Cloaks Q&A #11
On the 3by3 label, Cloaks play speaker-shredding blasts of dubstep noise.  Beats skip, jump and judder while all manner of found sounds build up into layers of ambient scree.  Cloaks’ music is a harsh listen but all the more devastating and exciting for that.  Here, mainman Steve Harris answers our Q&A.

1. Which five words describe what you know about Supersonic?
Important, unique, raw, adult, anti-hype (substance)

2. What can people expect of Cloaks at the festival?
You should expect to hear a more experimental, noise-driven approach to our music. We will also be predominantly playing unheard material from our album in progress.

3. Why make music – what does it do for you that nothing else does?
That’s a great question, and one I couldn’t ever answer sufficiently.

4. Who else on the bill are you hoping to see?  (And why?)
Part Chimp, Alva Noto, Scorn, White Hills, The Skull Defekts. Supersonic always has a culture of ‘new’ as well so the point of it for me in terms of seeing other acts is all the names I’ve never heard of. The chief reason the festival is so great is that you discover new things so I’m looking forward to being pleasantly surprised.

5. Finally, your essential ‘surviving-Supersonic’ items are…
Earplugs, a large supply of disposable income for the marketplace, promo materials to hand out, spare bag to store all the new stuff you just bought, spare earplugs.

www.3by3music.com

“I volunteered at Supersonic as it seemed a great way to meet people & see plenty of the bands on the roster.

I had a cracking time working with the other volunteers, and meeting some lovely people (Michael Rother was a treat). Plus, Capsule really deserves our help as they consistently puts on some of the best live shows around.”
Ben Martin – volunteer 2010

SUPERSONIC NEEDS YOU!

Capsule’s internationally renowned festival runs 21-23 October 2011 and there are plenty of opportunities to get involved as a volunteer.

We need a dedicated team of volunteers to help deliver Supersonic over the festival weekend (21-23 October) and also in the run up to the festival (early October onwards).

The festival is small enough for everyone involved as a volunteer to gain an overview of how the festival works, and to give real input and value. We expect a minimum of 12 hours over the festival period in exchange for a weekend wristband.

In addition to festival volunteers, we are also seeking a small team of professional quality photographers to help us document the festival.

HOW TO APPLY:

If you are interested in volunteering for Supersonic Festival, please click here to download the application form.

Completed application forms should be emailed to volunteer[at]capsule.org.uk before Friday 23 September 2011. Please mark in the subject line of the email VOLUNTEER or PHOTOGRAPHER.

The first volunteer meeting will take place on Monday 26 September, 7pm where you will be able to find out more about the festival and meet the team.

NB/ unfortunately we can only consider applicants who are 18 years old and over.

Some more exciting announcements for this year’s Supersonic Festival, including music, exhibitions, workshops and films.

Supersonic favourite DJ Scotch Egg will be returning to the fest with his gabba/glitch/gameboy core. Scotch Egg will also be performing with Drum Eyes, memories of their  amazing performance at Supersonic 2009 meant we had to invite them back. DrumCunt will join the bill with their noisy grime/dub infused electronica.

UK electronica outfit Modulate will be bringing an audio visual set whilst Jefre Cantu-Ledesma will perform his own brand of shoegaze. We’re very pleased to announce that Spanish doom band Orthodox will be joining the bill, they merge their love for Sabbath with jazz and folk influences to create an intriguing sound.

We do like things to get a bit filthy at Supersonic hence why we’ve invited Klaus Kinski, a Welsh Arab on Radar who won’t let you stand still and Birmingham’s Backwards, whose  double bass attack is punctuated with free sax improv. Other bands  to add to this agenda are Drunk in Hell, they’re pretty horrible, and that’s a good thing and Selfless, a crusty grindcore band in the true Brummie tradition.

