It’s that time again to get curious, to get adventurous and to get ready. After taking a year out to re-imagine the festival following our tenth anniversary, Supersonic Festival is now back and going old skool in special two-day “Limited Edition” format this May 30th-31st. Tickets HERE.

The line-up so far includes post-punk legends SWANS, avant garde rockers WOLF EYES, multi-instrumentalist ensemble EX EASTER ISLAND HEAD, straight-talkers SLEAFORD MODS, sonic explorer BASIC HOUSE, Baltimore duo MATMOS, electro-violinist AGATHE MAX, Norwegian songwriter JENNY HVAL and more…. For a taste of what’s to come have a listen to our Supersonic 2014 playlist featuring these artists:

Supersonic Festival’s playground for 2014 will be the iconic Custard Factory, home of Capsule HQ. This ever-evolving industrial arts complex will shapeshift once again this May to play host to Supersonic’s enticing programme of experimental music, film and art. But this is Supersonic “Limited Edition” don’t forget, so expect a few extra special treats… and remember tickets are limited to 400 so do not miss out. Keep your eyes peeled for further line-up announcements over the next few weeks.
Tickets are available from HERE.

Lucas Abela’s (AKA Justice Yeldham) Vinyl Rally has come on in leaps and bounds since yesterday; the track has been fully constructed (including an all-new underpass and multi-tiered section that Lucas has lovingly nick-named the “Wheel of Death”), the records have been fixed onto it and the remote controlled cars are ready and raring to go!

The Rally is gearing up to be something truly spectacular, and no visit to the festival this year will be complete without racing a few laps around this fully interactive installation. If you don’t believe us, just feast your eyes on the images below and try and contain your excitement!

The Vinyl Rally will be on show this weekend at Supersonic festival, and Justice Yeldham will perform on Sunday 21st October at 19:30.

Photos by Eduardo Pinto.

With exactly one week to go until we open the doors to the 10th edition of Supersonic Festival, we partnered with the wonderful Network Awesome to put a selection of related films together from the last decade of Supersonic. It contains rare footage of Coil from our first ever festival as well as tracks by Broadcast, Nisenenemondai, Zu and a whole host of interviews. Enjoy!

Network Awesome is a new online TV site that curates the media film, documentaries, and video collections from all eras of broadcast history. It’s free, not full of junk, and it broadcasts 6 new shows each day. The archives are stand-alone repositories of media, available anytime and are, like, totally social so you can share it with your friends. Root around in there! You’ll be amazed at what you find.

If you haven’t bought tickets yet now is your chance, they can be purchased HERE

Supersonic’s 10th anniversary celebrations are drawing ever nearer, with only a week and a half remaining until the all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza of avant-garde art that is Supersonic 2012! To mark the occasion, UK music and fashion magazine Clash recently caught up with Capsule co-founder and Supersonic organiser Lisa Meyer to discuss the inner workings of the festival, the inspiration behind Supersonic and what the future has in store for Capsule over the next decade! When discussing the ethos of the festival, Lisa had these wise words to impart –

It’s really important that we make everyone feel welcome. It’s very much at the core of what we do. Ultimately, people are giving up a weekend to come to this, so it shouldn’t feel like a hard slog. They should leave elated that they had a good time and listened to some interesting music.

Given the absolutely stunning lineup that Capsule have prepared for us this year, it’s hard to imagine that the audience will leave feeling anything other than ecstatic! You can read the full interview here, and if you still haven’t secured your Supersonic ticket yet, you can purchase one here.

WE NEED YOUR RECORDS

Capsule need your unloved / unwanted records to be reused to create Vinyl Rally at Supersonic Festival.

Vinyl Rally,created by Australian artist Lucas Abela is a large-scale installation combining sound art, video art and kinetic sculpture and every kidult’s dream-hybrid; an immersive work playing off vinyl fetishism, video arcade mystique and the machismo of motor sports in a video game played within a real world setting!

The track is made up old vinyl records and we’re having a vinyl amnesty so that you can get rid of any unloved and unwanted records, and know they’re going to a good home; Records can be donated to the Vinyl Rally on

Saturday 13th October at
Birmingham Zine Festival’s Independent Publishing Fair
125 – 127 Hurst Street,
Birmingham, B5 6SE
12noon till 6pm.

