“If someone commissioned you to write a history of noise music in the last 20 years and not mention Kevin Drumm, you’d have to reject the offer. Since the mid-90’s, Drumm has recorded for almost every experimental label you can think of, from Erstwhile to Mego to Hanson, and played with almost every experimental musician you could namedrop, from Jim O’Rourke to Lasse Marhaug to Aaron Dilloway. Most importantly, he’s made every sound imaginable. Primarily with guitar, but also synthesizers and laptops, Drumm has created his own musical universe in which no sonic stone needs to go unturned.” The WIre

 http://recreationalpanick.blogspot.co.uk/

It would be near impossible to celebrate 10 years of Supersonic without PCM. This duo have been at the heart of the Birmingham electronic/dance music scene for many years but have managed to keep their music and ethos resolutely underground.

PCM draw from their wide-ranging influences from metal to Krautrock, 60s psychedelia and hardcore to create a unique take on Drum & Bass/electronica. By combining nitrous-fuelled beats and filthy subsonic basslines with alien soundscapes and horror movie unease, PCM continue Birmingham’s heritage of producing dark, heavy music but with their eyes firmly on the dancefloor.

http://www.myspace.com/p_c_m

My Disco is a musical collaboration between Liam Andrews (bass, vocals), Rohan Rebeiro (drums) and Ben Andrews (guitar) that formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2003.  Named after the Big Black song, they create almost euphoric, trance inducing guitar music.

http://www.mydisco.com.au/

Masami Akita performs as Merzbow. Since 1979 he has been a hugely influential practitioner on the fields of sound art, noise and extreme music. Abrasive and restrained in equal measure, Merzbow is  considered to be the most important artist in noise music.

http://www.merzbow.net/

Tokyo based KK Null (Kazuyuki Kishino) is a multi instrumentalist and experimenter. As well as being part of a number of influential progressive rock bands, KK Null has played an important role in the relationship between rock and extreme music/noise.

http://kknull.com/en/

A unique energy, Jarboe’s music draws from a variety of charged sources. Her 14-year involvement with Swans cemented her place as an icon in avante garde music and she has worked prolifically as a solo artist and collaborator since. Her delivery has been described as voice acting and also channeling. A primary objective for Jarboe is to close in on the gap in the audience/performer relationship via complete submission and vicarious experience through her performance.

Jarboe will be bringing her “Intimate Indemnity” tour to Supersonic Festival 2012. This tour will feature Jarboe and classically trained pianist Renee Valentine Nelson performing songs of Swans and World Of Skin and solo Jarboe songs from her newest records entitled Indemnity 1 and 2 and will focus on singing, melody, intimacy.

http://www.thelivingjarboe.com

“We don’t know who they are, or how many of them there are, because articles about them are generally accompanied by celebrity photo montages, or by a shot of them with a T-shirt pulled over their heads. Enigmatic and elusive, they may have named themselves after the US video director because they enjoy his work, or it may be a wry comment on something or other. We have seen them spoken of as an “18-year ‘relay project'” in which members pass on the baton one to another once their endeavours are complete. We really haven’t a clue.

Hype Williams take elements from the past and turn them into something new. You’ve heard that said of many artists before, right? This time it’s true. We like to let our imaginations run riot and think of them as a latterday Throbbing Gristle, a bunch of art terrorists doing abusive, subversive things to mainstream pop culture from the margins.” The Guardian

http://www.myspace.com/hypheewilliams

“Hookworms fling themselves headlong into classic 80’s/90’s psych-rock like they’re trying to break something. Hailing from Leeds and cramming themselves giddily within the well established formal properties of the genre, they walk the scorched road behind Loop, Spectrum, and any other titan of two-chord songs who’s ever slowly wah-ed a chord until they saw colors.” – Cameron Stallones (SunAraw/Sun Ark)

http://hookworms.bandcamp.com/

“Hey Colossus are the closest thing the UK has to inheritors of the crown of the Butthole Surfers…. like the whole Texas Chainsaw Massacre family drunkenly shouting along to Neu! and Loop during Ragnarök” Stool Pigeon

