Posts Tagged ‘brobots!’
Jersey Evening Post, December 19th 2009
In asylum, bands, bristol, jersey, live lounge, music, press, york on December 19, 2009 at 01:39Asylum at Live Lounge, Saturday 19th December 2009
In asylum, bands, brighton, bristol, jersey, live lounge, music, york on December 3, 2009 at 17:29Update, December 14th 2009: The Gaa Gaas have had to pull out of this show. We completely understand their decision and hope to work with them soon. I’ll leave the write-up about them in this post because their substantial influence on the island’s music scene has guided the choices for this promotion and we will miss them!
Their place in the night’s line-up has been filled by Pirate Video Company. They are Max Cleworth, Piers Le Moignan, and Nick Wells. They write and perform a kind of agitated, brainy pop, with chants and melodic hooks to snag the mind, matching chaotic principle of punk with minimal funk grooves. There is an intriguing absence of harmonic rootedness in their work which suggests an experimental bias in their methods. Dean Taylor of This Is Not A Label has said of them, “I like them.”
A is for Asylum
Richard Berks, a man with a laptop and brain brimming with surreal musical inventions, is known for being keyboard player in the original lineup of Jersey and London-based post-punk heroes Velofax. Since those riotous days he has done many things including having moved to beautiful, northern fortress city of York but perhaps most notably he has created a series of astounding works as Man Is Slapped. His recordings are stunningly produced, brazenly unconventional, and delicately romantic. His music is a kaleidoscopic moiré of guitar, glitch, synthetic blooping, breakbeats, and intelligent pop singing. There is an evident delight in confounding expectations with lucid abandon. The music is surprising and strange, and from within this intricate, unstable architecture of electronic mashup a passionate soul emerges to explore emotional realities with subtle poetry and wit.
Man Is Slapped by Tommy Jackson
Man Is Slapped has been featured on episode 16 of the brilliant Instant Classic podcast curated by pop genius Penny Broadhurst. Download it here Back To School Bumper Special
For more news and content from Man Is Slapped see
Man Is Slapped Facebook page
Man Is Slapped (free download)
The lovable alien machines who came in from the cold of outer space to learn how to party with Earth women, watch Countdown, break human instruments and remake them again in their own curious ways have taken Jersey by storm in 2009. The list of promoters and media players that have supported them goes on and on: Branchage Festival, Club Kamikaze, JMCT, Jersey Live, Channel TV, Gallery Magazine, Jersey Evening Post, BBC Radio Jersey, Scuro Disco … It would be unthinkable to celebrate the end of a great year for Asylum and Live Lounge without welcoming them back.
Asylum wouldn’t have happened without the technical brilliance and devotion to quality that sound engineer Justin Vooles has consistently brought to the project. Justin has invited one of his favourite bands, C.O.I. of Bristol, to perform at this show.
C.O.I.
C.O.I. make party music for the kinds of parties at which mind and body are separated in ecstatic revelry. Bristol has always been a cradle for exceptional bands and experimental creativity, and this crew stands head and shoulders above the others according to Venue Magazine. Their songs are rip-roaring anthems delivered with amazing dexterity and streetwise personality. Spiraling shards of Townsendian guitar collide with staggeringly powerful drumming and choruses of gleeful terrace menace in song after song of pop genius. For more information about the band join C.O.I. Facebook group.
Discordian balladeer, movie star, style guru … Many titles have been bestowed upon The Midnight Expresso but his true identity remains a mystery to, well, probably no-one but that won’t stop me from trying to maintain a veneer of cracked mystique in this blurb. Armed with a keyboard that looks like it was fished out of a skip, stage dress that challenges all acceptable states of mind, and a way with words that is hilariously unhinged, The Midnight Expresso rocks the party hard.
The Midnight Expresso has worked with some of the coolest alternative acts in the business, including Chairlift and Pete and The Pirates. He produced a documentary film, Tornado Of Fame, about breaking into the music business from within. More recently he has been closely involved in the newest regular music night to take place at Live Lounge, Club Kamikaze, which looks set to go from strength to strength in 2010.
Vodpod videos no longer available.DJs Colin Livingstone and Carlo Zen, who have been our co-hosts over fourteen months of Asylum entertainment, will be playing their choicest cuts between the bands and dancing like mad at the front. Thanks guys for all your hard work and devotion to the scene.
Entry is a fiver and the show starts at nine. Don’t be late or you won’t get in.
