Acid Mothers Temple, Aphex Twin, Angel Tech, Atmosphere, Bela Emerson, Brian Eno, Bronnt Industries Kapital, Bucky, Edan, Final, Freeze Puppy, Geisha, Glassjaw, Goblin, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Gong, Gravenhurst, The Heads, Knowledge Of Bugs, Mole Harness, Mono, My Ambulance Is On Fire, North Sea Navigator, OOIOO, Pamelia Kurstin, People Under The Stairs, A Silver Mount Zion, SJ Esau, Team Brick, Twocsinak, Weidorje... and the list goes on, too many things.
Sounds Like
An elephant evaporating in a fourteen-year reverb chamber.
Hi, yes. I am that guy, I play the Theremin and live in Bristol, I like going other places and playing the Theremin, I record music that sounds a little bit nice, sometimes when I play live it gets very noisy and angry, if you would like to book me please say so. Listen to them that's up there.
HERE BE REVIEWS
"Some people claim that making music from loops and effect pedals is too easy. Alexander Thomas counters this by using only Theremin for his sound sources, which is one of the hardest instruments to play well (if a guitar with no frets sounds difficult, imagine one with no neck or strings either, and that's how awkward a Theremin is to control). Quickly bypassing the b-movie clichés of the instrument, Thomas builds up a sensual series of sonic constructions, that are alternately scouring and beautiful. Unbelievably his last number manages to somehow create crunchy beats from the Theremin, and sounds like a lost Mu-Ziq classic. Plus he's a dapper dresser; there's too much scruffiness in alt music. All hail." - Nightshift Music, Oxford, April 2008
"Alexander Thomas coaxes delicious ripples from his Theremin. This serious man and the first electronic instrument are a luscious spectacle together. His eerie soundscapes are full of pathos and seem to call up ghosts of our electronic past, from Edison to Aphex." - QuJunktions
"Another solo set by Alexander Thomas lulls the gathered coffee drinkers to a blissful, respectful silence. Frantic pedal pushing helps create layers of lush slow-changing harmonies over which he plays haunting melodies. These are gentle thought pieces, synaesthetic narratives of the kind only a Holophonor could recreate." - SkipTheBudgie.org
"Second up was Alexander Thomas who was an extraordinary contrast to the preceding act. Up there just with a Theremin and digital loop machine, holding the audience rapt with his miniature orchestra. The skill involved playing his machine, let alone the timing required to layer the sounds made for a mesmerising performance. At times it sounded like violins and at other times, birds - fascinating." - RottenMeats blog
"Alexander Thomas was all digital clash and curiously spooked tones, His Rasputin like hands echoing Greek orthodox iconography as he sent signals across the Theremin, shimmer fish softening the hard edges, working across the judder. The collusion was beautiful, sliced up within the boxes at his feet, rearranged, and forced back to eat its own tail in a convulsive cacophony. Those spacey whispers you expect from the instrument are there, but chopped up they made some lusciously evil shapes – that made perfect sense. Like gift wrapped brutality, orchestral sirens crucified, haemorrhaging out a Möbius ribbon of its own making. In contrast the outro was all birds calls circling round a soft ascension, the summer that could have been." - Rottenmeats blog
Big space age thanks for doing the session for us this week! We’re broadcasting the session & interview on BBC Radio Bristol Introducing this Saturday morning between 1-3am. Hear it live or anytime in the 7 days after broadcast using the on line "Listen Live/Again" feature on the BBC i-Player, there's a link to it from our profile.
Happy Dynamic Living!
Richard Pitt & Gary Smith BBC Radio Bristol Introducing
With the Gimme Shelter! club night , John The Mod and guests spinning 60’s Garage & Psych, Northern Soul, Freakbeat, Punk, Rock & Roll and Go Go! against a backdrop of vintage lights, films and projections.
Saturday 20th September 3pm - 2am Taylor John's House ~ Canal Basin Coventry ~ CV1 4LY
£9 DAY ticket into ALL VENUES for ALL WEEKEND or £7 limited door ticket for Sonic Boom!
ANDY VOTEL is worldwide known electronic musician, producer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and 'B Music'. Residing in Manchester this extraordinary musically minded man has been at the forefront of the DJ remix scene with releases since 1996. As part of his summer and autumn festival tour 2008, ATAM welcomes Votel to Coventry as he performs a DJ set dedicated to our own electronic legend Delia Derbyshire, composed especially for A Thing About Machines.
"Buys old records - makes new records. Teacher - triple label boss - graphic designer - acid-volk collector - microphone tormenter - bad-ass foreign psych DJ - snappy dresser." (Fat City Records)
"Everyone's favourite crown prince of psychedelic excess" (Boomkat)
yeahhhh ya should I'll sort you a new repair man...
The next Sonic Sanctuary gig will be on October 11th. That's a Saturday. All ages, £4
WHITE HILLS
White Hills (Rocket Recordings) are a trio from Brooklyn, New York. They formed out of the need to forge Space Rock into the 21st Century and with just the right blend of psychedelia and hypnotic grooves, WHITE HILLS weaves in and out of anthemic chants, deep space bleeps and other worldly madness.
A high volume/low frequency sound of grindingly heavy doom & furious rock, gut-wrenching yet ponderous in a hypnotic way, the Brothers Gonga are now joined by Peter Theobalds (ex-Akercocke) on bass and Matt “Team Brick” Williams on vocals. Still damaging eardrums with their fantastic stripped back, stoner blues rock, heavy biting riffs and primal drum beats, the true spirit of British heavy rock lives on in Gonga (Invada Records)
Caricatures, the newish project from members of Mea Culpa, Seerkind and Rose Kemp’s band are a heavy as heck doomy trio with tinges of Earth, Mastadon and Nirvana.
Armed with cello, laptop and a rather stunning voice, a rare solo performance from Chipper (aka Charlotte Nicholls, who among other things spends her time playing for bands such as Portishead, Crippled Black Phoenix, Oxbow, SJ Esau, Mea Culpa, North Sea Navigator and more- the list goes on...) is something not to be missed.
SLEEPING STATES (myspace) ARCTIC CIRCLE (myspace) I KNOW I HAVE NO COLLAR (myspace) HEADFALL (myspace) THE BUMBLEBEES (myspace) TEAM BRICK (myspace) (i think) LINE (can't play) ROXANNE:THE EARLY YEARS (myspace) THE MOUNTAIN PARADE (myspace) plus films and food and stuff
sun 10 aug
the scout hut on harbour, opposite thekla, nr st mary redcliffe b r i s t o l
Tuesday July 22nd The Junction, Bristol, BS13QP 4 quid, 8pm
LL = raging hardcore punk from the sunshine state in a born against / husker du style! TSL = 60's garage, 70's punk, 80's hardcore - to the max! FV = awesome heartfelt rites of spring-esque hardcore from south wales! WP = local crust stalwarts, ex-gurkha / ripcord / cruelty / dumbstruck and so on and so on...