Zuism

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‘One of the most progressive no-wave metal bands ever to come out of Italy…Zu often sounds like a hundred bands in one, although the way they piece together their wild sonic jigsaw is unique to them alone.’PITCHFORK

For over fifteen years, ZU’s modus operandi of straddling and abusing musical genres has resulted in over fifteen unique album releases across labels such as Ipecac, Atavistic and Headz (Japan).
Their experimental amalgam of metal, math, no-wave, noise and electronics, led acclaimed composer John Zorn to describe their sound as “a powerful and expressive music that totally blows away what most bands do these days”.

 

 

Luca T. Mai, Massimo Pupillo and Tomas Järmyr began as composers and players for theatre performances then formed this atypical trio of drums, electric bass and baritone saxophone to begin their voyage of musical mayhem.

In the running for the title of ‘the world’s hardest working band’, ZU have performed over 2000 shows throughout Europe, US, Canada, Asia, Russia, Mexico and even Africa, touring with the likes of  Mike Patton (as the Zu/Patton quartet), sharing the stage with Faith No More, Fantomas, The Melvins, Lightning Bolt, Sonic Youth, The Ex, etc.

They have also collaborated with a vast number of musicians including Mike Patton, The Melvins, Dälek, Jim O’ Rourke, FM Einheit (Einsturzende Neubauten), Peter Brötzmann, Steve MacKay (The Stooges), The Ex, Thurston Moore,  Stephen O Malley, Damo Suzuki (Can), Mats Gustafsson, NoMeansNo, Joe Lally (Fugazi) and our very own Supersonic fave, Eugene S. Robinson (Oxbow) also performing at the festival this year.

 

‘Zu are still on top form when blasting arse-loosening sax cries over grinding math-metal structures…unassumingly loud, and intensely physical, wrestling with the listener in a swarm of noisy sax blasts, gnarly riffs, and often surprisingly catchy math themes.’ DROWNED IN SOUND

Five years since their last full length on Ipecac, the critically acclaimed Carboniferous, and following a three year hiatus, ZU returned in May 2014 with the release of a brand new EP, Goodnight Civilization (Trost Records) featuring Gabe Serbian of The Locust on drums, and subsequently with an album with Eugene Robinson of Oxbow on vocals called “The Left Hand Path”, also on Trost, and the 2015 full length “Cortar Todo” on Ipecac.

Recorded in the countryside near Bologna, Italy, in the summer of 2014, the album features very special guests including keyboard player Joey Karam (The Locust), Italian guitar maverick Stefano Pilia (who plays with the likes of Mike Watt, David Grubbs and Rokia Traore) and perhaps most unexpectedly a field recording of an indigenous Shipibo medicine man recorded by Massimo during his travels around the Amazon forest.

For a review of Cortar Todo from Line of Best Fit click [here]

And for an interesting article on the intrinsic and fascinating link between indigenous maestros and album, Cortar Todo, click [here]

 

Cortar Todo revealed new dynamics from the band, the album is more direct, sharp, focussed, more intense and musical than previous Zu releases. And now they’re back with a brand new album. ‘Jhator’ shall arrive on the label in March 2017 followed by an extensive European tour – just in time for Supersonic!

A statement from the band reads: “In making this album we have tried to affirm life, beauty and mystery. We refocus the vision in another direction far from the Western point of view.” The result is an album that “could be the beginning of a new musical direction for Zu, or perhaps an isolated album capturing a particular essence.”

Jhator follows Zu’s brilliantly primordial Cortar Todo, and it’s available for pre-order on CD and coloured vinyl over at the House of Mythology store right now. A new promo video for the album features a short clip of new music. What a tease!

 

“Wonder is the beginning of philosophy”Wittgenstein

What wonders will Zu bring to our Supersonic audience this year?

Make sure you’re there to find out.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

http://www.zuism.net

 

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Raime: Re-establishing EDM

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‘Raime are past masters of sombre carnage, and this here is their moment.’THE QUIETUS

Raime are Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead, a London-based duo seeking to re-establish electronic composition as a physical and emotionally inquisitive force. Since the turn of the decade, via a stunning debut album, three sold-out EPs and a string of imperious live outings, Raime have honed an aesthetic all of their own.

According to Pitchfork, the music this London based duo creates is ‘the soundtrack to a lonely night out’. Since their debut with Quarter Turns Over A Living Line, Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead have become avid contributors to the growing popularity of bleak, minimalist electronic music.

Raime’s musical grounding lay in Detroit techno, jungle, and bass music but drawing from an eclectic array of influences, they leave the interpretation of their own concoctions to the rumination of the listeners. Why settle for EDM when you can channel 80s industrial and goth techno? 

“When you first listen to techno and you come across Detroit, the whole universe opens up”

Amid the dark, industrial post-rock influenced textures, unsettling beats pulsate like a throbbing headache in your temple. Conjuring up imagery of a barren dystopia, piercing dissonances interject the anxious layers of electronica and moody guitar lines.

“It was great to find this area of music that was even more bonkers [than techno], but that came from people like us – from some dude in Norwich banging something.”

Read about Raime’s quest for RAWNESS with The Guardian [here]

Raime’s second album, Tooth, arrived in June 2016. The widescreen melancholia of their 2012 debut, Quarter Turns Over A Living Line, has given way to an urgent and focussed futurism, in the shape of eight fiercely uptempo, minimal, meticulously crafted electro-acoustic rhythm tracks. The DNA of dub-techno, garage/grime and post-hardcore rock music spliced into sleek and predatory new forms.

‘It’s a spare, near-monochromatic palette, well fit for its immediate purpose. The result is an album that takes its lead from bands like This Heat and Ike Yard but boils their urgency down to a throbbing core of contemporary dread, all the propulsive rhythms tied up in knots.’ RESIDENT ADVISOR

If Quarter Turns was an album that confronted total loss and self-destruction, even longed for it, then Tooth is the sound of resistance and counter-attack: cunning, quick, resolute; calling upon stealth as much as brute-force. It is bold and original new music: staunch, rude, and way out in front.

Raime recently returned with a new 12″ single for Blackest Ever Black in the last week of February this year, featuring two new tracks, recorded after last year’s Tooth album…and it sold out fast. But a new batch is ready which you can purchase [here]

Sneak peak here:

“Dance music has always been the backbone of our influences so propulsion comes pretty naturally, but we really started getting into bands a lot more over the last seven years or so and experienced what they can offer dynamically. We thought it might create more immediacy and ultimately move our sound on. We realised that we wanted to change the way we were saying things, lay a few old tropes to rest and try something new, ultimately learning how to make records according to different rules.”

