SISTER CULTURE
SISTER CULTURE
BEFORE
7″
JUNE 1983
IRMGARDZ (IRMGS111)
Sister Culture is a 7” single released by Danish post-punk act Before in the summer of 1983. The group was initially started by the singer Fritz “Fatal” Bonfils and Martin Hall back in 1980, but Hall withdrew from his commitments as founding member and guitarist after the band’s legendary support act for British New Order in Copenhagen in May 1981.
In 1983 Martin Hall returned for a guest visit, this time playing violin on the A-side of the single.
1. Sister Culture (3:24)
2. Some Hands (3:07)
Casper Holm: Guitar
Fritz “Fatal” Bonfils: Vocals
Lars Bo “Tolle” Tolstoy Jacobsen: Bass
Mads Nordheim: Keyboards
Martin Hall: Violin
Michael Rasmussen: Drums
Design: Maiken Sylvester
You can read more about the original Before here: 30 Minutes.
RITUAL
RITUAL
MARTIN HALL
12″
MARCH 1983
KARMA (KMX66)
Ritual was Martin Hall’s first solo record, a 12” mini-album consisting of three pieces of very different music. Part 1 was a recording entirely based on percussion and industrial loops, part 2 a chilled piece of disco and part 3 a suite for violins.
The record was released on the independent label Karma Records as a reaction to Hall’s former contract with multinational CBS (Sony Music).
1. Part 1 (Some Further Decline) (7:51)
2. Part 2 (Easier Done than Said) (4:47)
3. Part 3 (Ond, Onde, Ondes) (12:16)
PART 1 (SOME FURTHER DECLINE)
Caught in the means
In this closed circle
And we share and we share
What had been left behind
Only a circle I couldn’t break into
So raw, so fine
Some further decline
PART 2 (EASIER DONE THAN SAID)
Now I know it
Now please tell them
It lies between their fingers
This is easier done than said
Can you see what I meant?
Some meant amen
Near in absence
Far from distance
Still we hope for some resistance
R&R and S&S
Which is the balance of intellect?
To mistreat all that’s gone
That’s not one entity
Why not lie
You’re too blind
I will stand here in line
That again
La-la-la
I spell chain with SS
Did you bring all that’s sore?
You and I feel like that
So precious once again
Chosen ones fought the beast
Chosen ones got the feast
The classic song I hear
Why you are proud of scars
Makes you lose
Makes you win
Time to think
And begin a new life deep within
Gonna get the cool out
Martin Hall: Vocals, piano, bass, guitar, drums, tapes, percussion, trumpet, violin, keyboards
Design: Martin Hall
Ritual was released concurrently with Martin Hall’s first book, The Reconstruction Is Greater. The record also contained a booklet with collage art and writings.
FOR
FOR
BALLET M
LP
SEPTEMBER 1982
CBS (25032)
Ballet Mécanique wrote Danish music history with the release of their debut album The Icecold Waters of the Egocentric Calculation in 1981. The group synthesized rock, avant-garde and poetry in a quite unheard way, using dancers and films at their concerts to recreate their own surrealistic ecology on stage.
They released their second and final album For in 1982 after which Martin Hall reconstituted the group as Under For.