http://noisestar.co.uk/colossus/

Apathy is everything to these five losers who’ll just about manage to turn up and play without being sick.
Lo-fi grit and metal maledom are fractured and recombined into monotone slabs which reference distaste for modern life as much as they poke fun at the traditions of the punk/hardcore idiom. Still barely functioning after four years of staring at the walls and occasional live performance, the band will finally have their debut album and a split 7″ record with Kilslug in tow with them for the latter part of 2012. All proceeds will be spent on plastic surgery.

http://drunkinhell.bandcamp.com/

You know who these men are. They have been other men. Who they were before does not matter. What matters most is who they are now. These men, with two menacing guitars, violent drums, and wild words will fill that void in you. They will build bunkers out of your bones. They will make weapons out of your teeth. They will drink your tears and feed on your meat. Born from the ashes of Arab on Radar, Doomsday Student come from that untouchable tradition of noise rock from Providence, Rhode Island.

http://www.doomsdaystudent.com

Clifford Torus is Anders Hana (Moha!, Ultralyd & Noxagt) on drums and electronics with Leon Barnett (Horacio Pollard, Neigh%Music) on guitar & vocals.
Heavy, hypnotic, drenched in feedback and driven by a super charged rhythm, Clifford Torus deliver a mesmerising multi-layered rhombus harsh noise, rattle your brains to pieces drums and shamelessly long effects boards to spawn boundless intertwining grooves of pure honey-gore.

For this performance, Clifford Torus will be bringing the mighty Kjetil D Brandsdal of Noxagt for bass duties.

http://cliffordtorus.blogspot.co.uk/

Unpredictable guitar combo pairing Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and free-noise guitarist Bill Nace.

KIM GORDON

A founding member of Sonic Youth – where she plays bass and guitar and sings, Kim Gordon has also been involved in numerous collaborations with other artists and musicians including Julie Cafritz and Yoshimi in Free Kitten, Mirror/Dash with Thurston Moore and others including Lydia Lunch, Vincent Gallo, and Yoko Ono. With an extensive history in the world of art, both as an artist, writer and curator Gordon has maintained ongoing creative relationships with visual artists such as Dan Graham, Raymond Pettibon, Mike Kelley, Jutta Koether and Richard Prince and exhibited her own installation work across the US, Japan and Europe.

BILL NACE

Guitarist Bill Nace has ripped a new black hole in the free rock universe as a constant, energising presence in the Boston area performing with Chris Corsano in Vampire Belt (and together with Jessica Rylan as Vampire Can’t), Thurston Moore in Northampton Wools, x.0.4 with Jake Meginsky & John Truscinski and a coruscating duo with free reed player Paul Flaherty. His collaborations even extended to a short-lived association with Brighton noiseniks Dylan Nyoukis & Karen Constance (aka Blood Stereo) under the Ceylon Mange moniker.

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe is an artist and multi instrumentalist working with voice in the realm of spontaneous music Through collaboration Robert has worked with such artists as Lucky Dragons, Alan Licht, Lee Ranaldo, White/Light, Kevin Martin, Tyondai Braxton and Genesis P-Orridge.
http://www.lichensarealive.com/

If you prefer old SST label cassette tapes or an early Spaceman 3 cassette you recently found wedged in the back seat of your car to super slick modern day music production, you may dig Carlton Melton. Their music is recorded live inside a geodesic dome, and is entirely improvised.
http://carltonmeltonmusic.com/

Godflesh, Head of David, Napalm Death, Techno Animal, Jesu, Greymachine, Palesketcher – just some of the projects from the insanely prolific Justin Broadrick, who in his new relationship with 3by3, raises his Techno Animal moniker JK Flesh from the dead for its debut full-length outing, to once again prove his mastery of all things brutal. 
Soul-crushingly dark beats and bass, layered with Broadrick’s inimitable guitar and vocal fuzz, providing a stark contrast to 2010’s Palesketcher output, that will resonate with fans of Godflesh and the post-dubstep landscape alike.
justinkbroadrick.blogspot.com/

