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This terrific concert leads us into
Upset The Rhythm's chock-a-block week! You'll find full write-ups below
for next Monday's concert at Grand Junction with the matchless Myriam Gendron and The Memory Band. Then on April 9th we're pitching up at The Lexington for a headrush of a show with Wendy Eisenberg, Ryan Sawyer and Kiran Leonard.
The very next day, April 10th, sees us promoting a colossal event at The Underworld for Wolf Eyes, Sly & The Family Drone and Soborgnost. Wow! Before we cap off this active run with an album launch for Buffet Lunch at The George Tavern on April 11th. The most excellent Lerryn and Sassyhiya are both performing at this one too, thrilling times! Read on for all the details.
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Take a listen to Compromise!, the stunning lead single, concerned with the notion of ‘performing’ a life, rather than ‘living’ one. |
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This Material Moment
was written and arranged solo, but realised wonderfully in the
recording by a core band of John Pope on electric/double bass, Faye
MacCalman on clarinet, and now with the addition of Ewan Mackenzie
(Dextro/Pigs x7) on drums . The album was recorded by Sam Grant at Blank
Studios in Newcastle, who also worked on the exquisite previous album
‘RPG’. This Material Moment will be released on June 27th through Upset The Rhythm, a limited 180g ‘brilliant red’ vinyl version is available to pre-order from all the best shops, and Bandcamp here. |
 Upset The Rhythm presents…
EVIL SWORD SHAKE CHAIN SPLIT APEX Saturday 5 April New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay, London, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £8 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/B1970de44fb0 EVIL SWORD are Kate Ferencz and Ben Furgal from Philadelphia, USA. Their chaotic live shows combine elements of noise, cryptic metal overtones, performance art, and gallows humor and feature macabre props, flashing lights, stage sets and costumes. There are hardly any instruments in this group, but they make such a racket you’d never know it. The bass and the percussion sound like they’re having a great time, telling each other jokes. Then the words come in and it all locks together in these strange, hypnotic rhythms. I just listen to the stories and laugh and cry and get scared and wonder what they were ever thinking. Recent album ‘Basket Fever’ (Magic Pictures, 2023) features electrocuted bells, backwards parts, rusty horns; I’m pretty sure I even heard a clarinet in there somewhere. There’s this one part where it all seems to come back around, where they took some gang vocals from the very first demo they ever recorded and slowed it way down. When they first started; I thought they were some goofy kids making music about the end of the world, back when that seemed a little further away, like it was going to be fun. They were all laughing and making these funny ghost sounds, but now everyone’s older and the ghosts are real, a great whoosh of bygone spirits and cold air. It’s bone chilling. There’s plenty to be upset about, but it’s not really an Evil Sword song until that grimace has been twisted up into a smile. https://evilsword.bandcamp.com/album/basket-fever SHAKE CHAIN have been busy demolishing audiences and expectations for the best part of the last five years. Vocalist Kate Mahony sets that standard by anything from crawling through the audience’s legs in a bright yellow raincoat to crying and washing her hands in a nearby toilet, as the rest of the band start the set. The four-piece from London are completed by Robert Eyres (Synth/Guitar), Chris Hopkins (Bass/Synth/Samples) and Joe Fergey (Drums). Shake Chain are built of nervy bass lines, twitchy guitars that jolt and jerk and tack sharp drums, overridden by screeching vocal slurs and sampled television. Kate’s singing is a unique embrace of flights of atonal fancy, head-first repetition and ecstatic frenzy. Opinion-dividing arguably, but singular in making Shake Chain dauntingly brilliant. The band’s debut album ’Snake Chain’ was released by Upset The Rhythm. https://upsettherhythm.bandcamp.com/album/snake-chain SPLIT APEX are Jussi Palmusaari (guitar, electronics and percussion) and Peter Blundell (voice and bass). On their self-titled cassette (out now) release they combine restless sonic textures, oddball phrasing within barely-contained song structures held together by moth-woven threads. Seemingly governed by an unknowable gravitational pull that tugs hither and yon, the duo lays out their statement of intent through a brief suite of intimate nocturnes. The release marks the first work for Palmusaari since leaving his native Finland where he played with the band, Preesens, in the late-90s/early-00s. For Blundell, this new project exists adjacent to his current work with Dominic Goodman as Komare and previous endeavours in the band, Mosquitoes. https://tinyurl.com/n8cf2jhf |
 Upset The Rhythm presents...
