Martin wrote his book Tour:Smart in 2007 and has since spoken around the world, tonight he is joining us in Birmingham to share his experience in nearly every aspect of record production and promotion, his unique perspective not only on where the music industry is currently, but where it is going in the future. – This is a free event!

“Four Stars! The ultimate touring manual. Tackles every conceivable aspect of getting the show on the road in a highly readable style.”
 Kris Needs – MOJO Magazine

Martin Atkins is the definition of entrepreneurial activity in cultural arts endeavors, his 30+ years in the music business spans across genres and borders and industries.
He was a member of Public Image Ltd and Killing Joke. He founded industrial supergroup Pigface, The Damage Manual, and Murder Inc., and has contributed to Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. He is the owner of Invisible Records and Mattress Factory Recording Studios (est. 1988). He is the author of Tour:Smart, a Suicide Girls columnist, and a full time lecturer at Columbia College Chicago. Martin is a producer, drummer, documentary film maker, DJ, and father of four. Whatever the future of music is, you can pretty much bet that he’ll be in the middle of it.

CANCELLED

Chrome Hoof outing postponed: Sunday 1st May: Hare & Hounds

“Sadly this Chrome Hoof performance has to be postponed as another show that due to take place on the same weekend was cancelled by the promoter. This late cancellation leaves Chrome Hoof unable financially to make the trip. A rescheduled date will be announced soon and they look forward to playing Birmingham in the VERY near future. We offer sincere apologies to those who bought tickets and to Capsule who organised the show”

Doom metal, disco, acid house and Donna Summer had a car crash on the highway to oblivion. Chrome Hoof emerged from the wreckage, grooving. London is multi-faceted and contradictory. It is chaotic, magical, glamorous, cold, terrifying, apocalyptic, exciting, mundane, ordered and unhinged all at the same time. Chrome Hoof is the first band ever to capture this reality. A combination of primal feeling, virtuosity, theatre, brooding menace, late 70s glamour and large monsters made out of chromed titanium, Chrome Hoof should not really make any sense whatsoever — but they do.

Chrome Hoof have somewhere between 10 and 14 members, depending on who turns up. Singer Lola Olafisoye is reminiscent of both Grace Jones at her stylish best and a New Orleans witch queen who took the wrong turn entering the spirit world and ended up in Zone 2 by mistake. Brothers Leo and Milo Smee have opposing musical backgrounds — doom metal and acid house respectively — but rather than compromise and meet in the middle, the brothers simply bring both styles to the same band. A sweet-faced trumpet player called Emma Sullivan lets out the most blood-curdling scream imaginable. Violinist Sarah and bassoonist Chloe bend their classical training towards making the perfect soundtrack to any forthcoming apocalypses we might be having. The entire band wear metallic monksʼ robes, and are sometimes joined on stage by an enormous monster with a goatʼs head and flashing eyes.
http://www.myspace.com/chromehoof

Youves
Having beavered away for a couple of years on their local midlands scene, these self-proclaimed ‘baby-faced as-sass-ins’ have recently taken things up a notch with plaudits from The Klaxons amongst other luminaries. If The Rapture had been hardcore kids in their youth they may have produced something as musically thrilling as Youves
http://www.myspace.com/youves

Poster by Ben Javens

This is a one off event utilising the Vivid warehouse space as a venue for one night only. Cold Cave is the brainchild of Philadelphia’s Wesley Eisold, ex-Some Girls, Give Up The Ghost, and currently Ye Olde Maids etc with fellow band mate Caralee from Xiu Xiu. Cold Cave are a darkwave synth confection with more than enough static and noise cycling through to justify mentions of Prurient and Burning Star Core on their personal MySpace. The songs are danceable, dark, instantly infectious. Think ’80s industrial and synth pop over-driven through power electronics. The band are touring alongside one man noise assault Prurient playing a long continuous set. Painted Nails, a three-song 7″ released by Dominick Fernow’s Hospital Productions is out now.

Nicholas Bullen is a musician, sound artist and writer from Birmingham, England.
From early projects (including the abrasive ‘Grindcore’ of Napalm Death – of which Bullen is a founder member – and the dark, dub-inflected beats of Scorn) to an ongoing range of solo and collaborative projects. In recent years, his work has expanded into the broader field of the arts including sound installations, texts and lectures, along with continued performances at art galleries, music festivals and cinemas.

Dream Dreams The Dreamer Orkestra
Solo project of Matt Snowden, recently evolved to be a handpicked orkestra performing music way beyond the usual noise and drone tags. Multiple guitars, drumkits, basses, vocals, violin, trombone and other instruments create an overwhelming experience of sound. Power, restraint, intensely physical rhythms, unknown lyrics screamed and sung over silence and extreme volume.
Music for open minds and deep listening.

