Justice Yeldham

Bio:

RICE CORPSE at NoJiJi Beijing 031208

RICE CORPSE at sugarjar Beijing 181108
100308 Denton

290208 Chicago

250208 Amherst

167250305 rochester

159 140305 columbus

093290504 beirut
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055200204 Bilbao
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Member Since:

February 24, 2006

Members:

JUSTICE YELDHAM BOOKING SOUTH AMERICA TOUR NOV/DEC 2010

"the most exciting performer I have seen in the last three years – in fact, since I first saw Iggy Pop" Bruce Russell - WIRE magazine.


What's been described as "a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe" is in fact the unique work of Justice Yeldham, a maverick musician with an unhealthy obsession with sheets of broken glass. In his infamous show that has astonished and bemused countless people in over 40 countries, yeldham ecstatically purses his lips against sheets of amplified glass whilst deftly employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries, turning discarded shards into crude musical instruments. The results are a wild array of cacophonous noise that is strangely controlled and oddly musical. The instruments simple, original and effective premise is a welcome riposte to over complicated musical performances of modern times. A one of a kind act re-defining the expression 'don't try this at home' this show quite simply needs to be witnessed to be fully appreciated, let alone understood.

Justice Yeldham is the latest alter-ego of Australian sound performer Lucas Abela, whose past sonic experiments were conducted under monikers like A Kombi, Dj Smallcock, Peeled Hearts Paste and more recently his band Rice Corpse. Initially classed as an experimental turntablist, though his early work rarely resembled anything in the field. Early feats, saw him stab vinyl with Kruger style stylus gloves, bound on electro acoustic trampolines, drag race the popemobile across Sydney Harbour Bridge, perform deaf defying duet duels with amplified samurai swords, hospitalised by high powered turntables constructed from sewing machine motors, record chance John Peel sessions with the Flaming Lips, & be Otomo Yoshihides' favourite entry into his Ground Zero remix competition; 'Consummation' even though instead of sampling the CD he destroyed it using amplified skewers! Principally a live audio artist, performing professionally for the past 17 years, since Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Avenaim stumbled across one of his late night radio performances in 1994 and asked him to play their What is? Music Festival. He also founded of the irreverent dualpLOVER group of businesses (recording label, cd/dvd replicators, distributor and promoter of gigs and tours) and his now dabbling in sound installation.

Influences:

.... Rice ?Corpse : Mrs Rice (2009): CD. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

What kind of government would send a lunatic artist, whose idea of self expression is smashing amplified glass against his face, off to China to become a cultural ambassador? Australia the lucky country of coarse! That's exactly what happened to Lucas Abela (Justice Yeldham) and this album, Mrs Rice is it's result. With under two months in Beijing he formed the pick up band Rice Corpse, (named after the Chinese character for shit, which itself is the combination of the two characters for corpse and rice), jammed with them four times (two off which were recorded for this album) before heading off for a ten city tour of China.

A Trio of glass, drums and piano was in Lucas's minds ear when he arrived and two completely different musicians came forward to form this unlikely band. First to be recruited for drums was Yang Yang whose antics in his own band Mafeisan has given him the reputation of being the craziest exponent of the normally conservative Beijing scene. His ultra loud out and proud personality is in stark contrast to the mild mannered and brutally shy saxophonist Li Zenghui who came to the project as pianist, cause simply put there were no suitable pianists in the city.

Existing for a limited time and without a common language to interrupt they managed to create these six varied and strangely focused improvisations. This despondent attempt at musicality is by far Abela's most accessible work to date as the addition of Yang and Li's stabbing rhythm section forced the seasoned noisician to take his glass instrument into surprising new directions. Released on conjunction with SUBJAM and made possible with the kind assistance of Asialink and the Australia Council for the Arts.

"a joyously gratuitous album, equally hilarious and punishing, maniacal and narcoleptic" - Shaun Prescott, Mess and Noise.

"the funniest most visceral and compelling music this writer has heard for a very long time" - Bob Baker Fish, cyclicdefrost

.. JUSTICE YELDHAM: CICATRIX: CD.
After a five-year glass munching junket spanning four continents Justice Yeldham has finally put together 'Cicatrix' the first collection of his face on glass maunderings available on CD on Melbournian imprint Sweatlung. The disc is presented in four distinct parts. Part ONE: His first ever studio recordings Part TWO: Digitally captured pieces taken Justices short lived glass to digital period THREE: Live - 4 live recordings from Zurich, Sydney, Sydney again! and Toronto. Part FOUR: Video - the video that Youtube rejected for inappropriate content! Comes complete with a 24 page booklets of photos of Justices bloody performances from around the world.

"the integrity and obsessiveness with which Abela pursues his unlikely artistic vision can't be questioned."
- The Wire.

"So weird, and so goddamn awesome."
- Aquarius.

JUSTICE YELDHAM: BIRTHDAYS: 12". Order via Anarchymoon Recordings.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
ANOK22 / TA345 / ATP001 :: Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device "Birthdays" LP, Birthdays consists of two live sets by maverick amplified-glass player Justice Yeldham recorded during his & Keg's recent tour of Europe. Side A was captured in Marseille on the eve of Justice's 35th birthday while side B was recorded on Kegs birthday in Porto [excerpt available, for a preview listen at my http://myspace.com/justiceyeldham ]. And to top off the birthday cheer Keg also did the cover illustration as a gift for Justice's Birthday. Mastered by the inimitable Rashad Becker at Dubplates (Berlin), the record has been collaboratively released in an edition of 600 copies across the world by Anarchymoon Recordings (North America), Turgid Animal (Europe) & All Thumbs Press (Australia). Black vinyl, B-on-W labels, 2-sided glue-on cover art (lim 600).