And anybody who has a whole hoard of records to donate can get in contact in advance to arrange an alternative drop off, via [email protected]

Friday 19 October

Birmingham City University, Margaret Street Fine Art Building, Birmingham, B3 3BX

1.30pm – 6.00pm As part of the Art Of Listening extended panel

Hosted by Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
This event is supported by Birmingham City University.

New Music Plus… – making the case for cross artform collaboration

Check out the programme for most galleries, museums, film or art festivals, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a musical vein running across their programmes. As Supersonic celebrates its 10th anniversary, we’ve joined forces with New Music Plus… to put together a panel featuring: Jo Beggs, Head of Development for the Manchester Partnership Museums, Will Dutta, Chimera Productions, Andrew Ellis of Samizdat and Lisa Meyer, Co-director of Capsule/Supersonic Festival and chaired by Julia Payne. As the people behind some of the most exciting music-led inter-disciplinary work in the country, our panellists will talk about why this work is important to them, and about how they make it work – artistically and financially.

Will Dutta is a producer, composer and pianist, and director of Chimera Productions, whose work connects the dots between modern dance music and contemporary and experimental art music. Will has worked as a producer with a range of organisations, including Tate Britain, the British Film Institute, De La Warr Pavilion and the National Portrait Gallery.

Jo Beggs is Head of Development for the Manchester Partnership Museums (Manchester Arts Gallery, the Whitworth, Manchester Museum and the Gallery of Costume). Jo led on the Whitworth Art Gallery’s involvement as a production partner in new Music Plus… North West, and will be talking about the Partnership’s commitment to including music in its programmes.

Andrew Ellis, a.k.a. Samizdat, has acted as a conduit for new and interesting music in Liverpool for the past five years. Andrews most recent project was working in collaboration with Liverpool Biennial to produce A Crimson Grail for 100 guitars and 8 basses at Liverpool Cathedral

Lisa Meyer is the creative director of Capsule, crafting extraordinary events for adventurous audiences, identifying some of the otherwise indescribable connections between contemporary music, performance and art. Capsule has gained a reputation as a dynamic arts producer with a unique vision and strong track record for delivering highly ambitious projects, which include Supersonic Festival, this year celebrating it’s 10^th birthday. Home of Metal, a groundbreaking heritage project, which celebrates Birmingham and the Black Country as the birthplace of Heavy Metal through a series of large-scale exhibitions, events and archive. Capsule has just been appointed as the festival producer for the new Library of Birmingham, due to open in September 2013, it will be the biggest public library in Europe.

 Julia Payne is director of the hub, a music development organisation that produces its own work and also provides consultancy, research and training services (www.thehubuk.com). She produced her first music events in 1993, and has project managed New Music Plus… since 2009.

New Music Plus…is a creative and professional development programme created by PRS for Music Foundation and run in partnership with the hub to enable non-music and cross-art form organisations to co-produce dynamic live music events with hand-picked music events producers.

Tickets are FREE to weekend ticket holders (places are limited and booking in advance is essential via [email protected] with ‘LISTENING’ in the title) or £10 https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk

Here’s the third and final edition of our festival podcasts, an awesome selection of Supersonic related artists loving chosen by Chris Downing. If you missed out on them beforehand, the first and second editions are still available for streaming!

Playlist

1. Jarboe – Ascend

2. Mothertrucker – Festival Strength

3. Lau Nau – Painovoimaa, Valoa

4. Hype Williams – Businessline

5. Hey Colossus – Almeria, Spain

6. Doomsday Student – Ape In Love

7. Napalm Death – The Crucifixion Of Possessions

8. Stian Westerhus – Trailer Trash Ballad

9. Nicholas Bullen – Proximity

10. Merzbow – Slave New Desart

11. My Disco – A Turreted Berg

12. Oxbow – S Bar X

13. Modified Toy Orchestra – Monkey Hands

14. Moonn – Night Of The Vampire

15. Gnod – Why Don’t You Smile Like The Other Children

16. Body/Head – Live

Weekend tickets are just £80 and available from HERE

You can’t hold us back! We’ve added even more exciting live acts to the festival line up, keeping it bursting at the seams with a diverse range of new music. Australian sound artist Lucas Abela (the brains behind the Vinyl Rally will be at the festival performing as Justice Yeldham. Abela creates an other-worldy sound by pressing his face and lips against glass whist employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries. Trust us, it has to be seen to be believed, so for a taster check out this video from his Supersonic 2008 appearance.

Rhythm, drone and psychedelic noise will come in the form of Manchester collective Gnod. Free School will bring the sunny Balearic sounds of summer and the icy kosmische sounds of winter for some disconcerting dance music.

