
periféricas (black metal cazurro, electrónica letal,
percusión hecha
por elefantes y todo lo que se les pueda ocurrir) ha elegido como disco
de la semana el elepé May 08 de Billy Bao, un proyecto
de rock de vanguardia que lleva a Bilbao hasta en el nombre.
Pero vamos por partes. Aquarius es una tienda, sí, pero
también mucho más: su lista
quincenal
de novedades es una recomendabilísima publicación
periódica para
mantenerse al tanto de los sonidos menos comerciales, porque el equipo
de Aquarius comenta los discos con conocimiento profesional y
entusiasmo amateur, que es como mejor se hacen las cosas. Tienen el
link a su página, por cierto, en la sección de enlaces de
Evadidos,
aquí al lado a la derecha, en ese rincón
que casi nadie mira.
En cuanto a Billy Bao,
bueno, se presentan como un músico nigeriano afincado en Bilbao
(o en
Bilboa, como escribe por ahí su sello americano, Parts Unknown),
pero
los tipos que tocan no tienen ninguna pinta de haberse criado en Lagos
y sí de estar curtidos en mil batallas de la escena
vizcaína, que lo
están. "Aquí no nos conoce ni Dios", han declarado,
aunque este
periódico (ya ven, tan conservador que dicen) les dedicó una bella página hace un año. Ah, desde aquí pueden acceder a abundantes emepetreses
con los que destrozar los altavoces de su equipo
informático.
Y, hechas las presentaciones, volvamos al principio: los chicos de
Aquarius han elegido May 08
como disco de la semana junto a lo nuevo de Cold Cave y se les ve
estupefactos ante el degenerado estruendo de los bilbaínos, con
su
"aporreo neandertal" de la batería, las "voces que
aúllan" y demás
ingredientes de ese sonido "crujiente y sucio y punk rock y garage
rock, pero con una rara vibración electrónica, bordeando
una y otra vez
lo industrial". Y concluyen: "Heavy and fucked up and noisy and genius.
WAY WAY WAY recommended". Pues eso, que MUY MUY MUY recomendado, pero
mentalícense y bajen el volumen antes de darle al play.
Mattin
é um artista basco que trabalha com improvisação e noise, além de
escrever sobre Software livre e propriedade intelectual. Já colaborou
com Oren Ambarchi, Tony Conrad e Matthew Bower, mas seu nome se tornou
mais conhecido após formar em 2001 o grupo Sakada que contava com Eddie Prévost e Rosy Parlane.
Junto com o baterista Alberto Lopez, criou o projeto Billy Bao, um
compositor fictício dissidente de Lagos, na Nigéria, que descobre o
punk rock como meio de canalizar sua raiva do sistema. O projeto rendeu
alguns álbuns e CD-R’s, sendo este May08 o terceiro álbum. (B.O.)
* # *
Com diversos projetos em âmbitos teóricos e musicais, além de todo o
aparato militante que ele embute em suas criações, Mattin dá
prosseguimento àquele que parece ser seu projeto mais radical e
irônico. Até podemos cogitar a hipótese de que a urgência da música do
Billy Bao advenha de uma naiveté
desorientada, nutrida por um ideário no estilo extrema esquerda. Mas é
claro que por mais que Mattin nos leve a cogitar a hipótese de um
trabalho a ser levado a sério, vale também perceber suas nunaces
irônicas. Para usufruir as composições punks do dissidente nigeriano
Billy Bao, se isto é possível, é preciso em primeiro lugar perceber que
muitas das barbaridades que são expostas pelas letras e por sua
sonoridade irascível são fundamentadas por uma necessidade de”épater la
bourgeoisie “, não através de
um embate direto, mas da sugestão de que certas sonoridades, aliadas a
certas idéias, estão para além do tolerável, do concebível e do
“escutável”, por assim dizer. O barulho é fundamental na estrutura de May08.
Mas Billy Bao não é música chamada “erudita” e não encerra um
pensamento originalíssimo, embora sua audição remeta a diversos
interesses neste sentido.
