Hello 2017!
Before the year bows out, here’s the fourth episode of our radio show for CAMP. 120 minutes of lots of our favourite music from Arthur Lee Harper to Yura Yura Teikoku, including some recent live snippets from Richard Dawson and Spirit Fest, enjoy!
Upset The Rhythm - Episode 4
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
01. La Dusseldorf - White Overalls
02. Soft Drinks - Pop Stars in Their Pyjamas
03. The Green Child - Her Majesty II
04. Bunny & The Lakers - Cops on Parade
05. Tickawinda - A Lyke Wake Dirge
06. Colin Thompson - Brisk, Young, Lively Lad
07. Richard Dawson - Live at Upset The Rhythm
08. Crack Cloud - Swish Swash
09. Yura Yura Teikoku - Soft Death
10. No Babies - The Weight
11. Nosferatu - Spectator
12. World Domination Enterprises - Asbestos Lead Asbestos
13. Reiko Kudo - We Maybe
14. Arthur Lee Harper - Valentine Gray
15. Spirit Fest - Live at Upset The Rhythm
16. Greenfield Leisure - L’Orange
17. David West With Teardrops - Cherry On Willow
18. Bobby Brown - The Boy a Sailor
19. Allen Toussaint - Electricity
20. Richard Dawson - Live at Upset The Rhythm
21. Roscoe Mitchell - Sing
22. Sibylle Baier - Wim
23. Donovan - Pebble And The Man
24. Gimmer Nicholson - Venus Cumulus
25. Dr. Strangely Strange - A Tale of Two Orphanages
26. Rexy - Send in the Clones
27. Superstar & Star - No More Sorrow
28. Upp - Thursday
29. Colin Potter - Behind You
30. Buchenfeld - Fragments
31. Morton Feldman - Three Voices (for Joan La Barbara) 9. Legato
32. Chain & The Gang - I Hate Winners
We’re getting very near our final show of the year now, this coming Wednesday we have rather excitingly… Richard Dawson & Normil Hawaiians both playing at Islington Assembly Hall.
Richard released our favourite album of the year, whilst Normil
Hawaiians’ 1982 debut just saw a timely re-issue through Upset The
Rhythm this very month. It’ll be a meeting of musical minds that’s for
sure. As we’re down to the last few dozen tickets now, it’s well worth
picking one up in advance if you haven’t already as it will be the
perfect way to see off 2017 in style.
You can also find below the whole write-up alongside our newly announced show listings for Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), Eric Chenaux and Joshua Abrams & his Natural Information Society.
Grasping the record label baton for a swift passage, this week
Upset The Rhythm also announced our first release of 2018. This January
we’re beyond happy to help The Green Child release their
self-titled debut into the world. 'The Green Child' is due for release
on January 12th through Upset The Rhythm on 180g black vinyl,
accompanied by some spirited sleeve design by James Vinciguerra.
Noisey just helped us announce the record by premiering the duo’s colossal closing statement 'Destroyer'! Have a listen here…
The Green Child is the long distance musical collaboration of Mikey Young and Raven Mahon, who met in 2013 when their bands, Total Control and Grass Widow
played a show in Oakland, California. They started writing songs
together in Australia in 2014 and the project has been on a slow burn
since.
Their music is broadly retro-futuristic in scope, with Mikey’s
verdant acres of lushly evocative synthesizers and blippy drum machines
underpinning most of their upbeat yet decidedly uncanny songs. Raven’s
calmly scenic and measured vocal flits like a will-o’-the-wisp
throughout the tracks, proffering a guiding hand as she walks us through
the often eerie, electronic concoctions.
RICHARD DAWSON can never been
accused by listeners of a lack of artistic ambition. Whether they got on
at the last stop - the 4 track Tyneside-Trout-Mask-through a-Vic and
Bob-filter of 'Nothing Important' - or earlier in the journey, with 'The
Glass Trunk's visceral song cycle or 'The Magic Bridge's sombre revels.