With this in mind, we can’t wait to see what Raime will do for their live set. What physical force will they assemble to express their punishing rumble of gothic dub to our Supersonic audience? You’ll just have to wait and see!

GRAB YOUR TICKETS NOW!

More from Raime [here]

 

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Princess Nokia: HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!

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IT’S INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

LET’S CELEBRATE PRINCESS NOKIA

INCREDIBLE ARTIST

ROLE MODEL

BIG SISTER

From the New York underground, Princess Nokia bursts out with a vibrant, fiercely independent blend of hip hop. Infusing african drumming, obscure jazz melodies, pop driven electro synths and sub drops that vibrate you to your core, this ambitious artist creates a universal language that will talk to all kinds of people. Her vocal support of queer, transgender, womanhood and fem sexuality have gained her critical acclaim and support in the music world from other QTPOC rappers such as Mykki Blanco and Le1f. Nuanced by 90s style New York rap but free to roam into whatever fields she deems fit to express her subject matter, this progressive alter-ego of Destiny Frasqueri will no doubt entice our Supersonic audience.

Not that you need any more, but here are some more reason’s to absolutely love her:

SHE’S A MASSIVE BITCH

 

EDUCATED AND PROUD OF HER CULTURE

 

 

SHE PROMOTES SELF ACCEPTANCE VIA HER ART

 

 

SHE HAS FACED MANY HARDSHIPS. SHE DEMONSTRATES HOW WE CAN ALL BE VULNERABLE. WE CAN ALL BE RESILIENT. THE TWO GO HAND-IN-HAND THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES. IT IS WHAT MAKES HER AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE.

 

 

MANY LABELS WANT HER. BUT HER STYLE IS DIY. SHE IS FORGING A CAREER WHICH WILL UNDOUBTEDLY REACH GREAT HEIGHTS. ON HER OWN. NOT ‘ON THE ARM OF NO MAN.’ THIS IS HER ROLE. THIS IS HER TRIP.

 

 

JUST LOOK AND LISTEN TO HER LATEST RELEASE
JUST LOOK
JUST!

 

 

We love you Princess Nokia!

We can’t wait to have you here with us at Supersonic 2017

Have a wonderful International Women’s Day!

SUPERSONIC TICKETS ON SALE NOW

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Oxbow: The Next Chapter

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‘A primal jam, fuelled by pure carnal libido, so get together with some inclined bodies and slap skin together.’ – PITCHFORK

Once again, heading for us like a freight train – the almighty avant-rock giants Oxbow.
***AND HERE IS THEIR BRAND NEW VIDEO FOR TRACK ‘COLD & WELL-LIT PLACE’ FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM ‘THIN BLACK DUKE’ OUT MAY 5TH***

‘The quiet kill off the country road, the time before the time when everything went wrong and the last 16 hours of that great love affair are the seminal beginnings of OXBOW.

Designed to be the last aural will and testament of failed humanity, OXBOW actually garnered listeners from among the ranks of the fucked, with their 1989 release FUCKFEST. Followed by KING OF THE JEWS (1991), THE BALLS IN THE GREAT MEAT GRINDER COLLECTION (1991), LET ME BE A WOMAN (1995), SERENADE IN RED (1996), AN EVIL HEAT (2002) LOVE THAT’S LAST (CD+DVD) (2006), THE NARCOTIC STORY (2007) as well as various singles and dance remixes, OXBOW has met with increasing critical acclaim and popular support.’

 

The OXBOW core membership — DAN ADAMS/bass, GREG DAVIS/drums, EUGENE ROBINSON/voice, and NIKO WENNER/guitars+keyboards — has been supplemented by the subtle stylings of LYDIA LUNCH, KLAUS FLOURIDE, JARBOE, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, RICHARD KERN (SONIC YOUTH et al), JON RASKIN from the ROVA SAX QUARTET, and a string section that would make Barry White wince. 

Though claiming San Francisco as their hometown, OXBOW performed first in London, England in 1990 and have toured Europe and the U.S and almost every other place people will pay them to hear them play extensively for nearly 3 decades. With their unstoppable DIY brute force they have carved new paths in the global underground of alternative noise rock, across which their fans follow loyally.

The experimental outfit is music for the damned, drudging onwards in their quest of carnage.Their notoriety comes firstly via the arresting music they churn out and secondly via their tempestuous live shows, led by carnal pit-fighting gentleman – Eugene S Robinson, with his heavy handed heckler response tactics and striking fearsome onstage presence.

 

Champions of the scene they hailed from, with a fierce aversion to label politics and demanding their own artistic freedom, the band run their own independent record label, CFY Records.

Oxbow’s 2007 album The Narcotic Story was named the number one album in the “Best of 2007” by Rock-A-Rolla magazine, and was listed with three other bands’ albums in the nomination of Joe Chiccarelli as ‘Producer of the Year’ at the 50th Grammy Awards. Regular collaborators with Steve Albini, Eugene and Nikko Wenner bring us their well-oiled monstrous machine of sound, built from a plethora of knowledge from nearly 3 decades of expedition through the alternative underground of music.

But not ones to rest on their laurels, they continually experiment with new ways to express the Oxbow story. Their multi-dimensional music has seen various set-ups, collaborations and even an Oxbow Orchestra – which we were graced with at Supersonic 2012.

Oxbow‘s trademark elements…the jagged-edged noise rock foundation, the bluesy/Led Zeppelin-ish overtones, and Eugene Robinson‘s squirming vocals (somewhere between a Baptist preacher and an unhappy two-year-old).’ ALLMUSIC

And now, they add a new dimension.

The OXBOW CHOIR INTRANSIGENT

The tendency in the face of the unbelievable is to not believe it, and is if our perpetual faves Oxbow didn’t tend this way enough, they return to SUPERSONIC 2017 with an ensemble of two parts — the band accompanied by a chamber choir and volunteer vocalists — who will perform notated Oxbow music, carrying the crucial elements of what constitutes the Oxbow experience into terra unknown. Absolutely and totally exactly what a religious observance should look and sound like.

In the coming weeks we will be telling you more about this one-off SUPERspecial performance and doing a call out for volunteer vocalists!

One time only. Not to be missed!

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

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Melt Banana: Peeling yer face off!

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If you fancy having your face peeled off by some speed-of-light grind core – Melt Banana will be firing up our stage with their inferno of noise rock at Supersonic this year.

The band, thoughtfully, have an FAQ section on their website…which we’ll dip in and out of on this blog to give you in the ins/outs straight from the horse’s mouth.

Q: Who is MELT-BANANA?

