Over the last few months, Violent Magic Orchestra have been playing a string of concerts in Paris, doubling the capacity of the venue each time. After the Klub in February 2023 and Glazart in October, it's now Petit Bain that the aliens from the planet Death Rave have come to conquer. The zany musicians from avant-garde metal band Vampillia, in association with American and French artists, had fun corrupting the name of Japanese pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra to create a mutant monster, both musically and visually. We suspected that the evening aboard the famous barge would be just like their album, released in early 2024: completely mad. Gabber Modus Operandi, a hardcore techno / gabber duo from Indonesia, had the job of turning everyone upside down in their opening set.
GABBER MODUS OPERANDI
Petit Bain sees red: the lights don't change for the next hour. At the machines, the expressive Kasimyn, despite his enthusiasm, seems almost wise next to his partner, Ican Harem, whose fantastic creature dances and postures keep the show going. He bounces, sticks his tongue out, grimaces, harangues his audience with numerous "Paris!", alternates between low and shrill cries and flashes his laser glove.
Gabber Modus Operandi's strength lies in its blend of the modern and the traditional, with a few sampled traditional instruments serving as melodic touches between the hardcore techno onslaughts. The rhythms veer towards a shamanic trance: it's fun, it's sweaty, but the catharsis also has a mystical touch that makes it unique.
Live, Gabber Modus Operandi gain in intensity what they lose in subtlety: everything is done to grab the audience and shake them in all directions, and the barge rocks more than once. The duo are bursting with energy and infectious madness, keeping us hooked where the music alone would have exhausted us over time. And the gamble paid off: the pit was in an uproar before the arrival of the headliner.
VIOLENT MAGIC ORCHESTRA
For the uninitiated who went wild during Gabber Modus Operandi, the first few moments of Violent Magic Orchestra's show may seem like a respite: the musicians are motionless, there's hardly any lighting and a screen projects strange images against a noisy backdrop. It's as if you're at some sort of avant-garde, nerdish, hoochie-coochie thing. And then, suddenly, the explosion, as if Mayhem were playing at the hardcore techno festival Thunderdome.
As a reminder, the four musicians in this live configuration present themselves as coming from another planet where techno and black metal reign, and have landed on Earth to bring us their pop music from the future. In order to return home, they have to set up the Death Rave, which will create a time tunnel, provoke riots and summon a dragon of light. The tone is set: it's not very conventional. The riots, the time tunnel, the dragon of light: you name it, we've got it. Before you know it, all hell breaks loose. The four members of the band take turns waving their torches and spending half the time in the audience, crowd-diving in all directions and making a mess the likes of which we see all too rarely.
Live, Violent Magic Orchestra is wild, crazy and out of control. It's also great fun: everyone laughs, the musicians grimace and laugh with their unleashed audience. Demonic howls, like additional layers, are superimposed on the aggressive beats. This is the rave of death, a whirlwind of madness with many high points, like Micci the Mistake's crowd bath that ends up as a pig hanging over the pit, or the impressive screams of singer Zastar, who breaks her intimidating image with a smile or a more amusing dance... before ending up on the floor, banging her head on the ground.
VMO also know how to slow down the pace, especially in the last part of the concert, leaving more room for melancholy and contemplative atmospheres, when, on the screen behind them, the silhouette of a dragon fades into the distance. We catch our breath as the hour of madness that was their set seems to roll to its end. The sound and visual experience offered by VMO titillates both our soul and our desire to party with a unique radicalism and singularity. The Osaka band have saved one last twist for last: they'll be back in Paris in less than a month, on 9 July at the Cave du Café de Paris for a surprise concert. Given the tiny dimensions of the venue, it's going to be apocalyptic.
