Good Sad Happy Bad to support Rich Dawson on April 30th!

Have we got some very special guests to announce for Rich Dawson’s April 30th concert at The Clapham Grand? We sure do! Overjoyed to welcome Good Sad Happy Bad to the lineup. Excited to see Rich play with drummer Andrew Cheetham at this show too, it’s going to be incredible.

Upset The Rhythm presents…

RICH(ARD) DAWSON
GOOD SAD HAPPY BAD
Wednesday 30 April
The Clapham Grand, 21-25 St John's Hill, Clapham, London, SW11 1TT
7pm | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/ed6edd247a05

GOOD SAD HAPPY BAD is a band composed of CJ Calderwood, Marc Pell, Mica Levi, and Raisa Khan. Their whimsical kraut punk and art rock experiments, brimming with mantras and cycles and nervous lullabies, bring the listener into wobbly landscapes and toward spiraling epiphanies.

Their second album, All Kinds of Days (2024), a follow up to their 2020 debut, Shades, deepens the band’s collaborative approach, building on instrumental improvisations that each member reworks with vocal contributions, creating a dynamic, shared storytelling experience. Throughout the album, the four musicians frequently unite in lush, layered choruses, and meandering guitars that add a communal resonance.

All Kinds of Days delves into themes of loss, grief, recovery, healing, keeping a house together, and the challenges of parenthood, all set against a moody, intricate soundscape. Listeners are pulled through eerie guitar lines, spoken word, ghostly woodwinds, and gritty electronic textures, all disguised within a framework of an unconventional “band” sound. Beneath these atmospheric layers lies a rhythmic foundation of drums and nuanced melodies that lend drive and an unsettling beauty to the album’s sound.

https://good-sad-happy-bad.bandcamp.com/

Buffet Lunch - 'Whitsun Sound'

'Whitsun Sound' by Buffet Lunch came out today! Another wizard single from the band's forthcoming album 'Perfect Hit!'. This track is all about hobbies, leisure-time, waiting and repetition.

Huge thanks to the fine people at Raven Sings The Blues for premiering the creeped-out video, made by the talented Joshua Roland.

'Perfect Hit!' comes out on April 4th, we’re throwing an album launch in London on April 11th at The George Tavern FYI.

Wendy Eisenberg & Ryan Sawyer to play London next month! April 9th

 

 

Woah… last minute new concert announcement on April 9th, tell your friends, acquaintances, all and sundry! It’s going to be a tremendous evening!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

WENDY EISENBERG & RYAN SAWYER
KIRAN LEONARD
Wednesday 9 April
The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB
7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/G8802b91cafe

WENDY EISENBERG & RYAN SAWYER came together seemingly by fate. The duo originally came together in a dream Eisenberg had, and not long after, were brought together in reality as substitutes for a show at Union Pool, where they instantly fell in step. Both artists’ work traverses genres from jazz to noise, all sorts of avant substrata and delicate songs, each placing a special emphasis on vast dynamics, textures, and moods. Their performances ebb and flow between long, improvisational pieces and composed songs from each of the artists' repertoires, setting the sonic intersection between Blaze Foley and the New York Art Quartet. The duo has previously opened for caroline at National Sawdust.

Ryan also plays on Wendy’s new single ‘I Don’t Miss You’ (Joyful Noise Recordings). Wendy has previously played for us solo, and as a member of Editrix and Bill Orcutts’s guitar quartet, and their recent album ‘Viewfinder’ was described by The Guardian as “unexpected shifts in pace mix with Americana and jazz, with the singer-songwriter’s distinctive guitar sound driving a song cycle like no other”. Ryan Sawyer has played drums / percussion for Tv On The Radio, Marshall Allen, Susan Alcorn, Gang Gang Dance, At The Drive-In and collaborates frequently with John Dwyer.

https://www.wendyeisenberg.com/
https://ryansawyer.bandcamp.com/music



KIRAN LEONARD’s unique and ambitious body of work spans more than a decade of releases on labels such as Moshi Moshi and Hand of Glory, limited-run noisy DIY fare, and everything in between. The adolescent guitar/chamber prog of early records such as ‘Bowler Hat Soup’ (2013) and ‘Grapefruit’ (2016) earned praise from Pitchfork, the Guardian and the Quietus, and produced several BBC 6Music-playlisted singles. More recent work has seen Kiran attempt to synthesise interests in situated/home recording, collage, his live practice, and a combination of songcraft with graphic scores, as documented on the monumental (i.e. two-hour-long) and abstract ‘Trespass on Foot’ (2021) and ‘River Holds Peace, Some Live’ (2023), a collection of new and old material arranged for an ensemble of multiple electric guitars, cittern and double bass. Last year, After half a decade of songs without choruses, Kiran released ‘Real Home’ on Memorials of Distinction, which was named by the Guardian that summer among the best albums of 2024 so far.

https://kleonard.bandcamp.com/

Chris Cohen - July show announced!