Answer: Main factors of MELT-BANANA are YAKO, who is singer of the band and writes all lyrics and some of the songs, and AGATA who plays the guitar and writes most of the backtracks of the songs. So far, MELT-BANANA has been helped by many musicians, such as:

SUDOH, TOSHIAKI / RIKA HAMAMOTO / ONOTETSU / KIKUCHI / OSHIMA (aka Watchman) / NATSUME / OBOKATA (aka Obiwan) / SAKATA / DAVE WITTE / TERADA / YOKO KUROSE / UKI / INOMATA / TARO TATSUMAKI (with MxBxLite)

Since forming in 1993 the band has released 13 Albums, 28 EPs, appear on numerous compi’s/collabs and have toured worldwide extensively, winning high profile fans such as Steve Albini, Kurt Cobain and Lou Reed. Their first Peel Session in 1999 was described by the man himself as ‘Simply one of the most extraordinary performances I have ever seen and ever heard…just mesmerising, absolutely astonishing.’ and still they continue to stun live audiences around the world today with their raucous energy.

Q: What type of music?

Answer: Some people say they are noise band, some people say they are so-called no wave band, some people say they are hardcore band, some people say their music is like roller coaster in an amusement park… It is hard to categorise their music, but basically they are rock band with a spice of punk taste. The easiest way to find out is to listen to their music.

Hurtling their way through thrashing cymbals, sirens, lasers, firework guitar riffs, with Yaka’s vocals biting chunks into the frenzied texture, this band is not for the faint hearted. No strangers to greatness, having toured with Melvins and Napalm Death, Melt Banana rose from Tokyo’s ferocious underground with their unorthodox, unclassifiable and undeniable brilliance and continue to jack-hammer the brains of punks, metal heads and beard scratchers a-like with their relentless aversion to sitting still.

‘Melt-Banana have remained like an eye of a hurricane that’s 10 times crazier than the hurricane itself.’PITCHFORK.

Q: Is Yako singing in Japanese?

Answer: I am singing in English, and you can find all of the lyrics inside of CD booklets if you are interested. When I first started singing in a band, I was singing in Japanese, but I changed to English. I thought that English would fit more to my style of singing.

Q: Which album makes you frothy?

Answer: Human beings can live because they can forget things that they don’t like.

Q: What is your motto/philosophy?

Answer: For today, jump before you look.

Jumping, nay, diving-head-first-straight-for-the-jugular is something Melt Banana are particularly well versed in. A common feature in their live set is a succession of seriously short songs which get straight to the point.

Perhaps this is an influence of musical pals Napalm Death – who on album Scum recorded the shortest ever punk song coming in at just 4 seconds long. A longstanding kinship between the two bands has most recently seen a split 7inch released on Record Store Day in 2016 featuring 2 tracks on each side. Available [here]

Since releasing their debut 7’EP Hedgehog in 1994, Melt Banana have played with varying line-ups but it’s Yako and Agata’s unique compositional flair which has lead them through the years and given them the notoriety they so deserve. The duo have cemented themselves as pioneers of noise-rock.

The studio album Fetch, released September 2013, saw the band transition to a duo which they now tour as live and somehow still sound and perform as if equipped with army of noise makers behind them…

‘Japanese noise assassins Melt-Banana may well have been thrashing out blistering rockets of screeching, avant garde, hardcore for well over twenty years now, but my gawd do they still feel like a pulverising assault on the senses.’ THE LINE OF BEST FIT.

Don’t you even THINK about missing Melt Banana at this year’s Supersonic.

Don’t. You. EVEN.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

Oh and one more important thing to note:

Q: What is your favourite type of sandwich?

Answer: Avocado.

http://www.melt-banana.net/

 

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ROUND-UP: Steve Davis | Graham Dunning | HelloCatFood | Rocky Steps

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Saturday night saw…well, there aren’t really any words.

So instead here’s a 50 second video roundup of the bat-shit-crazy-alternative-grownup-discotheque we put on at The Hare and Hounds the other night…

So that’s that!

Huge thanks to the fascinating Graham Dunning and his Mechanical Techno set, Antonio Roberts (aka HelloCatFood) for providing the mind-bending visuals, Rocky Steps for his incredible warm-up set for the main event – Steve Davis – what an unbelievable 3 hours of experimental party music he gave us!

And a huge thanks to The Hare and Hounds for hosting the event and including us in their 10th Anniversary Series!

We’re just about recovered.

(just)

Steve Davis: https://www.mixcloud.com/interestingalternative

Graham Dunning: https://grahamdunning.com

HelloCatFood: http://www.hellocatfood.com

Rocky Steps: https://rockysteps.uk

Hare & Hounds: http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL NOW

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Laura Cannell: Fragments

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“Laura Cannell conjures a sonic portal between the past and present.”The Wire

Critically acclaimed instrumentalist Laura Cannell deconstructs her bow to produce haunting melodies from her violin and deconstructs our stuffy view on the recorder by blowing through two simultaneously and harmoniously with gusto. In doing so, she constructs a flourishing fragmental sonority heralding the ancient, traditional music of the instruments into the present through experimental improvisation.

Her sensitivity, emotiveness and wild flare will transport you into a new realm of tranquil solitude. 2016 saw the release of Laura’s third solo album Simultaneous Flight Movement to critical acclaim, appearing in numerous end of year lists.

Where did she come from? Based in rural East Anglia, Laura Cannell’s work draws on the emotional influences of the landscape whilst simultaneously breathing new life into lost and forgotten melodies from the 5th – 14th centuries.

Long self-taught sessions alongside dedicated training gave Laura a foundation to build upon, but it is her fearless strive to break away from rules and tradition and her thirst for collaboration and experimentation that elevates her body of work to courageous peaks.

“At school, I used to play for medieval banquets in a haunted pub in Bungay. But I just get bored of there being rules, I don’t like being told what to do. And I’m really anti-twee. People think: ‘Recorders, how lovely!’ But they’ve got balls and energy – they can really bite.”

For more on the Woman blowing Recorder prejudice away click [here]

With longstanding time spent in the highly regarded Horses Brawl duo as well as her Early Music missions, Laura then went on to pastures new. She has since collaborated with electronic musician Hoofus, plays in new trio Oscilanz with Ralph Cumbers (aka Bass Clef) and has worked with renowned drummer Charles Hayward (This Heat) to name but a few. She even founded her own record label Brawl Records in 2005.

“She is uniquely able to fuse inspiration with interpretation, delivering scintillating, programmatic works in miniature based on everything from Homerically florid psalms to the pioneering music of the 12th century apothecary, scientist and theologist Hildegard von Bingen. Obscurity is no boundary here.”The Quietus

For an interview with Laura from The Quietus click [here]

Laura’s dexterity, determination and devotion to seeking the new is culminated in her all encompassing 3 solo albums. Beginning with Quick Sparrows Over the Black Earth released in July 2014 where haunting chords move the heavy air of the church as fiddle drones drift across the flatlands of East Anglia in single-take atmospheric improvisations, she has continued this stylistic approach to recording.

