Far more evolved than the constraints of ‘jazzy noise’ or ‘synth-screamo’, Rolo Tomassi leap confidently from genre to genre. Moments of oddly-timed chaos flow comfortably into sanguine prog-rock workouts, otherworldly, alien noises sit happily alongside bass-led doom riffs. It’s eclectic stuff – without ever sounding disjointed.
And yes the majority of the band may only just be adults in the eyes of the law, but any issues people might have with this have been abolished by the bands obvious talent, drive and work-ethic.
www.myspace.com/rolotomassi

The Outcrowd Collective have become a regular fixture at the Supersonic Festival, contributing some kind of strange scribbled visual backdrop to compliment the delightfull noises drifting through the air.

Their shambolic visual network continues to evolve and this year they spread their tentacles a little further by inviting some other arty friends via Studio4 Gallery to come and do a bit of colouring in.

So look out for our Studio4 stall, a skate ramp installation with Ideal as well as some live painting going on over the weekend all based around this years theme, ‘Creatures Of The Night!’. So do come and give us a painty fingered high five if you the taste of our eye candy.
www.studio4gallery.blogspot.com
www.outcrowdcollective.com

2.15 Thrill Jockey Archive
A grab-bag of music videos plucked from the vaults of Chicago’s Thrill Jockey records, including work by Fiery Furnaces, Tortoise, Tunng, Mouse on Mars and OOIOO.
www.thrilljockey.com

2.45 Existing Conditions, part one
A short series of films and talks presented by Eastside Projects, a new artist run space opening in Birmingham later this year.
www.eastsideprojects.org

Ivy Meet Mike (Mark Titchner, 2007)
Video work by the Turner-nominated artist, overlaying archive footage of Atomic bomb tests to create an orgasm-like release of energy.

File Under Sacred Music (Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, 2003)
London-based duo Forsyth and Pollard restaged the mythical 1978 gig played by the Cramps at Napa Mental Institute in California, and then created this blurred, grainy document of the event.

4.00 Talk/performance: Boys And Their Toys
Three presentations by sound artists with a common interest in modifying and repurposing musical instruments or music-making devices.

Yukio Fujimoto
This Osaka-based artist describes his interactive artworks as ‘philosophical toys’, using music-boxes, treated vinyl and electronic equipment to explore the way we receive music.
www.shugoarts.com

Brian Duffy
Through work with Modified Toy Orchestra and ZX Spectrum Orchestra, as well as his own circuit-bending practice, Duffy mines the hidden potential of redundant technology.
www.warmcircuit.com

In collaboration with Ikon

6.00 Performance: Pierre Bastien
French composer who built his own instruments from an early age; his Mecanium Orchestra was entirely made up of Meccano machines which play a range of instruments from around the world. Today Bastien presents a performance and installation as part of Vivid’s Flux-Fest season.
www.pierrebastien.com

In collaboration with Vivid

7.00 Nosferatu (dir: FW Murnau, Germany 1922)
A new live soundtrack to Murnau’s classic expressionist horror, written by Matthew Eaton (Pram, Micronormous) and Grandmaster Gareth (Misty’s Big Adventure) and performed alongside other members of Misty’s.
www.myspace.com/theshadowofthevampire

8.45 Existing Conditions, part two

The Limit (Laureana Toledo, 2005-8)
World premiere of a film about The Limit, a Mexican cover band formed by Laureana Toledo who only play songs from bands native to Sheffield; Def Leppard, The Human League, Joe Cocker, Pulp, ABC and The Arctic Monkeys. Based in Mexico City, Toledo is currently on a residency at Eastside Projects working on a project called Wanted: Bass Players Called John. (If you’re called John and play the bass, get in touch.)
www.eastsideprojects.org

9.45 Fantomas-Melvins Big Band
London, 2006. A unique coming-together of Mike Patton’s metal ‘supergroup’ Fantomas and big-haired sludge trio The Melvins, for one unique performance. Supersonic presents the first ever public screening of the live movie which emerged from the event, released on DVD this August with a commentary by none other than Danny DeVito.
www.southern.net

10.30 Kipple
Extra slices of video offal

11.00 Soft Focus
More highlights from the Vice interview series with Ian Svenonius asking the questions.
www.vbs.tv

Pierre Bastien

www.pierrebastien.com
Installation as part of FLUX FEST at Vivid 24th June – 13th July

Performance Sunday 13th July

Theatre Space

At VIVID French composer and multi-instrumentalist Pierre Bastien presents a robotic ensemble comprised of household object. Instead of music instruments, the robots creates sounds out of an array of household objects including a teapot, comb, toothbrushes, a saw, an ashtray, scissors, a letter-scale and a hammer.

