Wednesday, 28 January 2026

Dear Nora - Live in London this April!


 
 
Look out April 22nd! Do we have a show for you?
Dear Nora return to London, this time as a duo, to perform their expansive, worldly, yet melodic songs, winning over both hearts and minds. They will be joined by Welsh tape-mangling indie shamblers Tai Haf Heb Drigolyn too... cannot wait!

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Friday, 23 January 2026

Jeffrey Alexander + Christina Carter - August show announced!

 


New show announced and… it’s a corker!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

JEFFREY ALEXANDER & THE HEAVY LIDDERS 
CHRISTINA CARTER 

Saturday 8 August
Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL


7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/g5abdad7e406

JEFFREY ALEXANDER has been frittering around the edges of the psychedelic underground for decades, evolving his own musical space that overlays dusty folk, cosmic jazz, deep psych, free improv, and even (gasp!) indie rock. He’s been called a “psych rock lifer” (UNCUT), crafting “digressive jams that meander through free-form jazz, bluesy kosmische” (PROG) and “extremely highgrade psych” (MOJO). Convened in 2019 on Alexander’s relocation back to his native east coast, Philadelphia’s Heavy Lidders are the latest hard-touring expression for the guitarist’s music, joining a vast and tangled discography (and tape list) that includes the beloved long-running west coast Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band and, before them, the Iditarod and Black Forest/Black Sea, as well as a bushel of solo play-all-the-instruments projects, a stint with Jackie-O Motherfucker, sessions with Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus and others.

The newest studio LP, “Liquid Donnon” (released 12 June 2026 on Riot Season), catches Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders at their heaviest, “heavy” in the Lidderverse being far from a monolithic musical idea. There’s heavy like the album-opening “From Loch Raven to Fells Point,” one of several tracks with elegant and gnarled conversational jams featuring the core Lidders lineup of Alexander alongside guitarist Drew Gardner and bassist Jesse Sheppard (both of Elkhorn) and drummer Scott Verrastro (Kohoutek, Bardo Pond). But there’s heavy, too, with tracks where Gardner shifts to dream-space vibraphone, and those with Christina Carter of Texas noise-psych legends Charalambides on veil-crossing wordless vocals, her first collaboration with Alexander in some 20 years. She will indeed be fronting the band on this brief UK tour. For fans of Meat Puppets, Trad Gras och Stenar, Ornette inspired Krautrock, Sonny + Linda Sharrock, Jerry - Jorma interplay, SPACE.

https://jeffreyalexander.bandcamp.com/


CHRISTINA CARTER was born in the bayou city of Houston, Texas in November of 1968, and co-founded the group Charalambides there in December of 1991. Ever since she has deeply mined her own vein of sound-as-music with voice, guitar, harmonica, and piano. For the past several years, Christina has utilized extended improvisational guitar passages within and without song structures and investigated 'the song' as a thing unto itself, specifically concentrating on 'the word'- both in her own lyric writing and her interpretations of the work of other lyricists. In addition to performing extensively in the US, UK and Europe as a solo artist, Christina has played and recorded in various groups and duos with Jeffrey Alexander, Maria Chavez, Loren Connors, Spencer Dobbs, Sandy Ewen, Julia Hungerford, Alistair Lingren, and Joe McPhee, amongst others.

Concurrent with her work as a musician, Christina has expanded her involvement in writing and visual art. Her poetry has been published by Digitalis Industries, The Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal, Glass Eye, Slow Toe, and Shelter Press. In 2007, her art piece Forever 21 appeared at Salon Mijangos in San Antonio, Texas as part of a concert/exhibit featuring Tom Carter, Warmer Milks, and Tetuzi Akiyama. Forever 21 was a labor of love and destruction: six of her handwritten diaries cut up painstakingly with scissors into miniscule pieces, which then filled a large yellow plastic shopping bag. In 2024, Unifactor published For Want Of Walls, Christina’s book of personal yet abstracted writing and watercolor paintings. Christina currently resides in Austin, Texas. Her latest release is the solo voice, guitar and accordion album Like A Bayou To Its Gulf (Bud Tapes 2025). 

https://christinacarter.bandcamp.com/
 

Wednesday, 21 January 2026

Season 2!

Best news O’clock! We’ve teamed up with Spoilsport Records to release Season 2’s incredible debut album - ‘Power of Now’! April 24th is the date for your diaries, with the record available for pre-order today digitally and on black vinyl via Bandcamp.
 

We’re also sharing their first single ‘Abundance of Power’, up on all the digital platforms now, alongside the song’s most excellent video made by band member Freya McLeod (check out YouTube)… enjoy!





Season 2 formed in late 2024, bringing together seasoned Melbourne musicians with previous and current projects including Parsnip, The Stroppies and Phil and the Tiles. The five piece, comprising Carolyn Hawkins, Claudia Serfaty, Charlotte Zarb, Freya McLeod and Matt Powell, quickly set to work writing winsome, DIY, shimmer-pop hits that careen through your mind in a gratifying dizzy rush. 
 
