Since their initial formation in 2006, the London-based Teeth Of The Sea have metamorphosized into the most adventurous and intrepid psychedelic rock outfit in the UK. Taking on board influences like Ennio Morricone, Eno, Delia Derbyshire, Goblin, Butthole Surfers and Harmonia, they’ve arrived at an incendiary sound that effortlessly marries the aural enlightenment of a far-reaching avant-garde sensibility with the reckless abandon of trashy rock & roll immediacy.
Teeth Of The Sea exist on a strange and beguiling astral plane, whereby the boundaries between the synth odysseys of the 70s, the guitar-noise-fuelled infernos of the 80s, horrorscore schlock, Reich-ian repetition, and a whole plethora of other cathode-ray and speaker-stack birthed epiphanies are blurred into one futuristic and fearsomely coherent whole. Teeth Of The Sea are spinning into a whole new orbit.
Kogumaza formed in Nottingham in 2009. They use primitive rhythms, patterns and riffs to create dense and mesmeric song-cycles. The band’s live sound is manipulated through dub delays and echoes, allowing what is basically a heavy rock trio to expand and willingly lose control of the sound they make as they make it.
The resulting music marries fuzzed-out psychedelia to an ambient aesthetic, placing the band somewhere between the infinite repetition of Moondog, the thick gloop ofMaster OfReality-era Sabbath and the hypnotic pulse of Lungfish.
They have recently released their first LP on the Low Point label and toured Europe with Zomes.
“At times Kogumaza sounds like the future or the strange murmurings of the universe; at others, the cyclical pounding of drums conjures ghosts of ancient rituals, as if drawn from the very centre of the earth” Fluid Radio
Alva Noto is a stage name of sound artist Carsten Nicolai who uses art and music as complementary tools to create microscopic views of creative processes. He is a member of the music groups Signal (with Frank Bretschneider, AKA Komet and Olaf Bender, AKA Byetone) and Cyclo. (with Ryoji Ikeda).
Nicolai transforms sound by looping oscillators and tone generators. He does not use sequencers, but edits his work to give his compositions rhythmic structures. Clicks and glitches are not used as ornamental additions to the compositions but make up the essential rhythmic and harmonic elements of the work.
“Nicolai, along with sometime collaborator Ryoji Ikeda, is in the vanguard of artists whose work represents a genuinely experimental fusion of visual and sound art.” The Wire
Olaf Benders, manager of Raster-Noto record label, performs solo under the name Byetone.
Bender creates his music digitally. He assembles sine tones to complex sound fabrics. digital clicks and effect plug-ins are essential to create the rhythms. All this is brought in a timely relation and so a track is born — an artificial world without any physical effort.
Bender uses visuals in the sense of animated light. Abstract animations support the abstract pieces of music — in this way the rhythm of music is transformed into a graphic equivalent. Bender controls the animations in realtime. In connection with sound effect processing this enables him to interact live on stage.
“Slabdragger can, and will, stand toe-to-toe with Torche, YOB, Floor, Sleep and Electric Wizard. Big words for a largely unknown band from South London. But we genuinely feel that we have an undiscovered gem on our hands with Slabdragger – they are that good.
Two years in the making, and ridiculously fully-formed and fully-realised, Slabdragger sing about epic quests to Nepal to find killer weed, rubbish Roman Centurions, battling huge Octopian creatures and drinking rum. ” Holy Roar Records
Hello folks. My name’s David and I’m the Marketing intern for Supersonic 2011. I’m based in Manchester so I have the dubious pleasure of getting to know the M6 in intimate detail over the next few months. One of my first jobs has been to put together a Spotify playlist for artists performing at this year’s festival. It’s been great to check out some fantastic acts – hope you enjoy listening. Personally I’m excited about Skull Defekts (their current record ‘Peer Amid’ with Daniel Higgs is superb), Wolves in the Throne Room, Nathan Bell and Bardo Pond. Cloaks are my newest discovery too. Liking them a lot.
