Next three shows: Air Waves, Amor and Mésange!

Hello there! Two shows for you this week. Tomorrow at The Islington we’re excited to be hosting a rousing evening of propulsive-pop courtesy of Air Waves. Air Waves is Nicole Schneit’s prismatic vehicle for her wistful yet empowering songs. Her mission statement is simple: " I want these songs to be heard by people in my queer community, but also by anyone that wants to feels strong, powerful, and included ”, setting the tone perfectly for her revelatory full-band live show.   Her latest album, ‘Warrior’, was a real leap forward, recorded with and released by Kevin Morby, it’s the real embodiment of courageous understatement. Joining Nicole and her searing live group will be the dauntless talents of Upset Stomach and Molejoy too. Tickets available on the door from 7.30pm, thrills and spills following closely!

That takes us onto Friday night, which we will be spending with avant-Disco expansives Amor at New River Studios. Richard Youngs, Michael Francis Duch, Paul Thomson and Luke Fowler are the four musical travellers behind Amor, who make it their aim to explore the sonic open-ended-ness of dance music, twisting melodic elements, swaddled in tape echo, into new blissful territories.   Optimo Music kindred-spirits The Golden Filter will play this show too, showcasing their radiating, synth-pop experiments. Alexis Taylor will also keep things buoyant with a special vinyl-focused DJ set throughout the night. Tickets for this one will also be available on the door from 7.30pm, with everything kicking off soon after.

Read on for all the particulars, we’ve included the full write-up for next week’s heavy, head-swoon of a concert with Mésange, Historically Fucked and John Hannon (of Liberez) too, that one’s ready to spontaneous combust.   Also, you’ll find in our listings section new events in April for Lea Bertucci, The Flying Luttenbachers, Mosquitoes and The Coolies too! Is April the cruelest month? Not this year, bring it!

Upset The Rhythm presents… AIR WAVES UPSET STOMACH MOLEJOY Thursday 31 January The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS AIR WAVES new album Warrior, the third full-length by Brooklyn-based musician, features a ominous, androgynous figure standing with a bicycle, wearing a gas mask adorned with a daisy. The remarkable image was taken on April 22nd, 1970 at the inaugural Earth Day celebration in New York City by Nicole Schneit's dad, Martin Schneit. Forty-seven years later, artist Em Rooney hand-painted Schneit's original black & white photo, resulting in an image that radiates with Warrior's indefatigable spirit, strength, and love. Like many queer women, Nicole Schneit is a warrior by necessity, fighting for basic rights, dignity, and acceptance. Such determination in the face of hardship and injustice runs in Schneit's family; her new album was inspired in part by her mom who was diagnosed with cancer last year. So the title 'Warrior' and the song are about her. The dignified fighter archetype referenced in the album's title is explored on each of Warrior's eleven pieces of bittersweet, empowering indie pop. According to Schneit the song 'Gay Bets', written after the 2016 election is "about being gay and being proud and open. I was thinking about hate crimes spiking and the current state of the world. Warrior's highlights, and all of the unmissable, satisfying pieces that tie them together show Schneit's perseverance and resilience through crumbling relationships, personal adversity, and the current political climate, all leading to her most powerful collection of songs to date. Understated, subtly sophisticated, and equally empowering and comforting, Warrior (out now on Western Vinyl) launches Air Waves above the apolitical complacency of too many of the group's contemporaries.  https://airwaves.bandcamp.com/ UPSET STOMACH are shoegazey emo-disco meets one hysterical woman vocalist, by way of Fate and Fortune magazine. https://www.facebook.com/upsetstomachuk/   MOLEJOY is a band. undermining with joyous anger pangs, on their own terms. Non-heroic beats for everyone who wants them. Songs/sounds about homogenous feels, pokemon go and radicalising your children. Kind of like .... we don't really know. Molejoy is Giles Brunch, Sophie Chapman and Kerri Jefferis. https://www.facebook.com/molejoyisaband/

