The Grid are Dave Ball and Richard Norris. They formed in 1988 at the
height of Acid House, releasing as their first single, the Balearic classic
'Floatation', in 1990, before notching up a string of increasingly successful
albums -'Electric Head', '456', 'Evolver', 'Music For Dancing' - and ten
hit singles, including 'Crystal Clear, 'Rollercoaster' 'Texas Cowboys'
and the million selling 'Swamp Thing'. The band toured worldwide and remixed
and produced numerous artists including Brian Eno, Pet Shop Boys, Happy
Mondays and many more.
After a break in the nineties, the Grid reformed in 2004, playing their
first gig in a decade in 2006 at the Coronet in London. "DOPPELGANGER"
is their first album since 1995, and features the trademark Grid sound
- sweeping, atmospheric electronics and hook laden melodies, fast forwarding
into the future. A welcome return.
US based Electronic madmen Lucid Sketchmaster comprises of 2 members GAIN (Vox/Programming) and 4000 ARMS (Programming). Utilising influences are far reaching as Noise, IDM and Industrial they create some of the most exciting and unique electronica around today sure to appeal to fans of APHEX TWIN, AUTECHRE, KID 606 and intelligent industrial electronica etc.
THE SEED (INTRO)
THE SEEDS OF SKETCH
ULTIMATE VS. -
REDBONE STEPPING
EQUIPMENT
GOD COME TELL ME
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
59 SECONDS TO FAITH
CRAZY BIATCH
JESUS SAVES
SO EASY
Gary Lucas, New York Guitar Legend (Captain Beefheart/Jeff Buckley/Gods
and Monsters - to name but a few) Teams up with shy British eccentric
electro-genius James R. Hunter of 'The Dark Poets' (Cradle of Fear/Borderline
etc) For an album that truly pushes the listener to the limits of beauty,
horror and aural abstraction.
His work with Jeff Buckley and Captain Beefheart probably makes Gary Lucas
the world’s most popular avant-rock guitarist, though his solo work can
lack focus.
Here, his solo pieces mingle with tracks recorded with electronic composer
James Hunter, aka The Dark Poets, whose samplescapes, synth beds and vocal
samples about things like military mind-control techniques recall the
dark portents of Cabaret Voltaire.
Highlights include a resonant cover of part of Popol Vuh’s Aguirre, Wrath
of God soundtrack; an exhilarating "Judgement at Midnight" incorporating
swirling National steel guitar phrases over a synth drone bed pockmarked
with found-sound fragments; "Breath of Bones", a delicate tangle of guitar
tendrils; and "Ted’s Theme", a lovely sequenced samba-shuffle burnished
with glinting guitar.
Solo showcases include the glistening Frippertronic-style guitar tones
of "Rosemary’s Baby" and the almost electric-flamenco flurries of "Rise
Up To Be".
RECOMMENDED.
Borderline:
2006 :Short film Directed By Alex Chandon. Music by J.R Hunter 'The Dark
Poets' (Some Bizarre Records) Here is the internationally multi award
winning short film 'Borderline' by visionary director Alex Chandon with
music by Some Bizarre's own forward thinking cutting edge electro outfit
'The Dark Poets' genius J.R. Hunter. A Version of this track will feature
on the forthcoming Dark Poets album currently in production for Some Bizarre
records.
Borderline: 2006 :Short film synopsis Taking London on a trip
by way of MC Escher and Mega City One. Deconstructing both modernist and
neo-classical landmarks to rebuild a new, impossible cityscape of upside-down
staircases, gravity-defying roads and liquid skies. short fact I made
the film as an experiment with After Effects. I had been dreaming about
mad buildings (Escher meets Mega-City) for a while, that became the vague
brief.I went out alone with an XM1 mini-dv camera and a tripod for two
afternoons in London, one spent at the south bank centre the other in
the city. I shot what looked good with no constructive thoughts to actual
compositions of the final shots. The only critical thing was that each
shot was 'locked off' for the short takes. Matching the angles and perspectives
on elements from different shots was a nightmare. But well worth it! crew
director Alex Chandon editor Alex Chandon music The Dark Poets festivals,
Awards and screenings include: onedotzero and Saatchi award winner Cannes
2007. Also being used to promote the London 2012 Olympics for (First screened for the Beijing Olympics - currently screening across the world)
The Dark Poets are in production of their next album. James R Hunter is also currently producing the soundtrack to the forthcoming feature film 'Travellers'
PEDRO INF is tired of the current output of the electronic and post industrial
music scenes, whose innovation has regressed to pre conceived ideas about
music production, PEDRO INF is taking lead from the pioneers such as Kandinsky
, Miro ,Coil , Test Department, Richard D James (Aphex Twin) & mu-ziq.
