The Swn festival rightly dominates live activity in Cardiff this month, but there’s plenty of essential stuff at the fringes.  Here’s a selection, including some people also featured at Swn (Errors, Micachu, Verity Susman) and a bunch of far-out treats for those willing to go a bit further afield.  Full Swn preview upcoming – until then…

SILVER APPLES / FAIRHORNS / YULE BRINGER / THE BLOOD CHOIR, Start The Bus, 2^nd

In an idiom cluttered with alleged innovators, Simeon Coxe seems a man genuinely at least five years ahead of his time. The space-rock progenitor’s 1967 debut took psychedelic exploration from the guitar-wielding heads and created its own personal inner journey; ‘Oscillations’ sounds as much like a manifesto as anything of its time, albeit one celebrating the possibility of sound itself and how the listener reacted to it. It’s closer to Mooney-era Can, Neu! and United States of America than anything, predating all three and foreshadowing early electronica experiments too. Coxe’s rebirth as a live performer has been a little stop-start for health reasons, but Silver Apples’ pre- and post-reformation music avoids sounding like a period curio, still as fresh, trippy and strange as it was 40 years ago. Cracking supporting bill here too; not having Matt Williams present would be nuts, and thus it is that Fairhorns’ blackened dub/kraut vibes line up alongside the warm, inclusive cosmic incantations of Yule Bringer. Broaden your horizons early, it’s going to be one of those months.

THE GENTLE GOOD / RATATOSK, Sherman, 8^th

Familiar names, reliably brilliant musicians, free gig; it sells itself, but let’s briefly reacquaint ourselves as a reminder that talents like this must not be taken for granted.  Gareth Bonello’s work as the Gentle Good has nestled snugly within Welsh folk tradition, interweaving retellings of traditional folk tales and standards with his own melancholic storytelling and blurring the edges until, like Alasdair Roberts, he becomes a living, breathing continuation of the classic canon.  Plaintive, elemental tales of woe sit perfectly alongside gloriously autumnal, whimsical balladry lit by Bonello’s Bert Jansch-infused picking, itself showcased on the occasional cut-loose instrumental.  As Ratatosk, meanwhile, Rhodri Viney is more obviously greater than the sum of his parts, evident in the way his bewitching, impressionistic creations are built from the nuts and bolts before your eyes.  Dark, immersive drone-folk and stirring string-driven Yann Tiersen instrumentation spill from these grimly humourous, lyrically dense tales of sainted, crazed and desperate souls.  So who’s up for a party?  Guys?

FIELD MUSIC / WARM DIGITS, Clwb, 11^th

Progressive, articulate art rock vignettes with a clear lineage through Roxy, Sparks and Talking Heads but shorn of any extraneous frippery and leavened with XTC’s ruminative working-man prog-pop and McCartney II basslines.  Basically then, the Mackem Spencer McGarry Season.  If Measure was a very slightly overlong clearing-house after their years out to pursue side-projects, this year’s Plumb is their most nuanced statement yet; a subtle evolution in terms of dynamics and a sharper lyrical pen have cast them deservedly into award nomination territory.  They also recently cut loose with a collaborative session for R3’s Late Junction with Newcastle/Manchester duo Warm Digits, practitioners of warm, head-nodding krautrock/electronica grooves in obvious thrall to the genre’s originators but with nods to UK forebears like Appliance and the lithe, punk-funk take on the theme practiced by Tussle or Holy Fuck.  Few manage to pull off the trick of acknowledging influences while remaining forward-looking, fewer still without looking strained; Field Music do it without breaking sweat.

HIEROGLYPHIC BEING / MARK FELL / YOUNG ECHO, Croft, 13^th

Raw, uncompromising and insistent Chicago House workouts care of the fevered creative brain of Jamal Moss. Moss has stepped out from the raw, Acid-flecked style he’s perfected into a realm all of his own, spooling out trippy album-length soundscapes taking in the cosmic projections of Sun Ra, minimalist noise and electro-acoustic experimentation, synth-driven ambient and all points inbetween. His Mathematics label housed Acid legends Steve Poindexter and Lil’ Louis, and he’s also worked as Africans With Mainframes and Chicago Bad Boys among others. It might seem wilfully perverse for Moss’ visionary, broad-brush approach and Mark Fell’s often austere, minimal deconstructions to fit on the same bill, but taking into account his source material (Chicago house and Acid, albeit pulled apart and stripped back with surgical precision), his work with SND and the early Aphex-sounding rhythmic experiments of his Sensate Focus 12” series and accompanying Sentielle Objectif Actualité album, it makes much more sense. Think of it as two uncompromsing, hyper-productive and hugely knowledgable veterans producing their own highly individual takes on a common sound. The results may differ greatly but the response should be equally awed.

