{"id":28235,"date":"2013-02-28T23:24:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T23:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejoycollective.co.uk\/blog\/?p=28235"},"modified":"2014-09-04T11:43:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T11:43:15","slug":"march-preview-live-highlights-this-month-for-cardiff-and-bristol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/preview\/march-preview-live-highlights-this-month-for-cardiff-and-bristol\/","title":{"rendered":"March preview: live highlights this month for Cardiff and Bristol"},"content":{"rendered":"

KRAFTWERK CONSOLATION NIGHT, Chapter, 1st<\/sup><\/b><\/p>\n

Cracking idea, this; part comment on the clunky and frustrating exercise of trying to get tickets for Kraftwerk\u2019s recent eight-night residency at Tate Modern, part celebration of the legendary electronic pioneers\u2019 work and part opportunity for Cardiff bands and musicians to play dress-up and cover the group\u2019s music in the style of their choosing.\u00a0 Exact details of participants are being kept tantalisingly under wraps, though the diversity in approach suggested by the self-confirmed likes of Jemma Roper, Pen Pastwn and Local Sports Team indicates it\u2019ll be great fun.\u00a0 The irony is that this event itself is pretty much sold out as I type, so you\u2019d better be prepared to queue for returns if you want to get in.\u00a0 At least it\u2019ll be warmer in Chapter\u2019s foyer than on the wintry streets of South London.<\/p>\n

POINO \/ BRANDYMAN \/ BRATAN, Buffalo, 4<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

The first of two killer line-ups this month brought to you by the hot stuff tag team of FYB and Lesson No. 1, this one\u2019s all pounding angular menace and twitchy, belligerent frontmen.\u00a0 That\u2019s with the notable exception of Mancunian openers Bratan, a guitar\/drum duo who eke out a remarkable range of sound from so basic a set up.\u00a0 With the force of their playing it would be good enough as a straight-ahead noise-rock assault – and when they drop their guard and swing big, it is – but the build-ups, moving through swarming drones and metallic This Heat clanking, are powerfully effective.\u00a0 There\u2019s a claustrophobic Slint\/Rodan air to them too.\u00a0 Repping for a different strand of early 90s US noise are headliners Poino, making it over the bridge for the first time (they also return to Bristol this month with excellent Lightning Bolt-via-Beefheart Norweigans St\u00e6r in tow).\u00a0 It\u2019s muscular, itchy stuff, seizure-inducing guitars and an absurdly tight rhythm section holding it down behind the splenetic, gruff vocal convulsions of ex-Giddy Motors dude Gaverick de Vis. Think classic Skin Graft \/ AmRep label oddballs \u2013 Cows, Jesus Lizard, Dazzling Killmen, US Maple \u2013 and you won\u2019t go far wrong.\u00a0 Brandyman, settling in to their further enhanced five-piece line-up, will clearly be right at home here.<\/p>\n

ISLET \/ WRONGS \/ JOY COLLECTIVE DJs, Gwdihw, 6<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

Their last UK date before a trip to SXSW, this is an opportunity to explore the latest work-in-progress missives from the Islet hive mind in unusually intimate surroundings, supported by one of Cardiff\u2019s least assuming yet most promising dark horses and while ignoring and\/or belittling the chumps playing wilfully obscure records between bands.\u00a0 Hi!\u00a0 Islet, of course, need no introduction here, short of a reminder that their dense, kinetic collision of massed percussion, ecstatic whoops and chants and shuddering, danceable afrobeat\/krautrock\/psych jams is one of the very finest, most inclusive things you can witness live.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been in the studio with Steve Baboo of late, trying out new ideas on the fly, and you should rightly be very excited to hear them.\u00a0 Get there early.\u00a0 Wrongs’ recently published tracks widen their scope to take in prowling, malevolent psych-pop with actual audible vocals and monstrous bass riffs; if the title of ‘Hjide In Your Homes’ is the doff of the cap to Wooden Shjips I think it is, then the track itself has a focus and directness that band could utilise more often.<\/p>\n

RICHARD DAWSON \/ TOM O.C. WILSON \/ TWO WHITE CRANES, Cube, 6<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

