{"id":24411,"date":"2012-11-01T09:12:56","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T09:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejoycollective.co.uk\/blog\/?p=24411"},"modified":"2014-09-04T12:22:55","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T12:22:55","slug":"november-preview-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/preview\/november-preview-2\/","title":{"rendered":"November preview: live highlights this month in Cardiff and Bristol"},"content":{"rendered":"

VISIONARY KINGDOM: KODE 9, MFO & MS. HAPTIC \/ AURA SATZ \/ BEN RUSSELL (1<\/strong>st<\/strong><\/sup>) \/ TAI SHANI \/ VICKI BENNETT (2<\/strong>nd<\/strong><\/sup>) \/ RAIME \/ EMPTYSET \/ BUGBRAND (3<\/strong>rd<\/strong><\/sup>), all Arnolfini<\/strong><\/p>\n

Picking up where I left off last month, this run of gloriously eclectic, hyper-creative audio-visual shows continues into early November with an excellent line-up.\u00a0 Far more info at http:\/\/arnolfini.org.uk\/event_seasons\/index\/120\/<\/a>, but if you want highlights?\u00a0 Well, Hyperdub supremo Kode9 collaborates on a re-imagining of Chris Marker\u2019s landmark 1962 short La Jet\u00e9e<\/em> \u2013 itself the inspiration for Terry Gilliam\u2019s Twelve Monkeys<\/em> \u2013 which refocuses the story on the female character sighted in the airport.\u00a0 Vicki Bennett, aka maverick musician, film-maker and WFMU DJ People Like Us, presents the premiere of her feature-length debut The Zone<\/em>, which edits The Wizard of Oz<\/em> and Tarkovsky\u2019s Stalker<\/em> to run concurrently and reveal unlikely synchronicities.\u00a0 The final night showcases an A\/V set from Blackest Ever Black\u2019s flagship duo Raime, based around their long-awaited debut full-length of oppressively heavy, techno and sub-informed bass music.\u00a0 Read more, book tickets, open all channels of reception.<\/p>\n

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DJ SCOTCH BONNET \/ KOYXEN \/ R. SEILIOG, Clwb, 1<\/strong>st<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

If you hadn’t already mentally committed to attending this at the mention of the words ‘DJ Scotch’, then shape up; Shigeru’s back in Cardiff with a new solo project and pseudonym following excursions into whacked-out psych (Drum Eyes) and ribcage-rattling digital dub (Devil Man). This time he’s tackling hip-hop, albeit refracted through doomy industrial noise and thick, cavernous dub and coming out the other side like the offspring of Godflesh and DJ Screw. This tour, with labelmate and Japanese production veteran Koyxen, showcases Scotch’s own Small But Hard label; its first fruits are his collaboration with out-there ex-Jungle Brother Sensational, whose mush-mouthed delivery helps the tracks come off like a super lo-fi take on Cannibal Ox. It might not inspire the demented glee of the Osaka Invasion tour or his early snack-hurling exploits, but it will be immensely loud, mind-altering fun. Top booking, as always, from Lesson No. 1, and will be great to see R. Seiliog’s trippy Neu!-go-electro earworms stretch out in front of a wider audience. First essential gig of the month. Get there.<\/p>\n

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JOSEPHINE FOSTER \/ DAN HAYWOOD\u2019S NEW HAWKS, Cube, 3<\/strong>rd<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Plenty of voices have been described as ‘timeless’, but Josephine Foster’s rich, otherworldly soprano genuinely seems out of time, place and context, as if it should rightly emanate from dusty shellac. A spiritual bridge between gothic Appalachia, pristine Dalton\/Bunyan\/Bloom folk classicism and Romantic European traditionalism, Foster’s dabbled in impressively diverse styles with a natural confidence, from the austere German lieder<\/em> of A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing<\/em> (which I think was out around the time she was on an amazing Forecast bill with Six Organs and Sunburned Hand Of The Man) or the Lorca poetry and swooning flamenco of Anda Jaleo<\/em> to the bustling Fairport psych-folk and (relatively) straight balladry of her own compositions. Even here, though, the storytelling is complex and immersive, the characters inhabiting a old-world America in a way that suits that voice perfectly. With full-band backing here, led by husband and Anda Jaleo<\/em> collaborator Victor Herrero, this should be pretty magical.<\/p>\n