DYLAN CARLSON, Exchange, 17^th

Dylan Carlson’s admission that Earth’s contemplative recent works were largely informed by a deep love of arcane English folk music might have raised a few eyebrows among non-devotees, but the interweaving of Fairport gracefulness, stately cello and bass fuzz with blues and modern classical elements which sets Earth Mk II apart from past drone-metal epics was only one iteration of Carlson’s long-standing obsession with English folkloric and occult lore. Recently traversing the UK to indulge his passion for tales of ‘cunning-folk’, fairy faith and occult magick, his solo project – under the name drcarlsonalbion – has already produced a fascinating cassette-only release composed of murky guitar, spoken word and field recordings taken around Waterloo station and the Thames river bed, followed by a 7” (‘Hackney Iliad’) featuring poet and activist Rosie Knight. An upcoming full-length of pared-down traditionals for Latitudes, La Strega and the Cunning-Man, precedes this tour, wherein Carlson will perform with an ensemble centred around Knight. What little snippets can be found online suggest a more deconstructed, ambient take on recent Earth music, with hints of the cosmic psychedelia of Sun Araw or Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Carlson’s blog on the project is a fascinating read, and this should be a truly individual and singly inspiring evening.

ERRORS / DAM MANTLE, Exchange, 19^th

Errors’ evolution has accelerated hugely in recent years.  They’re still utilising post-rock structures, but it’s now only the most notional framework for their music, rather than its guiding principle.  If the likes of ‘Mr Milk’ or ‘Toes’ were nimble post-rock tunes with acid squiggles bolted on, then the songs on Have Some Faith In Magic were fully formed, disparate beasts that acknowledge their influences but create something new; icy electronica, driving ambient pop and humming, propulsive electro-funk all mesh into a sound which is instantly, recognisably Errors.  Much was made of the greater vocal input on the last album, but they’re not suddenly writing straight pop or anything – the mostly wordless vocals are assimilated into a sound somewhere between Berlin, Lagos and Glasgow.  The woozy, teetering creations of Dam Mantle fiddle with the formula in similar ways to his touring partners, tweaking dubstep (specifically the soundtracky, G-Funk-influenced Bristol strain), electro, chattering 8-bit patterns and sparkling melodies into something effortless and special.

MICACHU & THE SHAPES / FREEZE PUPPY, Colston Hall 2, 19^th

VERITY SUSMAN, Café Kino, 19^th

Songwriter, keyboard player and ultimately lead vocalist of one of the millennium’s finest and most-missed bands, Verity Susman’s first solo steps outside Electrelane were under virtual, sometimes literal drag. As Vera November, and, now under her own name, she’s essayed feminism, lesbian politics and cross-dressing in ways pointedly more open and overt than her former band did. Musical output since their split has been brief indeed; one Vera November 7”, Red Dream, a glorious update of Electrelane’s propulsive, farfisa-driven kraut-pop embellished with choral vocals, piano, strings and saxophone. Just as well it covered an album’s worth of terrain in six minutes, as five years later we’re still awaiting a follow-up. Recent shows suggest it’s not far off, and her eccentric, idiosyncratic approach (visuals, machines narrating vintage erotic fiction, natty facial hair) should make this pretty memorable whether caught at Swn or in the perfect setting of Cafe Kino. Don’t miss it.

TOMUTONTTU / ISLAJA / ICHI, Cube, 20^th

Creative mainstay of the Finnish free-folk/psych/improv scene and leader of the mighty Kemialliset Ystävät, Jan Anderzen gives even freer reign to his improvisational impulses in his solo guise of Tomutonttu. Boiling down the morass of sound generated by his group to a free-form, boundless whirl of processed electronic and acoustic sounds, treated human voices and what sound like nature recordings, Anderzen as Tomutonttu recalls early Animal Collective, a beatless Black Dice at their most wilful or the results of a Haswell or Drumm (see below) working exclusively in the medium of birdsong. If improv noise can be called soothing, it’s in stuff like this. Merja Kokkonen is Islaja, a Berlin-based artist, Kemialliset collaborator and composer of darkly personal out-folk with a stately, Nico-via-Chan Marshall voice employed in a dazzling range of settings, whether utilising hazy, discordant swathes of acoustic guitar, toy piano and muffled vocals or the Mira Calix abstractions of 2010’s Keraaminen Pää.