Devotees of his earlier recordings will be at once intrigued by and
slightly fearful of the prospect of a record that could make those three
landmark releases look like formative work. 'Peasant' is that album,
released on June 2nd through Weird World / Domino. From its first
beguilingly muted fanfare to its spectacular climax exploring a Dark
Ages masseuse's dangerous fascination with a mysterious artefact called
the Pin of Quib, it will grab newcomers to Dawson's work by the scruff
of the neck and refuse to let them go until they have signed a pledge of
life-long allegiance.
Driven forward by exhilarating guitar
flurries, Qawwali handclaps and bursts of choral ferocity, 'Peasant's
eleven tracks sustain a momentum worthy of the lyrics' urgent subject
matter. Dawson describes the themes of these songs as "Families
struggling, families being broken up by circumstance, and - how do you
keep it together? In the face of all of these horrors that life, or some
system of life, is throwing at you?" The fact that these meticulously
wrought narratives all unfold in the pre-mediaeval North Eastern kingdom
of Bryneich - "any time from about 450AD to 780AD, after the withdrawal
of the Roman Empire"- only makes their contemporary relevance more
enduring.
Dawson's objective was to create "A
panorama of a society which is at odds with itself and has great
sickness in it, and perhaps doesn't take responsibility - blame going in
all the wrong directions". But encountering 'Peasant's captivating
sequence of occupational archetypes ('Herald', 'Ogre', 'Weaver',
'Scientist'), listeners might find themselves wondering if these
multitudes could somehow be contained with one person. Dawson has
already supported the release of 'Peasant' with a full UK tour - his
first featuring a full live band. After wowing audiences at St John On
Bethnal Green this June, it's a pleasure to welcome Richard back for an
Xmas show with live band to play the esteemed Islington Assembly Hall.
NORMIL HAWAIIANS communal take
on post punk sprouted leaves from its mouth in 1982, and began carving
out a new furrow. Greater emphasis was awarded to improvisation within
the group and as a result their songs embarked on longer, freer journeys
towards the beaten bounds. They wanted these new songs to bear the
weight of their new collective spirit so comfort zones had to be left
behind. Tape loops, echo boxes, extended percussive sessions and duteous
faith in the tones emanating from a particular old wah-wah pedal were
all employed by Normil Hawaiians to stretch their sonic fabric into wild
and redolent new dimensions.
At this very moment the group existed
solely for the music, living together in a small cottage in the shadow
of Foel Studios in the Welsh hills, sharing everything together and
working long days to nurture and then burnish the music they had
discovered between them. This is how the band's debut album 'More Wealth
Than Money' was formed, through trial and close listening, through
cultivation and patient growth. Of course there were significant amounts
of mushrooms involved too and several UFO sightings, but when the sheep
began to march in time to the music Normil Hawaiians knew they were
creating something unique. 'More Wealth Than Money' will be re-issued
lavishly on double LP this December through Upset The Rhythm, they are
celebrating this release by performing t this special Xmas show at
Islington Assembly Hall too.