1. The Mark (4:49)
2. Among (4:41)
3. Conviction Justifies All Means (4:32)
4. Den Ødeste (5:31)
5. As Hit (3:55)
6. Violent (5:04)
7. Given (4:10)
8. Is To Be (2:35)
9. Mature Evil (3:39)
THE MARK
Haven’t learned my lesson
Be as “am” and climb these colours
I won’t excuse when I say I
Hate sharpening needless intense
Please do not beg me
Do you like the taste of symbols
Please do not beg me
Better than the search for meaning
Senseless responsible as I hold this knife
Please do not seduce me
Guilt is heavier than any weapon
Into your reality
Unprovoked as I testified
Then rather falseness
The burden of therapeutic lied gave me the right to judge
Because no reality can obtain the both of us
The fear has reached a limit
Where is heaven – up or down
Where armless have no helping hands
Without guilt I committed a crime
Please do not beg me
Terrorize me if it feels good
Please do not beg me
I feel sorry for you already
And with the feverish light as guide
I was given the mark of the beast
I as you this close
Held of to believe
Searching for the gift of life
Feel the mark of this timeless touch
AMONG
Unheard, unheard
You will fall with the masculine delusion
Tasteless you, traceless you
Beyond the bloodless necessities
Somewhere lies the feel of splendour
How to fight the denial of feel
How to fight this denial of feel
Among bloodless, will I fall
A spastic appeal for unknown ideals
Frailty, your name is strength
Useless wise in all their lies
It lead into this
CONVICTION JUSTIFIES ALL MEANS
Like you said
May the powers be in your hands
Stretch out your sense for someone’s sake
If not your own
Defeated I won it all
And then the icecold waters spread without intention
But I don’t regret what I fought for then, only all the weapons I fought with
Here in the glory of dirt under nails
I say
I can recall how I once made a promise
And I fattened dreams like we think to see
But it’s too late for knowledge
And in a careless move I was left behind
Tried to betray a vision that I had
But then again, the days were here I insisted upon
It’s too late to regret stipulated prices
Conviction justifies all means
And all their care in me mentioned briefly then
It almost killed every hope
I was selfish bourgeois by intellectual self-mutilation
So I’m ashamed of being ashamed right now
In this heir of culture
I’m just another sign of the crippled souls who live in this time
And when my words became my weapon then
I realized the mistake I’d done
As I still compared
As I never shared monumental weakness
But now I’m here right beside you
DEN ØDESTE
Ikke altid vidste jeg
Hvorfor det blev som det blev
Sov blot roligt
Alle hader alle
AS HIT
Words are just too precious now
I have noticed
What you gave became it all
Rape your own life
You have my blessing
Pose yourself to death
To feel the power of words you have to use hands
Meaning conquers hairstyle now
Words are posters
Meaning has this aching chain
Can’t dance hungry
Fulfil a need or kill yourself
Sensational creeps fill their own life
VIOLENT
As a triumph of misunderstanding
You excused your sacred shield
While you sat there waiting for salvation
And in my effort to be free
I forgot about cruelty
I love you but I’m not in love with you
In the inflation of words
In jewelry of panic smartness
All was just another acceptable truth
You scream for an ear
I scream for a truth
Sensual violence
Rebellion is gone and I’m so alone
GIVEN
You said it’s happening now
Can’t you feel the start?
I said I’m sorry friend
I once gave you my heart
Caress all the broken words
Heal them with your care
I have no hate for you
But we have nothing to share
Once it was easier
I could hide behind
Any mistake of yours that was left to find
And I want to give far more than I can
But I don’t believe in the helping hand
And a golden threat used to manifest
As I screamed to you please don’t live by form
And I wondered why I could never die
I was misunderstood but I don’t care why
I will not betray this ideal again
Even though the swine still confirm the pain
You said, see we’re still friends
After all we said
Taste, taste your tolerant tongue
While I look away instead
Your words are worn out now like empty cans of beer
And now there’s only room for me and the ideal here
Once it was easier
I could hide behind
Any mistake of yours that was left to find
And I want to give far more than I can
But I don’t believe in the helping hand
And a golden threat used to manifest
As I screamed to you, please don’t live by form
And I wondered why I could never die
I was misunderstood, but I don’t care why
I will not betray this ideal again
Even though the swine still confirm the pain
When you change ideal to idol
You can’t cure your own sickness
Right way
I think I’m on the right way now
Still for the love and the life
Alone
Isolated by the hope
Isolated by the dream
Changeable are only we
IS TO BE
And the honesty
Is that too much to ask for?
I refuse to believe that the broken is unchangeable
Something has begun to open
Is that pretentious?
Something has begun to open
MATURE EVIL
Amnesty for well-known me
I – the damned pr just the poor?
