Upcoming shows from Ka Baird, Shannon Lay and Alan Licht in London next week! Dog Chocolate's new album revealed!

Hello there, Hope you’re dodging the snow with a degree of skill, just a dusting so far on UTR HQ, so we count ourselves lucky! Firstly, a huge thanks to all of you for coming out to see Greg Ashley and Chain And The Gang this last week, your attendance make these events possible so it’s always appreciated. Hope you had a great time too! With February up, we’re here to tell you that Upset The Rhythm have some fantastic shows planned for you this March, including performances from Drag City’s Ka Baird (of Spires That In The Sunset Rise), Shannon Lay with her plainspoken mysticism, avant-guitar squall from the great Alan Licht, hypnotic improvised rock bluster from James Sedwards/Steve Noble and Chris Corsano/Bill Orcutt and last but so far from least the dreamily expansive songwriting of Brigid Mae Power and Daniel O’Sullivan. We’ve outlined next week’s trio of shows below for you, hope you like lots of words.

Look out! Here comes the Moody Balloon Baby. We’re announcing this week London quartet, Dog Chocolate's forthcoming album for Upset The Rhythm, out May 11th, oh yeh! Have a listen to 'Dog Chocolate 1995', don some velvet and join the chorus: "When do I become the dog I'm meant to be!" Recommended if you like bonfires, hazelnuts, Supermalt, umbrella-themed weddings, lower back pain, Sweden and calculating your bmi! What are Dog Chocolate bothering us with now? What is it? They have a new album called ‘Moody Balloon Baby’. Musically it’s as frantic and frayed as we’ve come to expect, loose and whittled to a sharp point, but the knots are visible. Following the album Snack Fans (2016) and Or, a spilt with Ravioli Me Away (2014), this time it’s all faster and there are more textures.

Some textures that come to mind: *A plastic broom that has been used to sweep up glowing embers and the bristles have melted. *A pink chalk that got stepped on. *A green beam from a laser-pen scuttling around on a pebbledash facade. *A biro shoved through a custard doughnut. Available to pre-order now: http://upsettherhythm.bigcartel.com/

It’s that time again! Upset The Rhythm return with the newest installment of our radio show here, the sixth so far in the series! We’ve compiled two hours of the finest audio imaginable, tracks from Reptile Ranch, Klein, The Shriek and Shannon Lay all featuring. There’s exclusive new songs from Dog Chocolate and No Babies cued up too, a plethora of field recordings from our recent concerts, and even a bit where we talk over the music inaudibly, classic! Let’s do this…

Upset The Rhythm presents… KA BAIRD DIANA POLICARPO & JEJUNO HACK MYSTIC Tuesday 6 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS KA BAIRD is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist living and working in NYC. She is one of the founding and continuing members of the long running avant-psych project Spires That In The Sunset Rise. Described by Jack Rose as a "female Sun City Girls," STITSR have contributed a different slant to the New Folk movement by incorporating various avant-garde and world music influences into their music. Their sound has been compared to the Raincoats, Meredith Monk, Comus and Harry Partch. Their most recent album "Beasts In The Garden" was described by Marc Masters as "some kind of long-lost Terry Riley/Angus MacLise collaboration, equally devoted to divine repetition and center-seeking ritual." Since 2001, they have released eight full length records and several side releases. After relocating to NYC in November 2014, Baird has set off in numerous directions apart from Spires with new collaborations as well as honing in on her own solo work. Her current work explores piano improvisation, electroacoustic interventions, extended vocal techniques, physical movement, and her unusual electronic manipulation of the flute. She released an album of piano improvisations through Brooklyn label Perfect Wave "See Sun Think Shadow" in November of 2015 and a tribute record 'A Love Supreme' dedicated to John Coltrane through Chicago label No Index in January of 2016. Most recently Baird released 'Sapropelic Pycnic' through Drag City described as a possession, a catharsis, a transformation; an act of physical consumption, a much needed sacred gesture. https://www.kabaird.com/ DIANA POLICARPO & JEJUNO will collaborate on a piece for this concert. In a career defined by exploration, Sara Rafael AKA Jejuno and Diana Policarpo AKA Poly Garbo are still pushing themselves to discover new sounds through improvisation. They are Lisbon/London/Vienna based artists and will perform a unique set as a electronics/drums duo. Unpredictable beats, abstract noise, celestial synths and vocal swirls, to form an act not easily classifiable but entirely addictive. https://soundcloud.com/jejuno https://soundcloud.com/polygarbo HACK MYSTIC makes broken devotional music built from layers of doomy lounge guitar and cheap drones. Their music occupies a shadowy space between jazz and drone, swamped in tape hiss and fusing elements of Grouper and Actress with the soundtrack work of Angelo Badalamenti and Ennio Morricone. Live, hack mystic creates improvised guitar loops laden with reverb and delay, as tender as they are unsettling. 'Openwork', their first EP, was released on cassette by Buried in Space in 2017. https://soundcloud.com/hackmystic