Das cinco faixas sem título do
álbum, apenas uma é totalmente amparada nos efeitos estridentes da
guitarra de Mattin. O restante são composições punks, emolduradas por
uma roupagem de alguma forma parecidas com o noise lo-fi do Hospitals,
mas na verdade trata-se de uma outra abordagem. São incorporados não só
um trecho da faixa “Zombie”, de Fela Kuti, que participa da melhor
faixa do álbum (a segunda), mas também percussões metálicas, acordes
aparentemente consonantes mas propositadamente mal executados… As vozes
são entoadas com má vontade, em tom de reclamação e, às vezes, como na
faixa três, podemos perceber uma estrutura musical mais ou menos
concatenada. Mas tudo em May08 é tocado de uma forma tão
desleixada e, ao mesmo tempo, histriônica, que o resultado parece
trazer consigo uma carga niilista repleta de intencionalidade e
escracho. Claro que o título do álbum colabora com essa percepção: o
maio de 08 não pode reproduzir o gosto pela “cultura” que a
contracultura tratou de exacerbar, revalorizando o jazz, a música negra
americana e a música oriental. Pelo contrário, ela assume uma certa
baixeza, uma profunda aversão a tudo aquilo que compactua com a
sociedade de consumo – o “sistema”.
O fato é que May08 não é um happening, um manifesto ou até mesmo uma carta de intenções. Trata-se
de uma ilustração possível dentro do universo de problemas que o autor
insiste em mobilizar. Não é à toa que ele organizou um livro chamado Noise & Capitalism, distribuído gratuitamente em seu site:
trata-se do aprofundamento de idéias que surgiram no início da década
tanto no desevolvimento da música eletrônica como também da música
aleatória de John Cage, o artista que melhor preconizou a oposição
entre barulho e sons ditos musicais, tal como consonância e dissonância
se opuseram no século XIX e XX. E a correlata identificação deste
problema a um questionamento das forças que amparam o controle
comercial das expressões artísticas. Até aí, nada demais, trata-se de
um livro de considerações sobre a nossa época. Mas quando transpomos
suas questões para o campo de sonoridades de May08 algo
parece fazer sentido: é a depauperação das formas já codificadas que
faz com que a música de Billy Bao adquira aos poucos um sentido de
urgência e radicalismo que soa mais que interessante. (Bernardo
Oliveira)
* # *
É relativamente simples descrever em
termos sonoros o vocabulário utilizado por Billy Bao: uma música
barulhenta, furiosa, que faz uso de vocais gritados quase sempre
indiscerníveis e tem como insturmentação power electronics e/ou
instrumentos com tamanha distorção e baixa fidelidade na gravação que
também acabam parecendo ser esses eletrônicos preparados que criam
potentes fontes de ruído. Tudo se estrutura dentro de composições que
se localizam entre o noise e o hardcore – no caso, sem a bateria
metronômica em última velocidade; retém-se só a fúria e a frontalidade
ameaçadora do vocal –, como Sightings e Wolf Eyes. Esses projetos, no
entanto, se caracterizam por serem assaltos sônicos em que a enorme
intensidade se deve à forma como os barulhos são minuciosamente
talhados e bem gravados, criando timbres e texturas avassaladores e
únicos, a sua maneira. Em May08, não vemos muito disso. Então
qual a graça específica do projeto? Há duas. Em termos estritamente
sonoros, é a gratuidade do instrumental que, sem qualquer relevo ou
ideia particularmente interessante, mantém-se no entanto coerente com o
vocal, dando ao todo a sensação de um surto descontrolado de energia,
mais ou menos o equivalente em termos sonoros de uma performance.
Pode-se dizer que o mesmo tipo de música poderia ser conseguido por
diversos outros em circunstâncias semelhantes, e não seria falso; não é
tanto a originalidade o que se ressalta aqui: é mais a consistência do
projeto. A segunda graça diz respeito ao conceito por trás de Billy
Bao, à identidade inventada do artista de Lagos que usa a música como
forma de oposição ao sistema, e particularmente o barulho como ato de
insubordinação sonora à eufonia. Pode-se dizer, novamente, que isso
está longe de ser algo novo, e que desde o nascimento das músicas de
agressão e confrontação, com Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, etc., a ideia
já era essa. Novamente, não seria falso. Billy Bao não acrescenta outro
capítulo à já extensa história do noise e da música confrontativa. Em
todo caso, May08 tem a virtude de chamar a atenção, mais como
projeto do que como sonoridade, para os elos entre entretenimento e
política, e como trabalhar a resistência dentro desse modelo. A
resposta não é muito original, mas também não se pode ter tudo. (Ruy
Gardnier)
Para
los que no lo conozcan todavía, decir que Billy Bao es un grupo
de
Bilbao, en el que tocan Alberto López (batería, ex La
Secta,
Atom-Rhumba…), Xabier Erkizia (guitarra y producción) y el
polifacético
Mattin (guitarra), acompañados en este vinilo por Iñigo
Telletxea
(bajo). Han esparcido discos por todo el mundo en los sellos S-S
Records, Xerox Musik, Herbal Live Series, Afterburn y w.m.o/r. Casi
nada. La cara A del vinilo consta de cuatro temas, en total unos
dieciocho minutos, y la cara B de un tema de dieciséis minutos.