Did you miss this<\/a>?\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re not angry, or even disappointed.\u00a0 It\u2019s OK.<\/i>\u00a0 Just make sure you go and see Richard Dawson here instead.\u00a0 Awesome cathartic folk shredding,\u00a0warm, genuine humour and raw-throated acapella beauty.\u00a0 The loveliest man.\u00a0 Y\u2019know, our bill was better, but \u2013 look, it\u2019s fine.\u00a0 Just didn\u2019t want you to miss out completely.<\/p>\n

JOHN PARISH\u2019S SCREENPLAY \/ NIVE NIELSEN AND THEIR DEER CHILDREN, St George\u2019s, 14<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

WILL GREGORY MOOG ENSEMBLE \/ DROKK, St George\u2019s, 21<\/b>st<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

In a spirit similar to that of Cardiff\u2019s Soundtrack festival, Filmic \u2013 a collaboration between St George\u2019s and the Watershed theatre \u2013 presents a full three-month programme of concerts, talks and films linked to three individual composers.\u00a0 May\u2019s programme celebrates the work of Philip Glass, with a rare and unmissable performance by the man himself.\u00a0 Before that, Goldfrapp\u2019s Will Gregory is April\u2019s focus, although confusingly his Moog Ensemble play this month.\u00a0 Either way, it sounds fantastic<\/i>; a ten-strong group of moog operatives recreate electronic classics and original compositions, saluting the inimitable, pioneering scores of Wendy Carlos among others.\u00a0 Appearing with them under their Drokk alias are Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, bringing alive their expertly tooled-up homage to Judge Dredd with banks of vintage synths and ominous low-end rumble redolent of classic Moroder, John Carpenter and Vangelis scores.\u00a0 First up, though, is March\u2019s resident John Parish, best known for a long association with PJ Harvey which has taken in two full collaborative LPs, production duties and spells in her live band.\u00a0 He\u2019s also worked closely with Giant Sand, Eels and Sparklehorse, and perhaps more pointedly scored widely for film and TV over a 25-year plus career.\u00a0 He\u2019ll perform selected works with support from the blossoming alt-folk of Greenlandic musician Nive Nielsen.\u00a0 Check out the Filmic programme<\/a>\u00a0for full details.<\/p>\n

DISABILITY \/ ZINC BUKOWSKI \/ HOMOH \/ THINK PRETTY, Buffalo, 15<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

Another top line-up care of FYB and Lesson No. 1, led by the welcome return of some of Leicester’s creeping sludge monsters Diet Pills.\u00a0 Disability take up where DP left off and drag that genre’s good name through a crackling, oppressive noise-rock\/pigfuck mire, oppressively slow and despairingly heavy, by way of the Jesus Lizard, Melvins’ treacly stop-start dynamics and Harvey Milk.\u00a0 Horribly great.\u00a0 Zinc Bukowski’s murky, pounding noise-punk – Mudhoney, Big Black, Sister<\/em>-era Sonic Youth – delivers in spades across their Nature Finds A Way In The Face Of Woe<\/em> LP, a trebly, ugly, grin-inducing clamour. \u00a0The supporting cast are a mere handful of gigs old but already promising; HOMOH do impeccably sludgy heaviness incorporating a kind of grungy metallic classicism befitting a band with one of The Witches Drum on board, while Think Pretty are a very different but no less impressive proposition, a no-bullshit guitar\/drum duo with Laura’s powerful Kathleen Hanna-meets-Carrie Brownstein vocals lifting their direct, stripped-down grunge\/punk a few crucial steps up.<\/p>\n

HALO HALO \/ EXPENSIVE, Caf\u00e9 Kino, 15<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

