CANCELLED

Chrome Hoof outing postponed: Sunday 1st May: Hare & Hounds

“Sadly this Chrome Hoof performance has to be postponed as another show that due to take place on the same weekend was cancelled by the promoter. This late cancellation leaves Chrome Hoof unable financially to make the trip. A rescheduled date will be announced soon and they look forward to playing Birmingham in the VERY near future. We offer sincere apologies to those who bought tickets and to Capsule who organised the show”

Doom metal, disco, acid house and Donna Summer had a car crash on the highway to oblivion. Chrome Hoof emerged from the wreckage, grooving. London is multi-faceted and contradictory. It is chaotic, magical, glamorous, cold, terrifying, apocalyptic, exciting, mundane, ordered and unhinged all at the same time. Chrome Hoof is the first band ever to capture this reality. A combination of primal feeling, virtuosity, theatre, brooding menace, late 70s glamour and large monsters made out of chromed titanium, Chrome Hoof should not really make any sense whatsoever — but they do.

Chrome Hoof have somewhere between 10 and 14 members, depending on who turns up. Singer Lola Olafisoye is reminiscent of both Grace Jones at her stylish best and a New Orleans witch queen who took the wrong turn entering the spirit world and ended up in Zone 2 by mistake. Brothers Leo and Milo Smee have opposing musical backgrounds — doom metal and acid house respectively — but rather than compromise and meet in the middle, the brothers simply bring both styles to the same band. A sweet-faced trumpet player called Emma Sullivan lets out the most blood-curdling scream imaginable. Violinist Sarah and bassoonist Chloe bend their classical training towards making the perfect soundtrack to any forthcoming apocalypses we might be having. The entire band wear metallic monksʼ robes, and are sometimes joined on stage by an enormous monster with a goatʼs head and flashing eyes.
http://www.myspace.com/chromehoof

Youves
Having beavered away for a couple of years on their local midlands scene, these self-proclaimed ‘baby-faced as-sass-ins’ have recently taken things up a notch with plaudits from The Klaxons amongst other luminaries. If The Rapture had been hardcore kids in their youth they may have produced something as musically thrilling as Youves
http://www.myspace.com/youves

Poster by Ben Javens

Æthenor summon the most somnolent examples of Bernard Parmegiani, Organum, Nurse with Wound, Klaus Schulze, Igor Wakhevitch, Coil, Iancu Dumitrescu and Charlemagne Palestine. Acousmatic drones drift into crackling and bubbling sonic clusters. Lulling piano motifs and lamenting chants shimmer into distant lunar horizons while oscillators spin and drove serenely into unchartered audial regions. Sometimes as calm as a silvery sea, so that every gentle cat’s-paw and lapping wave is deafening, sometimes as tempestuous as a fuming lava beach, spitting and popping at the surface. The invocational aspects of Æthenor are of course to be expected when looking at the previous output of its individual members. Except here, the bombast is contained and a much more delicate approach is employed. Æthenor have unlocked a chamber of arcane and auroral sound that is as incandescent as it is magnetic. Like the moons pull.

Featuring:
Stephen O`Malley – Sunn 0))) / Khanate / KTL / Burning Witch /
Kristoffer Rygg – ULVER main man / Arcturus / Borknagar / Head Control System
Daniel O`Sullivan – Guapo / Mothlite / Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses / Chrome Hoof
Vincent de Roguin – Shora

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=84374
http://www.myspace.com/aethenor
http://www.aethenor.com/

1 of 3 exclusive UK shows.

In its early years, Einstellung acted as an outlet for its four members from the day to day trawl of 9 to 5 living. A mutual appreciation of all things warm, loud and hypnotic initially lead to a 28-minute piece entitled Sleep Easy Mr Parker. The result was far too pleasing to be ignored and with a new found momentum the band moved from what was an idyllic escape, to a full steam locomotion assault. Members of Godflesh and sludge titans, Sally in a powered up shoegaze band. This is blissed out pop with nods to MBV, Mary Chain, as well as post rock flourishes and the odd bit of Sister era Sonic Youth. Nice intricate time changes with nods to 20th century composer Steve Reich but with a sense of urgency missing from most so called post rock bands.

Feat ex members of Sally, Katastrophy Wife, Cable Regime, Godflesh, Grover
www.myspace.com/einstellung 

This show also features a surprise performance from Head of David.

Poster by Ben Javens

Martin wrote his book Tour:Smart in 2007 and has since spoken around the world, tonight he is joining us in Birmingham to share his experience in nearly every aspect of record production and promotion, his unique perspective not only on where the music industry is currently, but where it is going in the future. – This is a free event!

