It has been 23 years since the collective of punk rock pirates June of 44 have performed on the UK soil, and they chose Supersonic as a perfect way to reintroduce themselves.
“We’d been asked a few times throughout this very long period to reconvene for a short tour or special event in England,” Jeff Mueller told us, “at no moment did it ever seem quite possible until Supersonic expressed interest in us for their 2020 edition. At the time, we had little knowledge of the festival – upon scratching the surface, it felt like the ideal place for us to re-emerge in the UK. There is an honest, gritty, hard-working, direct carefulness with the way it seems Supersonic has been built and continues to develop – in both its curation as well as its organization. The approach resonates with us, it’s attractive and runs adjacent to the way June of 44 digs to construct itself.”
“Additionally, we’d be remiss to not at the very least mention what an honour it will be to perform in the birthplace of such incomparable, deep inspirations as Black Sabbath, John Bonham… from Broadcast to Steel Pulse, so much extraordinary music has bloomed out of beautiful Birmingham.”
The band has not been active for two decades since they released 6 albums in the 90s, but 2021 saw their return with a brand-new record under a chunky title ‘Revisionist: Adaptations and Future Histories In The Time Of Love And Survival’. The songs are a cauldron of electronic, post punk and soft metal influences, and the styles change even within a single song. Listening to them is interacting with the unexpected – you have no idea what sound will follow, but it never disappoints.
Supporting them will be an extraordinary drum duo Rattle. That’s right – with an occasional vocal harmony, Rattle only use drums in their songs, some of which are as long as 12 minutes and take you on a trance-inducing journey. Rattle have been praised for their ‘hypnotic minimalism and ecstatic regard for the dance floor’. Using just two drum sets, they never run out of new sounds – each song is bizarre and certainly unprecedented.