DAVE PHILLIPS- The Hermeneutics of Fear Of God 12"EP (Tochnit Aleph, Germany, 2003)
DAVE PHILLIPS, after the initial split up of our band FEAR OF GOD in 1988, had found his own way of dealing with the inevitable void such a break up leaves behind, yet following the path we had set foot on. Whereas I pretty much kept stranded on the HC and political nonesense thing for many years to follow, he got himself involved with the electronic avantgarde. He has since produced a vast amount of releases, collaborating with the who’s-who of avantgarde noise, performing worldwidly and constantly. It wasn’t until two months ago that I saw him doing his stuff live in concert for the first time and I was very much surprised about the enjoyment I felt. During his short set, I just sat on a couch, watched him and concentrated to the fullest on the performance. It was one of the rare occassions in which I would allow myself to be carried away by what I perceived. It was a set of mostly quieter parts with a lot of tension towards the end, when it all errupted into ear shattering layers of noise.
And noise is the keyword here. During 2002 and 2003, Dave put a lot of time and passion into re-editing old FEAR OF GOD source material. Or has he calls it: Dissecting it. What he did was cut the stuff up and into pieces and reassemble it, following the focus of FEAR OF GOD that was: To disturb instead of to entertain. So what Dave achieved is, at least to me, the endpoint of such an endeavour. “The Hermeneutics of Fear Of God” was what immediately seemed like the appropriate title to me, when I first heard the advance tape of this soon to come 12″ - I was heavily reading Derrida and Gadamer at the time.
Earlier this very year, a friend of mine from Germany, a philosopher and educationalist, paid me a visit during which he wanted me to play FEAR OF GOD to him finally. I did so by choosing the remastered debut EP on Mini-CD and this. After 10 minutes, he asked me to stop this 12″. He looked at me, saying he doesn’t want me to be mad at him, but he felt this music would alienate me from him or vice versa maybe. “It’s inhumane”, he said.
Song 1.mp3
Song 2.mp3
Song 3.mp3
Song 4.mp3
Song 5.mp3
Song 6.mp3
This is the insert:
PS 1: This is an excerpt from the 12″EP only! The songs have no titles; I numbered them to identify them.
PS 2: The 12″EP is out of print for a while now. Dave is looking for a CD label for a re-release with bonus material. Get in touch with him, if you’re interested.
Bernard wrote:
As you put it: this is the endpoint of music. Maybe it’s even further - It’s not noise but it’s neither music. A whole CD of this would make me very sad and empty.
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 10:38 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
Totally unreal, out of this world. Where have you guys come from???
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 10:44 am | Permalink
SwePete wrote:
Rehearsed in a BARN!!!! Can´t believe it! To good to be true!!!
SchwedenPeter
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 11:18 am | Permalink
Peter - KBDRecords wrote:
This makes me think of a more melodic version of Whitehouse. This is higly enjoyable compared to all the so called “grind” stuff I’ve heard. it got quality. it’s insanely raw without sounding “forced”. thanks! NOW KILLER SHREDS MONSTER CHEERS!!!
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 11:20 am | Permalink
SwePete wrote:
Whitehouse is all about riddim´and melody. So bloody there!
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 11:31 am | Permalink
Erich wrote:
Yeah SchwedenPete - a fucking barn it was! Hitler’s barn? You tell me. It definately sounds like world war.
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 11:38 am | Permalink
beat blast wrote:
You’re not trying to tell me that you can’t find a label to release this, are you. This is INSANE!!!
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 11:43 am | Permalink
Oliver wrote:
You know, I would usually expect the worst when I see words like “Derrida,” “avant-noise,” and the like all used in one paragraph of a review/description — but this is really not that bad at all. As others above have said, it’s way more listenable than a lot that’s in this vein — if there is a vein of this.
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 2:34 pm | Permalink
gamma693 wrote:
I heard this at a friend’s house a few months back and have been looking for it ever since. I finally found a label in Germany that had 1 copy left, received it last week. Shit, I’d love to release this on CD for him, but my label isn’t nearly as active as it once was and I’d feel like I was doing him a dis-service by releasing it, then sitting on all of the copies for a year or so. He shouldn’t have any problems finding a lable, it’s an amazing re-invention of an already amazing 7″!