Caf\u00e9 Kino are putting on gigs again!\u00a0 Or, at least, they are telling you, the public about them.\u00a0 Either way, good work dudes.\u00a0 Following shows with Mike & Solveig (Trembling Bells\/Lucky Luke alumni doing psych-folk in the String Band tradition) and Rae Spoon there\u2019s this corker of a double bill.\u00a0 Halo Halo contain one of the members of Trash Kit who aren\u2019t also in Golden Grrrls and are just as great, in a different way, as both of those bands; chiming, excitable DIY dance-pop which nods to Electrelane and the Raincoats and other such wonderful things.\u00a0 Debut single \u2018Manananggal\u2019 is a twice sold-out gem, all skittering drums, twanging banjo and haunted, beckoning vocals.\u00a0\u00a0 EXPENSIVE (note caps, please) are a hugely charming Bristol trio who do glitchy, swooping Rn\u2019B-inflected electro-pop which keeps the confidential, heartworn openness of big hitters like the xx but has a defiant tenderness reminiscent of similarly lovelorn 80s indie pop of a Field Mice or Marine Girls kind.\u00a0\u00a0 Vocalist Grace is also in lo-fi popsters and former Caf\u00e9 Kino artists in residence The Middle Ones, who play Wales Goes Pop this month; among about a million other arts, publishing and music enterprises she\u2019s also in a band called Lynx Africa, which is just a fucking great name.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Kollaps #3: QUEER\u2019D SCIENCE \/ ANTONI MAIOVVI (DJ set) \/ THE HYSTERICAL INJURY \/ THE DIVIDED CIRCLE, Cavern Club, 16<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

Unmissable sexdeathnoise bliss here, coming care of one set of Joy pals (Big Joan, who run the excellent Kollaps nights) and headlined by another.\u00a0 Queer\u2019d Science, for it is they, utterly slayed for us in Buffalo a few months back and will doubtless do so again. White-hot no wave disco catharsis recalling Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Ex Models and the relentless, giddy ferocity of prime Lightning Bolt, their shuddering bare-wire strobe-effect attack is showcased perfectly on the staggeringly great five tracks they contribute to a split LP with Year Of Birds for the One label.\u00a0 It contains some of the finest song titles of this or any other recent time (\u2018America\u2019s Next Top Modem\u2019, \u2018Denbigh Menstrual\u2019) and will destroy you.\u00a0 Amazing band.\u00a0Only slightly more controlled is the chaos unleashed by freewheeling dervish siblings Hysterical Injury, whose epileptic drumming and wildcat bass fuzz are backed up by unabashed, gleeful posturing and jubilant pop hooks.\u00a0 It’s disquieting to hear something and be reminded of the year 2002, but The Divided Circle do, albeit refracted through Disco Inferno dreampop and the parched drum machines of early Human League; their debut recalls the dusty electronica of Hood and even Kings Of Convenience’s hushed folk at its two extreme points, and it’s no bad thing at all.<\/p>\n

Shape presents RHODRI DAVIES \/ GINKO, Four Bars, 22<\/b>nd<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

Aberystwyth-born, Gateshead-based harpist Rhodri Davies has been a leading name in classical and avant-garde composition for over a decade now, collaborating widely (Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, David Toop and Richard Dawson, for example) and relishing in the sometimes literal deconstruction of his chosen instrument (Room Harp<\/em>, his 2010 installation, had a dismembered harp ‘played’ by its surroundings;\u00a0Fire Harp<\/em> is exactly as it sounds). \u00a0 Having made a name for his\u00a0hyper-minimalist take on the form,\u00a0recent work\u00a0has seen a startling increase in volume and presence.\u00a0 This is particularly true of last year’s\u00a0Wound Response<\/em>.\u00a0 Drawing influence from across Africa – Konono No.1’s Congotronics<\/em>‘ insistent polyrhythms, the dizzying tangle of pealing guitars found in Mississippi Records’ incredible African Guitar Box, <\/em>bits of the Ethiopiques<\/em> series – you can also hear the contemporary free jazz of Smalltown Supersound and John Fahey raga in its ecstatic, overdriven power. \u00a0 It’s a dizzying, blissful and progressive cross-cultural joy.\u00a0 Get there early to catch a rare show from Ginko, whose shadowy drones and oscillations are produced on homemade instruments and triggered by light sources.\u00a0 Ambitious and exciting booking from Shape.\u00a0 Get involved!<\/p>\n