Here’s a reminder in a mere 90 seconds of all the fun and games that we got up to at last years festival, which included the first UK show of GODFLESH in over a decade, the almighty SWANS, with honourable mentions for incredible performances by NISSENMONDAI, LICHENS and ZENI GEVA.
We’re getting pretty psyched as we put the finishing touches to this years festival line up – keep your eyes peeled for forthcoming announcements in the next few weeks. Lichens performed in the Old Library creating a mesmerising improvise set
Melt Banana headlined Saturday night with a riotous performance
Nisennenmondai wowed crowds with their awesome danceable beats
Photos by Mark E Rhodes
Weekend tickets are just £75 for 3 days – you can get them from HERE
Hotel info with special Supersonic rates is available from HERE
Lyon based musician Agathe Max was one of the first artists we announced for this year’s festival, a prominent artist in the French underground we’re very excited that she is performing this year. Her performances are largely improvised and her inventive use of the violin involves loops, distortions and drones.
Hear more from Agathe Max here, and If you like the sound of this, you might be also like Tony Conrad.
Further line up announcements for this year’s Supersonic Festival include exciting appearances from Circle and Pharaoh Overlord. Fresh from their artist residency at Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands , Circle and Pharaoh Overlord will both perform at this year’s festival. Circle bring together krautrock beat, heavy riffs and showmanship to induce a trance like state, while Pharaoh Overlord (featuring members of Circle) lets out their stoner/space rock side. To celebrate the appearance of these Finnish legends we will be screening a new documentary ‘Man with a Video Camera’. The film follows a Swedish Circle fan who decides to make a documentary of the band, and finds them to be kindred spirits despite their lack of interest in his film…
Here are Circle performing at Supersonic Festival 2006
Other acts confirmed to play are Silver Apples, enormously influential pioneers of electronic music, their odd breed of psychedelia has inspired scores of other bands. Nathan Bell, formerly of Lungfish will perform his cyclic banjo music. Avant -garde violinist and sound artist Tony Conrad will also be appearing – an experimental musician, film maker and writer, every performance of his is a unique event.
Early bird tickets went flying out the door and are now sold out. Weekend tickets are available here for £75, giving you three days of music, art, film and cake.
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Supersonic Festival 2011
21-23 October
feat: Bardo Pond, Circle, Cloaks, Electric Wizard, Fire! feat. Oren Ambarchi, Secret Chiefs 3, Zombi, ZU93, a.P.a.t.T, Agathe Max, Antilles, Astro, Blarke Bayer//Black Widow, Eternal Tapestry, Lucky Dragons, Monarch, Pekko Kappi, Scorn, The Skull Defekts, White Hills, Wolves in the Throne Room, Nathan Bell, Tony Conrad, Silver Apples, Pharaoh Overlord and many more to be announced.
Esko Lönnberg has left his middle-class job in Sweden and returned to his hometown of Pori, Finland. Now he has taken up filmmaking. His first project is a film about the rock band Circle.
The film follows Esko Lönnberg who is making a film about the rock band Circle. Lönnberg, a 59-year-old HVAC manager, left his job in Sweden and returned to his hometown of Pori, Finland, to pursue his artistic desires. In Pori, he found kindred spirits in the local experimental
band Circle whose members are half of his age. The shooting for the Circle movie mostly takes place in the countryside where the band is recording their next album. The circumstances turn out to be chaotic, but Esko tries to keep the crowd together, even though he does not know himself if he is going to end up with fiction or non-fiction – and problems ensue. Disagreements disappear, however, when the gang gets together to share sacred moments
around the dinner table, to watch sports on TV or to play in the recording room, where Esko captures everything essential and unessential on video while the band plays. When filming the musicians in action, Esko almost becomes part of the band. He throws himself into the music with his whole body and does not pay much attention to what his instrument, the video camera, is recording. In spite of some discord and even heated tones, the making of the
Circle movie radiates an air of friendship. It ties the crowd together, regardless of the weight of each individual performance. In the end, the greatest rewards seem to be the work itself and the shared experiences. The vocalist of Circle, Mika Rättö, is virtually the only one in the band to show interest in Esko’s film project. The making of the film indeed falls mostly on their shoulders. Besides being an account of filmmaking, “Man with a Video Camera” is a film about the significance of choices in life and their consequences.
