cadavers, monkeys & agony: the evidence
Some photos from Thursday’s gig at The Pipeline, courtesy Chris Hibberd: pic 3) Be Kind Cadaver, pic 6) The Organ Grinder’s Monkey, pic 8) by Mik Hanscomb.
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gig or 50’s Communist jazz club rally? YOU decide
Thanks to Leroy Brown Photography for these noirish shots of last week’s gig with Austerity (fig. 5) & Blue Spectre (6)… Here you see me modelling the “epicene villain” look… Was a great night, very intense, and these capture some of that dark energy (I’m all in favour of Dark Energy, as I hope you know by now). Behold!
Eight Miles High, Sept ’22: pixxx
action shots by Charlotte Horton – Eight Miles High Club, Brighton, 30 Sept ’22
Just because, here are some photos from last week’s Eight Miles High gig at the Prince Albert… Also features Barney on drums, Be Kind Cadaver getting all up in yr bizness & 2/5 of Codex Serafini being incredible. It was a very nice night, and a sweaty one – if you weren’t there I pity you, I really do x
same room, different nights (plus tour news)
purple = pix by Mike Hackett * blue/green = Mik Hanscomb
It was fun to lose our minds in a small, packed room – photos from two gigs at The Pipeline in Brighton.
Back there again in August, plus some out-of-town dates:
Wed 10 Aug – Peer Hat (Manchester) – w/ Kodak Kid & Good Boy Niko
Thu 11 Aug – Pipeline (Brighton) 8pm, £5 – w/ Nil By Habit & The Wondering Weskits
Fri 12 Aug – Paradiddles (Worcester)
Sat 20 Aug – Yuck Club @ Trinity Bar (Harrow) 8pm, £5/4 – w/Astoria, Pest Band & Elliot Cook
…Might be a few more to add, we’ll see. Onwards into the airless, sweaty void xx
Graham Duff’s Mixtape & random pixxx
My new track Eerie World got a play on Graham Duff’s Mixtape (Totally Radio) for 13 April – listen to the programme here – good company I’m in.
And here, just because, are some recent live pix – they have that blurry nightmare feel I so enjoy:
live vid! (London, Feb ’22)
A rough & ready phone vid of the recent gig at Biddle Bros in London, courtesy Sad House Daddy. It captures the atmosphere – my guitar’s out of tune, the lunatics are slamdancing, the music’s very loud: it’s the full set. Enjoy!
new Safehouse album: MNO (plus gig pix)
Another improv album from Safehouse Brighton – I’m on tracks 1, 17 & 19. This is the fifth in a series of remote collaborations started over lockdown (am on every one except the first), so I’ll skip the blurb; enough to say it’s a big listen and a deep dive into freeform sound adventure. It’s also possibly the lightest, most accessible volume so far; who knows what’ll happen when we reach the end of the alphabet…
That’s one extreme, so here’s the reverse – from the Rossi Bar gig in November showing the other end of what I do:
1) MF – 2) La Pequena Em – 3) Austerity – 4) Austerity/Gulls (photos by Jimmy Guest)
It’s been a blast, somewhat against expectation given how bleak things looked in January – hope to do a lot more next year, and that everyone’s 2022 is utterly fucking fab.
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visual riches, Oct ’21
A brief whizz of noise from Bar 42 the other week – song is Ugly Man.
Here’s the recent Eight Miles High Club gig in Brighton… had some good gigs lately, but this one had to be the most fun in a while – with 2) Fane 3) Melt Plastic Group & 4) the edge of an energetic crowd: all fantastic.
Eight Miles High Club on instagram
germ-free studio session: video
So what’s it like, doing live tracking in the age of Covid? Here’s some footage from Church Road Studios a couple of days ago…
Masks, hand sanitizer and tape on the floor – also, I’m not allowed to touch an amp or mic stand myself, which makes it feel like we’re filming at the BBC in about 1970 (quite fun, actually).
These are preliminary recordings for an album due out sometime next year… not yet clear exactly when… The first track featured is called Schooling, the second’s Derision (which is meant to be about 4min of freeform… we got nearly half an hour, so I look forward to the edit).
It’s a strange new situation all right – but not impossible, thankfully.
Rec Rooms streamed gig on Youtube
Here’s the recent streamed gig courtesy The Rec Rooms, for anyone who doesn’t like Facebook. It’s only the second time I’ve performed this way, and can’t deny it feels odd playing a set at home to dead silence (a bit like radio, but on yr own and with less reliable tech)… Still, reckon it went pretty well – see what you think.
All these lo-fi home gigs are going to make a weird little time-capsule once the immediate crisis passes… A historical record of people with hair that needs cut, staring at cameras in their bedrooms.
