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GRAVITATIONAL
PULL
Dispatches
from the Spirit of Gravity / Edition 95 / August 10
·
Happenings:
Next Spirit of Gravity gig: Thursday 26th August 2010
$UN$HINE
REPUBLIC / CLANG SAYNE / SLOW LISTENER / CIRCUS TOE
The
Komedia Studio Bar, 44-47 Gardner Street,
Brighton, BN1 1UN
Time
8:30 - 11:00 Cost £5 / £4
$un$hine Republic: Drunk scientists
Clang
Sayne:
Spooky electro folk jazz
Slow Listener: emotional whirrs and wobbles
Circus Toe: Hastings Noise art improv duo
$un$hine
Republic
Gish and Andrew Perry have been playing together in various bands for longer
than either of them care to remember. Improvised no-input mixing board
feedback, mouth slop, guitar feedback and harmonics argue in this democracy of
the loudest. Gish is a sound artist based in London, with John Peel sessions
and major European festivals under his belt. In the past Gish has also played
as a member of Tex La Homa, Sunshine Republic,
Jack Nicholson, Miss Black America and My Hi-fi Sister. In the last year he's
released a barrage of incredible records on some of the most interesting new
British labels. Perry has come up through the UK none scene playing with
Terminal Grief, Sunshine Republic, The Good Time Guys, No Context, Damo
Suzuki, Makoto Kawabata, Sindre Bjerga,
Nils Rostad, Dead Wood, Touch My Junk and also
released many fine records on equally interesting labels. Perry plays live as
much as he can, having toured the UK and Europe in 2009. This very special
show sees the two drunken idiots reunited with $un$hine
Republic drummer and sound scientist Rich Preston.
Offensive
and difficult in equal measure.
Clang Sayne
Directed by songwriter / Improviser Laura Hyland, Clang Sayne
explore the boundaries between traditional song and free improvisation. The
group began as a song-based collaboration between Laura, and guitarist, James
O Sullivan in 2007, and later expanded to include bassist, Peter Marsh and
percussionist, Paul May.
Their debut album, 'Winterlands', released in
September 2009, has been described as "exhilarating and modest, yet
perverse in its refusal to conform" (Clive bell, The Wire),
"Sandy Denny at her most fervent joining the sessions for Mark
Hollis' solo record" (Baked Goods), "showcasing an uncategorisable
approach to song craft that brings to mind the music of Tim Buckley, Jandek
and David Sylvian's collaborations with Derek
Bailey." (BoomKat), and
"an explicit and compelling example of music that interrogates
traditional forms but explodes them due to some unnameable creative
imperative" (Scott McMillian, Mapsidaisical).
Both the album and their initial live performances focused on improvised
interpretations of Laura's songs, however recently they have begun taking a
more spontaneous approach to song craft, whereby they improvise melodies,
rhythms and textures around lyrics and texts, and vice versa. Documentation of
their playing and recording has culminated in collaborations with
photographers, Barbara Kukovec and Kirill
Kuletski and fine artist, Riccardo
Arena, all of which can be viewed on the website, www.clangsayne.net.
Slow Listener
Brighton based cassette star Slow Listener makes a welcome return to The
Spirit of Gravity with his lo-fi post noise stylings.
www.reverbnation.com/artist/song_details/2349259
has a recording of his last visit with us, it also
got a release on a US tape label.
www.myspace.com/slowlistener
Circus Toe
Hastings band Circus Toe will be a specially reduced duo featuring as special
guest the Mothers of the Third Reich drummer and former Meat Puppets member
Joe. Expect Drums, loops, drones, vocals, cheap keyboards and effects.
Circus
Toe live uploaded by dizzytigerstu, so
that's good enough for me.
Hosted
by our very own 'Laptop' Lee Hume
Visuals by _minimalVector
There
will be the elektrocreche available for any
unaccompanied toys who will be looked after during
the intervals by our professionally trained team of volunteers. And anybody
else that wants to bring along a sound toy to play with.
For details of future Spirit of Gravity events, go to www.spiritofgravity.com/.
·
Greetings:
The
August show should be another real gem, with 4 quality acts squeezed in. And
don't forget September 23rd with the legendary Eugene Chadbourne,
who has played with John Zorn and Camper van Beethoven and founded Shockabilly
with Kramer the Shimmydisc head honcho. We have
advance tickets available for that, but will have entrance on the door as
usual.
www.wegottickets.com/event/82883
·
Reviewings
Spirit
of Gravity
at the Komedia Studio Bar, Brighton, Thursday 29th
July 2010
This
was another really good show for 2010, unfortunately holidays and my inability
to type properly on this laptop mean this month’s review is fragmented and
brief, sorry.
Same
Actor’s
Chris is set up with his guitar and laptop on a table in the middle of the
stage. The sitar plus some cheekily stolen cymbal sounds from Medicine and
Duty's kit are processed through Max MSP for soundscapes
gentle or uneasy as the mood changes, occasionally Chris turns to watch the
projections while he's playing. Sometimes he just plays the sitar unaffected
as he does for Steptoe and Son. There was also comedy accompaniment by various
people noisily falling over stuff for extra entertainment. I don't think it
had been arranged.
Medicine
and Duty
are propelled by Andy Pyne’s kinetic drums,
there is a keyboard player and a laptop operator, it’s only occasionally
(e.g. during a manic Farfisa solo) you can tell
who is doing what. The keyboard player is also the singer. He coos and
warbles, his vocals veering from a flutey falsetto
to death metal gutterality. Their set is broken up
into songs, but each one has the air of improvisation with changes of
direction or tempo halfway through as new forms come to mind. At times it’s
brutal, at others majestic, it was their first show for a couple of months and
they really put some effort in. Top.
55th
Flotilla,
the pair from Shoreham Electronic Alliance, do the slow to fast thing
generally with their set, with the occasional breakdown, they start all
ambient and unstructured, speech and noise before a beat kicks all hip hop
rolls and the journey really gets underway to the frenetic spills of jagged beatery
of the ending. They use a ship’s wheel and telegraph as controllers for
various operations on their twin laptop setup, and part of the fun is watch
the wheel spin and feeling the music transform on the fly.
Yours
as ever
El
Maestro Con Queso
Editor.
Gravitational
Pull
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