ZENI GEVA / CARLTON MELTON, Exchange, 22^nd

KK Null meets with awe in his native Japan; a near-thirty year career has seen countless releases as a solo guitarist/electronic musician, from punk to noise to prog to electronic experimentation. He also fronts Zeni Geva, amongst other bands and projects, an outlet for more linear distillations of hardcore, doom, prog and technical ugly-rock impulses. With the prowling menace of Melvins, the rhythmic attack of Shellac and Null’s alternating Mike Patton whisper-growl and death metal howl, it’s heady, oppressive stuff. He’s also been rejoined by original ZG drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, better known as Ruins, whose gut-punch percussive battery characterises much of their key work and who was initially listed as support here. Instead, a very tasty counterpoint to ZG’s assault comes in the form of Carlton Melton, veteran Californian practitioners of lo-fi, slowmotion ambient guitar textures, enveloping FX wash and immersive psych-drone jams. Somewhere between a heroically baked Wooden Shjips, early 70s Pink Floyd, Barn Owl and Ash Ra Tempel, which ought to give you a pretty good idea. Intense, fuzzy and dark, the ideal thing to tenderise the listener before Zeni Geva’s brutalist despatches finish the job.

ZOMES / SOEZA, Café Kino, 25^th

(Edit – now cancelled, sadly. Hopefully a new date will appear next year)

The solo keyboard and drum machine/tape beats project of Lungfish guitarist Asa Osbourne, Zomes has the feel of an audio palette cleanser for creator and listener; simple, spare drum loops overlaid with meditative, melodic keyboard patterns.  Two banks of four.  What on first listen is almost distractingly basic takes on a hypnotic quality where the smallest variations burrow their way into your consciousness and become unnaturally pleasing.  It’s telling that recent cassette releases have been titled ‘Variations’ and ‘Improvisations’, like dusty reels filled with audio test patterns never meant to be heard outside the laboratory.  The keyboards flit between warm pillows of fuzzy drone and careful progressions that sound like organ or mellotron parts reinterpreted by a vintage casio.  Lovely stuff.  Soe’za’s heady brew of art-rock awkwardness, galloping math rhythms and see-saw melodies has becoming something of a regular feature of these columns, with good reason; a few refreshing gulps of their artfully uncoupled post-hardcore and spidery, insidious tunes will open your brain right up.  A palette-cleanser for the palette-cleanser, then. 

VISIONARY KINGDOM: RUSSELL HASWELL / KEVIN DRUMM / THOMAS ANKERSMIT, Arnolfini, 26^th

This is the first of a four-part season of events presenting experimental, largely electronic musicians and composers working in AV or in accompaniment to films. There’s a £20 ‘season ticket’ available from the Arnolfini box office which represents superb value – Raime, People Like Us and Kode 9 appear in early November, more on which in next month’s column – but each of these shows promise challenging, invigorating stuff. A sonic documenter known best for his recordings (and writings) at the far edges of improvised electronic noise and deconstructed experiments in house, techno and pure sound, Russell Haswell’s also collaborated with Whitehouse, Florian Hecker, Merzbow and Pan Sonic among others. If that doesn’t give you a fair idea of his main areas of operation, cock an ear to any of his bracing ‘Live Salvage’ recordings; or, just imagine a jet engine playing the music of Albert Ayler. That should do it. Electro-acoustic improviser Kevin Drumm, veteran of collaborations with Jim O’ Rourke (in Brise-Glace), Tony Conrad and Mats Gustafsson, has worked extensively in prepared/treated guitar improvisations – try 2002’s Sheer Hellish Miasma for size – and alongside Berlin-based synth/computer music artist Ankersmit he completes a heavyweight line-up showcasing some of the key avant-garde innovators of the last 25 years. Like I said, it’s the first of four events in this season. That season ticket sounds quite the bargain.