Joshua Abrams developed his voice in the rich ferment of the 1990s Chicago music world, participating heavily across the city’s jazz, experimental & rock scenes. He co-founded the ‘back porch minimalist’ band Town & Country &, with Matana Roberts & Chad Taylor, the trio Sticks & Stones. In a very busy two decades Abrams recorded & toured with a remarkable range of artists including extended engagements with Fred Anderson, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Hamid Drake, Theaster Gates, Neil Michael Hagerty, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Mike Reed, Matana Roberts, & The Roots. Abrams appears on over one hundred recordings. A film composer, Abrams has scored the music for five feature length films including the award-winning films Life Itself, The Interrupters and The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
Since 2010 Joshua Abrams has toured North America & Europe with a shifting-line up of musicians as 'Natural Information Society’. The group uses traditional & electric instrumentation to build long-form intricately psychedelic environments, composed & improvised, joining the hypnotic qualities of the Gnawan guimbri to a wide range of contemporary musics & methodologies including jazz, minimalism & krautrock. The band's album, Magnetoception (eremite), was selected by The Wire Magazine as the #3 record of 2015 & by Pitchfork as the #2 experimental record of the year. Current & former band members include Lisa Alvarado, Jason Adasiewicz, Mikel Avery, Ben Boye, Hamid Drake, Ben Lamar Gay, Emmett Kelly, Artur Majewski, Nick Mazzarella, Jeff Parker, Frank Rosaly, Jason Stein, Kuba Suchar, Nori Tanaka & Chad Taylor. In 2015, Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas collaborated on ‘Automaginary,’ (Drag City). Their latest album, 'Simultonality' continues NIS's exploration of stasis, continuity, repetition and layering. 'Simultonality' was released back in April, 2017 on eremite records & Glitterbeat. http://naturalinformationsociety.com/
JAMIE STEWART has spent 2017 showing how skilled he is at multi-tasking, having
toured the most recent Xiu Xiu album 'Forever', piled on the sonic pressure
with Lawrence English as HEXA and having paid final homage to The Music Of Twin
Peaks. 2018 sees that all change with Jamie committing to some rare solo
performances. The format is simple: Jamie, electric guitar and voice,
reducing the Xiu Xiu songs you know and love down to their most fragile husk
state. As the principle songwriter, musician and
vocalist behind avant-pop legends Xiu Xiu, Jamie Stewart is very much one of
UTR's favourite artists. Jamie draws heavily from wildly disparate sources -
cacophonous noise, gamelan, folk and the lush hooks of 80s UK post-punk, to
name a few - while his tortured lyrics and anguished delivery consistently deal
with the morose, suspected and the taboo. Expect new material, unusual covers
and favourite tracks from the Xiu Xiu back catalogue, making for a truly
memorable experience.
ERIC CHENAUX is an adventurous guitarist, singer and composer based in Paris. Having
been an active player in Toronto experimental music circles with a host of
group and collaborative works, Chenaux has more recently amassed a body of solo
work across five albums on the Constellation label, centering around his
dextrous, fried guitar playing as juxtaposed with a gorgeously lyrical vocal
style. An ingenious recombinant use of traditional folk, psychedelic pop and
consort music in earlier albums has over time evolved into a wholly
uncategorisable form of balladry, shot through with a singular vernacular of
guitar improvisation.
Noisey just helped us announce out next record, The Green Child's self-titled debut album, by premiering colossal closing statement 'Destroyer'!
The Green Child is the long distance musical
collaboration of Mikey Young and Raven Mahon, who met in 2013 when their bands,
Total Control and Grass Widow played a show in Oakland, California. They
started writing songs together in Australia in 2014 and the project has been on
a slow burn since. Their self-titled debut album is the culmination of few
years of putting ideas together internationally and periodically recording in
Mikey's home studio. Some of the lyrical content and the band's name was
inspired by Herbert Read's 1935 utopian, communist, sci-fi novel called The
Green Child.
With such a choice name, it’s no surprise that The Green Child draw
their sound from an illusory past as much as they stalk into pastures new. Broadly
retro-futuristic in scope, verdant acres of lushly evocative synthesizers and blippy
drum machines underpin most of their upbeat yet decidedly uncanny songs.
Raven’s calmly scenic and measured vocal flits like a will-o’-the-wisp throughout
the tracks, proffering a guiding hand as she walks us through the often eerie,
electronic concoctions.
‘Traveler’ opens the album all redolent,
beat-minded and labyrinthine. Twisting melody lines swirl and envelop like a
sandstorm, whilst Raven coolly projects on a “solitary man” lost to “green
oblivion”. Similarly, ‘Her Majesty II’ glistens with its playful yet plaintive
vocal and iridescent arpeggios, whilst ‘Bertha’ slows things down with tumbling
chimes and stately use of space.
