Doom straight - Poster designed by Dave Spars

Teaspoonriverneck are a band from Guernsey. They are Jon (guitars), Brett (drums), and Lynchy (bass and vocals). They may be the best band in the Channel Islands (I’ve heard it said). Their music is heavy, technically brilliant, and beautiful. Weird images and atmospheres of twisted myth and folklore pervade their songs’ lyrics. The grinding, almost mechanistic performance of the band, so tight in the grooves and with such controlled ferocity, is astounding.

Falenizza Horsepower, otherwise known as bass and drums duo of Dave Spars and Steve Hutchins, are close associates of the Asylum team. Their enthusiasm, advice, and deep connections within the Channel Islands’ music community, and the wider alternative UK scene, help to make these events diverse, interesting, and credible. It’s always a treat to see them at work on stage. Their epic songs are presented as a dense, dynamic play of textures and poetics; from a raging wall of tightly-controlled menace, to a whisper of subtle accents.

The Centeniers are a new band, born in some way from the broken pieces of the Shatterproof Rulers (hey, that works), and they are playing for the first time in this incarnation.

From Steve Le Long of The Centeniers: I’ve developed some quite old fashioned values regarding music recently and want to produce music that gets people up and dancing. Let’s be honest, after a hard week’s work we want to let our hair down at the end of the week and have some fun. For me, one of the beautiful things that music can do is bring people together, that’s key to the direction of this project. The idea stems from there, the songs we have written so far aim to do just that. Jon (bassist) and myself (rhythm and vocals) both played in Personal Trainer. We were lucky enough to get Swanny (lead guitar) to join as he moved back from Manchester after being in The Merge. Johnny Hill has recently joined the band on the drums, he used to drum for Johnny & The Rats and The Valentines. Jon, Johnny and myself also played together in The Shatterproof Rulers, that was a fun, experimental project. This is a new direction and one we’re enjoying, as it’s our first gig we are all looking forward to seeing what kind of response we get.