A quick (and very welcome) return visit from Chris Cohen to London this Summer!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

CHRIS COHEN
Thursday 31 July
The Ivy House, 40 Stuart Rd, London, SE15 3BE
7.30pm | £16 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/a62fd570325d

CHRIS COHEN was always a quiet kid. In fact, this introversion was one reason he began playing music as a toddler—to communicate without speaking to identify with others without the direct representation of words. It has worked, too, with Cohen’s terrific stint in the mighty Deerhoof and his own captivating art-rock act The Curtains, preceding production and session work for the likes of Weyes Blood, Kurt Vile, Le Ren, and Marina Allen. Somewhere along that long way, Cohen started writing lyrics. He found that, though it didn’t come naturally, the process offered a new sense of self-discovery and reckoning, a way to see himself and the world from unexpected angles. His three twilit albums of casually complicated pop during the last decade radiated these epiphanies: handling family strife, navigating advancing age, and understanding social woes.
 
But Cohen has never had as much to sing so directly as he does on ‘Paint a Room’, his first album in five years and his debut for Hardly Art. If Cohen’s meanings have previously lurked inside the tessellated musical layers he built alone, they are newly clear and resonant here, animated and underscored for the first time by a band playing in real time. There is the endless miasma of state violence on the subversively melodious opener “Damage,” the existential exhaustion of modernity on the horn-traced jangle “Laughing”. With ‘Paint a Room’, Cohen’s music feels like a warm spring breeze, easy to love and gentle to feel. But it’s often carrying something heavy, as if blowing in from some unseen storm cloud.
 
https://chriscohen.bandcamp.com

Actual Earth Music - out now!

 

Earth Ball just cracked the planet! ‘Actual Earth Music - Volume 1 & 2’ (out today on Upset The Rhythm) presents two caustic, zoned-out live sets from Canadian noise-rock entropy hunters Earth Ball. 

This new LP captures the band at the peak of their powers, playing live, frying minds, composing spontaneously. 

Side A features Earth Ball live at The Fox Cabaret in Vancouver, supporting Wolf Eyes on August 4, 2023. Here Earth Ball whip up a vortex of thrashing wild energy, and the ecstatic release is off the charts. Volume 2 occupies Side B, showcasing a collaborative summit at London’s Café OTO on May 21, 2024. This recording features pivotal UK improv luminary Steve Beresford on piano and free-jazz phenomenon Chris Corsano on drums.
 
These two pulse-quickening sets demonstrate how intuitive and inventive the group are when they keep cresting the moment. This is ‘Actual Earth Music’, sharing Earth Ball in their element as they conjure sound from the unknowing ether. ‘Actual Earth Music - Volume 1 & 2’ is out now digitally and as a limited 180g black vinyl pressing.

Thank you to Rob Turner for his spot-on review from this month’s issue of WIRE magazine too, well worth buying a copy for the Cleaners From Venus interview alone! 

UTR
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Walt McClements + Jacken Elswyth - London show in August

One of our highlights from last year was seeing Walt McClements play with Mary Lattimore at Hoxton Hall, so we’re ecstatic to invite him back this August for a show at Cafe OTO with Jacken Elswyth too, sublime times!

 

 

Upset The Rhythm presents…

WALT McCLEMENTS
JACKEN ELSWYTH
Wednesday 27 August
Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL 

7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Q090a15c33bd

WALT McCLEMENTS is an accordionist, multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Los Angeles. His solo compositions focus on processed accordion, creating patient and emotional meditations that nod to drone and ambient music. His debut record, “A Hole in the Fence” was released in 2021 on American Dreams, and utilized a minimal palette of accordions treated through guitar pedals to create glacial soundscapes and odes to hidden worlds. On his latest record and first for Western Vinyl, “On a Painted Ocean”, he expands his sonic tools to include lush synths, droning pipe organs, and spirited horns, creating a vibrant journey from solitary stillness to community exuberance. The record also follows last year’s “Rain on the Road”, a collaborative album with harpist Mary Lattimore, released on Thrill Jockey.
 
Prior to releasing music under his own name, McClements has been a touring member of Weyes Blood, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Dark Dark Dark, as well as leading New Orleans art-punk brass ensemble Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship? and one man band Lonesome Leash.

https://www.waltmcclements.com/

 

JACKEN ELSWYTH is a London-based folk musician, banjo player, and instrument builder. In her music making she is focused on exploring traditional tunes, developing extrapolations on folk styles and techniques, and investigating drone, ambience, and improvisation within and beyond folk music. Her debut album At Fargrounds (Wrong speed Records, 2024) was described as a ‘folk-thesis for our times’ by The Quietus. Jacken also organises the Betwixt & Between split tape series, and plays in Shovel Dance Collective too.  

https://jackenelswyth.bandcamp.com/

Quinie - 'Forefowk, Mind Me' announced!

We’re so excited for you to hear Quinie's wondrous new album Forefowk, Mind Me (out May 23rd on Upset The Rhythm)! The first song from the album, ‘Macaphee Turn the Cattle’ escaped into the wild this morning, thanks to KLOF Magazine for premiering the video.