The Green Child are adept at
atmosphere, their songs are refined from gently unfolding ideas that never fail
to realise and build to their potential. Tracks like ‘Walking Distance’
(featuring Al Montfort on saxophone) and ‘New Years Eve’ are exercises in
evolved composition with ideas budding off and blossoming into truly resonant
dimensions. The band’s cover of ‘Marie Elene’ (by Keith Pearson) and closing
track ‘Destroyer’ are further crowning achievements, both pieces subtly handled
with poise and ample melancholic grandeur. The Green Child fix their sights on
the heights they want to reach within their songs and much like the project
itself don’t want to rush to the finish line. When it becomes more about the
unfurling journey, why not take the time to enjoy the trip and burn slower?
‘The Green Child’ is due for release on
January 12th through Upset The Rhythm on 180g black vinyl,
accompanied by some spirited sleeve design by James Vinciguerra.
What a brilliant day, flecked with snow and ice and sharp winter light. Thirty-five years ago Normil Hawaiians
released their debut album 'More Wealth Than Money', today we’re
thrilled to re-release this stunning album so it can stride out into its
unique field of sound again.
‘More Wealth Than Money’ takes the listener on a quest over its
four sides of vinyl as the group’s communal take on post punk starts
sprouting leaves from its mouth, beginning to carve out a new furrow of
dark psychedelia, industrial folk and a peculiarly British kosmische.
Alongside the re-mastered original
double-album, our new re-issue includes a further full-length collection
of demos and unreleased tracks from the album’s overlooked corners.
Tape loops, echo boxes, extended percussive sessions and duteous
faith in the tones emanating from a particular old wah-wah pedal were
all employed by Normil Hawaiians to stretch their sonic fabric into wild
and redolent new dimensions for this record. As a result ‘More Wealth
Than Money’ still feels truly expansive, brave, cinematic even as it
documents the band’s travels into a plaintive pastoralism awash with
waking dreams.
‘More Wealth Than Money’ sings anew today, getting its first proper
UK release ever. Both the 2xCD and DLP versions come with a booklet
contextualizing the release, full of anecdotes and photos from all band
members. It is truly a thing of beauty! Available in all good record
shops as of now, or if you prefer our webshop here.
We’ll also be selling copies of ‘More Wealth Than Money’ at the
Café OTO Xmas Fair this Sunday too. We’ll be proffering many potential
Xmas presents in the form of records, cds, t-shirts etc from noon
through to 5pm.
Lots of our favourite labels and imprints will be there too
including Skire, Golden Lab, Chocolate Monk, Penultimate Press, Where to
Now?, Strange Attractor, Kye, Ecstatic Peace Library, Fitzcarraldo
Editions and Treader. Please stop by, listen to something new, share a
mulled beverage with us and say hello!
RICHARD DAWSON can never been
accused by listeners of a lack of artistic ambition. Whether they got on
at the last stop - the 4 track Tyneside-Trout-Mask-through a-Vic and
Bob-filter of 'Nothing Important' - or earlier in the journey, with 'The
Glass Trunk's visceral song cycle or 'The Magic Bridge's sombre revels.
Devotees of his earlier recordings will be at once intrigued by and
slightly fearful of the prospect of a record that could make those three
landmark releases look like formative work. 'Peasant' is that album,
released on June 2nd through Weird World / Domino. From its first
beguilingly muted fanfare to its spectacular climax exploring a Dark
Ages masseuse's dangerous fascination with a mysterious artefact called
the Pin of Quib, it will grab newcomers to Dawson's work by the scruff
of the neck and refuse to let them go until they have signed a pledge of
life-long allegiance.
Driven forward by exhilarating guitar
flurries, Qawwali handclaps and bursts of choral ferocity, 'Peasant's
eleven tracks sustain a momentum worthy of the lyrics' urgent subject
matter. Dawson describes the themes of these songs as "Families
struggling, families being broken up by circumstance, and - how do you
keep it together? In the face of all of these horrors that life, or some
system of life, is throwing at you?" The fact that these meticulously
wrought narratives all unfold in the pre-mediaeval North Eastern kingdom
of Bryneich - "any time from about 450AD to 780AD, after the withdrawal
of the Roman Empire"- only makes their contemporary relevance more
enduring.