MYRIAM GENDRON THE MEMORY BAND Monday 7 April Grand Junction, Rowington Cl, London W2 5TF 7.30pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/B9332cba32bb MYRIAM GENDRON is a Montreal-based songwriter, guitarist and singer. Mayday is the third LP by Gendron, it follows her earlier, critically acclaimed albums, Not So Deep As A Well (2014) and Ma délire – Songs of love, lost & found (2021). Prior to her debut album, Myriam's primary musical focus was busking in Paris Metro stations, performing the songs of Leonard Cohen and others, accompanying herself on guitar. Through her day job, working at a Montreal bookstore, Myriam discovered the poems of American writer, Dorothy Parker, who was better known for her cutting wit than her verse. Inspired by Parker's words, Myriam wrote music to accompany a suite of them, then recorded the results in her bedroom. These recordings were issued as her debut LP, and continue to delight listeners who discover them, with their freshness, clarity and humor. After a brief hiatus, Myriam began
exploring the complex folk traditions of Quebec (and beyond), recording
the 2LP, Ma délire, which combines traditional and original songs
(largely in French) with arrangements that make space for avant-garde
musical interludes by such folks as guitarist Bill Nace (Body/Head) and
renowned jazz percussionist Chris Corsano. Mayday is an even more
syncretic fusion of these elements. Most of the songs are original, in
both English and French, and blend traditional and avant elements with
abandon. Additional players this time include drummer Jim White (Dirty
Three), guitarist Marisa Anderson, Montreal bassist Cédric Dind-Lavoie
(a fellow fan of trad/avant dynamism), Bill Nace and saxophonist Zoh
Amba (whose horn actually gets the final “word”). Mayday is a thoroughly
thrilling effort that manages to create new vistas of sound while
maintaining a feel that is both intimate and familiar. Beautiful work.
https://myriamgendron.bandcamp.com/ THE MEMORY BAND have been
navigating its own path through the folk music landscape of the digital
age since 2003. Led by producer Stephen Cracknell with a fluid cast of
collaborators The Memory Band blend songs and instrumentals, the
traditional with the modern and the sacred with the profane. Their two decade adventure has produced six studio albums as well as side projects such as The Balearic Folk Orchestra and The Accidental. They have a long history of performing music from Paul Giovanni's soundtrack to The Wicker Man as well as other film and archive related projects. In 2024 The Memory Band released 'Never The Same Way Twice and 'A Common Treasury' two volumes of unreleased archive recordings on their own Hungry Hill label and in 2025 make their return to live performance. https://thememoryband.com/ |
 Upset The Rhythm presents… WENDY EISENBERG & RYAN SAWYER KIRAN LEONARD Wednesday 9 April The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/G8802b91cafe WENDY EISENBERG & RYAN SAWYER came together seemingly by fate. The duo originally came together in a dream Eisenberg had, and not long after, were brought together in reality as substitutes for a show at Union Pool, where they instantly fell in step. Both artists’ work traverses genres from jazz to noise, all sorts of avant substrata and delicate songs, each placing a special emphasis on vast dynamics, textures, and moods. Their performances ebb and flow between long, improvisational pieces and composed songs from each of the artists' repertoires, setting the sonic intersection between Blaze Foley and the New York Art Quartet. The duo has previously opened for caroline at National Sawdust. Ryan also plays on Wendy’s new single ‘I Don’t Miss You’ (Joyful Noise Recordings). Wendy has previously played for us solo, and as a member of Editrix and Bill Orcutts’s guitar quartet, and their recent album ‘Viewfinder’ was described by The Guardian as “unexpected shifts in pace mix with Americana and jazz, with the singer-songwriter’s distinctive guitar sound driving a song cycle like no other”. Ryan Sawyer has played drums / percussion for Tv On The Radio, Marshall Allen, Susan Alcorn, Gang Gang Dance, At The Drive-In and collaborates a lot with John Dwyer. https://www.wendyeisenberg.com/ https://ryansawyer.bandcamp.com/music KIRAN LEONARD’s unique and ambitious body of work spans more than a decade of releases on labels such as Moshi Moshi and Hand of Glory, limited-run noisy DIY fare, and everything in between. The adolescent guitar/chamber prog of early records such as ‘Bowler Hat Soup’ (2013) and ‘Grapefruit’ (2016) earned praise from Pitchfork, the Guardian and the Quietus, and produced several BBC 6Music-playlisted singles. More recent work has seen Kiran attempt to synthesise interests in situated/home recording, collage, his live practice, and a combination of songcraft with graphic scores, as documented on the monumental (i.e. two-hour-long) and abstract ‘Trespass on Foot’ (2021) and ‘River Holds Peace, Some Live’ (2023), a collection of new and old material arranged for an ensemble of multiple electric guitars, cittern and double bass. Last year, After half a decade of songs without choruses, Kiran released ‘Real Home’ on Memorials of Distinction, which was named by the Guardian that summer among the best albums of 2024 so far. https://kleonard.bandcamp.com/ |
 Upset The Rhythm presents...
