Vintage Crop's new album! Plus... The Space Lady's final visitation to London next week!

  

Kibitzer!   It’s a word that certainly packs a punch, it’s also Vintage Crop’s thrill-ride of a new album, available to check out now via all the usual digital depots.   Ten tracks of snappy as elastic Australian punk, packed with witty refrains of everyman curiosity. It’s sardonic, harmonic and more than just the tonic! Here’s a fun snap of the band celebrating this joint release between Upset The Rhythm and our power-pals Anti-Fade!   Remember you can still order this lavish Dinked version of the album from all participating retailers in the UK: White vinyl, live-flexi, lyric/photo zine and bookmark (for the win)! Also, look out for the band on their European tour that kicks off next week too, SO MUCH!

OK, London show promoter hat on now!   Our next event takes place one week today, Friday 1st July at OSLO, Hackney and will feature the very last performance of The Space Lady in London. Oh no! Say it ain't so, I'm afraid it is, but cheer up, it's not too late. Let's celebrate with Susan as she bids us an intergalactic goodbye on her farewell tour. Sensational diy-pop star Robert Sotelo will also be performing at this special knees-up, read on for all you need to know and more.   You'll also find below our upcoming London show listings for Richard Dawson & Circle, June of 44 and Vintage Crop! The snake bites its tail once again, enjoy!   New shows for Prolapse and Jenny Moore have just materialised in our upcoming programme too, lucky London!

Upset The Rhythm presents… THE SPACE LADY ROBERT SOTELO Friday 1 July OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney Central, E8 1LL 7pm-10pm | £12.50 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/J68e0e40746a THE SPACE LADY began her odyssey on the streets of San Francisco in the late 70s, playing versions of contemporary pop music an accordion and dressed flamboyantly, transmitting messages of peace and harmony. Following the theft of her accordion, The Space Lady invested in a then-new Casio keyboard, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular song that has captured the imaginations of the underground and its lead exponents ever since, with the likes of John Maus, Erol Alkan and Kutmah being devotees. Of her early street sets, only one recording was made, self-released originally on cassette and then transferred to a homemade CD. 'The Space Lady's Greatest Hits' released in 2014 through Night School features the best of these recordings - mostly covers but with some originals - pressed on vinyl for the first time and features archival photographs and liner notes from The Space Lady herself. 'Greatest Hits' contains The Space Lady's personal favourites; her haunting take on The Electric Prunes' 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night),' a frantic 'Ballroom Blitz' amidst other reconstructed pop music. Following on from this wonderful record, The Space Lady released a split LP in 2015 with the Burnt Ones on Castle Face records which included her spectral take of 'Across The Universe' and a recent LP from 2018 through Mississippi entitled 'On The Street Of Dreams'. This show will be The Space Lady's final performance in London as part of her farewell tour! https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/exploring-the-intergalactic-wonders-of-the-space-lady ROBERT SOTELO is a mercurial melodist building a resplendent world of pristine DIY pop from the ground up. The Glasgow-based artist’s songs are meticulously crafted, patchworked together with eclectic arrangements and ardent vocal performances. Last year Upset The Rhythm released Robert Sotelo’s vivid new album ‘Celebrant’. ‘Celebrant’ was intended to be and still is to some extent a joyous wedding album (Sotelo is recently married), but in his own words “the pandemic and the death of my aunt Carmen intersected with the original concept so the album is darker than intended in places.” More cinematic and measured than prior albums, Sotelo expounds that “it is purposefully a bigger sounding attempt at my keyboard songs and I felt more ambitious about it in general.” That’s certainly reflected in these twelve sophisticated loops of song, all curiously affecting and catchy, sprinkled with Sotelo’s offbeat musings and keenly accurate observations. Guitars are rarely employed on this record with Sotelo recruiting Iain Mccall, Ross Blake, Celia Morgan and David Maxwell to contribute brass, woodwind, spoken word and acoustic drums respectively. All of these additions blend well with the album’s synthetic core, softening and subtly shaping its pop-first nature into something more nuanced, vulnerable and human. https://robertsotelo.bandcamp.com/album/celebrant