Dawson's objective was to create "A
panorama of a society which is at odds with itself and has great
sickness in it, and perhaps doesn't take responsibility - blame going in
all the wrong directions". But encountering 'Peasant's captivating
sequence of occupational archetypes ('Herald', 'Ogre', 'Weaver',
'Scientist'), listeners might find themselves wondering if these
multitudes could somehow be contained with one person. Dawson has
already supported the release of 'Peasant' with a full UK tour - his
first featuring a full live band. After wowing audiences at St John On
Bethnal Green this June, it's a pleasure to welcome Richard back for an
Xmas show with live band to play the esteemed Islington Assembly Hall.
NORMIL HAWAIIANS communal take
on post punk sprouted leaves from its mouth in 1982, and began carving
out a new furrow. Greater emphasis was awarded to improvisation within
the group and as a result their songs embarked on longer, freer journeys
towards the beaten bounds. They wanted these new songs to bear the
weight of their new collective spirit so comfort zones had to be left
behind. Tape loops, echo boxes, extended percussive sessions and duteous
faith in the tones emanating from a particular old wah-wah pedal were
all employed by Normil Hawaiians to stretch their sonic fabric into wild
and redolent new dimensions.
At this very moment the group existed
solely for the music, living together in a small cottage in the shadow
of Foel Studios in the Welsh hills, sharing everything together and
working long days to nurture and then burnish the music they had
discovered between them. This is how the band's debut album 'More Wealth
Than Money' was formed, through trial and close listening, through
cultivation and patient growth. Of course there were significant amounts
of mushrooms involved too and several UFO sightings, but when the sheep
began to march in time to the music Normil Hawaiians knew they were
creating something unique. 'More Wealth Than Money' will be re-issued
lavishly on double LP this December through Upset The Rhythm, they are
celebrating this release by performing t this special Xmas show at
Islington Assembly Hall too.
SHOPPING are propulsive bass lines, primitive disco-not-disco drums and guitar lines sharp as broken glass. The band was formed in 2012 by members Rachel Aggs (guitar), Billy Easter (bass) and Andrew Milk (drums), who've all done time in a plethora of notable UK DIY bands including Trash Kit and Wet Dog. They pull from a well of 70's post-punk with a voraciousness seldom seen these days, bringing to mind the jagged aggression of Gang of Four, the voracious yelp of The Slits and the dance inducing thrust of Delta 5 . Their debut LP 'Consumer Complaints' was released November 2013 in the UK via MILK records and quickly sold out its first pressing. A US re-issue of 'Consumer Complaints' came out in 2015 via Fat Cat records, followed up by their excellent second album 'Why Choose?' The band are tirelessly committed to taking their sound to new audiences and spreading the Shopping gospel, securing impressive gigs along the way including main support for ESG and Gang Of Four as well as a BBC 6 Music session for Marc Riley. They have toured in the UK and throughout Europe numerous times over the last few years and last year toured the USA with also awesome Gauche, look out for a new album ‘The Official Body’ through FatCat imminently! https://soundcloud.com/shoppingband
SHANNON LAY is a L.A. singer-songwriter whose new album, ‘Living Water’, is a work of plainspoken mysticism that goes to the small, bright truth of things, showcasing her unusual songwriting and quietly commanding voice. Shannon has been dominating the local scene in Los Angeles over the past two years, leaving everyone who witnesses completely breathless. ‘Living Water’ was recorded by Emmet Kelly (Cairo Gang, Bonnie Prince Billy, Ty Segall) in his Los Angeles home studio and you can even hear the room reacting to the music taking shape around it. Shannon has a voice that transcends time and space. You can’t tell if she’s old or new, if she’s sitting next to you, on a mountain top, or down in some canyon. Already her second LP to be released in 2017, Shannon is a prolific songwriter, one who lives and breathes melody and with guitar skills to boot. Despite it’s 14 tracks, Living Water comes in well under 40 minutes, but like Pink Moon or Just Another Diamond Day before it, this is music so potent it exists outside the realms of time – but in a world specific only to itself and the new feelings it creates. ’Living Water’ is a life-affirming celebration of the wounds we all wear, captured with Shannon’s deceptively straightforward approach. Like a late-summer sky the colour of a robin’s egg, the album’s outward simplicity masks the vastness of what lies behind. Having just finished a tour with Ty Segall, Shannon is set to support Kevin Morby on a national tour this winter. https://shannonlay.bandcamp.com/
Hello December! Pass the time away with our third installment of Upset The Rhythm’s radio show for CAMP. Spend two hours in our company whilst we play lots of favourite records alongside a plethora of live recordings from the past month’s concerts too. Hope you enjoy the music!