Check out the full line up, there’s only a month to wait!

To honour the occasion of Supersonic’s 10th anniversary and the recent discovery of the lost Festival of The Rea, the SOUNDkitchen collective will give a special performance of Earth Ears: A Sonic Ritual by Pauline Oliveros. Known for her ritualistic and meditative approach to sound and listening, Oliveros’ work invites performers and audience to engage in a Deep Listening experience.

For this performance each member of the collective will invoke one of the four classical elements Earth, Air, Fire and Water, central to ancient pagan practices and magic rituals. Each performer will reveal their sonic manifestation through musical actions, recorded representations and improvisation. Through collective expression and meditation we invite you to celebrate the spirit and history of the River Rea in Digbeth as an historic site of community, creativity and mystical energy.

SONICritual  will be performed by: Iain Armstrong, Julien Guillamat, Shelly Knotts, Annie Mahtani. Sound engineer: James Carpenter

SOUNDkitchen are a collective of composers and sound artists dedicated to promoting artists working in the medium of sound. Their ongoing series of live events present emerging and established performers from Birmingham and beyond with a focus on current and emerging approaches to experimental electronic music. They also curate and create sound art installations and exhibits, initiate collaborative projects and give live performances.

http://soundkitchenuk.org

Another excellent, hands on workshop has been announced for the festival this year. The GET A GRIP screen-printing workshop returns, this time in honour of Supersonic’s tenth anniversary. The two-hour workshop, run from the GET A GRIP poolside studio and shop front, gives you an informal introduction to their manual water-based screen printing techniques.

The workshop is open to weekend ticket holders for £25 which includes guidance, materials and a 100% organic t-shirt to take home. Using elements developed by an independent illustrator, you’ll put together a multi-coloured design to print onto a t-shirt. No experience required – you’ll enjoy this workshop whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced printer.

To book a place, email [email protected] with ‘SCREENPRINT’ in the subject line – please also include your T-shirt size (Male or Female S/M/L/XL/XXL).

GET A GRIP, the Custard Factory’s resident print studio, can print to order and regularly supply DIY bands and organisations with clothing labels, illustrations, vinyl record sleeves and posters. For more information visit www.getagripstudio.com

Day tickets are available now via https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk and of course weekend tickets can still be purchased for £80. Not bad for three days of adventurous music, art, film, workshops, talks and more!

And here’s a reminder of some events that are free to weekend ticket holders, but require booking.

Counting In: The Art of Listening

In partnership with Sound and Music, we are presenting an intriguing panel exploring contexts for the presentation of sound works and performances and approaches to listening.  The panel will include artist Lucas Abela (aka Justice Yeldham and creator of the Vinyl Rally), music writer Frances Morgan, Curator Irene Revell (Electra) and composer Dr Simon Hall. An excellent way to start the weekend, the event will take place Friday 19 October, 1.30pm-5.00pm at Birmingham City University’s School of Art. This event is free to weekend ticket holders, but you do need to book a place by emailing [email protected] with ‘Listening’ in the title.  Otherwise, tickets can be purchased for £10 via https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk

Imperfect Cinema: Hallide Oxide

An amazing opportunity to learn DIY cinema techniques, participants will also contribute visuals to Drunk in Hell’s set. Imperfect Cinema will be joined by renowned sonic and visual artist Nicholas Bullen to discuss Imperfect Cinema and its influences, including the seminal Crass Records ‘Bullshit Detector’ compilation albums which featured the first vinyl appearance of Napalm Death.  The workshop is free to weekend ticket holders but capacity is limited, to book a place email [email protected],uk with ‘Imperfect Cinema’ in the subject line.

“Once in an eternity an artist will come along who defies all explanations, breaks all boundaries, and destroys all preconceived notions as to what music is. In reggae, we were blessed with the maniacal genius of Lee Perry; in jazz, we had Sun Ra; and in hip-hop no one even comes close to the one they call Sensational. ”

Former Jungle Brothers member Sensational will join DJ Scotch Bonnett and Koyxen on stage as part of the Small but Hard showcase. It’s gonna kick off!

Take a listen to his recent collaboration with former Supersonicers Dead Fader via The Quietus

Volunteers chopping lemons backstage in 2012 – one of the many and varied tasks to undertake over the weekend!

SUPERSONIC NEEDS YOU!

