Raw and agressive – interview with Orbicide
Adalbert: I’m very glad that you’ve decided to answer my questions! Firstly I would ask about the beginnings of the band. Adam’s musical roots are electronic (as it might be seen in his solo project named Kikut), while Jacek has already been a vocalist in an extreme metal band. You’ve come together by an accident, or was it that one of you had already had a plan to join dark electronic music with extreme metal vocals?
Adam: I was working on one of the tracks for my solo project (Kikut), while I realized, that can’t achieve my artistic goals without a professional vocalist. The problem was resolved thanks to an announcement which I posted via facebook. However, I admit, that firstly I wanted to created something in the style of Front Line Assembly….
Jacek: Well, we were working together in that time. Slightly before reading the abovementioned announcement I discovered Psyclon Nine, and it’s style lured me from the first sight. The song composed by Adam, which waited for vocal parts, didn’t impress me much, but it became a basis for a further collaboration. I proposed Adam to re-orient the style, and make some dark electro stuff, and I think, that this inspired him to do something fresh. A few weeks later I saw H.EXE on stage in Liverpool club in Wroclaw. The contact with dark electro played live was very inspiring for me. I’ve also had a chance to talk with H.EXE’s vocalist, Odo, who introduced me to Halotan Records label. We decided to send our first recorded track “128” as a proposal for Halotan Sampler. In this song I combined typical black metal vocal with some death metal influences. It worked, so I’ve decided to go in that direction with my vocal performance.
Adalbert: It seems that Wrocław can be considered as the city where Polish dark independent scene develops very quickly, as the newcomer bands, as H.EXE, already became an inspirations for others to come out with their music. It’s a very optimistic diagnose for Polish Dark Independent scene. And what do you think about its condition?
Adam: The case of Polish DI scene is a Little bit mysterious to me. Twelve years ago I could buy the tape of Front 242 in a small city in which I live, Viva Zwei was regularly broadcasting Project Pitchfork, and in “Plastik” magazine one could read about such bands as Leaether Strip or Test Dept. I was convinced then, that such music isn’t a niche genre. But few years later, when I begun to attend the concerts and parties, I observed, that the fans of such music constitute rather a small group. Perhaps the mentality is the obstacle for this scene to expand… For example, the gig of H.EXE on the last Castle Party was splendid, better than the performances of the majority of foreign bands invited, but I really don’t understand why they were placed at the very beginning of the line-up, in full sun, when people were still curing their hangover in tents.
Adalbert: How do you get along with each other on the artistic layer? Yossarian on his soundcloud site presents brutal death metal in Suffocation-like manner, while Adam in Kikut explores cold and row soundscapes of hipnotizyng industrial structures …
Jacek: Well, I didn’t publish much music, besides Orbicide, only one of my projects – Kymatic – was recorded in a form that fitted soundcloud formula. I’ve never limited myself to one musical style. The diffrence of Orbicide’s approach from my earlier musical activity (however I still find some common points with my other projects in it) pushes me to expand my musical horizon and attracts me with its fresh sound. I think, that if you’re open to many musical genres it’s possible to take the best from each one of them, and it is easier to resist the routine. Simple, radically regular rythms give totally different possibilities of composition than the arrangements in which the crucial point consists in practicing the changes of tempo.
Adam: I started experimenting with music very early. In primary school I found the sampler of Amiga under the Christmas tree. My first experiments with music were rather stupid, I was recording my own burps, and I used it to play Christmas carols. But a few years later I chose more serious approach, for example I composed the music for a drama (ambient music with female vocals), I recorded also some industrial stuff, inspired by early Neubauten music. I published it on mp3.wp.pl portal, which doesn’t exist anymore. The times were different, and those compositions were downloaded a thousands of times without any promotion. In 2002 I discovered dark electro, thanks to Hocico’s ep “Cursed Land”, and it became one of the most important albums for me, I can’t free myself from the influence of this sounds even today! However without the professional vocalist I was unable to create such music, and I was focusing on my electro industrial project Kikut, where I could obtain satisfying results using my own voice and vocoder. Thanks to Jacek I could finally create the real dark electro duo, the name of which is Orbicide.
Adalbert: Orbicide’s name is very intriguing and ambiguous. It’s meaning can be explained, if one reads the lyrics of the eponymous track “Orbicide”. Perhaps the world is so annoying that you would bring the second great flood to Earth, and the inability of causing such disaster is pushing you to release brutal music?
Jacek: Well, it is true, that the frustration was one of the foundations for our project, but the disgust for the world? Definitely not. I definitely not identify myself with the narrator of the lyrics of the song “Orbicide”. I was lacking of a brief world that could well describe what the biblical flood was, so I invented this term – Orbicide. I hope that this term is eye-catching, and adequate to the scale of the problem. There are still many people, which define the goodness and other important values of human life in reference to a being, which regrets so much the act of creation, that it decides to exterminate all humans. Adding to it “ex falso quodlibet” rule, this whole system is getting dangerously flexible .
Adam: The name „Orbicide” has also one important value – it is perfect to Google it. It’s so hard to find a short name, which isn’t already used by dozens of artists, bloggers, and other onanists
Orbicide-Dychtomy Divine
[halobox51]
Adalbert: That’s true, the name of your band is perfect in its real conciseness, and what’s really interesting, there’s no death or black metal act with such name. I suppose that many corpsepainted blackmetallers will die from melancholy in their forest hermitages, cause someone already invented such “black metal” and misanthropic name as “Orbicide”. But apart from this memorable name, you don’t seem to aspire for public attention, do you? Simple logo, no “industrial” photos with you dressed in cyber clothes and green cyberlocks shot in the abandoned factory of cans, how is it possible?