When they judge
It reminds me of that blind can’t see colours
And they turned a victim out of a heart
And felt so strong
This neurotic culture kills
Kills what’s good and pure
I don’t need your cheap visions
INTELLECTUAL SELF-MUTILATION
All their care in me mentioned briefly in a move
Selfish bourgeois as intellectual self-mutilation
Generosity of shared evil
Some denied the possibilities
And the icecold waters spread without intention then
Fattish colourless seemed eternal
Gloriless emotions strangled me
Pulse with mercy gave me light to see
Individual only as a consequence
From bleeding of brotherhood
I seek never seen
I seek never been
Pretentious as soul
Pretentious as honesty
From the journey that killed useless hate
I was born again to share the strength
And for those who try to wash their hands in suffering
I will be there soon but not already
I do not regret what I fought for
Only all the weapons I fought with
I refuse to feel the pain from all my former friends
Those who lived by form and then denied it
Nature
Something has begun to open
Beauty cuts thought
Martin Hall: Vocals, keyboards, piano, guitar, tapes, horns, percussion, marimba
Michael Karshøj: Drums, backing vocals, percussion
Morten Versner: Bass, violin
Design: Martin Hall
Photo: Ken Rivad
Already during the recording of For Ballet Mécanique was falling apart. Martin Hall’s psychological instability as well as the general state of affairs within the band made it very difficult for the members to work together, resulting in the termination of the band shortly after finishing the album in the summer of 1982. At the time of the release of For the group had reduced their name to Ballet M.
The break-up was announced at a concert in October – without any previous warning to neither followers, record company or booking agency. A press announcement written by Martin Hall was sent to a number of selected newspaper journalists on the same day as the final gig (the line-up at the concert was to be identical to that of the later Under For ensemble). You can hear the taped statement of the break-up announcement on the special edition of The Icecold Waters of the Egocentric Calculation released in relation to the album’s 25th anniversary in 2006.
The reasons for the split was also fuelled by Martin Hall’s growing dissatisfaction with being contracted to the Danish branch of the multinational label CBS. Originally the group had signed a contract with the independent label Better Day Records, a label which had been sold to the Danish branch of CBS (now Sony Music) shortly after signing the band. Both the live declaration and the issued press notice addresses this matter very clearly. The statement made headlines in the newspapers and surrounded Hall with even more controversy than before.
XTRA
XTRA
VARIOUS ARTISTS
LP
SEPTEMBER 1982
TRAX (TRAX0982)
The Xtra album consists of ten audio compositions recorded in various parts of Europe. All material was exchanged via mail collaboration and audio tape correspondence. The artists known as “units” never met each other. On the cover you can see the diagram of the relations between the units.
Martin Hall contributed to the track “Fanfare for the Meat Generation”.
1. Gamma Thetan (4:32)
2. Strange Quack Quack (4:47)
3. Di Lui Non si sa Più Nulla (3:15)
4. Nastro Rosso (5:42)
5. Fishes (4:03)
6. Combination (4:51)
7. Ancora Icone (3:19)
8. Fanfare for the Meat Generation (3:12)
9. Live Blister Bump (3:44)
10. I Love Cancer (3:23)
Bass – Alberto Mineo (A2, A3, A4), Fabio Beltrame (A2, A3, A4), Silence (4) (A2, B1, B5) and W.Gibson (A2, B1, B5)
Computer – Enrico Piva (A4, B1, B5)
Drums – Gian (A1, B1, B3, B5), Momi (A1, B1, B3, B5) and Radar (A2, B1, B5)
Electronic percussion and rhythm box – Aldo Scaini (A2, B1, B5), Angelo Pretolani (A5, B2)
Guitar – Alberto Mineo (A2, A3, A4), Giancarlo Martina (A1, B1, B3, B5), Vittore Baroni (A1, B4) and W. Gibson (A2, B1, B5)
Keyboards – Ale (A2, B1, B5), Enrico Friso (A2, A3, A4), Enrico Piva (A4, B1, B5) and Spyke (A1, B1, B3, B5)
Casiotone – Massimo Giacon (A2, A3, A4), Roberto Rossini (A5, B2)
Lyrics – Angelo Pretolani (A5, B2), Massimo Giacon (A2, A3, A4) and Vittore Baroni (A1, B4)
Maracas – Blue Panther (A2, B1, B5)
Mix – Unit 01
Noise – Martin Hall (B3) and Massimo Giacon (A2, A3, A4)
Geometer – Frankie Gasperoni (A2, B1, B5)
Saxophone – Fabio Beltrame (A2, A3, A4)
Sequencer – Marco Canepa (A5, B2) and Plexy (A2, B1, B5)
Synthaxe – Alberto Mineo (A2, A3, A4)
Synthesizer – Aldo Scaini (A2, B1, B5), Caroline K (A3, B4), Daniele Ciullini (A1, A5, B2), Marco Canepa (A5, B2), Roberto Rossini (A5, B2)
Tapes – Enrico Piva A4, B1, B5), Martin Hall (B3) and Nigel Ayers (A3, B4)
Violin – Nigel Ayers (A3, B4)
Voice – Angelo Pretolani A5, B2), Bruce (A1, B1, B3, B5), Caroline K (A3, B4), Massimo Giacon (A2, A3, A4), Nigel Ayers (A3, B4), Roberto Rossini (A5, B2) and Vittore Baroni (A1, B4)
Design: Trax
The contents of the Xtra concept album was organized and mixed by Piermario Ciani. The album was released in an original edition of 1000 copies.