Capsule’s internationally renowned festival runs 19-21 October 2012 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 (19-21 October) and also in the run up to the festival (early October onwards). We expect a minimum of 12 hours over the festival period in exchange for a weekend wristband.

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.

A regular Supersonic volunteer, Ross Cotton wrote this piece about the life working behind the scenes last year, have a look via http://domesticcity.posterous.com/

HOW TO APPLY:

Please click through to download the application form

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjucQi45lUQqdGpGYWp0YTZSZEpYUVFPUlpkTndBbEE

Completed application forms should be emailed to volunteer[at]capsule.org.uk by 5pm on Tuesday 25th September. Please mark in the subject line of the email VOLUNTEER. If you have any issues downloading the application form, contact volunteer[at]capsule.org.uk and we can email you a copy direct.

The first volunteer meeting will take place on Tuesday 2^nd October, 6.30pm at Custard Factory  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.

Folks we have just 5 days left of our We Fund campaign with the aim of raising £5000, the campaign asks those of you, in the position to, to support us by making a donation to Supersonic Festival this year. Your donations will help us to continue to put together a highly ambitious festival programme, allowing us to take risks on emergent artists and unique collaborations. We are hoping our loyal audience can help us further our ambition for this unique event. We’re currently at 87% which is pretty remarkable but without reaching the full 100%we get none of the funds raised. So dig deep – every bit helps.

Thank yous include an invite to a very special 10th birthday tea party which will take place over the weekend of the festival, and will give you the opportunity to share some sweet treats and a nice glass of fizz to toast 10 years of adventurous music and meet with some of the artists performing at the festival.

In addition there are some limited places left for our Sonic Feast, a unique sound led dining experience, featuring bespoke and unusual concoctions to celebrate the festival’s 10th year in style. Produced by Companis,  a nomadic artist and curatorial practice creating bespoke dining experiences that immerse the diner in performance, food and spectacle.

Many thanks to the 63 generous folks that have already funded us – much appreciated.
FUND US HERE

Monotonix take over the lake, by Jamie Robinson

This year Supersonic marks its tenth anniversary and to celebrate this amazing milestone we’re inviting you on a trip down memory lane..

Did you photograph Monotonix when they took over the lake in 2009? Or catch a sneaky shot of Black Sun Drum Corps as they paraded along Gibb Street? Or perhaps you’ve documented the quirks and subtleties that make Supersonic so special and unique?

We’re looking for photographs from the last ten years that capture the spirit of Supersonic, the best of which will be featured at this year’s festival.

So please, take a look back at your Supersonic photographs and send us your favourites!

Submission Guidelines

Original photographs should be emailed to [email protected] or uploaded to Supersonic’s Flickr page – http://www.flickr.com/groups/supersonic/ no later than Friday 14^th September.

Please limit your submission to no more than three photographs – we’re looking for the very best photographs that sum up the nature of the festival. If you can, please include a description of the photograph, and the year it was taken.

Images should measure 152 x 203 mm (8″ x 10″) with a resolution of 300 dpi.

Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses by Katja Ogrin

As visually stunning as they are sonically punishing, Sunn0))) by James Singh

The first workshop of the festival has been announced and its an amazing opportunity to learn some new skills, work alongside some truly unique practitioners and creatively contribute to a live performance by Drunk in Hell.

In Imperfect Cinema’s workshop ‘Halide Oxide’, Attendees will be able explore the ‘halide’ of super-8mm film and the ‘oxide’ of audio cassette tape used to capture video, by using redundant camera technologies to capture images which will be processed, prepared and edited by Imperfect Cinema into two distinct visual forms. The first will be the visual backdrop to the lo-fi monolithic grit of Drunk In Hell’s performance, an experience which should definitely not be missed, and the second is an alternative visual document of the festival which will form a unique part of the archive of its tenth anniversary. Workshop attendees will be joined by  renowned sonic and visual artist Nicholas Bullen to discuss Imperfect Cinema and its influences.

To book a place, please email [email protected] with ‘Imperfect Cinema’ in the subject line

Last year, Imperfect Cinema with workshop attendees put together this beautiful film, which was screened alongside a live score by SOUNDkitchen.