Upset The Rhythm presents…   AMOR THE GOLDEN FILTER ALEXIS TAYLOR (DJ SET) Friday 1 February New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay Warehouse District, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   AMOR is a quartet based largely in Glasgow, consisting of Richard Youngs, Luke Fowler, Michael Francis Duch and Paul Thomson. AMOR is a master-class in blissful, searching, avant-disco fuelled by telepathic ensemble playing and an untouchable, higher joy. Though a young grouping, AMOR's members have separate exceptional histories in modern music. Richard Youngs has a 140+ long discography covering any number of musics often invented by Youngs himself, while Luke Fowler is an award winning film-maker and visual artist, as well as an electronic musician in his own right. Paul Thomson is a drummer and percussionist with Franz Ferdinand and The Yummy Fur and Michael Francis Duch is a double bassist based in Norway with deep roots in the world of improvisation and minimalist composition. Most important, however, is that AMOR is the sound of a band, as one. Collectively, AMOR strike a balance between hefty, bass-thick kicks and crisp percussion, an elastic double bass that lends bounce and class to the groove and floating piano chords recalling a warped take on Philadelphia International Records or a version of Can decimating the disco charts of late 70s USA. Steeped in de-constructivist disco practices similar to Arthur Russell yet fully immersed in a higher love, never forsaking movement and joy for ego, AMOR's embrace of the avant garde and the simplicity of feeling brings forth light. While at times the focal point, Richard Youngs' vocals are immeshed in the mix, a plaintive, cosmic call and response with the outside. AMOR's debut album, titled 'Sinking Into A Miracle',  was released in December via Night School Records, who also released the group's previous couple of stupendous EPs. https://amor-glasgow.bandcamp.com/ THE GOLDEN FILTER is the communal guise of Penelope Trappes & Stephen Hindman. Part art project, part electronic experimentation, part disco party, The Golden Filter were born in 2008 in NYC as a disruption to the pop music status quo. Now based in London & firmly welcomed into the Optimo Music family, with releases set for 2019 on Dischi Auotunno and their own 4GN3S imprint.  Their raw, minimal wave live sets and audio creations push the limits of accessible analogue beat-heavy soundscaping & angular vocals. http://www.thegoldenfilter.com/ ALEXIS TAYLOR is a solo artist, DJ and frontman of Hot Chip and About Group. His brilliant, recent album, ‘Beautiful Thing’, was released last year on Domino. Alexis will be performing a DJ set throughout the night for this special event. https://www.facebook.com/alexistaylorsoloofficial/

Upset The Rhythm presents…   MÉSANGE HISTORICALLY FUCKED JOHN HANNON Thursday 7 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   MÉSANGE is a collaboration between composer/violinist Agathe Max and composer/ musician Luke Mawdsley. Their new album, Gypsy Moth, anticipates the forces of nature, creation and rebirth. Mordant musical tapestries (minimalism, drone and ambient) are washed in dense electric skies, exposing signs that flutter and flare in dark elegance. Ubiquitous modal loops, inspire tension and mystery, a golden harvest where forbidden fruits are gathered by furtive hands mindful of a coming storm. Mesange implore you to explore the threshold between dawn and dusk, self and other, where unfettered territories are sensually intimated in fecund sounds that teeter between lightning and thunderclap. The duo have travelled and toured extensively across the U.K and Europe and have been invited to perform with the acclaimed minimalist composer Terry Riley. Their performances are often improvised and unrestricted by the usual constraints of musical reception, celebrating a queering of gender, the body and identity both visually and sonically. As a graduate in electro-acoustic composition, Agathe Max has worked within a range of indistinct disciplines including, sound design for experimental film, theatre, contemporary dance and other visual art forms. Agathe uses improvisation to explore a dark(er) materiality rooted in ritual, myth and the supernatural. Agathe Max's latest recording A Gypsy in a Church (2016) is a daring 22 minute acoustic improvisation, weaving post-classical motifs into a beguiling and hypnotic tapestry that utters speculations on sacred identity and heritage. Other creative actions have included the OFIELD project, processing and forging environmental soundscapes for an imagined utopia/dystopia. Luke Mawdsley is a musician and composer, solo artist, collaborator and guitarist in Cavalier Song. His work meditates on the human condition, stirring memory and desire within musical definitions of a terrific sublime. The results are a series of lush, yet darkly affective, symphonic abstractions weaving in and around melancholic myths and narratives. Luke is currently the lead guitarist in Mugstar and a former member of Liverpool avant-garde group a.P.A.t.T. He has received commissions from The Blue Coat, FACT , Static Gallery and Edge Hill Arts Centre, providing an ongoing portfolio of improvised and soundtrack works. https://mesange.bandcamp.com/ HISTORICALLY FUCKED are an entangled quartet fronted by Greta Buitike, who create short, eruptive songs which they then set about obliterating from the inside. The four-piece is completed by Otto Willberg (bass), David Birchall (guitar) and Alecs Pierce (drums). Their raft of albums on Heavy Petting at varying times brings to mind the very disparate approaches of both The Fall and the John Zorn-composed trio of Patton-Baron-Dunn, without really sounding like either of them. Historically Fucked can be funny, gleefully eruptive and very gratifyingly raucous and auto-destructive, heading off in numerous directions within a matter of seconds. Listen to their records and expect to have no idea what to expect. https://heavypettingtime.bandcamp.com/ JOHN HANNON known for his work as a member of Liberez presents here a solo manifestation of violin flotsam. https://twitter.com/johnhannon4

Thanks as always for reading, Catch you tomorrow and Friday! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