Of course, we want our audience to get their own hands dirty and get involved  – which you can do by joining one of this year’s workshops. Imperfect Cinema invite you to take part in a Super-8 workshop and document your time at the festival, recordings  will then be included in a performance/screening encompassing film, field recordings and an opportunity to share your personal festival experience. Details have also been announced for the Dirty Electronics workshop ‘Mute Synth‘ – The Mute Synth is a noise based device that utilises feedback and explores the relationship between artwork and circuit board. Participants will begin on the workbench, devising the instrument, and move to the stage to explore the instrument and perform through it. Spaces for both workshops are limited, book your place by contacting [email protected].

We’re particularly excited to announce a  very special performance  brought to you by Ore, who merge classical, doom and experimental sounds through the medium of contra bass and depth of brass.

We’ve had exhibitions in sheds before, but never sheds that have been converted into orthodox style churches. Look out for Herman Inclusus and his beautiful illustrations.

Two essential new music documentaries will get exclusive screenings at the festival this year. Still Before is a tour diary of avant rockers Oxbow, exploring  the WHYS of art creation, the touring life and 20 years in, the motivations for continuing the same. Blood, Sweat + Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century focuses on Hydrahead, Neurot, and Constellation and shows historic documentation of these fiercely independent labels and the bands they support.

You can read more info on these announcements and the rest of the line up HERE

They join the current line up of ALVA NOTO / a.P.A.t.T. /AGATHE MAX /ANTILLES /ASTRO /BARDO POND / BARN OWL / BYETONE/ CIRCLE/ CLOAKS /CUT HANDS /ELECTRIC WIZARD / ENVY / 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/ TURBONEGRO/ WHITE HILLS / WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM / ZOMBI / ZU93

Still more to be announced, including day tickets and volunteer opportunities. Watch this space.

SELFLESS – 4 piece, insane politically/socially charged hardcore hardcore/grind band.Lying somewhere between Black Flag/Heresy with a few Discharge riffs here and there…

Songs are high impact,fast,and fucking short in length….

STILL BEFORE is an intimate portrait of San Francisco art brut quartet OXBOW, recorded by their former booking agent, soundman and man Friday MANUEL LIEBESKIND, during two weeks in Europe in late Fall 2009.
Given unprecedented access, Liebeskind attempts to uncover the grinding obsessions, the machinations and the underpinning thought process behind making, playing, and touring on music that embraces art as though its life depended on it. Across five countries, over a dozen shows, and in front of rapt audiences OXBOW, and chronicler Liebeskind, explore the WHYS of art creation, the touring life and 20 years in, the motivations for continuing the same.
STILL BEFORE is filmed entirely on an iPhone with a 640×480 pixel resolution and edited for the screen.

http://www.stillbefore.com

Plymouth DIY Punk Cinema collective Imperfect Cinema will be inviting attendees at Supersonic Festival 2011 to contribute to an alternative documentation of the festival using endangered media technologies!

Participants will receive a workshop, both practical and theoretical, introducing them to Super-8 cinema and lo-fi modes of recording. Participants will then obtain their own recordings of the festival, documenting their experience of the event. Recordings will then be processed and edited to form a screening and performance of the work created.

The workshop will take place on Saturday 22^nd October with exhibition of work taking place on Sunday 23^rd October. This workshop is free to weekend ticket holders, but spaces are limited. Please email [email protected] to book a place on this workshop.

Imperfect Cinema  provides avenues for participatory activity and aims to socialise a free, democratic short-form cinema by valorising do-it-yourself ethics.

http://imperfectcinema.com

“From straunge and dampe woodlands is borne Herman Inclusus, a plagve ridden scholar, chronicler and adept of an unheralded preisthood whoth sanctifies the Despondent. He has brought fourthe his collections of unholy relics and exhvmed icons to illuminate your pervertd souls. Blesseth the sicke. Hail Herman Inclusus. ”

Herman Inclusus is the pseudonym of Stuart Kolakovich. Here he will present new works inside a shed that has been converted to an Orthodox style church.

Stuart Kolakovic was born in the Midlands, UK – home to Black Sabbath and industrial pollution. Graduating from the Illustration course at Kingston University in 2007, his final major project, Milorad, an 80 page comic about his Serbian Grandfather, won a D&AD New Blood Award and came runner up in The Observer / Jonathan Cape, Graphic Short Story Prize.

