Enhoenta Bödlar - Ogreish Guttural Wounds (1984) LP

Vinyl album rather than cassette this week, but this one seems conspicuously absent from the internet so far as I can tell, and I haven't noticed any boutique labels fighting over the right to reissue, so here we are; and here we are because Ogreish Guttural Wounds is a lost classic in my opinion, one of the greatest (or at least weirdest) records ever to be saddled with the unfortunate label of industrial. Enhoenta Bödlar - Swedish for One-Handed Tormentor - were Uddah Buddah and X-Terminator of Ljungby, Sweden or thereabouts. As I understand it, X-Terminator operated the synth whilst Uddah Buddah handled vocals and percussion, although it may not have been quite so clear cut as that. X-Terminator later became better known as the Brighter Death Now guy, and I gather that he and Uddah Buddah may have fallen out shortly after this was recorded. Uddah Buddah was known to his mum as Lennart Eilersen, and he was the person to whom I wrote in his capacity as big cheese of Selbstmord Organización, his tape label which branched out into at least this one slab of vinyl with its photocopied cover held on by masking tape. Its apparent subsequent lack of availability may be on account of the group being so ashamed of it that they buried all the unsold copies, at least according to what Lennart Eilersen told me in one letter:

We have our 1st LP our by Enhoenta Bodlar, but that was so bad that we don't even wanna sell it anymore. The rest of the copies left are meant to be buried in cemetries.

I suppose how bad it could have been is now the obvious question. Personally I wouldn't say it was bad at all, but it is seriously fucking odd, and it doesn't bear much comparison with many other things which have been labelled industrial. One of the greatest things about the Roland SH101 synth is, in my opinion, the arpeggio feature, or whatever the hell it's called - hold down as many keys as you like and the synth runs up and down the sequence over and over like some sort of seasick Dalek pumped full of nose-candy. It's a peculiar, disorientating sound without which Ogrish Guttural Wounds would have been a spoken word album. Aside from the afterthought of metal percussion - teatray, spoon, and metal chair leg by the sound of it, and occasionally apologetic taps on the pads of an MPC Industries Kit - this incarnation of Enhoenta Bödlar had more or less the same dynamic as Whitehouse, but for sounding nothing like them. Instead of the screeching feedback we have that weird electronic sawing noise, and instead of a man ranting about his plonker we have this disturbingly polite Derek Nimmo version of someone from the Church of Satan; or something like that. It sounds like it was recorded on a music center in somebody's front room, and yet the sheer insanity of the enterprise renders it much, much greater than the sum of its parts. Lennart Eilersen cited Monty Python as at least as big an influence as any of the usual droning suspects, which makes a lot of sense, and which probably makes this album at least as great as it is in my imagination. Seriously, if you'd rather listen to Lustmord than this, I feel sorry for your parents.

Oh... and also, I've included Antichrist Ne Telleth which comes from the Carnage in a Country Garden cassette compilation on Anal Probe (1983).

I'm Jesus Christ masturbating.
Just give me concentration, will you.
I need concentration.
I'm Jesus Christ masturbating.
Just give me your hands, will you.
Do it faster!
Do it nicer!
Do it slower!

It's good, you know...

Download the ten songs and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Ogreish...
2 - One-Handed Tormentor
3 - We Will All Be Warm-Eaten
4 - Thee Only Way...
5 - Semene Stains
6 - Heathen Nordic Temple
7 - Thwart Thy Lethal Leprosy
8 - Mere Dewy Christian Cunt
9 - I'm Jesus Christ Masturbating
10 - Antichrist Ne Telleth

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