With a clear collective vision and little time to waste, Season 2 spent 2025 writing and recording, appearing live only a handful of times. Finally, this April, the band are primed for their debut release, a full-length album entitled 'Power of Now'. ‘Power of Now ‘is a cerebral explosion of melody, hooks, drones and rhythm. In the vein of The Feelies, The Vaselines and The Clean, Season 2 have whipped up a sonic whirlwind. It's a giddy thrill of snappy slap, catchy gang vocals and crystalline guitar refrains. 
 
'Abundance of Power' is a bittersweet bop of ponderous bass, crisp chord flashes and grounded vocals that dwell on slighted futures and bored realities. 'Becomes a Dream' is delirious race of scrappy strumming and flying phrases that unsettle as much as they pinball endorphins - "pour the ink into the sand, watch the dog it bites the hand". "Tell me something, elbows on the table, I'll tell you nothing, leave you tugging at the cable" they sing on the peppy future single 'Tugging at the Cable', capturing a certain innocent, wide-eyed expressiveness. Season 2 do sparky well, their songs are instant rewards, tunnelling into your subconscious and testing the dance floor. They keep everything moving, the beat and the conversation. Season 2 sound barely controlled and all the better for it, you have no choice but to be swept up.
 
'Power of Now' was recorded by Alex Macfarlane (The Green Child, Chateau) and mastered by Mikey Young. It will be released digitally and on LP (black vinyl) on April 24th, internationally via Upset The Rhythm and domestically in Australia by Spoilsport Records.
 




Monday, 19 January 2026

Susannah Stark tomorrow in London!

 


Hello everyone!

Tomorrow is looking great - Upset The Rhythm will host our first show at Theatreship, an historic cargo boat moored in Canary Wharf that doubles as an arts space.

 

We are beyond lucky to have Susannah Stark & Band headlining this show. Stark's recent album Minor Gestures (Stroom / Night School) frames song as a dialogue with the natural world, mythology, and history, inviting listeners to enter a space of reflection rather than resolution. It is equal parts immersive and marvellous.

 

Tomorrow Stark will be joined with an ensemble of Glasgow musicians, accompanying her on accordion, trumpet, percussion, and drones, conjuring shifting sonic states. Karolina Lebek and Ecka Mordecai will also perform too, so if you enjoy evocative soundscapes and entwined folk textures this will prove sublime.

 

Live music will commence from approx 8.15pm and tickets will be available on the door from 7.30pm. Please read on for all the particulars.

 

 

 

Upset The Rhythm presents…

SUSANNAH STARK & BAND
KAROLINA LEBEK
ECKA MORDECAI

Tuesday 20 January
Theatreship, South Quay Plaza, London, E14 9SH
7.30pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Db4300074e6f 

SUSANNAH STARK’s new album opens with questions that set its reflective tone while drifting on a current of birdsong, rivers and synths. Sung in Gaidhlig and English, her second album for Stroom and Night School, ‘Minor Gestures’, is a dialogue between place, history and the listener. Collaborating with experimental and folk musicians in Glasgow, Stark navigates acoustic textures with fluidity while blending breath, drone and rhythm. The result is a meditative soundscape that celebrates vulnerability and curiosity. From the responsive waters of 'Caochan' to the unanswered queries of 'Ceistean gun freagairtean', this is ritualistic sonic poetry.

https://susannahstarkmusic.bandcamp.com/ 

KAROLINA LEBEK is an artist working across a range of media including video, photography, sound, installation and live performance. Inspired by roots within Lemko culture of the Carpathian Mountains of Poland, Karolina Lebek's music is a blend of contemporary folk, classical and electronic music. The use of recorded sounds and analogue instruments, such as the wooden flute and harp, brings an organic texture to the tracks, while layered electronic beats infuse a modern pulse. This fusion creates an atmosphere that honors the rich heritage of the Carpathian Mountains while pushing boundaries of musical expression.

https://soundcloud.com/potikk 

ECKA MORDECAI is an artist based in London. Situated between sonic, performative and olfactory disciplines, her work is driven by sensation: entwining cello, horsehair harp, voice, eggflute, scent and improvisation into time-based objects expressive of emotional complexity.

https://eckamordecai.bandcamp.com/track/leau-dhiver 

 

 

Wednesday, 7 January 2026

Green Stuff by Dog Chocolate!

  

“Bonkers and exquisite” isn’t just a lyric in Dog Chocolate’s new single ‘Green Stuff’ - it’s the perfect snapshot of the band themselves! Spindly cascades of guitar squall, plinky keyboards and eco-minded camaraderie burst into vivid being on Green Stuff, out today. This floral chorale features on the group’s forthcoming album ‘So Inspired, So Done In’, arriving Feb 27th.


Catch Dog Chocolate celebrating with an album launch at Paper Dress Vintage, London (Feb 27th), followed hot on its heels by a show at Truck Store, Oxford (Feb 28th).


‘So Inspired, So Done In’ can be pre-ordered from all the best shops and our very own webshop / bandcamp now.

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