Upset The Rhythm presents… SHANNON LAY WILLIAM PATRICK OWEN Wednesday 7 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS 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/ WILLIAM PATRICK OWEN draws on a rich heritage of English fingerstyle folk guitarists like Nick Drake and James Blackshaw and applies to it a dreamy melancholy, creating introspective soundscapes with a deeply psychological lyricism. Debut album 'first person singular' lingers in a hangover haze of introspection coursing through themes as broad as identity, queer love and anxiety, and settling into its own distinct quotidian daydream. https://www.williampatrickowen.com/

Upset The Rhythm presents… ALAN LICHT JAMES SEDWARDS / STEVE NOBLE Sunday 11 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 6.30pm | £7 | http://www.wegottickets.com/event/430373 ALAN LICHT is an American guitarist, composer and writer, revered for his work in the Blue Humans and Text of Light, and a key figure in the pantheon of experimental solo guitar players (such as Jim O'Rourke, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Bill Orcutt and Oren Ambarchi). Licht was born in New Jersey in 1968, began taking guitar lessons at the age of ten and went on to enrol at Vassar College, where he studied electronic music with Linda Fisher and composition with Annea Lockwood and Richard Wilson. By the time he graduated in 1990, Licht had already published articles on Minimalist composers La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Rhys Chatham, and Charlemagne Palestine, and had recorded with former John Coltrane drummer Rashied Ali (on Rudolph Grey's Mask of Light LP). Licht then relocated to New York City, focusing on pursuing free improvisation (with Rudolph Grey's group the Blue Humans and guitarist Loren Mazzacane Connors) as well as indie rock (the bands Love Child and Run On), as well as a brief stint with legendary 60's psychedelic rock band Arthur Lee & Love. Licht then began developing a repertoire of structured improvisation pieces for solo electric guitar, documented on a series of albums starting with 1994's 'Sink the Aging Process'. These brought together his interests in re-harmonisation, process, repetition, extended duration and the textural vocabularies of rock and noise music. The albums also include tape pieces and organ works. In 2001 Licht co-founded the ensemble Text of Light with Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo, a project that brought together free improvisation with screenings of historic examples of experimental cinema. Some of Licht's most recent activities include recording and touring with Lee Ranaldo & the Dust, an improv trio with Aki Onda and artist/filmmaker Michael Snow, a duo with Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase, and a book-length interview with Will Oldham, 'Will Oldham on Bonnie "Prince" Billy'. For this performance Licht will be performing a set similar in style to his Editions Mego album 'Four Years Older', a set of compelling guitar pieces that mine the rich seams of minimalism, noise and avant-garde, equal parts lyrical and corrosive. http://alanlicht.tumblr.com/ JAMES SEDWARDS / STEVE NOBLE DUO will present a special improvised set of guitar and drums. James Sedwards is known for his work in the avant-rock scene. He leads his own band Nøught and has collaborated on projects including Guapo, The Devil, Zodiac Youth, Alex Ward & The Dead Ends and Chrome Hoof. He currently plays guitar in the Thurston Moore band. Steve Noble is London’s leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and countless more. https://www.discogs.com/artist/458047-Steve-Noble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Sedwards

Thanks for your time! Wrap up warm! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

KA BAIRD DIANA POLICARPO / JEJUNO HACK MYSTIC Tuesday 6 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS SHANNON LAY WILLIAM PATRICK OWEN Wednesday 7 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS ALAN LICHT JAMES SEDWARDS / STEVE NOBLE DUO Sunday 11 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 6.30pm | £7 | TICKETS BILL ORCUTT & CHRIS CORSANO: * DUO PERFORMANCE RATTLE Saturday 17 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS * SOLO PERFORMANCES Sunday 18 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS BRIGID MAE POWER DANIEL O'SULLIVAN Tuesday 27 March Servant Jazz Quarters, 10A Bradbury Street, Dalston, London N16 8JN 7.30pm | £8 | TICKETS JOSHUA ABRAMS - NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY Monday 2 April OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 8pm | £11 | TICKETS NO AGE MIAUX VITAL IDLES Wednesday 4 April Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 44 Pollard Row, London, E2 6NB 7:30pm | £12 | TICKETS JAMIE STEWART (Xiu Xiu) ERIC CHENAUX Monday 9 April The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS ED SCHRADER’S MUSIC BEAT Monday 7 May Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS NAP EYES HALEY HEYNDERICKX Tuesday 8 May OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS MATANA ROBERTS & KELLY-JAYNE JONES Wednesday 9 May Ghost Notes, Peckham Levels, 95A Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS PROTOMARTYR ANA DA SILVA RATTLE Thursday 10 May Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, King´s Cross, London, N1 9NL 7pm | £12.50 | TICKETS SCREAMING FEMALES Wednesday 23 May OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS JOHN MAUS Thursday 14 June Electric Ballroom, 184 Camden High St, London, NW1 8QP 7.30pm | £15.00 | TICKETS

Dog Chocolate return with their Moody Balloon Baby, first listen!