AIR WAVES UPSET STOMACH MOLEJOY Thursday 31 January The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS   AMOR THE GOLDEN FILTER ALEXIS TAYLOR (DJ SET) Friday 1 February New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay Warehouse District, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   MÉSANGE HISTORICALLY FUCKED JOHN HANNON Thursday 7 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   BIG JOANIE SECRET POWER Friday 15 February HQI, The Rotunda, Wood Lane, White City Place, London, W12 7TP (3 min walk from White City tube up Wood Lane. Behind the green gates) 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   KRISTIN HERSH (Electric trio) With ROB AHLERS (drums) & FRED ABONG (bass) FRED ABONG Sunday 10 March & Tuesday 12 March Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7LJ 7.30pm | £25 | TICKETS MARCH 10 /  TICKETS MARCH 12   THE SHIFTERS COOL GREENHOUSE Thursday 14 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   DAVID NANCE GROUP YERBA MANSA Monday 25 March The Shacklewell Arms, 71 Shacklewell Lane, Dalston, London, E8 2EB 8pm | £7 | TICKETS   XIU XIU (Jamie Stewart, Thor Harris & Jordan Gieger) JOHN BENCE Tuesday 26 March Islington Assembly Hall, Upper St, Islington, London, N1 2UD 7pm | £13.50 | TICKETS   Upset The Rhythm 15th anniversary label party! SAUNA YOUTH TRASH KIT GUTTERSNIPE VITAL IDLES RATTLE DOG CHOCOLATE Wednesday 27 March Tufnell Park Dome, 2A Dartmouth Park Hill, London, NW5 1HL 5.30pm - 11pm | £10 | TICKETS     THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS MOSQUITOES Friday 5 April Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   COOLIES FUN FUN FUNERAL Saturday 6 April The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £8 | TICKETS   LEA BERTUCCI: Projection/Reflection Tuesday 16 April IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, London, SE1 7LG 7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS   PRIESTS Thursday 16 May 100 Club, Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LL 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS (Tickets onsale this Friday at 10am)

 

April 16th, save the date! Lea Bertucci is heading to London!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

LEA BERTUCCI: Projection/Reflection
Tuesday 16 April
IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane (Royal Street corner), SE1 7LG
7.30pm | £10 | https://link.dice.fm/lea-bertucci-iklectik

LEA BERTUCCI is an American composer and performer whose work describes relationships between acoustic phenomena and biological resonance. In addition to her instrumental practice, (alto saxophone and bass clarinet), her work often incorporates multi-channel speaker arrays, electroacoustic feedback, extended instrumental technique and tape collage. Deeply experimental, her work is unafraid to subvert musical expectation. Her discography includes a number of solo and collaborative releases on independent labels and last year she released the critically acclaimed ‘Metal Aether’ on NNA tapes, as well as a commission for percussion ensemble Tigue and a second edition of her much anticipated graphic score book, ‘The Tonebook’, on Inpatient Press. She has performed extensively across the US and Europe with presenters such as The Kitchen, PS1 MoMA, Blank Forms, The Walker Museum, Roulette, ESS Chicago, Sound of Stockholm Festival, and the Le Guess Who Festival. She is a 2016 MacDowell Fellow in composition and a 2015 ISSUE Project Room Artist-in-Residence. For this special concert in London, Betucci will present her new sensory Projection/Reflection performance.
http://lea-bertucci.com/



“Noise that is untethered and limitless” – Jenn Pelly, Pitchfork

“Fresh and exhilarating connection through sound with the nuances of space and the variegated grain of reality” – Julian Cowley, Wire Magazine

“Bertucci... mines the kaleidoscopic possibilities of the sax” – Marc Masters, NPR

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS in London, this April 5th!!!!!

Un-pop goes the Weasel! The Flying Luttenbachers are heading to London for a one-off show in the UK this April at MOTH Club!
x

Upset The Rhythm presents…

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS
MOSQUITOES
Friday 5 April
Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU
7.30pm | £10 | http://www.wegottickets.com/event/462181

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS are a touchstone punk jazz/brutal prog/no wave group who steadily deconstructed music and reality between 1991-2007 with their 16 releases and more than 400 performances around the world. Now, in 2019, the band is back with a new lineup, new music and a new full-length album out soon. In the interim, leader and composer Weasel Walter shifted his expansive energies into the world of free improvisation, recording dozens of albums and playing with hundreds of internationally known musicians, as well as touring the planet with Lydia Lunch, Cellular Chaos, XBXRX, Behold The Arctopus and many others. In 2017, The Flying Luttenbachers reformed and made a week long tour of France, performing an hour long set of classic material from the entire catalog. The latest incarnation of the band is based in New York City, featuring Tim Dahl (Ava Mendoza’s Unnatural Ways, GRID) on bass guitar, Matt Nelson (GRID, Elder Ones, etc.) on tenor saxophone, Brandon Seabrook on guitar and Weasel Walter on drums. For this April 2019 tour, Seabrook will be replaced by UK guitar strangler Alex Ward, who cut his teeth playing as a teen with legendary improviser Derek Bailey. The band was recently invited to open a run of three sold out New York shows headlined by The Oh Sees last October. The Flying Luttenbachers have recorded a brand new double LP entitled ‘Shattered Dimension’ which will be released on ugEXPLODE and Ty Segall’s imprint GOD? Records this April.
http://www.theflyingluttenbachers.com