"May
08" es menos crudo que otros artefactos que han sacado, como por
ejemplo la casete “I’m going to kill all the rich man”, pero igual de
intenso y bruto, y más producido. Los temas de la cara A son
cañonazos
de noise punk rock, pero no el clásico o típico que
podrías esperar
cuando lees punk, rock y noise juntos (ahora a cualquier cosa con un
poco de distorsión le llaman noise rock). "May 08" es
experimental, es
oscuro, es sucio, es brutal, es violento, es anárquico… es Billy
Bao.
No esperes escuchar algo como Brainbombs, grupo con el que se les
relaciona continuamente (y que se cita en los agradecimientos del LP
junto con Fela Kuti y Whitehouse), aunque yo no consigo ver esa
relación (los suecos son, entre otras cosas, más
monolíticos, menos
ruidosos y más monótonos, más simples vamos).
Puestos a buscar
referencias, yo me quedo con los Stooges de “Fun House”, Big Black,
Swans, Einstürzende Neubaten, y más actuales, Hair Police,
Wolf Eyes.
De todas formas, referencias a cualquier grupo se quedan cortas para
describir a Billy Bao. Dentro del punk rock noise abstracto se esconden
voces hardcore escupiendo proclamas políticas de distinta
índole (que
puedes leer en la portada y contraportada), todo bajo ritmos
machacones, riffs que me recuerdan a unos Stooges acelerados, samplers
de voces, de secciones de viento que te hacen bailar, aunque duren
poco, mezclándose todo en un ruidaco infernal mientras voces
desesperadas y desquiciadas gritan de manera inhumana. La segunda cara
es un tema de dieciséis minutos. Ruido abstracto, industrial,
denso,
con un sonido que recuerda a Hair Police y con voces hardcore/death
metal, si todavía cabe, más hundidas en el fango y
maraña del ruido
intenso que se va formando. Este vinilo te deja exhausto, con los
oídos
bien limpitos y destaponados y, tras el susurro de “Billy Bao” del
último tema, listo para dormir. De lo mejor de Billy Bao.- Rafa
Ju.
Μεχρι στιγμής
μυστήριο αποτελεί ποιοί ακριβώς είναι οι Billy Bao. Το "επίσημο"
website τους λέει ότι αποτελούνται από έναν εξορισμένο, από το
Lagos της Νιγηρίας στο Bilbao, Αφρικανό στα φωνητικά, ένα τρελαμένο
πάνκη drummer και τον γνωστό noise underground εξτρεμιστή
ηχοταραχοποιό Mattin
στις κιθάρες. Στην πραγματικότητα, μπορεί ότι ακούμε στο "May 08" να
προέρχεται από τα sound files του υπολογιστή του Mattin. Σε κάθε
περίπτωση, μιλάμε για έναν οριακό noise rock άλμπουμ,
που πέρνει τον ακραίο post-hardcore ήχο περιθωριακών 90ς σχημάτων όπως
οι Harry Pussy ή οι Jesus Lizard,
τον πετά στην θορυβώδη λασπουριά του noise rock των Sightings και
τον σχημάτων της Load και τελικά τον αναπροσαρμόζει
στα μέτρα σύχρονου ψηφιακού out noise
. Τα πάντα κτυπάνε κόκκινο... οι ακραίοι μηδενιστικοί στίχοι, τα
επιληπτικά φωνητικά, οι υπερπαμορφωμένες κιθάρες, τα χύμα drums, η
άναρχη δομή των κομματιών...Ίσως το καλύτερο άλμπουμ avant rock
της χρονιάς και σίγουρα το πιο πρωτοποριακό.
by request... "When
I came from Lagos (Nigeria) to San Francisco (Bilbao) life was tough
here or there. I did not mind, I had a purpose in my life: to fight the
system that fucks up everyday of our life. Back in my hometown, I was
an unknown songwriter but, as soon as I arrived to the streets of
Bilbao, I discovered Punk Rock. It had energy and attitude and was
exactly what I needed. Next thing was to get a band. I sought out the
most primitive drummer in Bilbao, Alberto Lopez (ex-La Secta, ex-Yogur,
ex-Atom-Rhumba), and the noisiest guitarist around, Mattin. The band
was formed under my name, it could not have been any other way. These
songs go beyond what rock and roll is and what it could be, in fact
they are the degeneration of Rock & Roll against the regeneration
of Bilbao."
