Author: Spirit of Gravity

That’s not the sort of thing I normally come here for

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

November 2017
Green Door Store

I’m Dr Buoyant

I'm Dr Buoyant

I’m Dr Buoyant kicks off the evening sharpish, set up at the side of the stage. He starts in with an uncanny wind, voices lost in the northerlies. It’s frankly terrifying. There are hints of tonalities before razor sharp his edges in to unbalance things for a while. The second piece starts with some modernist string loops on a nicely dissonant figure. This is augmented by some kind of gated phased wash, we get into some serious repetition, displaced slightly by the return of the harsh whine. Everything leaves us apart from the stabs, slowly getting more distorted. The third starts with a murmured conversation heard through a monastery corridor and two oaken doors, it loops and gets caught up in an echo of Tuxedomoon, before being belaboured by that distortion again. The parts circle around each other getting confused & harder to distinguish. Then a jet engine comes along with its orchestra and plays merry havoc and it ends.

Ahtuf Kontrol

Ahtuf Kontrol

Shortly thereafter we have Ahtuf Kontrol, starting with small clean guitar figures and some serious, if occasional bass ramps. They are lacking a dancer, and the trumpet player from the last time they played, but have gained a laptop to go alongside the keys. The bass is joined by sparkles of tones, odd detuning swoops and cascades forming a vast space music. At some stage the bass switches to drone and an odd sequence starts up and we get into some kind of dark Side of the Moon territory. But the rhythm keeps ambushing us with stops and starts, while someone gets messing about on the delays… We switch out of the big sounds for some high synth washes and get back to the pinging guitar and celestial chimes. After that brief respite a one note tonal bass steps up and brings some electric piano and more space (soundwise this time) things happen, then stop happening. What there is detunes, filters and sweeps away. Returns and gets tangled with a flurry of up the neck guitar strangling and we’re back into space for the final segment which hovers somewhere between Tangerine Dream and The Radiophonic Workshop.

The Diamond Family Archive

The Diamond Family Archive

The Diamond Family Archive all the way up from Devon, not your usual Spirit of Gravity setup, acoustic guitar, drums, hurdy-gurdy, zither. Hidden away are a couple of keyboards and enough effects pedals to keep us happy. We start with a drone, equal parts Casio, guitar, and well, everything really, the drums roll around beaten rather than sticked. Somewhere I’m sure is a buddha box, a scratchy bowed figure is slowly eked out of the murk on the guitar, the drone takes on a bit of a swirl and the guitar goes all Henry Flynt before everything drops away for some singing. Both of them sing. For a while. Then everything comes back slightly different. The guitar gets scratchy and starts to shred a bit sitting on the verge of feedback, a bowed violin loop gives a hint of Cale and the drums get a bit of exercise. And then it drops again for a lengthy bit of call and response over abstract drums and hit string loops, with rattles and bass string buzzes. The second song is called blackbird. It starts with cymbal washes and wiped guitar string loops. The Casio drone is a bit more prominent on this song. At least at first. Some really articulate guitar flourishes get into odd loops while one of them plays the harmonica. More singing! More harmonica! What’s going on. Straight into the final song, that’s what. The drone carries through. An odd funeral rhythm is started and a think modulated unregulated synth sound comes through. A sitar like strike of the string and short burst of guitar feedback are added to the loop. The guitarist rides the feedback with a tremolo for a while. They end singing about horses over soft beater rolls around the toms and the guitar feedback loops. Bloody marvellous.

