Upset The Rhythm presents…
MARY
OCHER
BAMBOO
MOONBOW
Wednesday 5 April
The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London,
N1 0XT
7.30pm | £6 | http://www.wegottickets.com/event/388344
MARY
OCHER was born Mariya
Ocheretianskaya in Moscow in 1986, she moved to Israel with her family at age
four, then to Berlin at 20. In 2011 she caught the attention of the inimitable
King Khan at a karaoke bar (he also lives in Berlin), and she recorded what's
still her most recent full-length of new material, 2013's Eden, at his Moon
Studios. He's not her only famous fan either: Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
contributed a quote to Ocher's press kit. "Mary Ocher gives me the
chills," she says. "She frightens me with her feral soul. Her sound
is of a true outsider artist, immaculately self-possessed". Her DIY roots
and anything-goes aesthetic notwithstanding, Ocher is obviously too
well-connected to qualify as an outsider. Ocher's songs are a diverse bunch ranging
from ghostly noise, sad but jaunty piano ballads, frisky strumming, echoing
ersatz funk to chintzy drum machine workouts with vacuum-cleaner synth. Ocher
herself seems to have as many faces as a vaudeville performer: her multifarious
singing leaps without warning from unhinged keening to warped drawling or from
wobbly muttering to blustery declaiming. Forthcoming album, 'The West Against
The People' has been produced with Faust's Hans Joachim Irmler and also
features tracks with Ocher's drummers (duo Your Government) as well as
collaborations with avant-garde legends Die Todliche Doris, Felix Kubin and
Julia Kent of Rasputina/Antony and The Johnsons. It's out March 10 on krautrock
label Klangbad.
BAMBOO is
the sublime project from Nick Carlisle (of Peepholes, Don't Argue) and Rachel
Horwood (of Trash Kit, Halo Halo). Their music is vivid and deeply poignant,
locking into a magnetic attraction between Rachel's flawlessly resonant folk
cadence and Nick's pristine synth pop production. Bamboo’s second studio album,
The Dragon Flies Away, is due 26th May on Upset The Rhythm on LP, CD
and digitally. Initially released last winter on a limited run of 50 cassettes
with an accompanying zine designed by Horwood, The Dragon Flies Away tells a
story loosely associated with the Hannya demon mask of Noh theatre plays such
as Dojoji, and reflects the range of emotion the Hannya mask is capable of
displaying: obsession, jealousy, sorrow and rage. ‘The Dragon Flies Away’
presents its story in two acts and is now presented newly re-mastered with a
gatefold sleeve and lyric / artwork sheet. Horwood’s evocative paintings are
given centre stage with the packaging, allowing the album's story to grow
beyond sound, making the journey all the more immersive.
MOONBOW is the
sonic brainchild of London multimedia artist Eleanor Hardwick. Growing up in
the countryside on the peripheries of one of the UK’s many forgotten commuter
towns, she channels themes of manmade dystopias’ invasion on natural spheres
into her audio and visual artistic output. Such outputs served as a refuge from
growing up in a place where not much happened and not many people connected
with her - whilst cyberspace became both a platform for connecting with other
lost souls, and a window into a world that she witnessed elsewhere was slowly
politically and environmentally decaying.
i-D described her
songs as “taking influence from William Orbit-era Madonna guitar and Kate Bush
vocals, brought right up to date with layers upon layers of synths and glitchy
samples”.
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