Lande lineup!

 

The most excellent Sassyhiya and Perfect Binding are both joining the lineup of this ace Lande Hekt show at The Lexington next month!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

LANDE HEKT
SASSYHIYA
PERFECT BINDING
Wednesday 15 October
The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB
7.30pm | £12.50 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/fbcab145bcce

LANDE HEKT’s music is born out of self-reflection, social and political awareness, and her capacity for evocative storytelling. Having explored this personal song-writing approach with her former band, Muncie Girls, with their punchy yet tender punk-flecked songs, Lande released her debut solo record Going To Hell in 2021 via queer and trans run independent label Get Better Records. Going To Hell presents its raw honesty amongst understatedly luminous melodies and candid, unpretentious lyrics which contemplate, among other things, her experience coming out as gay. Lande’s music sits beautifully alongside such essential artists as The Wedding Present, The Sundays, The Replacements, Sleeper and Sharon Van Etten.

With her debut album barely a year old, 2022 saw Lande armed with a whole new collection of song-form vignettes and musings on her life and experiences with second album House Without a View (partnering again with Get Better Records and Prize Sunflower Records in the UK). Kicking off where the last record left off, House Without a View continues to explore ideas of queer identity, as well as her changing relationship with gender, dealing with childhood trauma, and confronting the isolation and period of adjustment brought by the pandemic. Lead single ‘Gay Space Cadets’ daydreams about a life of excitement and adventure instead of being “forced to buy into capitalism and become a pathetic, losing player in a game that you hate.” Although there’s darkness and sadness within the record, there’s also some shining beacons of positivity and a lighthearted side, albeit with a side of frustration.

Lande has toured in the UK, Europe, Canada and Australia supporting the likes of Alvvays, Laura Jane Grace, The Beths, Throwing Muses and the legend that is Tricky. She has also played at Glastonbury festival, as well as events for The Big Issue and Corbyn’s Labour Party. 

https://landehekt.bandcamp.com/


SASSYHIYA want to take you somewhere. The journey starts in Kathy and Helen’s flat in South London. Sit down, close your eyes, and immerse yourself... You are on your way to a musical rainforest a long way from Camberwell. Explore your new surroundings, and you will find beautiful pop blooms like Let’s See What We Can Find, as bright and vibrant as The Sundays, thrusting their colourful faces up from the forest floor. You’ll find tangles of sharp-edged guitar, as if Swiss she-punks Kleenex had been left to evolve here in the rich fertile soil (I Had A Thought). You’ll find dark pools full of lyrical complexity, deceptively deep and immersive, with shimmering reflections of The Go-Betweens (Perennial). Sassyhiya’s debut album ‘Take You Somewhere’ is out now on Skep Wax!

https://sassyhiya.bandcamp.com


PERFECT BINDING is the recording project of London-based songwriter and composer Sam Bedford. Based around nylon-string guitar, voice, cello and fragments of tape music, Bedford creates songs that feel gently detached and intimate and yet still rich in atmosphere. Recorded with Benjamin Woods at the Joy of Life Studio in South East London, Perfect Binding’s self-titled EP offers a compelling introduction to a songwriter focused on tone, tension, and emotional undercurrent.

https://perfectbinding.bandcamp.com/album/perfect-binding-2

Where I Come From - video!

Born trippy! 

EarthBall return today with the first video from their forthcoming album 'Outside Over There' (out Nov 7th on Upset The Rhythm). Here's the delirious 'Where I Come From':

 

 

UTR

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An extra night with Tristwch Y Fenywod!

 

Due to sustained clamour we’ve added an extra Tristwch Y Fenywod show on November 12th!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

TRISTWCH Y FENYWOD
ANNA PEAKER
Wednesday 12 November
St Matthias Church, Wordsworth Rd, London, N16 8DD, UK
7.30pm | £15 | Tickets:  https://link.dice.fm/Aec543e61aa5

TRISTWCH Y FENYWOD is a band of three queer women who play avant garde gothic music using dual-zither, bass and electronic drums. Their lyrics are sung entirely in the Welsh language (Cymraeg), and flicker in the moon-glow. Tristwch y Fenywod (translated as… The Sadness of Women) are Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth (Guttersnipe, Petronn Sphene), Leila Lygad (Hawthonn) and Sidni Sarffwraig (Slaylor Moon, The Courtneys). Formed in 2022 in Leeds, where the band are primarily based, Tristwch y Fenywod sounds like an early 4AD group dredged from the waters of an Anglesey swamp. Sapphic love and desire, existential darkness, political and environmental anguish/celebration, psychogeographic romance, pagan mysticism, imaginal explorations of Celtic history and myth, psychedelia, and myriad other variations of reverie are fantasised through their songs. 

