Genre: Industrial Rock / Noise / Ambient

Track Listing:

01 Musth
02 Shoa
03 IED
04 Gaza
05 Fistula
06 Kalashnikov
07 LSD 25
08 Disco- Destructo
09 Parozysm
10 Kanehsatake
11 Srebrenica
12 Trisomy 21
13 Anhedonia



"Put down your books and pick up a gun, we're gonna have a whole lotta fun." - _{Country Joe McDonald and the Fish}

As I am brooding in my hatred over the fact that the extreme right wing party gaining power in Norway, something like this appears in my mailbox and restores my faith in mankind. This is a brutal masterpiece, and indeed uncompromising. This is angry music for angry people and it is quite rare to hear musicians with such incredible talent, both compositionally and technically. Baader-Meinhof Gruppe/Red Army Fraction is Joshua Davis Richardson in collaboration with Scott E. Farmer, Sam Devos and Edwin Vanvinckenroye. These guys master guitar, drums, violin, percusions and synth's, and combine it with violent noise and ambient soundscapes. And STILL they manage keep it dynamic without clutter. This is the most impressive project I have come across in this genre in a very long time. I am currently at track #6 and allready I want to throw bricks at people. That is a good sign. Their name is taken from the well known west german terroist network Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction), spearheaded by Ulrike Meinhof and her spouse Andreas Baader.  The groups was active from the late sixties into the nineties with a peak in 1977.

This review is not meant to be a political essay, but when a work of art is so overtly political, a political analyzis is not only to be expected but essential to understand the work it self. Their political views are leftist extremism, if we are to take the symbolism seriously. Unless we are to believe that this is all for schock value and post modernism.The question is whether someone, even a marxist, could acually support the RAF's actions (RAF was responsible for killing 30 and wounding dozens more). But their press release certainly seems serious enough in supporting a violent overthrow of the capitalist system. They better be rooting for Pirate bay I say. It is really not important whether this is image or not. To quote Douglas Pierce: "I refuse to dissect my work" I call it like it see it.The rest is up to the listener.

The cover is minimalist in it's design keeping it  in matte grey, red and white paper, complimenting the RAF logo, consisting of what the RAF thought to be a Kalashnikov rifle. (Actually a H&K MP-5. Info for the weapon nerds out there like us) Inside there are two black and white photo's of Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. A two sided inlay in the same colors references Mao's sun rising in the east, symbolic of the revolution itself. Ironically the sun rises behind Capitol Hill. This image is combined with a portrait of Ulrike Meinhof, and the words "Ihr Klang, Ihre Zukunft, Magnetic und ewig!" Translated "Your sound, your future, magnetic and eternal". DIY baby.

Several of the tracks are charged with political meaning. Such as "Srebrenica", referencing a massacre that killed 8.000 Bosniak men and boys in the area of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina: "Kanehsatake" refering to the Mohawk community in Canada and their fight against destruction of ancient burial grounds, "LSD 25" which was the original form of LSD in it's pure and untampered state. (Fitting to the project, I think, no bullshit added.) "Kalashnikov" which is a revolutionaly weapon,  often called "the peoples gun" and the first choice of rebels all over the globe. "Shoah"is a commonly used Hebrew term for what is otherwise known as the Holocaust. Then we have "Gaza" which by it self is a name that screams violence and suppression. That is just naming a few of them, and as you can see this band is very interested in contents not just surface.

Politics aside, the 13 tracks never once get predictable or uninteresting. They keep changing direction and the breaks are nothing short of perfection. Drifting in and out of harsh noise, and melodical and meditative air pockets. I have been wondering how to label this project, and I have landed on industrial rock. This is so unique it's a hard task to fit it into any genre. Ranging from  dark ambient and then over into vocals matching William Bennet. Still they keep it rythmic, pulsating with power noise and it sometimes has a vibe witch reminds me of PigFace's  "Notes from the undergound".

Superficially one might see similarities to projects such a The Grey Wolves,Throbbing Gristle and SPK. But Baader-Meinhof Gruppe/Red Army Fraction is a modernist project as oposed to the post modernism of the early industrial musicians.They were all about confusions whereas Baader-Meinhof Gruppe/Red Army Fraction is about answers, and totalitarian answers I might add. It is the logical conclusion of Teodor Adorno's project where marxist ideology must influence every aspect of your life. Especially art. This album is still industrial, but it has evolved to a different expression and content. Even though I do not agree with their political views I deeply respect and encourage their work. This world needs revolution and using art and music as your weapon is a much more honest and etichal tool than guns and bombs.