So, on Wednesday December 19th, S.O.I. Industries are putting on a delicious looking event.
Live performances from
Quip,
Matt Robson,
Midwich and
Hagman, all hosted in the lovely surrounds of
Wharf Chambers, with the seasonally friendly entry fee of a mere £1. You'd be crackers not to be there. (Crap pun fully intended.)
The official blurb...
QuipNot content with wrenching out new and exciting shapes from indie-rock and post-hardcore in his three-piece The Diamond Sea, Ben Eyes has a prolific history as a hard-touring laptop performer.
Still one of the hardest working men in digital music, Ben Eyes is truly one of the scene's genuine all-rounders, able to operate in many of electronic music's diverse disciplines. Always fresh and never in danger of falling into an Apple Mac-shaped cake hole, Eyes reminds us why we love electronic music so much and why it is still vital.
Equally able to conjure up abstract fields of Post-Fennesz dream noise as direct to cranium dance music, with all points of wistful and romantic post-Boards of Canada tropes thrown in in-between, Ben's intimate knowledge of how to perform electronic music on stage has been honed over years and scores of performances from London to Berlin and Stockholm to Paris, soaking up multifarious influences from the digital itinerants of the continent.
Within the free-thinking walls of Wharf Chambers, expect anything and everything from one of Leeds' finest laptop troubadours. Be sure to prepare your dancing loafers.
http://www.quipmusic.co.uk/wordpress/Matt RobsonMatt Robson is a chameleon like figure who has roamed around the wilderness edges of underground music for nearly two decades. When Riot Grrrl happened, he was there, pounding out a tribal beat for Karen Ablaze's infamous Coping Saw unit, when the shock waves of emo hardcore hit the UK shores, he was there, banging the drum and generally ruining the chances of Rauschen of ever gaining any wider recognition. When post rock happened, he was there, drumming, producing and programming for Sierpinski and when the punk revolution re-invigorated electronic music in the early 21st century, he was there, bothering laptops and samplers in the burgeoning electronica scene and, curiously, for a few moments in the late nineties was even seen jobbing it on the drums for Hood.
Nevertheless, unlike many of his more successful peers, Robson's complete inability to judge the public mood and play the industry game has rendered him a peripheral character well below the footnotes or rock'n'roll, but from this lowly position, a curious and wayward talent has nonetheless emerged.
Most will know him for his work as an electronica producer, trading under the name of randomNumber, generating large amounts of wonky and vastly unpopular music for the likes of Rock Action, Catmobile and HighpointLowlife during the earlier 2000s, whilst others may be aware of his work on drums, engineering and production in bands such as Ailsa Craig and The Blanche Hudson Weekend.
Tonight will be a rare opportunity to see one of Matt's electronic sets, taking in unreleased solo work and re-workings and remixes of Ailsa Craig and Blanche Hudson Weekend material.
http://soundcloud.com/discontents/http://ailsacraigmusic.tumblr.com/Midwich (Striate Cortex, Matching Head, Sheepscar Light Industrial)
Rob Hayler has also been knocking around for a while. After a highly productive few years at the turn of the century during which he co-ran the influential micro-label Fencing Flatworm Recordings and helped promote (sadly missed) Leeds experimental music institution The Termite Club, he realised that the way to garner serious praise, mystique and 'elder statesman' status was to disappear for five years then make a triumphant return. So he did. It worked!
Since 2009 he has been tirelessly documenting the noise underground via his blog Radiofreemidwich and, always tempted by the limelight, has returned to the fray himself with his solo project, Midwich. Well-reviewed releases on Striate Cortex, Matching Head, Phil Todd's Memoirs of an Aesthete and Leeds label-du-jour Sheepscar Light Industrial have accompanied a smattering of live appearances. Crowds have been charmed by the sight of a 40 year old man rocking out to seemingly beatless drones. Currently pioneering the 'furry javelin' sound - a psychedelic, bubbling, ego-dissolving, fuzz augmented occasionally with field recordings - any performance from Midwich is sure to be a grin-inducing treat. Unless he is plagued with technical difficulties in which case the set will be replaced by industrial strength swearing.
http://radiofreemidwich.wordpress.com/Hagman (Sheepscar Light Industrial)
Daniel & David Thomas (no relation) are two men with a variety of noise making devices and lots of wires. As Lord Hayler of Midwich once wrote; "Hagman present a hard-won equilibrium teetering between power line hum and the rhythmic clatter of early 80s electro-industrial. As sinuously alien as a millipede clambering over tree bark, yet as warm as a cat asleep on your chest." Expect shortwave radios, oscillators, drum machines and more effect pedals than a band famous for having lots of effects pedals.
http://soundcloud.com/hagmanhagmanhagman/Door Tax: £1
Wharf Chambers is a members' club and you need to be a member, or 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.
