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 Upset The Rhythm presents…
WOLF EYES YEAH YOU RUBBER DJ DAUN (Flowers Must Die)
Sunday 5 November 100 Club, 100 Oxford St, Oxford Street, W1D 1LL 7.30pm | £14 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/b59d2922fb18 WOLF EYES have spent 25 years fusing together DIY electronics with the avant-garde sensibilities of Fluxus and the granite of dreary Midwestern life. Their new album 'Dreams In Splattered Lines' is a surreal dreamscape of disorienting sound collages, where hit songs are transformed into terrariums of sonic flora and decimated fauna. As if pulled from a fever dream, the surrealists of the 1960s converge with alien electronic blues musicians in an underworld of mystery. The air is thick with car wash radio white noise, crackling and fizzing like a toxic elixir, spoken word poetry transmissions as absurd and cryptic phrases. Each corroded aural environment is a microcosm of chaos, honed to razor-sharp precision. Swept away in a whirlwind of thirteen perplexing narratives, each one an unpredictable journey through subterranean worlds, a sonic trip of reality folded into itself. Wolf Eyes have released three albums in the first half of this year. ‘Dreams In Splattered Lines' has been preceded by the January compilation of collaborations 'Presents Difficult Messages', and April saw the release of 'Wolf Eyes w/ Spykes', bringing a much sought after early release to vinyl for the first time, documenting a recording session pivotal to the ongoing development of the group’s sound. Alongside this has been the usual steady stream of lathe cuts, side hustles, art and inzanity. https://wolfeyes.xyz/ YEAH YOU is the Welsh duo of Elvin Brandhi and Gustav Thomas which came out of the Tyneside noise scene in 2013. Their music is the monster they find hiding under every surface from formica to fibre glass to fortune and unforgivingness; their charge is to explode its merciless tongues so as to lick the dancefloor clean of reactionary gloop. The duo have released on Slip, Opal Tapes and Alter, with forthcoming releases on Nashazphone and Mouhoi. ‘… an absurd pairing of the Rilkean sublime [with] knackered EDM. https://yeahyou.bandcamp.com/ RUBBER is a hardcore punk band featuring members of Joy-Rides, Negative Space, Sauna Youth and Scrap Brain. Minor details, interference, a ceramic light - for your consideration. |
 Upset The Rhythm presents… DEAR NORA R. AGGS Monday 13 November The Waiting Room, 175 Stoke Newington High St, London, N16 0PE 7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/wcbfc13f5224 DEAR NORA’s sound encompasses a spectrum of styles including classic rock, experimental music, ethereal pop, new age, folk, punk, and R&B. Katy Davidson (pronouns: they/she) writes lyrics with layered meanings that contemplate the vast realms and intersections of wilderness, humanity, morality, technology, late capitalism, and love. Dear Nora, Katy’s band since 1999, could sound like anything (and it’ll always sound like Dear Nora). Katy reinvents themselves at any moment, yet there is always the familiar face of a friend, taking us on a musical trip we didn’t know we needed to go on until we did. The latest time around, Katy and the Dear Nora crew bring us ‘human futures’ (2022, Orindal) , which is their first LP recorded in a commercial recording studio. There are new kinds of songs, old kinds of songs, there is still the voice of beauty and sanity that I’ve come to know and love over the years. The great strength of Dear Nora’s music is that it takes stock of its time and place and captures something that we can revisit later. It seems like the world depicted in these songs will continue to become more unrecognizable and more unlivable – but this is also tempered by my feeling of being understood by this music, and that life itself, shadows and all, is still beautiful and mysterious in the eyes of Dear Nora. https://dearnora.bandcamp.com/ R. AGGS is a multi instrumentalist and songwriter based in Glasgow. Ray Aggs, a prolific specialist in euphoric post-punk, has achieved international acclaim with collaborative touring projects Trash Kit, Shopping and Sacred Paws. Creating zines and co-ordinating workshops that encourage women, non-binary people, and people of colour to form bands, Aggs has galvanised the DIY scene in the UK. Ray released a solo album on Lost Map records as part of their Visitations residency in 2019 and self released //Tape 1// in 2020. Both releases showcase Aggs’ signature hybrid post-punk/highlife inspirations stripped down to new minimal extremes. Pulsating, electronic beats, coolly-recited lyrical mantras and spindly guitar lines abound in this life affirming music that speaks directly to your heart. https://r4ggs.bandcamp.com |
 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/ |