Iron Fist Of The Sun
Hailing originally from Druids Heath in Birmingham. Iron Fist of the Sun is the current sonic project of extreme noise protagonist Lee Howard. Live power electronics, experimental sonic terrorism and Black Metal are all encompassed in an unforgiving soundtrack to your most brutal nightmares… just don’t dare call it “Art Noise”

More info about Vivid
http://www.vivid.org.uk

More info about Prurient at http://www.hospitalproductions.com/

Poster by Ben Javens

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES
with Omar Souleyman + Group Doueh
plus Sublime Frequencies DJs, film screenings

A Qu Junktions Production
supported by Sound and Music

Sublime Frequencies travel the globe, digging deep for overlooked and forgotten music, looking for artists and groups that move their souls, and making strong connections with musicians and music lovers wherever they go. Folk and pop musicians are sought out, documented and released on the Sublime Frequencies record label, capturing ultra-vivid sights and sounds from rural life and urban street. Radio broadcasts, field recordings and lost archives are also assembled into CD and vinyl releases, all presented in a genuinely thrilling and unabashed style. This tour follows in that tradition. Street-level folk-pop, over-driven psychedelic meditations, desert blues and Syrian party bangers are all combined with films and DJs on this once in a lifetime Sublime Frequencies tour experience.

This is first ever Sublime Frequencies Tour. It brings to the UK two live acts who have released albums on the Sublime Frequencies label; Group Doueh (from the Western Sahara) and Omar Souleyman (from Syria) plus Sublime Frequencies DJ set and on certain dates Sublime Frequencies film screenings and talks. Sublime Frequencies are presenting some of the greatest expressive music in the world with only one agenda in mind: that it needs to be heard or seen, respected and recognized. This is a rare opportunity to see the two maverick and genuinely great groups from vastly different traditions and influences playing on the same bill.

Representing the label for the tour are Alan Bishop, Hisham Mayet and Mark Gergis. Bristol based Qu Junktions are the producers. This is an artist run enterprise bringing music and culture and messages together in a high spirited and infectious way.

GROUP DOUEH

Group Doueh are led by the enigmatic guitar hero Bamaar Salmou, who is known simply as ‘Doueh’ (pronounced: ‘Doo-way’). They are from Dakhla, in the Western Sahara. The group’s sound is unlike anything that you’ve ever heard before. It is a sound that is rooted in the traditional foundations of Sahrawi/Hassania music, but one that is also entirely its own. It shares its roots with the neighbouring styles of Mauritanian music, however Group Doueh have managed to transcend the classical limitations of that music with a fiery, independent, and avant approach that incorporates a distinctly pop and rock element that is anomalous in the region. This is a sound that can only come from the land that inspired it. This is the sound of the Sahara desert. It is a searing, meditative, and hypnotic modal sandstorm of note clusters that has been cathartic to anyone who has heard it.

OMAR SOULEYMAN

Omar Souleyman is a musical legend from Syria. For the past 15 years, he and his group have emerged as a staple of folk-pop throughout the country, having issued more than five-hundred studio and live-recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city.
Hailing from the rural North-eastern city of Ras Al Ain, Souleyman began his musical career in 1994 with a small group of local collaborators that have been with him from the start. The group tirelessly performs concerts throughout Syria and has accepted invitations to perform abroad in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Lebanon.

Sublime Frequencies
“The label is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. Sublime Frequencies is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past.”

www.sublimefrequencies.com

Out of the old ashes sizzle and scream a new wave and realization simply called MELT-BANANA. A maelstrom of experimental heart surgery, Melt Banana walk on water, They effortlessly juggle all of those sharks that think they`re swimming in new, unexplored territories. Here are the imported children of the no waves gone by, a hardcore-informed, audio info overload from Tokyo`s ferocious underground. MELT-BANANA sweat out a super-adrenalized, maxi-caffeinated collision of frenzied drum rhythms and torturous guitar squeals through tiny, frantic, hyper rhythmic little songs. Front woman Yasuko O.`s ultra-high-pitched screeches and Agata`s screaming slide guitar vie for supremacy across a rhythmic frenzy that is so ridiculous and precise, it will crush you with it`s brilliance. Here are the cerebral gnashing guitars, the aggravated pep squad proclamations and the neck-snapping rhythm change-ups irresistible to those seeking a new musical truth. MELT-BANANA doesn`t sound like anything you`ve heard. Simply put, they are unclassifiable. If that`s not enough for you…. well then, back into your cave Grogar

http://www.parkcity.ne.jp/~mltbanan/

Lash Frenzy & Mort the Sonic
Lash Frenzy is Andrew Moscardo-Parker (Guitarist in Einstellung). Under this guise Andrew has collaborated with many musicians including Kat from Babes in Toyland, ex-members of Godflesh, Mistress, Sally, Einstellung, Anal Nathrack and many others.
 
Mort the Sonic is Richard Morten. Richard imports raw data from image files into his MAC to create the most horrific abstract sounds. He grew up in Birmingham alongside the Godflesh boys and the many spinoff bands.
 