SQUAREPUSHER, Thekla, 28<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

The trouble with prolificacy as a musician is that after a certain length of time you become so written about that the critical subject becomes less your music itself than your motives, intentions, your career path.\u00a0 Your evolution<\/em> as an artist.\u00a0 Around the time Squarepusher released Ultravisitor<\/em> in 2004, pushing his love of jazz fusion and brilliant live musicianship more to the fore than before, reviews spoke of Jenkinson maturing, moving away from the spastic breakbeats and mangled rave chop-ups of old.\u00a0 Once that pattern was established it became easy to assess subsequent work for what it appeared to represent, adding unnecessary baggage to the goofy Daft Punk send-ups of Shobaleader One\u00a0<\/em>or the strobing neon riffs peppering Just A Souvenir<\/em>.\u00a0 Truth is, he’s as restless and contrarian as he ever was, and if the cruder d’n’b pastiches of 1997 aren’t on the radar anymore then maybe it’s just because they belong to another time. \u00a0Ufabulum\u00a0<\/em>still has a quicksilver magpie thrill about it, seeming to borrow back from those he’s influenced (Rustie’s metallic sheen, Flying Lotus’ rubbery hiphop bounce) much in the way that Kieren Hebden isn’t afraid to filter through the new sounds he admires.\u00a0 It’s the sort of evolutionary spirit that keeps Squarepusher live shows brilliantly thrilling and fun even while you’re watching a guy play hyperspeed jazz bass in a laser cradle.\u00a0 ‘Even while’?\u00a0 Try ‘especially while’.<\/p>\n

BILGE PUMP \/ BEARDS \/ THE JELAS, County Sports Club, 29<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

A double dose of brilliant from Leeds with Bristol’s most joyous clatter-pop diamonds in support, this is one of the finest line-ups presented all month. I seem to have used Bilge Pump as a comparison point here way more often than I’ve actually written about them. An indication of my very limited abilities as a writer, yes, but also of their idiosyncratic cross-genre appeal and frustratingly irregular output.\u00a0 Tempo-shifting real-ale post-punk with a healthy prog influence, a lyrical imagery all its own and a mindbending, weirdly groovy lurch somewhere between King Crimson, Devo and Jacob’s Mouse.\u00a0 Treasure them. Beards are vaguely reminiscent of what in the recent past might have been described as ‘dancepunk’, but that’s a reductive and insufficient view of their fidgety avant-noise.\u00a0 As technical and proggy as Bilge Pump in their arrangements, the nimbly hopping basslines and defiant, gleeful yelp of ‘Take A Picture’ (“it’ll last longer!”<\/em>) typifies their thrilling Delta 5 \/ Erase Errata clatter.\u00a0 The Jelas could play in my front room at 6.00 every night and it would never be too often.\u00a0 Jittery tempos, stream-of-consciousness call and response vocals, cooing pop hooks and a sheer love of making such a fine noise.\u00a0 Plus the best Roger Federer joke you’ve ever heard.\u00a0 Salute all of these people.<\/p>\n

WALES GOES POP FEST: THE PRIMITIVES \/ JOSIE LONG \/ WAVE PICTURES \/ ALLO DARLIN\u2019 \/ THE SCHOOL \/ LET’S WRESTLE \/ LAURA J MARTIN \/ SPENCER MCGARRY \/ JOANNA GRUESOME \/ loads more, The Gate \/ 10 Feet Tall, 29<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup>-31<\/b>st<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