Upset The Rhythm - Episode 3 +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+**+*+*+*+*
01. Oppenheimer Analysis - Subterranean Desire 02. The Green Child - Destroyer 03. Agincourt - Mirabella 04. Normil Hawaiians - An Old Standard 05. Spirit Fest - Hitori Matsuri 06. Alice Coltrane - Keshava Murahara 07. Van Der Graaf Generator - Pioneers Over C 08. Roy Montgomery - Live at Upset The Rhythm 09. Ghedalia Tazartes - IX 10. Gary War - Retrograde Reality 11. No Age - Soft Collar Fad 12. Escape-ism - Live at Upset The Rhythm 13. Odwalla88 - Giggle 14. Departmentstore Santas - W 15. Amazing Space Frogs - Nuns Of Destruction 16. Rapid Dance - Fragments Of Youth 17. The Plan - Live at Upset The Rhythm 18. Doof - (Treat Me Like) The Man I Am 19. Sonny Sharrock - Bialero 20. Bill Orcutt - Spanish Is The Loving Tongue 21. Bachdenkel - Come All Ye Faceless 22. Hoelderlin - Erwachen 23. Eyeless In Gaza - Snow Theme 24. Chaos U.K. - The End Is Nigh
NO AGE Wednesday 4 April Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 44 Pollard Row, Bethnal Green, London, E2 6NB 7:30pm | £12 | http://www.wegottickets.com/event/423505 * Tickets on sale from Friday 1st Dec at 9am
With the world around us bruised and bloodied with teeth already dug into the concrete curb, we find ourselves with the shadow of a large boot looming overhead. What better time for No Age? They know how to ecstatically rage & power on through pain, because what else are you gonna do? The future belongs to the cockroaches, and their new record is made for the disparate band of misfits who 2017 couldn't kill.
'Snares Like a Haircut' sounds like the goods, and smells like the buzzy burning off of an aura, the marine layer suddenly vanished, leaving a thin layer of smog over the songs, simmering sock gazing tunes, revved and displacing enormous amounts of sound soil. With 'Snares Like a Haircut', No Age scrub the itch in the little moments, engage actively with the process and carve/plaster/shave something in an album shape that'll last.
Re-imagined rippers, compelling ever forward; something that provokes, challenges on the ear. That was always the goal, but after a few years spent not No Age-ing, just working on that thing called life, is it any wonder that Dean and Randy wanted to pump out some rock and roll for the black hole? Does time mean nothing to you? Don't answer that. https://www.facebook.com/noagela/
Oh come all ye faithful.... to the olde Xmas label market in jolly Spitalfields tomorrow as we'll be selling our Upset The Rhythm wares throughout the day. New records, back catalogue, shirts, badges, dreams, hopes, desires all catered for. Don't hesitate to drop by and have a chat, we'll most likely be mulled and highly informative, see you there!