Here comes the Moody Balloon Baby! Dog Chocolate's forthcoming album for Upset The Rhythm, out May 11th, oh yeh! Have a listen to 'Dog Chocolate 1995', don some velvet and join the chorus: "When do I become the dog I'm meant to be!" Recommended if you like bonfires, hazelnuts, Supermalt, umbrella-themed weddings, lower back pain, Sweden and calculating your bmi!

Available to pre-order now: http://upsettherhythm.bigcartel.com/ 

Upset The Rhythm RADIO SHOW 6!

Look out!
Upset The Rhythm return here with the newest instalment of our radio show, the sixth so far in the series! We’ve compiled two hours of the finest audio imaginable, tracks from Reptile Ranch, Klein, The Shriek and Shannon Lay all featuring. There’s exclusive new songs from Dog Chocolate and No Babies cued up too, a plethora of field recordings from our recent concerts, and even a bit where we talk over the music inaudibly, classic! Let’s do this…






Upset The Rhythm - Episode 6
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

01. Lee Dorsey - Gator Tail
02. Dog Chocolate - Dog Chocolate 1995
03. Joe McPhee & John Synder - Windows In Dreams
04. Ka Baird - Oneiric
05. Shannon Lay -  The Moon’s Detriment
06. Gun Outfit - Live at Upset The Rhythm
07. Virgil Caine - Biscuit High
08. Asmus Tietchens - Unterhaltsmusik
09. Chris & Cosey - Useless Information
10. Negative Space - Live at Upset The Rhythm
11. Reptile Ranch - WTB
12. Pat Thomas & The Kwashibu Area Band - Gyae Su
13. Open Road - Waterwheel
14. Robert Vogel - Flaschenzug
15. R. Stevie Moore - Pedestrian Hop & Copy Me
16. Dead Rat Orchestra - Live at Upset The Rhythm
17. Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt - The Raw And The Cooked
18. The Missing Links - Wild About You
19. Klaus Schonning - Light Beams
20. Harmonia - Ueber Ottenstein (live)
21. Charles Lloyd - All Life Is One
22. Alex Chilton - Like Flies On Sherbert
23. Big Joanie - Live at Upset The Rhythm
24. Klein - Stunt
25. The Shriek - Lost Control
26. No Babies - Nettle
27. Warm Bodies - I’m In The Sky
28. Rusalnaia - Wild Summer
29. Lives Of Angels - Ascension

http://www.upsettherhythm.co.uk/

Greg Ashley and Mass Datura in London tomorrow! Chain And The Gang this Monday!

Hello all!   Thanks so much for coming to see Gun Outfit already this week, what a treat that was! Two shows bridging the weekend for you coming up. Tomorrow night, Trouble In Mind’s Greg Ashley, well known for his work with blazing psych outfit The Gris Gris, will be treating us to a suite of his self-deprecating solo work. Greg’s honest, personal lyrics and stunningly bold delivery are often cited as chief credits, but there’s also a perfectly pitched poetic insularity that runs through his songs, all in all it’ll be super impressive. We’re really pleased to have Mass Datura building up a dizzy tower of progged-out space pop at this event at The Islington too.

Then on Monday we have Chain And The Gang performing at Oslo, Hackney. With Chain And The Gang, Ian Svenonius has sharpened his ascerbic persona, allowing the minimalist groove and retro-fitted experimentalism to whip up a frenzy. Simply put, Chain And The Gang are a phenomenon live, a revelation, an outpouring! Support for this show takes shape in the polemic majesty of Milky Wimpshake in solo mode too. Here’s the full story…

Upset The Rhythm presents…   GREG ASHLEY MASS DATURA Saturday 24 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   GREG ASHLEY has been a fixture on the underground music scene since the late Nineties while strafing eardrums as a teenager in Houston in garage- punk band The Strate-Coats. Since then he’s proven himself not only as a songwriter, singer and guitar player in bands like The Mirrors & The Gris-Gris, but also as a producer/sound engineer via his Oakland-based Creamery Studio. His career as a solo artist is vast and varied, spanning the gamut between fried-n-beautiful psychedelia, gorgeous & cathartic symphonic suites and gentle, damaged folk music, beginning with 2003’s debut and last leaving us with 2017’s ‘Pictures of Saint Paul Street’ (Trouble In Mind). This recent record carries forward Ashley’s musical palette (a rootsy amalgam of tortured, Cohen-esque folk tinged with the beer soaked recklessness of a West Texas honky-tonk). The songs on ‘Pictures of Saint Paul Street’ are lush & beautiful autopsies of society’s underbelly, with stark and brutally honest ruminations on humanity. Songs like “A Sea of Suckers” & “Pursue The Nightlife” pull no punches, while “Jailbirds & Vagabonds” and “Blues For A Pecan Tree” carouse on a more abstract, human (almost romantic) level. The protagonist in many of Ashley’s songs may be Ashley himself - a true artist willing to admit he’s nowhere near perfect, and honest enough to document his sunrises & sunsets no matter if they occur in his own backyard, or on a barroom floor.  https://gregashley.bandcamp.com/  MASS DATURA have spent the last three years earning a well-deserved reputation for their mesmerising, raw and unpredictable live performances. Mass Datura was initially formed by singer, writer and artist Thomas Rowe (with best friend Joseph Colkett), as an outlet to channel his own strange childhood experiences. Born and raised in the rural ghettos of Western Canada, frontman Rowe discovered at an early age what a powerful form of escapism music could be for him. Landing as an alien in London eight years ago, Rowe gathered a group of like-minded East London misfits around him and from this, Mass Datura formed. Mass Datura take their name from 16th century occult mythology, the Datura flower when ingested was said to give you the ability to levitate, flying through bleak night skies around the world snatching up little children. The band’s debut album was released last year alongside a performance at Liverpool Psych Fest. Mass Datura have managed to support some very exciting bands around the country including L.A. Witch, The Black Angels, A Place to Bury Strangers, Holy Drug Couple, Dark Horses and Black Mountain. https://soundcloud.com/mass-datura