In collaboration with Vivid. Dedicated to the development of contemporary media art and interdisciplinary practice, VIVID supports and commissions research, new works, publications and provides a resource for artists and curators.

Opening 12-5.30 Wed to Sun Free Admission
140 Heath Mill Lane . Birmingham
www.vivid.org.uk

Bee Stung Lips
Spewed up from the murky depths of Birmingham at some point in mid 2006, Bee Stung Lips is a four-headed hideous beast, with blood-shot eyes and tentacles stretching far back into the Midlands music scene. They create a provocative mixture of wilfully abrasive noise and viscera-shredding rock n roll. Rapidly garnering a sizeable reputation for their infamous live performances, they are currently rampaging across the UK in a whirlwind of chaos, phlegm, and bare flesh. It’s only right that they will be our first release on Capsule Records.
www.myspace.com/beestunglips1

Calvados Beam Trio
Whenever people mention Calvados they always throw in the term post rock but for me this Brummie three piece have their roots in experimental jazz and dub as much as taking influence from the likes of Slint or Tortoise, always exciting their rhythmic post everything improv is always a joy to watch.
http://www.myspace.com/calvadosbeamtrio

Chrome Hoof
Features CATHEDRAL bassist Leo Smee who has brought together a veritable orchestra of musicians decked out in futuristic monk’s robes kicking it like some unholy hybrid of SUN RA, GOBLIN, PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC and BLACK SABBATH, complete with choreographed dancers, actors taking vaudeville interludes, and a twelve foot tall metallic ram dominating the dance floor.
http://www.myspace.com/chromehoof

Crippled Black Phoenix
Brainchild of ex – Electric Wizard drummer Justin Greaves who enlisted the help of Mogwai bassist Dominic Aitchison as well as a myriad of gifted musicians. Together they produce amazing film score inspired chamber music; epic in scope and slow burning. This resonates with emotion and a passion that transports you away to times forgotten.
www.myspace.com/crippledblackphoenix

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Duracell
Andrew Dymond, is a one-man band from Lyon, France. Initially an artist that only played live with a drum set, a trigger machine, and a synthesizer, Andre said he started Duracell because “he didn’t exactly think about starting a one man band, just the music was there,” and he was heavily influenced by US noise rock act Lightning Bolt.
www.myspace.com/andreduracell

Esquilax
This performance at Supersonic will be their last ever live show. Usually a duo, their unpredictable nature has often created the possibility of any number of people playing any form of music, with live sets sometimes ascending to a beautiful chaos where people are compelled to shake, scream, walkout or even threaten the band.
This is not the end for these brothers, other projects will continue including Horror Pillow, Dream Dreams The Dreamer to name but a few.
http://www.myspace.com/esquilax666

Jazkamer
Since 1998 Norwegians John Hegre and Lasse Marhaug have been making sound together as Jazzkammer. Ex members of Enslaved and Manngard and for this performance they will be enlisting the help of Noxagt member Anders Hana. Utterly vast in it’s unrelenting scope, their music collides grindcore, extreme doom, 80’s thrash and Glenn Branca-like black metal soundscapes into a seething hulk of pulsating vitriol that is nowhere near as savage as that description would lead you to believe.
www.jazzkammer.com/

Miasma and The Carousel Of Headless Horses
Featuring members of British band Guapo this instrumental quintet plays dark, antiquated sounding music encompassing elements of Eastern European folk, avant-rock, neo-classical film composition and elements of progressive bands such as Goblin. Their music is exciting and could easily be the soundtrack to an Alejandro Jodorowsky film.
www.myspace.com/headlesshorses

OM
Formed by Al Cisneros (bass/vocals) and Chris Hakius (drums), both founding members of legendary doom pioneers Sleep. OM released their album – Conference of the Birds in 2005. Comprised of two songs that build on their use of cyclical rhythm, riff and vocal intonation, the duo’s new album blends metal, chant, drone, dub and psychedelia. The band’s lyrics expound upon the structure of the universe, potentiality and freedom from the physical body.
www.myspace.com/variationsontheme

Modified Toy Orchestra
Brian Duffy has been a stalwart of the circuit-bending scene for a number of years now. He set the bar pretty high for the MTO, his remit was only to use discarded kid’s keyboards and talking toys to modify and circuit bend them beyond their original capabilities. Making perfect pop songs from imperfect instruments.