Since graduating Stuart has worked consistently, consolidating his drawing, inspired and influenced by his Eastern European heritage and it’s folk art aesthetic. Whilst the visual impetus behind his work may be apparent, for Stuart, the need to communicate and to tell a story, is the most important aspect of folk art.

http://www.stuartkolakovic.co.uk/hermaninclusus.html

A Supersonic favourite and Japan’s noisiest export, Shigeru Isihara never completed Tetris as a child. So now he wreaks his vengeance upon the world, armed with a Gameboy and a megaphone. Due to collaborating with just about everyone in the music industry, the Scotch Egg sound is constantly evolving and is bound to touch on something you’ll enjoy. …That is when your hearing finally returns..
http://www.myspace.com/djscotchegg

Rising from the gutter that trickles down Lewisham Way, South East London comes the ever-mighty and ever-so-fucked-up DrumCunt.  Taking cues from grime, garage, techno, noise, rave, digi-dancehall and basically every single Sound(s) of the Universe, DrumCunt is here to save your sorry soul from the lightweight coffee table jingles passed off as “bangers” in these increasingly dark and drizzly days.

Featuring and led by Hey Colossus and Shit and Shine drummer Rhys (CNT1) and augmented by all round fellow Shitter and all round HyperBlackBass Leon (CNT2).

http://www.myspace.com/drumcunt

Orthodox is a trio from Seville, Spain playing experimental doom metal, inspired by religious folklore and even jazz.

“We started with a concept”, could be read in the album cover of the seminal band Earth. The Spanish trio Orthodox could say the same. Their music, their performance, their artwork, everything is made in order to develop their own concept.

Their musical influences Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Melvins and Sleep get mixed with their peculiar perception of the South-Spanish religious folklore. The result is a liturgical music with obsessive repetitions, minimalism, feedback, distortion and endless drones.

http://www.myspace.com/orthodoxband

Klaus Kinski (the band) are 5 lazy people from the North Wales coast and one man from Bury. They have 2 bent guitars, a goth Bass, fur Singer and 2 Drummers (one good, one bad). They currently fart about in Manchester where they like to annoy sound men and the general public by playing the most obnoxious and abrasive music possible at ridiculous volumes, usually half naked and soiled. AnkstMusik, the legendary Welsh independent label responsible for Datblygu and Gorkys Zygotic Mynci signed the band back in 2009 to release 2 7″ records and their debut album ‘Skelington Horse’, which found a fan in Jean Herve Peron of legendary Krautrock group Faust who invited the gits to play at his annual Avant Garde Festival in Shiphorst, Germany this year. Since then the band have played up and down the country too much and just want a cup of tea.

http://www.myspace.com/klausruddykinski

A Heathen gang who draw in your borders and fold them out…One bass disintegrates in the other’s repetitious friction, then feigns attention…The drums collapse, the drums lock…The words are a strange frame…Drunk Songs for the drunk, music for young lovers, music for fuckers, music to polish brass to…

Ore are a drone doom tuba group. The Sound of Ore can be heard where classical, experimental and metal musics engage. The material is rare; a synthesis of musical elements. Ore forge the power and depth of brass with the care of craftsmen. It is the sound of Birmingham: its industrial heritage, metal-working origins and creative innovation.

www.soundofore.com

A Brighton/London based collective arranged around Shigeru Ishihara (better known as DJ Scotch Egg), E-Da (Ex-Boredoms drummer), and K-Power (Ex-power up!) Drum Eyes combine dueling drums, cornets, keys and game boys to form a devastating live show.

