New Spotify playlist
We announced more fantastic bands for Supersonic 2011 a fortnight ago, including Cut Hands, Berg Sans Nipple, Part Chimp, Alexander Tucker and Alva Noto/Byetone. For your listening pleasure, here is a new Spotify playlist featuring all the artists. Enjoy!
http://open.spotify.com/user/littleredrabbit/playlist/1G2nW0tTKUmIoANAR4t14a
Supersonic Q&A no. 2: Part Chimp.
Here’s our second artist Q&A to give you an insight into the inner-workings of Supersonic 2011. Part Chimp bring their heavy noise-rock to the festival in what will be one of their last ever performances. It’s a real shame they’re splitting up, but that could also give you reason no.137 to book your ticket.
1. Which five words describe what you know about Supersonic?
Harvey
Milk
Birmingham
Dirty
Burgers
2. What can people expect of Part Chimp at the festival?
One of our last UK shows. If you haven’t seen us before, or it has been a while, now’s the time. If you’ve seen us loads of times, come celebrate the death throes.
3. Why make music – what does it do for you that nothing else does?
It’s a team version of primal scream therapy.
4. Who else on the bill are you hoping to see? (And why?)
Alex Tucker, Kogumaza, and a bunch of other mates. Bardo Pond, Alva Noto, WitTR, Tony Conrad and others. Supersonic’s a good opportunity to check out an extreme blend of stuff.
5. Finally, your essential ‘surviving-Supersonic’ items are…
Earplugs, spare earplugs, the green cross code, & the paperback of “how black was our sabbath”.
There is a great piece in the Guardian today with an interview with yours truly entitled ‘Pop music’s mavericks: In the conformist age of Simon Cowell and the overhyped indie band, is there still room for the maverick in music?’
I encounter Supersonic organiser Lisa Meyer at Euston station on the way to a meeting. With her black hair and piercings, she doesn’t look like a typical festival mogul, and indeed Supersonic – which runs every October at Birmingham’s Custard Factory – is far from Reading or Glastonbury.
Last year’s bill included heavy dub and extreme metal bands, noise pioneers Swans, and local grindcore outfit Fukpig, who “terrified everybody in their wake”. Somehow, the revelation that Meyer was an art student whose degree project was a sculpture of her head made from blue cheese – “It looked like marble, from a distance” – is not surprising. She transferred this worldview into music, putting together a festival dedicated to celebrating extreme noise.
Like many great events, Supersonic came about by not so much ignoring the rules as not knowing them. Meyer and a friend had enjoyed small-scale all-dayers in Leeds and Nottingham, and wondered if they could host a much bigger version. So they started emailing their favourite bands, using the computer at an arts centre. “We didn’t know what we were doing,” Meyer says. “We’d get really excited if we went back the following week and someone had actually replied.” Perhaps intrigued by how innocent enthusiasm bypassed accepted channels, people did reply.
For the first Supersonic, in 2003, a barely known LCD Soundsystem played their first show outside London for £600, alongside Sleazy Christopherson’s influential Coil. It wasn’t plain sailing: after someone dived into the venue’s water feature and then ran on stage, dripping on the electronics, they were told they could be sued; another year brought a bomb scare. But gradually Supersonic has grown to attract a global audience.
“We’re not approaching bands who want to play V festival,” Meyer says, with huge understatement. The music at Supersonic is a mix of the popular but culty – Psychic TV, Mogwai – and challenging unknowns. The idea is that by appealing to minority tastes that aren’t catered for elsewhere, Supersonic can assemble a huge community for which like-minded bands will want to play. Battles are just one band who performed there when they were (fairly) unknown and returned when they were (fairly) famous. Meyer’s matter-of-fact enthusiasm lures – and pacifies – notoriously difficult artists. Psychic TV’s Genesis P-Orridge may have been called a “wrecker of civilisation” in the House of Commons and undergone feminising surgery in the name of art, but Meyer found him “lovely – like your favourite auntie”.
Read the full article written by Dave Simpson HERE
Skull Defekts news – 12″ EP out in time for Supersonic
News just in from via the Skull Defekts Tumblr site is that they should have a brand new 12″ EP out in time for their show at Supersonic 2011. If it’s anything like their stunning ‘Peer Amid’ album released earlier this year, fans of anything from Krautrock to post-punk to shamanistic yowling are in for a treat. That last element comes from legendary singer Daniel Higgs – the ex-Lungfish man has added an extra wow-factor to what was already a pretty powerful, muscular sound. If you want more words, direct from the horse’s mouth, there’s an interview with Joachim from the band on their Tumblr here and a video from a recent live show is below. Does anyone know what effects have been used on the footage? We like the grainy, washed-out look here in the Capsule office, but tell us how it’s done!
