Taken from Culture Shock - Transmission 3
"In 1990, under the guidance of a man named Jan Liebricht, a small group of Germans started a gothic fanzine called VERTIGO. It was small, photocopied, and handmade without the use of a computer, with a circulation of 100 copies, and it came out twice a year. Little did they know, at the time, that it would evolve into a full-size, professional, glossy publication with a circulation 17,000 copies, and one of the most important underground music magazines in all of Europe!
Not long after the first issue, the most of the editorial staff had dissipated. They were not pulling their own weight, and Jan was doing all of the work. Then in 1992, he met a man named Andreas Schmidt at a concert with PROJECT PITCHFORK and TRIAL. They instantly got along, and Andreas' first appearence in Vertigo followed soon after with a TRIAL interview in Issue 5. At that point, they were still coming twice a year, and had the circulation at 500 copies, but had begun the transition in coverage from gothic to electro, and getting to be quite well known and respected. Then in 1993, Jan and Andreas hooked up with one Marc Keithan, who had been running CRIPPLED ABORTION TAPES, releasing material from LPF 12 and his own EVIL SERMON. The three of them were together doing everything for VERTIGO, with Jan as the head.
So, while Jan was managing VERTIGO, and Marc was managing CRIPPLED ABORTION, they started up another organization for even more diverse activities, this time with Andreas as manager. This was called STILLBIRTH MUSICAL ART AND CONCERTS. Under this name, they do mailorder for young, talented, and mostly unsigned electro acts but also some well known ones. Over the years, this has included IN STRICT CONFIDENCE, IONIC VISION, IMMINENT STARVATION, K.I.FOTH., PRO PATRIA, IC 434, KRIEGBEREIT, and many others. But that's not alii They also organize concerts which have included AMGOD, CAT RAPES DOG, LEkTHER STRIP, IN STRICT CONFIDENCE, STERIL, FLA, CUBANATE, ARMAGEDDON DILDOS, PNE, IMMANENT STARVATION, FUZE BOX MACHINE, EVIL SERMON, and many, many others.
They were all working together, which each managing his own aspect, and then in 1994, all of their hard work started to pay off. These activities caught the eye of Germany's CELTIC CIRCLE PRODUCTIONS, who went on to express a lot of interest in establishing CRIPPLED ABORTION as a sublabel of CCP. During talks about this, they were starting to realize that VERTIGO was costing too much money. That was almost the end of it, until in early 1995, when they were deciding if there was any way to keep it going and make it more professional, CELTIC CIRCLE suggested that they help out by having their graphics division, MADESIGN (run by Stefan Meisner), do layout and graphics for it. So 1995 saw the firs t issues of VERTIGO with color covers, much improved layout, and circulation of 1000 copies, but it was still only coming out twice a year. That was also around the time that CRIPPLED ABORTION released it's first CD, now as CELTIC CIRCLE PRODUCTIONS first official sub-label. Things were looking up; way up!
These things were all so successful that in 1996, Vertigo and CCP made the decision to completely recharge the zine. With the first issue in 1996, Number II, VERTIGO became fully glossy with a circulation of 10,000 copies distributed by the enormous INLAND PRESSE VERTRIEB GMBH! In addition, they began releasing full-length CD compilations with tracks from many of each issues featured artists, and lots of unreleased material. Since then, they've featured tons of tracks from bands like LEÆTHER STRIP , POUPPEE FABRIKK, PUTREFY FACTOR 7, IN STRICT CONFIDENCE, YELWORC, LESCURE 13, MORGUE, EVIL SERMON, AGHAST VIEW, SLEEPWALK, PRO PATRIA, PAGE 12, and many, many more. Now, one year later, they are about to unleash another organization. It's called DEADHEAD TAPE PRODUCTIONS, and the first release is a collaboration with Johan Van Roy's new CODE label. This cassette is LESCURE 13's long awaited sixth cassette, RESSURRECT. And aside from that, CRiPPlED ABORTION RECORDS will be making it's triumphant return in early 97 with the releases of CDs and MCDs by Switzerland's SYSTEM DER DINGE and Belgium's PRO PATRIA. And according to Jan the biggest news of all is the introduction of Vertigo's own web site "vertigo-online", moderated by Vertigo counterpart Peter Bytomski ' Finally now, the entire world can keep up with the many diverse activities of these workaholicsl Stay tuned and get in touch!
operative: sAge"
Tracklist
The Psyche track on this compilation is a very rare one, from the short time where Dwayne Goettel (Skinny Puppy) was part of Psyche together with Darrin Huss. After some demo 4-track recordings Dwayne left the band. There was never an official psyche release in this constellation.
RS [52p pdf ]
CD [192 mp3]
I also updated
Vertigo #15 with the cd that came with it, V0 mp3 from my Flac rip.
Interviews with Haujobb, Forma Tadre, Biopsy, Suicide Commando, Terminal Choice, Das Ich, Covenant, Abscess, KIFOTH, Image Transmission, Chaingun Operate, Individual Totem, Wumpscut vs. Noisex, VNV Nation, Velvet Acid Christ, Swamp Terrorists, Evil Sermon, and Aïboforcen, along with scene reports from Belgium (written by Johan Von Roy), South Germany (by Stefan Alt + SED), and Brazil (by Eneas Neto?). Label profiles of Mental Ulcer Forges and Off-Beat. Plus 17 pages of reviews. Cover art by Ant-Zen label head Stefan Alt.