Adam: Well, I think, that we simply focus on the things we do best. As it comes to visual side of our art, we’re minimalists, such esthetic is very close to our hearts. But promotion is important, some photos might be useful sooner or later. You’ve published an advertisement of “cyber-pants” on your portal, perhaps that’s something for us?
Jacek: Rather not, I don’t even imagine, that I could feel well with such form of promotion. Orbicide is a music project, everything else is for me a side effect. And such approach results in minimalism, it’s natural.
Adalbert: Your vision of dark electro sound is very dingy and raw, for me it’s an opposition to dark-disco sound which is very popular nowadays. What really turns you on in such sound?
Adam: Frankly speaking I don’t like the most of the modern sounds publisher under the aggrotech or dark electro name. This music has lost its primal aggression and “industrial flow”, and it offers not much instead. I prefer even modern electro-industrial, or even minimal and trance electronics, because dark electro scene of today sounds very flat, even if you compare it to popular mainstream club music. In Orbicide’s music I try to maintain the primitive aggression, the constant feeling of anxiety, and a slight dose of experiments with the hum and noise, which always attracted me. On the other hand I still try to be loyal to the heavy beat. Even if I compose something too dancy and catchy then Jacek always scolds me that I’ve composed some “oontz oontz oontz’”, that’s why I must experiment.
Jacek: Well, my tolerance for dance melodies and lighter sounds is limited. Rawness and heaviness are obligatory for me, without that I’m not able to find myself in electronic music. Similarly to Adam I’m still influenced by the first contact with this music . This first contact was the album “Parasitic” by Pscycoln 9. When I heard it for the first time I thought to myself – well, there are some Black metal influences there, but on the other hand it’s darker than many Black metal bands. And I would stay faithful to this vision of dark electronics.
Orbicide-128
Adalbert: It seems that you already have a vision of your music, and the direction in which you are willing to move it in the future. But, aren’t you afraid, that this philosophy of “oldschool” might impede your artistic development?
Adam: I hope we’re oldschool only in a positive sense, I mean that our music sounds primitive and brutal. But, considering the technical side of our project I must underline, that I wanted it to fit modern standards. Many things have changed in the sound of the electronic music during the recent ten years, and I try to stay up to date with the sound of modern electronic projects (generally electronic, I’m not speaking only about dark independent scene). I hope we’ve managed to achieve this goal.
Jacek: I don’t bother myself with such questions. Orbicide’s music isn’t faithful to some restricted musical formula, some flexibility is necessary to keep the fresh perspective.
Adalbert: The name of your band isn’t the only one thing which can be associated with the extreme metal imagery, the lyrics are the other one. Christianity and religion in general seem to be an inspiring subject for you…
Jacek: The religion of the Book is very inspiring for me. Especially the Christianity, because it shaped the civilization in which I live. Catholicism stopped to attract me very early, I didn’t even participated in the first communion sacrament. For a long time I kept distance to religion, however I always opposed when church participated in public discussions. I was always distanced from ceremonies like that for a long time, until the moment when some of my friends started to marry. During one of such catholic marriage ceremonies I heard the beautiful performance of the psalm 128. The glorification of the faint-hearted attitude and the fear of God as the source of happiness was opposed to my understanding of the sense of marriage. I thought to myself, that it would be hard to find a better illustration of a danger of Christian attitude. And that’s how the idea of “128” was born. The formula of quoting one of the most important fragments of the Bible seemed to be very interesting for me, as 95% of Poles declares they are Catholics. Majority of them have never read the Bible and do not know their own dogmas. And so we can also convert with the Words of the Bible only… but in slight different way it was meant to be.
Adam: At the beginning I was against this idea. I despise all kinds of fanaticism, including the zealots of atheism, and I was afraid that it will go in this direction. But it’s quite different what Jacek does, the lyric are really intelligent and inspiring. What’s really disturbing that sometimes, you need no commentary, the original quotes from the Bible are shocking enough.
Orbicide-The Holocaust ov Egypt
Adalbert: Let’s return to music. Can you present to our readers your debut EP issued via Halotan Records?
Adam: There are six new songs on this EP, and six remixes. All songs have one common point – raw, and aggressive sound, with many low frequencies. But of course there’s a lot of dance beat. But apart from those common features the songs are rather diverse, based on different concepts and different sounds. The vocals on this EP are very varied, black metal style dominates, but Jacek also engages his powerful growl. I’m not objective, but in my opinion the result is astonishing. Remixes are also quite diverse. I especially like the interpretation of Hexis (Peru).
Adalbert: As far as I now, Orbicide’s only a studio Project. Do you plan to play some concerts? The intense sound of your music seems to be perfect for live performance.
Jacek: Of course we’re thinking about it. We have enough compositions for the stage debut. We’re practicing hard, because such form of performance is very exciting for me, it’s so different from the concert with a live band!
Adam: Recently I’ve bought some new gear and software, so it will be easier to fulfill this plan. The only problem is that we’re perfectionists, and we must practice a lot to present our music on stage.
Adalbert: It’s great that you plan to play on stage. Thanks for the interview!
Adam: Thank you! In the end of this interview I would add, that we’ve already received a big support form the scene , especially from Halotan Records, and Traum (Traumatize/Cold Therapy), and we’re sending our best regards. Without this support it would be impossible to publish our EP and show our music to the listeners.
Jacek: Thanks!