This screening accompanies a special performance by Circle at Supersonic Festival 2011.
Silver Apples appeared on the New York scene in 1967. Far from the Dead/Airplane-influenced West Coast hippies, their psychedelic music came with a dark-repetitive-New-York-scary flavour that did not sound like the rest of the Summer of Love.
Decades after their brief yet influential career first ground to a sudden and mysterious halt, the Silver Apples remain one of pop music’s true enigmas: a surreal, almost unprecedented duo, their music explored interstellar drones and hums, pulsing rhythms and electronically-generated melodies years before similar ideas were adopted in the work of acolytes ranging from Suicide to Spacemen 3 to Laika.
The band is now touring as a solo act, SIMEON, aka “The Oscillation Man”, who sings and plays his famous hand-made instrument, ‘The Simeon”, made of “nine audio oscillators piled on top of each other and eighty-six manual controls to control lead, rhythm and bass pulses with hands, feet and elbows”…
Fresh from their artist residency at Roadburn Festival, Supersonic are delighted to announce that both Circle and Pharaoh Overlord will join the festival bill.
Formed in 1991, Circle is the most visible and prolific name in the Finnish avant-rock underground. Having survived innumerable lineup changes, the band and its founder, bassist/vocalist/guitarist Jussi Lehtisalo, have constantly reinvented themselves, weaving hypnotic mantras out of exacting Krautrock beats, heavy riffs, arty noise, dark psychedelia, and soundtrack-like beauty. Hard, chilly repetition has served as the lone unifying theme throughout 15 years of experiments.
The compositions of Bell’s music for banjo and other various instruments has been ongoing since the early nineties. He is probably most famous for his bass playing in Lungfish and the duel guitar compositions of Human Bell.
On the latest recording ‘ Colors’ (Lancashire & Somerset) he plays cyclic banjo music – sometimes delayed – sometimes bowed creating medative hymns for the soul. 8 tracks that flow like an abstract sound poem with Nathan’s hypnotic banjo mantras wound around percussion, bass, trumpet viola and cello. Recorded and played on by Peter Townsend (Bonnie”Prince”Billy, Superwolf, King Kong, Human Bell) in Baltimore, Louisville and Nashville”.
“Kill All Redneck Pricks: A Documentary Film about a Band Called KARP” is the biography of a friendship. Set in the Pacific Northwest against the backdrop of the Olympia, WA post punk and Riot girl movements of the early 90’s, “Kill All Redneck Pricks: A Documentary Film about a Band Called KARP” details the joys and tragedies of three young friends who rise above their surroundings to form a band called KARP.
TONY CONRAD is a giant in the American soundscape. Since the early 1960s, he has utilized intense amplification, long duration and precise pitch to forge an aggressively mesmerizing “Dream Music. “Conrad articulated the Big Bang of “minimalism” and played a pivotal role in the formation of the Velvet Underground. Conrad continues to exert a primal influence over succeeding generations with his ecstatic oscillations and hypnotic drones.
“Tony Conrad is a pioneer, as seminal in his way to American music as Johnny Cash or Captain Beefheart or Ornette Coleman, one of those really savvy old guys whom all the kids want to emulate because their ideas, their style are electric and new and somehow indivisible.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Conrad invents a new musical language … unbearably intense and gloriously ecstatic.” The Wire
Fresh from their artist residency at Roadburn Festival, Supersonic are delighted to announce that both Circle and Pharaoh Overlord will join the festival bill.
Pharaoh Overlord are a self described “Stoner Rock” side project of Circle, but don’t go getting visions of Nebula and Kyuss in your head just yet: this is more like “Stoner Minimalism.” Pharaoh Overlord deconstruct the standard rock song creating vast soundscapes that stretch time and space. Riffs capable of moving mountains repeat endlessly and when the silence finally comes, it’s deafening.
Congratulations to Supersonic photographer Jamie Robinson, who for the past couple of years has helped to capture some amazing images at the festival, a few of which will be on display as part of a group show in New York.