Upset The Rhythm presents…   CHAIN AND THE GANG MILKY WIMPSHAKE (SOLO) Monday 26 February OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   CHAIN AND THE GANG are a dynamic and irresistible live combo that pens provocative, unforgettable odes to obedience and total destruction. They are led by the remarkable Ian Svenonius; the prime mover behind two of the most essential bands of our time, Nation Of Ulysses and The Make-Up, and author of several books, including The Psychic Soviet and Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group. Ian is also an online talk show host and auteur filmmaker. Chain And The Gang deal in a radical rock n roll that updates rock, blues, and gospel music or vocal quartets from the late 50s /early 60s for the discerning few. After nodding off to the washed-out zzzounds of the latest five-star folly critic's catastrophe, Chain & the Gang decided to respond with their patented perversity; they reached to the farther corner of the lab and came up with an immortal classic in the hard-to-hear genre of 'EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC'. Its a foot-tapping, head scratching, torso tornado that will crinkle the connossieur's temple in a tantrum of cerebral delight. 'EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC' is due for release through Radical Elite Record soon. https://chainandthegang.bandcamp.com/ MILKY WIMPSHAKE are a passionate punk band from Newcastle Upon Tyne. The band formed in the early 1990s as part of the Slampt Underground organisation, a label and arts umbrella that supported many of the best UK DIY acts including The Yummy Fur, Pussycat Trash, Red Monkey and personal favourites Bette Davis & The Balconettes. Milky Wimpshake play love songs for punk rockers, protest tunes, covers of Northern Soul classics, and some new classics of their own. Characterised by Pete Dale’s wry lyrics and playful, direct guitar riffs, Milky Wimpshake are true stalwarts and legends of the underground and have recorded several ‘personal vs political’ albums in recent times for the mighty Fortuna Pop imprint. This show sees Pete Dale fly solo, performing his own favourite Wimpshake songs for this select audience on guitar and vocal. http://www.microsofa.net/mw/

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

GREG ASHLEY MASS DATURA Saturday 24 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   CHAIN AND THE GANG MILKY WIMPSHAKE (SOLO) Monday 26 February OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   KA BAIRD DIANA POLICARPO / JEJUNO HACK MYSTIC Tuesday 6 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   SHANNON LAY WILLIAM PATRICK OWEN Wednesday 7 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS   ALAN LICHT JAMES SEDWARDS Sunday 11 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 6.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   BILL ORCUTT & CHRIS CORSANO: * DUO PERFORMANCE RATTLE Saturday 17 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   * SOLO PERFORMANCES Sunday 18 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   BRIGID MAE POWER DANIEL O'SULLIVAN Tuesday 27 March Servant Jazz Quarters, 10A Bradbury Street, Dalston, London N16 8JN 7.30pm | £8 | TICKETS   JOSHUA ABRAMS - NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY Monday 2 April OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 8pm | £11 | TICKETS   NO AGE MIAUX VITAL IDLES Wednesday 4 April Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 44 Pollard Row, London, E2 6NB 7:30pm | £12 | TICKETS   JAMIE STEWART (Xiu Xiu) ERIC CHENAUX Monday 9 April The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   ED SCHRADER’S MUSIC BEAT Monday 7 May Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS   NAP EYES Tuesday 8 May OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   MATANA ROBERTS & KELLY-JAYNE JONES Wednesday 9 May Ghost Notes, Peckham Levels, 95A Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   PROTOMARTYR ANA DA SILVA RATTLE Thursday 10 May Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, King´s Cross, London, N1 9NL 7pm | £12.50 | TICKETS   SCREAMING FEMALES Wednesday 23 May OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   JOHN MAUS Thursday 14 June Electric Ballroom, 184 Camden High St, London, NW1 8QP 7.30pm | £15.00 | TICKETS

 

Alan Licht, James Sedwards and Steve Noble playing in London next month!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

ALAN LICHT
JAMES SEDWARDS / STEVE NOBLE DUO
Sunday 11 March
The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT
6.30pm-10.30pm | £7 | http://www.wegottickets.com/event/430373

ALAN LICHT is an American guitarist, composer and writer, revered for his work in the Blue Humans and Text of Light, and a key figure in the pantheon of experimental solo guitar players (such as Jim O'Rourke, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Bill Orcutt and Oren Ambarchi). Licht was born in New Jersey in 1968, began taking guitar lessons at the age of ten and went on to enrol at Vassar College, where he studied electronic music with Linda Fisher and composition with Annea Lockwood and Richard Wilson. By the time he graduated in 1990, Licht had already published articles on Minimalist composers La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Rhys Chatham, and Charlemagne Palestine, and had recorded with former John Coltrane drummer Rashied Ali (on Rudolph Grey's Mask of Light LP). Licht then relocated to New York City, focusing on pursuing free improvisation (with Rudolph Grey's group the Blue Humans and guitarist Loren Mazzacane Connors) as well as indie rock (the bands Love Child and Run On), as well as a brief stint with legendary 60's psychedelic rock band Arthur Lee & Love.