In August 2024 they released their self-titled debut album through Night School Records to critical acclaim, and have since performed at various UK festivals such as Supernormal and Supersonic, including two memorable nights with Upset The Rhythm at St Pancras Old Church back in January this year.

https://night-school.bandcamp.com/album/tristwch-y-fenywod

ANNA PEAKER is an artist based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, who began experimenting with sound in 2016. Her work centers around quiet electronics, amplified objects, and processed autoharp. She has released music with Longform Editions, Alter, Infant Tree, Chocolate Monk, and Regional Bears.

https://annapeaker.bandcamp.com/

Tours galore!

Linda Smith, Me Lost Me and Quinie all have tours looming. Linda Smith's is in Japan this month, whilst Me Lost Me and Quinie are trekking around the UK in October / November, what a joy to share three immense tour posters. Live music forever!

 

 

100 Flowers + The Yummy Fur on Halloween!

 

What strange magic is this? The Yummy Fur are playing our Halloween party at New River Studios with 100 Flowers too! Life-affirming stuff!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

100 FLOWERS
THE YUMMY FUR
Friday 31 October
New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay, London, N4 1DN
7.30pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/teff2cfdc2f2 

100 FLOWERS are a post-punk band from Los Angeles, California, active primarily in the early 1980s. The group evolved from the politically charged punk outfit The Urinals, who were known for their raw, minimalist sound and radical brevity, many of their songs clocked in under a minute. As their musical interests expanded and matured, the trio mutated into 100 Flowers in 1981, taking their name from Mao Zedong’s “Hundred Flowers Campaign,” a brief period in Chinese history encouraging open expression. The new moniker reflected their increasingly sophisticated and experimental approach to music, while maintaining a subversive, critical edge.

The band consisted of the same core lineup from the Urinals: John Talley-Jones (vocals, bass), Kjehl Johansen (guitar, vocals), and Kevin Barrett (drums). Under the 100 Flowers name, they moved beyond the stark minimalism of their previous incarnation, embracing more complex song structures, abstract lyrics, and an eclectic mix of influences ranging from Wire and Gang of Four to Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu. Their sound retained punk’s urgency and DIY ethos but integrated funk, avant-garde noise, and jarring time signatures, all hallmarks of the emerging post-punk genre. In 1983, 100 Flowers released their self-titled LP on the independent label Happy Squid Records, which they co-founded. The album was critically well-regarded within underground circles, praised for its angular guitar work, sharp lyrical content, and inventive rhythms. Songs like “Sensible Virgins” and “Motorboat to Hell” showcased their unique fusion of intelligence, irony, and punk rebellion. The group disbanded in 1983, but their influence endured. Both 100 Flowers and the Urinals became cult favorites, especially among later generations of punk, indie rock, and lo-fi musicians. Their music was rediscovered and reissued over the years, including a retrospective compilation, 100 Years of Pulchritude, which brought renewed attention to their groundbreaking work.

https://100flowers.bandcamp.com/album/100-flowers
 

 

THE YUMMY FUR are Glaswegian DIY pop legends with their energetic mix of angular riffs, super-short songs and biting social commentary. Consisting of lead singer and guitarist John McKeown and an interesting line-up of other musicians, the band were favourites of John Peel and recorded two Peel Sessions, as well three totemic albums: ‘Night Club’ (Slampt / Guided Missile, 1996), ‘Male Shadow at Three O’Clock’ (Vesuvius, 1998) and ‘Sexy World’ (Guided Missile, 1998). All three are essential. The group disbanded in 1999, and ten years later ‘Rock Action’ released ‘Piggy Wings’, a compilation of their best 7” and album tracks. The band have since reformed to play with a line up featuring original members John McKeown, Paul Thomson and Brian McDougall.

https://theyummyfur.bandcamp.com/album/piggy-wings

EarthBall - 'Outside Over There' announced!

Exceptionally happy to announce that EarthBall’s new album Outside Over There will be released on November 7th through Upset The Rhythm.

It is a phantasmagoria of improvised psychosis, as heavy as a juggernaut, as divine as a tarot hand. Today we’re sharing the first single from the Canadian group: 'Where I Come From’ - a dizzy sprawl of pertinacious drums, spun-out fx, crushed staggering guitars and freaked sax rapture. This landscape of unruly sound is then stalked through by Izzy's spontaneous vocal projections, the effect is uncanny to say the least. 

 
Outside Over There is now available to pre-order on LP, including as a trippy blue-in-black vinyl variant, it truly is a thing of unsettling beauty inside and out!

 

Upset The Rhythm - label showcase x 2!

 

Join us for a two-day showcase of all things Upset The Rhythm on November 25th & 26th at Cafe OTO! We’ll be celebrating all the amazing artists we’ve worked with on record releases this year and beyond, plus our 22nd birthday, time to buy a big 🎂!