The show opens on the 23rd of June – for more details check www.meatyardarts.com http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=215294815156558
To see more of Jamies Supersonic photos check our Flickr group
This year’s Supersonic Festival runs 21-23 October 2011 and there are two excellent opportunities to get involved as an intern. The festival is small enough for you to gain not just an overview of how the festival works, but to give real input and value.
“I would definitely recommend the internship to any individuals seeking a fast paced, hands on internship which is hard work but also lots of fun.”
Laura Coult, Production intern 2009
Capsule have two internship opportunities: 1. Marketing/Communications 2. Artist Liaison/Production
As an intern you will be required to contribute at least 10 days between July to October and then be available in the week lead up to the festival and over the weekend, and then follow up report based work in November/December. You will receive valuable work experience and be credited as part of the core team that delivers Supersonic Festival.
To register your interest please send an email to: admin[at]capsule.org.uk and mark in the SUBJECT of the email either ‘Marketing/Communications internship’, or ‘Artist Liaison/Production internship’. On receipt we will send you an application form and further information on the role.
Deadline for completed applications is 3 June 2011 Interviews will be held Thursday 9 June 2011
With just the right blend of psychedelia and hypnotic grooves, White Hills weaves in and out of anthemic chants, deep space bleeps and other worldly madness for a mix that proves to be intoxicating. Since the release of the band’s debut album, listeners have been praising their originality and unique brand of heavy space rock. White Hills formed out of the need to forge Space Rock into the 21st Century.
‘A label like “space-rock” deserves music that’s as nuanced and limitless-feeling as space, and space-rock deserves a band like White Hills. Not only do they add urgency to familiar psychedelic rock templates, but they pay just as close attention to the quiet moments as the raging ones– each track on their self-titled Thrill Jockey debut displays a careful layering of sounds and atmospheres’ -Pitchfork
There are some bands who are content to make a record, play a few shows, and exist as a musical entity only when it’s time to make a new album, and then there are bands like The Skull Defekts who are the backbone of their musical communities. Hard at work on their numerous individual projects, constantly collaborating, releasing their own records on their own imprints, and touring incessantly, The Skull Defekts are Sweden’s answer to the States’ Sonic Youth and the Netherlands’ The Ex and one of the centerpieces of the Swedish experimental rock scene.
FIRE! is a high calibre allstar combo from Sweden featuring Mats Gustafsson from The Thing (saxophone/rhodes), Johan Berthling from Tape (bass) and Andreas Werliin from Wildbirds and Peacedrums (percussion), now with added firepower on this special run of dates courtesy of Australian drone lord and Sunn O)))/Gravetemple alumnus Oren Ambarchi (guitar/electronics). Their sound is a frenzy of monolithic rock textures, scorched electronics, kosmiche grooves and
an all-channels-open free jazz spirit, all amped up at blistering psychedelic voltage.
FIRE! released their debut album “You liked me five minutes ago” through Rune Grammofon in 2009. A new LP featuring Jim O’ Rourke on guitar is on the way. They keep good company and coax a sound that engulfs your expectations and stretches taut grooves into endless panned-out vistas and back.
Producing work that is epic in concept, sound, and artistic approach, Steve Moore and A.E. Paterra, the masterminds and multi-instrumentalists behind Zombi, have re-imagined the architecture of progressive rock and dynamic instrumentals -carving a niche in underground music distinctly their own.
Secret Chiefs 3 were founded by guitar and sax player Trey Spruance and are based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Their music styles vary throughout their albums with their performance of surf rock, Persian, death metal, and other various styles – the only thing unifying the diverse range of styles they play is how precisely and accurately they play them.
Some of the members were also key members of Mr. Bungle.
The project of former Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris. The project was formed in the early ’90s by Harris along with Nic Bullen (one of the founder members of Napalm Death in 1981). Bullen left the group in April 1995 and the projects continues on to this day as an essentially one man show.
Industrial and experimental in nature, much of the output focuses on minimalist beats with an emphasis on very deep bass lines, often resembling dub and trip-hop in structure.