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 3:13 pm | Permalink
gamma693 wrote:
What is the story exactly on the “THE END OF THE FEAR OF GOD” CD? Is this something that’s still available for purchase?
Posted on 10-Nov-06 at 4:00 pm | Permalink
Erich wrote:
Yepp, Gamma - you can still buy that tribute CD. It has 70 or 80 performancers, bands doingt heir own versions of Fear Of God songs. From piano pieces to .. - it’s so varied, you won’t believe it. When I once played the whole thing in one session, I came to realize that it has a certain narrative quality about it, it’s like a play actually.
“Grindcore”? Fuck, no! When I first heard it, I was really flattered. Nobody would have expected this 20 years ago.
And Oliver: How come a name like Derrida etc. turn you off so badly?
Posted on 11-Nov-06 at 3:55 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
Very noisey but not bad for grindcore. If only he could remix and use overlay effects on the vocals like he did the guitar and drums I think it would be alot better. Grindcore always seems to suffer most on bad sounding vocals.
Tom (the deleted one)
Posted on 11-Nov-06 at 11:06 pm | Permalink
Davide Cremona wrote:
tom you din’t get the point when you call dp remixes grindcore. eric’s vocals are the strongest meanest ever. his style was legendary and many tried to copy it. whhen i saw fear of god live in italy in 2003 i realised that he doesn’t use any effects at all. i was shocked. the gig was so extreme people waited outside the hall. never heard so much negativity. after the gig the band had a britney spears song played on the .a. mixed with distortion. they left the stage went outside walked around a bit and peple were so intimidated nobody talked to them at first. after 10 minutes or so the britney spears noise mix was over and it was quiet in the hall. i have never seen something like this. nobody could understand what these guys just did to them. some of the concert goers who are friends of mine told me that it took them a few days to get down from the vibes. everybody i know who was there says this concert was so devastating that its hard to imagine how people must have flt in 1986 or 87 when fear of god played with henry rollins. maybe that’s why the band’s popularity has grown so much over the years althugh records have never been easy to get. grindcore? they may have defined that genre but they never were grindcore.
Posted on 12-Nov-06 at 1:37 am | Permalink
gamma693 wrote:
I might just be missing it, but I can’t see anywhere on Dave’s page to contact him about ordering things. Can anyone help?
Posted on 12-Nov-06 at 8:54 am | Permalink
gamma693 wrote:
Nevermind, I found a link on the discography page.
Posted on 12-Nov-06 at 9:02 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
Grindcore, mincecore, noisecore, whatever. Yeah it’s a period of time when bands tried to play as fast as possible with as short of songs possible and with guttural type vocals. Very popular in late 80’s. I used to be a big fan of the genre (for a very short time fortunately!). Sore Throat, Early Napalm Death, Seven Minutes Of Nausea, the Blleeaauurrgh comps to name a few. So David I do know what I’m talking about so do’t get all “you don’t get the point” on me. And yes the vocals suffer from proper production just as most of this ilk. Btw, if you want to hear some really cool and gemlike item of this era try to hunt down the ultrarare Rotting Christ/Sound Polution (Greece) split 7″ 1988.
Tom (the one with the ear)
Posted on 12-Nov-06 at 3:44 pm | Permalink
alternativesociety wrote:
Rotting Christ/Sound Polution,great split EP.
it’s a pity sold mine on eBAY.
but for that RARE gem,I could afford to buy FOG - ep testpress.
Posted on 12-Nov-06 at 7:34 pm | Permalink
Erich wrote:
Tom - your comment was deleted only because I had fixed the link in the meantime so you’re comment / correction was misleading.
Sond Pollution / RC split 7″ is total garbage, like Sore Throat and all these other bands. Will auction it next week or so.
Posted on 13-Nov-06 at 12:19 am | Permalink
Erich wrote:
News: the 12″ is going to be re-released with A LOT of extra tracks on CD in early 2007 on Tochnit Aleph Records. Save your pennies.
Posted on 16-Nov-06 at 11:50 am | Permalink
Good bad Music for bad, bad Times! / Dave Phillips- The Hermeneutics of Fear Of God LP (Absurd Records, Brazil, 2008) wrote:
[...] more here and here and order the expanded vinyl version (58 songs, 500 made only, 100 on colored vinyl) or the CD [...]
Posted on 21-Apr-08 at 10:58 am | Permalink