LIFE IN LOCKDOWN II - THOMAS 'DROP' BETRISEY GETS 'CONFINED'

‘I’VE STARTED A NEW PROGRESSIVE TECH
HOUSE PROJECT CALLED MESSERGEIST’

Future-Rocker talks to cyber-metaller Thomas 'Drop' Betrisey ( Obsydians / Sybreed ) about his new lockdown-inspired music project...

Thomas Betrisey has been a regular feature in Future-Rocker ever since we discovered his former band Sybreed's crushing and anthemic masterpiece 'Antares'. Since that band expired, he has been busy producing other bands, running a studio in Geneva, and performing onstage with veteran Industrial Black Metal band Samael. We caught up with Thomas during Covid-19 lockdown to find out what he was up to.

FUTURE-ROCKER: Thomas, what are you doing during lockdown? Chilling, or working on new music? Any new tracks we can include in the blog?

THOMAS ‘DROP’ BETRISEY: I've been writing lot of music, I've started a new progressive tech house project called Messergeist, and released the Confined EP on May 1st on every streaming platform as well as Bandcamp. And Messergeist is only electronic, no guitar there..!

It's beautifully cinematic..!

Thanks! 

What would be your dream movie, franchise or remake, to score?

The first title that comes to mind would be doing an electronic/dub remake of Monkey Island's soundtrack haha, my favorite game of all time. Seriously, I really think all the movies or games that I like have a perfect soundtrack, and I'd prefer working on something new. Anyway, scoring a game or a movie is definitely something I'm looking for, we will see what happen in the future.

In a previous interview we talked about your fave metal albums. What are your favourite or most influential electronic albums or soundtrack albums?

Five albums that immediately come to mind, and not in a particular order:

Front Line Assembly "Implode"

NIN "The Fragile"

Hans Zimmer "Man Of Steel"

Infected Mushroom "Becoming Insane"

Boris Brejcha "Space Diver"

I absolutely agree with you about Man of Steel. Hans Zimmer is less bombastic than John Williams, but more atmospheric. That was the first film soundtrack I’d bought in ages, and I also bundled it with Batman v Superman as well. Some great cuts on there, too.

Incidentally, the Messergeist track Gloomwash has some nice spooky female vocals on, and it reminds me of a video that blew my mind yesterday - Triptykon doing Celtic Frost’s Rex Irae from Into The Pandemonium...they did it absolutely spot-on. Have you heard it?

Ah yeah, I listened to it yesterday, sounds great! Roadburn concerts are always kinda special!

In Google translate, Messergeist comes out as 'Knife Spirit'. Or I'm assuming it's more like 'Knife Ghost'... is that closer? What's the thinking behind that?

I was browsing some names for that project, looking for some two-words compression word, when GhostKnife popped out my mind, sounded really sharp. Then, one night, a friend just translated that in German, sounded really cool and very "techno" haha. Moreover, it wasn't existing anywhere on Internet, so the choice was made. No special meaning here.

So what else have you been working on?

I've also worked on some Obsydians, one song is at the mixing stage, and the other one is getting vocals on it as we speak.

ABOVE: Kevin, Thomas and Ales of OBSYDIANS

Great, some new Obsydians music to look forward to, it's been a while. Where are you living right now, are they strict or loose with the lockdown?

I'm in Switzerland. We had a half lock down, people were allowed to go outside, respecting social distances as well as not groups of more than 5 people. Now they are slowly releasing the people, everything should get back to "normal" in one week.

When lockdown is over, what do you want to do first?

Actually not much different things, I will continue writing music and recording bands at the studio. I really hope to be able to make some concerts as soon as possible, I miss that a lot. And probably spend some money in my friend's pub as soon as it opens. 

Are you still with Samael or are your contracted duties with them now finished?

Yeah I'm still in Samael, guitar duties now..!

'Guitar duties'... that's more like it! And what about the possibility of you taking over the producer’s chair too?

Haha, Xy is the mastermind! Don't know if I'll produce, but I hope so.

SYBREED: 'YES, WE ARE ON GOOD TERMS'

SYBREED / OBSYDIANS / SHADOW DOMAIN  are some of the most-read articles on Future-Rocker. There's a great picture of you and ( ex-Sybreed vocalist ) Benjamin Nominet from last summer, on Facebook. I know this is a totally obvious thing to ask, but the fans will kill me if I don't: You are clearly on friendly terms with each other... did you chat about doing a music project or perhaps even a proper Sybreed reunion?

Below: For one night only!

Thomas & Benjamin reunite half of Sybreed...for a cold beer!

Photographed in June 2019.

Yes, we are on good terms, we are doing a few music things together but nothing Sybreed-related for now. I've recorded him last week as a guest on the new The Erkonauts record that I'm producing right now, and it reminded me of some great memories. I will also work on his new project, I won't say much for now, won't reveal his new plans yet, keep looking, haha.

Thanks Thomas, good luck with the new projects, and stay safe!

Cheers, man!