Licht then began developing a repertoire of structured improvisation pieces for solo electric guitar, documented on a series of albums starting with 1994's 'Sink the Aging Process'. These brought together his interests in re-harmonisation, process, repetition, extended duration and the textural vocabularies of rock and noise music. The albums also include tape pieces and organ works. In 2001 Licht co-founded the ensemble Text of Light with Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo, a project that brought together free improvisation with screenings of historic examples of experimental cinema. Some of Licht's most recent activities include recording and touring with Lee Ranaldo & the Dust, an improv trio with Aki Onda and artist/filmmaker Michael Snow, a duo with Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase, and a book-length interview with Will Oldham, 'Will Oldham on Bonnie "Prince" Billy'. For this performance Licht will be performing a set similar in style to his Editions Mego album 'Four Years Older', a set of compelling guitar pieces that mine the rich seams of minimalism, noise and avant-garde, equal parts lyrical and corrosive.
http://alanlicht.tumblr.com/

JAMES SEDWARDS / STEVE NOBLE DUO will present a special improvised set of guitar and drums. James Sedwards is known for his work in the avant-rock scene. He leads his own band Nøught and has collaborated on projects including Guapo, The Devil, Zodiac Youth, Alex Ward & The Dead Ends and Chrome Hoof. He currently plays guitar in the Thurston Moore band. Steve Noble is London’s leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and countless more.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/458047-Steve-Noble
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Sedwards

Busy week for London: Gun Outfit, Greg Ashley and Chain And The Gang!

Morning everyone!   We’re appearing in a cloud of smoke this morning heralding three upcoming London shows. Here’s a quick reminder for you. Tomorrow at Moth Club we have the breezy, cosmic country punk of Gun Outfit, the questing avant-folk of Dead Rat Orchestra and the acoustic reverie of Calming River all lining up for your entertainment. This show is in full ascendance, read on for a thorough description of all that promise.

Then this Saturday, Trouble In Mind’s Greg Ashley, well known for his work with blazing psych outfit The Gris Gris, will be treating us to a suite of his self-deprecating solo work. Greg’s honest, personal lyrics and stunningly bold delivery are often cited as chief credits, but there’s also a perfectly pitched poetic insularity that runs through his songs, all in all it’ll be super impressive.   We’re really pleased to have Mass Datura building up a dizzy tower of progged-out space pop at this event at The Islington too.

Lastly, you’ll also find below the full listing for next weeks’ Chain And The Gang show at Oslo, Hackney. With Chain And The Gang, Ian Svenonius has sharpened his ascerbic persona, allowing the minimalist groove and retro-fitted experimentalism to whip to a frenzy. Simply put, Chain And The Gang are a phenomenon live, a revelation, an outpouring!   Support for this show, one week today, takes shape in the polemic majesty of Milky Wimpshake in solo mode too. So much to look forward to, let’s leave you with the words…

Upset The Rhythm presents…   GUN OUTFIT DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA CALMING RIVER Tuesday 20 February Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   GUN OUTFIT's enveloping 'Western Expanse' aesthetic of guitar levitations and honky-tonk hexes are like the stones eroded by years in the arroyo, they've become gradually smoother over time. Their fifth LP (Out of Range on Paradise of Bachelors) ranks as their most brutally beautiful statement yet. Drawing from mythologies both classical and postmodern, Out of Range builds a world in which Brueghel, St. Augustine, and the goddess Cybele ride with John Ford, Samuel Beckett, and Wallace Stevens on a Orphic-Gnostic suicide drive towards the hallucinatory vanishing points of the Southwestern desert, debating the denouement of the decaying American dream. https://gunoutfit.bandcamp.com/ DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA see themselves as adrift in a sea of sound and possibility, plucking textures and melodies to craft their idiosyncratic vision of what music can be. Raw, elemental and poignant with a love of idiosyncratic folk traditions and antiquated technology. Their performances have featured flailing axes, salt and sawdust, throbbing harmonium, grinding fiddle and 2000 shards of micro-tuned steel cast to the floor in cascading, shimmering joy. http://www.deadratorchestra.co.uk/ CALMING RIVER is the pseudonym of songwriter Joshua Malcolm, who has recently relocated from Denmark back to his native Britain. The name Calming River may conjure tranquility but there has always been a latent, opposing flow of tension and strife to be found—a fragility that emanates within delicate and darkened confines. Joshua has so far released two singles last year to critical acclaim and will be releasing more material in the coming months. https://soundcloud.com/calming-river