“Four Stars! The ultimate touring manual. Tackles every conceivable aspect of getting the show on the road in a highly readable style.”
 Kris Needs – MOJO Magazine

Martin Atkins is the definition of entrepreneurial activity in cultural arts endeavors, his 30+ years in the music business spans across genres and borders and industries.
He was a member of Public Image Ltd and Killing Joke. He founded industrial supergroup Pigface, The Damage Manual, and Murder Inc., and has contributed to Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. He is the owner of Invisible Records and Mattress Factory Recording Studios (est. 1988). He is the author of Tour:Smart, a Suicide Girls columnist, and a full time lecturer at Columbia College Chicago. Martin is a producer, drummer, documentary film maker, DJ, and father of four. Whatever the future of music is, you can pretty much bet that he’ll be in the middle of it.

TOUR CANCELLED

“To Whom It May Concern;
It is with great regret that Asva has decided to cancel our upcoming April and May tour dates. Over the last several months we’ve watched the itinerary grow and our excitement at the prospect of playing so many cities to which we had never traveled grew in kind. We watched the forums and saw the progression of the tour as YOU worked to promote our show(s), even before we had been formally informed of the dates. Regrettably we, Asva as a band, as individuals, and our label Southern Records have been hit very hard in the recent economic downturn and we’ve found it impossible to secure our passage to Europe. Our last ditch efforts directed at third parties (including relatives) as well have been fruitless… simply put; we’re out of money.
Its our hope that in the future you will continue to be interested enough in Asva’s music to offer and lend us your support.
Best,
Stuart Dahlquist”

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES
with Omar Souleyman + Group Doueh
plus Sublime Frequencies DJs, film screenings

A Qu Junktions Production
supported by Sound and Music

Sublime Frequencies travel the globe, digging deep for overlooked and forgotten music, looking for artists and groups that move their souls, and making strong connections with musicians and music lovers wherever they go. Folk and pop musicians are sought out, documented and released on the Sublime Frequencies record label, capturing ultra-vivid sights and sounds from rural life and urban street. Radio broadcasts, field recordings and lost archives are also assembled into CD and vinyl releases, all presented in a genuinely thrilling and unabashed style. This tour follows in that tradition. Street-level folk-pop, over-driven psychedelic meditations, desert blues and Syrian party bangers are all combined with films and DJs on this once in a lifetime Sublime Frequencies tour experience.

This is first ever Sublime Frequencies Tour. It brings to the UK two live acts who have released albums on the Sublime Frequencies label; Group Doueh (from the Western Sahara) and Omar Souleyman (from Syria) plus Sublime Frequencies DJ set and on certain dates Sublime Frequencies film screenings and talks. Sublime Frequencies are presenting some of the greatest expressive music in the world with only one agenda in mind: that it needs to be heard or seen, respected and recognized. This is a rare opportunity to see the two maverick and genuinely great groups from vastly different traditions and influences playing on the same bill.

Representing the label for the tour are Alan Bishop, Hisham Mayet and Mark Gergis. Bristol based Qu Junktions are the producers. This is an artist run enterprise bringing music and culture and messages together in a high spirited and infectious way.

GROUP DOUEH

Group Doueh are led by the enigmatic guitar hero Bamaar Salmou, who is known simply as ‘Doueh’ (pronounced: ‘Doo-way’). They are from Dakhla, in the Western Sahara. The group’s sound is unlike anything that you’ve ever heard before. It is a sound that is rooted in the traditional foundations of Sahrawi/Hassania music, but one that is also entirely its own. It shares its roots with the neighbouring styles of Mauritanian music, however Group Doueh have managed to transcend the classical limitations of that music with a fiery, independent, and avant approach that incorporates a distinctly pop and rock element that is anomalous in the region. This is a sound that can only come from the land that inspired it. This is the sound of the Sahara desert. It is a searing, meditative, and hypnotic modal sandstorm of note clusters that has been cathartic to anyone who has heard it.

OMAR SOULEYMAN

Omar Souleyman is a musical legend from Syria. For the past 15 years, he and his group have emerged as a staple of folk-pop throughout the country, having issued more than five-hundred studio and live-recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city.
Hailing from the rural North-eastern city of Ras Al Ain, Souleyman began his musical career in 1994 with a small group of local collaborators that have been with him from the start. The group tirelessly performs concerts throughout Syria and has accepted invitations to perform abroad in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Lebanon.