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BRISTOL JAM: REGGIE WATTS (5th<\/sup>) \/ POLAR BEAR \/ HAUSCHKA & SAMULI KOSMINEN \/ CHARLES HAZLEWOOD\u2019S ALL STAR COLLECTIVE (10th<\/sup>), 5th<\/sup> \u2013 11th<\/sup> November, all Old Vic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another ace-looking festival, this time all taking place at Bristol\u2019s Old Vic theatre where the improvisational spirit is celebrated by a huge cast of contributing musicians, artists, theatre groups, comedians and the public at large.\u00a0 Far, far too much to run through here \u2013 definitely check http:\/\/www.bristololdvic.org.uk\/bristoljam.html<\/a> for the things you\u2019ll want to see \u2013 for our purposes, there are some fantastic musical treats.\u00a0 On a local level, the Cube\u2019s monthly Amalgam night \u2013 like-minded musicians improvising within noise, concrete, ambient, found sound and jazz realms \u2013 drops in on the 7th<\/sup> with Skj\u00f8lbrot\u2019s Dan Bennett among the players.\u00a0 Slo-Mo, another Cube staple, relocates on the 10th<\/sup> with dudes from Headfall, the Liftmen and Arctic Circle re-scoring films from within the audience.\u00a0 There\u2019s workshops \u2013 Hauschka\u2019s Volker Bertelmann demonstrates the prepared piano, and a magnificent nutbar called McCloud Zicmuse will show you how to build a one-stringed instrument he calls the Iaeniaen.\u00a0 Top of the pile are three genuine one-offs: Hauschka teams up with M\u00fam drummer Samuli Kosminen, revisiting collaborations on a former EP with playful deconstructions of their chosen instruments; the utterly amazing, one-of-a-kind beatboxer\/vocalist\/musician Reggie Watts, equally at home guesting with LCD Soundsystem at Madison Square Garden as on NPR\u2019s Radiolab, performs his unique, hilarious and brilliant compositions; and for the finale, Charles Hazlewood and friends perform a live, improvised score\/musical counterpoint to a retelling of Homer\u2019s Iliad<\/em> narrated by In The Loop<\/em> actor Tom Hollander.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t find something to intrigue and inspire you here, you\u2019re in trouble.<\/p>\n

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QUEER\u2019D SCIENCE \/ ROSEANNE BARRR \/ GREETINGS, Buffalo, 11<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Next Joy presentation!\u00a0 Largely due to the excellent skills of Noel Lesson Number One, and accompanied by the year\u2019s most striking promotional campaign care of Vern, this one is wall-to-wall screaming bloody murder.\u00a0 Manchester\u2019s Queer\u2019d Science are a splenetic collision of grinding no wave noise, unhinged vocal contortions and shuddering electronic throbs who variously recall Erase Errata, Ex Models, early Liars and a bunch of Load Records bands.\u00a0 Hot, violent and essential noise.\u00a0 Roseanne Barrr number just two but sound like more, a bass\/drum \u2018power duo\u2019 featuring one of recent Joy Collective guests Woolf and pulling similar skronky DIY punk and riot grrrl shapes, albeit with a necessarily greater emphasis on rhythm, howling feedback and hefty, sexy, grinding mess.\u00a0 Nice!\u00a0 Opening this we have local urchins Greetings, formed early this year and fronted by Ian Williams who you might have heard\/seen doing frenzied Daniel Johnston\/Herman Dune-inspired antifolk as My Name Is Ian.\u00a0 There appear to be several Greetings doing the rounds, and I\u2019ve listened to the \u2018wrong\u2019 one at least once, but this one do a spirited noise-pop holler with excellently goofy J Mascis solos dribbled over it.\u00a0 Celebrate these fine sounds with us, won\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

