Young God / Mute Michael Gira has never shied away from the bareness of the bulb’s inspection – his narrative always gnaws at the fragmented prism of the self, right from the sweaty simplicity of their beginnings to the sophisticated diatribes of the later years, even including the physical force of Swans‘ recent rebirth.
Michael Rodham-Heaps
496 posts
Bristol 6 October 2019 Getting to finally see the Circle offshoot Pharaoh Overlord is a real treat, a melodic spattered-smorgasbord of kraut-inspired groovesomness. Theirs is a full-on sound, juttering in multiples, holding a riff perfectly, mulling it round in daggering dynamics, then throwing it to a glittering horizon that combines with the strobe lighting to just eat into your head.
London 14 September 2019 After a tortuous journey through London and around the building site that is Hackney Wick at the moment, we find ourselves standing outside Studio 9294, one of the many curious venues that Baba Yaga’s Hut uses for its shows. Steel shuttered doors and a street art facade lead us into the concrete bunker that is serving the three bands tonight.
Rocket Composed of British-Iranian musician and composer Kavus Torabi (of Knifeworld, Guapo, Gong and Cardiacs fame), Coil and Téléplasmiste’s Michael J York, and Steve Davis (yes, snooker’s number one of yore, now fully bewitched by all things modular), The Utopia Strong‘s self-titled debut LP is a light and airy piece of work.
Finders Keepers “Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden — step out of the space provided”, goes the intro to the Nurse With Wound list – as the rivery wound within the typographics become your rabbit hole, the spidery black text your ladder. Mythology is a strange thing: a seed of truth dropped in the enquiring mind some might say.
Mute At last, Chance Vs Causality, the long-lost Cabaret Voltaire soundtrack to a 16mm film by Babette Mondini, sees the light of day. Up until now, only a fragment had surfaced on a b-side to their “Silent Command” 7-inch back in 1979. Would loved to have seen the film, and if the sleeve art is anything to go by it was an artsy collage to be behold.
Metropolis Two years in the making and a pre-fortieth anniversary celebration taster of live things to come, Angel In The Detail finds the sonic trio of The Silverman, Erik Drost and Edward Ka-Spel on good form.
Salisbury Plain 17 August 2019 The British Army first started to clear the settlements from Salisbury Plain after the First World War, but it was during the preparation for the D-Day landings in 1943 that they chose to evacuate all the residents from the little village of Imber, in the north-west section of the plain, and it was never re-inhabited. This area is opened up for a few […]
Honeystreet, Wiltshire 1 August 2019 Nestled within the rolling Pewsey downs, tonight’s debut from Luminous Foundation (a freshly inked joust between Téléplasmiste’s Mark Pilkington and Urthona’s Neil Mortimer) takes place at The Barge Inn, one of the few Wiltshire country pubs that have escaped gentrification, a canal side drinkery and campsite that’s always been the home of the interesting, conspiratorial and now danceable electronics.
Sub Rosa Premiering seven compositions, this Noise of Art CD by the Opening Performance Orchestra, a Czech avant-garde and noise group from Prague who milk their “no melody, no rhythm, no harmony” ethos completely, documents the long-lost sound of Futurism
First Terrace The first side of FTS003 is a gentle amalgam of mechanical whirs and snipping conjunctives. One of Pierre Bastien’s robotic creations — a specially adapted Casio that conducts a huge sound sculpture, a Mechanical Orchestra invented by Cabo San Roque in Barcelona. The hiccuping apparatus is ever-present, delicately puckering a slow pulsing organ backdrop as this trumpet sauces its sinews.
Upset The Rhythm Unlike the pebble-dash that passes for indie these days, this lot show how it’s done, sabotaging the commercialism for the (un)common good, deliberately submerging their lyrics, knifing the flow with a juxtaposed jab to fearlessly craft something unique and as changeable as the British weather.
6 July 2019 Bristol This year, the Stolen Body-curated Astral Festival has chosen to spread itself over three of Bristol’s city centre venues. Thankfully, the Rough Trade sweatbox, the rather charming restaurant/bar at the Lanes and the grandiose SWX are all within a stone’s throw of one another. Unfortunately, the timing of things does mean that it is impossible to take in all bands, and considering it is […]
Disciples The wind-caught piano on the first track on His Name Is Alive’s All The Mirrors In The House daggers a smooth spectral draw that dissipates into “Lliadin”’s sustained shimmer. Its autumnal flow pin-heads multi-tracked murmurs, eating into the unaccompanied fret repeats
Bristol 19 June 2019 Audience-surrounded, EP64 kicked an intense noise. Dali’s word-tangled molasses kicked around by tribal drums and hawking sax in one of the most energetic performances I have witnessed from them
Faustus It’s not often you encounter a record as wonderfully diverse and sonically satisfying as this one by relatively unknown (to me at least) London duo Daona. Every single moment of this gem sparkles with conviction, eats into your consciousness
Touch What a gem of electro-acousticness David Knight and Stephen Thrower have created for their second UnicaZürn release on the Touch label. The weeviling warmth of the orchestration on the first track is erased by a Steve Reichian slip, snipping signatures ripped through with corkscrewing curls, tapering manatees full of planetary perfume
House Of Mythology David Tibet’s been a busy man, undertaking lots of extra curricular activity to rich rewards by collaborating with the likes of Zu and Youth, now he’s dancing on the cuneiformed candy of Mesopotamia with the likes of Andrew Liles and an unknown commodity of the Shaitan-Boy — who may just be a figment of both their fevered imaginings.