Sublime Frequencies
“The label is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. Sublime Frequencies is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past.”

www.sublimefrequencies.com

Savannah, Georgia’s Baroness blow the lid off their cauldron of hall of fame riffs on their first record for Relapse and debut full-length titled Red Album. With a sound built upon a resolute sense of purpose and shaped by hundreds of explosive live shows, Baroness position themselves at the forefront of heavy music with an epic album that is at once powerful, expressive, confident, and commanding. Red Album sees the band expand its sonic vision; colossal riffs and haunting vocals roll like thunder across epic songs spanning both the intense and the sublime. As the Red Album proves, Baroness’ formidable reputation proceeds them for a reason.
http://www.myspace.com/yourbaroness

Alabaster Suns – ex members of Capricorns
http://www.myspace.com/alabastersuns

Mothertrucker have been combining the riff power of Sabbath and Kyuss, the quiet menace of Slint and Mogwai and the epic ambience of Isis and Pelican to create a powerful rock onslaught since 2003 and are still rolling. The band have released a number of records in that time, including the album Trebuchet released by Argghh records in France, and have shared the stage with the likes of Boris, Mono, 27, Jesu, Aereogramme and Truckfighters.  A new album of epic material is to be recorded in March to be released soon after.
http://www.myspace.com/mothertrucker
Poster by Ben Javens

Earth are an American drone band based in Seattle, Washington, formed in 1990 by Dylan Carlson, Slim Moon, and Greg Babior; the band took its name from the first incarnation of Black Sabbath. Although they have played various styles of music, they are best known as pioneers of a minimalistic, long and repetitive form of heavy music known as drone. To a lesser extent their sound is referred to as doom metal. Earth, however, have little to do with metal in their current sound. Their early albums could be seen as a variation of the experimental doom-influenced metal of The Melvins.

Their music is beautiful and at the same time desolate featuring the sound of lonely highways, wide-open spaces and the occasional slide guitar. They are so far ahead of the pack it will take years for people to catch up with them. This is music to get totally immersed in; it’s melodic, powerful yet understated and reserved.
www.myspace.com/earthofficial

“Ko-Guma-za: “The little bear”. 3 piece KGZ sees the guitar section of Nottingham band Wolves Of Greece reunited for the first time since their involvement with NYC composer Glenn Branca’s orchestra in 2007 and 2008. Whereas the Wolves were designed to allow no time for audience reflection, this new project is a direct contrast. Dense guitar tones shape fragments of songs backed only by insistent, Mo Tucker-ish drum patterns. Melodies and harmonies reveal themselves slowly through the murk.”
www.myspace.com/oogamaza

Poster by Ben Javens

Vetiver is an American folk band headed by songwriter Andy Cabic and often joined by Devendra Banhart, cellist Alissa Anderson, drummer Otto Hauser, violin Carmen Biggers, guitarists Kevin Barker and Sanders Trippe, bassist Brent Dunn.

Vetiver released their debut album in 2004 on the small indie folk label DiCristina. Since the album`s release Vetiver has toured extensively, opening for and collaborating with Banhart and Joanna Newsom. Before moving to San Francisco, Cabic was a member of the Greensboro, North Carolina indie rock band The Raymond Brake who released some records on the now defunct Simple Machines label. The band shared the bill with Vashti Bunyan on her US tour in early 2007.

The band is named after the grass, vetiver. Their music has been described as `surreal`, `lullingly pleasant`, `tender and accessible` and `quirky and warm`.
http://www.myspace.com/vetiverse

Poster by Ben Javens

Just in time for their 10-year anniversary, MONO return to Birmingham in support of their fifth studio album, the absolutely massive Hymn To The Immortal Wind.

The music is naturally majestic, with MONO’s trademark wall of noise crashing beautifully against the largest chamber orchestra the band has ever enlisted. The instrumentation is vast, incorporating strings, flutes, organ, piano, glockenspiel and tympani into their standard face-melting set-up.

Recorded to analog tape with long-time friend and producer Steve Albini, there is an intimacy captured here that is at once beautiful and a little terrifying. The creaking of old wooden chairs as the orchestra rocks in their seats (both literally and figuratively), puckered lips rolling along flutes, and even the conductor’s opening cue can be heard during the hauntingly quiet opening moments

While Hymn continues to mine the cinematic drama inherent in all of MONO’s music, the dynamic shifts now come more from dark-to-light instead of quiet-to-loud. The maturity to balance these elements so masterfully has become MONO’s strongest virtue.

http://www.myspace.com/monojp

IROHA
Featuring current and former members of Jesu, Cable Regime and Final, Iroha mixes layers of textured guitar and basslines with heartbreaking melodies and brutally slow beats to produce songs of melancholic beauty.