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LAETITIA SADIER \/ JENS BOSTEEN \/ PEN PASTWN, Clwb, 12<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

How do you embark on a solo career when your voice and songwriting is so indelibly linked to a single band and one inimitable sound? Stereolab may have moved through distinct musical phases \u2013 Velvets\/Suicide drone-pop, Martin Denny-via-Tortoise exotica, Reich\/O’Rourke jazz-funk minimalism \u2013 but always remained so inexorably Stereolab that to step out from them after the best part of two decades must have been a fairly daunting opportunity for Laetitia Sadier. After a solo debut, The Trip<\/em>, which allowed her most personal and subdued lyrics to breathe within relaxed, balladic pop arrangements, she’s returned to more familiar territory; the unique socio-political theory and often witheringly ironic polemic that characterised much of Stereolab’s lyrics is recast in terms of 2012’s political landscape on Silencio<\/em>, and it’s a breath of fresh Gallic air. She’s touring with a two-piece band for the first time, and the pared-down motorik rhythms and breezy cafe pop behind the re-energised calls to personal political engagement will be an irresistable match. Don’t miss the frazzled, blissful tangle of folk, desert psych-blues and beat poetry of Pen Pastwn, first up on this bill; Richard James’ collective will be seven-strong on the night, apparently, and bring a stormy, exploratory fire to traditional forms.<\/p>\n

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DESTROYER, Fleece, 14<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Abstruse, cryptic wordplay over clouds of hiss, tapedeck hum, trebly noise and fractured acoustic strumming. Stephen Malkmus, Lou Barlow, David Berman and Bill Callahan all cut their teeth in similar ways, and so did Dan Bejar; except his ambitions were clearer than most even in Destroyer’s earliest efforts. He’s got a very distinctive style \u2013 aloof and haughty, caustic and catty, bombastic and grandiose but with a kind of desperate, self-lacerating theatricality that’s as much in debt to early 70s Bowie and Scott Walker as it is to the MOR singer-songwriters he now claims to identify with. All this has long been channelled through sometimes traditional indie-rock moves \u2013 he’s continued to write and play with the New Pornographers, and contributes a lot of the best tunes to Wolf Parade\/Frog Eyes supergroup Swan Lake \u2013 but it’s the embellishments, be they the deliberate ‘European pop’ sound of Your Blues <\/em>and Destroyer’s Rubies <\/em>or the weirdly dated, early 80s production of Kaputt<\/em>, that mark him out as a brilliant, bloody-minded, endlessly quotable one-off.<\/p>\n

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SOUNDTRACK FESTIVAL including:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Miners Hymns <\/strong><\/em>\/ The Tylorstown Band (live), Chapter, 15<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Powerplant with Joby Burgess, RWCMD, 15<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest<\/strong><\/em> @ Clwb, 16<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Vincent Moon: <\/strong>Petites Planetes<\/strong><\/em>, Chapter, 17<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Suspiria<\/strong><\/em> with soundtrack by Fake Blood, Chapter, 18<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Quite the month for expertly-tuned bespoke festivals stuffed to the gills with rewarding audio-visual treats.\u00a0 To the list, add the fourth instalment of Soundtrack, the multi-disciplinary film and music event presenting premieres, talks, workshops and A\/V events in Cardiff and Newport.\u00a0 The crowning presentation will be a rare screening of Argento\u2019s classic Suspiria<\/em> with \u2013 controversially, perhaps \u2013 a complete rescoring, down to all sound effects and cues, by Fake Blood.\u00a0 A proper labour of love and definitely worth experiencing.\u00a0 Vincent Moon, the Parisian director whose All Tomorrow\u2019s Parties<\/em> longform doc and Take-Away Shows<\/em> series established his unmistakable style in capturing scores of intimate musical sessions, spent four years on the road piecing together an Alan Lomax\/Sublime Frequencies-style ethnographical record of musical and traditional cultures across the world, and his Petites Planetes<\/em> film presents that.\u00a0 It\u2019s also free entry!\u00a0 Bargain.\u00a0 Elsewhere, the excellent dudes behind Darkened Rooms screen actor Michael Rapaport\u2019s story of A Tribe Called Quest at Clwb \u2013 in Darkened Rooms tradition, expect some excellent bonus content there \u2013 while a very different, but no less enthralling tale is told in The Miners\u2019 Hymns<\/em>, Bill Morrison\u2019s study of the mining communities of North-East England and their colliery band history, scored by Johann Johannsson and presented here with live music from the Tylerstown Band.\u00a0 Throw in features on Bowie and Bobby Bare Jr, chat with David Arnold and all manner of other good things and your only problem would seem to be fitting it into five days.<\/p>\n