LISTEN & BUY THE 'CONFINED EP' HERE:

FOR EXCELLENT MUSIC AND STUDIO UPDATES, THOMAS ON FACEBOOK

OBSYDIANS ON FACEBOOK

MESSERGEIST ON FACEBOOK

WANT THOMAS TO TAKE YOUR BAND TO THE NEXT LEVEL? LINK TO DOWNTONE STUDIO

NEW!! 'NAIJA' - KILLER TRACK FROM BRAZIL'S LURDEZ DA LUZ

If you like that, try this from 2012...

ALEXI K: BRIGHT LIGHTS, GLITCHED CITY ( BIRMINGHAM PORTFOLIO )

Your editor here - In between painting, drawing, writing blogs, networking, talking, and procrastinating, it's easy to forget that I am also a avid photographer. To round off this edition of FUTURE-ROCKER, here's a look at some of my 'glitched' photography, inspired by science fiction books and movies, and taken while on walkabouts around Birmingham, the UK's 'second city'.

Below: The Rotunda and Bullring

Below: Bullring Shopping Centre at night

Below: Info-obelisk at Moor Street

Below: Bloc Hotel, Jewellery Quarter

Below: Google Earth's failed rendering of The Custard Factory and South Birmingham College

Below: Glitched Hannah, local model.

Below: Smallbrook Queensway, as seen from Radisson Blu Hotel.

Below: Smallbrook Queensway, as seen from Radisson Blu Hotel.

Below: Info-obelisk at Moor Street

Below: Natural glitch at Snow Hill Station.

Below: Glitched Becky.

Below: Bullring Shopping Centre

Below: Smallbrook Queensway

Below: Smallbrook Queensway

Below: Incredible glitch of wall mural at HUBB ( original art by Mohammed Ali / Aerosol Arabic )

Below: Birmingham's 'Interstellar' bus service.

All photographs property of Alexi K

Note: The most glitchy of the above glitches are accomplished using WORDPAD. You have ZERO control over how they will turn out, other than to alter them after they've been glitched, using the art software of your choice. But give it a go...here's my guide:

HOW TO GLITCH IT:

1 ) Go through your archives, get a photo ( architectural ones work well ) and convert it to a bitmap.

2 ) Open it in WORDPAD, ( open > click rich text format > all documents ) then click on your file ( it'll appear on Wordpad as code ).

3 ) Press 'Save'.

Some people play with the code or delete bits before saving, but I find just pressing 'Save' is as good.

4 ) Go back to Photoshop to view the results...and hope for the best!

Don't get depressed if most look rubbish...occasionally it'll come out great!

DOUGLAS COUPLAND EXHIBITION, VANCOUVER ART GALLERY MAY 31 - SEPT 1, 2014

A friend of Future-Rocker's drew our attention to this exhibition. I've even read books by Douglas Coupland, yet had absolutely no idea that he was also an artist. Paintings, Lego, QR codes, graphics...this show is everything I want to see in an art exhibition. Totally beautiful - check out this clip!

32 TODAY! See BLADERUNNER in six minutes, here!

Ridley Scott's landmark - and career-defining - film, was not a hit when it was originally released in 1982. Too slow and ponderous for the action blockbuster crowd, it suffered from bad word-of-mouth arising from film-goers who had been led to expect a gung-ho action movie in the wake of Star Wars, and Scott's previous hit, Alien. It wasn't until late-night re-runs on TV, that it slowly began to gather momentum and attract a fanbase. 

Things came to a head in 1990, when a 'workprint' of the film ( the original cut without the expository Raymond Chandler-style voiceover ) was accidentally released for a one-off cinema screening. The resultant positive response prompted the studio to re-release the 'director's cut', first on the arthouse cinema circuit, and then later on home video.

With its visually-arresting cinematography and art direction, and with a score by electronic music genius Vangelis, the film now rightly appears in all-time 'best movie' lists.

Below is a beautiful edit of some of the film's key scenes, cut to a soundtrack of New Order's Blue Monday, assembled from cover versions by Orgy, Zook, Cliff Martinez and Chemical Brothers. 

If you haven't seen the movie, this will very much whet your appetite, and if you have seen it, what better way to have a quick refresher of Scott's singular vision of the future?

Audio: LEE DM101
Visuals: THE REBORN IDENTITY. 

Play loud, and with headphones.

Note: Contains spoilers.

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Archive: BBC Radio 4, Summer 2014

The Two Georges ( biographical comedy drama based on Philip K Dick's life )

BBC Radio 4 'Dangerous Visions' Homepage

OLIVIA PEAKE: FUTURGARDE

Olivia is a UK artist, and here she talks to FUTURE-ROCKER about her unique brand of Neo-Futurism.

I first started to get back into painting, having investigated different mediums in drawing, photo-editing, collage and textiles. I had gained a great interest in technology, having worked my ideas through photoshop and had a love for high intensive colours, manipulating hues, saturations and contrasts. 

I wanted to investigate how I could make my paintings interact with the ideas of new technology, and the modern lifestyle we see today. This is where the urban architectural structures and utopian virtual spaces began, and I started to produce my large-scale abstract paintings with fluorescent vibrant paint.