Upset The Rhythm presents…   GREG ASHLEY MASS DATURA Saturday 24 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   GREG ASHLEY has been a fixture on the underground music scene since the late Nineties while strafing eardrums as a teenager in Houston in garage- punk band The Strate-Coats. Since then he’s proven himself not only as a songwriter, singer and guitar player in bands like The Mirrors & The Gris-Gris, but also as a producer/sound engineer via his Oakland-based Creamery Studio. His career as a solo artist is vast and varied, spanning the gamut between fried-n-beautiful psychedelia, gorgeous & cathartic symphonic suites and gentle, damaged folk music, beginning with 2003’s debut and last leaving us with 2017’s ‘Pictures of Saint Paul Street’ (Trouble In Mind). This recent record carries forward Ashley’s musical palette (a rootsy amalgam of tortured, Cohen-esque folk tinged with the beer soaked recklessness of a West Texas honky-tonk). The songs on ‘Pictures of Saint Paul Street’ are lush & beautiful autopsies of society’s underbelly, with stark and brutally honest ruminations on humanity. Songs like “A Sea of Suckers” & “Pursue The Nightlife” pull no punches, while “Jailbirds & Vagabonds” and “Blues For A Pecan Tree” carouse on a more abstract, human (almost romantic) level. The protagonist in many of Ashley’s songs may be Ashley himself - a true artist willing to admit he’s nowhere near perfect, and honest enough to document his sunrises & sunsets no matter if they occur in his own backyard, or on a barroom floor.  https://gregashley.bandcamp.com/  MASS DATURA have spent the last three years earning a well-deserved reputation for their mesmerising, raw and unpredictable live performances. Mass Datura was initially formed by singer, writer and artist Thomas Rowe (with best friend Joseph Colkett), as an outlet to channel his own strange childhood experiences. Born and raised in the rural ghettos of Western Canada, frontman Rowe discovered at an early age what a powerful form of escapism music could be for him. Landing as an alien in London eight years ago, Rowe gathered a group of like-minded East London misfits around him and from this, Mass Datura formed. Mass Datura take their name from 16th century occult mythology, the Datura flower when ingested was said to give you the ability to levitate, flying through bleak night skies around the world snatching up little children. The band’s debut album was released last year alongside a performance at Liverpool Psych Fest. Mass Datura have managed to support some very exciting bands around the country including L.A. Witch, The Black Angels, A Place to Bury Strangers, Holy Drug Couple, Dark Horses and Black Mountain. https://soundcloud.com/mass-datura

Upset The Rhythm presents…   CHAIN AND THE GANG MILKY WIMPSHAKE (SOLO) Monday 26 February OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   CHAIN AND THE GANG are a dynamic and irresistible live combo that pens provocative, unforgettable odes to obedience and total destruction. They are led by the remarkable Ian Svenonius; the prime mover behind two of the most essential bands of our time, Nation Of Ulysses and The Make-Up, and author of several books, including The Psychic Soviet and Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group. Ian is also an online talk show host and auteur filmmaker. Chain And The Gang deal in a radical rock n roll that updates rock, blues, and gospel music or vocal quartets from the late 50s /early 60s for the discerning few. After nodding off to the washed-out zzzounds of the latest five-star folly critic's catastrophe, Chain & the Gang decided to respond with their patented perversity; they reached to the farther corner of the lab and came up with an immortal classic in the hard-to-hear genre of 'EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC'. Its a foot-tapping, head scratching, torso tornado that will crinkle the connossieur's temple in a tantrum of cerebral delight. 'EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC' is due for release through Radical Elite Record soon. https://chainandthegang.bandcamp.com/ MILKY WIMPSHAKE are a passionate punk band from Newcastle Upon Tyne. The band formed in the early 1990s as part of the Slampt Underground organisation, a label and arts umbrella that supported many of the best UK DIY acts including The Yummy Fur, Pussycat Trash, Red Monkey and personal favourites Bette Davis & The Balconettes. Milky Wimpshake play love songs for punk rockers, protest tunes, covers of Northern Soul classics, and some new classics of their own. Characterised by Pete Dale’s wry lyrics and playful, direct guitar riffs, Milky Wimpshake are true stalwarts and legends of the underground and have recorded several ‘personal vs political’ albums in recent times for the mighty Fortuna Pop imprint. This show sees Pete Dale fly solo, performing his own favourite Wimpshake songs for this select audience on guitar and vocal. http://www.microsofa.net/mw/

Thanks for your time and consideration! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