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SUPERSILENT feat. JOHN PAUL JONES \/ AKI ONDA, Arnolfini, 17<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

This is something of a coup, being one of five UK shows that eminent Norwegian improv jazz trio Supersilent are performing augmented by ex-Led Zeppelin dude John Paul Jones.\u00a0 Famously founded on the principle of never rehearsing, with each of their eleven albums to date entirely improvised around a guiding theme, their eternally questing approach sees them ricochet between jazz, electronica and oblique modern composition with breathless, freewheeling creativity.\u00a0 Predominantly working with fierce electro-acoustic jazz, ambient minimalism and raging, complex noise workouts, their genuinely unique album sessions have heralded some diverse results; early albums made prominent use of electronics, while more recently there have been diversions both necessary (the departure of their drummer preceded an album comprised entirely of treated Hammond organs) and deliberate (Supersilent 6<\/em>\u2019s detours into free-flowing krautrock-influenced noodling, Supersilent 10<\/em>\u2019s grand piano and lyrical, expressive trumpet). <\/em>John Paul Jones\u2019s storied career \u00a0\u2013 working with Diamanda Galas, Brian Eno and Sonic Youth, scoring and writing operas and playing with countless roots and country bands \u2013 is impressively eclectic, which should serve him fine in this company.\u00a0 Support Aki Onda, meanwhile, is a New York-based electronic composer who processes and manipulates sound and field recordings using the Walkman.\u00a0 Beautiful, complex pieces, they act as audio diaries of 20 years of travel and personal experience.<\/p>\n

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GRAVENHURST, Buffalo & Louisiana, 19<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup> & 20<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Though his continued presence on Warp will always seem an anomaly, it’s really one of the least intriguing things about Nick Talbot’s work as Gravenhurst. A willowy folk-rock that can be elliptically pretty, Talbot’s music\u00a0creates moods that always threaten to darken; a crackling, elemental air hangs over Gravenhurst’s music, frequently breaking out into fuzz-heavy psych and a brooding, exquisitely detailed take on MBV’s sonic world. The doleful melancholia of Flashlight Seasons <\/em>and its companion piece Black Holes In The Sand<\/em> reappears on this year’s The Ghost In Daylight<\/em>, now sitting within layers of reverb, feedback and murk, a peculiar English folk music somewhere between Hood, Flying Saucer Attack and Alexander Tucker. Beautifully mordant stuff, with past lyrical preoccupations with violence and its perpetrators, disaffection and unpicking compulsive behaviour. It rewards closer attention several times over; let’s hope the Cardiff date, in particular, grants him it.<\/p>\n