MOSQUITOES are a crypto, avant rock trio, who have captured the attention of more than a few heads over the past couple of years. After two self-released offerings, their latest EP on Ever/Never Records sealed the deal with its swarming mass of dubwise, no wave indebted confusion.
https://soundcloud.com/user-703056763

Coolies are coming, April 6th people!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

COOLIES
FUN FUN FUNERAL
Saturday 6 April
The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB
7.30pm | £8 | https://link.dice.fm/coolies-the-lexington

COOLIES have been blurting out random batches of high order avant garage spew since 1997. Sjionel Timu and Tina Pihema are the core of the band. Formed in the sprawl of South Auckland, New Zealand while they were still teens, Coolies were ostensibly a “punk” unit, but their sound was never doctrinaire. Through sheer weirdness and strength of vision, they created music that paralleled aspects of underground noise from the forests of Olympia Washington, the squats of West London, and the basements of Dunedin. Without resorting to formal revisionism, they’ve managed to take the basics of the early Rough Trade sound and smudge it with fingers dipped in the art-readymades of NZ’s underground pop groups and their own fevered experimentalism.
For a good chunk of the last decade, Stefan Neville (aka Pumice) was their drummer. This line-up cut a great LP, Master, for Chapter Music, and an even more dastardly EP, Punk Is Bread, for Epic Sweep. Most recently they presented, Kaka, gruntily produced by Neville on Feeding Tube Records. The tunes on Kaka were recorded in a couple of long jam sessions, then teased and smooshed into “shape” over the course of a year or so. The results, much like their live show are both propulsively fetching and utterly fried.
https://lecoolies.bandcamp.com/

FUN FUN FUNERAL
https://soundcloud.com/funfunfuneral

The Stallion tomorrow in London, Air Waves and Amor shows on the horizon!

Alright! We’re back in the live show mode tomorrow with The Stallion at Moth Club.  Comprised of Country Teasers alumni Ben Wallers and Alastair Mackinven, The Stallion will present a twisted homage to their favourite album, Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’. Built from rougher and noticeably bleaker bricks, their ‘Dark Side Of The Wall’ triple LP for In The Red sets the template for which this show is the launch party. Approaching a Cabaret Voltaire demo with The Residents on board, the project is packed full of the spirit of deconstruction and gleeful revelry, certainly will be a one of a kind concert!   There will be props, lights, films and Evangeline Ling of Audiobooks DJ-ing throughout the night too! What’s not to like? Come see The Stallion in the flesh (pun intended), tickets on the door from 7.30pm.

Read on below for thorough detail on tomorrow’s event, alongside write-ups for Jan 31st at The Islington with Air Waves, Upset Stomach and Molejoy, and Feb 1st’ at New River Studios with Amor, The Golden Filter and Alexis Taylor (DJ set). If you want your pop prismatic or your disco détourned we have something nearing the top of your alley!

On Tuesday night John Kennedy invited Upset The Rhythm onto his X-posure radio show to celebrate our first 15 years as a DIY label and general promoter of all things underground.   We chatted for about an hour, talked about our upcoming label showcase tour in March and played a ton of ‘classic’ back catalogue and upcoming tracks from the likes of Vital Idles and Hash Redactor too. Well worth listening again if you missed it, starts around 57 mins in, enjoy!

This week Xiu Xiu shared Act II of their audiovisual companion for new album ‘Girl with Basket of Fruit’ (out Feb 8th on Upset The Rhythm). The video for ‘Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy’ (best ever song title award in the bag) races along the thematic current of imagery and symbols from first video, ’Scisssssssors’, including reappearances of Xiu Xiu members alongside performance artists Ron Athey and Elliot Reed.   ‘Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy’ was written by Angela Seo from the band with lyrical contributions from Elliot Reed and Jamie Stewart; inspirations for the track include Toilet Paper Magazine, works by Boyd McDonald, Korean Mythological Drawings and Alcohol. Check it out here!

