Dave Phillips - BIOGRAPHY
Dave Phillips co-founded hardcore Swiss extremists Fear of God in 1987. They performed throughout Switzerland, releasing a handful of recordings before their 1988 dissolution. Fear of God has since attained cult status - their fan base has increased, and posthumous releases abound.
Two crude, but well-intentioned Fear of God tribute sites have been spotted on the Internet.
Feardogs has a bleak design template and a few broken links, but offers "Sea of Bodies," an unreleased instrumental audio file taken from FOG's 1987 studio foray in Baar, Switzerland.
"Sea" was posted as a mono .aif file, so we've taken the trouble to re-EQ it, convert it to stereo, and encode it as an mp3. The original file suffers from digital clipping (it was either recorded too hot or was taken from an inferior master), so we reduced the volume 15% to compensate. It still clips out, but Hell, it's only nine seconds long anyhow, so you'll just have to endure the noise.
The second site, Lärmfotzen - In Memory of Fear of God, has much more information, but suffers from appalling design flaws. No matter - someone must love those lime green backgrounds! There's a more than adequate discography, lyrics, period interviews, etc. Two songs, "Rubbish Planet" and "Prisoner of Your Ideals" (both taken from Fear of God's first EP), were posted as mono .wav files. Again, we've cleaned them up a bit, and encoded them as mp3s.
You may download the three Fear of God mp3s here.
In 1987 Phillips began a more thorough examination of sound, employing a bruitist
aesthetic. He regards the ordinary and the esoteric from a dispassionate
perspective - his work is littered with bewildering noises, field recordings,
and breath and vocal experimentations, all of which may be augmented or enhanced with
electronic gadgetry.
Appearing as either Tower of Beef, D&S, or Doug & Chuck, Phillips has
collaborated with Stephen Thomas since 1988 on various studio and live projects
encompassing ballet and film music (some of which has been used by the American-Swiss
dance company "Tamute" for performances in Switzerland and
England), and the odd indulgence in avant-rock and noise.
From 1990 to 1994, Dave occasionally joined Rudolf Eb.er and Joke Lanz their
monthly "Psychic Rally" radio program, broadcast by LoRa, Zürich's
alternative outlet. Phillips also joined Joke Lanz's Sudden Infant project for intermittent
performances and releases between 1990 and
1996.
With Roger Drein and ex-Fear of God guitarist Reto "Tschösi" Kühne,
Phillips formed the group PK in 1991. PK created privately-staged ritualistic
performances, usually of an acoustic nature, featuring all-improvised sounds
which adhered to pre-determined conceptual frames. The final week of 1992 saw PK locked in a
studio, living out of tin cans and recording what was to have been a triple
album. With the group's demise in 1993, however, plans for an eventual release
were abandoned.
Phillips has been a member of Schimpfluch-Gruppe since 1991. (Om and Dave first
met at the 1997 "Welcome to the Naked Gym" event at Le Garage in Paris. To
Live and Shave in L.A. and Schimpfluch shared a bill with Evil Moisture and
Smell and Quim.)
A bruitist collective which performs confounding, arduous psycho-physical "training spectacles," Schimpfluch-Gruppe was founded in Zurich by Rudolf Eb.Er (Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock), and on occasion features Joke Lanz. Many releases and (chaotic) concert appearances have since ensued.
(Click on the above photo to visit the GMBH site for the story on this amazing concert. - OM
(A rough translation of the French text may be found here.)
Since 1998, Phillips has been upending the DJ scene, using the name Eva D to confuse the powers that be. With fellow OHNE member Reto Mäder (aka rm74), he hosts the "Zeitgenossen" radio program on Swiss alternative station Kanal K.
Dave is a native of Switzerland, and was born on January 18, 1969.