For anyone who fancies a deeper dive, here‘s the #SaveOurVenues gig I did for The Brunswick (fb only unfortunately)… Having crossed a line, I’ll probably do more of this kind of thing in future – but still prefer actual in-reality gigs.
So here, because I’m feeling maudlin, are a few that never came to pass:
…Hope to reschedule with some of these bands, some day!
Feb gig review / visuals
“Matt played his guitar with menace tonight”
The gig went really well – thanks to Leisure Tank and headliners Skinny Milk. We got reviewed, too, courtesy Plugged In Brighton – link here. A brief video:
And a few pix (thanks to Mik Hanscomb. The out-of-focus shots of the other bands are mine – I’m a musician, not a photojournalist… clearly):
…Onward to the next one.
in the studio, Jan ’20
noises (Church Road Studio)
burnt orange (Church Road Studio)
lights! (Audiobeach Studio)
…more on these developments soon
Resonance FM session, 16 Nov
pic(s) by Dexter Bentley
Here’s the live session & interview we did for Dexter Bentley’s HelloGoodbye Show on Resonance FM – it’s very close to the start of the show, and is four uninterrupted songs (including a brand new number) followed by some chat:
(That was our afternoon. Later on, we went to Biddle Bros in E5 for a very loud gig. An ideal day.)
the band: new photos
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- Stephen
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- Barney
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- ensemble
7 Aug ’19, The Prince Albert (Brighton) – CCZH Photography
Thought it was about time for some action shots of the band, to go with the recent overhaul of the site… This new collective focus is reflected in the next EP, which was recorded pretty much live in the studio earlier this year; it’s not just a one-man operation anymore. Anyway, there’s more to follow, audio & visual.
Perilous Seat vid exclusive
The video of Perilous Seat can be seen exclusively via Pure Grain Audio, here. It’s a DIY epic of indifferent miming, lurid colours and general dislocation – every penny’s up there on the screen. Hope you enjoy… If not, you can claim back the 3min 47sec of yr life from me at a gig, with this handy token:
gig / studio session / new single: pix
So the gig went well…
…and three days later, we went into the studio to record as a band – which also went very well (more on that later)…
…but meanwhile, there’s a new single coming out next month:
Due 8 March, accompanied by a video (one of my no-budget, lo-fi specials) – link to follow.
…
video interview & EP review, Oct ’18
Here’s a stranger to daylight, staring back at a camera and talking to Mass Movement about his 10 favourite LPs. I now understand why vloggers do that thing of having loads of apparently pointless fast cuts even if it’s just them talking (to edit out all the times they blew their lines or dried up. Try giving a semi-improvised speech for a quarter hour without deviation, hesitation, repetition or several annoying facial tics… even the most glibly confident would struggle. Still, interesting to try – although I don’t think I could make a “career” out of it). These aren’t the definitive 10 – more the ones that seemed significant that day – but I hope this small addition to the huge reef of pop cult lists is entertaining, anyway. And it’s nice to be asked.
From abundance to rarity – here’s a review of Disquiet from Issue 8 of Plugged In Brighton:
…Reproduced here because it’s bootleg as fuck – a paper zine with minimal web presence, and if you don’t live in Brighton you’re unlikely to see a copy. Both ends of the magnet!
[EDIT: as of July ’19, PiB now has a website – check here]
Back soon with gig news…
live video & pix: Wildcard Quartet, 25 April
As part of my musical sideline as a (novice) member of the Safehouse collective, here’s some video footage – and photos – from the 25th April gig supporting Shatner’s Bassoon & Bolide, once again courtesy Agata Urbaniak:
…photos on Flickr here
It’s good to branch out…
live video/photos, Bar 42 April ’18 (Agata Urbaniak)
Fantastic, atmospheric photos by Agata Urbaniak – follow this link to Flickr for more
These were taken at Sunday’s Bar 42 gig, and include shots of Dran Krwawy, La Pequena Em, Kuroneko… I really like this photographer’s work, which captures the heightened, adrenalised feel of live performance better than most others I can think of – without resorting to any of the obvious moves – so it’s a thrill to be included. Feast yr eyes, glut yr etc.
And for good measure, here’s a video of an unreleased song called Evil Relief :
2017 in fuzzy pixels
Quite a full year: a new live band plus lots of gigs, an EP release and tour. Here’s to another like it, but more so – it’s been great, and thanks everyone who’s listened. (Should point out, I do own more than one shirt… look closely and you’ll see they’re not all the same garment – just very, very similar. Maybe next year I’ll experiment with another colour or two. Maybe.)
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