Author: Spirit of Gravity

Next radio broadcast on ResonanceExtra FM: Sunday 22nd September – 8.00 to 10.00pm

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Gravity Waves and the Spirit World

Sunday 22nd September 2024 from 8.00 to 10.00pm on ResonanceExtra FM, DAB radio or online at extra.resonance.fm/

This month’s show is drawn from two compilations featuring friends of the Spirit of Gravity, “WE DON’T BELONG HERE VOL.1” which is compiled by the Unwanted attention night, and “Exploring an Exploding Soundtrack” compiled by Nil By Nose, both local, and both albums are available from Bandcamp – plus the 6th instalment from Spectral Transmissions: Peripheral Visions

Ascsoms – Scraping Moonshit off your boots / King Dong Quixote – Manimal / The Oneirologist – Reflections On The Motive Power of Fire / Nil by nose – OverTime in a Zord Factory / Thee Boxx Menn – Box 10 (Live) / St3v3L33 – Zord and the Ranger’s Temple of Power / IOM – State Terrorism / Brian Combe – Radioactive Monster Munch / Sonaura – Waiting Mode #1 / Nightclub in a Volcano – Old Zord New Zord

Spectral Visions:
“Before it all seemed so simple, things cast shadows. 
But now it turned out that shadows cast things, or perhaps things didn’t exist at all”
Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky

In the sixth episode of Spectral Transmissions as the shadows start to lengthen we turn our minds to the place where the street lights end. Out here on the periphery, flickering visions and half heard noises scuff our logic with their insistent truancy. Fragments of things unbound by our narrow grasping.
On cold winter nights we would occasionally perceive a strange glimmering of lights, a marked pulsating luminosity in the very  edges of our vision accompanied by a vibrant oscillating frequency of sound, taking in certain cases, the form of bright circular waves, which seem to move from out on the periphery inward towards the centre, but if we tried to look directly at them to see them more clearly they evaded us, seeming  to drift and fade, dissipating like so much smoke.

The August edition of the Spirit of Gravity Radio show is available on the ResonanceFM Mixcloud page:
www.mixcloud.com/resonanceextra/gravity-waves-and-the-spirit-world-spectral-transmissions-out-of-office-holiday-special-25th-aug/
This edition features new recordings from the orbit of the Spirit of Gravity including Sealionwoman, Ugly Animal, Keith Seaton & Thomas Stone, plus archive releases from BBBlood & the Dizzy Tiger label, plus the 5th mix from Spectral Transmissions: Out of Office Holiday Special

Thursday 5th September at the Rossi Bar: Bantu / Yewen Jin / Armatures

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Bantu: Bass music noise
Yewen Jin: Viscerally dreamy post drone
Armatures: Sturdy beats underpinning softly glitching machine music

Bantu: Gary Stewart is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of sound, moving image and computational creativity. His work examines social and political issues of identity, culture, and technology. Through the application of innovative technologies and practices he is part of a global network of collaborators who are advocates for equality, climate justice and better health through the arts especially those from marginalised communities. Operating through a range of theoretical, fictional, and artistic frames, his work traverses media art, experimental music, and research.
www.garystewart.org/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0fwppfPiGg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th1WZbomLsA&t=20s

Yewen Jin is a multidisciplinary artist and research based curator who has been investigating the relationship between the self, the body and reality as systems of stimuli in the post-digital era. Her work primarily focused on data-driven real-time remote collaboration in sound and movement, particularly in the context of performances and events spaces.
Coming from the background of architecture, philosophy and mathematics, she is particularly interested in creating experiences through mediums at the crossing between the virtual and the physical construction of space-time intervals such as performance, music, digital place making and story telling.
Yewen is also co-founder of Skopetur, a new media tech research based curatorial and event production platform for globally linked network performances. And has been involved with Chinabot who have curated a night at The Rose Hill.
yewenjin.com/

Armatures is Brighton-based electronic musician Preston Parris (previously recorded as preston.outatime). This live set will feature works from his new album Limitation, late-night ambience, with sturdy yet gentle beats, underpinning glitching machine music, reminiscent of Mesh recordings or early Boards Of Canada without the hauntological aspects.
Morse code beats and shuddering chords.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mraqk3eANRM
armaturesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/limitation

Chris [Symmetrical Forces] creates live visuals for each performance using his own lo-fi footage, dusty VHS tapes and obscure videos from the internet to create futuristic images from the past overlayed with out-of-reach memories and vague fragments of lost visions.

The Rossi Bar is a small grade II building, and they are restricted with how they can improve access for anyone with mobility issues. The live music venue is located in the basement, which can only be accessed by a short spiral staircase. More accessibility information and images of the venue are in this document:
spiritofgravity.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/The-Spirit-of-Gravity-at-The-Rossi-Bar-for-audience-members.pdf

Unfortunately, we’re unable to livestream more of our gigs, due to internet problems at the venue, but you can still catch us streaming live music sets from home at stream.gravitons.org.

