| Influences | UPCOMING SHOWS -
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TICKLEY FEATHER. RETRO BAR. SUNDAY 15TH NOVEMBER. £5
Tickley Feather is Annie Sachs. She grew up in rural Virginia but has been living in Philadelphia for 5 years now. She has been using her time learning to write and record her own music as part of her nights spent at home, adapting to being the single mother of a young child.
Sachs is a four tracking hobbyist whose musical spirit dwells in the realm of her own natural inclinations. She is a firm believer in doing what feels right, and in her recordings she really uses her solo status to great advantage. It adds up a very personal sound which involves all sorts of sensations from serendipity to silliness, and even the sweet and eerie sound of her little boy’s voice as he tells her his ideas.
Her recordings have been praised by critics from the start, with comparisons to work by artists such as Syd Barrett, Kate Bush, and Gilli Smith, and all the while being given credit for having a sound that is completely its own. Now she’s coming in from the outside to share her songs and it’s precious beyond value.
www.myspace.com/tickleyfeather
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SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE. ISLINGTON MILL. THURSDAY 3RD DECEMBER. £12
Through dark days and glowing nights, Six Organs of Admittance continues to step to the far rim of the world with purposeful strides. Indeed, new horizons are visible throughout Luminous Night. Be it in the face of spiritual crisis or catharsis, Ben Chasny as Six Organs refuses to stagnate, or to evolve in predictable fashion; in response, he keeps moving on.
This is the first Six Organs of Admittance album with such a lengthy gap between it and its former number. In the past two years Chasny has kept busy writing this new epic, moving house to Seattle, composing soundtracks for novels and movies, and touring constantly in America and Europe (with bands like The Dead C and OM) as well as being invited by legendary post-metal group Neurosis to play their “Beyond The Pale” festival in Belgium.
Six Organs of Admittance is such a singular experience that it is sometimes easy to forget that Ben was the lead guitarist in Comets On Fire, as well as a songwriter and guitarist for Current 93’s Black Ships Ate The Sky album and half of the pan-Pacific psych-folk duo, August Born. But clearly, Chasny knows heavy, having grown through times of heavy and times of light. And in answer to the question what’s heavier, a pound of rock or a pound of feathers, Six Organs of Admittance has devised this for Luminous Night: a pound of rock covered with a pound of feathers — twice as heavy, but feathery light to the human eye.
With Luminous Night, Chasny’s working with some heavy dudes, like producer Randall Dunn and Eyvind Kang, whose sound on viola shines with a guiding glow throughout the album (both Dunn and Kang contributed their talents to the outré arrangements of the recent Sunn O))) album). The other invaluable contributors to the album are Hans Teuber on flute, Tor Dietrichson on tabla, Matt Chamberlin on drums, and Dave Abramson on percussion. Occupying their spots with care, they’ve collaborated to create something rich and vibrant, aching and new, in the world of Six Organs of Admittance.
The arc of Luminous Night is wide as the sky, commencing with a stirring instrumental evocation of the Greek myth of poor Actaeon before flowing into the vocal, the vengeful, the ancient, the divine and celestial, scored with guitars, bass, viola, flute, tabla, electronics and synthesizer, as well as a buried-in-the-rain-soaked-earth-of-Seattle-then-exhumed four-track cassette that formed the basis of the instrumental Cover Your Wounds With the Sky. For its blanketing sound, Luminous Night draws inspiration from such cinematic sources as Jodorowky’s El Topo soundtrack and the scores of Kurosawa’s samurai films, but is at the same time music that could only have come from the singular sound world of Six Organs of Admittance.
What is it about the man that buries his sound in the ground? He has faith in the earth, for one. When we think of Six Organs of Admittance, we think of a man with six-string ambitions, a rambler with mystic beliefs and dark electric visions. It’s a big universe and we’re only human, which basically means that we’ve got spirit and that were going to die. But until then, we live. Six Organs of Admittance has lived to tell about it on Luminous Night.
www.myspace.com/sixorgans
SUPPORT FROM -
GNOD
www.myspace.com/gnodgnod
IRMA VEP
www.myspace.com/blackballooons
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BATTLES, FLYING LOTUS, NICE NICE. ACADEMY 2. MONDAY 7TH DECEMBER. £17.50 ADV
Battles is an American rock band that formed in New York City in 2002. The group is composed of drummer John Stanier (formerly of Tomahawk and Helmet), guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams (formerly of Don Caballero and Storm & Stress), guitarist Dave Konopka (formerly of Lynx), and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Tyondai Braxton (son of Avantgarde Jazz musician Anthony Braxton).