WOLF EYES SLY & THE FAMILY DRONE
SOBORGNOST
Thursday 10 April
The Underworld, 174 Camden High St, London, NW1 9DL 7pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/qa5f170d34a7 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 recently ‘Dreams In Splattered Lines' was preceded by the compilation of collaborations 'Presents Difficult Messages', and the band followed this up with 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. A new LP is due out soon charting Wolf Eyes’ recent recordings with Anthony Braxton too, look out! https://wolfeyes.xyz/ SLY & THE FAMILY DRONE are a
primal orchestra of drum rhythms, radiophonic oscillator noise and
electronically-abstracted vocals. They forge hypnotic, textural workouts
in the vein of Black Dice, Shit & Shine and Crash Worship. Given
their freeform nature, every set they play is fresh and different. The
band prefer to play in the round, rather than onstage, transforming the
audience from passive observers to active contributors, creating a
dynamic and evolving soundscape. This egalitarian approach propels
audience and band together into a shamanistic setting of catharsis and
anarchic celebration.
Originally formed by Matt Cargill as a cassette manipulation project. Since then, Sly have expanded to incorporate layers of electronics, clattering live drums and saxophones, placing them somewhere between noise music and free jazz. Imagine a Boredoms score for an experimental noir thriller and you might be getting close. The neo-jazz wreckin’ crew continue to scorch their own path, recently teaming up with UK charitable label Human Worth on the release of their new record ‘Moon is Doom Backwards’. https://familydrone.bandcamp.com/ SOBORGNOST is sci-fi dance punk at the intersection of vaporwave, minimal wave, disco dub, industrial, EBM, proto-house, drone and noise. Using a hardware sampler to emulate dub mixing, looping post-punk style basslines with chuggy, lo-fi beats. Warped analogue textures are added with cassette tape manipulation, electro magnetic frequency transmitters, shortwave radio, harsh noise generator and dub sirens. |
 Upset The Rhythm presents…
BUFFET LUNCH - ‘Perfect Hit!’ album launch LERRYN SASSYHIYA Friday 11 April The George Tavern, 373 Commercial Rd, Stepney Green, London E1 0LA 7.30pm | £8 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/ld7ea96b139b BUFFET LUNCH have been writing pleasingly imperfect pop songs since 2017. Comprised of musicians based in Glasgow, Edinburgh and (sometimes) Newcastle, the group craft ramshackle odysseys of observational charm. Always catchy, often profound. Buffet Lunch have been previously described as a band that create 'a hodgepodge of noises’, and who are 'lyrically ridiculous'. Both claims are strongly denied by the group. Buffet Lunch have released 3 EPs & 2 LPs to date, and just six months after self-releasing the album 'For Display Purposes Only’ return this spring to Upset the Rhythm for their stunning third album 'Perfect Hit!' A meandering masterpiece of low-fidelity musing, ‘Perfect Hit!’ presents the group in upbeat mood, as ever casually melodic, only now with some more weighty subject matter to draw upon. ‘Perfect Hit!’ is built from ideas and plots, melodies and hooks, each stacked upon the other. It’s a puzzle, much like life, you just keep adding to what went before, hoping for order and shelter. Buffet Lunch have grown into this attitude, you must wait until the end and then stand back if you want to see what they’ve built. Now knock on the door and come on in. This event at The George Tavern is the official album launch for ‘Perfect Hit!’. https://buffetlunchband.bandcamp.com/ LERRYN has been a stalwart of the South East London creative scene for over a decade. The founder of cult creative space Lerryn’s Cafe and later frontwoman of post-punk band Dead Arm, her impact on a DIY scene that has defined a corner of London has been significant. Recent EP ‘As A Mother’ (Redundant Span) is the first offering from the next chapter of Lerryn’s own life, and the debut release under her own name. It is a record written during her experience of pregnancy, motherhood and a period of profound creative reckoning. This collection of songs are intimate, sweet and moving. For this show Lerryn will be performing as a stripped back duo. https://redundantspan.bandcamp.com/album/as-a-mother 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 |