Yearly archives: 2021

5 posts

Diary of Dreams – A Listener’s Guide

Article Listeners Guide

The second consecutive Listener’s Guide to be about a band from Deutschland beginning with ‘D’, but that’s the point at which the similarities end.  The DAF listener’s guide was written as a somewhat delayed tribute to Gabi Delgado, who died on the eve of the initial COVID lockdown (thankfully not from said disease itself), only for my writing to get totally derailed as my creativity ground to a standstill along with the rest of the world.  I eventually completed it, but the significance of the timing was lost.

This guide, however, has been a long time coming.  It’s about a band who have featured frequently in my DJ sets and past playlists.  I wrote about them frequently back in my EOL-Audio days.  And yet I’ve found their works remain somewhat under-appreciated amongst many of those who’s tastes I otherwise share.  Too “goth” for the industrial kollectiv, too electronic for the goth-rock puritans.  Too dark in tone for the casual listener, but too song-oriented for experimental elitists.   

It’s time to tell you all what you’ve been missing out on.

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Listeners Guides Updated

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Hello, anyone out there?

Despite the reopening of the outside world, I for one am not ready to rejoin it.  The next listeners guide is well underway at least.  However, I’ve taken a short diversion to bring two of the existing guides up to 2021 spec.  It’s a pity I didn’t have more interesting material to work with, but for those who care one way or the other, you can read what I thought of the recents Wumpscut and Fear Factory albums.  These are not ‘reviews’ as such, just updates to the story I’d already told.  

Anyway, back to the next epic.  Who was it who said “You Cannot Help, Where Your Help Is Not Wanted”?  That’s both a massive hint, and the story of the past few months.  See you on the other side.

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft – A Listener’s Guide

Article Listeners Guide

I’ve long had issue with how poorly bands from continental Europe are covered when the Anglo/American music journos cover a particular genre.  Even when the bands in question sing in English.  Bands singing in any other tongue are a particularly hard sell, but every now and again, a notable project breaks through.  And Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF from here on) stand out in this very small grouping due to the way they achieved a cult following in the UK a couple of decades before anyone had heard of Rammstein.  This achievement was not despite the fact that they sung in German, but in many respects because of it. 

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Fear Factory – A Listener’s Guide

Article Listeners Guide

What do you mean, Fear Factory?  Why are you profiling a METAL band, Jonny?  Has the Listener’s Guide series jumped the shark already?  I’m pre-emptively calling out these potential criticisms, because I’ve got the rest of this guide to prove to you all that this is a band worth writing about. 

And they are a band with significant links to my own musical journey.  The first “metal” band I developed a taste for, and the first I saw live.  “Saw” is actually an understatement – heard, felt, smelt and otherwise lived through in every possible sense.  It was thanks to Rhys Fulber’s involvement on some of their most notable albums that I discovered Front Line Assembly, an act who themselves were hugely influential in the development of my tastes in the years to come.

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Update – April 2021

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It’s been a while since I’ve even logged into this site. Curiously, the DJ Terminates Here Facebook page is still getting likes despite me having done nothing to earn them in recent times. I thought you all at least deserved an update. I’m still alive and so far avoided the Coronavirus. However, long-running mental health issues, which are only partially related to the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have results in a severe hit to my productivity in the past year.

I’m beginning to find a route out, but it’s early days. DJ Terminates Here will as a result remain closed until it is possible for full-audience events to be safely held once more – indeed, my lack of activity and personal circumstances mean I’m unlikely to be first in-line for a real-world return. The good news is – the writing it on its way back. I have a half-finished Listeners Guide which should be published here soon.

In the meantime, I have updated the half-dozen existing guides to 2021-spec, so there’s something new to read, even if you’ll have to scroll a lot to find it.