Billy Bao (Mattin + Xabier Erkizia) is
comparable to Stickmen With Rayguns-era Bobby Soxx. Billy describes his
journey, beginning in Lagos where he was an ignored songwriter and
soloist looking for a creative spark and outlet. It was in San
Francisco, Spain, in the Basque area of Bilbao, that Billy discovered
punk rock’s primal energy, and he became inspired to make this
abhorrent pummeling scuzzrock that is so extremely harrowing. He hooked
up with the drummer of La Secta and other local SOB’s and made songs
full of unbridled anger and despair. This stuff is as scathing,
violent, and agonizing as the Brainbombs.
Год: 2009 Страна: USA Лейбл: Parts Unknown Records
I reviewed this record somewhere else a couple of months ago, this one
and Dialetics of Shit are the kind of noise-war-artifacts that pieces
like Machine Gun, by Peter Brotzmann may sound like to guys from the
70s.
Billy Bao previous records were astounding to me, I guess the Spanish
punk scene must be pretty much close to Mexican punk scene, full of
similar sounding bands with speed demon sensibilities and little brain
in their “political” messages, but once in a while comes something that
really shakes things up, Billy Bao might not be punk, might not be
Nigerian, might not be political and as a matter of fact it would be a
little tough to describe, but it is obviously way above from what we
can currently perceive on a punk rock scene.
A “fictional” project of Basque musician Mattin, Billy Bao is a
supposed punk rock group led by a Nigerian musician Billy Bao (a cool
reference to someone who was more punk in attitude than most punks,
Nigerian Afro-beat god, Fela Kuti, whose Zombie is sampled somewhere on
this record) who is now set on Spain and is making records about how
disgusting is the system (am I going to suppose life is tougher on
Spain than on Nigeria?).
Other things to keep in mind is that Mattin was part of the Basque
Radical Rock movement of the 80s, which brought us bands like Eskorbuto
or La Polla Records, bands that took the punk rock ethic in a more
serious and radical way, whereas the Sex pistols disbanded pretty soon
and neither of its original members lived up to their punk rock ethics,
bands like Cicatriz, Eskorbuto or La Polla Records, really lived the
way they sang, on the red, as some of their original members died of
heroine over doses, aids or terrible accidents, yes, life in the punk
rock scene in Spain during the end of the 70s must have been a very
though time, as Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was still head of the
government.
Billy Bao might also be a reference to the Spanish city of Bilbao,
and another cool reference I already mentioned was Fela, who made
Zombie, in the late seventies, a record so full of venom that Fela
received an almost fatal response by the military heads of the state,
almost resulting in his own death, while Never Mind The Bollocks was
supposedly making a stance on Anarchy in the Uk, Fella was living it on
Nigeria.
Billy Bao is a record? Sonically speaking yes, it sounds like a very
though punk rock record with noises and primitive sampling coming in
and out, it sounds a lot like some of the most fucked up live
recordings by the Stooges, as the “band” or Mattin or whoever is in his
company, performs brutal repetitive two or three chords of distorted
punk rock at its most chaotic, and then some brutish cut and paste work
makes it sound like one of the most “out there” records of all time,
but don’t forget this is Mattin, a guy from Spain, also home of one of
the greatest masters of Cinema, Luis Buñuel, remember that scene on the
El Angel Exterminador, where a guy comes into a room and the scene is
repeated again and again? Well Mattin does similar stuff sonically
speaking, giving the record a strange and eerie quality, yes, black
humor and surrealism float here.
Non
c’è dubbio che il pessimismo e l’angoscia siano tra i motori
fondamentali dell’esperienza sonica degli spagnoli Billy Bao, quartetto
formato dall’omonimo cantante d’origine nigeriana, dai chitarristi
Mattin e Xabier Erkizia e dal batterista Alberto Lopez.