Upset The Rhythm presents…   THE STALLION: ‘THE DARK SIDE OF THE WALL’ TRIPLE ALBUM LAUNCH! EVANGELINE LING OF AUDIOBOOKS (DJ SET) Friday 18 January Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS THE STALLION can't believe it's happening at last. Put the date in your diaries, Elves, before you drop them into all the children's stockings all along the fireplace or at the foot of their beds. Ssshhh! Don't wake them up! They are having nightmares about being made into sausage meat! They have no noses, and instead of eyes and mouths, large dark holes! Clutching their homework they shuffle along the conveyor belt towards the meat grinders and so into the sausage meat buckets. Yum! School sausages! Who can forget the Grange Hill theme song and animated credits roll? NO LESS ICONIC is The Stallion's six-sided LP for In The Red entitled 'The Dark Side Of The Wall'. That's a hexagonal performance ("cover" is too weak, and "homage" to reverent) of Pink Floyd's The Wall, which is known on the street as 'The Dark Side Of The Wall'.   Country Teasers survivalists Alastair Mackinven and Ben Wallers are The Stallion and they will be performing 'THE DARK SIDE OF THE WALL', including film projections, on Friday January 18th 2019 at The Moth Club, in the Hackney Central area. The films were shot in LoganBerry Finite Quilt on the PC4 MacPro WorkBook. I am only a Sinclair c5 on the Zx spectrum, do you like talk like that? Do you like to do bad things? Are u a bad person?  For this show The Stallion have promised a multi-media spectacular with music, projections, smoke, lights and props! https://intheredrecords.com/collections/the-stallion EVANGELINE LING OF AUDIOBOOKS (DJ SET) https://www.instagram.com/evangelineling/

Upset The Rhythm presents… AIR WAVES UPSET STOMACH MOLEJOY Thursday 31 January The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS AIR WAVES new album Warrior, the third full-length by Brooklyn-based musician, features a ominous, androgynous figure standing with a bicycle, wearing a gas mask adorned with a daisy. The remarkable image was taken on April 22nd, 1970 at the inaugural Earth Day celebration in New York City by Nicole Schneit's dad, Martin Schneit. Forty-seven years later, artist Em Rooney hand-painted Schneit's original black & white photo, resulting in an image that radiates with Warrior's indefatigable spirit, strength, and love. Like many queer women, Nicole Schneit is a warrior by necessity, fighting for basic rights, dignity, and acceptance. Such determination in the face of hardship and injustice runs in Schneit's family; her new album was inspired in part by her mom who was diagnosed with cancer last year. So the title 'Warrior' and the song are about her. The dignified fighter archetype referenced in the album's title is explored on each of Warrior's eleven pieces of bittersweet, empowering indie pop. According to Schneit the song 'Gay Bets', written after the 2016 election is "about being gay and being proud and open. I was thinking about hate crimes spiking and the current state of the world. Warrior's highlights, and all of the unmissable, satisfying pieces that tie them together show Schneit's perseverance and resilience through crumbling relationships, personal adversity, and the current political climate, all leading to her most powerful collection of songs to date. Understated, subtly sophisticated, and equally empowering and comforting, Warrior (out now on Western Vinyl) launches Air Waves above the apolitical complacency of too many of the group's contemporaries.  https://airwaves.bandcamp.com/ UPSET STOMACH are shoegazey emo-disco meets one hysterical woman vocalist, by way of Fate and Fortune magazine. https://www.facebook.com/upsetstomachuk/   MOLEJOY is a band. undermining with joyous anger pangs, on their own terms. Non-heroic beats for everyone who wants them. Songs/sounds about homogenous feels, pokemon go and radicalising your children. Kind of like .... we don't really know. Molejoy is Giles Brunch, Sophie Chapman and Kerri Jefferis. https://www.facebook.com/molejoyisaband/

Upset The Rhythm presents…   AMOR THE GOLDEN FILTER ALEXIS TAYLOR (DJ SET) Friday 1 February New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay Warehouse District, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   AMOR is a quartet based largely in Glasgow, consisting of Richard Youngs, Luke Fowler, Michael Francis Duch and Paul Thomson. AMOR is a master-class in blissful, searching, avant-disco fuelled by telepathic ensemble playing and an untouchable, higher joy. Though a young grouping, AMOR's members have separate exceptional histories in modern music. Richard Youngs has a 140+ long discography covering any number of musics often invented by Youngs himself, while Luke Fowler is an award winning film-maker and visual artist, as well as an electronic musician in his own right. Paul Thomson is a drummer and percussionist with Franz Ferdinand and The Yummy Fur and Michael Francis Duch is a double bassist based in Norway with deep roots in the world of improvisation and minimalist composition. Most important, however, is that AMOR is the sound of a band, as one. Collectively, AMOR strike a balance between hefty, bass-thick kicks and crisp percussion, an elastic double bass that lends bounce and class to the groove and floating piano chords recalling a warped take on Philadelphia International Records or a version of Can decimating the disco charts of late 70s USA. Steeped in de-constructivist disco practices similar to Arthur Russell yet fully immersed in a higher love, never forsaking movement and joy for ego, AMOR's embrace of the avant garde and the simplicity of feeling brings forth light. While at times the focal point, Richard Youngs' vocals are immeshed in the mix, a plaintive, cosmic call and response with the outside. AMOR's debut album, titled 'Sinking Into A Miracle',  was released in December via Night School Records, who also released the group's previous couple of stupendous EPs. https://amor-glasgow.bandcamp.com/ THE GOLDEN FILTER is the communal guise of Penelope Trappes & Stephen Hindman. Part art project, part electronic experimentation, part disco party, The Golden Filter were born in 2008 in NYC as a disruption to the pop music status quo. Now based in London & firmly welcomed into the Optimo Music family, with releases set for 2019 on Dischi Auotunno and their own 4GN3S imprint.  Their raw, minimal wave live sets and audio creations push the limits of accessible analogue beat-heavy soundscaping & angular vocals. http://www.thegoldenfilter.com/ ALEXIS TAYLOR is a solo artist, DJ and frontman of Hot Chip and About Group. His brilliant, recent album, ‘Beautiful Thing’, was released last year on Domino. Alexis will be performing a DJ set throughout the night for this this event. https://www.facebook.com/alexistaylorsoloofficial/