Motherbox

Motherbox

The Diamond Family Archive all the way up from Devon, not your usual Spirit of Gravity setup, acoustic guitar, drums, hurdy-gurdy, zither. Hidden away are a couple of keyboards and enough effects pedals to keep us happy. We start with a drone, equal parts Casio, guitar, and well, everything really, the drums roll around beaten rather than sticked. Somewhere I’m sure is a buddha box, a scratchy bowed figure is slowly eked out of the murk on the guitar, the drone takes on a bit of a swirl and the guitar goes all Henry Flynt before everything drops away for some singing. Both of them sing. For a while. Then everything comes back slightly different. The guitar gets scratchy and starts to shred a bit sitting on the verge of feedback, a bowed violin loop gives a hint of Cale and the drums get a bit of exercise. And then it drops again for a lengthy bit of call and response over abstract drums and hit string loops, with rattles and bass string buzzes. The second song is called blackbird. It starts with cymbal washes and wiped guitar string loops. The Casio drone is a bit more prominent on this song. At least at first. Some really articulate guitar flourishes get into odd loops while one of them plays the harmonica. More singing! More harmonica! What’s going on. Straight into the final song, that’s what. The drone carries through. An odd funeral rhythm is started and a think modulated unregulated synth sound comes through. A sitar like strike of the string and short burst of guitar feedback are added to the loop. The guitarist rides the feedback with a tremolo for a while. They end singing about horses over soft beater rolls around the toms and the guitar feedback loops. Bloody marvellous.

So much saxophone, so little jazz

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

October 2017
Green Door Store

Benen

Benen

Benen start the evening off, they are onstage one sitting on a low chair with a guitar, mostly bent over to control pedals and loopers, the other sat on the floor, with a mic and he’s similarly mostly bent over working away at devices. They counterpoint this low visibility with a nice set of abstract visuals. They eschew using the loopers for thickness, instead deploying an almost empty sound, some really nice scratchy loops that crackle like wax cylinders, wisps of feedback like a docker whistling several warehouses over. Occasionally you get notes of guitar ping or some sustained notes. There’s a bit of imaginative e-bow work as well. A subtle double track of an ascending guitar part with some worrying rubbing sounds that builds to a creepy crescendo quite lacking in histrionics, before dropping off to another creepy start, breaths and little bursts of treble.

Onin

Onin

Onin base themselves in the room area, sax and acoustic guitar played improv style, both playing back through small amps. Thin rails of quiet feedback attenuated by breath and direction. I don’t think I’ve seen such exquisite low volume control of it. At one point the sax player tilts back like a member of a 40s big band and instead of the honking overblown solo expected to erupt, there is a forceful piercing tremolo of almost horrific intent.

Well Hung Game

Well Hung Game

Well Hung Game finish the night off. Quite properly, there is some superficial overlap with Onin, but Well Hung Game set up on the stage and process the baritone sax directly through a monster effects chain. It starts off low key with thin tapers of sax warping off into swirls of delay and threads of distortion. They actually keep it pretty sparse which considering the potential for mayhem the GDS supplies it very restrained, occasionally flurries get into tail chasing loops that build up into something approaching terrifying, but they pull back before it gets out of control. The sax gets to work out in the more guttural regions as you’d hope from a baritone, but he spends plenty of time confounding you in the upper registers as well. During the final stages the saxophone is so twisted by the effects, gated to all hell it sounds like an electric guitar.

2nd November at the Green Door Store: Diamond Family Archive / Motherbox / Ahtuf KONTROL / I’m Dr Buoyant

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The Diamond Family Archive
The Diamond Family Archive are an English lo-fi, psych-folk, multi-instrumentalist duo from The South Hams in Devon.
Live, The Diamond Family Archive craft a mesmeric live-show from drums, acoustic guitars, lots of FX pedals, keyboards set to drone, tape delay, loops and bellows, bows, harmonicas, cosmic harps, toys and broken cymbals. All coming together to create music which holds echos of post-rock, traditional folk, spiritual soul music, psychedelic rock and lo-fi. Foot-stomping, finger-picking, hollering vs pin-drop hush – fragile, lazy grace.

Motherbox
Brighton based synth/drum trio deliver eclectic experimental groove based sonic wisdoms and a new album to your ears. Two men play various analogue and modular synths while another shorter man drums along all whilst earnestly nodding. Eclectic electronic soundscapes with a dram of krautrock.
soundcloud.com/motherboxx-1

Ahtuf KONTROL
Dance and Radiophonics – return after a summer retreat in imagination. Another combination of emotion and vibration to see and feel.