Legendary Earth guitarist Dylan Carlson recently set out to pursue a solo endeavour, up to now he has released a cassette as drcarlsonalbion but there still remains an air of mystery and much anticipation as to what direction this solo musical endeavour will go next. For Supersonic, he will be teaming up with a number of other musicians including Teresa Colamonaco on vocals, Michael York on bagpipes, and Rogier Small on snare drum.

http://drcarlsonalbion.wordpress.com/

A collective who hail from a small and very remote village in deepest, darkest Sweden, Goat produce heavy, afro psych punk, with absorbing percussion. Old tales of voodoo and curses from their village Korpolombolo inspires their music. One to watch!

http://goatsweden.blogspot.co.uk/

ZENI GEVA is a Japanese prog-hardcore band, led by singer and guitarist KK Null, a pioneering group of innovators and legends.
ZENI GEVA was founded in Tokyo in 1987 and quickly found a dedicated fan base in Europe and the US. Their popularity in the west enabled ZENI GEVA to be one of the first Japanese bands to tour in Europe and the US with bands like Neurosis, Melvins, Dazzling Killmen, Don Caballero, Eyehategod, Pain Teens, Shellac, Bastro, Crash Worship and more.

http://zenigeva.jpn.org/

Canadian based composer and sound artist, Tim Hecker has spent the last decade inhabiting a unique intersection between noise, dissonance, and melody. In his varied and celebrated works, digital and organic sources tightly intertwine. The immense power and menace of his live shows make Hecker a contemporary master of volume and texture.

http://www.sunblind.net/

Born in the gutter of Baltimore County, raised in the sludge of the Copy Cat. Dope Body was born ad mist the post-hype of Baltimore underground. They are a collage of musical styles encapsulated by a classic (noise) rock structure. Rather than compare their ferocity to another contender, just know that Dope Body is punk spelled other-wards and standing on its hands,

There new full length (Natural History) is releasing May 2012 with Drag City.

http://dopebody.tumblr.com/

BOHREN (English translation: Drilling)

If you enjoy it slow and low, Germany’s  Bohren & Der Club Of Gore will very likely do the trick. In fact, with each subsequent release the German quartet’s music grows increasingly refined.

Bohren are often dubbed doom-jazz, though this hardly defines the sound. Consider, maybe, the recent crop of jazz-oriented Rune Grammofon releases, then remove 1/2 of the notes and replace any and all folksiness with foreboding minimalist dirge and a Sunn 0))) streak. Now, mix in some John Cage, because Bohren & der Club of Gore are masters of silence, using space and shadows to create (and maintain) dynamics. They appeal to listeners of black metal as well as drone. But for all of that gloom/doom, one  could also see them appealing to fans of minimalist ambience and spare electronics, as well those who enjoy adventurous “out” jazz. But regardless of your genre identification, you’d do best to concentrate, and let it work its way into your head. Time is on their side.

http://www.bohrenundderclubofgore.de/

Rangda is named for the Javanese demon queen of the leyaks. This power trio is an instrumental psych rock and no wave-styled noise unit. Its members are guitarists Sir Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls) and Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire) and drummer Chris Corsano.

While perhaps not as fearsome as their evil, child-chomping witch namesake, Rangda rustle up some wickedly extreme sounds on the six improv-noise blowouts and psychedelic reveries woven into their debut ‘False Flag’, many of which could curdle your marrow if you’re not careful.

http://www.myspace.com/calonarang

The primary musical project of guitarist Ben Chasny, formed in 1998 in northern California. Chasny’s music is largely guitar-based, however it includes eastern influences, marked by drones, chimes, and eclectic percussive elements. The band is associated with numerous current scenes, most notably the New Weird America movement.

http://www.sixorgans.com/