Der Blutharsch - Live At The Monastery

After Take Care & Control and Operation Hummingbird, Albin Julius's collaborations as part of Death In June I thought Douglas P. may re-record the tracks the acoustically what I didn't expect was for Der Blutharsch, a group whose recorded works draw extensively upon samples especially from of military and orchestrated sources to perform acoustically. Yet this is what they did at the Monastery in their home city of Vienna where Albin Julius compiled a group of musicians to perform a selection of Der Blutharsch tracks on harmonium, guitar, clarinet and percussion. It works surprisingly well. 'Many Enemies Bring Much Honour' teases the melody on a harmonium, 'Despair' from Death In June's Take Care & Control is performed with martial percussion, acoustic guitar and some shared vocals from Marthyana and a rather gruff Albin Julius. With its explosive percussion and clarinet lead melody 'Time Is Thee Enemy' is particularly rousing where Marthyana raises the stakes with a vocal that soars above Albin's monotone vocal. It's jaunty and reminds of Blood Axis' more folk-oriented material. Other tracks don't hit such heady heights and remain stuck in the neo-folk genre but Live At The Monastery is an intriguing listen that adds a fresh slant to the work of Der Blutharsch. The audience at this exclusive show were presented with a true one-off, Der Blutharsch listeners who weren't in attendance really shouldn't miss out on this. Others should seek out the regular Der Blutharsch releases as a starting point. For more information go to www.derblutharsch.com