Battles released three EPs in 2004, each on a different label (Cold Sweat, Monitor and Dim Mak). Their debut LP, Mirrored, was recorded by Keith Souza and released on 14 May 2007 to widespread critical acclaim, and it generated a fair amount of buzz in indie rock circles. Mirrored videos soon followed.
The album received an pretty high score of 9.1 in a Pitchfork Media review; “Atlas”, meanwhile, was voted “best single of the week” by NME, and received a glowing review in the UK’s Clash Magazine where comparisons were made to Glitter Beat. The band scored its first UK cover feature in May 2007, talking to Plan B Magazine about the making of Mirrored.
www.myspace.com/battlestheband
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SLEEPY SUN. RETRO BAR. TUESDAY 8TH DECEMBER. £8 ADV
Sleepy Sun is an apt title for this young San Francisco sextet, as their debut record, “Embrace”, is one of those rare slabs of rock and roll that will wake you up in the morning, and send you off to sleep at night. After honing their craft in the occult influenced creative community of Santa Cruz, the band has continued to grow, both creatively and in their loyal following, since their relocation to the city by the bay. With their throbbing rhythm section, swirling sea of guitars, and dreamy, haunting duet vocals, the word dynamic is a severe understatement.
Though the press is quick to rifle off a laundry list of rock’s greatest ghosts to describe their sound, one live show is all you need to know Sleepy Sun have stumbled upon something very much their own. Having performed their raw, high-energy show on stages shared with acts such as Howlin’ Rain, Earth, Sleep, Fleet Foxes, Dead Meadow, and Citay, they are quickly establishing themselves as a very tough act to follow. Fans at shows are known for shouting the band’s battle cry, “Let’s get weird”. If the group continues down their rapid road to success, things are about to get very weird indeed.
www.myspace.com/sleepysun
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LIGHTNING BOLT, TWEAK BIRD. ISLINGTON MILL. WEDNESDAY 9TH DECEMBER. £13 ADV
Lightning Bolt emerged from Providence, Rhode Island, United States in 1995 as a three-piece art school project. Initially there was Brian Chippendale’s explosive, non-stop drumming, Brian Gibson’s Contortions like bass lines, and Hisham Bharoocha’s vocals propelling them in a fury of volatile noise and orgiastic tribalism. The group helped found Fort Thunder, a music and art collective, and recorded Lightning Bolt which was issued through Load in 1999. By 2001’s Ride the Skies, Bharoocha had departed (he eventually formed Black Dice). This left the vocal duties to Chippendale, who put the microphone into a sock and stuffed it under a mask he wears while performing. Lightning Bolt did a series of tours with bands like The Locust, Arab on Radar, Orchid, and Melt-Banana before returning in 2003 with the studio album Wonderful Rainbow. The album did very well in underground music circles, and set up the release of 2005’s Hypermagic Mountain.
Lightning Bolt is well known for their live performances, in which they turn up the volume as loud as it can possibly go and forgo a traditional stage, preferring to perform amidst the audience.
www.myspace.com/laserbeast
Tweak Bird is a brother duo consisting of Caleb and Ashton Bird. Produced under the helm of Deaf Nephews (Melvins’ Dale Crover and Altamont’s Toshi Kasai), the duo’s debut is a sweeping seven-song intro to a band exploring the depths of heavy experimental, progressive, and psych-infused rock. A sort of musical Armageddon that’s constantly on the horizon, looming. Tweak Bird has played shows with the Melvins, Ancestors, Earthless, and many others. Picked by the Melvins, they played at ATP’s The Nightmare Before X-Mas 2008 edition, curated by the Melvins and Mike Patton. Currently, they are on tour as openers for Tool during a 12-show, 3-week swing through Canada and the US.
www.myspace.com/tweakbird
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