Her latest release Simultaneous Flight Movement was recorded on the day of the EU referendum in single takes inside Southwold lighthouse.

“I went to the Methodist chapel round the corner to do my vote, and then stood in this enormous tower that looks out over the sea, playing fragments of music from all over Europe. Thinking about it going up through the tower, going out past the prism in the top, I just thought about all these ridiculous borders we’re putting up between each other. I was standing there, firmly planted, thinking, ‘Please don’t go!’”

“As soon as something begins to sound like a genre, I begin to lose interest.”

This March sees the launch of a new performance series at Cafe Oto [Modern Ritual] exploring ideas of ritual through music and words, evoking real and fictional landscapes. Featuring solo sets from Charles Hayward, Laura Cannell and Hoofus and a new collaboration between Laura & Charles. More info [here]

Then this June, Laura Cannell graces us with her glorious sound at Supersonic Festival – a performance not to be missed!

GRAB YOUR TICKETS NOW!

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Jenny Hval: Fluidity

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“NOT SAFE IS HOW ART EXISTS. NOT SAFE FOR WORK IS THE WORK.”Jenny Hval

Returning to our stage once again with her rapturous sound, Jenny Hval. She is an artist who’s extensive archive projects a stunning mass of expression; music, literature, visual & performance art, all coalesced into one body.

The New York Times defines her writing as “taking a scalpel to the subjects of gender politics and sexuality.” and with her most recent album ‘Blood Bitch’ co-produced by noise artist Lasse Marhaug, she boldly continues on with her incisions with delicate precision.

Gender fluid, Art-form fluid and Physical fluid. Fluidity itself is an ideology which flows through Jenny’s artistry.

With early beginnings as vocalist in a gothic metal band called Shellyz Raven, to studying creative writing and performance in Australia, Jenny arrived back in Norway in 2006 and released her debut EP Cigars which was nominated for a Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian equivalent of Grammy awards).

Adopting the name Rockettothesky, she then went on to release two studio albums – To Sing You Apple Trees in 2006, and Medea in 2008. This is where we could try and define the earlier albums and their genres and outline the progression into the mix of genres Hval has arrived at now…but this would be counterintuitive to the representation of Jenny as an artist, as her interdisciplinary art cannot simply be pigeon-holed into music genres, or even ‘experimental’.

“…it’s a disease to call everything experimental because everything is experimental…I mean, it’s experimental to live! So that’s why I keep returning to ‘I make pop music’. It’s also because I’m not so interested in being put anywhere, and that’s not because I think it’s wrong to be put in boxes when an individual writer says something about my work. That I don’t think about so much. The fact that I’m asked so much and people seem to be so in need of placing music on a map….you can ask me but I think it’s maybe more fruitful to turn around and ask why do we need to? And why do we need to say ‘Jenny Hval is not pop music?’ Why is that so important to us?”

Rather than genre, there are coherent themes in Jenny’s work, spanning the audio and visual. Her artistic voice is altogether present, accessible and obscurely complex at the same time. Much like in her interviews, she turns and questions the audience.

Her live show has gradually progressed from a more traditional live band set up to an avant-garde performance with costumes, dancers, speeches and live DJ. This seems to be a return to the art forms she originally studied and a more organic vehicle to deliver the messages within Hval’s complex art; as a performer, she seems totally free.

Under her own name, the prolific artist has released 4 more albums, Viscera (2011), Innocence Is Kinky (2013), Apocalypse girl (2015) and in 2016 most recent album, Blood Bitch. The latest release seemingly encapsulates many of her previously visited themes; artistic ritual, failure, capitalism, blood – but this time through a different, more positive, playful gaze.

“where Apocalypse dealt with, ‘you look at yourself in the mirror and you fail’, this one is like ‘oh, but I can walk through the mirror’ and there’s a crazy, creative realist world there I can partake in instead.”

With the release of numerous captivating online video’s to accompany the tracks and a newly curated show, Hval has innately created an alluring atmosphere around this album with her collaborators.

For an in-depth interview with Jenny visit [here]

Jenny Hval and co. brought the new show to UK audiences last night in London and collaborated with the incredible make-up artist Lone Taxidermist. Check out the Instagram [here] for a sneak peak into what’s to come at Supersonic Festival this year.

We anticipate that after her performance this June we will all be in awe and questioning, in the words of Jenny herself taken from her last tune on the Blood Bitch album, ‘Lorna’:

“Does anyone have any language for it? Can we find it?”

Do not miss her set at Supersonic. Tickets on sale now. With group ticket offer available: 5 for the price of 4. [here]

SEE YOU THERE!

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HelloCatFood: ReRightingCopyRight

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“Everything is a remix. Lots of people’s ideas are always formed from others.” – Antonio Roberts

This Saturday, March 4th, in association with Hare & Hounds 10th Anniversary Series, we bring you Steve Davis DJ set with support from Graham Dunning and his Mechanical Techno Set and local producer/DJ – Rocky Steps. Such a stellar, alt-DJ line-up would not be complete however without some mind-bending live visuals to boot.

Hellocatfood is the alias of Antonio Roberts, a New Media artist and Curator based in Birmingham, UK. His artwork uses glitch art, hacking and technology-driven processes to explore issues surrounding copyright, remixing and free culture.

Roberts’ technically complex and playfully innovative work combines programming, video and collage (both digital and physical).

He has provided visuals for the likes of MTV, Com Truise, Elmo Sexwhistle, Henry Homesweet, My Panda Shall Fly and has exhibited work at Loud Tate 2014. Aside from shows in the UK, Roberts has exhibited his animated GIFs and audio-visual works as far away as Iran, France, and the United States. He is an Associate Curator at Vivid Projects and Lecturer at University of Westminster.

Roberts is involved in the debates around Creative Commons and sharing upon which the Open Source community is founded. 

“I think Copyright is a mess because it tries to dictate how we should be creative. Creativity is free-flowing. Copyright, and its cousins patents and trademarks, justify their existence by saying that these restrictions encourage innovative new ideas but what they do is just stop us.”

For an in-depth interview with Antonio regarding What rights in Copyright? Click [here]

Antonio is also a part of Algorave: The Live coding movement that makes next-level electronic music. Although not a music creator, the artist generates responsive visuals that keep in line with the coding aspect of Algorave. As he writes, “the main point is that it’s all crafted live.” To understand more visit [here].

As if all this wasn’t engaging enough, the highly-active artist has also just announced a new exhibition which he is Curating at Leicester’s Independent Cinema, Art Centre and Café Bar – Phoenix – this April/May.

Delve further in to Antonio’s archive [here].