“The Spirit of Gravity: making experimental music a threat again – since 2001”

Thursday 5th September 2024 | 8pm – 10.30pm | £5 (cash only)
Downstairs @ The Rossi Bar
8 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3WA

Wringing loose the tiny titans

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September 2024
The Rossi Bar

Armatures started the first track with watery whistles and strings before long bass vibratos tucked in under an arpeggiated piano. Moving on with staccato piano and noises which nearly get overwhelmed by this vast squelching noise that mutates as it sounds into liquid mud. The third track segues straight out of that with an Orbital-ish repetitive stabbing, eventually joined by synth-y water and  a half time kick. The drums get all glitched and we get a bit of filter on the synths. The fourth starts light, interweaving high synths pinging about, featherweight pads swirl and a fast beat kicks us off into space, planets spin past… mmmm arpeggios breakdown, then it gets a bit tougher, filtering and such, harder sounds. More pinging arpeggios and strings on the fifth. The sixth starts again watery this time aquatic piano, bubbles and an emerging rhythm track that dances around the synth  parts and the rhythm., before a stammering pointillistic superfast synth part. The final track starts with wind synths, seagulls, and a deep Edgar Froese arpeggio and string synth combo. Nice. Mid-tempo, a breakdown brings in the drums, some really great development on this track and a great rounding off for the set.

Due to stuff we had a bit of a sneak preview of the start of Yewen Jin’s set as a line check, but that didn’t matter, as it meant we got to hear it twice. She starts with nicely textured drones and a very digital sounding synth taking a bagpipe like line around it swirling up and down through several octaves. There’s repletion, almost, things drift, the drones slowly move in pitch and timbre, the synth line misses notes. Add new ones. Splits notes. Almost merging with the drone and shooting off again at tangents. The drone hitting a churchy tone. A single not leads us out of this, passage, then does that same thing of sliding up and down its melodic line, a melancholic counter line, low, reflects back weeping. Some mutating bubbling bass monster comes up inside this sound – dragon in a cave-like, the melodic lines get subsumed by abstract beeps and detuning tones. Suddenly there’s reverb and cavern feelings. And amazing levels of sub-bass. For something that comes across as simple superficially, there are amazing levels of sonic detail. Rumbles, pencil swishing, reverbs and slapback delay. Swipes, bells. There’s a lengthy passage of chiming piano.  More detuning synths, some kind of tacking machine, melodic burbling delay feedback. There’s some weird point  where Ennio Morricone gets munged with John Carpenter in a nightmare fairground. Her set ends on drones then Casio notes and delayed synth meeps.

And rounding off the evening we had Bantu, Gary testing out a new set and some new kit for a show in Finland. It’s a pretty low key start, some whirring, some humming, he has a bell which he processes and loops through the synth, there’s a slow bass drum that slowly fades up and modulates into a tone, then back again. Other synths spin off, some radio interference, delay whirrs, horror sounds, chirping. The first half of the set continues like this, that pulse that goes through the whole thing morphing away, sometimes fading to nothing, but always seemingly returning. There’s a lot of space, and not much bass. Odd radiophonic interludes of clanger conversation take over, watery burbles, robot dogs barking. Slowly it gets more structured, a stepping fuzzed synth line build in intensity, getting thicker and noisier, faster and more intense. There’s a short break and we get a perhaps more usual “Bantu” set of tumbling basslines, thick and raucously burbling away, the final piece starting again as some nightmarish radiophonic set of beeps and tones that slowly takes on more and more disturbingly loud forms, some ghoulish humming and resonance whistling. Emerging from inside this we get some hard bass tone slapping, everything converging into the upper registers for the end.



New release on the Spirit of Gravity BandCamp label: Andrew Greaves – a listener’s response to urban walking

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A further release from Spirit of Gravity arrives on 1 August – from Spheress, entitled Fowl.
Fowl comprises two tracks of blunt, glacial and shimmering electronics, which contrast with the earlier, more dancefloor-friendly cuts from Spheress (aka Stan Reader-Allen).
A slow crawl builds towards cold, dark, oppressive soundscape icebergs, while stripped down, distant beats allow murky electronic noise to lap at the listener’s feet.
Stream or downloaded from 1 August at: spiritofgravity.bandcamp.com/album/fowl

Next radio broadcast on ResonanceExtra FM: Sunday 25th August – 8.00 to 10.00pm

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

Gravity Waves and the Spirit World

Sunday 25th August 2024 from 8.00 to 10.00pm on ResonanceExtra FM, DAB radio or online at extra.resonance.fm/

This edition features new recordings from the orbit of the Spirit of Gravity including Sealionwoman, Ugly Animal, Keith Seaton & Thomas Stone, plus archive releases from BBBlood & the Dizzy Tiger label, plus the 5th mix from Spectral Transmissions: Out of Office Holiday Special:
Gravity Waves: Sealionwoman – Butchers Broom / BBBlood – untitled track from September 2009 / Ugly Animal – Hammered / Thomas Stone – host 2 / Stay Out Forever – Cars (Rashamon’s first mix) / Frontier Telegraph – AX / Keith Seatman – Jumbled Letters / Thomas Stone – host 5 (Bias C) / Ugly Animal – Drift back and Forward

