Music For Violence with Suzanne Kraft

Music

There are times in life that warrant an aggy soundtrack. The kind of music that lets you wallow in those brooding moments or, alternatively, makes you want to get up and punch the floor. They may be overtly aggresive sounds or, as Diego Herrera AKA Suzanne Kraft cites, they can simply wield that underlying sense of emotional violence.

When the American producer first piqued our interests back in 2015 with his Melody Of Truth release, there was a distinct air of mystery surrounding him. Since then he's come further out into plain sight, making appearances on Gerd Janson's Running Back, Animals Dancing, Noise In My Head, as well as several returning trips to Jonny Nash's Melody As Truth, exploring the ambient, immersive side of his production. Seperately Diego has made music under several other guises which serve the many facets of his musical offerings, from the abstract cuts as SK U Kno to his driving synth exploits as Dude Energy and his projects with friends as Pharaohs and Blase.

More recently, he's provided a blinding remix of C.A.R.'s new single on our own Ransom Note Records, which could slot into the violence category quite suitably. Here we ask him to pick out some of the tracks that for him symbolise frustration, stress and violence…

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Catastrophe Bizarre - Ego-M

A current favorite of mine and an anthem of frustration. Both violent in sound and subject that perhaps speaks to the juvenile part of me that can interpret distress or self-harm as poetic.

Catastrophe Bizarre - Ego-M

A current favorite of mine and an anthem of frustration. Both violent in sound and subject that perhaps speaks to the juvenile part of me that can interpret distress or self-harm as poetic.
The Young Gods - L’Eu Rouge

Here’s one with a blatantly more violent sound that provides a joyful juxtaposition to, what I interpret to be, romantic lyrics – granted, I don’t speak French… “J’ai, j’ai le coeur en feu/qui freine.” Prime emotionally-frustrated material.
Tom Of England - Be Me

To me, this one cleverly creates a sense of stress through its use of studio/mix techniques – or is it just stressed? Cut-off phrases or ideas are also something I really enjoy in most music or even communication in general; say more with less.
Swans - You're Not Real, Girl

This is a song that’s never left my mind since I first heard it as a teenager. Brooding and what I would consider emotionally violent – scary in how calm and cool its attacks are. Unsettling like “Polly” only overtly eerie.
Angel Of Decay - Malignant Tumor Of The Heart

And why not end on a much more literal note? This one, from the great Wierd Comp vol. II, is (un)satisfyingly short but sweet with a title that doesn’t mislead. The insistent simplicity of each element just begs for repeat listens.