We’ve no doubt that HelloCatFood will elevate this night of weird and wonderful music to an all encompassing, SUPERsonic and visual experience – so come get your glitch on.

[Here] is the Facebook event page

GRAB YOUR TICKETS [here]

and don’t miss out on our 4 for £40 offer available online only!

 

 

 

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Graham Dunning: Mechanical Techno Set

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“IT’S LIKE A BADLY-OILED MACHINE, A MACHINE THAT IS ALMOST FALLING TO PIECES.”Graham Dunning

On March 4th in association with Hare & Hounds 10th anniversary series we bring you the ultimate alternative DJ night. With headliner Steve Davis, snooker champion turned Alt-DJ cult hero paired with live visuals from HelloCatFood and support from Graham Dunning with his Mechanical Techno Set, we’ve no doubt this avant-garde-discotheque will exercise your body and your brain.

Graham Dunning works with sound, processes and found objects visually drawing upon dirt, dust and decay, evoking notions of memory, collecting and archiving. Dunning’s work sonically remixes cultural off-cuts, often utilising the unwarranted noise inherent in vinyl and cassette playback.

A self-taught artist and musician, his work explores sound as texture, timbre and tactility, drawing on bedroom production, tinkering and recycling found objects.

Dunning’s background in experimental music informs his approach into whatever audio, visual, physical piece of art he is creating; experimentation and play being a main part of the process.

“My work explores time and commemoration: How people store their memories, in personal archives – photographs, audio journals, post-it notes – and what becomes of those archives. I find discarded objects interesting in themselves, for the stories that they suggest or that can be read into them. Collecting things has always held a fascination for me, both to do myself and to look at the way others do it.”

This enthusiasm in ‘the way others do it’ is probably what makes this artist such an avid collaborator. From musicians, to producers, to multi-disciplsinerary art groups such as A.A.S – Dunning, in his art-form fluidity, has created a patchwork quilt-esque archive: offering something for all kinds of art-appreciators.

Flick through his website [here]

Recently Dunning’s performance project Mechanical Techno – a teetering stack of collaged vinyl interspersed with physical interventions and extended phonograph needles – has drawn accolades from sound art and music festival scenes.

The installation of the Mechanical Techno set is an incredible thing to watch come to life; Graham is gradually joined on stage by some abstract lo-fi R2D2 sound machine, fully responsive but slightly out of whack, with it’s own chaotic wit. 

Dunning speaks fondly of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, who referred to dub as “the ghost in me coming out” and with his own brand of techno he certainly unleashes a whole new entity into the a-typical DJ night.

For an in depth interview with Graham from ATTN Magazine click [here]

This is set to be an unmissable, mind bending night of dance. For more info. click on the Facebook event page [here].

[TICKETS ON SALE HERE]

AND DON’T MISS OUR EXCLUSIVE OFFER OF 4 FOR £40Limited online only so get in quick!

 

 

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Colin Stetson: Musical Athlete

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‘…feels like music I’ve been subconsciously craving without even knowing it exists.’ – PITCHFORK

Colin Stetson was born and raised in Ann Arbor and spent a decade in San Francisco and Brooklyn honing his formidable talents as a horn player eventually settling in Montreal in 2007.

From early beginnings in experimental jazz group Transmission Trio:

 

Stetson has gone on to collaborate with artists such as Tom Waits, Arcade  Fire,  Bon  Iver,  TV  On  The  Radio,  Feist,  Laurie  Anderson,  Lou  Reed,  Bill  Laswell,  Evan Parker,  The  Chemical  Brothers,  Animal  Collective,  Hamid  Drake,  LCD  Soundsystem,  The  National, Angelique Kidjo, Fink, and David Gilmore – to name but a few.

But above all, he is a solo artist in his own right, who has crafted a unique sonic & visual experience through avant garde and extended techniques, equipped with an eclectic musical palate.

On his solo work, The Quietus says Colin ‘has totally eclipsed the flare of these heavyweights with a series of brutalist yet ambitious and exhilarating records’. He produces enigmatic, physical, strenuous music which courses and caterwauls through a reminiscence of dark jazz, post-rock and industrial electronica.

Colin has perfected the technique of circular breathing and with his live shows, literally ties himself to the grizzly beast; as the performer and instrument grapple together in a hypnotic whirl they almost blur into one.

I guess where it started to get interesting for me was when I realised you didn’t have to only learn from or mimic other players of your chosen instrument, regardless of what it might be. So much more can be gleaned if you do the same thing with other instruments and different sound sources entirely.”– Colin Stetson

For an fascinating interview with Stetson about Mastering the Flow click [here]

Considered a prodigy in his teens, Colin was thrust in to the limelight; in freshman year he was instantly playing in a sax quartet and the main symphonic band whilst majoring in visual art. He speaks of how during this time ‘the challenge to live up to the hype is quite real.’ and as a result he has maintained a solid work ethic throughout his life, ‘it was just an all-intensive and personally challenging regimen, which pretty much sets you up for a lifetime of living that way.’.

When it comes to mastering an instrument in the way Colin has, many may envisage a vitamin D deficient recluse locked away in a dark room running scales until their fingers drop off. Practice is of course a huge factor but also the physical demands of performing in this way requires peak fitness – and Colin is something of a musical athlete.

Natural ability, practice, eclectic palate, work ethic and artistic collaboration are what contribute to creating this intriguing, well rounded musician but something which ties this all together beautifully is the immediate emotivity you hear when you put on a Colin Stetson record or watch him perform.

It was his long standing dream to work with musical hero Tom Waits. One hazy early morning in his San Fransisco home at the age of 23 the phone rings, Colin drearily answers and it’s Tom Waits on the line. He’s got his number through a mutual friend, bassist Matthew Sperry. This friend had changed the course of his life. For the next year and a half Colin and Matthew played regularly in Tom Waits’ band until one day, Colin received another life-altering phone call saying Matthew had been hit by a car on his way to work and had been killed, leaving behind a wife and 2 year old daughter. The much-loved Matthew’s untimely death had a profound effect on Stetson as he states:

“I tell the first part of the story to set up the second part of the story – what we think is all important and life-altering events when we’re young, they pale in comparison to the things that actually do touch us on a real meaningful level and change us in ways that I think are long lasting and are actually what we should be looking for in our lives.”

Such sentiments and sensitivity can certainly be heard in Colin’s rich, all encompassing sound.

Listen and watch his most recent release from the forthcoming album ‘All this I do for Glory’

Out April 28th 2017

[pre-order here]

 

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

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Arbouretum: Mystical Landscapes

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About to release their 6th studio album ‘Song of the Rose’, the prolific Arbouretum continue to wonder on through the wilderness of rock. Since their first release in 2004 the band have been perfecting their craft of storytelling in song, both lyrically and sonically.

