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Brontez Purnell has been making music
since the ‘90s. The Southern-raised, Oakland-based American musician and
writer has centred his queerness and Blackness in projects Gravy Train!!!! and Younger Lovers
as well as in his award-winning books ‘100 Boyfriends’ and ‘Since I
Laid My Burden Down’. He is also a dancer, film maker and choreographer.
Hot on the heels of recent 7” singles
for Sub Pop, PPM and his first solo electronic record ‘No Jack Swing’
(Dark Entries / Papi Juice), Brontez returns in DIY-punk band formation
for a new album entitled ‘Confirmed Bachelor’. Brontez’s band includes
the multifaceted talents of Vice Cooler (who also produced and mixed the album), Sean Teves (of Younger Lovers) on drums, Kevin Preston (Prima Donna, Green Day) on guitar, Aaron Minton (Prima Donna) on piano and saxophone, and Laena Myers-Ionita on violin. The album was recorded in Los Angeles at The VCR earlier this year.
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 Upset The Rhythm presents…
BILL ORCUTT GUITAR QUARTET (Bill Orcutt, Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza & Shane Parish) RATTLE
Thursday 16 November
St Mary the Virgin, St Mary's Pl, Dogpole, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 1DX 7.30pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/nbf97235de2b San Francisco-based guitarist and composer Bill Orcutt presents his latest project, an all-electric Guitar Quartet performing the music from his 2022 LP “Music for Four Guitars,” an album which Pitchfork describes as “a rigidly structured quartet that weaves tiny rhythmic phrases into expansive tapestries, drawing on the tenets of early minimalism and New York guitar groups like Glenn Branca Ensemble.” Featuring an all-star team of guitarists Orcutt, Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish, the ensemble will present the music in an expanded live format that will combine intricate composition with no holds barred improvisation. Outside of London this concert in Shrewsbury will be the guitar quartet’s only other UK performance. Shrewsbury is the ancestral home of Upset The Rhythm and an amazing historical town to visit. Bill Orcutt is the former guitarist and founder of the notorious 90’s group Harry Pussy, and his sound is a stuttered reimagining of blues guitar, weaving looping melodic lines and angular attack into a dense, fissured landscape of American primitivism, outsider jazz, and a stripped-down re-envisioning of the possibilities of the guitar. Whether he’s playing his decrepit Kay acoustic or gutted electric Telecaster (both stripped of two of their strings, as has been Orcutt’s custom since 1985), Orcutt’s jagged sound is utterly unique and instantly recognizable, compared with equal frequency to avant-garde composers and rural bluesmen. The New York Times has called him a "powerful musician... a go-for-broke guitar improviser," and described his sound as "articulated sprays of arpeggiated chords and dissonance." Wendy Eisenberg is an improviser and songwriter who uses guitar, pedals, the tenor banjo, the computer, the synthesizer and the voice. Their work spans genres, from jazz to noise to avant-rock to delicate songs; their performances span venues, from international festivals to intimate basements. Though often working solo as both a songwriter and improviser, with acclaimed releases on Tzadik, VDSQ, Out of your Head, and Garden Portal, they also perform in the rock band Editrix, and in endless other combinations of their heroes and peers including Allison Miller, Carla Kihlstedt, John Zorn, Billy Martin, and Caroline Davis. They are also a writer on music and other things, with published essays on music in Sound American, Arcana, and the Contemporary Music Review. Settled in Brooklyn, Ava Mendoza has gained a deserved reputation in recent years for being one of the most exciting musicians on the New York scene, appearing on stages and records with John Zorn, Matana Roberts, Fred Frith, Hamid Drake, William Parkers and Mike Watt. Although also performing with the trio Unnatural Ways (with whom she appeared at Jazz in August in 2016), here Mendoza presents her beguiling solo work whose latest chapter, New Spells, released in 2021, brings together her own compositions with pieces written by Trevor Dunn, Devin Hoff and John Dikeman. Marc Ribot has described New Spells as “a beautiful, powerful and highly original solo electric guitar record – not just another record but a new sound, a new voice”. Shane Parish devotes much of his time to developing his singular and expressive voice on the guitar. He communicates through emotion, unexpected melodicism, technical whimsy, a nuanced sense of form, and rich timbral variety, simultaneously drawing from the guitar’s history and aiming for its future. He is known for fronting the electric instrumental prog-punk band Ahleuchatistas, and for his uniquely beautiful solo acoustic finger-style work, often creating modern re-interpretations of traditional folk tunes. He has released records on Tzadik, International Anthem, Cuneiform and more. https://billorcutt.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-four-guitars RATTLE are a UK-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 immense ‘Sequence’ album came out
recently through Upset The Rhythm. https://rattleon.bandcamp.com/ |
