#programm c

#196: V/A - “ist da wer?”

disclaimer: i played bass in PROGRAMM C, so it’s a little hard for me to simply review the subsequent 7”s, which is why i’m going to write a little bit about my memories around those records instead.

Dietmar, the guitarist from Konstrukt, was also behind the Hammerwerk label. With the two 7” compilations 'Und keiner weint uns nach' (with Fall Time., Käthe Core, Manface, Konstrukt) and 'Ist da wer?' (with Konstrukt, Kobayashi, Kawasaki, Programm C, Prohaska), he has succeeded in perfectly documenting a part of the hardcore scene.

While Konstrukt and Kawasaki (the electro project of T., the sound engineer of Konstrukt) were two veterans of the Viennese scene, Kobayashi (St. Pölten), Prohaska (Baden) and Programm C (Götzendorf/Himberg/Vienna) were among the “young and wild” of the scene.

The release show (you’ll find a scan of the poster here) for the compilation on October 30, 1998 at the EKH in Vienna is still one of the best shows I can remember. There was a limited yellow and a black vinyl version of the record. 

As for the songs themselves: from grindcore and emoviolence to powerviolence and industrial (Kawasaki remix by Konstrukt), everything was there. Above all, the songs by Kobayashi, Prohaska and Programm C are certainly among the still carefree highlights of the bands. You can listen to the compilation on YouTube.

#194: PROGRAMM C/KOBAYASHI - “split”

disclaimer: i played bass in PROGRAMM C, so it’s a little hard for me to simply review the subsequent 7”s, which is why i’m going to write a little bit about my memories around those records instead.

let me start way back in the mid 90s, my school and later military service days in styria. at some point i got in contact with hannes woschner, who was originally from styria too, but who was a student at the university in klagenfurt. we met at some shows and exchanged letters. in the summer of 1997 i moved to vienna. i got off the train in vienna, hopped on the subway and by accident bumped into hannes, who was staying with his grandparents while doing a summer job in vienna. he told me about an upcoming STALINGRAD-show at tüwi, where we met again. at the show he introduced me to jan “capeet” gallhuber, who became a close friend and my main companion at hardcore shows in vienna. at some point he heard about PROGRAMM C looking for a new bass player and he set me up with andi, christian, christian and martin. it worked out, although i couldn’t really play the bass. after some pretty awesome and breathtaking shows, jan asked KOBAYASHI from st. pölten and us about releasing a split-7” on his label capeet records.

so on june 29th 1998 PROGRAMM C went to a random studio (a&m studio) in vienna, who i think KOBAYASHI had the contact to, and recorded eight (?) songs. they were mixed on the same day, so you can imagine how big the budget was. i more or less experienced everything as a trial and error-take on how a band works. we had no clue about anything, but somehow it worked out. the diy-sound fits well with the songs of that time and we got really good reactions from the scene. four of those songs were released on the split-7” with KOBAYASHI.

KOBAYASHI contributed seven really fast and short emo-violence songs to the split 7”. i always experienced their songs as a grab bag between total arhythmic passages and mosh parts. they never made it easy for you to listen to the songs, but if you combine it with memories of the live shows, everything fits perfectly. 

the 7” had two covers (one side for each band). PROGRAMM C used “the death of marat” by jacques-louis david, KOBAYASHI a drawing by carl fredrik hill (i can’t figure out the name). the 7” was limited to 600 copies (100 green/500 black) and hand-numbered. each band made a d.i.y.-booklet. i still remember producing 600 of the PROGRAMM C-booklets and stamping the white labels of the 7”s with a capeet records-stamp on one side and a PROGRAMM C-stamp on the other side. KOBAYASHI just used two small coloured stickers to mark their side.