GRAVITATIONAL
PULL
Dispatches
from the Spirit of Gravity / Edition 105 / July 11
·
Happenings:
Next Spirit of Gravity gig: Thursday 28th July 2011
TRANSEPT
/ KAYA KING / I’M DR BUOYANT FEAT. RON
CAINES
The
Komedia Studio Bar, 44-47 Gardner Street,
Brighton, BN1 1UN
Time
8:30 - 11:00 Cost £5 / £4
Transept:
Bedroom electronics, oscillator drones and sugary melodies on a bed of
distortion and hiss
Kaya
King: London based Female Noise Duo
I'm Dr Buoyant feat. Ron Caines:
Processed electronica meets East of Eden
sax.
Transept
This
one stayed on the bottom of the pile for a while because of its press
release, which said it "sounds like Robert Wyatt struggling to tune
in his wireless during a robot thunderstorm". The tracks are
leisurely, eight-minute affairs strung out along a spine of pulsating
organ or synth on which the three boys, from
Norwich, visit various far-out sounds-laser crystals, copper pipe and
"plant controlled omnichord". It
is subtle and stately and it gets under your skin. The second track,
Antler Song, has me thinking of that great Gorecki
piece that's always used to soundtrack WWII footage.
Clocking in just under 45 minutes, 'TRSPT001'
is a stunning piece of progressive space-rock melancholia. This Norwich
trio have constructed a record which contains both film score textures
and orchestral drama. 'Death Of The Sea
Sentinel' and 'Nothing The Noth, Part 1'
barely register above a whisper before reaching a fuzzy feedback-driven
climax. Opener 'The Demands Of Levitating
Heavy Stones' is a 12 minute monster that harnesses more emotion and
moods than most bands manage on a whole album. It's as if the Flaming
Lips just gave birth to Spiritualized.
Any band named after the horizontal corridor in a cruciform church
would, you'd hope, have a pretty good grasp of all things gothic and
sepulchral. However, this recently formed Norwich noise synth
trio go far deeper than mere ecclesiastical history, leading us into
dank reverberating crypts and mist-shrouded cemeteries. Eleven-minute
album opener, The Demands Of Levitating Heavy
Stones, sets the tone, building from sweetly soporific organ drones
before shaking the foundations with calamitous Quatermass
pulsations. Conjured forth on primitive keyboards, bowed antlers and
haunted circuit boards, the music shifts from electronic whispers to
folk melodies to screeching distortion, evoking the chilling north
Norfolk atmospheres of the classic antiquarian ghost story, of young men
meddling in the ways of the ancients, unwittingly summoning forth
something powerful, remorseless and demonic.
Kaya King
Kaya King consists of 2x female noise duo, Kaya
Kamijo and Mari King, who have been playing
together since 2008. Their live sets have involved a huge range of
instruments, non-instruments..... from
standing-still and quiet with synth and
tapes to free chaos with drums and guitar. This time, the duo brings
beats of doom, oceanic synth, tribal bass
guitar noise and unpredictable weather changes to create a pool of
dragon fishes jumping up into your ears. You can check their sound at www.myspace.com/kayakingg
and www.pigholemusic.co.uk
I'm Dr Buoyant feat Ron Caines
I'm Dr Buoyant is The Founder and sometime Rimbaud Brother Tony
Rimbaud's dice driven electronica project
and on this occasion he'll be playing with East of Eden Saxophone player
and possibly the most promiscuous collaborator in the current Brighton improv
scene, Ron Caines. Ron was out of music for
almost twenty years and since his return has made up for it with a range
of collaborations with the most vital players in Brighton, ranging from
the smoothest fusion to harshest skronk. Ron
will also be touring with the reformed East of Eden later in the year.
The possibility of visuals exists.
Hosted by our very own 'Laptop' Lee Hume
There will be the elektrocreche
available for any unaccompanied toys who will be looked after during the
intervals by our professionally trained team of volunteers. And anybody
else that wants to bring along a sound toy to play with.