Just one of the bands we’re stupidly excited about playing the festival is year is  Goat. Afro heavy psych punk from a remote  Swedish village? Gotta be good! You can read a review of their album ‘World Music’ on Norman Records

Everything is perfectly in place here from well-segued samples and the odd field recording to the breathless running order. It’s hit after flipping hit with this band, they’ve concocted an alarmingly poppy creation filled with nine all-too brief excursions into a voodoo world where Swedish psychedelia meets belting Afro-rock and parties like there’s no tomorrow. Please, like with all your favourite albums, play it ridiculously loud, then, undoubtedly, re-rewind and crank it up again till dawn and beyond. Goat are worth falling out with your neighbours for. Read the full review via http://www.normanrecords.com/records/135427-goat—world-music

And if you’re into your psych rock, you’ll have a fab time at Supersonic, with the likes of Carlton Melton, Six Organs of Admittance and Hookworms all planning to turn us all inside out.

To celebrate the 10th edition of the festival, we are proud to host a number of special collaborations where you can see known performers embarking upon unknown sounds. One such performance we are proud to present is Oxbow Orchestra. Expect strings, woodwinds, brass, operatic backing vocals and classically contained renderings of the Oxbow song book, featuring Eugene S Robinson and Niko Wenner from Oxbow and an Orchestra who will deliver songs new and old in a format unaccustomed to the blood and sweat of a typical Oxbow outing. The textbook definition of ONCE IN A LIFETIME. This ties in very nicely with the first film announcement which will be The Luxury Of Empire, a very intimate portrait of Oxbow at the peak of their artistic maturity, candid interviews and live footage reveals the trials and tribulations of this band. The film programme is coming together nicely with Jeremy Deller’s ‘The Bruce Lacey Experience’ and a number of films curated by Jason Forrest at Network Awesome.

From one large scale event to a couple more (well it is our tenth birthday after all!) Lash Frenzy will perform ‘Vir Heroicus Sublimis’ as an improvised noise collective, featuring members of Anaal Nathrackh, Beestung Lips, Benediction, Sally and Einstellung. Another distinctive pairing will see KK Null and Birmingham’s own ORE in sonic battle.  In many ways, KK Null’s collaboration with Lash Frenzy at Supersonic 2010 (with ORE’s Sam on tuba) acted as a proof of concept for the sound of ORE, so it’s entirely fitting  to bring the two entities together this year.

The issue of creating art in challenging times is one close to the festival’s heart and an exciting panel discussion will see the topic dissected by some truly inspirational practitioners.. The discussion is called ‘You Can Be You’ and will feature an array of maverick artists including Penny Rimbaud, Jarboe and Eugene Robinson. Offering an insight into some of the hows and whys of maintaining an independent spirit whilst on the very edge of the avant-garde, the panel will debate such topics as, how is the drive to make art is sustained under sometimes-difficult circumstances? and after many years of writing and touring music, will the desire to create ever be satiated?

Given the success of Imperfect Cinema’s cinematic workshop last year, we have invited the team back to host a free workshop exploring DIY modes of filming and cinema only this time, the footage people gather using Super 8 cameras will be edited and used as visuals for Drunk in Hell’s performance. All in all, an exciting opportunity for festival goers to be part of the performance and for them to utilise the unique industrial backdrop in a highly creative way. If you’re interested in booking a place, email [email protected] with ‘Imperfect Cinema’ in the subject line.

Vinyl Rally will be a large-scale installation combining sound art, video art and kinetic sculpture into every kid and kidult’s dream-hybrid; an immersive participatory play-set playing off vinyl fetishism, video arcade mystique and the machismo of motor sports in a video game played within a real world setting! Classic first person video racing is simulated as remote control cars with styli attached, race across a track constructed from a mass of disused vinyl records. This installation will be realised by Australian artist and glass eating expert Lucas Abela AKA Justice Yeldham. Who’s excited to have a go on this mean machine?

Phew! Lots more info to come, as well as day tickets and volunteering opportunities. Weekend tickets are available to purchase via https://supersonicfestival.com/tickets and don’t forget, if you want to see these sorts of ambitious projects continue, you can support us via our We Fund campaign

The Monotonix invasion – one of the many things that have made Supersonic Festival a unique event.

Capsule  creative director and Supersonic Festival co-founder Lisa Meyer was interviewed recently by The 405 on what goes into making a festival happen, how to sustain what you do for 10 years, and why you should never rest on your laurels in this business!