“Although its scent still lingers on, the form of a flower has scattered away. For whom will the glory of this world remain unchanged? Arriving today at the yonder side of the deep mountains of evanescent existence. We shall never allow ourselves to drift away intoxicated, in the world of shallow dreams”
www.myspace.com/irohamusic

Poster by Ben Javens

Both players, Chris on drum and Paul on saxophone, have vibrant solo and group and improvised projects but the two love playing together and this is a rare instance to be celebrated. Their music manages to move people in a way that is just beyond words. Bear witness.

Chris Corsano’s drumming has to be seen to be fully appreciated. An ‘into the void’ musician who collaborates with a huge range of artists and can still pull off mad solo shit. It is a rare drummer that can hold his own with his customized kit, clatter practice and circular breathing drone exhortations but retain a dynamic and structure that works. He also self-releases a CD of distorted and spiked keyboard pieces on the Hot Cars Warp label to confuse those who try to pin him down. Loose-limbed, intense, even melodic, he exposes the audience to sounds and rhythms that defy normality. He moves light footed around the world sparking off into all kinds of collaborations playing with/alongside Jim O’Rouke, the Dimension X project, Whitehouse, Bjork, Mick Beck, Okkyung Lee, Thurston Moore and Bill Nace among many.

PAUL DUNMALL
For thirty years Paul Dunmall has carved out a reputation for himself and is now widely recognised as one of the most uncompromising and talented reed players on the International jazz/improvised music scene. Whether playing in small groups or big bands his musical sensitivity and imagination combined with a powerful sound to make him one of the most distinctive improvisers playing today.His octet and Moksha big band showcases his abilities both as a composer drenched in the Jazz traditions and Folk traditions and as a sympathetic leader able to give maximum freedom to a elite group of fellow improvisers.

Theo, the work of one Sam Knight, is one for themath rock fans. Taut, chugging guitar loops layer up with frenetictapping patterns that interweave in spiralling complexity before nearsub-atomically precise, powerhouse drumming clatters and builds eachsong into juggernaut of riffs and rhythms. To achieve something likethis recorded is one thing, but to see Theo perform live is quiteanother as each song blurs into the next and the dazzling guitar anddrum acrobatics leave jaws sagging on the faces of all who bear witnessto the talent on offer.
www.myspace.com/theo1000

Poster by Ben Javens

Birmingham’s Pram craft fairytales from concrete reality. The second city’s spin cycle of perpetual renovation, from the slum clearances to its current cosmetic upgrade, is etched in Pram’s restless groove, an endearing and gently refusenik mix encircling early Rough Trade innovators The Raincoats, astro jazz, sci-fi soundtracks, creepy Victoriana, tropical analogue and tumbledown funk.
www.myspace.com/pushthepram

Women, latest signing to Jagjaguwar (home to Bon Iver + Black Mountain) produce light and spacious sounds, at other times eerie and dense with an ominous weight,  touching upon Velvet Underground, Swell Maps or This Heat while not really having any obvious precursors – a lo-fi masterpiece cloaked in layers of vibrato and guitar wash.
Noisy and claustrophobic songs smash through junkyard trash brawls while others lift and soar across the landscape of 50’s-informed pop; a contradiction and an enigma, the debut album by Women will find its way onto summertime pool break-in boombox mixes and the turntables of record store devotees.

“…. straddles the 1960s’ divide between the Warhol crowd’s speed-addled New York cynicism and the echoes of psychedelic San Francisco that bubbled up across the pond in the fey, catchy pop of UK groups like the Zombies.”
– Pitchfork

http://www.myspace.com/womenmusic

Poster by Ben Javens

Racebannon started in 1996 with vocalist Anderson and guitarist James Bauman. They soon found the other members who would round out the line-up and they started recording and playing shows. After a string of releases on indie labels, the band signed with Bloomington-based Secretly Canadian in 2001. The label was known mostly for singer/songwriter indie bands, and having a noise/metal band among their ranks was challenging for the public to grasp. Their first release for the label, In The Grips Of The Light, was even recorded by Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes fame.

Their next album, Satan’s Kickin Yr Dick In, was a Rock Opera. It was released in 2002 to a fanbase hungry for the next offering; little did they know it would be so dense in noise obfuscation and content. It tells the tale of Rodney, who sells his soul to the devil and, in the course of seeking a better life, becomes lounge singer Rhonda Delight. This trans-gendered soul swap is conveyed through hazy blasts of distortion and the tortured vocals of Anderson (aka Delight.) Secretly Canadian then reissued an earlier release from Level Plane called First There Was The Emptiness in 2005. And after that there was silence.