Your time is always appreciated, thank you! Catch you tomorrow down the front, Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

THE STALLION: ‘THE DARK SIDE OF THE WALL’ TRIPLE ALBUM LAUNCH! EVANGELINE LING OF AUDIOBOOKS (DJ SET) Friday 18 January Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   AIR WAVES UPSET STOMACH MOLEJOY Thursday 31 January The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS   AMOR THE GOLDEN FILTER ALEXIS TAYLOR (DJ SET) Friday 1 February New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay Warehouse District, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   MÉSANGE HISTORICALLY FUCKED JOHN HANNON Thursday 7 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   BIG JOANIE SECRET POWER Friday 15 February HQI, The Rotunda, Wood Lane, White City Place, London, W12 7TP (3 min walk from White City tube up Wood Lane. Behind the green gates) 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   KRISTIN HERSH (Electric trio) With ROB AHLERS (drums) & FRED ABONG (bass) FRED ABONG Sunday 10 March & Tuesday 12 March Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7LJ 7.30pm | £25 | TICKETS MARCH 10 /  TICKETS MARCH 12   THE SHIFTERS COOL GREENHOUSE Thursday 14 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   DAVID NANCE GROUP YERBA MANSA Monday 25 March The Shacklewell Arms, 71 Shacklewell Lane, Dalston, London, E8 2EB 8pm | £7 | TICKETS   XIU XIU (Jamie Stewart, Thor Harris & Jordan Gieger) JOHN BENCE Tuesday 26 March Islington Assembly Hall, Upper St, Islington, London, N1 2UD 7pm | £13.50 | TICKETS   Upset The Rhythm 15th anniversary label party! SAUNA YOUTH TRASH KIT GUTTERSNIPE VITAL IDLES RATTLE DOG CHOCOLATE Wednesday 27 March Tufnell Park Dome, 2A Dartmouth Park Hill, London, NW5 1HL 5.30pm - 11pm | £10 | TICKETS     PRIESTS Thursday 16 May 100 Club, Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LL 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS (Tickets onsale this Friday at 10am)

John Kennedy interview with Upset The Rhythm!

Listen again, UTR interview with the ever-inspired John Kennedy from last night's X-posure show, starts around 57mins in: https://www.radiox.co.uk/national/radio/aod/?episodeId=eff7b9ce-bdaa-4da5-a2fd-ed85849f65a7

x

XIU XIU - Pumpkin Attack on Mommy And Daddy (VIDEO)

Xiu Xiu share today Act II of their audiovisual companion for new album ‘Girl with Basket of Fruit’. The video for ‘Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy’  races along the thematic current of imagery and symbols from first video, ’Scisssssssors’, including reappearances of Xiu Xiu members alongside performance artists Ron Athey and Elliot Reed. ‘Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy’ was written by Angela Seo from the band with lyrical contributions from Elliot Reed and Jamie Stewart; inspirations for the track include Toilet Paper Magazine, works by Boyd McDonald, Korean Mythological Drawings and Alcohol.

‘Girl with Basket of Fruit’ will be released on February 8th by Upset The Rhythm.

Pre-order LP/CD: http://upsettherhythm.bigcartel.com/
Stream/Download: http://smarturl.it/basket-of-fruit
 

First three shows of 2019: The Stallion, Air Waves and Amor!

Hello there!   Hopefully 2019 is treating you well already, may this be your best one yet! Upset The Rhythm had a very short festive hibernation (think power nap) as we’ve been busy lining up some terrific new releases for the year, watch this space! The first release is an incendiary new album from Xiu Xiu called ‘Girl with Basket of Fruit’ out on Feb 8th, we’ll have a new video to share with you next week!   With this communiqué though we’re focusing on our first three events for 2019.

