Sonic Circuits DC 2006 presents:
Friday, October 6
Warehouse Next Door/Black Box Theatre
1017/1019 7th St NW WDC
$12, all ages
doors at 8:30, show at 9:30
http://dc-soniccircuits.org/ http://www.warehousenextdoor.com Harvey Bainbridge (of Hawkwind!) w/ Spaceseed
Yellow Swans (Load/Jyrk Collective)
Mouthus (Ecstatic Peace/Troubleman/Psych-o-path)
Kohoutek (DC improv psych)
SKIF++ (N Collective)
MoHa! (Rune Grammofon/N Collective)
Robert van Heumen (N Collective)
USA/USB (N Collective)
Harvey Bainbridge w/ Spaceseed http://harvey.strange-trips.com/ http://www.spaceseed.org/ From England comes long-time Hawkwind bassist/keyboardist Harvey Bainbridge with Atlanta's Spaceseed to play a limited number of US dates to support the release of their new disc The Empire of Night on the Zeta Reticuli label. Listen to the cut "Office Colony" at:
http://harvey.strange-trips.com/music/colony.wma This show presents the darker side of psychedelia at it's best...great stuff for all the paranoid schizophrenics, UFO-nauts, and conspiracy freaks out there that may be secretly wondering..."What's REALLY going on?" Strong drumming, spacey melodic keyboards, and insistent moody guitars -- with just enough disturbing mind-opening lyrics (delivered in Harvey's unique and inimitable style) to get you thinking!
The multimedia visual enhancements of The Solar Fire Lightshow assisting Scott Kuti's "Southern Lights" will surely make this show something special to see as well as hear!
Beginning with the Hawklords in 1978, Harvey Bainbridge has proven himself to be one of the longest-tenured Hawkwind veterans to date and will still perform with them from time to time. He has long ago developed a unique musical style of his own and quite often will surround himself with keyboards, synthesizers, samplers, and other such devices that he is so fond of using.
A one-man dynamo, Bainbridge is known lyrically for his socially relevant commentaries which are both humorous and insightful. Musically, he will lull you with dreamy and spacey ambiance -- only to jolt your consciousness awake with his trancey, pulsating beats and direct vocal approach!
His signature Hawkwind compositions such as "Dream Worker," "The Changing," "T.V. Suicide," and "Back in the Box" show that Harvey has an acerbic wit and very keen observation. His many contributions to other Hawkwind gems over the years like "Valium Ten," "Free Fall," "Angel Voices," "Coded Languages," "Dust of Time," "Mutation Zone," "Joker at the Gate," and the (increasingly prophetic) "Fall of Earth City" have certainly helped Hawkwind to maintain their legendary underground status throughout the Dark Ages of hair metal and new wave.
Since the early 1980s, Harvey has periodically released his solo and collaborative works on the side -- most recently Harvey Bainbridge Live @ Strange Daze 2000 and Red Shift -- along with the CDs Afrodiziac, Orisha, and Diamonds and Toads from his days with the Alman Mulo Band.
His successful solo tour of the United States in late 2000 (leading up to his headlining the Strange Daze 2000 SpaceRock Festival) was followed by him teaming up with Mr. Quimby's Beard for their 2001 US Tour. Since then he has been working on new material while doing the few odd English gigs, both solo and with Simon House, and appearing on bills with Alan Davey's Bedouin.
Yellow Swans http://www.jyrk.com/yellowswans/ Yellow Swans play a constantly evolving mass of psychedelic noise that is both physically arresting and psychically liberating. Their music is a powerful rendering of free rock, black electronics, and white light vibrations. Consisting of Pete Swanson (vocals, drum machine, and electronics) and Gabriel Mindel Saloman (guitars, feedback, electronics), Yellow Swans create a dense ocean of sound using various analog and digital machines, all locked in a spiraling web of feedback. Yellow Swans, having spent two years in Oakland, CA, are based once again in Portland, OR, where they originally formed in the Fall of 2001. They have just finished a year in which they toured the USA, the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and are about to embark on their 3rd US tour in the Fall of 2006. They have also just released their second studio album, Psychic Secession, on LOAD Records.
Mouthus http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/mouthus.php Mouthus is duo Brian Sullivan and Nate Nelson of Brooklyn and they absolutely destroy, fuzzing minds wherever they blow. Super psyche-snarled feedback guitar and overload drum squall w/ hep sick-wave edge. A brain-gouged cross of Manowar head implosion and New York dustbomb detonation. Total surf skum blooze drone.
Kohoutek http://www.claviusproductions.org/kohoutek/index.html Improvised psychedelia ranging from harsh noise to delicate melodies, inspired by the likes of Can/Amon Duul 2/Krautrock, Bardo Pond, Dead C, Skullflower, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Sun Ra/Art Ensemble/free jazz, Sonic Youth, MBV/shoegaze, drone, etc. Textures and mood over technical proficiency.