At this point, a new album was brewing and the band were very careful about leaking the results. Acid or Blood veers away from the murky noise of earlier releases and spotlights the bone crushing riffs and manic vocals of Bauman and Anderson. While still retaining their nervous energy that hints at Melt Banana, the guitars have stamped out songs as memorable and hummable as anything from Melvins Houdini. Songs like Translucent Lifeforce and The Hard Way are incredible in their might while maintaining a feverish quality. Few bands can capture this kind of live ferocity in the studio. And Racebannon do it in spades.

http://www.myspace.com/racebannonrocks

Flyer designed by Matt Snowden- No Heaven Waiting

Seattle-based group The Dead Science are set to release their strongest work to date, a new album called Villainaire, on Montréal-based imprint Constellation. To coincide with the release of the new album the band will be touring the UK with a stop off in Birmingham.

Their songs range from epic orchestral pop to sinister jazz-rock to weary, soul-bleached balladry. Sam Mickens writes about “moral pragmatism and experimental moral nihilism, black-out drunkenness and its psychic and emotional repercussions, and the continuum of baroque fantasy and stark reality” – all delivered with inimitable, seductive, and at times disturbing operatics.
http://www.myspace.com/thedeadscience

Theo, the work of one Sam Knight, is one for themath rock fans. Taut, chugging guitar loops layer up with frenetictapping patterns that interweave in spiralling complexity before nearsub-atomically precise, powerhouse drumming clatters and builds eachsong into juggernaut of riffs and rhythms. To achieve something likethis recorded is one thing, but to see Theo perform live is quiteanother as each song blurs into the next and the dazzling guitar anddrum acrobatics leave jaws sagging on the faces of all who bear witnessto the talent on offer.
www.myspace.com/theo1000

FUCKING CHAMPS
FRENCH TOAST (ex  Nation of Ulyesses, The Make up +
Fugazi)
CALVADOS BEAM TRIO

The Hare and Hounds pub is just off Kings Heath High Street and on the corner of Waterloo Rd, you can get a number 50 bus from town.
check here for map

Have you heard of them? This two guitar, one drummer, instrumental band is insane. The Champs are heirs to a long lineage beginning with Thin Lizzy and ending on the divergent ground of Carcass, Pussy Galore and Kraftwerk. Hailing from San Francisco, the sole aim of the “Kings of the Insanity Sound” is to set the audience soaring high on the wings of sorrow.

Featuring former members of The Nation of Ulysses, Hydrox, the Young Ginns, Taildragger, and The Event.
http://www.thefuckingchamps.com/

UNEARTHLY TRANCE (Rise Above)
RAMESSES (ex-electric wizard)
HADDONFIELD, ILLINOIS (Esquilax side project)

The Hare + Hounds pub is off Kings Heath High Street on the corner of Waterloo Rd
check map for full details

“The march of Templar Knights at twilight. Ritualistic subterranean
drift. The decay of cathedrals over eons. Unearthly Trance, formed in 2000 and comprised of members Darren Verni, Rion Lipynsky, and Jay Newman, unleash a frostbitten, apocalyptic vision with their brand of grim hypnotic doom. Blackened sound waves, lethargic riffs, and dire proclamations drone
from the void.” (Crucial Blast)

Unearthly Trance aka ‘The Humanless Cult’ will is poised to take on the world abroad in 2005 with an unprecedented ritualistic fury. BEWARE!

www.unearthlytrance.com

RAMESSES was born in England, February 2003. The seed of inspiration that gave birth to the band came from Mark Anthony Greening. Earlier during that bitter winter, he had parted ways with the band he’d drummed for since its creation, Electric Wizard, and wanted to continue to push his (now world famous) insanely creative drumming. Similarly, Tim Bagshaw, his long-time friend, had also left Electric Wizard, looking to leave behind what he saw as the boredom of the bass in favour of the guitar. Their departures shocked both the media and fans alike, who are still debating the reasons why…

to find out more info check:
www.hcp-industries.demon.co.uk/ramesses/

The OXES are back, and in grand style. After spending time apart getting married in Italy, delivering pizzas, worshipping football great Ray Lewis, and perfecting the art of the “claw” the OXES have returned to put their finest tunes to date on tape in THREE years!

Recorded by the OXES in their way fab home studio in the outskirts of Baltimore, the OXES EP is a maddening chunk of rock’n’roll, containing signature OXES’ stadium riffage, drum spills and fills, and sense of humor.