Con un
suono spaventoso e rumorosissimo, “May 08” spinge la band verso lidi
musicali sempre più brutali e sempre più attraversati
dallo schifo e
dal disgusto per una realtà poco incline a lasciarsi
comprendere.
D’altra parte, in “Dialectics Of Shit” cantavano:”My life is shit/ your
life is shit/ and you don’t do/ anything/ Just/ drink/ fuck/ sleep/ and
get killed/ by a system/ that only wants you as a/ working corpse” (“My
Life is Shit”).
Definito come un incrocio tra Brainbombs e
Whitehouse, “May 08” abbandona l’impianto “garagista” del disco
precedente per lanciarsi a occhi chiusi verso le torride, purulenti
emanazioni del noise-rock più malvagio di sempre.
Suddiviso
idealmente in due parti, il disco parte con una sfrenata convulsione,
martellante e densissima. Una sciagura cui sembra impossibile
sopravvivere (“1”). Un suono ossessivo, isterico, feroce, tra citazioni
del Fela Kuti di “Zombie” (“2”), primitivismi post-core &
noise in stile Cows (“3”) e repellenti, bradi minimalismi,
tirati allo spasimo, fino al delirio dei feedback che tutto
sommergono (“4”).
Eppure, niente che possa competere con “5”, probabilmente il loro
capolavoro e uno dei pezzi più diabolici dell’anno: un inferno
di
selvaggia disperazione, un nichilistico sputo verso il cielo. Prurient
costretto a sanguinare dagli occhi.
Aspettando la definitiva realizzazione delle loro intenzioni, un
ascolto purificante.
Billy Bao har jeg skrytt av før og det er ingen grunn til
å dempe seg nå. Det nye albumet Billy Bao - May 08
(Parts Unknown lp)
er nok en knusende oppvisning i tung avantrock. Bandet består av
Mattin
på gitar, Xabier Erkizia vokal, Alberto Lopez på trommer og
Inigo
Telletxea på bass. Billy Bao er mer punkrock enn noensinne og tar
den
seige, hakkete cruden sin ytterligere noen steg ut i et terreng av
improvisert hardcore. Billy Bao blander idiotrock med avantfantasier,
elektroniske sammenbrudd ala glitch og syk vokal og sender resultatet
gjennom en forsterker som ligger begravd i atomavfall før hele
sullamitten dundrer ut av to enorme, rustne høytalere. Billy Bao
tar
arven fra Black Flag, Germs og Big Black inn i en fjern fremtid. Billy
Bao er et av verdens beste rockband.
Se
ha hecho esperar, pero por fin Billy Bao edita nuevo disco. Un monstruo
capaz de hacer que salgas a la calle con la intención de cazar
economistas. Las guitarras erigen una música tan poderosa que,
en mi
caso, me disparan recuerdos de aquellos meses que pasé en una
fábrica
montando hornos industriales.
Los de Bilbao han terminado
superando insignes composiciones anteriores y esta vez zarandean a su
público con repetitivas explosiones que retuercen la vida
anodina,
haciendo polvo todo lo que sabíamos sobre cómo se supone
que hay
componer una canción. Ojalá se editarán más
discos como este.
It is an odd combination‹the sounds that come off this record and the
words
on record sleeve. The music is furious, manic, noisy drone, and damn
loud.
Electronic sounds with a thrashy drumbeat and pained vocals. It riles
you up
while listening to it and gives you a sort of catharsis from all the
shit
you endure day to day. Turn it up and tune out the world. I am tired
after
listening to May 08. However the record cover reads like a
teenager¹s diary.
It is political, but not cohesive or thought-out, like someone just
starting
to think about the actions of the world around him. Those are the
lyrics for
the first side of the album. I preferred it when I made I made up my
own.
(CK)
I stumbled across this LP at Mystery Train several days ago. The
label said something like “revolutionary Nigerian skuzz rocker,” and
the cover looked interesting, so I bought it.
Those words on the front and back cover are the entire lyrics of the
album, and you can make out maybe a fifth of them. It’s a thick wall
of noise, with vocals, drums, bass, and I can’t figure anything else
out. At one point I was able to pick out a Fela Kuti song playing in
the background, but I didn’t recognize any of the other samples.
