Celestial Mass – Magma/ JP Massiera/ Chrome Hoof
Curated by musical sage and crate-digger extraordinaire Andy Votel, this show brings together intense cosmic rock and psychedelic disco. A truly mind-expanding experience.
6 October 2009 / 19:30
Barbican Hall
Tickets: £12.50 / 15 / 22.50
subject to availability
Curated by musical sage and crate-digger extraordinaire Andy Votel, this show brings together intense cosmic rock and psychedelic disco.
French prog-rock Magma are unique – a truly visionary ensemble led by drummer and mystic Christian Vander, and are celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2009. Combining jazz, opera, minimalism and 20th Century classical, their work revolves around the imaginary planet Kobaïa, whose language many of their songs are performed in.
Magma are joined by another French pioneer, the legendary JP Massiera, whose freaked-out disco recordings from the 1970s now change hands for hundred of pounds. Completing the bill are the extraordinary ritualistic collective Chrome Hoof – the nearest thing to these prog masters that present-day London has to offer.
A truly mind-expanding concert experience.
Visit the Barbican website for more information.
Figure 2. Tara & Carla at London’s Luminaire.
Figure 4. The Prince of Truth cover art: Jesse McLoskey
Figure 5. Debut of drummer Mike Tracy at SF’s Eagle Tavern, July 17, 2009 photo: Karl Dotter
Figure 6, At LA’s The Smell: Another extraordinary line-up. (going clockwise in a circle from the left side) Ezra Buchla kneeling with viola, Jessica Catron – cello, Jeremy Drake – guitar, Gambletron – drums, Tara Barnes – bass, Dominic Cramp – samples and keys, Bobb Bruno – drums, Carla Bozulich laying on the ground singing
days of the summer’s swelter. The varied stylistic shifts of previous material have garnered their fair share of comments regarding a schizophrenic nature, but here the experimental lean of the group is placed to deliver it’s most cohesive sound to date. Masterfully blurring the music’s entangled live and programmed approaches to the point of imperceptibility, layer upon layer of synth, guitar and vocals are draped over skeletal pop structures and anchored by dub bass-lines born of resin-stained fingers. Covered in an electric blanket of atmosphere that can surely only come from years in outer space memorizing the top of one’s shoes, the gothic trappings reveal themselves as hard-earned circles beneath the eyes as opposed to poorly applied hot topic nail polish. As Good As Gone is a proper album whose arc is intended to be absorbed stem to stern.
arecertainly not a group to be lumped in with the top 40 prattle that dominates the airwaves nor the mediocrity that smothers the interwebs. Quite different from their other releases, Marlone is a more organic and open work, allowing breathing space for the songs to unfold and evolve; witness the slow, sinister burn of both “Villain” and “Turritopsis”. And in quite a change of pace for the group, they even deliver a straight ahead pop song with the brisk romp of “In People’s Homes”. What they assuredly are is a group that continually explores the union of the light and the dark, the sweetness of the female voice set against the salty backing tracks, always searching for the fine balance between the calming and the equilibrium challenging.
Tim states: “Based on my research and experience in using sound for induction of meditative states, I set out to apply trance-inducing sonic effects to drone-ambient music. I recontextualized the deep bass kick sound used in techno dance music as a subdued hypnotic pulse to accentuate the textures. An unprocessed analogue Roland TR-808 was used for this pulse, as well as binaural beats and spatial effects processing to create music to facilitate deep meditation. I blended layers of synthesized textures with organic field recordings made in Central Japan in ’00-’01, and Northern California between ’03-’08. The intent of the album is to produce an introspective sonic environment conducive to self-healing work and voyaging into new states of awareness.”
effects of a near static drone with the uplifting trip of free-flowing compositions. Slowly melting fluorescent sunsets morph into drapes of psychedelic fog, rumbling over cacophonous rhythms. A few things have changed for Adam Forkner since his last White Rainbow album from 2007, Prism of Eternal Now. A national tour with fellow Kranky heads Valet and Atlas Sound, and countless hours jamming with Portland avant-music collective Rob Walmart inspired him to hunker down and dig deeper into his personal vision of what head music can be. Forkner has turned White Rainbow into an even more spontaneous and open-ended musical project and has shaped this new double album into a dense, lengthy exploration of the relationship between hypnotic, circular, fourth-world drum rhythms, acid-boogie guitar, and drifting sheets of fuzzy psychedelic drone. 
guitar accompaniment of Chris Summerlin, an intuitive discussion that speaks volumes by not saying too much and while never stepping on each other’s lines. The songs themselves are delicate and spare chamber pop. They are understated and deceptively simple, but deliver an emotional impact that mere decibels cannot. Lucinda’s tales of woe concern the banality of domestic life, small animals, and the desire to keep the forces of the world at bay. Lucinda Chua is a classically trained pianist and cellist, has been a touring member of Stars of the Lid, and is an accomplished photographer. Chris also plays guitar in the rock band Lords. This is the first extended release for Felix following a split single with Chris Herbert on the Low Point label.
Vic Chesnutt is a man who lives for music and who has tirelessly deployed his impish, surly, witty, unflinching perspective in hundreds of songs featuring brilliantly unique wordsmithery and a profound playfulness that thumbs its nose at a life of seriously hard knocks. Vic’s prolific writing – chock of full of real irony, wonderful turns of phrase, humour, rage and tenderness, brutal literalism and ornate observation – constitutes a truly original voice and reflects a truly indomitable spirit. Chesnutt has worked with many collaborators over his twenty-year music career, notably with Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) who produced his first couple of records in the early 1990s, and over the past decade with musicians and groups as diverse as Widespread Panic, Lambchop, Bill Frisell, Jonathan Richman (with whom we has toured many times over the years) and Elf Power.
Rarely Unable 