Why should people come to Supersonic?
We hope that we create an event that really cares about our audience as much as we care about the artists performing. While you will discover new amazing bands you’ll also have lots of fun too and our cake selection is superb. It’s a festival for music lovers, not a place to be ripped off and be fed the same generic line up as most of the big festivals – it’s a unique experience. Read the full article at The 405

On Saturday 4th August, a very special event will get us all excited for the 10th edition of Supersonic – extending our birthday celebrations as much as possible! The Supersonic Taster at Eastside Projects in Birmingham will see a range of adventurous artists taking over the gallery space for an exciting one off event. Doors are 7.30pm and we will have a lovely Purity Ale and cider bar. Tickets are available via https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk

King Midas Sound System will take us on sonic adventures to the deep and heavy and will feature live vocals, exclusive remixes and astonishing sound design. Check out their Fact mix below:

JK Flesh aka Justin Broadrick of Godflesh, Napalm Death, Jesu will present the UK premier of his new project that explores the darker side of dubstep along with his inimitable guitar sound.

Bitter cold contemporary power electronics comes in the form of Iron Fist of the Sun, just don’t call it art noise!

Artist and instrument designer Sarah M Farmer will present ‘An Array of Events’, mixing traditional methods of sound production with DIY instruments and experimental techniques “in a bid to overcome the problem of being a lone performer with only the usual number of hands and limited instrumental skill.” Check out one of her previous installations below.

Pram and Modified Toy Orchestra percussionist Laurence Hunt will present a new solo percussive project combined with live electronics.

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.

World of Skin was a project by Michael Gira and Jarboe born out of Swans.

The much anticipated second record by superfreak group Rangda comes our way 18th September 2012. Made up of Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), Sir Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls) and Chris (thousands of Free Jazz credits) Corsano, they’re a sight and sound to behold live. You can catch Rangda and their various guises at Supersonic Festival this year for an extended freak out.

For the second flight of the shadowy witch-god brothers, Rangda have changed their status from False Flag to Formerly Extinct! Upon examination, there’s reason beyond their rhyme-free wanderings. Since the last album, see, Rangda have been all
around this world as the wise men and the fools alike in lands both high and low. They’ve seen the young and invest-less kneel amp-side, waiting for musical succor, then in the next town over they’ve felt the cold chill of being left for dead and seen their music dubbed “so wrong it must be Rangda” strictly for some local pen-lifter’s personal chuckles.
How we can even claim that Formerly Extinct displays a greater fluidity than the well-oiled zero-to-60Khz hairpins of False Flag is a matter of
debate around DC corporate HQ. It seems to depend on how you define the semi-metallic element of sound sometimes called “sharp.” False Flag featured a tune called “Serrated Edges,” which made sense in the knife-flying arc of that album. Sharp is a claw-like quality in generous supply on Formerly Extinct as well — a graphic picture in sharp focus, perhaps with cleaner edges yet unmistakably gruesome subjects. While False Flag found these slingers in a whirlwinded shred-fest, each trying to out do each other with what they brought to the Rangda lair (er, recording studio), Formerly Extinct blossoms like the home-grown hybrid of a three-headed beast well-practiced in its body. A lean ’n’ amazingly mean, greased-up, child-eating machine. Drag City 

Album cover art is by Brighton artist and member of Blood Stereo, Karen Constance.

Check out this great footage of The Bug performing in Tenerife. We recently announced that he’ll be joining the Supersonic Festival line up with Grime MC Flowdan and Ragamuffin rapper Daddy Freddy

The Bug is just one of many Kevin Martin projects. His projects King Midas Sound System will feature at the Supersonic Taster on Saturday 4th August at Eastside Projects, along with JK Flesh and many more. Tickets are available via https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk/

You may know him from free form group Sun City Girls, who merged middle Eastern sounds, surf and experimental rock, you may not – either way check out his solo material and dizzying guitar skills.

Here is a Tiny Mix Tapes review of Sir Richard Bishop’s new record Intermezzo

Bishop’s skill consists in feeling exactly where any piece should go. This process primarily involves mindfulness as opposed to an apparatus of music theory. Here, the guitarist acts as a conduit, allowing music to flow through the filter of his hands to the strings. Each piece is a kind of vector, a force that pushes Bishop in a direction and flows through his guitar, and through the friction of the creative process, works itself out completely by its conclusion. This method (if method is an appropriate term) lends itself to a variety of styles, but it’s most appropriate in explorations of a solo instrument. Read more via http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/sir-richard-bishop-intermezzo

Sir Richard Bishop will also be performing at the festival as part 1/3 of Rangda with Ben Chasney (Six Organs of Admittance) and Chris Corsano.