After the success of last few years of our ’Market Place’ we’re really excited about developing this area of the festival, a space for independent distributors, record labels, poster artists and peddlers of curiosities to sell their wares, network and for you to meet face to face. The Market Place is also where the bands sell their merch. This area is equipped with a tea room serving a selection of epicurean delights. Open to the public on Saturday 22rd of October through to Sunday 23rd.
Previous stall holders have included: Rough Trade, Southern Records, Conspiracy Records, Burning World Records, Future Noise, First Fold Records, Wonderleague, Bad Egg Records, Polar Bear Shop, Eat A Book Records, Cold Spring.
“Sitting behind our stall at Supersonic last year was the highlight of the year for Bad Egg. The atmosphere was excellent, the banter was rowdy and the chance to engage with so many people in such a short space of time was intense. As a DiY label it’s almost impossible to reach such a wide and receptive audience like the Supersonic crowd – we not only sold some records but also made some friends in the process. REAL ones too.” Dave – Bad Egg Records
We have a limited number of stalls available – if you’re interested see HERE for more details
1. Which five words describe what you know about Supersonic?
“I think I’ve gone deaf”
2. What can people expect of Kogumaza at the festival?
I’m not best qualified to answer – my friend Hoppy said we were like a hot bath for his ears so I’ll go with that. A hot, never-ending bath made of fuzz and echo.
3. Why make music – what does it do for you that nothing else does?
Sometimes when you’re experiencing music, usually live music, it can feel like no one party (the audience or those making the music) is in charge and there’s some sort of 3rd element involved. Like the experience transcends the sum of the parts. It doesn’t happen often (rarely as an audience member and even less so as the person making the music) but it’s enough of a unique and beautiful situation to keep returning to music-making again and again in search of it. I can’t think of any other sensory experience that is able to take shape quite like that. Apologies for sounding like a hippy.
4. Who else on the bill are you hoping to see? (And why?)
I helped promote a show for Bardo Pond about 14 years ago in a bar in Colchester, Essex. It was the first proper band I ever helped put on. The bar had a noise limiter. They soundchecked and it kept showing red but didn’t seem to do anything bad like turn the power off, so we thought “to hell with it” and left it loud. Turned out that when the sensor went red it turned the room lights off so they played most of the show in the dark and it was awesome. That’s an important lesson to learn right there. I’m really excited that they’re playing. Looking forward to seeing Skull Defekts and Part Chimp too. Supersonic’s always been about surprises as well though, so I’m hoping the best thing on the bill is something I’ve never heard of before.
5. Finally, your essential ‘surviving-Supersonic’ items are…
Ear plugs for sure. Also, in the middle of the outdoor area there is this weird metal pipe-like fixture sticking out of the ground with warning tape on it. I think they slot a fountain in it normally. At about 1am, if you’ve had your brain fried
enough, it might start to resemble an empty beer can, just sitting there. No matter how good you feel and how much you want to express how amazing Harvey Milk were (as was the case), don’t take a run up and kick the “can” in celebration of the majesty of rock like my good friend Ross did 2 years ago because you’ll spend the rest of the night in Sellyoak Casualty waiting for some nurses to stick your toes back together.
Kogumaza live at Nottingham Dot to Dot Festival in May 2011:
Kogumaza – Nottm Trent University 29.05.11 from neil johnson on Vimeo.
Cloaks have put together an amazing set for the Electronic Explorations podcast show, featuring a Justin Broadrick remix of their track ‘Rust on Metal’ plus remixes of Ben Frost, Altar of Plagues and tracks from Supersonic friends Dead Fader and Devilman. Cloaks, Dead Fader and Devilman all feature on the 3by3 label roster, run by Steve Cloaks himself.
Here the full podcast
Anybody who attended Supersonic 2010 will be familiar with this heavy, industrial dubstep outfit. Steve Cloaks played a noise/dub DJ set that fit perfectly before the astounding amount of bass to come from Kings Midas Sound and Godflesh. Look out for the full Cloaks duo performing this year.
Cloaks performing at Supersonic Festival 2010:
Abstract Cabinet Show at The Event, 2009
Anybody attending this year’s Supersonic Festival will be happy to hear that another exciting arts festival will be taking place in the Eastside area of Birmingham at the same time. The Event is a contemporary arts festival showcasing the best in artist-led activity and will take place from 21 – 30 October 2011 at a variety of venues including former industrial warehouses and recently opened artist-led gallery spaces.
