Dealing with the k-punk piece first of all (Monday June 30th 2003 entry).

He’s right when he says that Whitehouse’s attraction lies in the fact that they refused any explanation. It is precisely this mystique and nothing else which has lead to their success.

As the Sotos piece at uncarved (linked below) says, to become a fan of the genre you have to suspend your disbelief and uncritically take on board what you are being told.

Which in the case of Whitehouse is that there exists an underground network of sexual fetishists who derive pleasure from violence and have an accompanying philosphy which is expressed through the music.

On one level there is a sophisticated black humour involved with this process, something which isn’t always picked up on by critics and more idiotic fans of the genre.

However, inevitably, Whitehouse do end up “explaining” their existence. Sometimes by necessity and sometimes by accident.

William Bennett is especially keen to dispell rumours of fascism, for example:

“Do you think that, because of album titles like “Buchenwald” there’s a danger of Whitehouse being seen as a fascist group?”

WB: “Oh there are enough other groups who present such a strong image. I’ve never expressed any political opinion. So I don’t think Adolf Hitler would have been a Whitehouse fan, I can’t imagine him playing a song like “My Cock’s On Fire” at home. I’m convinced that in a fascist state Whitehouse would be one of the first to be put up against the wall and shot, so it’s really impossible to misunderstand us as that”

[from p64 of the Whitehouse “Still Going Strong” anthology which was published by Impulse in 1993]

These “misunderstandings” no doubt partly fuelled by Whitehouse records entitled “Fur Ilse Koch”, “New Britain” etc and Come Org re-releasing “songs and marches of the SS and SA”, Himmler speeches…

One can’t help but feel that these denials are to ensure self-preservation – to avoid attention from the state and from anti-fascists. But they are also a classic example of the mythology collapsing: “oh yes, we are completely amoral, but of course we aren’t fascists” has to subtract from the glamour.

Another example would be of Whitehouse associates just over-reaching themselves. The “Come Ultra” videos were billed initially as “Snuff Films” or “the torture and execution of cats and other animals” or simply “brutal and violent”. However the mastertapes were (cough) mysteriously “stolen” and so this material never saw the light of day.

However a video was released which I saw a copy of some years back, featuring live performances and some unintentionally hilarious interviews with Whitehouse personnel. The main thing I can remember is (I think) Kevin Tompkins being interviewed in a surburban street about his obsessions with murder, death, sexual violence etc. I guess the intention was to portray a sinister loner who could be anywhere (next door?), but this effect was ruined by Kevin coming across as your spoddy mate who reads too much about serial killers, and a milkfloat going about its business in the background of the shot. It had the feeling of naughty school kids trying to out-do each other.

It is precisely the point at which the mythology breaks down which is instructive, not only about power electronics as a genre, but about figureheads and the media in general.

Turning now to Matthew Ingram’s piece at Hollow Earth, I think the first thing we need to do is to distinguish between the various players in the Industrial genre.

Most of those he mentions (C93, Coil, NWW, TG) have an appreciation of the darker side of human behaviour and nature – as something to be explored rather than repressed.

TG and PTV’s emphasis was always on a “deconditioning” a way of investigating your darker side as way towards self-transformation – a way of escaping alienation. Certainly this was an approach I found useful and whilst some of the people I met on the way were devoid of positivity this was not the case with the vast majority, many of whom I would cite as being powerful forces for good in the world (or at least, in my life) to this day.

Coil and Current 93 are both difficult to slot into this, but the former are certainly people I have associated with trying to develop their own aesthetic, who would like to make a positive difference in the world (in fact, embracing causes such as the Terence Higgins Trust when it started in the early 80s, and various light pollution and environmental issues more recently). As for David Tibet, what I can make out of his philosophy is that it is so hugely, cosmically bleak, that the petty fleshy stuff that Whitehouse deal with is an irrelevance to him.

And as for Nurse With Wound, I refer you to “The Sylvie and Babs Hi-Fi Companion”.

There’s a danger with all of this of over-moralising and I must confess to drawing in a sharp intake of breath when Matt starts chucking around words like “Holy” and “Evil”. It simply isn’t the case that any of these people in (goddammit) pop groups are important or influential enough to cause any harm.

People might not like it, but the suggestion that music/art/work should not deal with “the dark side” is profoundly troubling.

It is of course tragic that there are victims of sexual violence out there and it is tragic that we live in a society which perpetuates this sort of abuse. But it’s too easy to believe that Whitehouse are in some way the architects of this. A more appropriate term would be “cheerleaders” or simply people trying to gain a bit of notoriety by flogging some records (including sending them to completely disinterested tabloids). To believe otherwise is to massively over-estimate their relevance and importance.