 Upset The Rhythm presents… RUTH MASCELLI CHARLÈNE DARLING GROUPE DISCIPLES DJs Saturday 18 November The Waiting Room, 175 Stoke Newington High St, London, N16 0PE 7.30pm | £8 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/tc44dce1c5c1 RUTH MASCELLI is one quarter of the New Orleans no wave/glam/industrial group Special Interest, providing drum machine and electronic textures to their anthemic songs. As a solo artist, they have released a number of tapes as Psychic Hotline, before making their debut under their own name with the album ‘A Night At The Baths’ on Disciples in 2021. Ruth lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana. The forthcoming second solo album from Ruth Mascelli and a clear progression from the pulse-racing nightime bathouse concept of their debut record. Non-Stop Healing Frequency is a carefully constructed sequence of electronic mood pieces, tender ballads, kosmische disco tracks and industrial symphonies. Synth, piano and drum machine are layered carefully over the course of these eleven tracks, with Mascelli’s own voice featured several times, including a devastating version of “Lopin’ Along Thru The Cosmos” by the late, great Judee Sill. https://ruthmascelli.bandcamp.com/album/non-stop-healing-frequency CHARLÈNE DARLING aka Charlotte Kouklia builds a self-contained musical world via French and English language vocals, and a minimalist backing of guitar, organ, bass and drums. At times recalling the feminist post-punk of The Raincoats, the avant songcraft of Brigitte Fontaine, or the psychedelic vignettes of Cate Le Bon, in truth Charlène Darling sounds like herself. The arrangements are playfully experimental, dubbed out percussion bubbling over the stripped back instrumentation, or rough tape edits disrupting lush harmonies, but never losing sight of the earworm hooks that make these songs so addictively listenable. Step through the door and walk right in. Charlène Darling’s second album of beautifully constructed leftfield pop songs will be called ‘La Porte’ and will be released on Disciples soon. It is an exploration of misplaced desire and all-consuming romantic obsession. This performance will feature Charlène’s full live band, the Charlène Darling Groupe. https://charlenedarling.bandcamp.com/ |
 Upset The Rhythm presents…. DEB GOOGE TOO MANY THINGS Thursday 30 November The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £11.00 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/ed3a9e85f413 DEB GOOGE - bass player with My Bloody Valentine, Thurston Moore Group and Brix Smith, will be touring solo presenting her first solo recordings (release date early November). Taking a bass IV, a looper and a pile of FX pedals, Deb Googe blends traditional basslines with more abstract noises to make intricate, layered soundscapes. Deb's new project will be called Da Googe, info on her forthcoming album soon! https://www.instagram.com/googoogiegoo/?hl=en TOO MANY THINGS are duo Marion Andrau (The Wharves/Underground Railroad/Throw Down Bones) & Jem Doulton (Thurston Moore Group/The Oscillation). Marion & Jem play each other’s songs best described as gloomy noise, politico-romantic psych; expect well oiled electronics, guitar, keys and vocals leading you to an underworld reminiscent of the red room of Twin Peaks. https://youtu.be/7OdkXmTRyWA |
 Upset The Rhythm present their 20th birthday party with…
LINDA SMITH & NANCY ANDREWS RATTLE RUSSELL WALKER Saturday 9 December Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL 7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Y1c88667d259 LINDA SMITH & NANCY ANDREWS shared a big house in Baltimore in 1983 with a continuously revolving cast of artists and musicians. It was there the like-minded artists formed their first band, Ceramic Madonna Head, a short-lived project which included housemates Elizabeth Downing and Peggy Bitzer. By the time the lease was up, Linda and Peggy had decided to move to New York where they would form a new band called The Woods while Nancy and Elizabeth remained in Baltimore and formed a performance art band called Lambs Eat Ivy. While playing guitar in The Woods in the mid-80’s Linda purchased her first 4-track cassette recorder and embarked on a pioneering decade of solo, DIY home recording with a series of cassettes and 7” records of smart and moody singer-songwriter bedroom pop music. This trailblazing period was recently documented on jewel-box compilation ‘Sky Girl’ and Captured Tracks’ retrospective compilation ‘Till Another Time: 1988-1996.’ During this same period Nancy pursued art, animation and filmmaking. The friends stayed in touch but hadn’t worked on a project together in nearly thirty years. In 2020, Linda rediscovered in the back of a drawer some old tapes of Nancy’s songs she had recorded for her in the 90’s. In the process of digitizing the old recordings she was inspired to reach out and float the idea of a new collaborative recording project with her old friend. ‘A Passing Cloud’ (Grapefruit/Gertrude Records) is the fruit of their rekindled long-distance musical conversation. All the songs were composed incrementally by passing tracks back and forth between Maine and Maryland, making for some beguiling pop music that draws us in with a carefully rendered intimacy. https://lindasmith2.bandcamp.com/album/a-passing-cloud RATTLE are a UK-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 immense ‘Sequence’ album came out recently through Upset The Rhythm. https://rattleon.bandcamp.com/ RUSSELL WALKER is a 43 year old resident of Hitchin, Hertfordshire who dislikes Piers Morgan's son. He writes / performs on his own as well as in various projects - his most recent releases are Soothers with Malvern Brume (Are You Before, 2023) and I Can't Remember as the Lloyd Pack (Digital Regress, 2023). https://on.soundcloud.com/aACG9 * Amazing poster by Meg Woof! |