The Event is delivered by some of the city’s key artist-led groups to explore a range of contemporary arts activity including visual arts, performance, live art, film, video, web-based, installation, intervention and sound, all demonstrating the diversity of the thriving arts community in the city.
Check the website for news of the programme along with special collaborative events.
We’re very excited to announce that electronica pioneers Alva Noto and Byetone will be playing at this year’s Supersonic Festival. Two wizards of experimental audio visual performance, the German artists will be playing at the festival as part of their 15 year anniversary tour. Alva Noto makes rhythms and harmonies using clicks and glitches and is also known for his work with Ryoji Ikeda. Byetone, aka Olaf Benders is the label boss of Raster Noton record label and as Byetone manipulates abstract animations in realtime to support abstract, complex pieces of music that mange to be danceable at the same time.
Also joining the bill this year is Cut Hands, aka William Bennett of Whitehouse, and his afro noise project. Alexander Tucker will be presenting an intimate performance of his new record of minimalist string arrangements and electronic manipulations and The Berg Sans Nipple will bring their incredible live show to the festival. Part Chimp, legendary for the volume of their live hows will bring their noise rock to the stage, along with psych sleazers Teeth of the Sea, Sabbath worshippers Slabdragger and Nottingham’s finest, Kogumaza.
As ever, we like you to get you involved in the festival too, a bit of audience participation never goes amiss and we’re pleased to announce an exciting workshop from Supersonic friend John Richards. After the success of his Dirty Electronics Ensemble in 2009, he’ll back with a new noise making workshop, Mute Synth, where participants can also show off their hard work with a live performance at the festival.
We’re also very pleased to announce the return of Supersonic Kids Gigs – big sounds for little people. Lucky Dragons, as well as performing at the main festival site for us grown ups, will be doing a special performance for children and their families.
Current line up: ALVA NOTO / a.P.A.t.T. /AGATHE MAX /ANTILLES /ASTRO /BARDO POND /BLARKE BAYER/BLACK WIDOW/ BYETONE/ CIRCLE/ CLOAKS /CUT HANDS /ELECTRIC WIZARD / ETERNAL TAPESTRY/ FIRE!/ KOGUMAZA/ LUCKY DRAGONS/ MONARCH/ NATHAN BELL/ PART CHIMP/ PHARAOH OVERLORD/ PEKKO KAPPI/ SCORN/ SECRET CHIEFS / SILVER APPLES / SKULL DEFEKTS / SLABDRAGGER/ TEETH OF THE SEA / THE BERG SANS NIPPLE/ TONY CONRAD/ WHITE HILLS / WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM / ZOMBI / ZU93
Tickets for the festival are only £75 for three days of music, film, art and cake and are available from:
Plugd Records, Cork
Polar Bear Records, Birmingham
Swordfish Records, Birmingham
Workshop 4-hours
Performance c. 30 mins
Take part in building the Mute Synth and a large group performance with Dirty Electronics. The Dirty Electronics Mute Synth is a hand-held touch and tilt instrument with copper etched artwork and contoured printed circuit board that was designed in collaboration with Mute and graphic designer Adrian Shaughnessy. The instrument brings together many Dirty Electronics aesthetics and instrument designs into one device in particular creating an instrument of the hand (in terms of both playing and building), a noise-based device that utilises feedback, and exploring the relationship between artwork and circuit board. It combines sound synthesis with a sequencer/pulser, and it is knobless. The Mute Synth is controlled by using the conductivity of the human body to complete the instrument’s circuit when the copper etching is touched. There are touch points on both sides of the circuit board, and the instrument is designed to be played with thumbs and fingers. Two tilt switches on different planes allow for gestural control of the sequencer. Pulsating brilliant white noise and grunge in the hand!
This workshop costs £15 to weekend ticket holders and spaces are limited. Please email [email protected] to book a place.
Dirty Electronics Mute Synth from Dirty Electronics on Vimeo.
Bio
Since 2003, John Richards has been exploring the idea of Dirty Electronics that focuses on face-to-face shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. In Dirty Electronics, process and performance are inseparably bound. The ‘performance’ begins on the workbench devising instruments and is extended onto the stage through playing and exploring these instruments.