For
details of future Spirit of Gravity events, go to www.spiritofgravity.com/.
Video
and audio on the Spirit of Gravity mp3 blog at spiritofgravity-brighton.blogspot.com/
Video
and audio on the Spirit of Gravity MySpace page at www.myspace.com/thespiritofgravity
Facebook
group with shows and information at www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=75568366205
Downloads
of complete Spirit of Gravity sets at www.archive.org/details/the-spirit-of-gravity
_minimalVector
films featuring Spirit of Gravity acts and guests at www.vimeo.com/thespiritofgravity
· Greetings:
We
are now on YouTube, soundcloud and google+
all under "The Spirit of Gravity" moniker, as well as Facebook
and Twitter which you already know about.
Coming
up very soon:
Splitting
the Atom III at The Cowley
Club London Rd
July
30th 6pm - 2:00am
FREE
A
mini 2 stage Atom with WARRIOR SQUARES+ WHITE TIGER+ DEEPKISS 720+ THE
ZERO MAP+ ALLEN STRACHNID+ HAKARL+ DOGEESESEEGOD+ DAN SPICER+ IAN
MURPHY&DUNCAN HARRISON+ DANIEL ALEXANDER HIGNELL
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118445361570602
·
Reviewings
Spirit
of Gravity
at the Komedia Studio Bar, Brighton,
Thursday 30th June 2011
The
last remaining Great Wrong Hope in Brighton, The
Gross Consumer, started the evening with some of Henry Collins' cast
offs - toy keyboards and an exquisitely bent headless plastic puppy. The
careful application of crocodile clips to various bits of the puppies
anatomy produced howls of noisy pain or happy little demo tunes of
joyfulness, which James would grind into noisy oblivion after waving his
arms around in gleeful surprise for a while. A fun set of cheerful
racketeering to kick us off.
Following up where the rather more serious Fallow
with a set based around field recordings of Fallow Deer, which had been
made by Dr Reby for his research. This was
spooky stuff, unnerving beats, full bellied grunts and howls, with
unsettling nature noises all around it. This was offset with Derek
Thompson’s accompaniment of subdued echoes, whispering choirs and
quiet rhythms. It was a well worked set that with David’s projections
and the eye glowing Deer skull at the front set a sufficiently scary
tone to the proceedings.
Third on the bill was An
Infinity Room, Julian had delayed his flight to Australia especially
to come to Brighton, so we were really pleased to have him play. Julian
has two identical keyboards set up and slowly builds up polyphonic
drones on them using great big bolts to hold down the keys. So you get
this length of the keyboard polyphony he couldn't do with his hands. By
design it's a slowly revolving sound as he moves the notes around and
you get different beat frequencies coming and going. The whole thing is
really quite massive and fills your entire head with droning wobbly
wonder. The SoGBlog/Soundcloud
for this month has the end section where you can hear the complexity
fade as the notes are removed.
Rounding off the evening we had a first rate dubstep
set from long standing favourite Gagarin.
I was at the front for some of his set and noticed for the first time
his utilisation of drummer abilities with the use of 4 controller pedals
as well as the keyboard/drumpad triggers
that are visible from the back of the hall. So as well as the hand stuff
there is a subtle dance, a boxer’s footwork of beatiness
going on out of sight. Finishing
with a wonderful 2 minute space-out to wind us down. He'd also
provided us with some excellent video of his namesake to celebrate 50
years of man in space.
Speaking of which Gagarin has a statue for a year near Admiralty arch,
we're suggesting a pilgrimage.
Did I really get all the way through without mentioning David Thomas was
in the audience?
Yours
as ever
El
Maestro Con Queso
Editor.
Gravitational
Pull
is the official newsletter of The Spirit of Gravity Collective,
though the opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the
Collective. Your email address will not be passed on to any organisation
outside of The Spirit of Gravity Collective. If you wish to unsubscribe
to this mailing service please contact: spiritofgravity@btinternet.com