The Trax label (1981–1987) was founded by Piermario Ciani, Vittore Baroni and Massimo Giacon from Spirocheta Pergoli. It was an open, networking project that connected over 500 artists and musicians from different countries, producing records, audio magazines, xerographies, comics, T-shirts and exhibitions.
Xtra was re-released in 2011.
VIETATO AI MINORI
VIETATO AI MINORI
VARIOUS ARTISTS
MC
OCTOBER 1981
TRAX (TRAX1081)
Vietato Ai Minori is a 52 minute long audio cassette release including a 28 page booklet with pornographic content. At the time of the intended release in England the product was confiscated by U.K. customs.
Martin Hall contributed to track 6, “Untitled Montage”, which occupies the entire second side of the tape.
1. OIO – Telematic – 001
2. Era Già Giovedi
3. You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling
4. Duro
5. I Like Your Elbows
6. Untitled Montage
Cancer, Spirocheta Pergoli, M.A.P., Naif Orchestra, Colin Potter, Vittore Baroni, 2233232, Amok (4), B-Sides, La Nuova Altea, Martin Hall, M.B., Mecanique Vegetale, Metallic Avau, Nocturnal Emissions, Philip Johnson and Sylvia James.
Design: Vittore Baroni
The Trax label (1981–1987) was founded by Piermario Ciani, Vittore Baroni and Massimo Giacon from Spirocheta Pergoli. It was an open, networking project that connected over 500 artists and musicians from different countries, producing records, audio magazines, xerographies, comics, T-shirts and exhibitions.
PLATFORM
PLATFORM
ANTHOLOGY
OCTOBER 1981
GYLDENDAL (ISBN 87-00-77102-3)
Platform – texts and images from ’80 is a Danish anthology released in 1981. The book consists of contributions from a line of at the time young upcoming Danish artists, the so-called “80’s generation”.
The sum total of contributors goes like this:
Michael Strunge, Martin Hall, Lone Scherfig, Knud Odde Sørensen, Birte Sandford Pedersen, Leise Dich Abrahamsen, Merete Torp, Lillian Polack, Bo Green Jensen, Dorte Møller, Elmer, T.S. Høeg, Torben Voigt, Jens Fink-Jensen, Steen Jørgensen, Synne Rifbjerg, Jørgen F. Gustava , Henning Fleischer, Søren Santini Skov, Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Kehnet Nielsen, Jesper Reisinger, Camilla Høiby, Linda Wendel, Henrik S. Holck, Pernille Tønnesen, Lars Dan, Klaus Lynggaard and F.P. Jac.
Editorial staff: Garbochok (Synne Rifbjerg, Søren Ulrik Thomsen and Knud Odde Sørensen).
THE ICECOLD WATERS OF THE EGOCENTRIC CALCULATION
THE ICECOLD WATERS OF THE EGOCENTRIC CALCULATION
BALLET MÉCANIQUE
LP
SEPTEMBER 1981
CBS (85186)
Ballet Mécanique remains one of the most sensational post-punk acts on the Danish music scene. When the group’s debut album, The Icecold Waters of the Egocentric Calculation, was released, it was instantly proclaimed as Danish rock history by legendary Danish poets and critics such as Michael Strunge and Poul Borum.