Signed to the fiercely independent label Thrill Jockey records, Arbouretum have been called “the best of the millennial classic rock bands, a guitar-fuzzed powerhouse.” Hailing from Baltimore US, the band travels through the ever changing landscape of alt-rock with effortless motion. From brooding Americana, to dark folk, sludge, doom, psych-rock and a fleck of prog, the expanding structures lead us from the mystical, poetic lyrics of David Heumann, told over grinding grungy riffs, into guitar solos which wind into improvisations between a group of respectful players painting a vivid sonic picture in homage to their predecessors.

THE QUIETUS described 2013’s album ‘Coming out of the Fog’ as ‘..the album Neil Young and Crazy Horse should have delivered instead of the disappointing Psychedelic Pill.’

Arbouretum’s lyrics explore elements of philosophy, mysticism, redemption, and the implications of human “progress.”

“Heumann is the kind of songwriter who, when he slips in a lyric about a tree or a bird or a running river, seems to have actually observed such objects, not just read about them in books. There’s something elemental about his fuzzed-drenched, Americana-infused anthems, something both grounded and deeply mystical.”- Jennifer Kelly, Pop Matters

2011’s album The Gathering was part inspired by the ‘The Red Book’ written by philosopher Jung in 1913 and throughout the course of his writings Heumann has continued to muse over the bigger questions whilst meandering through picturesque landscapes which his Instagram mostly reveals.

“If you look at creative people throughout history, one thing that many of them have in common is going on walks. I like to put myself in that company. I prefer the scenery of the natural world than that of the human-made world. So, in that sense, it does inform my writing, though not in a literal way.” – David Heumann

From their forthcoming release, titular track “Song of the Rose” completes a trilogy of songs from past records, calling back to “Song of the Nile” and “Song of the Pearl,” which have their roots in examining Taoist and Gnostic mythic traditions. Fittingly, “Rose” is also a nod to Heumann’s ancestor Richard Lovelace, a 17th century poet who penned “The Rose.”

The glimpses you can hear of the forthcoming album sound like a scrap book of all the best tales the band have delivered so far on their 5 previous albums, woven together with a new, contemporary finesse, having recorded for the first time with Kyle Spence at his studios in Athens, GA (Kurt Vile, Luke Roberts, Harvey Milk).

Click [here] for a more in depth interview on the new release.

So, Supersonic Festival goers, come and venture through the mystic landscapes of Arbouretum this June – we know you’re bound to get lost!

Preview full track ‘Fall From an Eyrie’ off their forthcoming album, ‘Song of the Rose’


TICKETS ON SALE NOW! 

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Listen back to The Supersonic Take-over Show

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On Friday night we hosted our first Supersonic Take-over Show on Brum Radio.

Over 2 hours we delved in to the first 10 acts to be announced for this year’s festival. Listening to tunes from the artists, their influences and interesting sound bites & interviews.

This is SURE to get you in the mood for our festival this June!

Big thanks to Brum Radio for hosting: www.brumradio.com

REMEMBER, tickets on sale NOW!

AND we have a special group ticket deal on with 5 weekend tickets for the price of 4 – so round up the troops!

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John Carpenter – live at Warwick Arts Centre

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Supersonic Festival are delighted to be partnering with Warwick Arts Centre to bring to the Midlands a night with John Carpenter live, on Thu 27 Oct 2016, 8pm.
Tickets are available www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/choose-seats/?PerformanceId=13129

John Carpenter is a major cult film-maker, musician and film music composer. He is a true film polymath, often directing, screenwriting, producing, editing, composing and playing. His films have included; The Thing, Assault on Precinct 13, Dark Star, Big Trouble in Little China, Halloween, Escape from New York and Starman to name a few.

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Supersonic Festival 2017 launch party

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Capsule have been busy behind the scenes, and are happy to announce the return of Supersonic Festival in 2017.
There’s much more information to follow in the coming weeks, in the meantime, we’re pleased to announce an official launch party on 4th and 5th November in the intimate surroundings of the Centrala Gallery space in Birmingham to celebrate the return of the festival.

The launch, much like the festival, features a variety of exciting talent which Supersonic would like to shine the limelight on, including local musicians and artists from across the globe. This event is the first of manu collaborations with Milque & Muhle, be warned capacity is super limited and advanced tickets are advised.

Xylouris White

Details as follows:-
SUPERSONIC 2017 LAUNCH PARTY
FRIDAY NOV 4TH LINEUP:
Xylouris White (Jim White from Dirty Three + George Xylouris, Cretan lute player)
Sex Swing
Mothwasp

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SATURDAY NOV 5TH LINEUP:
Giant Swan
Rattle
Kuro
Bismuth
Rainbow Grave
Stinky Wizzleteat
+ Sausage DJ’s
Milque & Muhle pop up record stall

Centrala
Unit 4 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley Street, B5 5RT Birmingham

Tickets – https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk/tickets/supersonic-mini-weekender/10042028

 

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New Circuit des Yeux album streaming now

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I must leave behind trying to dominate a room with just my voice and guitar, because a sea of people will always overpower one woman, and I can’t afford to be slaughtered night after night. I no longer want my guitar to be used as a weapon.

Chicago-based experimental musician, Haley Fohr, aka Circuit des Yeux, plays Supersonic on Saturday 13 June. Haley is one of those artists whose talent and vision is so complete that it feels as if you are being drawn in to another world. We’re hugely excited that she is joining us this year and we think we’ll be talking about her for many years to come.

You can now stream Circuit des Yeux’s new album, In Plain Speech at FACT.

Individual day tickets for the festival are available from here

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The Pop Group Stream New Album

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TPG_lead_1 Photo by Chiara Meattelli & Dominic Lee - Hi Res

Post-punk trailblazers The Pop Group release their first album in 35 years next Monday, February 23.

The Pop Group are performing at Supersonic Festival Ltd Edn this year, which runs Thursday 11 – Sunday 14 June. Ahead of this, the album, entitled Citizen Zombie, is being streamed now at factmag.com

Tickets are available for Supersonic Festival now via our Kickstarter campaign. We’re nearly at 95% of our target so do have a look and pledge your support. As well as combination festival tickets at earlybird prices, there are some great extra special prizes up for grabs too.

