Death In June

[Farfisa]

A nifty post-industrial, neo-folk outfit of Douglas Pierce. They are surrounded by controversy because of what the possible views of Douglas P. are. They have a Facist following and they sport Nazi stormtrooper uniforms on stage. In Douglas' defense, he does state that he is homosexual, but prefers uncircumcised men. I don't know if that was a joke, poking fun at those who call him a Nazi/Facist sympathizer, but I'm not sure what the deal is. Regardless, he does make some pretty rad music worth checking out.

[TockTockTock]

I'm a bit surprised that there wasn't already a thread about them .

[Farfisa]

Nope, I was just as surprised as you. I did a quick search to see if there was a thread and I wanted to express my love for the song "Little Black Angel", but to my shock there was no thread, so I made one!

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

I actually think the Nazi thing is interesting. Nazi imagery, and themes is not really uncommon in music

I mean, Sex Pistols, Boyd Rice, Residents, Slayer, Even freaking Lady Gaga. In fact, I've read places that say Michael Jackson's uniforms and dance were somewhat inspired by documentary's on the Third Reich. Essentially, it's something that was done extremely heavily among the punk circles in the 70s, and now you even see shades of it in top 40s music.

From that, I'm almost wondering if perhaps people take the imagery in art, and music a little too seriously. For me, I kind of understand the Boyd Rice approach of going full boar with it, but not really meaning it. It in itself is almost a protest of how seriously people take music, moreso than a pro-fascist statement itself.

I mean, honestly, why be ambiguous when you could make money like Screwdriver by being just out in the open?

Regardless, the music itself is ok. Nothing too spectacular. Like the strange percussion on the first song. A bit repetitive, really. Still, interesting.

[Farfisa]

Originally Posted by Skaligojurah

I actually think the Nazi thing is interesting. Nazi imagery, and themes is not really uncommon in music

I mean, Sex Pistols, Boyd Rice, Residents, Slayer, Even freaking Lady Gaga. In fact, I've read places that say Michael Jackson's uniforms and dance were somewhat inspired by documentary's on the Third Reich. Essentially, it's something that was done extremely heavily among the punk circles in the 70s, and now you even see shades of it in top 40s music.

From that, I'm almost wondering if perhaps people take the imagery in art, and music a little too seriously. For me, I kind of understand the Boyd Rice approach of going full boar with it, but not really meaning it. It in itself is almost a protest of how seriously people take music, moreso than a pro-fascist statement itself.

I mean, honestly, why be ambiguous when you could make money like Screwdriver by being just out in the open?

Regardless, the music itself is ok. Nothing too spectacular. Like the strange percussion on the first song. A bit repetitive, really. Still, interesting.

I think punk bands like Sex Pistols did it more for the shock value. Douglas P. had actually studied the Third Reich intensively and had found it very interesting, so he adopted the Nazi uniforms, or so he says. He had actually recorded a live album and donated the proceedings to a Fascist hospital in Croatia, which is questionable but at least it didn't go directly to the military fighting for Fascism.

The percussion is amazing, I love this bells and chimes. I love repetition in music. Bands like Spacemen 3, Stereolab, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and The Fall are all very minimal and rely on tons of repetition and I simply go nuts for it. It's cool if you can't get into Death In June because of the repetition, not everyone likes craploads of it.

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

Originally Posted by loose_lips_sink_ships

donated the proceedings to a Fascist hospital in Croatia

Weird... What would fascists get out of a hospital? No Jew doctors?

[dankrsta]

Originally Posted by Skaligojurah

From that, I'm almost wondering if perhaps people take the imagery in art, and music a little too seriously. For me, I kind of understand the Boyd Rice approach of going full boar with it, but not really meaning it. It in itself is almost a protest of how seriously people take music, moreso than a pro-fascist statement itself.

Boyd Rice is a prankster before everything else and a transgressor. I'm not sure he doesn't really mean it though. I thought at first that he does it only for shock value, but I don't know anymore. Maybe he just loves to hate. However he seems to me more ambiguous than Douglas Pierce.

Cryptic or not, I think Pierce really believes in all this imagery he uses. Fascist uniforms are there to symbolize "culture soldiers". Why fascist? Because the culture ideal is that of the mythologized European past, some vague heroic time of pagan pre-Christian old Europe and especially valuing the ideals of tradition, nation, power, will etc. Rings a bell? Just read Julius Evola and his so called "radical traditionalism". There lies the inspiration for many neofolk and martial industrial bands. It doesn't matter how cryptic the band is. It's dangerously close to fascist philosophy and ideology. In fact, this radical traditionalism is the spiritual basis of fascism. Still, Death in June make some very good music, there's no denying that...

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

Originally Posted by dankrsta

Boyd Rice is a prankster before everything else and a transgressor. I'm not sure he doesn't really mean it though. I thought at first that he does it only for shock value, but I don't know anymore. Maybe he just loves to hate. However he seems to me more ambiguous than Douglas Pierce.

Cryptic or not, I think Pierce really believes in all this imagery he uses. Fascist uniforms are there to symbolize "culture soldiers". Why fascist? Because the culture ideal is that of the mythologized European past, some vague heroic time of pagan pre-Christian old Europe and especially valuing the ideals of tradition, nation, power, will etc. Ring a bell? Just read Julius Evola and his so called "radical traditionalism". There lies the inspiration for many neofolk and martial industrial bands. It doesn't matter how cryptic the band is. It's dangerously close to fascist philosophy and ideology. In fact, this radical traditionalism is the spiritual basis of fascism. Still, Death in June make some very good music, there's no denying that...

Well, the quality of music is all that matters. I get the feeling though that a lot of it is 'counter culture protecting counter culture' which I'm all for, even if fiercely against racism, and fascism(In fact, politically I'm an extremely left wing multi-culturalist).

[Farfisa]

Got this in the mail today!"Nada! Plus" Hooray! disappointingly, it's only 1 of the 750 normal re-issues (gold vinyl), not the 1 of the 250 (clear vinyl) with a postcard. Well, that's a trivial thing to complain about considering how I now own a DIJ release on vinyl (considering the fact that so many are seen on ebay for upwards of 70 bucks). A bit different from your average DIJ (this being released in 1985 with 2 of the 3 DIJ members). Electronics, Gregorian Chants, all kinds of weird sound clips, powerful drums and of course, the ever present acoustic guitar.


One of my favorite tracks off "Nada!"

[supertroopjenn]

Death in June is some of the most beautiful music ever. Very unique