Among many achievements the record still figures on the illustrious Danish rock encyclopedia Politikens Rockleksikon’s chart over the 50 most important releases in Danish rock.
1. An Attempt of Interruption (3:03)
2. Poem (5:33)
3. Sweetened (6:13)
4. Lied (5:06)
5. Theory (1:48)
6. Ism (6:03)
7. Leathern (5:23)
8. Threads (2:44)
9. Veins (7:02)
AN ATTEMPT OF INTERRUPTION
The nurseling and the tendon
The naked responsibility
Unexisting possibilities
Like long gone friends
Infectious ideas
I kept your sins
Sincere to the end
And I concentrate on remembering your face, your eyes
But the noise from the second day’s party wipes it out
Sentimental warfare
Days of life
Seconds of love
Hours of sin
This could be as heart-known
Lust dead in deed
Vulgar to feed
Holding me down
You could be forgiven
POEM
The homeless anger has cried so sweet
Does it rise from the blood-stained sheets?
Will
Dearly bought with the blood
Will torn emotions be the sky of above?
The genesis of illness lies in your blood
Hate is to be purity
Hate is of truth
I will not tolerate the inbred indulgence
Die in your blood beds
This could be love
Of such a desire
SWEETENED
This harsh taste on my tongue
How could I in any way conceal my despair?
To drain the purity
To put guilt to death
This haughty bitterness
Perhaps a resort
To see these bittersweet sweat drops fall
Fall in my own eyes
Their complete carelessness concerning relations
I can still hear their swelling words
To suffer is no longer to question
To swill the common platitude
Their perspiring excuses
This will be the plague spot of dead emotions
Tired in vain
Fought in sleep
Responsible in cry of blood
As the pregnant wound in my blood
What they seek are the souls
Land and torch of pure
Kneel to true
Kneel to sincere
To feel your heart warmth I will need
This will be the seed of pure
LIED
Sad whisper
Told unforgiven
Lied towards
I reflected yours
At all to feel
This too has caused
Curse of need
Sand of bleeding
Painful doubt
Lies of love
They have killed me beneath me
Nor likely
Reach for fall
I will not fall
High will save
Gutter’ish feel
You have to kneel
Before and for
Nothingness doomed
Sweet-lain or dried
Conquership or
Conquered emotions
Would you lie to me?
THEORY
By the heat of cancer
They sat out cry or deed
Wished perhaps through fight of grief
Kiss my lips to sweet sleep
And sit back in hateful doubt
To rip up a healed blot
Insult me with “ago”
And I watch my veins
These veins are threads in my flesh
Needlework of mothers
Wait for time or birth
What I was frightened of for far too long
I can now nevermore find way to you
Petting with wounds
Move mark versus ground
Or Christ forgive
ISM
Porridge kisses telling only of endless beds
Saw the throat of forgetting, while ache became ache
There is no obsession in thoughts of skilful concrete
You could easily connect ‘dear’ with envying
Share icecold kisses beneath lips
Eternal twice with axe-murdered hearts
Try to shed the tortured increase
Try to fight the eloquent betrayal
To desire adopted, truncated emotions
Like the seabirds above the red trains
These expanding smells of floating flesh
You condemn this evocative lust
But your pornographic emotions are way out of hand
Barefooted evil in usual kisses
This ache of unseen
These failures, friends
These senses of heartbeat
These brotherless conspiracies crucify our emotions
LEATHERN
Edges of speaking, outlived of hatred
Could I forgive at all?
Or could sigh be further than I reached always?
Light died, -ly pregnant
Up, killed in your words
Sheet-minded loving was respect as given thought
Of hairy swine-like
Hours of nameless
Of this penetration
Could I still cry for sad?
Tell friend and leech apart?
The fall of the fallen
Unnamed or misused
Lethal hate given
Word castles built in vain
Salute nugacity
Could I feel guilty?