Upset The Rhythm presents… RICHARD DAWSON & CIRCLE MICROCORPS Wednesday 6 July Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9NL 7pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/o9f9fe82d517 RICHARD DAWSON & CIRCLE teamed up to record an epic album together recently called ‘Henki’. Richard Dawson is the Geordie troubadour whose moving songs have been described as state-of-the-nation addresses, even - or perhaps especially - when he’s singing about pre-medieval peasants. Circle are the genre-straddling pioneers of The New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal, known for wearing spandex and singing in a made-up language. Together they are… Richard Dawson & Circle! Their epic joint record might seem a departure to those who are most familiar with Dawson from recent solo albums like 2017’s Peasant and 2020. In fact, ‘Henki’ fits comfortably into the bigger picture of two acts who have always strived for uninhibited originality. Inspired by Circle’s guitarist Janne Westerlund instructing the group during recording to be less straightforward and more “like a plant”, ‘Henki’s seven tracks deal with special plants throughout history. The result is a towering flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record of gargantuan proportions. Dawson & Circle have intricately crafted their sound, with imaginative, constantly evolving arrangements that highlight Circle’s prog credentials. There are also unexpectedly euphoric choruses too: the instrumental mid-section of Silphium makes like a more dissonant take on Xanadu-era Rush, then gradually builds momentum before exploding back to life again just before the 11-minute mark. Methuselah gallops along like a flora-fixated Iron Maiden as it tells the cautionary tale of Donald Currey, a researcher trying to find the oldest tree on Earth who only realised he’d found it after he’d cut it down in 1964. Throughout, there is so much going on that it takes many listens to absorb everything. A tour de force of botanical rock! https://richardmichaeldawson.bandcamp.com/album/henki MICROCORPS is the new project by artist and musician Alex Tucker (Grumbling Fur, Alexander Tucker, Imbogodom) exploring electronics, cello and voice. The debut release XMIT, an eight-track album featuring collaborations with Gazelle Twin, Nik Void, Simon Fisher Turner and Astrud Steehouder, was released on Alter in 2021. In a move away from previous projects Tucker investigates erasing the self, removing obvious traits of the hand and voice, and allowing a focus on the humanoid rather than the human. Instead of recognisable lyrics and coherent imagery, MICROCORPS evolved synthesised voices to generate alternate characters. https://microcorps.bandcamp.com/album/xmit

Upset The Rhythm & Supersonic present… JUNE OF 44 RATTLE Friday 8 July 229, 229 Great Portland St, London, W1W 5PN, UK 7pm | £20 (16+ show) | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/ae216c453036 JUNE OF 44 formed in the fall of 1994. They are a super-group collective with a rich underground lineage of members from beloved bands - Rodan, Lungfish, Codeine, Rex, Hoover and Shipping News. Truly a who’s who of the indie rock world, together they have often been referred to as the punk rock pirates of the math rock world. The band are cited for their artistic hand-crafted record packaging for music that ranges from experimental jazz to ambient dub to angular post punk. June of 44 released their four totemic albums on Quarterstick in the 90s, but in 2020 they announced their first studio album in 21 years. ‘Revisionist: Adaptations & Future Histories in the Time of Love and Survival’ came out recently on Broken Clover. “It will have been 23 years since performing in the United Kingdom… so much life, too many wars, so much music, a few extraordinary babies, heart-breaking loss, real struggle, epic success, total failure – for all of us.” https://juneof44.bandcamp.com/ RATTLE are a Nottingham based duo, Rattle focus almost exclusively on drums and more drums, beneath a delicate overlay of vocal harmonies and percussive effects. Formed by Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, Rattle began as an experiment in crafting rich songs and melody using drums and voice alone. Their music weaves and intertwines post-punk, minimalism and experimental rock, through off-kilter rhythms, patterns and counter melodies. Rattle effortlessly blend the avant-garde with irresistible melodies and hypnotic drum beats, using rhythm and harmony to create a refreshing sound that is utterly new - a pretty rare feat these days when we're saturated with so much music. Rattle's impressive ‘Sequence’ album came out through Upset The Rhythm. https://rattleon.bandcamp.com