The Dirty Electronics Ensemble is a large group that explore these ideas and whose members are often made-up of workshop participants. The workshop is central to the Ensemble in that all of the musicians have to build their own instrument for performance. In 2008, the group performed pieces specially written for the Ensemble by, amongst others, Japanese noise artists Merzbow, Pauline Oliveros, Howard Skempton (founder member of the Scratch Orchestra), Gabriel Prokofiev and Nicholas Bullen (ex-Napalm Death and Scorn). Other notable collaborations include working with Rolf Gehlhaar (original Stockhausen group), Chris Carter from Throbbing Gristle, Keith Rowe, Anat Ben-David (Chicks on Speed) and STEIM (Amsterdam). In 2011 Dirty Electronics created a specially commissioned hand-held synth for Mute Records. Workshops and performances with Dirty Electronics have taken place internationally including: the Southbank Centre (London), FutureEverything (Manchester), Short Circuit Festival, the Roundhouse (London), Bent Festival (Los Angeles), Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) (Germany), Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) (London), Supersonic Festival (Birmingham), Tokyo University of the Arts (Japan), University of the Arts (Berlin), and IRCAM (Paris).
After the success of our first Supersonic Kids Gigs in 2010, we return with another programme of big sounds for little people!
Tickets will be £10 for 1 child + 1 adult and available from www.macarts.co.uk
As well as performing at the main festival, Lucky Dragons and The Berg Sans Nipple will be performing a special Supersonic Kids Gig this year, exploring experimental music aimed and kids and their families.
Saturday 22nd October
Lucky Dragons’ performances put the audience at the heart of the show, and encourage participation with the artists and with each other. Playing together whilst engaging with new sounds. The artist duo regularly conducts workshops to find new ways to engage people in experimental sounds
http://www.hawksandsparrows.org/
Sunday 23rd October
The Berg Sans Nipple is Lori Sean Berg and Shane Aspegren. The former is a suave Frenchman from the dirty rues of Paris, the latter hails from the dusty plains of Nebraska. Two drums, synths, samples, a ton of percussion and vocals hardcore kids gone gamelan, caught in devastatingly beautiful melodies and a mind bending rhythm section.
British experimental musician Alexander Tucker releases his Thrill Jockey debut Dorwytch in April 2011. This record breaks new ground for Tucker by combining minimalist string arrangements with electronic manipulations and drones to produce doom chamber-pop songs and psychedelic music-concrete collages.
Tucker’s sound has developed over the years since his first self-titled solo album, which featured acoustic finger-picking, experimental electronics and was released on Jackie O Motherfucker’s U-Sound Archives label. Three years in the making Dorwytch finds Tucker refining his song craft and introducing minimalist string movements that build into dense spiraling riffs around his distinct vocals. This album will beguile and entice the listener, placing Tucker at the forefront of the experimental pop landscape.
A very special performance at Supersonic Festival will see a performance of this new material matched with projections of films made specially for the event The performance is a extension of the Alexander Tucker visual world of hair beings and other worldly creatures.
http://www.myspace.com/alexanderdtucker
In 2002, being inspired by Haitian vaudou musicians’ capacity to make intensely powerful music with almost no technology, William Bennett first employed djembes and doundouns on the classic Wriggle Like A Fucking Eel 12” by Whitehouse, in what was seen as a radical musical direction by many in the wider noise/industrial scene.
The Cut Hands project itself was founded by William Bennett in 2007 initially to experiment further with his obscure collection of Ghanaian percussion instruments in free-form work-outs alongside other types of (genuine) sound experimenting. The fruit of 8 years of recordings finally culminated in 2011’s critically acclaimed and best-selling release Afro Noise I.
The music of Cut Hands featured heavily in the VBS films Liberia (2009) and Mandingo (2010)
Part Chimp are a band from Camberwell in London that were formed by Tim Cedar, Jon Hamilton and Nick Prior in 2000. Current line-up is Tim (vocals & guitar), Jon (drums), and Iain Hinchliffe (guitar).
They play rock music with elements of noise. Both on record and live, Part Chimp have a reputation for sounding extremely loud. Their records are released in the UK by Rock Action records in Europe & Japan by Play it Again Sam and in the US by Monitor records.
The Berg Sans Nipple is Lori Sean Berg and Shane Aspegren. The former is a suave Frenchman from the dirty rues of Paris, the latter hails from the dusty plains of Nebraska. Two drums, synths, samples, a ton of percussion and vocals hardcore kids gone gamelan, caught in devastatingly beautiful melodies and a mind bending rhythm section.
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 of Master Of Reality-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
Kogumaza – Nottm Trent University 29.05.11 from neil johnson on Vimeo.
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.
http://www.myspace.com/benderbyetone
“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.
Listen here:
http://open.spotify.com/user/littleredrabbit/playlist/1G2nW0tTKUmIoANAR4t14a
Video by HTF Media
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.
Weekend tickets are available from:
Supersonic is produced by Capsule:
Unit 317, Zellig
Gibb Street
Birmingham UK
B9 4AT
