Early last year Scottish post-rockers Mogwai were filmed during their residency at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The resulting document is directed by Nathanaël Le Scouarnec and Vincent Moon, known for some of the best music videos of the last couple of years (including Moon’s work on The Take-Away Shows, short impromptu performances by bands on French music website La Blogotheque). Shot over three nights, this black and white film captures the beautiful intensity of Mogwai’s performances.
The screening will be introduced by Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai, and will also include a selection of videos from the band’s Rock Action label as well as five recent promos by French collective Megaforce.
The music is naturally majestic, with MONO’s trademark wall of noise crashing beautifully against the largest chamber orchestra the band has ever enlisted. The instrumentation is vast, incorporating strings, flutes, organ, piano, glockenspiel and tympani into their standard face-melting set-up.
Recorded to analog tape with long-time friend and producer Steve Albini, there is an intimacy captured here that is at once beautiful and a little terrifying. The creaking of old wooden chairs as the orchestra rocks in their seats (both literally and figuratively), puckered lips rolling along flutes, and even the conductor’s opening cue can be heard during the hauntingly quiet opening moments
While Hymn continues to mine the cinematic drama inherent in all of MONO’s music, the dynamic shifts now come more from dark-to-light instead of quiet-to-loud. The maturity to balance these elements so masterfully has become MONO’s strongest virtue.
Rose’s unique powerful vocal is sometimes operatic, sometimes fierce but equally haunting, her musical style is extremely difficult to categorize. Folk-esque /heavy rock has previously been cited but doesn’t really sum up this exceptional album. Woven together with multi hook harmonies and quality instrumentation, this album slowly buries itself under your skin. Lyrically the songs are compelling and their content somewhat mysterious but backed up with heavy rock guitar, oversized drums and old Synths and organs, they are infectious and thought provoking. Her influences are numerous but include the classic rock of Black Sabbath and stoner rock legends Melvins, Drone artists such as Earth and Om. She is also influenced by classic Black Metal, Doom and 70’s prog right through to timeless songwriters including Kate Bush and Tom Waits, amongst many others.
Part of folk-rock heritage, Rose is the daughter of Maddy Prior and Rick Kemp from seminal, Pioneering British Folk-Rock band Steeleye Span. As a young teenager she sang and toured and occasionally wrote with her parents various different projects including Steeleye Span (who still gig today), and her life on the road began when she was knee-high, accompanying her parents on tour.
Rob Brown (born c. 1971) and Sean Booth (born c. 1973), both natives of Rochdale. The group is one of the most prominent acts signed with Warp Records, a label known for its pioneering electronic music artists. Some journalists consider Autechre to be a paragon of IDM and one of the driving forces behind its development, though Booth and Brown are ambivalent in relating their sound to established genres.
Atsuhiro Ito was born in 1965. He launched his career as a visual artist in the late ’80s, and in ’98 began presenting sound performances at art exhibitions and so on. Ito made use of fluorescent lighting (which is also an element of his art installations) in the creation of an original musical device called the optron. He continues to refine the instrument while approaching sound and music from a contemporary-art-based perspective. In addition to his solo exhibition and performance projects, Ito is active in a number of musical units. One of these is Optrum, the explosively loud “extreme optical noise core band” consisting of Ito and drummer Yoichiro Shin. Between 2000 and 2005 Ito presented various sound (music)/visual image-related events at Off Site, the now-defunct gallery/free space in Yoyogi, Tokyo. The Optrum album Recorded was released in June 2006 on the label Unknownmix (Headz).
Windscale
Windscale was formed in 2005 as the musical arm of the Birmingham based Circuit Bending company “Happy Robot”, and Guitar Effect Pedal company “Ghost” which are both run by Ian Sherwen. Needing some way of showcasing Ian’s handmade devices in a musical recording and performance context, Windscale seemed an ideal solution. Bassist Neil McAuley (Seeland) joined in 2006, leading to the recording of 2 albums – “Schwarzes Ei” in 2007, and “Conflicts in Time” in 2008. In 2009 drummer Neil Spragg (Omnia Opera/Sand) joined making the band a 3 piece further emphasising the influence of Neu and Galaxie 500 on their sound.
