Death In June — Live In Wien
The two CDs come in a colour Softpak gatefold sleeve, that features red foil embossed texts & Death In June symbols. The front cover features a picture of the projects infamous white & camouflage lined mask, and on the back cover there’s the track listing in red foil text against a black background.
The album takes in a full live show that was recorded on the 27th October 2011, in a secret & abandoned brewery located in Vienna. Though the release doesn’t list who took part in the show, I’m guessing that this is a duo performance featuring Douglas P on acoustic guitar, percussion, tapes & vocals, and John Murphy on percussion and backing vocals.
For the most part the sound here is stripped & sparse with Douglas P’s strummed acoustic guitar & vocals taking centre stage. The selection of songs move from older DIJ classics like “Rose Clouds Of Holocaust”, “Fields Of Rape”, & “He Said Destroy”. onto more modern, through still great, tracks like 2010’s “Peaceful Snow” & “The Maverick Chamber” .
On the whole it’s an enjoyable & buoyant performance with Mr P & Mr Murphy in fine form. The only part of the set that didn’t quite cut the mustard for me was the first few tracks on disc one. There are these really irritating dialogue samples (possibly from UK cult show The Prisoner), which are constantly looped over the first three tracks to really annoying effect, particularly when listened to on headphones.
As live Death In June releases go Live In Wien is another worthy & enjoyable addition to a DIJ fan’s collection, and it’s great to hear some of the modern tracks sitting alongside some of the older classics.