Belgian noise-rock: the shape of punk to come

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/25/belgian-noise-rock-raketkanon-steve-albini

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Related: Metz: ‘If you can smother a melody in noise and grit, that’s perfect’

Monolithic riffs. Wonky synths. FX-laden screams. Lyrics sung in a completely made-up language. Out of the 200 acts at Live At Leeds earlier this month, Ghent’s Raketkanon stood out like a Belgian waffle in a bowl of muesli. The noise-rockers shun conventional song structures and give their songs human names like Herman and Suzanne instead of titles. And they’ve been known to kiss each other onstage and swallow their microphones so intensely they graze their throats.

The rise of Canada’s Metz or Dublin’s Girl Band shows there is an appetite for contemporary noise, but while those groups largely replicate the sound of the genre’s 80s heyday, Raketkanon are weirder and more innovative. Their recently released second album suggests a broader appeal beyond Belgium – it’s been produced by noise-rock linchpin Steve Albini, and might invite comparisons to, say, Refused covering Melvins while Mike Patton lurks in the corner.

Raketkanon are merely the tip of the Flemish iceberg, too. There are a dozen kindred groups, including Brutus, the Germans, the Hickey Underworld, Dans Dans, Drums Are For Parades, Steak Number Eight, Onmens and Hypochristmutreefuzz. Raketkanon frontman Pieter-Paul Devos insists it’s not a scene – “Aren’t scenes genre-defined? We don’t do genres” – but these bands do appear to share a gleeful sense of the absurd.

Hypochristmutreefuzz’s debut EP includes a track called Stairway To Heaven that sounds less like Led Zep than the Jesus Lizard entering a demented circus-orgy, ringmastered by Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers. Onmens, meanwhile, furnish post-punk riffs with spooky electronics.

Even more unhinged are Zonhoven’s Blægger, a sludge-fuzz duo consisting of Goblin King and Treebeard, who handle drums and squealing, and guitar and preaching, respectively. One song is called Hit Me With Your Lady Spoon and their latest Bandcamp release is dated 5 May 2018, so they might even be time-travellers.

Still, it’s not easy to see these bands outside of Belgium, which may explain the furore when any of them tour. “The majority don’t go abroad much, apart from a show here and there in the Netherlands,” says Devos. “It’s a matter of getting your record out internationally, and if that doesn’t happen it’s hard to tour.” Have Raketkanon received any major-label interest? “Not that we know of,” replies Devos, “but I really have to recharge my phone battery. I may have missed some calls.”

With Raketkanon and their contemporaries concocting such bracingly bonkers rock, it’s about time labels started looking beyond Canada, the US and UK and memorised the Belgian dialling code. Whether anyone will pick up, though, is another matter.

Raketkanon’s RKTKN #2 is out now on KKK