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Supersonic 2015 – suggestions

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We know you love this bit! Send us your suggestions for next year’s Supersonic. We always like to hear your wishlist, and don’t be afraid of being bold and brazen, heck one year we had Goblin AND Corrupted AND Thorr’s Hammer perform.
Here’s a little taster of our 2014 edition

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Market place & Food stalls

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“Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival occupies an exalted position at the vanguard of the festival circuit. And rightly so. Since its inception over ten years ago, it has maintained a staggeringly focused and intelligent curatorial policy, transcending the music and art worlds to present a programme teeming with invention, audience participation and a certain amount of unpredictability. It’s also a bloody good knees up.”  The Skinny

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Supersonic Tea Towel

Supersonic Market Place
A space for independent distributors, record labels 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 merchandise. This area is equipped with a tearoom serving a selection of epicurean delights.

Stalls include:
Cold Spring The UK’s premier label, mailorder and distributor for Industrial and related music: Esoteric, Dark Ambient, Power Electronics, Noise, Ritual, Japanoise, Soundtrack, Neofolk, Doom and experimental music.

Edgeworld Formerly the Go-To choice for Alternative Vinyl in Brighton, now operating on a Pop-Up basis at select South Coast haunts and a Supersonic regular.

Melophobe Records Buyer and seller of good quality vinyl records specializing in Indie, Post Punk, Noise Rock, Metal and Free Jazz!  

Milque & Muhle Independent record shop specializing in new and second hand underground music, books and cassettes.

Lancashire and Somerset A humble record label, living in the hills of shropshire.

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Food & Drink
Throughout the weekend brand new venue Alfie Birds will be serving gourmet pizzas and cocktails. In addition:

Friday
Just a 3 minute walk from the festival, we recommend Digbeth Dining Club.  Offering up some of the best, freshest and tastiest street food you can find in the city. Located at: SPOT*LIGHT, UNIT 2 (OPP. AIR NIGHTCLUB), LOWER TRINITY STREET, DIGBETH, B9 4AG

Saturday
We’ll have two street food stalls for you to chose from. The Mexican Bean – Mexican fast food, Healthy and delicious. Canoodle – Pan Asian Food.

Supersonic Bar
We’re delighted to be serving Purity Ales and Addlestons Cider as well as Plantation Rum – remember folks the Supersonic bar helps to subsidise the festival so do your bit.

Cash Machines
If you fancy picking up a new record, tee, poster, zine etc. and grabbing some food whilst you are at it, then make sure you have cash on hand to avoid paying ATM charges on site!
There is one cash machine on site at H&S News – this machine will charge you £1.78 per withdrawal. The nearest free cash machines are located near-by (5 minutes walk) at: Nisa | Digbeth High Street | B5 5NR and Birmingham Coach Station.
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Supersonic inspired mix by Basic House

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A huge thanks to the very talented Basic House who has created this awesome mix inspired by past and present Supersonic line up’s for Thump. See Basic House perform on Friday 30 May at the festival. There are still a handful of tickets left via theticketsellers

Tracklisting:

Coil – Where Are You?
Crawl Unit – You Suffer
Sleaford Mods – Donkey
Famous Moonking – MK4
Basic House – Canon Lo
Pharmakon – Pitted
Wolf Eyes – Burn Your House Down
Ex-Easter Island Head – Mallet Guitars Three Third Movement
Agathe Max – Glaces
D.Å.R.F.D.H.S. – KADAVERDICIPLIN
Karen Gwyer – Free Food / One Men Striper
Seabat – Deep Ocean Canyon
Matmos – Spondee
Lil Ugly Mane – Uneven Compromise
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Second stage added and extra tickets on sale

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Following the initial announcement about Supersonic Ltd Edt 2014 where tickets sold out in a weekend we are delighted to be able to  make available another 200 tickets due to the opening of a brand new venue, Alfie Birds at the Custard Factory, we just couldn’t resist partnering with this new space and adding a second stage. BUY TICKETS

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Adding to an already impressive line up (including Swans, Wolf Eyes, Matmos, Sleaford Mods and many more) are an array of weird and wonderful performers, and what band fits both categories “weird” and “wonderful” more aptly than Evil Blizzard, who shall bring their critically acclaimed, uniquely bizarre noise rock to the event. Meanwhile, Pharmakon’s confrontational power electronics and deathly industrial sounds will reverberate loudly around the Custard Factory, impossible to ignore. For something different, veteran performer/film composer and member of rock bands Codeine and Come, Chris Brokaw shall perform solo in support of his latest album.

Kubin Twins - by Dorle Bahlburg

Excitingly, Khünnt (featuring Richard Dawson and Pigs x 7) shall perform at Supersonic Ltd Edt 2014, exploring the boundaries of esoteric music, from minimalist noise and ESP screams to live improvisation, fog-beat and psychedelic city mantra. From these savage sounds we traverse to the futurist pop, electroacoustic and chamber orchestra music of Felix Kubin. And on another part of the musical spectrum, Sly & The Family Drone‘s egalitarian approach will propel the audience and band together into a shamanistic setting of catharsis and anarchic celebration.

Opium Lord

What Supersonic event is complete without something heavy? Enter Opium Lord, who’s desolate doom-sludge, filthy grooves and abrasive noise will satisfy those with a penchant for dark sounds. Also ticking the boxes for loud, visceral, imposing and intelligent music are Bristol based ANTA who have also been added to the line up.

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To mark the release of their first record, a 10″ EP, on London -New York label care in the community recordings, Alien Whale have been added to Supersonic Ltd Edn, musically exploring their roots in free-form rock ‘n roll with an ecstatic energy.  Also taking to the stage at Supersonic Ltd Edn 2014 are Rattle, two of Nottingham’s most unique and recognisable drummers (Theresa Wrigley of Fists and Katharine Brown of Kogumaza) and aided by Kogumaza’s Mark Spivey shall perform their hypnotic and dance-floor filling music, that recalls This Heat or ESG.

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And finally, Capsule add two exciting local bands to the Supersonic Ltd Edn bill which includes, Birmingham based, Youth Man who shall present their hyperactive, non-stop form of post-punk which sounds like the Pixies playing Minutemen covers, heavily influenced by the Dead Kennedys. Also added are Backwards, featuring ex-members of Beestung Lips, Una Corda and Napalm Death – who serve up a heady brew of distortion with two bass guitars, drums, voice and electronics.

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Of course as well as adding more performers we also have a number extra curricular happenings across the weekend at the Custard Factory and other locations also. Don’t forget to check out the Bill Drummond exhibition at Eastside Projects, he shall be leading a re-enactment of two historical performances given by The17 choir. The first was in Moscow on the 28 September 2006, the second in Saint Petersburg the following day. The re-enactment will involve 34 people, 17 of whom will act the part of those that were The17 in Moscow, the other 17 will act the part of those who were The17 in Saint Petersburg.   The17 choir creates music that follows no musical history, or necessarily has words, melodies or rhythms. This is a ticketed event taking place at Eastside Projects on Saturday at 2pm.

