A 21st birthday bash for me, as well as a celebration of some of the best under the radar sounds coming from the UK at the moment.
£5 in, starts at 3pm until late. Provisional schedule:
3:35 – Carcinogenic Hooligans
4:10 – Duncan Harrison & Panelak
4:45 – Vile Plumage
5:20 – Megadirt
5:55 – Skitter & Ewan Stefani
6:30 – Dancing Test Tubes
7:05 – Amniotic
7:40 – A View from Nihil
8:15 – Bongoleeros
8:50 – Marlo Eggplant
9:25 – Yol & Lovely Honkey
10:00 – BBBlood
10:35 – Ceramic Hobs
Marlo Eggplant - Marlo Eggplant was born in Baltimore, MD. She was originally trained in voice, classical guitar, piano, and cello. She began her musical career favouring folk and punk by playing local venues as a teen. When she attended college in the Berkshires, she became more interested in avant-garde and bizarre music.
In 2003, she co-founded Spleencoffin records with Timothy Wisniewski. She was the drummer in the short lived improvisational deconstructed noise rock band, Hazardous Guadalupe. In 2008, she curated "Ladyz in Noyz" and continues to showcase women in experimental/noise music in an annual series on her label, Corpus Callosum Distro.
Using a minimal set up which includes an autoharp and few effects, Marlo Eggplant enjoys using sparsely structured notes and layered static textures in a improvised drone style.
She is currently studying at Essex University; this is her debut performance in the UK.
Ceramic Hobs - The Ceramic Hobs were formed in Blackpool in 1985 by Simon Morris and Stephen Lambert, inspired by the DIY cassette culture of the era and has become a proudly unfunded, unique and independent radical therapeutic community for persons diagnosed with schizophrenia and other major mental disorders. Since its inception the band with an ever-changing lineup have produced more than thirty uncategorisable releases on vinyl, CD and cassette for many different worldwide record labels and have regularly performed live shows in the UK and mainland Europe. They were extensively featured in John Robb's 'Death To Trad Rock' 2009 book and accompanying CD for Cherry Red. They have been closely associated with the civil rights group Mad Pride for over a decade and currently boast four band members with psychiatric diagnoses who have done time in nut wards.
"The Hobs have somehow managed to release some of the most important music coming out of the country...after years of teetering on the edge of psychedelic experimental rock it would appear that the Hobs have finally fallen in dragging with them the corpses of The Butthole Surfers, The Gerogerigegege, Wild Man Fischer and more bizarrely Deep Purple" - Idwal Fisher, 2011.
Yol + Lovely Honkey – Yol is a Hull based artist working in audio, visuals and performance who took me by storm with a handful of releases that sound like nothing else going on in the UK underground currently. Utterly engaging and ferocious sound that avoids any of the clichés or hallmarks of harsh noise or power electronics. Demented vocals ranging from the most fierce howls and gurgles to equally disturbing and bleakly amusing snippets of crystal clear though no less unstable and bizarre words, which are deftly accompanied by some of the most piercing and scathing electronics imaginable and full scale junk abuse with nothing in his path safe from an amplified battering. Sure to be an unmissable set.
Lovely Honkey is isolated by the brown water, Luke Poot's one fingered directions into 4am TV-land feel like they've only seen the light of day seeping through stained curtains, then been so freaked out he scuttled back under the bed to fumble out some of that "music" he heard the neighbours talking about through the walls...Now stop talking with your mouth full...
Dancing Test Tubes – First ever gig from this Stoke On Trent noisecore trio and their first performance together for 15 years, or something like that. They may look like the three members of Target Shoppers but they are not. Maybe. Or something like that. Let Dancing Test Tubes be the laughing stock of your neighbourhood.
Carcinogenic Hooligans – Carcinogenic Hooligans is a trio of Paul Walsh (Foldhead/Early Hominids), Kieron Piercy (Spoils & Relics/Castrato Attack Group) and Pete Cann (Half an Abortion/Moss Piglets). Expect lengthy sound checking, confused acoustic clatter and to be somehow disappointed despite having no real expectations for it anyway.