Their debut album dropped in September 2010 amidst feverish anticipation in the wake of member’s reputations and the band’s devastation of audiences countrywide with their insatiable, mind expanding live performances including a set at Supersonic festival in 2009.

http://www.myspace.com/drumeyes

Modulate are an audio visual collective who first came together in 2001 through a shared interest in electronic music and abstract art. Over the years, Modulate’s output has had three main strands: curating and producing events and projects, developing their own audio-visual compositions and performances, and creating multi-speaker sound installations. A concurrent theme has been an interest in modulating spaces and creating abstract symbolic realms of sound and audio-visual expression.

http://www.modulate.org.uk

As a member of San Francisco legends Tarentel and Type’s premier astral travellers The Alps, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is hardly a new addition to the label, so it’s hard to believe that ‘Love Is A Stream’ is his first Type solo album. Previously releasing on Arbor, Spekk and his own Root Strata imprint, this latest album marks his journey into the beautifully cacophonous world of dream pop.

Shoegaze music has been much maligned in recent years, probably due to its rebirth and subsequent explosion of popularity (which gave rise to hundreds of young bands aping the over twenty-year-old sound). However it was only a fragment of the genre that these bands attempted to re-create, and on ‘Love Is A Stream’ Cantu, instead of focusing on tired weeping melancholy ballads, focuses solely on expansive, almost noise-ridden hopefulness. This is the kind of noise we fell in love with when My Bloody Valentine blew our ear drums performing ‘Loveless’, or the kind of harmonic excess we heard on hundredth listen to Catherine Wheel’s ‘Ferment’, but taken into deeper, more abstract realms.

http://www.myspace.com/jcledesma

5 piece, loud, riff laden and abrasive noise punk band from the home of the Parmo influenced by BOOZE, DRUGS, SEX, VIOLENCE, VIOLENT SEX, PORN, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION HELL, PERSONALITY DISORDERS, INSOMNIA, PARANOIA, HANGING AROUND WAITING TO SCORE, SCORING SHIT GEAR, SHIT NIGHTS OUT, HANGOVERS, COMEDOWNS, MALNUTRITION, BOREDOM, THE DOLE, SHIT 9-5 JOBS, PUBLIC TRANSPORT, BEING FUCKING BROKE, RELIGION (ESPECIALLY ROMAN CATHOLICISM),, SERIAL KILLERS, LANDLORD CUNTS, ARSEHOLE ‘FRIENDS’, DEAD FRIENDS, SUICIDE, DEATH, MURDER, PARMOS, ETC.

http://www.myspace.com/drunkinhell

Monarch! Q&A
For our tenth Q&A, we welcome Basque country sludge-metallers Monarch!  With some of the slowest tempos and heaviest dirges around, Monarch! promise to be a revelation at Supersonic 2011.  Read on.

1. Which five words describe what you know about Supersonic?
Rob Shaffer : Respected international experimental music festival.
Michell Bidegain : Criminally loud public address systems.
Shiran Kaidin : Eclectic, surprising, loud, classy and crunchy.
Emilie Bresson : Fun, fucking good loud music

2. What can people expect of Monarch at the festival?
Rob S. : Extreme nothingness.
Michell : A 13bpm black mass.
Shiran : Slow and loud vibrations.
Emilie : A slow motion march to the end of all.

3. Why make music – what does it do for you that nothing else does?
Rob S. : Music forces one to exist in the present moment, and provides the possibility of expressing true emotion which listeners could choose to feel as well .
Michell : Denim and leather. No explanation as to why, just a constant driving need to make music.
Shiran : Music is the way to express what cannot be described.
Emilie: It makes me be myself and, for a moment, it makes me forget about anything else but the music we play.

4. Who else on the bill are you hoping to see? (And why?)
Rob S. : There are many legendary performers playing this festival, i am hoping to see zombi because their music makes me feel good, electric wizard for their crushing rythm and volume, zu3 for david tibet, secret chiefs 3 for their non pretentious technicality. i hope to see as many artists as possible really.
Michell : Zombi, Turbonegro, WITTR, Electric Wizard, Secret Chiefs 3.
Shiran : Electric Wizard, TRBNGR, Wolves in the throne room, Bardo Pond and Secret Chief 3.
Emilie : Same here!

5. Finally, your essential ‘surviving-Supersonic’ items are…
Rob S : Good friends.
Michell : Beer.
Shiran : Ears and eyes will be enough I think.
Emilie : My ear plugs.