It’s dense. Really dense. Maybe too dense, I suppose, because it
starts to get boring. There are a lot of interesting things in here,
however… perhaps he could’ve used an editor. But if I ever get face to
face with the guy, I’ll never say that. Because, reading the front of
the jacket, I assume he would literally rip me to pieces, and feast on
my blood.
So, I’ve decided I like the guy. The lyrics are fiercely radical,
but sometimes nonsensical. I understand, I think, where he’s coming
from, however.
Capitalism show us that it does not care about humanity
and we only care about individuality. People in the Western world are
just fucking around, and I continue doing nothing but this. And you?
Satisfaction? Are you happy? Are you going to go out? Are you
having a nice dinner? Another beer? Another record?
Another aural assault from Spain's Billy Bao. As usual, he's taking
Whitehouse-esque sheets of noise and combining with droning, minimal
punk to great effect... I have to say this is a lot more gripping than
the debut 12"... killer stuff for the noise merchants, so if you like
Drunkdriver you should check this out for sure. Parts Unknown Records
I
didn’t check out May08 the moment it came out because, while
I’ve enjoyed all the other Billy Bao records to varying degrees, after
last year’s Dialectics of Shit I was afraid Mattin may have run
out of ideas with this project or “persona”. May08
seems to take delight in confirming my fears, as this is Billy Bao at
his least inspired. The first five cuts are standard-issue Billy Bao
minus the riffs, interesting vocals or intriguing behavior that had me
saying “yes, I’d be delighted to pay $11 for this imported single!”. He
might chop up the different sounds in one track, or play a jazz sample
in the middle of another, but the antagonist approaches here come
across as lazy and old. Really dull, uninteresting music that isn’t
even annoying in the way previous BB records have been. The last track
is sixteen minutes and opens with generic bassy guitar noise and buried
vocals, and continued for a good eight minutes or so before I decided
to make dinner. If you make it all the way through and something
interesting happens, let me know. I have to wonder if the only reason
Billy Bao currently exists is because people are still asking him to
put out new records. Mattin seems better suited as a noisy avant-garde
collaborator than a rock musician releasing multiple albums. Maybe the
joke is just on us.
7;t figure anything else
out. At one point I was able to pick out a Fela Kuti song playing in
the background, but I didn’t recognize any of the other samples.
It’s dense. Really dense. Maybe too dense, I suppose, because it
starts to get boring. There are a lot of interesting things in here,
however… perhaps he could’ve used an editor. But if I ever get face to
face with the guy, I’ll never say that. Because, reading the front of
the jacket, I assume he would literally rip me to pieces, and feast on
my blood.
So, I’ve decided I like the guy. The lyrics are fiercely radical,
but sometimes nonsensical. I understand, I think, where he’s coming
from, however.
Capitalism show us that it does not care about humanity
and we only care about individuality. People in the Western world are
just fucking around, and I continue doing nothing but this. And you?
Satisfaction? Are you happy? Are you going to go out? Are you
having a nice dinner? Another beer? Another record?
Yes, dear readers, I'm still here. I've just been spending most of my days lately reading stuff that looks like this
so I ain't got much time for dis heer punk rock, nawmean?
Anyhoo, tonite's 3rd of July special is none other than the Basque
Country's most terrifying thing besides the ETA, Billy Bao. I gave up
long ago on determining whether Billy Bao's story is true or false-given how clear their debt to The Society of the Spectacle
is, I doubt "true" and "false"
are useful categories
here.
But you kiddies iz here for dee moosick, ya? Here's whatcha got: five
pieces (NOT "songs") of very intelligently assembled, shrieking,
horrifying noise that includes a Fela Kuti sample somewhere on Side A
(how could I make this up?). Everyone's been screaming "Whitehouse
this" and "Brain Bombs that" since these cats started dropping sonic
napalm, but fuck that. Billy Bao's music is clearly and violently its
own thing altogether, even when they thank Whitehouse in the text of
that indecipherable cover. This is a terrifying, twitching
manifestation of the social disease known as capitalism...or the demons
dancing in your head after mixing speed and valium. I'll let the
eggheads amongst you figure out if that's a false distinction or not.
I
have to warn you that you will ABSOLUTELY HATE THIS THING if you're
expecting standard punk music based on rock formulae. This is a sonic
atrocity, not rock 'n' roll.