Designing and building his own effects, computers and programs PEDRO INF
has created his own self styled ""sonar paintings" ,he believes that ART
does not need humans at all to exist, in his own words "there is no need
for a receptor and the need of a receptor is only because we cannot escape
the human condition of egocentrism" ticking the boxes that this enigmatic
producer has the madness to pull of his unique brand of electronica
"The first goal of Pedro INF is to see the painting and not remember how
it was done."
GL1TCHG0R3 is unusual in that they are primarily a “virtual’ band formed
by Ted Bell and Patrick Chauncey, conceived, executed, marketed, discovered
and signed before the two band members ever actually met in person. They
formed in June of 2007, and within a few weeks developed a large underground
following. GL1TCHG0R3 (glitch - gore) was born out of an experiment to
create a new fusion of sound somewhere between hip-hop, improvisational
jazz fusion, noise, IDM and glitch. Stumped at how to proceed with this
task, they invoked Eris the goddess of chaos through song, art, insanity
and an organ donation. The Mother of mechanized music was indeed pleased
- so pleased that she plucked out her right eye, and created the most
terrifying weapon of mass destruction in the universe to take its place
among us. Thus Gearball, also known affectionately as Mister Twinkles,
came to become the band's whimsical cyclopean mascot. Travel with Mister
Twinkles and his friends through a wild acoustic romp into the depths
of cosmic chaos. And if you listen closely, betwixt the screams of the
undead and alien tribal rhythms, you'll hear the dancing laughter of Eris
grinding away at the humming rotors of creation.
Kontour has been experimenting with electronic
devices and voice manipulation for over twenty years. This new album
brings forth an array of pure electronics and experimentation. It explores
some truths in society and the fears those truths create. Social disorder
and mental derangement run amok in a post apocalyptic landscape. You
are being watched everywhere you go; everything you do is being registered.
The album’s production involved no use of computers but harked back
to analogue sequencers and tape machines, creating a sound not at home
in the clean digital age we are subjected to. Percussion and rhythm
came from a collection of vintage drum machines heavily processed and
overdubbed with manually played electronic drums. Recorded voices were
left almost inaudible, disappearing into a backwash of distorted phase.
ZGA is a unique phenomenon in Russian post-rock music. There’s never been
a band that would for so long, so consistently and with such dogged perseverance
and dedication pursue the non-compromised approach to music.
ZGA pretty much equals Nick Sudnick. Throughout countless personnel changes
Nick has always been there - the mind, the heart, the soul, the creator
and inventor of this unparalleled music.
We first met in the early 80s. The newly born Russian rock strived for
lyrical freedom and new spirit, music hardly mattered and in most cases
remained quite simple. I, however, craved for weirder and stranger textures.
Sudnick was a connoisseur and avid collector of Rock in Opposition and
industrial: Henry Cow, This Heat, Test Department, Universe Zero. That
was the shape of sound ZGA was aiming at.
“Zga” is a very obsolete, obscure and peculiar Russian word. It means
something really miniscule and in the contemporary language it survived
only as a part of an expression ni zgi ne vidno - “pitch dark”. ZGA’s
music when I first heard it was by no means sounded obsolete but obscure
it very well was: asymmetrical rhythms, hardly any melody, distorted guitar
paired with Nick’s homemade instruments. They lived in Riga, and in 1986
I was proud to bring this unusual band for their first ever gig in Leningrad,
then capital of Russian rock.