Cluster is a German experimental musical group who influenced the development of contemporary popular electronic and ambient music. They have recorded albums in a wide variety of styles ranging from experimental music to progressive rock, all of which had an avant-garde edge. Cluster has been active since 1971, releasing a total of 13 albums. Musician, writer and rock historian Julian Cope places three Cluster albums in his Krautrock Top 50 and “The Wire” places Cluster’s self-titled debut album in their “One Hundred Records That Set The World On Fire”.
After a decade long hiatus Cluster reunited in 2007. Capsule are extremely proud to welcome this legendary duo to play in Birmingham. Cluster has been widely influential not only to ambient and electronic music artists, but to techno, electronica and popular music as well. Musicians from David Bowie to Brian Eno have been influenced by (and even participated in) Cluster’s groundbreaking recordings. www.myspace.com/theonlyclusterthatmatters
From the deepest depths of the industrial heartlands of Middle England comes a small ray of light. Since late 2003 a warm glow has steadily grown into what can only be described as a fireball. From this point on let this gentle fireball be known as Einstellung. Blending glorious monotonous Krautrock with melodic tones and heavy slabs of Sabbath riffage, whilst finding time to declare sonic warfare on those tinnitus victims who have passed the point of no return. www.myspace.com/einstellung
“Once seen, a live performance by … The Ex is never forgotten. Imagine two men in short pants and army boots, guitars slung impossibly low, careering round the stage like demented dodgem cars, backed by a veritable arsenal of precision-honed polyrhythms” – The Wire
The Ex don’t compromise and so it’s no surprise that they have put together one of the most powerful horn sections imaginable for this highly anticipated bespoke UK tour. Since 1979 this inspired, intrepid and seminal band have consistently pushed the envelope, plotting a restless course from their anarchist punk origins to embrace everything from fractured noise to Ethiopian groove. Their thrillingly raw and rhythmic rock sound is born from their ideals, musical friendships/networks and work ethic. Alive to the moment, they are sometimes described as ‘experimental trance-dance avant-afro-punk improv music’ – and no one knows what descriptions this musical metamorphosis will conjure up.
For 9 dates in Feb 2010 The Ex will unleash a brand new, wild and combustible show in collaboration with four of the world’s most powerful and performative horn players for some unbelievable in-the-red swing time. Brass Unbound comprise Swedish force of nature Mats Gustafsson (saxophone) from The Thing, Chicago jazz heavyweight Ken Vandermark (saxophone), Italian wild card Roy Paci (trumpet) and boundary busting classical/futurist Wolter Wierbos (trombone). This explosive combination of dynamics, groove, ecstatic noise, free jazz, super tense rock and no bullshit attitude makes it all the more dexterous and dangerous. As players, improvisers and entertainers this expansive group are nothing short of phenomenal.
The Ex have been involved in a steady stream of boundary-breaking collaborations, releases, tours and films that have established them as a unique but under-acknowledged force in rock music, who are always on the move, but always sound like The Ex. 30 years into their career this hugely adventurous band are finally getting their dues, aligning them with contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Fugazi or current bands such as Battles, Zu and Action Beat. www.theex.nl/
Straddling the fence between aggressive sludge and technical fireworks, Baroness is carving out their own unique plot in the ever-cramped world of underground metal. If these guys aren’t on your radar yet you need to rectify that little oversight quickly.
Baroness plays an eclectic brand of heavy metal, embracing the ferocity and sharp technique of new-millennium metal but with melodic accents and intelligent guitar work that suggests the influence of sludge and post-punk bands.
http://www.myspace.com/yourbaroness
Taint
Something of an enigma. Many have striven to place their sound within a handy genre definition, only to find themselves wondering whether a band so dynamic and full of surprises can really be called ‘sludge’, or whether music so antithetical to boredom can justifiably be termed ‘post-hardcore’. Taint’s 2005 full-length debut for Rise Above, ‘The Ruin Of Nova Roma’ was a crafty beast that revelled in contructing such riddles for the listener and, of course, the critic. Pigeonholes are for pigeons, after all. It’s the purpose of great rock groups to not quite fit in. http://www.myspace.com/taintuk
The closing party to Capsule’s 10th birthday celebrations will see a gathering of some of Birmingham’s most exciting experimental live acts – paying tribute to the ten years of exciting, genre pushing music that Capsule have produced and provided a stage for. Modified Toy Orchestra are a collection of abandoned and reconstructed Childrens electronic toys, conducted by a selection of musicians to create electronic music in a league of its own. PCM, the dark lords of drum n bass have long been key figures in the Midlands underground dance scene and firm Capsule favourites.