Fuck May '68, Fight Now! After detourning your own private spectacle, mosy over to Mattin's page and see if May '08 or any of Billy Bao's blunt objects are still in print. Big ups to DX at Distort 'zine for turning me onto these terrorists. Find some hilarious reviews here.
p.s.-sorry this post looks like shit. Blogger is being about as helpful as the Italian public transit system tonight.
*Billy Bao “May 08″ (Parts Unknown) – Great LP from these noise
rockers…hell, there’s not really any discernable songs on this full
length like the 1st one, this is just a lot of weirdo wall of distortion
numbers. I feel like if you aren’t listening to this loud, you might
miss out on what’s going on- it’s SO nasty and violent. Reviews will
compare this to the Brainbombs and such, but trust me, this is way more
blown out than that. Get this! http://sickness-still-abounds.blogspot.com/2010/09/billy-bao-may-08-lp-august-2009-re-post.html
Billy Boa is not a pleasant listen and neither is the lyrical
content. The music sounds terrible, filthy and the lyrics are often
indecipherable which seems a bit counter productive to me considering
most of the lyrical content is political in nature. There is an essay
on the outside sleeve of the album that pushed Billy Bao's polictical
the message more than any of the music or lyrics contained on the
record. Basically from what I'm reading the album bringing the
negative consequences to the public's attention.
The artist
Billy Bao is from Nigeria and has seen the direct effects of
uncontrolled capitalism and poor foreign policy in his country. I
think he could have done more with the album because the lyrics are
indecipherable and the album will not translate onto the
airwaves...what good is screaming in anger when there are no audible
ideas behind the sound? I can understand if the vocals are being used
like an instrument and are just another layer with no apparent meaning,
but with Billy Bao this is not the case so it doesn't make sense to me.
A
narrative would have been better than screaming over degenerated noise
punk. If he is truly trying to use music as a vehicle to spread the
word on his political views. The album just kind of degenerates into
un-rhythmic noise and really doesn't seem to have any purpose outside
the album sleeve.
Gilgongo (Tempe, Az, 2015)
Deranged, distorted, disturbed noise saturated punk, Flipper at 16rpm?
Drunkdriver after a night of heavy drinking? I'm not sure... but a truly
out-there record for those who can appreciated a heavy and complicated
and claustrophobic take on hardcore.
contains five untitled tracks. The first piece is a filthy psychotic rave-up. The second one is a funk-punk of sorts that adds African-style horns. The third one is a lazy recitation amid bombardment-like guitars. The fourth one is a repetitive tribal war dance for android tanks. The fifth one is 16 minutes of chaotic guitar noise, frantic drumming, monster bass riffs, hellish growling, relentless strumming, and apocalyptic rumbles.
contiene cinque tracce senza titolo. Il primo pezzo è un osceno rave-up psicotico. Il secondo è un funk-punk di sorta che aggiunge corni in stile africano. Il terzo è una
pigra recitazione in mezzo a un bombardamento di chitarre. Il quarto è una ripetitiva danza di guerra per tank androidi. Il quinto sono 16 minuti di caotico rumore di chitarra, di drumming frenetico, di mostruosi riff di basso, di urla infernali, di strimpellio implacabile e di rombi apocalittici.
Ox-Fanzine / Ausgabe #86 Oktober/November 2009, Kalle Stille
BILLY BAO bewusst anhören ist ein bisschen wie ein Wettsaufen, bei dem es darum geht, wer als Erster kotzt. Hier geht es darum, wer als Erster aufgibt und die Nadel anhebt, denn diese Platte strapaziert deine Gehörgänge, sie geht dir auf die Nerven, sie verursacht Unruhe und führt garantiert nicht dazu, dass du dich anschließend besser fühlst, wenn du doch die ganze Scheibe durchgehalten hast.
Aber sie zerstört deine Grenzen, zeigt dir neue auf, und kann dir in der falschen Stimmung so tierisch auf den Sack gehen, dass du anschließend einigen Leuten endlich mal die Meinung geigst, weil es dann auch egal ist.
Mit großkalibrigen Waffen auf ungeliebte Nachbarn schießen ist die andere Option. Die logische Fortführung dessen, was FLIPPER einmal so harmlos angefangen haben, monoton, eintönig, fies und einfach nur bösartig wie ein Tumor in deinem Gehirn.
Nicht in der Geschwindigkeit, in der Trägheit liegt die wahre Gewalt. Unbewertbar ...