But, this release is a turning point in the OXES songwriting as they dabble in more straight forward rock numbers, and more, well mental rock numbers. Playing with time signatures, guitar leads/solos, off kilter rhythms, and even remixing a song, the OXES have taken a step into a slightly new direction.

http://www.myspace.com/oxxes

Curated and produced by NO-FI and [NO.SIGNAL] supported by The Wire magazine APPROXIMATELY INFINITE UNIVERSE – A CARAVAN OF RAW SOUND MAGIC FROM FINLAND AND THE US.

Featuring special commissions and unique collaborations from some of the most innovative and exciting acts of Finland’s underground with the superb ISLAJA, the multi-layered KEMIALLISET YSTÄVÄT, the drones of ES and the noise of TOMUNTONTTU (Jan Anderzén) – most represented by the influential and exploratory label FONAL. Each will musically entangle themselves amongst an uncompromising host of Americans, including the home-recorded acid folk of Fursaxa; the MV & EE member SAMARA LUBELSKI, the ‘Terry Riley-fused with Kate Bush’ impossibility of Axolotl, the ‘coal-powered spacecraft from some steampunk parallel universe’ that is BLEVIN BLECTUM and the noise duo from SKATERS.

Each performance a unique and brand new collaboration, each of the acts features a combination of Finnish artists from FONAL, who have invited a US counterpart to collaborate on a composition, highlighting the parallels in strands of the recent evolving trend of ‘weird/avant folk’ between the US West coast and Finland’s northern communities.

The performances will be made of material composed in the months leading up to the tour and worked in 2 days rehearsal. The concerts will take the form of two acts with the 4 groupings rotating during each act.

ES (FI)
ES is the solo recording name of Fonal boss Sami Sänpäkkilä – tagged as ‘Experimental Songcycles’ by The Wire’s David Keenan – and one of the main figures in contemporary Finnish free folk mouvement. Sami is not only a musician but also a renowned filmaker.

FURSAXA (US)
Tara Burke of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania employs voice, guitar, organ, dulcimer, accordion, Casio and more to create her home-recorded acid folk as Fursaxa. Her debut album Mandrake was produced, engineered, and released in Japan by none other than Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple.

ISLAJA (FI)
Islaja is Merja Kokkonen, a young visual artist and musician based in Helsinki, Finland. She has discretely become one of the few figures hiding behind the recent fad of “folk weirdness” whilst being part of a somehow communal move of a “Finnish psychedelia” that has spread its wings within the underground sounds over the last two years.

SAMARA LUBELSKI (US)
Samara is a native New Yorker who grew up in the haze of artist infestation of Soho. Through the time of playing in various groups she has compiled an impressive resume that covers myriad of genres such as her work with the avant/psych/folk outfit of Hall Of Fame into the lair of those bohemian German musos Metabolismus and onto the indie rock interpretations of The Sonora Pine with some serious treks into the world of The Tower Recordings and off world with Jackie O Motherfucker, to name just a few.

BLEVIN BLECTUM (US)
Blevin Blectum is an electronic musician. Recently relocated from the industrial armpit of Oakland, California, to the humid lovecraftian greenery of Providence, Rhode Island, Blevin releases her fourth solo album, GULAR FLUTTER, on an unsuspecting public via the AAGOO label (New York). Blevin is one half of the recently reformed and reunited groundbreaking digital duo Blectum From Blechdom, recipients of the 2001 Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in Digital Musics.

KEMIALLISET YSTÄVÄT (FI)
The name of a recording project of musician Jan Anderzén of Tampere, Finland. Anderzén began recording under the name in 1995 and although he has enlisted numerous musicians over the years, most Kemialliset Ystävät recordings are solo productions. Often labeled as psych folk, his recordings have included such diverse instruments as detuned guitars, mandolins, balalaikas, toys, hand percussion, and samples from recordings by Sun Ra, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Vibracathedral Orchestra.

AXOLOTL (US)
Axolotl is Karl Bauer, classically-trained violinist and a dedicated student of gnosticism, alchemy, astrology, and certain other materialist tendencies in psychology and philosophy. Bauer belongs to a small but potent association of young musicians, who draw upon the gestural economy and textural range of minimalism, and the visceral force of noise, while eschewing fashionable prohibitions against musicality, raw beauty, and thematic complexity.

TOMUTONTTU (FI)
The visual artist and musician Jan Anderzén (1978) is one of the central figures of the Finnish underground, and his band Kemialliset ystävät has gained international popularity among fans of experimental and psychedelic music.

SKATERS (US)
“Staggering low-grade psychedelic murk and splintered free jazz soul” says David Keenan (The Wire). The skaters are from southern California and consist of Spencer Clark and James Ferraro who met in 2002. The duo say that the substance of their music is defined by “the interplay of ideas and the transformation of themselves into characters while playing and while living and using the inner dialogue that comes with cognizing the symbols of the outside world as a ground for the music to stand”. The music for them becomes deeply psychological because they experience “hallucinogenic sensations” while playing. The “thing” they think is a phenomenon can only be experienced through playing.