BBBlood – "Paul Watson, aka BBBlood, is a maestro of noise. Harsh noise. Wandering through his extensive back catalogue, you'll come up against some pretty intense sounds; however, there's a depth and consideration with Paul's approach that soon has you warming to them and reaping the rewards accordingly..." – Sheepscar Light Industrial
Undoubtedly an artist at the peak of his powers, Paul played one of the best sets I saw in 2012 back in September at this very same venue and I couldn't try and put together an event celebrating some of the UK's most exciting sounds without asking him to return.
Amniotic – "Amniotic is the work of solo female artist Johannah Henderson who, if I'm not mistaken, was last seen working alongside Jase Williams in the chaotic noise/rock/improv outfit The Mothers of the Third Reich. Here she ditches the random drum bashing of MOTTTR for a far more personal project involving birth. The results of which, in parts at least, are quite a revelation.
Hendersons songs are ghostly affairs, most of them featuring murky bass guitar runs as backbones upon which she layers guitar frills, apocalyptic spoken word prose, piano motifs and field recordings. But its Hendersons haunting vocal delivery and the blurred recording technique which leave the most memorable and affecting memories. Singing lyrics that only rarely appear she buries her voice deep in the mix so that it emerges at times either like a lost soul or a bewitching lorelie. Match this to songs which are at times stripped bare to nothing but single instruments and you have a very effecting delivery." – Idwal Fisher
A View From Nihil – Irish artist specializing in deliberately paced, pummelling harsh electronic textural studies. Immensely focused and powerful slow burn noise with a great attention to detail.
Megadirt – ABJECT GUITAR
Skitter & Ewan Stefani – is the solo and collaborative work of Glasgow resident Liam Stefani.
"An obstinate outlaw genius" - Sound projector
"Skitter is one man noise puzzlist Liam Stefani. Stefani's intricately constructed pieces centre on the confluence and marriage of sounds streamed from everyday life" – Rough Trade
"Skitter makes dynamic, versatile, enthused and crazed subliminal music" – Foxy Digitalis
Duncan Harrison & Panelak – Panelak is the percussive clattering and minimal electronics of Leeds resident Pascal Ansell. He is one half of local noise antagonists Moss Piglets, has collaborated with Paul Hession and recently with Jon Marshall of the Hunter Gracchus as No Thumbs.
Brighton resident Duncan Harrison's work often consists of dense tape collage, carefully timed squeaking and scraping of amplified quotidian junk, sporadic vocal gurgle and icy feedback tones combine with a real flare for captivating performance. One of UK undergrounds most entertaining, and more importantly, best sounding live acts going.
Vile Plumage – Horror cabaret and unsettling muck from the Bogman of Burslem Darren Wyngarde/Filthy Turd and Andrew Jarvis ("the quiet man of Stoke-on-Trent experimentalism" – Idwal Fisher).
Bongoleeros - All in a day's work for a pair of fairground hustlers. The Bongoleeros performances were powered by Northern Soul hotpants friction. The more friction you can rub up, the more Remedial Ecstasy is going to rain down.
The Band formed in Pitchley Town, West Yorkshire in 1999 when Brothers Sir Charles Bascomb & Major Lloyd were reunited after a tragic caravan incident in their youths.
THE BONGOLEEROS were Fanny CockQuean's masked henchmen, playing nightclubs throughout Europe with their particular brand of Morris Dancing Inspired Rock'n'Roll. As a brief spell as the Rampton House Band, they went on to perform spiritual rituals that brought Tonkin Honkin Hank and Chuck Berry back from the dead.
THE BONGOLEEROS we're for a very brief period the greatest wrestlers in THE WORLD! Today they are living back in Pitchley Town running the local mobile disco with Alvin Stardust.
Wharf Chambers Co-operative Club is a members' club, and you need to be a member, or a guest of a member, in order to attend. To join, please visit
wharfchambers.org. Membership costs £1 and requires a minimum of 48 hours to take effect.