A long-standing goal of Liz from the School, this Easter weekender \u2013 two days of gigs in the Gate, with a Sunday alldayer in 10 Feet Tall\/Undertone \u2013 brings together your indie and your pop from Wales and beyond in the spirit of Indietracks and the Popfest weekenders.\u00a0 We\u2019ll preview this in full elsewhere as there\u2019s way too much to cover in this space; needless to say the presence of the names above should be enough to reel you in, but further down the bill lie plenty of lesser known bands to scribble in your planner. Chelmsford’s Evans The Death add a little gloss and satisfying crunch to the formula, a glammy dreampop take on indie swooning that takes the TPOBPAH route to success.\u00a0 Cardiff’s own Joanna Gruesome look more towards the Pacific North-West for inspiration, unable to resist the classic trick of namechecking the bands on the coolest girl’s notebook and evoking the pedal worhsipping pop of Drop Nineteens, Superchunk or Urusei Yatsura.\u00a0 Edinburgh’s Kid Canaveral are great<\/em>, a curious but effective mix of knowingly witty Ballboy lyricism (‘Smash Hits’) and rollicking, danceable guitar pop, also notable for using boy-girl vocals that play off each other effectively rather than simper along in tandem.\u00a0 The Yearning are a textbook Elefant band, all irresistable Motown\/Ellie Greenwich key changes and soul-pop classicism, while the choppy, punkish sass of London trio The Tuts (whose ‘Tut Tut Tut’ is a dizzy great autobiographical spoken-sung rebuke to promoters, reviewers and anyone else who dare judge them by age and gender) may well be the weekend\u2019s secret highlight.\u00a0 This is a daunting undertaking on Liz and Kay\u2019s part \u2013 putting on any gig in the current climate is risky enough \u2013 and deserves all the support you can give it.\u00a0 Whether for a day or the whole lot, COME ALONG.<\/p>\n

THOUGHT FORMS, Exchange, 30<\/b>th<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

The sound of a band reaching their full potential at the optimum moment, Thought Forms\u2019 second album Ghost Mountain<\/i> coalesces some pretty broad-ranging and admirably manifest influences \u2013 strung-out, blackened drones, earthily gothic Alexander Tucker folk, the sludgy fuzz-rock classicism of Boris, undulating post-rock and shuddering walls of shoegazey fx, crackling distortion and sugar-sweet MBV melodies.\u00a0 If the latter are an unavoidable reference point, particularly given their own recent awakening, even a cursory listen to the disorientating rush of Ghost Mountain<\/i> reveals just how much the Bristol trio can wring out of two guitars and an entire lifetime\u2019s worth of pedals.\u00a0 Elemental, immersive and far-reaching stuff, and it\u2019s well worth checking out Deej\u2019s solo work<\/a> and Charlie\u2019s prolific, whacked-out improv drone output as Silver Stairs Of Ketchikan<\/a> while you\u2019re at it.\u00a0 All good.\u00a0 This hometown album launch concludes a jaunt supporting Esben & The Witch; the rest of the bill is still tantalisingly unclear but signing up is strongly recommended.<\/p>\n

GROUPER, Cube, 31<\/b>st<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

HIEROGLYPHIC BEING, secret Bristol location, 31<\/b>st<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

Liz Harris becomes the second artist in residence of the playthecube<\/i> series, though aside from this headline performance, the secretive afterparty featuring Hieroglyphic Being and a screening of Kieslowski\u2019s The Double Life Of Veronique<\/i> (no soundtrack suggested, at least yet) it\u2019s not exactly clear what form her residency will take.\u00a0 This is all so much splitting hairs, of course, as any opportunity to catch Grouper\u2019s lush amniotic lullabies and ghostly drones live should be taken wherever possible.\u00a0 Her last visit to Bristol, last April, centred around the Violet Replacement <\/i>tape collage, so it\u2019s rarer still to see a set of her (relatively) more conventional material.\u00a0 The recent The Man Who Died In His Boat<\/i>, a companion piece to 2008\u2019s Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill<\/i>, is an endlessly rewarding collection of smudged, heavy-eyed vignettes recalling This Mortal Coil, Juliana Barwick or Flying Saucer Attack; troubling and beautiful, frozen in amber.\u00a0 Jamal Moss\u2019 unique, utterly boundless soundworld, showcased in a ridiculously diverse, gleefully scrappy Fact Mix<\/a> from last year, gets a full six hours at the post-Grouper afterparty.\u00a0 There\u2019s a combined \u00a310 ticket available, which just sounds like good sense.<\/p>\n

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KRAFTWERK CONSOLATION NIGHT, Chapter, 1st Cracking idea, this; part comment on the clunky and frustrating exercise of trying to get tickets for Kraftwerk\u2019s recent eight-night residency at Tate Modern, part celebration of the legendary electronic pioneers\u2019 work and part opportunity for Cardiff bands and musicians to play dress-up and cover the group\u2019s music in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":28248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2230,458],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28235","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\/28235","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=28235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}