Evil Music

What's the commonality between avant-cumbia death metal(?), Louisiana voodoo funk and drug dealer polka? According to HKW, all fall under the spell of Evil Music. From Oct 24-27, a pack of artificially malevolent musicians, composers and academics will explore evil songs, evil instruments and evil sound waves via discussions, films and – sacre bleu! – evil concerts. There'll be "hate-rap" by Austrian actor robert Stadtlober, nightly DJing from Hamburg's Lars Brinkmann and 'darkstep' pioneer Kode 9 and "Hate's Delicate Blos- som", a performance by author/keynote speaker Dietmar Dath in collaboration with the experimentally jazzy Kammerflimmer Kollektief. True, the tongue-in- cheek tone might seem offensive to those who've followed the real evil music in Germany – Schlager, Volksmusik and military marches, the latter of which is conceded to on Saturday via the Federal Police Orchestra – even on Halloween, there’s nothing scarier than German history.