GUN OUTFIT DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA CALMING RIVER Tuesday 20 February Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   GREG ASHLEY MASS DATURA Saturday 24 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   CHAIN AND THE GANG MILKY WIMPSHAKE (SOLO) Monday 26 February OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   KA BAIRD DIANA POLICARPO / JEJUNO HACK MYSTIC Tuesday 6 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   SHANNON LAY WILLIAM PATRICK OWEN Wednesday 7 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS   ALAN LICHT JAMES SEDWARDS Sunday 11 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 6.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   BILL ORCUTT & CHRIS CORSANO: * DUO PERFORMANCE RATTLE Saturday 17 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   * SOLO PERFORMANCES Sunday 18 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   BRIGID MAE POWER DANIEL O'SULLIVAN Tuesday 27 March Servant Jazz Quarters, 10A Bradbury Street, Dalston, London N16 8JN 7.30pm | £8 | TICKETS   JOSHUA ABRAMS - NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY Monday 2 April OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 8pm | £11 | TICKETS   NO AGE MIAUX VITAL IDLES Wednesday 4 April Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 44 Pollard Row, London, E2 6NB 7:30pm | £12 | TICKETS   JAMIE STEWART (Xiu Xiu) ERIC CHENAUX Monday 9 April The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   ED SCHRADER’S MUSIC BEAT Monday 7 May Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS   NAP EYES Tuesday 8 May OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   MATANA ROBERTS & KELLY-JAYNE JONES Wednesday 9 May Ghost Notes, Peckham Levels, 95A Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   PROTOMARTYR ANA DA SILVA RATTLE Thursday 10 May Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, King´s Cross, London, N1 9NL 7pm | £12.50 | TICKETS   SCREAMING FEMALES Wednesday 23 May OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   JOHN MAUS Thursday 14 June Electric Ballroom, 184 Camden High St, London, NW1 8QP 7.30pm | £15.00 | TICKETS

No Babies new album announced, plus upcoming shows for Greg Ashley and Gun Outfit!

Hello there! Brilliant news… Oakland, CA’s No Babies are back in business with a brand new album entitled ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’. Upset The Rhythm will be releasing the LP next month on March 9th on red/blue marbled vinyl.   ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ follows on from the band’s 2011 debut and its fleet of successive empowering/imploding 7”s. Here’s an exclusive track to check out called ‘The Weight’, featuring Victoria M. Ruiz (of Downtown Boys) on backing vocals.

"Oakland, CA’s No Babies return with their second LP, another furiously ecstatic exploration of the overlapping margins of punk, hardcore, and no wave. The pieces we’ve come to expect are all here: Jasmine Watson’s invectives against capitalism, binaries, police; Ricky Martyr’s inimitable and always surprising stop-start guitar; horns of all stripes breaking through the noise (Misha Poleschuck on tenor sax, clarinet); a nimble and powerful jazz-influenced rhythm section (Laura DeVeber on bass, Sean Nieves on drums). Their particular brand of composed/improvised noise/music has never been chaos at all (they’ve always known exactly what they’re doing), and this time around the band seems more at one than ever, aided by the crispness and brightness of Jack Shirley’s able production. These are walls of sound, something like a runaway train, or a writhing sea serpent, and we are along for the ride. This is music that feels necessary. These are songs that sound vital to survival." - Grace Ambrose    ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ is available to pre-order here now!

In terms of Upset The Rhythm live show news, this last few days has seen us confirm new London concerts for Matana Roberts in collaboration with Kelly-Jayne Jones (this May at new venue Ghost Notes), and for John Maus and his electrifying live band (this June at the Electric Ballroom). Check our listings section for full details and ticket links.   We’re also outlining below our two upcoming shows on the horizon aka next week! On Tuesday 20th Feb, we’re hosting an evening of western expansion, honkytonk hex and elemental folk texture at Moth Club with Gun Outfit, Dead Rat Orchestra and Calming River. Whilst the following Saturday night  (Feb 24th) we’re extremely lucky to have Greg Ashley (of The Gris-Gris) and Mass Datura both playing for us at The Islington. If psychedelic suites of raw catharsis and headswoon abandon are up your street then his show will tick those boxes with a huge marker pen. Read on for all the particulars.

In case you need a soundtrack for this modest memo, I’d like to draw your attention to Gideon Coe’s excellent BBC 6Music radio show last week that featured Upset The Rhythm as its ‘label of love’.   Top tracks from Normil Hawaiians, The Green Child, Terry, Sauna Youth and Robert Sotelo all feature from 2hr 15 mins in! Enjoy.

Upset The Rhythm presents…   GUN OUTFIT DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA CALMING RIVER Tuesday 20 February Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   GUN OUTFIT's enveloping 'Western Expanse' aesthetic of guitar levitations and honky-tonk hexes are like the stones eroded by years in the arroyo, they've become gradually smoother over time. Their fifth LP (Out of Range on Paradise of Bachelors) ranks as their most brutally beautiful statement yet. Drawing from mythologies both classical and postmodern, Out of Range builds a world in which Brueghel, St. Augustine, and the goddess Cybele ride with John Ford, Samuel Beckett, and Wallace Stevens on a Orphic-Gnostic suicide drive towards the hallucinatory vanishing points of the Southwestern desert, debating the denouement of the decaying American dream. https://gunoutfit.bandcamp.com/ DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA see themselves as adrift in a sea of sound and possibility, plucking textures and melodies to craft their idiosyncratic vision of what music can be. Raw, elemental and poignant with a love of idiosyncratic folk traditions and antiquated technology. Their performances have featured flailing axes, salt and sawdust, throbbing harmonium, grinding fiddle and 2000 shards of micro-tuned steel cast to the floor in cascading, shimmering joy. http://www.deadratorchestra.co.uk/ CALMING RIVER is the pseudonym of songwriter Joshua Malcolm, who has recently relocated from Denmark back to his native Britain. The name Calming River may conjure tranquility but there has always been a latent, opposing flow of tension and strife to be found—a fragility that emanates within delicate and darkened confines. Joshua has so far released two singles last year to critical acclaim and will be releasing more material in the coming months. https://soundcloud.com/calming-river