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THREATMANTICS \/ RATATOSK \/ TOTEM TERRORS \/ IVAN MOULT, Gwdihw, 22nd<\/sup><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last September I wrote a preview for a Threatmantics gig in Gwdihw that alluded to the forthcoming release of their second album.\u00a0 Over a year later, the album has a name, Kid McCoy<\/em>, a label \u2013 Nottingham micro-indie\/folk enterprise Folkwit, who\u2019ve released stuff by No Thee No Ess and Joyce The Librarian among many others \u2013 and will, hopefully, be out before the year ends.\u00a0 It\u2019s had a lengthy gestation, but such is the way when you\u2019re out on your own; it\u2019s good that it\u2019s coming out at all.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start the Welsh Music Prize 2013 nomination buzz at this gig, then, where a cracking line-up will assist them in celebrating its completion.\u00a0 Ratatosk was spectacularly great in the Sherman\u2019s cavernous foyer space the other week, with brittle, beautiful Broken Leaf-style acoustic songs trialled alongside intricately layered, see-sawing post-rock epics arranged for harmonium and musical saw.\u00a0 Totem Terrors, equally, are consistently hitting their doubles of late; boiling down arty post-punk of a Slits\/Elastica\/Wire nature to the bare bones, their deliciously arch ditties are hugely persuasive.\u00a0 As for Threatmantics themselves, those who principally recall their clattering, windmilling folk-punk from Upbeat Love<\/em> days have missed a trick.\u00a0 Lacing the superior grit and punch they now carry with occasional eye-of-the-storm tenderness, their knack for writing indelibly catchy songs of love and madness and tethering them to giddy, reeling noise is still one of the finest things around.<\/p>\n

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WHITE FENCE \/ H. HAWKLINE, Clwb, 28<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Following a slightly uninspiring recent run of stolid singer-songwriter fare Swn’s bookings are right on the money this month, following Laetitia Sadier’s show with this just-announced gem. White Fence is Tim Presley, who’s served time in hardcore bands, billowy psych-rock bands, garage pop bands and, for 2006’s <\/span>Reformation Post TLC<\/em><\/span>, as lead guitarist in the Fall. This is his enduring love, though; quivering<\/span>, lo-fi Anglophile psychedelia drawing on Syd Barrett, 60s acid folk, a Beefheart playfulness and the freakier end of the Kinks or Small Faces. The warped, distortion-heavy nuggets on his <\/span>Family Perfume<\/em><\/span> double-set are an excellent intro point for the uninitiated, rolling his melodic shrapnel in the same grease and grit that the likes of Sic Alps, Fresh & Onlys and Ty Segall revel in. It was pretty much an inevitability that he’d collaborate with Segall, the resulting garage\/psych jolts on <\/span>Hair <\/em><\/span>among either’s best work yet. It’s a <\/span>dream ticket to pair Presley up with Huw Evans; their cut & paste, rustic psych jams cut with pin-sharp dark pop gems are two of a kind. What odds on a White Fence\/H. Hawkline album within days of this? Yes please. <\/span><\/p>\n

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ICEAGE, Croft, 28<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

Skinny wolves out of Copenhagen, Iceage emerged perfectly formed with 2011\u2019s New Brigade<\/em>, a perfect storm of hardcore\u2019s energy and purposeful anger, post-punk\u2019s chilly, sparse atmospherics and choppy, brittle lead guitars and a tiny bit of gothic gloom around the edges.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s Scandinavian ennui, or maybe they just really like early Joy Division.\u00a0 Either way, it\u2019s urgent without being gauche, politicised without being preachy, and sounds entirely personal but is almost ludicrously approachable.\u00a0 Frontman Elias R\u00f8nnenfelt is also one half of V\u00e5r, a brilliant electro-noise death cult boyband offshoot on Sacred Bones who are well worth looking into.\u00a0 Anyway, get into this; a short, sharp blast of oddball punk fervour from kids who grew up miles from scenes and just happened to tap into something great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VISIONARY KINGDOM: KODE 9, MFO & MS. HAPTIC \/ AURA SATZ \/ BEN RUSSELL (1st) \/ TAI SHANI \/ VICKI BENNETT (2nd) \/ RAIME \/ EMPTYSET \/ BUGBRAND (3rd), all Arnolfini Picking up where I left off last month, this run of gloriously eclectic, hyper-creative audio-visual shows continues into early November with an excellent line-up.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":24425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2230,458],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","category-preview"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}