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Showing posts from August, 2024

A FRAGMENT KING Meta-Post

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This post simply sums up many of the Fragment King media sites and those featuring associated projects and Nexialist Operations: Fragment King at Bandcamp: https://fragmentking.bandcamp.com/ Fragment King compilations and collaborations at Bandcamp: https://nexialist.bandcamp.com/ Cooperation with Z'EV at Bandcamp: https://zevalexandravonbolznfragmentking.bandcamp.com/ Fragment King and Nexialist Operations at Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/ Alternative video channel at Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/nexialist/videos Fragment King entry at Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/14856-Fragment-King

An AVALANCHE Guest Post

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Around the turn of the Millennium, a call had been issued for submissions to a Godflesh Tribute project, likely on the Avalanche message board. Back in the early zeros the place to find information online on Godflesh and Justin K. Broadrick's other projects were either Godflesh.com or the Avalanche message board, named after JKB's own label, Avalanche Recordings, likely referring to Godflesh's "Avalanche Master Song".  Since the Godflesh inspiration became increasingly tangible in my recordings for Fragment King from 2002 onward, I took the chance to submit a cover version of "If I Could Only Be What You Want" that included vocals by Leech (a.k.a. Lee Bartow of NTT, Theologian and the Annihilvs label). The "Godflesh Tribute" compilation was released as a double CDR with printed cover in 2004.  By then the original Godflesh had disbanded, JKB's new project Jesu emerged, while my own recordings incorporated the inspiration that early

Playing today ... Constellations

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ANGEL POSITION FK25 Anniversary Edition by Fragment King Constellations is a recording of the ANGEL POSITION sessions and, as such a most classic "Failed Love Song". Specifically, it deals with someone I was romantically acquainted with between 2005 and 2007. Or at least so I believed. The lyrics reflect the bitter outcome of this aquaintance: Our constellations are the opposite of happiness but I guess it hurts you too nothing left to reclaim along the road you mean nothing to me ANGEL POSITION was released by MHz in 2014 and saw an anniversary re-release in 2022 with expanded artwork by Liis Roden. Liis Roden @Liisroden.com Angel Position / MHz @Bandcamp    

Playing today ... Rot

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Above Us (FK 25th Anniversary Edition) von Fragment King "Rot" was recorded in Berlin sometime between 2008 and 2010 within the "Angel Position"-sessions. While the track wasn't part of the "Angel Position" album (mastered by maverick hardcore drum n bass and dubstep producer Bazooka, released on MHz in 2014 and re-released in a special edition in 2022 with graphics by Liis Roden), it was part of the "Here Music Dies" cassette release on Annihilvs, which was a mirror image of sorts of "Angel Position" by including alternate recordings from that session. "Rot" is inspired by the incredible Anime series "Bleach" and, in particular, by one of main character Ichigo Kurosaki's adversaries, the Arrancar by the (equally incredible) name of Barragan Luisenbarn, or バラガン・ルイゼンバーン in the Japanese original. His "battle cry", so to speak, is "ROT!" There you go.   Bazooka @Bandcamp Liis Roden @Liisroden

Playing today ... Third Policeman

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The Cellmaker's Sinister Jazz von Fragment King Sometime in the 90s one of my architecture-co-students happened to work in a local record store. We would talk about music and literature more than about architecture. Eventually he suggested I pick up Flann O'Brien's "Third Policeman". Today I'm not quite sure how this came about, perhaps we were talking about David Lynch or renowned Irish authors, who knows. Ah, now I remember. The thing was that a house played a role in the novel, and in-between the walls of the house was an entire other "hidden" house. In the 2000s, when I recorded this track, the title became an inspiration. The track itself is a structure continuously unfolding in time in a manner similar to O'Brien's mysterious house unfolding in space in impossible ways.

Playing today ... Ultimate Nullifier

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Above Us (FK 25th Anniversary Edition) by Fragment King Within the Angel Position sessions, the track "Nullifier" first emerged as "Ultimate Nullifier". It is presented here in its "Minus"-Version, which means that the recording is stripped down to the drum patterns, bass guitar parts and vocals. A rough mix, so to speak. The electronics of the latter version are omitted. The title is, of course, a reference to the Ultimate Nullifier of Marvel's Fantastic Four comics – and more specifically, the classic first appearance of Galactus, courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. To paraphrase – "giving a match to a child who lives in a tinderbox."

Playing today ... Horselover Fat

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Offal – Nachlese von Nexicon "Horselover Fat" is a reference to Philip K. Dick's "alternative self" in his novel VALIS – and it is a session track that I created with Lee Bartow (Annihilvs, Theologian, NTT) and Tim Spann (NTT, Abfall) in the early zeros in Upstate New York. Collected under the project name NEXICON, we recorded a number of jam sessions and released select tracks. We subsequently played "Horselover Fat" live at Tonic in New York City on 19 February 2003. For Bandcamp, I edited the live recording into a coherent segment including four originally separate session tracks. The project has an entirely utopian character to it, therefore the Science Fiction reference should be self-evident. Since I already featured the cover to VALIS in another post, I'm featuring the cover of another Dick classic, Man In The High Castle, in its German original I read as a teenager.