Still to come in the near future…more information about Capsule’s inaugural ‘Labs’ (artist development and commissioning scheme) devised to create more opportunities for commissioning experimental, cross-disciplinary art, which Capsule intend to launch at Supersonic Ltd Edn.
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15 questions with Matmos

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This year Supersonic will welcome Matmos (M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel) to the fold. This American duo have been manipulating raw materials into surprisingly accessible forms, often supplemented by traditional musical instruments played by them and their large circle of friends and collaborators (Bjork, Robert Wilson, Marina Abramovic etc.). The result is a model of electronic composition as a relational network that connects sources and outcomes together; information about the process of creation activates the listening experience, providing the listener with entry points into sometimes densely allusive, baroque recordings. Their most recent album, The Marriage of True Minds, was released in 2013 by Thrill Jockey Records.

15questions.net recently sat the pair down for a Q&A. We’ve picked out a couple of questions for you below but the interview can be read in full here and it’s well worth doing just that.

When did you start writing/producing music – and what or who were your early passions and influences?

My starting point wasn’t music but sound- I started making cut-ups with tape recorders when I was fifteen, editing funny little skit-like things out of records and the radio with a pause button. I did it because I had read about William S. Burroughs’ experiments with tape recorders and cut-ups and wanted to try that out myself. So I acquired a lot of cheap little plastic tape recorders and began to make pause-button edits, and then started doing primitive multi-tracking of noises and voices by having four tapes play in a room and recording them all to a fifth tape deck. I loved, in order, disco, heavy metal, hip hop, new wave, punk and hardcore and then industrial and noise. That’s the cycle from age 11 to age 16.

What do you personally consider to be the incisive moments in your artistic work and/or career?

The most literally incisive moments were the recordings of cosmetic surgery that generated our album A Chance to Cut Is A Chance to Cure: rhinoplasty, chin implants, liposuction.

I think meeting Martin was the catalyst for it all. We made a tape called Matmos in Lo Fidelity that was entirely in 8 bit. It was just an exercise in cutting and editing sound intensively, with lots of hyper juxtapositions and ridiculous noises – that was so fun to make, and was the beginning our romantic and musical partnership.

 

 

There seem to be two fundamental tendencies in music today: On the one hand, a move towards complete virtualisation, where tracks and albums are merely released as digital files. And, on the other, an even closer union between music, artwork, packaging and physical presentation. Where do you stand between these poles?

We are old fashioned and we like artefacts. I have watched enough turnover of formats in the digital domain to be pretty sceptical about the longevity of digital environments and digital storage. Remember floppy disks? 3.5 diskettes? Memory sticks? Zip drives? SCSI ports? I do. Implicitly, I am collector scum and I still have big boxes of noise cassettes from the 1980s that I love, and tons of vinyl at our house, and old photocopied zines. I think digital is great and has lots of advantages and obviously it’s the dominant media/medium/pathway at the moment. But I don’t see people twenty years from now caressing their old mp3s, while I am still listening to my Misfits record that I bought in high school.

MCS says:  Decidedly toward the latter- that’s why we’ve released the Ganzfeld EP in a limited edition with headphones, eye goggles and extensive liner notes about the project. We want people to be involved in a tactile way and to be informed, through language and image, about what they are hearing. That makes us old fashioned- we’re attached to the metaphor of “the album” as in the “photo album”- something to touch and leaf through and pore over in order to feel a connection.

Usually, it is considered that it is the job of the artist to win over an audience. But listening is also an active, rather than just a passive process. How do you see the role of the listener in the musical communication process?

We work to solicit interpretive desire, so that the listener feels a need to understand and learn about what she is hearing. We want to activate listening by foregrounding both jarring encounters with real sound, sourced in everyday life, with everyday objects and heavily artificial / constructed / untrustworthy moments. We hope that the tension between these components will make people worry about what it is that they are hearing and that it will generate a kind of audio-puzzle for them. That’s our hope. But of course you can’t actually determine how and in what way people encounter your work, and that open-endedness is just part of the process.

 

For more information on Matmos visit vague-terrain.com

 

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Capsule Labs

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Supersonic Ltd Edt. will launch Capsule’s inaugural Labs, an artist development and commissioning scheme devised to create more opportunities for commissioning experimental, cross-disciplinary art.

MortonUnderwood will host an If Wet  salon event to introduce a selection of artists that create ‘extraordinary objects’.  This will be the first commissioning opportunity as part of Capsule’s Labs and provide a creative exploration. Confirmed participating artists will include:
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Ryan Jordan conducts experiments in derelict electronics, possession trance, retro-death-telegraphy and hylozoistic neural computation. He builds crude instruments that replicate fundamental electronic components which are the foundation of current digital technologies. Performing these live alongside high powered stroboscopic light he attempts to induce the hallucinatory and trance like states of the (oc)cult arts.

In this presentation/performance he will demonstrate his self constructed hardware built with raw minerals and metals and then spiral sideways into theories of cybernetics, neuroscience, art, music and physiology in an attempt to piece together our fragmentary daemons and split the nine-fold reality layers of human perception; from communing with the dead to disturbing the holographic brain; from trance states to opening flicker portals in optic nerve fibres; these practitioners practice dark hypnosis in psychoactive hyperventilation clubs.

http://nnnnn.org.uk/

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Sarah Kenchington

Sarah Kenchington builds her mechanical instruments from discarded materials. Bicycle spokes, typewriters, the inner tubes of tractor tyres are combined to create unique musical machines which emit a discordant array of moans, squeaks and chimes. Kenchington’s work offers a contemporary manifestation of a long history of the artist giving birth to machines (from Leonardo da Vinci, through to Heath Robinson, Tinguely and Michael Landy), yet Kenchington’s machines are anything but automata, remaining fundamentally dependent on an interaction with the human to come to life.

Kenchington relishes the unpredictable nature of her instruments, a quality which means that despite being author of both instrument and the music it emits, she is never entirely in control of what happens. Her performances evolve in conversation with or in response to the machine, a process which for Kenchington is akin to playing an improvised duet with another musician.

watch video

 

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Supersonic & Paragon hotel partner up for discounted audience rates

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We’ve partnered with The Paragon Hotel to offer our audiences discounted rates for Supersonic Festival 2014. The Paragon is conveniently location only a 5 minute walk away from the festival site and so is perfect if you want to enjoy the festival without trekking across the city. It is also only a 10-15 minute walk from the city centre, so you can have the best of both worlds should you want to explore the city in your free time.

Paragon Hotel 
145 Alcester Street, Birmingham, B12 0PJ
0121 627 0627

Discounted rates shown below, please quote SUPE300514 when booking.

Single room:

£42 Room only

£47 Room + breakfast

Twin/Double room:

£47 Room only

£55 Room + breakfast

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