The Molehill Report #9 – November 2022
The Molehill Report #9, November 2022: We present excerpts of an interview with Nihil Fist, the master of relentless political speedcore, and we’re happy to announce the new release in the Praxis digital remix series, a rework of Noface’s Hallucinate by Base Force One.
Transcript of The Molehill Report #9 Nihil Fist
Welcome to episode 9 of the Molehill Report.
Here we are back in action with a new report and there will be a lot of new uploads over the next weeks and months.
The track we’re hearing is a remix of Noface’s ‘Hallucinate’ from the Paraphysical Cybertronics compilation that came out in 1994 by Base Force One and it will appear in the Praxis Digital Remix series next month via Bandcamp and the usual outlets.
Our guest in this episode is Nihil Fist. We met in person well over 20 years ago and after he had already released several cassette tapes and CDRs on his own label, we released his first vinyl record on Praxis in 2003 titled Think and Destroy. This was followed by Resistance is Fertile two years later. He returned in 2019 with several new records on Cathartic Noise Experience and Independent Block 36 and live shows and hasn’t stopped since.
October 2022
In October 2022 we met up and talked noise and politics with him from growing up in the late DDR to early party experiences and making music himself to political activism and his work as a radical lawyer. And finally the present phase of renewed enthusiasm in the Nihil Fist project.
Nihil Fist: I never had the idea that I would myself do music. I never learned how to make any kind of music, and music equipment – I had no idea about this. But the thing is that then I reached a point where I was not satisfied with the music that existed that I could consume. It was not really aggressive and fast and hard enough. First I started in my head without a plan to compose music or have a music in my head that I think would be even more aggressive and would be more interesting.
And then I reached a point, the moment where I thought maybe I just try it myself.
Video excerpt from Nihil Fist live at Praxis Label Night in the Hirscheneck, Basel, 2005.
Nihil Fist: I was always a politically thinking person and had my opinions, and I was in the squatter scene for instance also and in Antifa groups and things like this. So I always wanted also to do something. So I was always involved in different kind of groups. You can call it like autonomous kind of organization.
Video excerpt from Nihil Fist live at Schwester Martha 2019.
Nihil Fist: I was a criminal defense lawyer where I defended people who had problems because of their political activities. For instance they had clashes with the police on demonstrations or problems because they squatted houses and things like this or problems because they had clashes with fascists and then afterwards charges.
So for me it made much sense to work in this field to help people professionally to get a good defence. A defence that is definitely on their side.
Video excerpt from Nihil Fist DJ set at re:focus 2022.
Releasing Records on Praxis and the current scene in Berlin
Nihil Fist [about releasing records on Praxis]: We were all politically active in some way and had shared similar political ideas and to put out the releases then on these labels, I mean this was not a decision by me because I did not ask you. You asked me and I was very happy about it. You asked me, I did never expect to have a release on your label because I really admired your label and your work and that’s also why I seeked in the first place contact with you.
[about the current scene in Berlin] When I discovered again that I really like very much the people in the noisy core scene of Berlin and even more maybe than it was 15 years ago… it got much more diverse how you say it now. People are even more freaky and it’s not only about being the hardest today and it’s not so only the darkness like it was then.
CF: Check out the full version of the interview on our channel.
The Molehill Report #9 was produced in November 2022 in Berlin by CF and linxi at the Psychic Defence studio.
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In episode 10 of The Molehill Report - the video newsletter/magazine of our Noise & Politics YouTube channel - Christoph Fringeli looks back at the early days of Praxis Records, the label he started in 1992 in London. He traces the mutations of the label as well as the environment it launched and continues to launch its musical interventions.
THE MOLEHILL REPORT, a monthly video newsletter by Praxis Records and Datacide, explores the realms of experimental electronic music, cultural subversion, and political discourse. This first episode from January 2022 features Christoph Fringeli, delving into Praxis' history and presenting Riccardo Balli's book 'Sbrang Gabba Gang', a fusion of Futurism and Gabber culture.
August 2023: We present excerpts of an interview with Dan Hekate aka The Wirebug, there are two recent releases in the Praxis Digital Remix Series, Alex Buess has relaunched Skin & Speech Recordings, Controlled Weirdness presents his new podcast "Tales from a Disappearing City", Stewart Home has a new book out and Sozialistischer Plattenbau has re-issued Kovert's Hybrid Riddim.