The Spirit World: Spectral Transmissions # 05: OUT OF OFFICE HOLIDAY SPECIAL

Generic On Hold Introduction. You have reached {COMPANY NAME} – a leader in the {type of industry} industry. You will be assisted shortly. Please note that all calls are answered in the order they are received. Your profile is looking great. Your work and accomplishments are being recognized.
Thank you for your message. Unfortunately all our advisors are currently busy and you are in a queue. You are number (insert number) in the queue. We will be with you as soon as possible.
Selecting chat with us will let our advisors know you’re waiting. They will be with you as soon as possible. We will be away from the office until (insert return date) for (insert general reason). If you require immediate assistance, please contact (insert name of colleague) at (colleague’s contact information). Otherwise, we will get back to you after we return.
I wait for your response.

The July edition of the Spirit of Gravity Radio show is available on the ResonanceFM Mixcloud page:
www.mixcloud.com/resonanceextra/gravity-waves-and-the-spirit-world-above-us-the-waves-21st-july-2024/
This show includes the Spectral Transmissions Research Unit Edition # 04: Above Us the Waves, plus sneak previews and friends – an upcoming guest, an upcoming release, and some local friends including collective members Dan Powell and Andrew Greaves:

New release on the Spirit of Gravity BandCamp label: Screaming Alice – A Game of Three Halves

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Another release from Spirit of Gravity lands on 22 August – a recording debut from Screaming Alice, entitled ‘A game of three halves’. Recorded live in one take, this is a bubbling and hypnotic slice of improvised electronica from this Brighton-Hove duo (and Spirit of Gravity collectivists) Andrew Greaves and Howard Spencer. Three long form pieces of contrasting shape and texture evoke a sense of moving through an ever-changing sound landscape. There are hints of motorik rhythms, a looseness and a loucheness; you may even wish to move your feet.
Stream or downloaded from today at: spiritofgravity.bandcamp.com/album/a-game-of-three-halves

Thursday 1st August at the Rossi Bar: Meljoann / Simon Pyke / Marienbad

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Meljoann: Disturbing R&B, hyper-capitalist video testimonials
Simon Pyke: Presents high fidelity 4/4
Marienbad: PlunderDSP xenoarthropod ambience

Former Skam and Warp artist Simon Pyke revisits the Spirit of Gravity with a side step to his regular abstractions with a set of slow burning 4/4 dance floor meditations.
Simon has contributed to a diverse array of projects. These includes collaborating with Hans Zimmer on a surround sound installation for BMW, soundtracking a projection show at the Sydney Opera House, and complete television rebrands for SKY TV and MTV. Additionally, he has soundtracked major multi-room exhibitions, such as the Universal Everything Lifeforms show.
Simon emerged onto the scene during the wave of innovation within electronic music in the mid-1990s. During this period, he released music on various labels, including Warp Records, and graced live stages at iconic venues such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Sonar Festival in Barcelona. He last played at The Spirit of Gravity about 18 months ago.
simonpyke.bandcamp.com/
www.freefarm.co.uk/music

Meljoann is a hyperjack producer from Ireland. Her sound pits soulful vocals against spiky lyrics; lush synths against industrial noise. In the US, her tracks have been championed by Pitchfork, Beats Per Minute, XLR8 and KEXP radio. Since moving to Brighton, UK she’s been supported by Gemma Bradley at BBC, Dummy Mag, HMUK and the Arts Council of England. Irish endorsement includes Dan Hegarty, Cian Ó Cíobháin and Tara Stewart at RTÉ radio, Irish Times, Nialler9, and Hot Press.
www.meljoann.com/
faircamp.meljoann.com/

Marienbad: elements of noise, glitch, ambient, drone, field recordings and the like heavily processed.
marryinbed.bandcamp.com/

Chris [Symmetrical Forces] creates live visuals for each performance using his own lo-fi footage, dusty VHS tapes and obscure videos from the internet to create futuristic images from the past overlayed with out-of-reach memories and vague fragments of lost visions.

The Rossi Bar is a small grade II building, and they are restricted with how they can improve access for anyone with mobility issues. The live music venue is located in the basement, which can only be accessed by a short spiral staircase. More accessibility information and images of the venue are in this document:
spiritofgravity.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/The-Spirit-of-Gravity-at-The-Rossi-Bar-for-audience-members.pdf

If you can’t make it to the Rossi Bar, you can now live stream all of our gigs on our new Owncast platform at stream.gravitons.org/.

“The Spirit of Gravity: making experimental music a threat again – since 2001”

Thursday 1st August 2024 | 8pm – 10.30pm | £5 (cash only)
Downstairs @ The Rossi Bar
8 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3WA