ORE interview – Sam Underwood
by Ross Cotton

Sam Underwood is a familiar face to the Supersonic stage, after performing in various guises including the manic-acid-circuit-bending Glatze, and the more delicate, electro/acoustic Mr Underwood. This year sees Sam returning to Supersonic as one-third of drone doom tuba band Ore.  Along with Ben Waddington and Stuart Estell, the trio have developed a heavy metal sound, featuring tubas at its core.

“Ore was an idea that me and Ben had in a pub, quite some time ago now”, says Sam. “It was one of those ideas that could have gone nowhere. We spotted the potential and we wanted to take the bass end, very heavy slow riffs. But when it involves two out of three of you learning to play tubas from scratch, that’s quite an epic task”, says Sam.

“Basically Stuart Estell is the only person who’s an accomplished tuba player at the moment.  He’s also heavily into doom metal, which was key. It really required someone open-minded enough to embrace the concept.  He’s writing the pieces as I’m learning how to play”.

Sam also played the tuba at last year’s Supersonic with Lash Frenzy.  “That was the first time I did the tuba stuff live. It serves as a proof of concept!”, he says. “It was an improvised noise gig, and I was playing it through some effects pedals and a massive bass amp. I couldn’t play, but I could make some interesting noises. My decision was to learn an instrument seriously during my year long sabbatical. And because I liked tuba, and because we had an idea for a band, I decided to do that”.

The whole idea of Ore seems to reflect the industrial past of Birmingham magnificently, something that the trio had in mind from the start. “It has it’s influences in all of that”, says Sam.  “Obviously (the tuba) is a massive great lump of metal for one thing, and that’s part of it, they’re a very physical thing to play”.

While this subverted-stereotype of brass instruments will certainly act as a surprise to many who clasp eyes, and ears, on Ore. “We aim to create epic experiences, where people come along and are wowed by the scale, the sound and the sense of witnessing something totally new”, he says. “It’s a luscious, heavy epic vibe, a different vibe to a lot of other stuff going on. But that’s what Supersonic is all about. It’s the blend of acts put on that’s pretty unique”.

Make sure you don’t miss Ore and their blend of heavy doom tubas as part of this year’s line-up.  Sam Underwood recommends you check out:  “Secret Chiefs 3 (I really like the mix of influences they bring to bear), ZU93, Fire! With Oren Ambarchi, Tony Conrad, Pekko Kappi and Alva Noto”.

http://www.soundofore.com/

My Pecha Kucha 20×20 – Birmingham 01/02/11 from Sam Underwood on Vimeo.

This captivating documentary is the product of five years of obsessive filming of live concert footage, exclusive interviews, and historic documentation focusing on three fiercely independent music labels and their bands.

Featuring Neurosis, ISIS, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Pelican, Oxbow, Evangelista, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, Cave In, and many others whose music and art found ideal homes in the artist-run record labels of Hydrahead, Neurot, and Constellation.

These labels combine hard-to-define, heavy music with a visual aesthetic that has enraptured worldwide fans, without the need for radio or corporate media outlets. They uphold the legacy of treating music as an art form, not as a product.

This film is an answer to those who question where the spirit of punk rock is today.

Over 20 bands and visual artists.
3 record labels.
1 philosophy.

“Blood, Sweat & Vinyl provides a keen glimpse into crucial corners of the modern music universe where corporate concerns are disregarded and the artists are given (and receive) the respect they deserve.”
– J. Bennett, Decibel Magazine

“It’s a goldmine of exclusive footage for fans, but it’s also a compelling piece for curious onlookers… It’ll make you proud to listen to this music.”
– Etan Rosenbloom, www.metalsucks.net

http://www.bloodsweatvinyl.com/

Blood, Sweat & Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century (Trailer) from kenneth thomas on Vimeo.