I’m Dr Buoyant
Spirit of Gravity joint founder I’m Dr Buoyant turns out for a rare solo slot, get down early not to miss it. His set-up has been adjusted to give his live loop improvisations a somewhat darker tone, one might say in response to current world events, but probably just because it sounds good. Copies of the IDB and Ron Caines vinyl 7″ will be on sale.
spiritofgravity.bandcamp.com/album/biography-of-an-exile-7-single
soundcloud.com/im-dr-buoyant

Thursday 2nd November 2017 | 8pm – 10.30pm | £5
@ The Green Door Store
Undercroft, Brighton Train Station, BN1 4FQ Brighton

I didn’t mention the bats

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

September 2017
Green Door Store

Sunset Graves

Sunset Graves

I don’t properly train-spot the Sunset Graves kit, but I think there’s something modular in there, no sign of a laptop. There are thick sweet drones, the lead lines have a vague air of melancholy that channels the best early UK dance music, beats that never seem to actually loop, always evolving and slightly off centre. Pleasingly complex without losing the groove. Some proper bass that shakes my camera while I’m filming. One track from near the end has a heavyweight crush of reminiscent of Tackhead. All you can see of him is strings of red lights and thin coloured lines projected against the dark, in blocks – almost TV static. But not static.

Thomas Ragsdale

Thomas Ragsdale

Thomas Ragsdale is second up, after a quick handover, his visuals vertical lines that I can’t tell if waver with the beat or have their own lifecycle. Starkly monochrome after the neon purity of Sunset Graves’ colours. After the thick beatiness we’ve had Thomas starts pretty low key, half bass pulse and delayed piano figure with a spoken sample. There are some shiny guitar wash loops and ’89 vintage arpeggios that hint even further back to Edgar Froese, with a real sense of drama. He’s sparing with the beats, too, often a hinted at handclap scatter, or broken tambourine pattern.

¥ETI

¥ETI

Finally, we have ¥ETI, they start with just Adam, minus a good 18 inches of beard since I last saw him, hooded with some kind of Ood-like tendrils hanging out. They eschew the visuals of the rest of the evening. Adam building atmosfear with drones and Gregory Peck, and also does some good work in the lower registers. He does three numbers on his own before being joined by Tim the drummer from the Cosham Community Players Association, who basically goes the full Steve Noble: relentless hard driving free drumming, with one eye firmly on a pulse and the other ranging freely across the entire universe. They end up with a drum off between electronic and acoustic drums, which was pretty cool.

5th October at the Green Door Store: Benen / Onin / Well Hung Game

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Benen
Combining layers of ethereal guitar, distant and dystopian noise and eerie, contorted visuals, Benen constructs an impenetrable wall, drenched in waves of melancholic hope.

Onin
James L Malone – Acoustic Guitar / Electric Guitar Joe Wright – Saxophone & Dynamic Feedback James from Duck Rabbit with Joe Wright with a setup that comes from the sparer end of free improv with electronics.
soundcloud.com/verzimprint/onin-dark-star
oninduo.co.uk

Well Hung Game
James Allsopp – Baritone Saxophone / Bass Clarinet Ed Dudley – Electronics Blew us away at Splitting the Atom early in the year, with their high intensity sax and noisy processing setup.
wellhunggame.bandcamp.com/releases

Thursday 5th October 2017 | 8pm – 10.30pm | £5
@ The Green Door Store
Undercroft, Brighton Train Station, BN1 4FQ Brighton

COMING SOON:

Next radio broadcast on ResonanceExtra FM: Tuesday 3rd October 8.00 to 10.00pm

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

Gravity Waves and the Spirit World

The next edition of the Spirit of Gravity radio show will be broadcast on Tuesday 3rd October from 8.00 to 10.00pm on ResonanceExtra FM.
https://extra.resonance.fm/

Full Spectrum Noise Special featuring classic and rare pieces from John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Iannis Xenakis and Survival Research Laboratories, plus new work from McCloud, Ben Branagan, Luke Pendrell and Eva Verhoeven.

Resonance Extra is available on DAB to listeners in Central Brighton and online to the rest of the world (how to listen). You can also listen online at extra.resonance.fm and directly using this link. Resonance Extra is also available via Radioplayer and TuneIn.