We’re kicking things off with The Stallion next week at Moth Club. Alastair Mackinven and Ben Wallers (of Country Teasers and The Rebel notoriety) comprise The Stallion and Friday week they’ll be treating us to their warped take on Pink Floyd’s canon. It’s a launch party in celebration of In The Red’s triple album from the duo 'The Dark Side Of The Wall'.   All looks set to be perfectly odd with promises of music, films and props too, plus we’re lucky enough to have Evangeline Ling of Audiobooks DJ-ing throughout the night too, perfect!

Then at the very end of the month we have prismatic pop planned from Air Waves and Upset Stomach who play The Islington on Thursday 31st January.   The following day, Friday 1 February, New River Studios witnesses the glorious excess of an Amor concert with The Golden Filter and Alexis Taylor (DJ set) booked in too. So there you go, our first three forays into live music promotion for the year! Read on for details galore.

Since we last talked we’ve also confirmed a new, exciting show with Big Joanie and Secret Power in top new spot HQI for next month (Feb 15th), plus we’re welcoming back Priests to London on May 16th too.   Check our listings for details and ticket info, we’ve also added John Bence as main support to our Xiu Xiu lineup for March 26th at Islington Assembly Hall. Whilst, Mésange will now be joined by Historically Fucked and John Hannon (of Liberez) for their Islington show on Feb 7th too.   OK, here’s what’s on the horizon!

Upset The Rhythm presents…   THE STALLION: ‘THE DARK SIDE OF THE WALL’ TRIPLE ALBUM LAUNCH! EVANGELINE LING OF AUDIOBOOKS (DJ SET) Friday 18 January Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £7 | https://link.dice.fm/the-stallion-moth-club THE STALLION can't believe it's happening at last. Put the date in your diaries, Elves, before you drop them into all the children's stockings all along the fireplace or at the foot of their beds. Ssshhh! Don't wake them up! They are having nightmares about being made into sausage meat! They have no noses, and instead of eyes and mouths, large dark holes! Clutching their homework they shuffle along the conveyor belt towards the meat grinders and so into the sausage meat buckets. Yum! School sausages! Who can forget the Grange Hill theme song and animated credits roll? NO LESS ICONIC is The Stallion's six-sided LP for In The Red entitled 'The Dark Side Of The Wall'. That's a hexagonal performance ("cover" is too weak, and "homage" to reverent) of Pink Floyd's The Wall, which is known on the street as 'The Dark Side Of The Wall'.   Country Teasers survivalists Alastair Mackinven and Ben Wallers are The Stallion and they will be performing 'THE DARK SIDE OF THE WALL', including film projections, on Friday January 18th 2019 at The Moth Club, in the Hackney Central area. The films were shot in LoganBerry Finite Quilt on the PC4 MacPro WorkBook. I am only a Sinclair c5 on the Zx spectrum, do you like talk like that? Do you like to do bad things? Are u a bad person?  For this show The Stallion have promised a multi-media spectacular with music, projections, smoke, lights and props! https://intheredrecords.com/collections/the-stallion EVANGELINE LING OF AUDIOBOOKS (DJ SET) https://www.instagram.com/evangelineling/

Upset The Rhythm presents… AIR WAVES UPSET STOMACH Thursday 31 January The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7.50 | https://link.dice.fm/air-waves-the-islington AIR WAVES new album Warrior, the third full-length by Brooklyn-based musician, features a ominous, androgynous figure standing with a bicycle, wearing a gas mask adorned with a daisy. The remarkable image was taken on April 22nd, 1970 at the inaugural Earth Day celebration in New York City by Nicole Schneit's dad, Martin Schneit. Forty-seven years later, artist Em Rooney hand-painted Schneit's original black & white photo, resulting in an image that radiates with Warrior's indefatigable spirit, strength, and love. Like many queer women, Nicole Schneit is a warrior by necessity, fighting for basic rights, dignity, and acceptance. Such determination in the face of hardship and injustice runs in Schneit's family; her new album was inspired in part by her mom who was diagnosed with cancer last year. So the title 'Warrior' and the song are about her. The dignified fighter archetype referenced in the album's title is explored on each of Warrior's eleven pieces of bittersweet, empowering indie pop. According to Schneit the song 'Gay Bets', written after the 2016 election is "about being gay and being proud and open. I was thinking about hate crimes spiking and the current state of the world. Warrior's highlights, and all of the unmissable, satisfying pieces that tie them together show Schneit's perseverance and resilience through crumbling relationships, personal adversity, and the current political climate, all leading to her most powerful collection of songs to date. Understated, subtly sophisticated, and equally empowering and comforting, Warrior (out now on Western Vinyl) launches Air Waves above the apolitical complacency of too many of the group's contemporaries.  https://airwaves.bandcamp.com/ UPSET STOMACH are shoegazey emo-disco meets one hysterical woman vocalist, by way of Fate and Fortune magazine. https://www.facebook.com/upsetstomachuk/