Since I started promoting live music nights in Jersey one name has recurred in many conversations with musicians and music fans. “He’s a genuinely nice guy,” I’m told, “who has not lost contact with his origins, his inspiration, or his friends.” In the various histories of musicians moving their music ventures away from Jersey, those attributes can be surprising and rare. So who is this person who inspires such admiration?
The brilliant, uncompromising punk futurist Gavin Gaa Gaa, and his band mates Peter Hass, Ali Cooper and Ashley Baker, have been forging a darkly minimalistic punk sound in Brighton since 2003. They play mainly in London, where they have a prominent place in the pantheon of new wave punk, and they have been releasing singles and EPs with an industriousness and commitment to quality that is singularly impressive. Their latest release, We Are All Pop Stars! EP, is available to buy from their MySpace page (see link above) where details of other releases and forthcoming dates can be found.
The music of The Gaa Gaas is restless, energetic, cathartic and catchy. Fizzing synths meld with monolithic bass riffs, guitar riffs snake and roil around relentless teutonic drumming, and the four piece creates a sound that is unified, elemental rock ‘n’ roll of the best kind. Recently they have put up new song Perception! on MySpace as an example of what to expect from new EP Repulsion Seminar due for release in early 2010.
For more information about the band and related projects see
The Gaa Gaas at Parallax Sounds Music Label
The Gaa Gaas Facebook page
Gavin Gaa Gaa (Solo Project)
Slurps & Squids (The Creepy Kids)
Jersey Evening Post, November 21st 2009
In asylum, bands, jersey, jmct, live lounge, music, press on November 21, 2009 at 01:37
Asylum – November 14th and 21st
In asylum, bands, guernsey, jersey, live lounge, music on November 11, 2009 at 18:33Asylum on Saturday November 14th, our eagerly awaited big metal night, will be one of the best productions of fierce, furious and filthy music the Live Lounge has ever hosted. One of the bands due to appear on the night, Nailed To The Furnace, has had to pull out. The remaining five bands, Bulletproof, Chaos Theory, Nocturnum, We Bury Our Own, and Brutus Stonefist from Guernsey, are joined by special guest DJ Danny Parkes. Doors open at nine o’clock.
Brutus Stonefist
Brutus Stonefist have two songs up on MySpace. Five Pounds Of Flesh and Redgrave are deathcore tours de force with feral riffing and swarming, scabrous atmosphere. Have a listen and pay your respects to the Channel Islands’ kings of fear at Brutus Stonefist MySpace
Fantastic work from the desktop of pop artist extraordinaire, Mark Evans
JMCT, Music Scene and Asylum have joined forces to present Brobots! with Lee Downie and The Mulburys at Live Lounge on Saturday November 21st.
Brobots! were the subject of a recent profile in Gallery. With forthcoming appearances for Club Kamikaze at Live Lounge on November 13th and Hadouken at Liquid on November 28th, they are the 100% synthetic boy band that all of Jersey has come to love. Lee Downie aka Jackson Lee, beat box champion, last played for Asylum at the Oxjam Jersey event in July and impressed the audience there with a unique mix of hip hop and acoustic guitar playing. The Mulburys recorded a set of songs with producer Sam Falle this summer. Their sophisticated, punchy power pop is laden with lush grooves and irresistible hooks.
James Evans explains the inspiration for this show, “Instead of donating the money to charity as we have for the last twenty JMCT gigs we will be using any money we make this time to put an Asylum CD out next year and hope to start raising cash to put bands in the studio to record.”
Branchage In The Asylum – Pictures
In asylum, bands, branchage festival, film, jersey, live lounge, music on October 6, 2009 at 14:36Asylum was very pleased to contribute to Branchage International Film Festival 2009 and happy to have attended various screenings and shows. The festival programme was very diverse, the quality of films was extraordinarily high, and the lineup of special guests, producers, directors and media experts was starry. Branchage provides a way for artists, musicians, film makers, writers, and all sorts of talented people to come together, make friends, party, network, plan for future projects, and indulge their passions for artistic diversity and cinematic excellence, and this year’s event delivered all that in spades. There is a very nice review of the festival at The Quietus.
Very big thanks to Justin, Fluff, Leonie, Zach, Flavio, Colin, John, Tobi, Tharindu, Sam, the staff of Live Lounge and the bands for helping to make sure our show was a success. What a great team we made! Thanks to Nina, music programmer, Carla, producer, and Philip, festival programmer, for their great work and support. It was especially thrilling for us to have Philip come to the show and introduce All Tomorrow’s Parties.