Upset The Rhythm presents…   GREG ASHLEY MASS DATURA Saturday 24 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   GREG ASHLEY has been a fixture on the underground music scene since the late Nineties while strafing eardrums as a teenager in Houston in garage- punk band The Strate-Coats. Since then he’s proven himself not only as a songwriter, singer and guitar player in bands like The Mirrors & The Gris-Gris, but also as a producer/sound engineer via his Oakland-based Creamery Studio. His career as a solo artist is vast and varied, spanning the gamut between fried-n-beautiful psychedelia, gorgeous & cathartic symphonic suites and gentle, damaged folk music, beginning with 2003’s debut and last leaving us with 2017’s ‘Pictures of Saint Paul Street’ (Trouble In Mind). This recent record carries forward Ashley’s musical palette (a rootsy amalgam of tortured, Cohen-esque folk tinged with the beer soaked recklessness of a West Texas honky-tonk). The songs on ‘Pictures of Saint Paul Street’ are lush & beautiful autopsies of society’s underbelly, with stark and brutally honest ruminations on humanity. Songs like “A Sea of Suckers” & “Pursue The Nightlife” pull no punches, while “Jailbirds & Vagabonds” and “Blues For A Pecan Tree” carouse on a more abstract, human (almost romantic) level. The protagonist in many of Ashley’s songs may be Ashley himself - a true artist willing to admit he’s nowhere near perfect, and honest enough to document his sunrises & sunsets no matter if they occur in his own backyard, or on a barroom floor.  https://gregashley.bandcamp.com/  MASS DATURA have spent the last three years earning a well-deserved reputation for their mesmerising, raw and unpredictable live performances. Mass Datura was initially formed by singer, writer and artist Thomas Rowe (with best friend Joseph Colkett), as an outlet to channel his own strange childhood experiences. Born and raised in the rural ghettos of Western Canada, frontman Rowe discovered at an early age what a powerful form of escapism music could be for him. Landing as an alien in London eight years ago, Rowe gathered a group of like-minded East London misfits around him and from this, Mass Datura formed. Mass Datura take their name from 16th century occult mythology, the Datura flower when ingested was said to give you the ability to levitate, flying through bleak night skies around the world snatching up little children. The band’s debut album was released last year alongside a performance at Liverpool Psych Fest. Mass Datura have managed to support some very exciting bands around the country including L.A. Witch, The Black Angels, A Place to Bury Strangers, Holy Drug Couple, Dark Horses and Black Mountain. https://soundcloud.com/mass-datura

Thank you all for reading and for coming out to see David Nance and Shopping in your hordes recently, have a great week! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

GUN OUTFIT DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA CALMING RIVER Tuesday 20 February Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   GREG ASHLEY MASS DATURA Saturday 24 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   CHAIN AND THE GANG MILKY WIMPSHAKE (SOLO) Monday 26 February OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   KA BAIRD DIANA POLICARPO / JEJUNO HACK MYSTIC Tuesday 6 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   SHANNON LAY WILLIAM PATRICK OWEN Wednesday 7 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS   ALAN LICHT JAMES SEDWARDS Sunday 11 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 6.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   BILL ORCUTT & CHRIS CORSANO: * DUO PERFORMANCE RATTLE Saturday 17 March The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   * SOLO PERFORMANCES Sunday 18 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   BRIGID MAE POWER DANIEL O'SULLIVAN Tuesday 27 March Servant Jazz Quarters, 10A Bradbury Street, Dalston, London N16 8JN 7.30pm | £8 | TICKETS   JOSHUA ABRAMS - NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY Monday 2 April OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 8pm | £11 | TICKETS   NO AGE MIAUX VITAL IDLES Wednesday 4 April Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 44 Pollard Row, London, E2 6NB 7:30pm | £12 | TICKETS   JAMIE STEWART (Xiu Xiu) ERIC CHENAUX Monday 9 April The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   ED SCHRADER’S MUSIC BEAT Monday 7 May Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS   NAP EYES Tuesday 8 May OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   MATANA ROBERTS & KELLY-JAYNE JONES Wednesday 9 May Ghost Notes, Peckham Levels, 95A Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS   PROTOMARTYR ANA DA SILVA RATTLE Thursday 10 May Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, King´s Cross, London, N1 9NL 7pm | £12.50 | TICKETS   SCREAMING FEMALES Wednesday 23 May OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney, London, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   JOHN MAUS Thursday 14 June Electric Ballroom, 184 Camden High St, London, NW1 8QP 7.30pm | £15.00 | TICKETS