MOOR MOTHER is the viscerally
charged output of Philadelphia based interdisciplinary artist, Camae
Ayewa. Her music is often harsh and strange, projecting both the cathartic
anger of punk and the expansive improvisatory spirit of Sun Ra. Using a
variety of machines, field recordings, and analog noisemakers, Ayewa constructs
fractured, cacophonous waves for her words of punishing pertinence to ride. As
a musician performing under the name she has toured in Europe and the U.S. at
numerous festivals, colleges and universities sharing the stage with King
Britt, Islam Chipsy, Claudia Rankine and Bell Hooks. As a
soundscape artist she has had work featured at Samek Art Museum, Metropolitan
Museum of Art Chicago, and Everson Museum of Art.
Her latest
album, Fetish Bones, was released through Don Giovanni
Records in September 2016. The album features 13 songs conceived and
recorded in Camae’s home studio and it is an album intended as a form of
protest and as form of time travel — a collection of sounds that are events
themselves, telling stories rich in history about the journey that brings us to
today and the future we are creating. Fetish Bones is not an album meant to
help you forget. It is made so that you will remember the injustices that we
bear witness to and participate in.
“Fetish Bones is her masterclass on creating a sensory experience that
interrogates your complicity, pushing you through a door that sends you
hurtling through time.” – PITCHFORK
“Moor Mother might be the most radical – even the most useful –
Afrofuturist artist to emerge for years. Fetish Bones works not just as an
atlas and an archive but as a mausoleum, housing the bones of those who have
fallen along a bloody trail stretching all the way back to 1886.” – WIRE
“Her music is deliberately raw and unfiltered, like human feelings” – FADER
Huge thanks for coming out to see
Shopping, Protomartyr, Mount Eerie and Escape-ism these last few weeks. You’ve
been as much night owls as we have, was brilliant to see you all. This week we
have the indispensible Future Islands
back in the big smoke for three nights at the O2 Academy Brixton. True DIY
synth pop heart-breakers made good, Future Islands have been making our lives
better since we released their debut album back in 2008.These three shows at Brixton represent
the bands biggest shows to date, I hope you can join us to celebrate their most
vintage year yet. Tickets are now only available for Wednesday’s event so with
that in mind it’s well worth buying in advance to avoid missing out on this unprecedented moment in their career. Read on for all ticket
links and show info.
This Thursday we’re also very lucky to
have the one and only Roy Montgomery
touchdown at Café OTO to play an incredibly rare set for us. Joined by Alexander Tucker in support, this
promises to be a very special evening of pastoral guitar ambience and
cartographical drone par excellence. Again, we’re almost totally out of tickets
for this one too, so please do snap some of the last ones up if you can, it’ll
be too good to miss, see below for details.
In terms of newly confirmed UTR shows
this week, we confirmed a concert for Chain
And The Gang for next February, plus Richard
Dawson chose Normil Hawaiians to
open for him at our Xmas show at Islington Assembly Hall on December 20th too.
We’ll be announcing a lot of new 2018 shows in the coming weeks too, watch this
space.
Upset The Rhythm will be taking part in
this Saturday's Independent Label Market
at Spitalfields Market, it’s always a blast. We'll have lots of new releases
(from The World, Darlene Shrugg, Gen Pop and Normil Hawaiians), back catalogue
bargains, t-shirts, stickers and badges all on offer, plus we might even wear
Santa hats and ply you with mulled wine! We’ll be looking forward to meeting
you and looking decidedly merry from 11am this Saturday. Here’s the poster so
you can see all the other excellent labels and breweries joining the knees up
too.
Talking of new releases, we wanted to
share with you the brand new mesmeric video for ‘Inherit The Wind’ by Darlene Shrugg. Featuring some blazing
live footage of the band, the video (made by Meg Remy herself) practically brims
with coming of age visuals seemingly dug up from after-school specials. ‘Inherit
The Wind’ is taken from Darlene Shrugg’s self-titled debut album that we
released a few weeks ago. Enjoy!