As the weeks get nearer to Supersonic Festival 2011 we present no2. in our series of podcasts, lovingly created by Chris Downing for your listening pleasure and to give you a taster of what will be on offer as part of our program this year. LISTEN HERE

Playlist

Hello Bastards –Part Chimp
Whirly-Bird – Silver Apples
Matter – Alexander Tucker
Four Violins (1964) (Edit #1) – Tony Conrad
Vinum Sabbathi – Electric Wizard
A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. – Teeth Of The Sea
If I Took Your Hand – Fire
Balance Of The 19 – Secret Chiefs 3
Splice The Mainbrace – Slabdragger
Dreams Coming To An End – Envy
Maatunut – Circle
Xerrox Sora – Alva Noto
Erinys – Zu
Oli Mulla Aarre Kallis – Pekko Käppi
The Echo From The Purple Dawn 2 – Astro

Weekend Tickets can be purchased from HERE
For more info on our line up see HERE

Supersonic Q&As : White Hills

Hopefully you’ve kept up-to-date with all our artist Q&As.  They’ve kept us pretty busy here at Capsule HQ, so we’re thankful to the lovely people at The 405 for doing this Q&A with kraut-glam-space-rockers White Hills.  You’ll want to clicky-click this link here for all the action.

http://whitehillsmusic.tumblr.com/

Current 93 – recent live show available for free download

David Tibet of Current 93 is performing at Supersonic 2011 as part of Zu93, a collaboration with the Italian death-jazz outfit Zu.  Current 93 performed early in August at OFF Festival in Katowice, Poland and the entire set has been made available for a Tibet-authorised free download by Hennessy Williams.  Just follow the link to the Current 93 site Coptic Cat below.

http://www.copticcat.com/

Simon Fowler – interview with an illustrator/printmaker
by Ross Cotton

London based illustrationist and printmaker Simon Fowler has been commissioned to design a poster for this year’s festival. Previously creating pen and ink works for the likes of Earth and Sunn O))), Simon returns to Supersonic after debuting his art in 2010 for the From Light to Dark exhibition.

“(Last year) was the first time I attended Supersonic”, says Simon. “It’s the festival I’ve enjoyed the most, because it’s curated by people who really care about what they’re doing. I’ve met so many people; it’s just an incredibly well crafted event”.

Simon has also developed a keen creative relationship with previous festival performers, dub-psych duo Devilman. “Within a year, I’m 80% of the way through the artwork for their album”, says Simon. “I think this Devilman piece has been one of the most enjoyable. “It’s an idea that I had quite a long time ago and it fits perfectly with their music. I’ve been able to put more time into it rather than a typical commission. It’s nice to be crossing genres and not just being pigeonholed in metal or doom”, he says.

“Music plays the biggest influence in my creative process”. Fowler’s analogue artwork seems to have flourished extensively over the last few years. A journey that is well and truly rooted with contemporary musicians. “I’ve been working with Stephen O’Malley since about 2009, he’s one of my main collaborators,” explains Simon. “That’s knocked on into doing stuff for Earth. I did the artwork for the reissue of their first album last year, and I’m working on a poster for Wolves in the Throne Room at the moment. I was given a brief a couple of weeks ago from them, giving me the visual ideas they had to tie in with their album. I haven’t actually heard the album, so it’ll be interesting to see their performance (at the festival) against what I’ve created”.

Though Simon often feels that viewers sometimes misinterpret the ideologies of his art. “A lot of people try to describe my work as being dark, but I don’t necessarily see it like that”, says Simon. “I think it’s more expansive, and maybe its just the music it’s associated with; connotations of darkness. I thought it was quite natural, reflecting natural environments and the detail that’s in those environments, taking something that could be industrial on the surface, quite ugly, but if you really analyse all of the individual elements, you kind of see the beauty and geometry within that”.

And what are Simon’s plans for the future? “For the rest of the year, I’m going to be talking to Dylan Carlson and working on a project of his, not necessarily Earth but something he’s thinking of doing”.

Simon Fowler recommends you check out: “Fire! with Oren Ambarchi (it looks pretty eclectic!), Tony Conrad, Cloaks and Scorn”. Check out Simon Fowler’s poster design at the festival, and be sure to bring an extra bit of cash for a print!

Simon Fowler’s Cataract Operation site