Upset The Rhythm presents…

RATTLE
QUINIE
ES
SHAKE CHAIN (DJ set)
Tuesday 25 November
Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL


7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/U19e86228aea

RATTLE released their third album ‘Encircle’ on Upset The Rhythm at the start of the 2025. ‘Encircle’ sees the drumming duo expand their unique experiments in rhythm, metre and tension. Rattle have honed the four songs that make up ‘Encircle’ by playing them live over the last few years, adapting and stretching them into endlessly inventive new shapes, playing with the concept of time and expectation. With ‘Encircle’ Rattle have grown, writing songs alive with elemental power. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, embracing the nuance, tracing the circle’s edge. These are modes of song as pure gesture and eternal imagination, refined in mirrors after midnight. Rattle have toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore and toured Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and have also performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartet and Codeine.

https://upsettherhythm.bandcamp.com/album/encircle

QUINIE released her her third album ‘Forefowk, Mind Me’ with Upset The Rhythm back in May this year. The record is largely sung in Scots language, one of Scotland’s three official languages along with Gaelic and English. “Scots gives me a way of expressing myself which is connected directly with the landscapes I love. It brings the songs alive and it is a fascinating language. The name of the record is in Scots - Forefowk means the people who came before, or ancestors. When we say ‘mind me,’ we can mean a few things- remind, remember, watch over or care for me. The record explores how tradition needs to be constantly reconnected with, built upon, looked after, and shared.” To develop this record, Quinie travelled across Argyll with her horse. They went on a pilgrimage of sorts through the ancient landscapes of the West of Scotland to explore the interconnected relationships between people, ancestors, animals, and place.

https://www.quinie.co.uk/

ES released an incredible EP titled ‘Fantasy’ in 2023 (on Upset The Rhythm). Echoing the legendary Pylon or the later, disco-inspired releases from PIL, tracks like ‘Emergency’ and ‘Unreal’ blend the band’s established disjunctive style of gothic restlessness with brighter, poppy, and danceable tones. These stylistically unwind in transition with the increasingly claustrophobic pieces like ‘Too Late’ and ‘Swallowed Whole’, syncopating a parallel design of the frantic and the fashionable. Es deconstruct our modern wreckage of personhood and self-deceit, granting a sense of solidarity inside alienation. This show represents Es’ final show for Upset The Rhythm, as the musical project winds up this December.

https://esband.bandcamp.com/ 




Upset The Rhythm presents…

ME LOST ME
MARY CURRIE & THE PGs - FLAMING TUNES set
DOG CHOCOLATE
NORMIL HAWAIIANS (DJ set)
Wednesday 26 November
Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL


7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/S8d66c1f896c

ME LOST ME delights in experimenting with songwriting and storytelling, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully weave together disparate genres, drawing influence from folk, art pop, noise, ambient and improvised music. In 2023 Me Lost Me released the critically regarded album 'RPG' and toured extensively in support of the release. On Me Lost Me's fourth full-length, This Material Moment - released this June through Upset the Rhythm - she has created an "emotionally raw" album, her most honest and vulnerable yet. Me Lost Me presents sound reaching in opposite directions, straddling time towards the archaic and timeless traditions of folktales, and towards the possible and potential futures of pastoral Britain and the world at large. This is an album which uses words as a material, a playful tool for experimentation, full of metaphor, abstraction and analogies. Jayne affirms, "it has softness and anger, humour, hope and despair, intensity of feeling in all directions expressed as textures, objects, places."

https://www.melostme.com/  

MARY CURRIE released a collaborative 7” with Robert Sotelo last October on Upset The Rhythm entitled ‘Dream Songs’. Not only did the title capture the hazy, reflective nature of the music it also expounds on the mysterious origin of the tracks. Mary Currie is best known as half of touchstone DIY experimentalists Flaming Tunes, alongside Gareth Williams (of This Heat). Currie also performed in Officer! with Mick Hobbs amongst others. For this performance Mary appears alongside her bandmates Alison Craig, Marcus Holdaway, Nick Haeffner and William Hayter, as The PGs performing songs from their Flaming Tunes repertoire.

https://flamingtunes.bandcamp.com/album/flaming-tunes

DOG CHOCOLATE sound like a crowded room but are actually four individuals. 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 have released a split LP with Ravioli Me Away and two full length albums on Upset The Rhythm. Dog Chocolate’s new album is due out early 2026.

https://dogchocolate.bandcamp.com

Quinie - 'Forefowk, Mind Me' - the film!

We hope you enjoy this short film documenting the gathering phase of Quinie's 'Forefowk, Mind Me' project!
 

Exploring the interdependent relationship between people, ancestors, animals and place, the project was filmed taking shape in the charged landscape of Argyll, alongside artist Dominique Rivard and filmmaker Lizzie McKenzie.
 

 

'Forefowk, Mind Me' exists as an LP and as a book too, available here.