A new suite of music composed by the esteemed Mexican electronic composer Murcof, who has released three highly regarded albums on the Leaf Label. This will be a dream opportunity to hear Murcof’s distinctive hybrid of brooding electronics and classical sound sources enriched by live strings in a synchronised visual environment.

This special commission allows Murcof to find full integration between all the elements in his sound, whether acoustic, analogue or digital. Strings, pixelations, sound files, brass, digital sweeps, woodwind and video beams become a single whole in this new audiovisual composition. Murcof will allow the unique qualities of acoustic instruments to mix with microbeats and vast digital atmospherics, letting tracks shift and mutate in a minimal environment. This will be an immersive experience. More than anyone else, Murcof knows how to make blend these elements seamless together to move his audience. Peaceful, intense and limitless.

To begin the evening will be the joyous and free display of tuba virtuousity by the incredible solo performer Oren Marshall. Using a bank of electronic effects, he is able to twist the tuba’s sound into new and wonderful shapes.
Murcof’s music is an integrated sound – wholly digital and of his age, his control of timbre is organic and his atmospheres are overpowering. There is a timelessness to his music that absorbs the listener, drawing them deeper into his sound world. A laptop that can create a melancholic maelstrom. His ear for detail and undulating tempos as well as his sense of space are heightened by the themes of life, death and eternity that his work touches on. Composers such as Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki and Giya Kancheli are all suitable comparisons.

Murcof’s time working with artists and dance companies led him to develop a taste for 20th century classical music. His musical background runs the gamut from acoustic rock to experimental multimedia, and now he is one of the forefather of minimalist electronic compositions. Murcof has collaborated with choirs, the pianist Francesco Tristano, Erik Truffaz, Talvin Singh (with whom he releases an album later in the year), and video artist Saul Saguatti at the Geode IMAX in Paris. He has performed and created installations in churches, opera houses, castles and in the world’s leading Planetaria. He has now scored three feature films, including the forthcoming La ‘Sangre Iluminada’ (Enlightened Blood). This will be his first full UK tour.

Oren Marshall is a pioneering player of acoustic and electric tuba who straddles classical, jazz, improvised, and world music scenes. He has collaborated with the likes of Derek Bailey, Keith Tippet, the Pan-African Orchestra and the London Philharmonic. He makes his instrument sing, whoop and feedback like Hendrix did his guitar – it is that exhilarating an experience.

As a solo artist, Oren continues to explore strategies for extending the tonal range of the tuba and opening up a new vocabulary for his instrument. This groundbreaking solo work led to a nomination for the BBC Innovation in Jazz award with his composition ‘Introduction to the Story of Spedy Sponda; pt1: In a Silent Room’. Intended as a composition in five parts, Spedy Sponda provides a matrix for Oren’s continuing development of possibilities for solo acoustic/electric tuba. He takes the audience on a kaleidoscopic, and often humorous journey through uncharted musical terrain.

Japanese psychedelic band founded in 1995 by members of the Acid Mothers Temple soul-collective. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career featured many musicians but by 2004 the line-up had coalesced with 4 core members and frequent vocal guests.

The band have a reputation for phenomenal live shows and releasing frequent albums on a number of international record labels, as well as the Acid Mothers Temple family record label which was established in 1998 to document the activities of the whole collective.
http://www.myspace.com/acidmotherstemple

Nisennenmondai (Smalltown Supersound / Japan)
Imagine an insane birthday party with Sun City Girls, Keiji Haino and Mika Miko all invited, things are gonna go volcanic, and that’s where Nisennenmondai come in! Of all the noisy girl groups of Kansai, Tokyo’s Nisennenmondai – their name translates as ‘Year 2000 problem’, a reference to the millenial computer bug – honestly! – are at once the most intense and hypnotic band to run out of the scene. Himeno Sayaka (drums), Zaikawa Yuri (bass) and Takada Masako (guitar) met, of all places, at the same after school music club at university in Tokyo and quickly jumped into band formation, self-releasing two EPs with short shrift before touring Japan alongside the likes of Death Sentence: Panda!, OOIOO, Lightning Bolt, Hella, Oshiri Penpenz, and Afrirampo. Their pulsing rhythm section and metallic overtoned guitar sound something like a heathen and tranced-out amalgamation of Boredoms, Neu!, Ruins and Leopard Leg – apt comparisons considering their group ensemble ethic and circular pattern performance setup. Nisennenmondai are as thrilling as they convulsive. Now don’t forget to blow out the candles!
www.myspace.com/nisennenmondai