It’s all gone a bit crispy

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

August 2017
The Green Door Store

Spheress

Spheress

Spheress is up on stage when people start coming in, a mix of hardware and laptop, some synths and Volcas, he starts with a double duck being hit with a squeaky toy quickly escalating to an industrial beat, before eventually a bass drone warps in with a gabba kick and an old-style hardcore tone providing a pseudo bass line. It falls away to a different rhythm before it’s drowned out in a squall of drone feeding back through an ancient reverb box. Back to another beat and bass line before building up to a different kind of feedback distortion falling in metallic sheets. Another breakdown before he gets to work on the synths with a Crybaby wah wah, ending on a nasty layered 2 note fuzz attack.

The electrocreche is a bit funny tonight, we have only one toy as the other broke while I was setting up, we scrounge some kit from Spheress and end up with almost a no input electrocreche. Which turns out to be quite fun.

Xylitol

Xylitol

Unfortunately Ommm is poorly so we have Xylitol doing a solo set. I don’t think we were disappointed. Catherine starts her set with abstract lo-fi electronic noises, chimes, Tardis sounds and disembodied voices. Arrhythmic part comes in with a nasty fan drone washing in and out and it ends on some weird Bruce Haack tip. She has songs, mostly 2 to 3 minutes. The next one starts with a Raymond Scott vibe before heading off into something quite 90s J-Pop-ish, with a really nice full bass that slowly rolls out to a repeated quiet organ figure with delay feedback slowly mutating over it. Next up has a glitchy rhythm and Casio organ moving around all over it. I can’t even describe the next one, it has elements of toy music, minimal techno and subtle use of noise. And so it continues, elements of the last 50 years of electronic music, blended into something that sounds like all/none of them, modern and nostalgic, radiophonic and digital. She has a few copies of her 45 remaining, it’s very good, you should buy one.

Dylan Nyoukis

Dylan Nyoukis

Dylan Nyoukis is next up, as promised with his double cassette set up of complete audio mulch. Starting with a slurred down loop of some indecipherable something, a guitar string ping and scrape add some slight sense of rhythm to proceedings. The loops slowly open out, not quite lurching but definitely elliptical in their gait. Dylan works quietly away adding small touches, bringing things in and out slowing or speeding up a touch as required. It’s hypnotic and bizarrely hooked. At some point it sounds like he sneaked the ghost of a bowling alley into the Green Door Store before smuggling it out through the back. Suddenly it switches to something a bit more pier-ish, papier-mâché monsters in cases banging against the glass, Kids with lollipops hitting the metal stands while someone is noisily bending balloon animals. It’s quite dark in an Avengers manner. As the surrounding clutter falls away we find ourselves in a field, the cows moaning not quite happily. A glottal stopping owl starts an argument with a stretched violin chicken. Someone takes a ham fist to a typewriter. A shuffle of someone sandpapering next door winds down with someone talking very slowly backwards over the first musical drone of the set.

Olivia Louvel

Olivia Louvel

Olivia Louvel is finishing the evening off with a selection of songs from her new album “Data Regina” about Mary Tudor, with visual animations written specifically for the event. They’re an interestingly odd blend of almost 80s geometric solid figures with realistically modelled faces acting out various scenes from her imprisonment. I think. (You can see some of them here: www.olivialouvel.com/)
She starts with a glitchy piece with vocal fragments minced up with the light electronic rhythms. The second has a spacious buzzing bass line, with odd notes ringing around it with a full breathy vocal part. The third is more stately affair, “Good Queen Bess” all vocal layers, slow and moving. The next song “My Crown” eschews the space and fills the room right out with a throbby bass, with vocals and further bass tones. It’s a bit epic without breaking out into a full-on beat. So the next song has a very rhythmic structure, everything in it seems to pulse. The next has alternating pulses like it’s all modulated by a square LFO, but the vocals are fragmented, lost. Then straight into the next with Spartan martial snare rolls scattered. The second half has a harmonium slowly unfolding over it. She ends on a long version of “Love or Rule” starting with violin drones and parts, occasional buzz of bass, after a long while a set of machine-like rhythmic parts come in.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7-Uyq9eTsHA