JUSTICE YELDHAM:LIVE IN SEOUL: 7". Order via 8mm Records.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
limited to 200 copies. side A - 190 seoul 290405, side B - 189 seoul 280405. Recorded in Seoul, South Korea on two consecutive nights. The second performance was particularly memorable. The venues wiring lets just say wasn't up to Australian operational health and safety standards. Every time Yeldham reached for his pedal belt he was receiving considerable electric shocks, it hurt, but he persevered anyway. The cover art was drawn by audience member Iso during his performance.

.. PEELED HEARTS PASTE: PLOVER BRAND (1997): CDR. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Hyper sized turntablist action without the turntables. Before glass munching his way across the globe some of Lucas Abela's first musical exploits included turntables powered by industrial motors spinning not only lps but grinding bits, saw blades, vegetable cutting devices and humming bowls amongst other things and played by skewers and knifes that have been converted into giant styli. Brutal noise recordings produced without the help of any effect pedals. This is the only collection of of his early works and includes studio and live takes.

.... JUSTICE YELDHAM & THE DRUMMER WHO WISHES TO REMAIN NAMELESS (2007): CDR: EDITION OF 40: SOLD OUT. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

After running out of stock in france Justice Yeldham produced this last minute tour souvenir CDR using leftover scraps from LE DERNIER CRI's screen-printing workshop and some recordings with a certain drummer who didn't want it to see the light of day. Earlier that year after almost 10 years Lucas finally listened to these recording for the first time since they were made in Tokyo in 1998. Deciding that there was something there he edited them into pieces and mastered them for possible release. When it was ready he contacted the drummer in question to ask where to send the recordings for his consideration, without hearing the material the reply was. "please keep our recording as secret private session. I don't want to release it any format." sorry if you bothered to listen to it he may have respected your wishes!

.... DJ SMALLCOCK: YINYUE (2000): CD: SOLD OUT. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
This disc has it all, Hopeless romanticism, (smallcock followed ViVi to china after only knowing her for days) pre-millennium madness, (recorded at a time the rest of the world got hopelessly drunk) political tension (set in a backdrop of Beijing at the time of the Macao handover and the trail of Fol Long Gong members) and not forgetting aural exploration.with nine hours worth of Beijing radio committed to tape (smallcock would spend his days wondering the city's extensive hutong systems just flicking through radio stations) on his return to bris-vegas he frottaged them down into a 55 minute love song dedication using nothing but a pause button (in a single nine hour session that finished with the pause button tettering).

"he packs enough horse meat here to feed alla witcyst, cock esp, evil moisture, aube an' every pierced, pink-skinned dipshit with a scottish return address. who'da thought?" - BANANAFISH.

"one of the strangest albums in the history of recorded music." - dave segal (ALTERNATIVE PRESS)

A KOMBI : MUSIC TO DRIVE-BY (1996): CD: SOLD OUT .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
After many trials and tribulations, Dual Plover Recordings has the esteemed pleasure of announcing to the world that A Kombi's debut masterpiece Music to Drive-by is now available to you, the consumer. This highly anticipated release is to our knowledge the first album entirely composed and performed by a van or any other motor vehicle. But please don't get us wrong, this is not some tokenistic offering against inanimatism. We truly believe in A Kombi's work, it just so happens that it is an object, a van to be more precise. But you need not to take our word for it; one listen and you too will be ranking A Kombi with your favourite human types of the musical variety. Music to Drive-by was originally recorded at picturesque Waverley Cemetery in September 1994 but due to financial reasons hasn't seen the light of day until now. Regretfully A Kombi itself did not live long enough to witness this momentous occasion, sadly passing on in April 1996, en route to Queensland. I only knew A Kombi in the last four years of its twenty one year lifespan, but in that time we became very close. At first it told me nothing of how it longed for the stage, probably thinking that I, like most humans, would only humour it about the chances of it making any impact in this human dominated music industry. The idea that performance is for humans, not Volkswagens, must have sat uncomfortably wherever cars keep thoughts. It took disaster before it could confide to me its love for performing music. While recovering in South Grafton after a harrowing rolling on the face of Mount Tambourine A Kombi sang to me for the very first time. No words can describe the beauty in her song that day but one thing I can tell you is that I knew a star was born. Soon after A Kombi and I set upon our infamous Drive-by recitals at bus stops and traffic islands up and down the east coast of Australia. A Kombi's greatest moment came when it first graced the stage at Sydney's Vulcan Hotel; well, not exactly the stage but parked on the footpath just outside the stage door where she played her first and only live performance. In time the fame began to drain A Kombi - not even professional appearances drag racing with the Popemobile could kept her spirits up. A sickness that would eventually lead to death was beginning to take hold. Now not a day goes by withoutmy mind taking a moment to ponder the loss of such a great talent so early in its career, but at least we have these recordings, so now and forever we can always... ...well at least we have them. Lucas Abela June 2nd, 1996

Record Label:

dualpLOVER