Upset The Rhythm presents…   AMOR THE GOLDEN FILTER ALEXIS TAYLOR (DJ SET) Friday 1 February New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay Warehouse District, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £7 | https://link.dice.fm/amor-utr   AMOR is a quartet based largely in Glasgow, consisting of Richard Youngs, Luke Fowler, Michael Francis Duch and Paul Thomson. AMOR is a master-class in blissful, searching, avant-disco fuelled by telepathic ensemble playing and an untouchable, higher joy. Though a young grouping, AMOR's members have separate exceptional histories in modern music. Richard Youngs has a 140+ long discography covering any number of musics often invented by Youngs himself, while Luke Fowler is an award winning film-maker and visual artist, as well as an electronic musician in his own right. Paul Thomson is a drummer and percussionist with Franz Ferdinand and The Yummy Fur and Michael Francis Duch is a double bassist based in Norway with deep roots in the world of improvisation and minimalist composition. Most important, however, is that AMOR is the sound of a band, as one. Collectively, AMOR strike a balance between hefty, bass-thick kicks and crisp percussion, an elastic double bass that lends bounce and class to the groove and floating piano chords recalling a warped take on Philadelphia International Records or a version of Can decimating the disco charts of late 70s USA. Steeped in de-constructivist disco practices similar to Arthur Russell yet fully immersed in a higher love, never forsaking movement and joy for ego, AMOR's embrace of the avant garde and the simplicity of feeling brings forth light. While at times the focal point, Richard Youngs' vocals are immeshed in the mix, a plaintive, cosmic call and response with the outside. AMOR's debut album, titled 'Sinking Into A Miracle',  was released in December via Night School Records, who also released the group's previous couple of stupendous EPs. https://amor-glasgow.bandcamp.com/ THE GOLDEN FILTER is the communal guise of Penelope Trappes & Stephen Hindman. Part art project, part electronic experimentation, part disco party, The Golden Filter were born in 2008 in NYC as a disruption to the pop music status quo. Now based in London & firmly welcomed into the Optimo Music family, with releases set for 2019 on Dischi Auotunno and their own 4GN3S imprint.  Their raw, minimal wave live sets and audio creations push the limits of accessible analogue beat-heavy soundscaping & angular vocals. http://www.thegoldenfilter.com/ ALEXIS TAYLOR is a solo artist, DJ and frontman of Hot Chip and About Group. His brilliant, recent album, ‘Beautiful Thing’, was released last year on Domino. Alexis will be performing a DJ set throughout the night for this this event. https://www.facebook.com/alexistaylorsoloofficial/

Thanks for reading, here’s to great times in 2-0-1-9! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

THE STALLION: ‘THE DARK SIDE OF THE WALL’ TRIPLE ALBUM LAUNCH! EVANGELINE LING OF AUDIOBOOKS (DJ SET) Friday 18 January Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   AIR WAVES UPSET STOMACH Thursday 31 January The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7.50 | TICKETS   AMOR THE GOLDEN FILTER ALEXIS TAYLOR (DJ SET) Friday 1 February New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay Warehouse District, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   MÉSANGE HISTORICALLY FUCKED JOHN HANNON Thursday 7 February The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   BIG JOANIE SECRET POWER Friday 15 February HQI, The Rotunda, Wood Lane, White City Place, London, W12 7TP (3 min walk from White City tube up Wood Lane. Behind the green gates) 7.30pm | £7 | https://link.dice.fm/big-joanie-hqi   KRISTIN HERSH (Electric trio) With ROB AHLERS (drums) & FRED ABONG (bass) FRED ABONG Sunday 10 March & Tuesday 12 March Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7LJ 7.30pm | £25 | TICKETS MARCH 10 /  TICKETS MARCH 12   THE SHIFTERS COOL GREENHOUSE Thursday 14 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS   DAVID NANCE GROUP YERBA MANSA Monday 25 March The Shacklewell Arms, 71 Shacklewell Lane, Dalston, London, E8 2EB 8pm | £7 | TICKETS   XIU XIU (Jamie Stewart, Thor Harris & Jordan Gieger) JOHN BENCE Tuesday 26 March Islington Assembly Hall, Upper St, Islington, London, N1 2UD 7pm | £13.50 | TICKETS   Upset The Rhythm 15th anniversary label party! SAUNA YOUTH TRASH KIT GUTTERSNIPE VITAL IDLES RATTLE DOG CHOCOLATE Wednesday 27 March Tufnell Park Dome, 2A Dartmouth Park Hill, London, NW5 1HL 5.30pm - 11pm | £10 | TICKETS     PRIESTS Thursday 16 May 100 Club, Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LL 7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS (Tickets onsale this Friday at 10am)