When it comes to American electronic music, there is always confusion. Boy Harsher, the band I saw recently on a tour in Europe, formed in 2013 in Georgia, and consists of vocalist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller. Matthews and Muller own and run the label Nude Club, which is exclusively devoted to Boy Harsher and related artists. The band was often labeled as a dark wave group, as it is industrial, electronic body music. As a dark, dancy electro-pop with synth-pop references, with its minimal beats and synth textures, with rather dynamic vocals, that creates “desire and fantasy“, which is an essence of the genre.
This genre creates an audience „in- between,“ the audience that are variously oriented
due the minimal synth, with brisk drum machine, oscillating synths etc… which all at the end creates an exciting atmospheric drum machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vfzZg7hl7Y
The band creates theatrical, cinematical visual effects whereas Muller mostly employs synthesizers and samplers recording. The band uses minimal instrumentation where Muller said: “I’m obsessed with how successful the minimalism is with 80s It’s really a masterclass of what can be done with a drum machine and a couple of synths.“
In general, I had a great time at this concert. It set back to the beginning of 90s, when industrial gothic started to kick out. As a general indie music fun, the logical sequence would spread on drum’n#bass, which is a genre that I rather like.
American Boy Harsher gave me a definite thrill. There were some links of the band to the film Lost Highway by David Lynch due to a certain aesthetic of Lynch I assume. Matthews has expressed appreciation for various female vocalists, there including Nico Circuit des Yeux, Alison Lewis of Linea Aspera, Chelsea Wolfe, where Muller named Sleep Chamber, Suicide, DAF, and Yello as early musical influences on Boy Harsher
In general this is a genre of music that draws on harsh, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic lebel defines industrial music as the “most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music that was initially a blend of electronics experiments, and of course punk provocation. Even though terminology originate from 70s, the sound emerged much later. The first industrial artists experimented with noise and aesthetically controversial topics, musically and visually. Typical themes covered were fascism and sexual perversion, also often occult.
Photograps by Nemanja Djordjevic
https://boyharsher.com/
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ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN – 09.11.2022. – Belgrade
https://www.facebook.com/events/511407323287871
LEBANON HANOVER + guests – 26.11.2022. – Belgrade