In 1991 Sudnick and ZGA moved to St. Petersburg. His studio in the legendary
artists commune at Pushkinskaya 10 is a mix between a scrap metal warehouse,
where he builds, solders, puts together his countless homemade instruments,
and a makeshift recording studio. He’s also a curator of GEZ 21 - Gallery
of Experimental Sound, the hub for noise and industrial projects.
Living in Pushkinskaya 10 and working at GEZ exposed reclusive Sudnik
to a whole new range of people and ideas. He works on a number of side
projects, one is producing an all female band IvaNova. Its drummer Katya
Fedorova became a full-fledged ZGA member and brought more accessible
and less austere timbres of female vocals, violin and accordion of her
fellow band members into ZGA’s later albums.
Katya Fedorova is also a member FIGS, another very special project that
is featured on this compilation. FIGS is an acronym that stands for the
names of four musicians: apart from Sudnick and Fedorova there are two
drummers: Alexei Ivanov and Marcus Godwyn, a Brit who has lived in St.
Petersburg for many years now. The resulting band - three percussionists
and ever noisy Sudnick with his homemade instruments - is an apotheosis
of rhythmic industrial sound.
ZGA/FIGS
OUT NOW!
ZZONKED UPDATE FOR SOME BIZARRE Zga/Figs ‘Who Has Stolen The Air’
To be release 31st March 08
“Zga” is a very obscure, obsolete, and peculiar Russian word. It means
something really miniscule and in the contemporary language it survived
only as a part of an expression ni zgi ne vidno - “pitch dark”.
PLAN B & Q
Plan B Dec 07 “It’s Nasty” is populated by a malodorous urban hybrid of
Tom Waits and the shrieking telly-demon out of Aphex’s”
Q Jan 08 "An extreme form of avant garde dance, imagine Tom Waits fronting
Einsturzine neubauten and your close"
NEW MAGAZINE CHART PLACES these reaction are club promotion of three tracks
taken from the Album.
CLUB PROMO
Chasing Chart Compilers…
COMMENTS
Wow, this has got to be one of the releases of the year in the left field
selection. I’ve actually played at the venue mentioned in St Petersburg.
Far out and some bizarre indeed. reactionspersonal: nine reactionsaudience:
five favouritetrack: a2 use: Warm Up chartplace: 3 (Jon Tye – Lo Recordings/Various
– UK)
RISQUÉ indeed is this fresh and quirky sound that strikes your heart-strings
like a bolt of electro lightning! RISQUÉ is Nathalie and Huw, a new and
vibrant, French and Welsh combo, wed to each other and their music. RISQUÉ's
premiere release is the album TIE ME UP TIE ME DOWN is to be released
SOME BIZZARE label RELEASE DATE 2008... So tune-in n chill-out to your
FREE ON-LINE MUSIC trax here
Now RISQUÉ are avidly making music in their secret Barcelona studio. Their
lavish sound comprises confident and robust driving rhythms, overlade
with sweetly exotic and ethereal vocals.
Huw already has a well-established track-record for innovative synth production,
with a concatenation of electro chart-toppers, including RUBIKON and ROOKIE.
Nathalie's (who is French as in the movie!) voice is spellbinding, somehow
creating a lyrical synthesis of innocence and sensuality. Whats more,
she intonates her lyrics in English and français, exuding a romantic pan-European
aura.
The couple's romantic liaison, together with their music, makes a RISQUÉ
story. They met on a rock off the beautiful North Wales coast. To escape
any Anglo/French feuding between their parents, the duo ran away on a
moonlight-flit to Las Vegas. There they were wed, in the Little Chapel
of the West, where Elvis was married in Viva Las Vegas. But the sound
of music beckoned from Europe, so the couple returned to immerse themselves
and play, in the club and rave scenes of Paris and London.
"sick and tired of the death of fun the toys serve up mashed-up tarmacadam, get all toykult shiny and eviscerate the forked tongue tyranny of high priest dogs while licking living dead."
The Residents - The Act of being polite
Some Bizzare Album
Some Bizzare
SBZ101CD
Featuring the short film of THE RESIDENTS The Act Of Being Polite on the
enhanced section of the CD