The leathern tenderness
Did you cry lustful?
I can now nevermore give what I wanted to
To feel so leathern
Cry of the stone tears
Kiss of the unsaid
Without these arms to stretch (died in this early grave)
Like passion for unseen (buried before dying)
I seek the guiltful
To feel so leathern
Emotional
Leprous
THREADS
Beloved motherless
A tear of heart
Easy-drawn waiting
Hand and nail
This could be anywhere between reality and thighs
Slight touch of warmth made only of sweat
And fright became humiliation
And feel became inhonesty
You drained my soul of emotion
You killed my heart with devotion
VEINS
This pale pulse has told of old
Versus your SS-nakedness
Bodiless is carried on legs
On front to fight both
Every step is a step against
Bent to promised “be forgotten”
Could I cry now for faith?
You rejected my love
You rejected my need
Stud-like tenderness was all they could afford
I once dreamt of a swan-like soul to follow me velvet-likely
But I feel betrayed by the lecherous falseness given by former friends
I once called them friends
Ghostly born of graceless revenge
Their tongue love
Light the light of sadness
A lawn of dawn is what I seek
Ethical portcullis above my breathing
The length of an era of heart lust
The length of heaven
You fought your endless wars with pleasure
Pleasure-like of the second tear
A fluxion of floweriness
Or spiritual fratricide
This is the age of the dust
Count out mercy of degree
Heated rape from birth floods of erosion
Like velvet leaves on ice-born mountains
Am I still able to sink into the deepest waters of the air?
Lonely above
Like candilized veins
Misused to be torn
They can drain me for strength
Like impressions of wrong
Although tied together
I will fall for knives
They can drain me for strength
Like impressions of wrong
From where their ground was
From where their rights were
I thought I knew
Like the strained derm
Unforgotten or gifted
I realized these shaved angles
I oversized behaved angles
Truly heartful
And tears were told be cried
Can mountains fall by sound of horns?
Was openness like pulse stillborn?
I have inherited soul ache from the sadness that conquers hearts
Tear flesh bursts
Softened, pale
Blindly you watch ideological xenophobia
Demand a religion of love
Demand openness
Pains of truthful are the pains of grandeur
Breathless, choir’ish
What shall I call you?
Night dark sea
Heart shape of you
Demand a religion of love
Demand openness
There is only one truth
There is only one will
Will to feel
Seek for truth
Demand a religion of love
Demand openness
Your will to feel
The seed of will
The seed of openness
Where has it gone?
You’ve drained it for strength
WRITTEN ABOUT THE RECORD IN 1981:
“This is incredible! This is unheard! Today we are writing Danish rock history!”
( * * * * * )
Poul Borum (legendary Danish literary critic in Ekstra Bladet, the Danish equivalent to The Sun)
“This music will live a hundred years from now.”
Michael Strunge (legendary Danish poet in Sidegaden, a Danish music and literature magazine)
“Up until today Ballet Mécanique is the most revolutionary, innovative and deeply committed that has happened to Danish rock’n’roll.”
Aktuelt (a major Danish newspaper at the time)
“Martin Hall appears as the very symbol of youth seeking landfall and manifestation whether the decade was the fifties, the sixties, the seventies or, as now, the eighties.”
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian)
WRITTEN ABOUT THE RERELEASE OF THE RECORD IN 2006:
“Ballet Mécanique’s debut album The Icecold Waters of the Egocentric Calculation from 1981 still stands as one of the most chilling and uncompromising works of its era.”
( * * * * * )
Ekstra Bladet (the Danish equivalent to The Sun)
“Ballet Mécanique’s debut album is a true classic in Danish rock, a strong and moving album that hasn’t lost any intensity during the years.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine)
“A rock historical work of mighty proportions.”
( * * * * * )
Soundvenue (the Danish equivalent to Q Magazine)
“So intense, uncompromising and unique that the record simply remains inescapable even today.”
Geiger (the Danish equivalent to Wire Magazine)
”A still impressive and overwhelming work.”
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent)
”An astounding record that deserves its status as a true classic in Danish rock history.”
