Jelodanti is a new French label dedicated to reissuing “free and experimental music” on limited edition vinyl in numbered, handmade packaging. Curated by Clara Djian and Nicolas Leto, the pair’s inaugural release pays tribute to the Swiss post-punk label Helvete Underground Records. Founded in Geneva in 1984 by Alain Jeanmairet, the short-running label only saw seven releases in its brief span, but it still provided an intriguing bridge by which the emerging electronic music of the time could pass over into post-punk, no-wave, and industrial territories.
Featuring bands like Abt 409, The Xerxes von Munshrein, Fist of Facts, Indian Feast and Copvlation, Helvete Underground’s condensed history points to a time in the ’80s when music and art conspired in the attempt to change culture. Though their tenures might have been as brief as the label’s, the bands on Jelodanti’s 2xLP offering bristle with punk’s anarchic energy while using the new and emerging electronic technologies of the day to help forge a next wave of musical history.
Abt-409 kicks off Jelodanti’s Helvete Underground collection with their raw and instinctual brand of punk. Formed as an art school project in the early 1980s by David Di Guardo, Yves Knobel and Robert Ender, drummer Bernard Trontin would later join the band before going on to be a key member of the Swiss post-industrial outfit The Young Gods. Additionally, the group was produced by Roli Mosimann, onetime member of Swans, and producer of bands like New Order, Skinny Puppy, and That Petrol Emotion–to name just a few. Abt-409 also recorded at Platinum Studio with Voco Fauxpass, another prominent member of the Swiss underground at that time.
The band is rumored to have had two bass players, instead of a guitarist, and listening to the A-side here, this definitely sounds true. The songs “Eye Witness“, “Living Paradox“, and “Breakage” are all off the project’s 1986 12″, while, also included on this first side, is Abt-409’s blunt-edged weapon, “Chisq“–off Helvete Underground’s 1984 compilation of various artists. Aggressive, knotted low-end distinguishes these tracks, and Trontin’s drumming adds a primal air to the proceedings. Also front and center in the music, though, is Robert Ender’s powerful voice as he rebukes the time’s staid cultural norms. Though short-lived as a project, this group’s slim output still burns with vital and compelling energy.
Next up in the collection is The Xerxes Von Munshrein, an obscure one-man project helmed by Yves Arnold. Weird ‘to the nines’, this idiosyncratic musician only put out four tracks under this moniker, and they were all on Helvete Underground’s 1984 introductory compilation. Utilizing a more synth-pop driven approach, Arnold’s bouncing and infectious rhythms combine with dust-covered organ lines, and his eerie vocal stylings.
“Violettes Impériales“, which you can hear below, belies its up-beat rhythms with an enervating organ line and vocals that sound as though they are being mumbled through a tomb filled with mothballs. The effect is quite strange, and like the title–which translates as “Imperial Violets”–these sonic elements seem to run counter to each other. Any difficulty in reconciling these dissonant moods seems to be Arnold’s point exactly!
The Helvete Underground bands Fist of Facts and The Indian Feast are also represented in the collection. Fist of Facts’ main members were Carlos Vivanco (Bardo Thodol, Matahari) and Salvatore Principato (Bison, Liquid Liquid). Jelodanti includes two tracks from the band’s 1988 12″, “First Strike“, and the record’s namesake–“Fugitive Vesco“. The former concludes the B-side and the extended cut rocks the politically charged slogan, “The bottom line is you, man”. Blending hypnotic dance grooves and funk-driven bass lines with these tranced-out vocals, “First Strike”‘s blissed vibe would have sounded just as at home in some sweaty basement club or open-air rave of the time.
By comparison, The Indian Feast’s four songs–all taken from their 1985 LP Portrait Of A Sister–burn with a sinister gloom. While the group’s players are all listed by their first names, and instrumentation is left fairly mysterious, it is possible to glean that the band included male and female vocals from two musicians named Vincent and Jolyn. Often combining primitive beats with toxic doses of noise and guitar, tracks like “The Time Is Now“, “1000 Sacred Needles/Soldiers Of The Dark“, “S/S Traces“, and “Burning Cathedrals” all play like exercises in ritualized sonic violence, with the vocalists acting as sadistic Masters of Ceremony. Evil to the core, this is a vision of a morally damaged culture celebrating its demise with a rueful glee–as witnessed on their cover of The Pretty Things‘ track, “Loneliest Person“. While not included on Jelodanti’s collection, we’ve put it here so you might have something to sink your fangs into…
Jelodanti’s 2xLP concludes with another formidable helping of post-punk–this time from the group Copvlation. The band’s lone, self-titled LP was released on Helvete Underground in 1985, and it is represented here by the tracks “First Recidive“, “He Said He Said“, “Bye Bye Gagarin“, and “Tschintgtschent Onns“. The group seems to have been born from the ashes of Abt-409, and it included that band’s drummer Bernard Trontin and vocalist Robert Ender–as well as the musician Francois Wolf.
While it’s difficult to call such poly-rhythmic and extreme music straightforward, the trio trades some of Abt-409’s arty experimentation for a direct musical approach that packs a real visceral punch. Like in Abt-409, Ender’s vocals are charged and strident, able to capture a sonic space on par with Trontin’s muscular drumming, or the music’s angular, slicing guitar work. Blunt and monosyllabic, he spits words out violently on “First Recidive”, while “He Said He Said” rubber bands vocal lines into funky shapes that, at times, resemble scat singing and rap. “Bye Bye Gagarin” is a vocal bloodletting, and like on the set’s concluding track, Ender rifles through the voices in his head like he is exorcising demons right before our very ears! You can listen to Copvlation‘s self-titled, 1985 album below…
While it’s true that Helvete Underground, and the bands on the label, only ran for a brief stretch during the mid-’80’s, this short but intriguing history hasn’t been lost to time. Through careful curation, Jelodanti’s tribute to the label has uncovered a vital music that still brims with fertile sonic pathways for a new generation to rediscover!
‘Various’? Helvete Underground Records’
A1 Abt 409 “Eye Witness”
A2 Abt 409 “Living Paradox”
A3 Abt 409 “Chisq”
A4 Abt 409 “Breakage”
B1 The Xerxes Von Munshrein “1959”
B2 The Xerxes Von Munshrein “Violettes Imp?riales”
B3 The Xerxes Von Munshrein “Music Machine”
B4 The Xerxes Von Munshrein “IV Reich Die Marmor Antenne”
B5 Fist Of Facts “First Strike”
C1 Fist Of Facts “Fugitive Vesco”
C2 The Indian Feast “The Time Is Now”
C3 The Indian Feast “1000 Sacred Needles / Soldiers Of The Dark”
C4 The Indian Feast “S/S Traces”
C5 The Indian Feast “Burning Cathedrals”
D1 Copvlation “First Recidive”
D2 Copvlation “He Said He Said”
D3 Copvlation “Bye Bye Gagarin”
D4 Copvlation “Tschintgtschent Onns”