Upset The Rhythm presents… VINTAGE CROP MARCEL WAVE PUBLIC BODY Saturday 9 July The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £8 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/A73a9f0863c6 VINTAGE CROP are Geelong’s favourite sons, returning this summer with their much-anticipated fourth album, ‘Kibitzer’. Running with the ball that 2020’s “Serve To Serve Again” punted forward, this album marks another energetic break towards the goal for Vintage Crop. ‘Kibitzer’ sees the band define their field of play, more melodic at times, still bruising, forever droll. These ten tracks of ‘snappy as elastic’ Australian punk are packed with tensile riffage, hefty beats and witty refrains of everyman curiosity. ‘Kibitzer’ delves into themes of identity, resilience and acceptance; some of the more upbeat notions that the band have dealt with to date. ‘Casting Calls’ opens the record, slamming through the speakers with gusto and setting the tone for the following 30 minutes. These themes hit home with the album’s title too, with Cherry feeling that ‘Kibitzer’ is an apt way to describe a lot of the band’s focus. “I feel like a lot of our lyrics over the years have been our unsolicited opinions on other people’s situations, the very definition of the word Kibitzer. So for this record we wanted to lean into that tendency by acknowledging it and even go as far as stamping it on the album cover.” https://vintagecrop.bandcamp.com/ MARCEL WAVE write eulogies for tragic actresses, ancient riverbeds and concrete obscenity. Meades meets Pat-E-Smith meets Kirklees Borough Council. Featuring members of Cold Pumas and Sauna Youth. https://marcel-wave.bandcamp.com/releases PUBLIC BODY have from the cradle to a 9-5 job been buried in unread emails and PMQ youtube alerts, tackling issues such as Question Time Bias and Workplace Etiquette. Public Body formed in Brighton in late 2018 with a clear aim to write the perfect soundtrack to whatever you do whilst procrastinating at your day job. https://publicbody.bandcamp.com/

Have the best weekend, thanks for reading! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

THE SPACE LADY ROBERT SOTELO Friday 1 July OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney Central, E8 1LL 7pm-10pm | £12.50 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/J68e0e40746a   RICHARD DAWSON & CIRCLE MICROCORPS Wednesday 6 July Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9NL 7pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/o9f9fe82d517   JUNE OF 44 RATTLE Friday 8 July 229, 229 Great Portland St, London, W1W 5PN, UK 7pm | £20 (16+ show) | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/ae216c453036   VINTAGE CROP MARCEL WAVE PUBLIC BODY Saturday 9 July The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £8 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/A73a9f0863c6 RACHEL AGGS ELECTRIC FIRE Monday 11 July Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL 7.30pm | £8 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/H8123dbd413f QUINTRON & MISS PUSSYCAT BRUNO AND THE OUTRAGEOUS METHODS OF PRESENTATION Tuesday 12 July The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/x2ade9b7daea   HG20 : ‘A three-day fundraiser celebrating 20 years of Hello Goodbye and Resonance FM’   WRECKLESS ERIC MEATRAFFLE LILITH AI Saturday 30 July MOTH Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm - 10.30pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/N6957a30c1ea THE MONOCHROME SET THE MINDREADERS DEE BYRNE & CATH ROBERTS Sunday 31 July MOTH Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm - 10.30pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/g033d19f7eeb VERY SPECIAL GUEST GINA BIRCH BAS JAN ROZI PLAIN (DJ set) Monday 1 August MOTH Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm - 11pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Rab47aa5d2fa £25 Three day tickets: https://link.dice.fm/j66637a0c823   DEERHOOF Wednesday 31 August Electric Ballroom, 184 Camden High St, Camden, London, NW1 8QP, UK 7pm | £17 | Tickets:  https://link.dice.fm/pc5188b40f90   JENNY MOORE Tuesday 13 September & Wednesday 14 September Servant Jazz Quarters, 10A Bradbury Street, Dalston, London, N16 8JN 7.30pm | £8 | Tickets: https://dice.fm/bundles/jenny-moore-in-london-3orl   MIDWIFE Tuesday 18 October Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, Dalston, London, E8 3DL 7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Zfe30c79959f   PROLAPSE Saturday 29 October OSLO, 1a Amhurst Road, Hackney Central, E8 1LL 7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Zaa6a254b9b3   FUZZ (Charles Moothart, Ty Segall, Chad Ubovich) Friday 17 March 2023 Electric Ballroom, 184 Camden High St, Camden Town, London, NW1 8QP 6pm - 9.45pm | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/mhxLeUrBL4 (This show is rescheduled from March 18th 2022, original tickets valid, refunds available too)