This new-ish group from Washington DC has local psych/doom/noise patron and C-Blast buddy Scott Verrastro amongst it's ranks, so we were stoked to get our mitts on this self-released CD-R of smoke-blowing, heavy noise-inflected psychdrone. There's two tracks on hand, both instrumentals, with a total half hour running time: the opener, "The Burning Sea," starts off by invoking some gorgeous, bleary psychedelic noodling and skittery improv percussion with vaporous Middle Eastern melodies and twinkling chimes in the background, then slowly builds into a pulsating acid drone rock mantra akin to Skullflower hijacking Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold," throbbing single-note bass and muscular drumming laying down a limestone foundation for burning feedback-soaked guitar action to get down in an ocean of reverb. The second track,"Four More Years," is a swarm of helicopter electronics and rapid-fire improv drumming, a crackling free noise jam shooting sparks onto basement walls, sleigh bells and snakey bass drones squirming through a blizzard of buzzing cables and oscillating tones and noisy skree. These jams are righteous drone/improv/noise workouts, can't wait to hear more from Kohoutek. There's definitely much to like here for fans of Skullflower,Can,Acid Mothers Temple,etc. Comes packaged in an exquisitely handpainted/screened wallet, with the CD-R itself blasted with spraypaint. (Crucial Blast)
SKIF++ http://www.n-collective.com/index.cgi?article=17&dept=groups Robert van Heumen (laptop, LiSa) and Jeff Carey (laptop, SuperCollider) are the electronic backbone of the electro-acoustic sextet Office-R(6) that uses structured improvisation in a unique way. Forming SKIF in 2004 (because the rest of Office-R(6) left the building), they work with similar ideas but under a purely digital pragmatism: sonic bursts, melodic melancholy, and beautiful carpets using joysticks and self-made controllers to keep it all in line (most of the time). SKIF++ is the collaboration of SKIF and Bas van Koolwijk's (laptop, Max/MSP/Jitter) aggressive attack on the illusion of video itself. Independently, and processing the SKIF sound into video, he exposes the face of the machine which lives behind the often-placating veil of the televised image.
MoHa! http://www.n-collective.com/index.cgi?article=8&dept=groups Duo dealing with the pressures of playing improvised music in the post-Braxton continuum...Lately they have gotten themselves into noise-based rock textures and the good old cheap contact microphones as well as claiming to be contemporary by doing the extended technique thing. MoHa! is the latest Rune Grammofon signing and the youngest artists on the label as well. Guitarist Anders Hana turned 23 the day before he and longtime friend Morten J. Olsen (24) went into Athletic Sound in August 2005 to record Raus Aus Stavanger, their first proper release as a duo. They have played together for 8 years and have recorded together with American saxophone player Andrew D´Angelo as Morthana, with Norwegian sax player Frode Gjerstad and Noxagt bassist Kjetil Brandsdal as Ultralyd, and in a quartet with Gjerstad and bassist Per Zanussi. As a duo they have also released two very limited CD-R´s during the last 2 years. First release, det e jo rock for faen on ENLIGHTENMENT is sold out, second release rock; meg i rauå and third release siste del i trilogien med rock i tittelen is (almost) out on HUMBUG!
Robert van Heumen http://www.n-collective.com Robert van Heumen (1968/NL) is an electronic composer and musician, making electronic music in the studio and on stage. Recent compositions include the 5.1 composition "12 Bullets" for STEIM's Noiseroom, music for the choreography "Drink Me" by Anouk van Dijk, and the audio-visual composition "Solitude" (with multimedia artist Arnoud Noordegraaf) based on a book by Paul Auster. As a musician he uses STEIM's live sampling software LiSa with all kinds of controllers. He is active as a member of the electro-acoustic sextet OfficeR, electronic audio-visual trio SKIF++ and part of the N Collective, and has shared the stage with Michel Waisvisz, Jeff Carey, Oguz Buyukberber, Anne LaBerge, Guy Harries, Daniel Schorno, Luc Houtkamp, Roddy Schrock and Nate Wooley. In both his composed and live music he uses a mixture of environmental sounds, toys, voices, sounds from kitchen appliances, and in general all kinds of "found sounds." Next to all of this he is managing director of the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam. In another life he is a mathematician, trumpet player and software programmer. Selected Works: 5.1 electronic composition "Fury (after anger)" for Sonic Circuits (2006), 5.1 electronic composition "12 Bullets" for STEIM's Noiseroom (2006), composition for the audiovisual production "Solitude" (2005), CD OfficeR -- The STEIM Sessions, CDs N -- Live at STEIM and N Collective -- News from Holland -- with various groups of the N Collective, compositions for choreographies "Amour Fou" (2003), "Drink Me" (2004), "STAU" (2004), and "Derivatives" (2005) by Anouk van Dijk. Selected Bands: OfficeR (electro-acoustic sextet), SKIF++ (electric trio with visuals), Buyukberber/Van Heumen (duo on bass clarinet and electronics), RKS (trio with dj sniff & Keir Neuringer).
USA/USB http://www.n-collective.com/index.cgi?article=18&dept=groups USA/USB, formed in early 2005, is the combined work of Bjørnar Habbestad (PHO, DB) and Jeff Carey (OfficeR, 87 Central, etc.) intended to address the impossibility of duo collaboration across oceans and international borders. Habbestads' flute is often over-amplified through feeback and computer processing and is further extrapolated though by Carey's synthesis procedures along with his laptop sound generation. Focusing on digital instrumentalism, hyper-instrumentalism, and extended technique, their first piece "Machine Gun Etiquette" was premiered at the NuMusic festival in Stavanger Norway in 2005 and the Wire described the performance as "illuminating." Their tape piece "Music for Broken Flute and Stolen Computer" was premiered in Gaudeamus Music Week in The Netherlands, 2006. Since then, they've been writing a lot more code and have failed to record a new album because of all their stolen equipment...
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Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music seeks to expose inhabitants of Washington, DC to the outer realms of sonic endeavor. The festival will take place October 5-8, 2006 at the Warehouse Next Door. Over 30 artists from Europe, around the US, and from our own backyard will present challenging works for your ears. Full artist descriptions and schedules can be found at
http://dc-soniccircuits.org/.