Click on the images below to view them large.
Brobots!
Whitechapel Murders
Nailed To The Furnace
Brighton post-rock band British Sea Power performed a live soundtrack to Robert J. Flaherty’s film Man Of Aran at Jersey Opera House. Their music was played with treated guitars, bass, trumpet, keyboards, strings and drums, and made up of little motifs, as if phrases from rock music had been sampled, looped and layered, building in intensity and ebbing away. It was an epic concert. Images of waves smashing into cliffs, schools of sharks, and a hard people living with the barest means under enormous, merciless skies contrasted powerfully with the band’s minimalist drones and metronomic pulses. I think taking photos wasn’t permitted but I managed to get one anyway from my seat in the dress circle.
Brobots! were back for the final night of the festival greeting audience members at the entrance to the Opera House. Duncan Jones’ new film Moon, an homage to the eerie, existential science fiction of the early seventies, in which themes of loneliness of space and fragility of identity are explored with masterful narrative skill, had to be postponed until later that evening and relocated to another venue. For those that could attend the late screening it felt very clandestine and exclusive, especially as the director was there to introduce his film.
Branchage In The Asylum – The bands
In asylum, bands, branchage festival, film, jersey, live lounge, music on September 28, 2009 at 17:19Branchage In The Asylum starts at 7 pm on October 3rd 2009. Tickets are available to buy online from wegottickets.com
When Asylum was asked to recruit three bands from the island’s music scene to perform in between music documentaries at the show, it was hard to know who to ask because of the sheer embarrassment of riches that is the island’s alternative music community.
In the end it was decided that the subjects of the films being shown were the best guide. One of the main film features is about Soulwax, electro band, prolific remixers and pioneers of bastard pop, so it was fairly easy to draw a parallel with Jersey’s Brobots! who have appeared from space recently to get humans dancing and having strange new feelings to their quirky, wonky and charming brand of techno whimsy.
Brobots! - Photo by Ryan Morrison
Their latest work, Sing Along, has been remixed by likeallstars to accompany a film of them meeting people in St. Helier town centre.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
The last film of the night is All Tomorrow’s Parties, about the famous UK event celebrating the art of post-rock described by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth as ‘the ultimate mix tape’, and the two acts chosen to follow it are in different ways perfect examples of the restless experimentalism and glory to noise that has long been a crucial element in the makeup of Jersey’s bands scene.
Whitechapel Murders - Kyle Lopes, Chris Day and Dave Spars
Whitechapel Murders, who debuted their claustrophobic low-end assault at Asylum All Ages on Friday October 25th, have been rehearsing in near-secret for the best part of a year. A listen to their songs previewed at MySpace reveals a unity of purpose to describe the imbalances of power in society and their poetic relationship with the mythic narrative of Jack The Ripper. A literary, eccentric mission, for sure, yet made viscerally manifest by means of violently disrupted bass and drums compositions and vocals of magnificent paroxysm.
Nailed To The Furnace
Nailed To The Furnace recently started recording their debut album with Kyle Raffray. The album will contain eight or more songs and is intended for release in late summer 2010. Their song’s themes are alienation, dysmorphia and gothic melodrama, and their music is a seething wall of electric horror and harmonic neo-plasticism built upon a rhythm section of monumental power. With an ever-growing reputation among fans of dark and disturbed music that reaches far beyond the shores of this septic isle, Nailed To The Furnace are, to paraphrase the words of the Branchage press team, Jersey’s kings and queen of grindcore.
Branchage In The Asylum – The films
In asylum, bands, branchage festival, film, jersey, live lounge, music on September 24, 2009 at 19:11Saturday October 3rd sees Asylum teaming up with Branchage International Film Festival for a night of music film and live performances at Live Lounge starting at 7 pm. The films being shown have been chosen by the Branchage team to represent the very best in modern music cinema.
Bow Selector (7.05 pm)
A short documentary about Mercury Music Prize winning grime artist and recent Jersey Live highlight Dizzee Rascal.
Soulwax: Part Of The Weekend Never Dies (7.40 pm)
Soulwax are a Belgian collective of musicians, producers and remixers famous throughout the world for popularising the bastard pop genre with their 2 Many DJs and Flying Dewaele Brothers projects. This documentary directed by Soulwax and Saam Farahmand follows every hectic step of their audacious Radio Soulwax world tour and ends with a live performance of breathtaking intensity.