Kling Klang –
Kling Klang are a five piece kraut-punk band from Liverpool, consisting of four synth players and a drummer. Formed in mid 1999, as a 3 piece using only cheap synths and old drum machines. Since then they have used every show and release as a way to explore new dynamic ways of presenting their unique sound.
http://www.myspace.com/superposition

Mike In Mono has been the solo project of Mike Johnston (Plone, ZX Spectrum Orchestra, Modified Toy Orchestra) since 1995. Releases have included the notorious “Mashed Up” single on Halfeaten Records and the even more hard to get hold of “Stars & Stripes” EP on WarmCircuit. “Euro Eccentric” 7″ single is out now on Static Caravan, with another single and his first solo album set to come out later this year.
http://www.myspace.com/monoinmike

Calvados Beam Trio:
Brummie three piece, who have their roots in experimental jazz and dub as much as taking influence from the likes of Slint or Tortoise, always exciting their rythmic post everything improv is always a joy to watch.

http://www.myspace.com/calvadosbeamtrio

Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (and subsequent offshoots) is a Japanese psychedelic band founded in 1995 by members of the Acid Mothers Temple soul-collective. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career featured many musicians but by 2004 the line-up had coalesced with 4 core members and frequent vocal guests.

The band have a reputation for phenomenal live shows and releasing frequent albums on a number of international record labels, as well as the Acid Mothers Temple family record label which was established in 1998 to document the activities of the whole collective.

http://www.myspace.com/acidmotherstemple

Einstellung
 
Einstellung’s sound is one of mesmerising power and hypnotic beauty. They are part krautrock and part psychedelic indie noise-pop – with a touch of the heavy metal heritage of Birmingham, their home city. Einstellung’s “powerkraut” sound is the product of a meeting of minds between guitarists Andy Smart & Andrew Parker (ex Sally/Katastrophy Wife) with Si Rider (ex Grover) drums and Steve Hough (ex Cable Regime/Godflesh) on bass.
 
Einstellung’s appeal is an unhurried approach and use of tension/release. Songs teeter then finally explode into electric walls of overdrive. Despite a lack of vocals Einstellung’s shows are captivating and extremely loud. The band clearly relishes the noise they produce together, their enthusiasm and energy cascades from the stage.  Live shows are infrequent – catch them at every available opportunity.
 
www.myspace.com/einstellung

10-piece Danish ensemble Efterklang, a band whose name translates literally to “after-noise” but more loosely to “reverberation” or “remembrance.” All of these translations are in one way or another appropriate descriptors for the wondrous music created by the group, which settles beautifully into an open area somewhere between the elegant minimalist orchestrations of Max Richter, the electronically-enhanced chamber music of Rachel’s albums like Systems/Layers, and the more contemplative moments of Godspeed! You Black Emperor.

The most obvious characteristic that separates Efterklang from these other artists is their extensive use of vocals to augment their spacious orchestral sound. The band are signed to the British The Leaf Label.

Among our key contributors is Karim Ghahwagi a filmmaker who has made a vast number of collage films for our live shows and a video for Swarming.

http://www.myspace.com/efterklang

In support of releasing her new solo album on Wichita, Meg Baird (one of the clear-toned songwriters of Philadelphian sextet Espers) will be doing a handful of dates in the UK, we are really happt to have her in Birmingham.

It is a deeply personal record that very nearly never existed for public consumption. Made up of a mix of her own original material, cover versions and a selection of traditional numbers, Dear Companion is a collection of songs that are very close to Meg’s heart. “I tucked into this collection of songs as much personal coding and shapes as I could without weighing down the branches too much. I really love these songs and take them very seriously and was just trying to do a really good job with everything I had available at that time. I wanted to make something new and worthwhile, all the while harboring a feeling that all songs have already been written.”

Fans of Espers, and newcomers alike will immediately swoon to the sound of Meg’s uniquely beautiful voice and the pluck or strum of guitar and mountain dulcimer. The passion and feeling in this record is immediately apparent and compulsive.

www.myspace.com/pennsylvaniawildlife

http://www.myspace.com/sharonvanetten

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

Alexander Tucker
A unique voice occupying his own space, this is folk with swathes of post rock and almost industrial soundscapes, woeful acoustic music all lovelorn, lost and bewildered. The vocals are delicate and broken, complemented with piano, cello and harpsichord, punctuated with darker waves of feedback and looped found sounds to create beautiful yet unsettling music, that will stay with you long after he has left the stage.