Undertoner (Danish site for independent music)
Martin Hall: Vocals, piano, bass, cello, guitar, tapes, percussion, balalaika, glockenspiel
Michael Karshøj: Drums, bass
Morten Versner: Bass, violin
Design: Martin Hall
Ballet Mécanique synthesized rock, avant-garde and poetry in an at the time unheard way, using dancers, slides and films at their concerts to create their own surrealistic ecology on stage. The group played (in)famous concerts such as at Copenhagen Reggae Festival in Enghaveparken in 1980 and at Roskilde Festival in 1981.
Ballet Mécanique released their second and final album For in 1982 after which singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Martin Hall reconstituted the group as Under For.
At the time of its original release The Icecold Waters of the Egocentric Calculation was also released in Holland and Germany. In relation to the album’s 25th anniversary Sony-BMG rereleased the record as a double-cd in September 2006. You can read more about this edition here:
UDEN TITEL
UDEN TITEL
MARTIN HALL
MC
MAY 1981
OWN RELEASE (MH3)
Uden Titel (“Untitled”) is recorded at home on a two-track Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder.
The tape was released in 40 copies that could be purchased in two shops at Copenhagen, Gry and Haase.
1. Uden Titel (1) (5:25)
2. Uden Titel (2) (1:37)
3. Uden Titel (3) (2:53)
4. Uden Titel (4) (3:16)
5. Uden Titel (5) (3:51)
6. Uden Titel (6) (1:17)
7. Uden Titel (7) (0:40)
Martin Hall: Vocals, instruments
Design: Martin Hall
As a new feature, compared to Hall’s two earlier tapes, Uden Titel features a rhythm box. Drums were recorded at the rehearsal facilities of the Danish punk group Sods/Sort Sol during a Ballet Mécanique rehearsal.
The photo is taken from a Bagtropper event at Christianshavns Beboerhus where Martin Hall played the guitar selections featured on the tape live.
CONSUMER'S GUIDE TO STUPIDITY (PART 4)
CONSUMER’S GUIDE TO STUPIDITY (PART 4)
MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 1981
Consumer’s Guide to Welfare is a series of photocopied magazines written and published by Martin Hall during 1980 and 1981. Guest writers such as Jesper Reisinger appeared in several of the publications.
Four issues were released. The last edition of the magazine was called Consumer’s Guide to Stupidity (Part 4). This final version was issued in a black cardboard cover and included several handmade photographs.
The magazines featured essays and poems as well as a few (very abstract) reviews of books and records. The publication also contained a series of Hall’s characteristic collages and graphical works.
Consumer’s Guide to Stupidity (Part 4) was published in 100 copies and could be purchased in two shops at Copenhagen, Gry and Haase.
CONCERT OF THE MOMENT
CONCERT OF THE MOMENT
VARIOUS ARTISTS
3-LP
NOVEMBER 1980
IRMGARDZ (IRMG002)
Concert of the Moment is a triple-lp featuring recordings form the legendary Danish punk festival at Saltlageret in November 1979. The album was released in November 1980 and features a line of early Danish and Swedish punk and post-punk bands.
Martin Hall’s group Identity (the later Ballet Mécanique) made its debut appearance at this concert. The live album features the band’s first recorded song, the track “Circus of Decay”.
1. Circus of Decay (Identity) (3.35)
Identity (Ballet Mécanique), Sods, No Knox, Support, Bollocks, Bubs, Prügelknaben, Gate Crashers, Mad Gustaf Band, D-Day, City Roots, You-X (City-X), Mc Värk (Art in Disorder), Black Badges, Radar, Insect, Cellskräck and Usch
Design: Irmgardz
Photo: Peder Bundgaard
The concert recordings feature Identity (Ballet Mécanique), Sods, No Knox, Support, Bollocks, Bubs, Prügelknaben, Gate Crashers, Mad Gustaf Band, D-Day, City Roots, You-X (City-X), Mc Värk (Art in Disorder), Black Badges, Radar, Insect, Cellskräck and Usch.
The concert was arranged by Eddie Haircut (Milan Balsgaard 1959–1992), editor of several Danish punk fanzines and drummer in The Brats.