The new incarnation of the orchestra, consists of Laurence Hunt (Pram) Darren Joyce (DOTB) Mike Johnston (Plone, Mike in Mono) Joe Leach and Chris Plant.
www.myspace.com/toyorch

Mogwai
Majestic, beautiful and utterly inspiring – just some of the adjectives used to describe this legendary post-rock band from Scotland. Mogwai at Supersonic has been a long time coming and this show promises to be very special indeed. There is a beauty to their music that few come close too.
www.mogwai.co.uk

Bela Emerson
Passionate and exciting, both musically and visually, Bela Emerson captivates audiences with her unique performances using electric cello, realtime samples and guitar effects. Her solo performances are the stuff of legend: spontaneous, intense, and exhilarating. Layers of rhythm and sound are created from every bit of the instrument, to spellbinding effect.
www.myspace.com/belaemerson

Migrant
Migrant create electro-acoustic sound sculptures through live improvisation. The trio – sound artist Helena Gough, Simon Mabbott (Black Galaxy) and Nicholas Bullen (ex-Napalm Death / Scorn) – use a combination of laptops, live performance software, prepared guitar and amplified objects to generate a sonic landscape of shifting soundfields which encompass sparse electronic soundbeds, languid tone drifts and abrasive digital broadcast storms.
www.monium.org.uk

Fuck Buttons
They are a gloriously intense and euphoric yet challenging and confrontational with their music. They deliver layers of noise and intricate melodies but are not afraid to drone out and create slabs of sound.
http://www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons

Oxbow presents: Love’s Holiday Orchestra with special guests Stephen O’Malley, Justin Broadrick, Dave Cochrane + Chipper
Eugene Robinson and Niko Wenner, the singer/lyricist and songwriter/architect of Oxbow’s mean mania, the duo make music a thing of rarefied beauty using little more than the rudiments of guitar and voice for the non-electrical rendering of a terror no less absolute because of a lack of volume.Exorcising demons, gang fights and classical guitars.
For Supersonic they will be collaborating with a number of special guests for a unique and exclusive performance.
www.theoxbow.com

Drop The Lime
Born and raised in New York City, Drop the Lime (aka. L. Venezia), began recording music at an early age. Inspired by the local rave scene he had grown up in, Venezia bought a pair of turntables and began DJ’ing jungle, drum&bass, and Techno. Expect four to the floor bangers spiked with Grime and Growling Bass Techno, while he drops his soul styled vocals.
http://www.myspace.com/dropthelime

Pharaoh Overlord
After last years performance by Circle we just had to get their other project to the festival. This is pretty much a perfect cross between the hypnotic riff-repetition and rhythmic pulse of Circle and the super heavy doom vibe of Kyuss-worshippers Natas! Psychedelic metal of the highest and heaviest order.
www.circlefinland.com/cirphara.html

Kid 606
KID606 aka Miguel Depedro, born 1979 in Venezuela and raised in California. Critically acclaimed releases (both legal and illegal) on Ipecac, Mille Plateaux, Fatcat, and  his own tigerbeat6 label as well as remixes for artists as disparate as Depeche Mode, The Locust, Peaches, and Super Furry Animals. Kid606 is an inspired, angry and iconoclastic artist more concerned with emotional content then popularity and unwilling to be pigeonholed in any vacant scene or soulless musical genre. It should be noted, however, that he is primarily inspired not by his electronic contemporaries, but by his love of the Industrial music, Death metal, and Industrial metal of the 1980s and 90s, particularly bands like Godflesh and Napalm Death.
http://www.myspace.com/kid606

QUI
The Los Angeles trio is Paul Christensen on drums, Matt Cronk on guitar, and David Yow. If you’re a Scratch Acid or Jesus Lizard fan, Qui sounds like a grungier sampling of both, with a little psychedelic stoner rock thrown in. Awesome riffs, pounding heavy beats and Yow snarling like he means it.
www.myspace.com/qui

PCM
PCM are Neil Harvey and Nik Wells and since their inception in 1990 have been mainstays of the Birmingham music scene, they deliver an uncompromisingly dark and aggressive take on drum and bass that is all their own, while still managing to instill a huge amount of dancefloor friendly breaks through the brutality of their music, this is a chance to see them in their most favourite environment, a dark, sweaty venue, late at night where they don’t have to take any prisoners.
http://www.myspace.com/p_c_m