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Recorded
with Lewis Cook (of Happy Meals, The Cosmic Dead) at his home studio
Full Ashram, ‘Choose Life’ came together in serial fashion through 2017
with Kasparis calling in when each new song was ready to commit to tape.
Cook in turn engineered the recordings and in some instances helped
produce the material.
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‘Fly
With The Dolphin’ opens the album like a cork rocketing from a bottle,
dashing to the horizon with a rampant beat, synth pop throttle and
acidic edge. Kasparis implores us to swim, walk, drive and fly away,
even resorting to pressing the ejector seat on everything he wants to
leave behind. Melody and purpose is pushed to the fore, backed to the
hilt by some brutish rhythmic production. ‘Feel Bad’ is similarly
equipped, with Kasparis sounding more himself than ever. Nothing is
cloaked in reverb, obscured or distorted, this is Apostille in the broad
daylight, ambitious, open-armed and vulnerable. “If there’s something I
know, it’s that I’ll see you again, I’m losing everything I know, I
would walk into the ocean just to give you a rest” confesses Kasparis in
his sleek setting of glossy drum programming and buoyant refrains in
the melancholic key. This is pop music as redemption, the drawing of a
line, songs that step anew unto the dawn.
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Upset The Rhythm presents...
GWENIFER RAYMOND
JOHN MCGRATH
Thursday 5 July The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS GWENIFER RAYMOND is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist, originally from Cardiff but now residing in Brighton, England. Gwenifer began playing guitar at the age of eight shortly after having been first exposed to punk and grunge. After years of playing around the Welsh valleys in various punk outfits she began listening more to pre-war blues musicians as well as Appalachian folk players, eventually leading into the guitar players of the American Primitive genre. She has since been playing her own moody and often-times manic original American Primitive styled compositions on guitar and banjo around the UK. In 2017 Gwenifer signed to the esteemed label Tompkins Square, who released her first single ‘Sometimes There’s Blood’ in October of that year. Her debut album ‘You Never Were Much of a Dancer’ is out in June 29th, 2018. https://gweniferraymond.com/ JOHN MCGRATH is an Irish guitarist, composer and author based in London. His music explores the boundaries of the ancient and modern as traditional elements meet improvisation and experimental tendencies. Rich harmonics, intricate finger-picking, static drones and glitches combine to glorious effect. John has performed the UK premiere of Rhys Chatham's "Die Donnergotter", he’s also performed with Dustin Wong, Sharon Gal, Cavalier Song, Howard Skempton and the aPAtT Orchestra. He currently lectures at ICMP and Goldsmiths. www.johnmcgrathmusic.com |
Upset The Rhythm presents…
VITAL IDLES DOG CHOCOLATE
THE PLAN
Thursday 12 July
The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT
7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS
VITAL IDLES are primitive and
whimsically brutal prospect for the conglomerate of art outsiders and
aesthetes. Sculpting a skeleton from a body already lean, there’s a
thrilling minimalism that runs through every beat and strum, a
sparseness that feeds Jessica Higgins’s surreal, oblique vocal delivery
all the nourishment it needs. Playing their first shows in Glasgow in
2015 during a summer that never threatened to show up, Vital Idles’
origins are closely tied with a tireless underground culture, a culture
that informs the band’s refusal to take it easy. Matthew Walkerdine,
Nick Lynch and Higgins are responsible for Glasgow DIY publishing
institution Good Press - an independent volunteer-staffed zine and art
book shop - while Guitarist Ruari MacLean’s pedigree stretches back to
breakneck-indie-pop group Golden Grrrls and the Rose McDowall band.
Following two self-released demos and a sold out debut 7”, Vital Idles
arrive on Upset The Rhythm with ‘Left Hand’, a bare manifesto layered
with meaning and non-meaning. The group can conceivably be called
artists, or Artists, but in approaching their debut album Vital Idles
have stripped away all extraneous ornamentation to evoke an incredibly
life-like, vibrant pop music completely détourned and re-thought. These
are pop songs unwilling to bend to convention, chart hits in the
alternative timeline where Messthetics compilations are Now That's What I
Call Music, peppered with endlessly inventive linguistics that reveal
emotional depth, a dry, punk minimalism able to turn on a dime into a
mouldy, witty kitchen sink story narrated by Samuel Beckett. It’s a
tension that threatens to fall apart into dissonance or resolve into
sweetness but thankfully does neither, rather it keeps Vital Idles
moving forward, never standing still, never taking it easy.
https://vitalidles.bandcamp.com/ DOG CHOCOLATE sound like a crowded room but are actually four individuals from London. Abandoning notions of elegance, cred and professionalism they embrace the ramshackle, instant and fun, capturing a vivid spontaneity with their music. Their sound is a shabby, fast, over-excited ball of wet fur falling down the stairs, knocking over plant pots along the way and staining the carpet. With an average song time of 2 minutes, Dog Chocolate are on to the next treat before fully digesting the last. Chewing up bits of punk, post-punk, noise and pop, Matthew and Robert's guitars race around each other like wasps, pitch-shifting and phasing all over the place while Jono's rolled-up-newspaper drums chase them round the room. The band's new album ‘Moody Balloon Baby’ (out now) was released through Upset The Rhythm, in just under 25 minutes the band manage to cram in bucket-loads of ideas, mess, confusion and fun. http://dogchocolate.tumblr.com/ THE PLAN are an evolving post-punk outfit including members who have previously appeared in bands like Wetdog, Private Trousers, Vic Godard and The Subway Sect & The Ghosts. The Plan harness unruly beats with discordant keyboards and guitars then stamp sweet vocal harmonies over the result. The Plan celebrate their debut album 'Nervous Energy' on Southend Records by currently playing songs from this record alongside the new ones lined up for No 2. The Plan all live in Southend-on-Sea, flourishing on its beach life and doing their bit to secure its reputation as the ‘cultural capital’ of Essex. |
Thanks for your time, enjoy the sun and the weekend!
Upset The Rhythm
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UPSET THE RHYTHM
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