Olivia Peake: Futurgarde ( Painting One ), 2013

I am influenced by Greenberg, Fried and Douglas Fogle’s The Trouble with Painting, and the manipulation of painting to reform the canvas into a new hybrid form. Melting the edges of the restrictive canvas into three-dimensional form, light and installation and intervening within the architecture of the gallery space, to depict a metaphor for the collapse and re-development of painting itself.

Olivia Peake: Futurgarde ( Painting Two ), 2013

Further influences of mine were from movements within futurism and modernist abstraction: Utopian spaces that present a state of re-development and movement, reminiscent of the work of Julie Mehretu, Ian Monroe and Constant Nieuwenhuis' New Babylon. As intricate and complex as my paintings are, my work also follows minimalistic structures, taking inspiration for the work of Mondrian in the use of geometric forms and technological pixilation, and creating stark building structures with contrasting subtle reflections.

Olivia Peake: Futurgarde Installation, 2013

I develop my paintings by constantly editing, erasing, re-doing, and working through levels of improvisation and intuitive responses, combined with precision and decisiveness of perspective and forms. In a way my work is in a constant battle with itself, being manipulated from a wall based canvas to a sculpture, then to an installation. Conflicting responses between the virtual vs. actual, abstract vs. representational, from the plastic aesthetics of Perspex to the glossy reflective surfaces of paint.

Olivia Peake: Urban Dynamics, 2012

My work is always shifting and developing and has began to take influences in ideas of alter-modernism and the interventionist work of Katharina Grosse, and I am excited to know where it will lead next.

Olivia is currently living and working in Derby, UK, and further developing her paintings at a smaller scale and continuing to involve the use of installation and sculpture.

To purchase Olivia's work, click here

With thanks to Charlie Levine and Artfetch

ALEXI K: KONSTRUCTIVISM - A NEW LEVEL

I am an artist based in Birmingham UK, inspired by Futurism, Cubism and Constructivism, as well as Bauhaus, and the Dutch Avant-Garde. I'm a founding member of The Cobalt Blue art collective, where we make a point of seeking out great artists to join us on projects. We are not dictated to in any way, either by institutions, or the strictures of funding programs.

About the current series of paintings: I've been working on some canvases recently, that ideally need to be 'read' in sharp lighting, because of the level of accumulated detail ( in the relief patterns on the surface ). These allow you to see the 'history' of the piece - a bit like viewing a tract of land from an aeroplane.

Ultimately, you're seeing structures within structures, paintings inside paintings.

These close-ups work as finished pieces in themselves, and have inspired the next phase of my art.

Alexi K: HYPERION - Acrylic on canvas, 2012

Alexi K: QUARTERLY PROJECTION - Acrylic on canvas, 2014

Alexi K: SUPERHIGHWAY - Acrylic on canvas, 2014

Below: The finished version? Maybe.

All artwork, copyright Alexi K, 2012 & 2014

Alexi K's homepage

Alexi K Twitter

Alexi K Facebook

SYNTH YOU'VE BEEN GONE: ANTHONY SCOTT BURNS - PILOTPRIEST

Anthony is a movie director ( see his work with TENDRIL, in the recent MONOBLOG, and our BONUS FEATURE, below ), as well as an accomplished musician, and as you may have gathered, since childhood he has been immersed in the polished-chrome ambience of 1980's films and soundtracks.

His beautiful debut album PILOTPRIEST - ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK is available to buy now, and is due out on vinyl shortly. You can hear the whole album on FUTURE-ROCKER right here, while we chat with Anthony:

- How long have you been playing? Has the synth always been your instrument?

I’ve been playing for 20 years. I play drums, bass, guitar,and keys. I started with synth. 

I’ve always been into this sound ever since I was 5. I loved the way it was so odd, yet popular. I have been writing this style since I started... I’m lucky it came back into style.

- Explain the titles - you wrote all the music, so they're not cover versions. Did you watch the films first, then write the music?

I just titled the tracks based on the film from my childhood that the song made me feel the most. ( Cont'd ).

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PILOTPRIEST - TOP THREES

ALBUMS 

3. Lou Reed – Transformer

2. Jeff Wayne – War Of The Worlds

1. Michael Jackson – Thriller

SOUNDTRACKS

3. Repo Man – Various

2. The Thing – Ennio Morricone

1. Bladerunner – Vangelis

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- Any scoops on the collaboration with artist / designer Ash Thorp?

We are developing numerous films right now... All different types of genre stories. We are really trying to bring back the realism of character, that was in stories put to film before the studios got scared of new untested ideas.

- Apart from that, what's next from you?

I’m always working on new music, and I’m trying to develop the next album as an oculus rift experience [ - meaning a head-mounted, high-field-of-view virtual reality device ].

I'm mostly focusing on directing... This month I’m directing an episode of a new horror anthology series.

Pilotpriest - Bodydouble (Phace Remix) / Neodigital 001