\ \ \ \ \MONDAY,
TUESDAY &WEDNESDAY/ / / / /
Upset The Rhythm presents…
FUTURE
ISLANDS
ZACK
MEXICO
Monday 20 November – SOLD OUT
Tuesday 21 November – SOLD OUT
Wednesday 22 November
In collaboration with Parallel Lines
O2 Academy Brixton, 211 Stockwell Rd, Brixton, London SW9
9SL
7pm I Tickets: http://future-islands.com/?cs- event=74572#shows
The years since the
release of Singles have been transformative for Future Islands,
catapulting the Baltimore-based band from cult favorites to synthpop icons. As
addictive songs like breakout 'Seasons (Waiting on You)' turned the world
on to sublime pleasures a loyal fan base already knew, this hard-touring band
ploughed forward, playing their 1000th show in July 2015 and celebrating
their 10th anniversary in February 2016. This year Future Islands returned at
the top of their game with new album The Far
Field, delivering twelve chest-pounding love songs and odes to the road
as only they can.
The Far Field refines and builds on the
breakthroughs of Singles,
bursting with undeniable hooks and disarmingly honest lyrics written
by Samuel T. Herring (vocals, lyrics), William Cashion (bass,
guitars), and Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming). The band
began writing new material in January 2016 on the coast of North Carolina, and
continued throughout the year in Baltimore before road-testing these songs with
a series of secret shows under fake names. In November 2016, they settled in
with Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton at Los Angeles’
legendary Sunset Sound, where everyone from The Beach Boys to Prince have laid
down masterpieces.
The result is Future Islands’
best set of songs yet, both an emotional summation of the themes they’ve
explored over the past decade and a further distillation of their signature
art-pop sound. It’s the first Future Islands record featuring live drums
by Michael Lowry, who joined the band prior to their viral performance of
‘Seasons’ on Letterman, and whose energy propels the band’s sound to new
heights. With Congleton’s production and string and horn arrangements
by Patrick McMinn, The Far Field finds
Future Islands crafting soundscapes larger and more opulent than ever before,
as sonically lush and expansive as they are lyrically raw and direct.
These three epic shows atthe O2 Brixton
Academy this week represent the largest shows the band have played to date, we
hope you can join us to celebrate such a terrific year!
ROY
MONTGOMERY is a guitarist and academic from New Zealand. Across an array of
peerless solo and collaborative releases on labels like Kranky, Siltbreeze and
VHF he is the architect of a widescreen drone aesthetic exploring psychedelic
abstraction and pastoral minimalism that has proved to be highly influential. A
key protagonist in the Christchurch 80s noise rock scene, his minimalist
post-punk band The Pin Group were the first act to release on Flying Nun and
lead to other explorations in short-lived drone project The Shallows and the
gloriously open-ended freedoms of noise pop outfit Dadamah.
After a quiet spell, Montgomery
returned in the late 90s, producing towering spires of guitar lines that
exposed fragility between the strums. With his solo releases and in
collaboration with Flying Saucer Attack, Bardo Pond (Hash Jar Tempo), and Chris
Heaphy (Dissolve), his focus shifted from the truth-mining of rock music to
epic celestialism. His ambitious yet humble tracks outstrip their origins, and
Montgomery toured the world sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing
twenty-plus-minute compositions. A long period of silence followed, marked only
with a split album with Grouper (who lists Montgomery as a primary influence),
involvement in Torlesse Super Group, and a couple of thematic variations
serving as soundtracks for films. He unexpectedly re-emerged in 2016 with R M H
Q (also know as Roy Montgomery's Headquarters) on Grapefruit/Ba Da Bing, four
albums of new material released simultaneously that marked a return to his
distinctive pastoral guitar style but added the rare sound of his singing
voice. Like all of his catalogue listening to his work is a visceral experience
with repeating phrases swelling and decaying, immersing the listener in the
cyclical narrative of his compositions.
ALEXANDER
TUCKER is a British avant-pop chamber drone artist who has released solo
albums on ATP and Thrill Jockey, he's also the cosmic guitarist in Grumbling
Fur. His live shows fuse self-harmonizing vocal performances with tone
generators and looped instrumentation to create a bewildering feast for the
senses that seems to tap the wyrd canon of English psychedelia as much as the
melodic reverie of contemporary electronic and drone music.