 

A singer working from the Scots song tradition, Quinie brings an approach that is both reverent and radical—exploring authenticity not as an exercise in preservation, but as something lived, questioned, and continually reshaped. ‘Forefowk, Mind Me’ is a conversation between traditions: voice and pipes, accompanied and unaccompanied, DIY and folk. It features a mix of traditional unaccompanied songs, reinterpretations, and original arrangements drawn from Scots, Gaelic, and Irish traditions, alongside toasts, improvisations, and poetic settings. Rather than static and fixed, it’s folk tradition in motion.

'Forefowk, Mind Me' can be pre-ordered as a 180g black vinyl LP w/ risograph lyric print

 
There’s also an option to order the LP with a stunning accompanying art book too!

Also… for those of you in London, we’re hosting a special launch party on May 30th at St Pancras Old Church. Tickets now on sale.

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Rattle released!

 

Rattle’s entrancing new album ‘Encircle’ is released today!

With this hypnotic third album, Rattle have emerged from the chrysalis with four mutable songs of drum and vocal patterns. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, tracing the circle’s edge. What a stunning achievement! Here’s the hot pink vinyl version in all its glory, plus some bonus pics of Rattle joyously meeting the LPs for the first time!

‘Encircle’ can be streamed on all digital platforms now, it is also available on vinyl (pink, black versions) and CD from all the best shops, as well as our Bandcamp and webshop here.

UTR
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Deerhoof - double dates this July!

Two decidedly distinctive Deerhoof dates for your diary!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

DEERHOOF
Monday 28 July
Tuesday 29 July
Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherds Bush, London W12 7LJ
7.30pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/u14f27627efa / https://link.dice.fm/I74bac87ba3a

DEERHOOF long ago established themselves as one of the greatest rock groups ever to stride the earth, the furiously inventive quartet releases new albums on the schedule of a young band still hungry for its first break. Their latest album ‘Noble and Godlike in Ruin’ (their 19th studio album) is either a portrait of a world descending into monstrous hate, dehumanization, and dollar signs, or a haunting self-portrait of band-as-monster, singing tirelessly of love, increasingly alienated from that world. Songs crash and break apart, then reassemble in surprising and delightful new fashion.

The music is joyful and foreboding, cybernetic and deeply human, all at once. Strings that evoke avant-garde chamber music and classic horror-film soundtracks bounce off guitar and bass lines that chug on impervious to the creeping dread. The drums are sometimes filtered to sound almost electronic, but no computer could come up with rhythms so funky and dynamic, with each minute variation from one snare hit to the next conveying worlds of possibility. The world may be going down, but Deerhoof is going down swinging. 

For this pair of shows in London, Deerhoof will be performing different sets each night, featuring material from ‘Noble and Godlike in Ruin’ alongside epic tracks from their extensive back catalogue!
https://deerhoof.bandcamp.com/

Now that's what we call a double headline show!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

MOHAMMAD SYFKHAN
SACRED PAWS
Saturday 17 May
OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney Central, E8 1LL
7pm-10.30pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/ade9797f4d93

MOHAMMAD SYFKHAN is an Irish based Kurdish/Syrian singer and Bouzouki player. Mohammad’s own brand of ecstatic music takes elements from Middle Eastern and North African music to create an atmosphere of joy, love and happiness. Since arriving in Ireland, Mohammad has used the language of music to integrate into the local community by playing at private parties and concerts. He has been playing music since the 1980’s, while living in the city of Raqqa, Syria  where he began working as a professional singer and started his own band, The Al-Rabie Band which played concerts, parties, weddings and festivals all over Syria. His debut album ‘I Am Kurdish’ came out on Nyahh Records last year. The Quietus explains further that “Syfkhan takes his domestic influences and fuses them with music from beyond those regions, from North African folk rhythms to Turkish psychedelia. It’s a glorious alembic not bound by borders, where Mohammad himself brings a cultivated exuberance to his playing that belies his vintage.” 

https://nyahhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mohammad-syfkhan-i-am-kurdish 

SACRED PAWS were founded by the Glasgow duo of Ray Aggs (Trash Kit, Shopping) and Eilidh Rodgers (Golden Grrrls) who took their roots in the punk world and wound it together with myriad influences, from Afrobeat, through pop and post-punk, to create a glorious and unique hybrid. ‘Strike A Match’, the band’s urgent and infectious first offering, was released on Mogwai’s Rock Action label in 2017 and won the prestigious Scottish Album of the Year Award that same year. ‘Jump Into Life’, is the lush and layered new album from Sacred Paws, released on March 28th through Merge and Rock Action. Formed of eleven new songs, it takes the roots of the Sacred Paws project and breathes fresh life into it, blossoming into something both abundant and more colourful than has come before; a gentle skewing of their signature sound that feels wildly thrilling. Full of endearing energy, and buoyed by new sounds, textures, and character, ‘Jump Into Life’ is unafraid to reveal its warm and heavy beating heart, even with all the anxiety such a thing entails. 

https://sacredpaws.co.uk/