Warp Films presents All Tomorrow’s Parties (9.45 pm)
From ATPTheFilm: In an out-of-season holiday camp on the coast of England, music festival All Tomorrow’s Parties serves up a heady combination of alternative music, crazy golf and chalet-living all curated by a single band or artist. This post-punk DIY bricolage uses material generated by the fans and musicians themselves, on a multitude of formats and over the history of ATP, to capture the uncompromising spirit of a parallel music universe.
Tickets are available from wegottickets.com
Holders of those tickets get to watch the films in the top floor, on a big screen, with seats and bar. Three bands will be playing on the middle floor: Brobots! after the Soulwax film, and Whitechapel Murders and Nailed To The Furnace after All Tomorrow’s Parties.
In anticipation of the the event being sold out and more people arriving on the night than there are seats on the top floor, we’ve arranged for the films to be shown on flat screens in the middle floor too.
Branchage In The Asylum, Saturday October 3rd 2009
In asylum, bands, branchage festival, film, jersey, live lounge, music on September 23, 2009 at 16:13
Poster designed by Philip Wiseman
Branchage International Film Festival, the most adventurous and exciting multimedia event in Jersey, in its second year, presents a weekend packed full of unforgettable entertainment, film screenings, workshops, competitions and so much more.
With events taking place in numerous locations around the island between Thursday 1st and Sunday 4th October 2009, there is a lot to plan for. Their website provides a handy calendar of events with detailed descriptions and information on how to obtain tickets and passes.
Asylum is very proud to be working with Branchage this year. We have planned a programme for the Saturday evening with some of the best music documentaries of recent years
Soulwax: Part Of The Weekend Never Dies
Bow Selector (A film about Dizzee Rascal)
and live performances by three very special bands
More information about the event, which starts at 7 pm, is available from the Branchage in the Asylum page of Branchage Festival’s website.
Tickets are available online from wegottickets.com
Tickets for Branchage in the Asylum purchased online are for the top floor cinema screening room with seating and private bar, and access to the middle floor live bands shows. The films will be simultaneously shown on screens on the middle floor with bar. Tickets purchased from the venue on the night entitle the holder to watch the movies on the middle floor and attend the live bands shows.
Friday August 28th – Updates
In asylum, bands, jersey, live lounge, music on August 25, 2009 at 15:58
Brobots poster version 2 designed by Brobot 2
Ahead of an eagerly anticipated four-band concert at Live Lounge this Friday, here is some news about the promotion and the latest activities of the bands taking part.
Brobot 2 has created the poster and flyer campaign for the night. As well as two variants of the full colour poster, the second of which is at the top of this post, he has adapted the designs to make two monochrome flyers which will be handed out to humans by the Brobots themselves in King Street, St. Helier, on the afternoon of Friday 28th August. If you’re in town around lunchtime, and you want to find out what it’s like to meet actual Brobots, then keep a look out for them, have a picture taken for posterity, and your life may never be quite the same again.
Brobots will also be playing at The Camden Head in London on Saturday September 5th, alongside Black Daniel and The Boicotts. Information for Facebook people here: Hotaru Gig 7
Amazing dance-punk superheroes Marvel have recently given their MySpace a spruce-up. It is now possible to download their classic EP Marvel At This Fiasco for free by following a link on their page, and to hear some samples from their latest studio sessions in the form of clips from two songs: Get Scared? and Carry On Reaper. First impressions indicate their talents for lusciously melodic, sonically adventurous pop music continue to develop, while the sheen and punch of these new productions is very impressive. Check them out here: Marvel at MySpace
Crowne continue to demonstrate a seemingly boundless industriousness. Barely three months since the release of their masterful debut EP, Nothing Can Stop Us Now, they have announced that they’re back in the studio working on its follow-up, a new set with the title The Walls Are Coming Down. Visit Crowne at MySpace where photos from their recording sessions can be viewed and a commercial tie-in with Dr. Pepper is suspected such is the proliferation of cans seen littering the studio.
Progressive, electronic rock band Banquet recently played at Rock In The Park, an outdoor event at Howard Davis Park in St. Helier, and a photographer from the Jersey Evening Post took an amazing photo of Scott and Brett from the band which was published in yesterday’s edition. I hope the band gains rights to the image and then I’ll hopefully be able to reproduce it here.
See you on Friday. The show starts at ten. As we’ve got four bands on the bill the live entertainment starts early so please get down there on time to avoid disappointment.
Jersey Evening Post, August 22nd 2009
In asylum, bands, jersey, live lounge, music, press on August 22, 2009 at 01:28
Asylum 