Lash Frenzy & Mort the Sonic join forces spasmodically to create huge intense claustrophobic walls of sounds. Initially the two worked together to create a ‘Digital vs Analogue’ battle but realised that the sheer brutality did nothing other than unite the two in a savage harmony. Often disorientating with strobes and smoke machines this performance will again see the two parties unite to create something special. 

Glatze
A musician, circuit-bender and all-out live music nutter, hailing from Kernow and now based in the West Midlands. His sets are an orgy of customised electronic equipment, with circuit-bent kids’ dolls sitting alongside doctored loudspeakers, squealing guitars and a fun-at-all-costs mentality!
www.mrunderwood.co.uk
 

7inch Cinema and Capsule present: MAKING DO

A free late night event on Thursday 7 May, 6pm – 9pm

The New Art Gallery Walsall in partnership with 7inch Cinema and Capsule want to take you on a magical journey back to the 1950s with an evening event of listening, viewing, drinking and doing on Thursday 7 May, 6pm – 9pm. Inspired by Britain’s make-and-mend post-war spirit, the event brings together screenings of short films, live music performances courtesy of Pram (Domino Records), July Skies and The Winter League, workshops and activities and a nostalgic and street party atmosphere throughout our award winning building!

Not so long ago housewives had a number of very good reasons to be desperate. Not only did they have to look after their families in an age of depression, war and austerity, but they did so without the consumer durables that we now consider essential. Housewife Choice is a series of short public information films packed with handy hints for housewives, produced between the 1920s and 50s but just as useful in today’s wintry economic climate.

The film programme includes documentaries, cine-magazines, propaganda films and adverts, especially selected from the BFI archive. The screenings will also include a selection of colourful, handmade music videos by new talent from the recent Flatpack Festival in Birmingham, featuring flipbooks, animated sock-fish, cut-out cardboard dogs and puppetry.

Trevor Woolery will be running an animation workshop at the art library and people’s animated stories and characters will be instantly projected onto the wall and become part of an animation story.

Sara Fowles from Stitches and Hos, an organisation that is outing knitting from the private domain to the public realm, will be showcasing the art of knitting and will be inviting people to join her and create anything from socks to scarves.

Alongside the free food and refreshments that we will be offering that night, our visitors will also have the opportunity to decorate their own cake, with patterns, shapes and colours of their choice.

The same night, Sima Gonsai, the gallery’s current artist in residence, will keep her studio door open and present an audio visual installation of Cycle Dialogues Walsall, a journey navigated by people’s stories and recommendations whilst travelling on her bicycle.

Finally, Jo Digger, the gallery’s Collections Curator, will be taking groups of people on behind the scenes tours around the building and give them the opportunity to experience and have a look at areas of the gallery that our everyday visitors can not access and explain how exhibitions are put together.

For more information contact the gallery on 01922 654400 or visit www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk

7 Inch Cinema have been producing unusual film events in all kinds of places since 2003, including Birmingham’s annual Flatpack Festival.
www.7inch.org.uk

TOUR CANCELLED

“To Whom It May Concern;
It is with great regret that Asva has decided to cancel our upcoming April and May tour dates. Over the last several months we’ve watched the itinerary grow and our excitement at the prospect of playing so many cities to which we had never traveled grew in kind. We watched the forums and saw the progression of the tour as YOU worked to promote our show(s), even before we had been formally informed of the dates. Regrettably we, Asva as a band, as individuals, and our label Southern Records have been hit very hard in the recent economic downturn and we’ve found it impossible to secure our passage to Europe. Our last ditch efforts directed at third parties (including relatives) as well have been fruitless… simply put; we’re out of money.
Its our hope that in the future you will continue to be interested enough in Asva’s music to offer and lend us your support.
Best,
Stuart Dahlquist”

Earth are an American drone band based in Seattle, Washington, formed in 1990 by Dylan Carlson, Slim Moon, and Greg Babior; the band took its name from the first incarnation of Black Sabbath. Although they have played various styles of music, they are best known as pioneers of a minimalistic, long and repetitive form of heavy music known as drone. To a lesser extent their sound is referred to as doom metal. Earth, however, have little to do with metal in their current sound. Their early albums could be seen as a variation of the experimental doom-influenced metal of The Melvins.

Their music is beautiful and at the same time desolate featuring the sound of lonely highways, wide-open spaces and the occasional slide guitar. They are so far ahead of the pack it will take years for people to catch up with them. This is music to get totally immersed in; it’s melodic, powerful yet understated and reserved.
www.myspace.com/earthofficial

“Ko-Guma-za: “The little bear”. 3 piece KGZ sees the guitar section of Nottingham band Wolves Of Greece reunited for the first time since their involvement with NYC composer Glenn Branca’s orchestra in 2007 and 2008. Whereas the Wolves were designed to allow no time for audience reflection, this new project is a direct contrast. Dense guitar tones shape fragments of songs backed only by insistent, Mo Tucker-ish drum patterns. Melodies and harmonies reveal themselves slowly through the murk.”
www.myspace.com/oogamaza

Poster by Ben Javens