Supersonic Festival Preview

Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival is undoubtedly an institution in British experimental music. I was lucky enough to attend their last festival in 2012, and found it to be a postively life-changing experience, which featured a great mix of obscure and impressive new discoveries to more established experimental musicians the calibre of which I’d only dreamed of seeing in the past.

After monetary issues led to the lack of a 2013 event, but the previously autumn festival has been reinstated as a spring festival as Supersonic, much to my relief, have returned with a select but suitably impressive line-up.

I’ve decided to honour Supersonic’s return on the weekend of the 30th of May by looking at some of the most exciting artist scheduled as well as some of the ‘extra-curricular activities‘ at Supersonic this year.

Swans

Certainly the band here least requiring any introduction. The industrial rock outfit, which sprang from the New York no wave scene of the 80s, already have legions of adoring fan.

If you’re not familiar with their work already, darkly iconic tracks such as ‘A Hanging’ should give you a pretty good idea of what they’re about although they have a sound that covers a pretty wide range at times.

Swans have frequently impressed critics and fans alike with the power of their live sets and indeed much of their hugely acclaimed 2012 effort The Seer was developed live. Add to this the prospect of some tracks newly released To Be Kind and Swans are surely not to be missed.

Basic House

Stephen Bishop is a very busy man. In addition to running the excellent label Opal Tapes who happen to to release fellow performer Karen Gwyer’s work. he also makes some of the best experimental electronica there is. His music expresses aspects of dark ambient, techno, noise, glitch many more.

His live performances are an extravaganza of loud, fierce and terrorising electro-acoustic exploration, verging on ambient and rife with repetition but with sufficient variety to prevent tedium. These factors together often leads to a cathartic live performance, His set up is allegedly becoming more and more modular with time and this can only be a source of deep excitement – I’m expecting Basic House’s studio work with live excitement and Keith Fullerton Whitman-esque modular synth heroics.

Backwards

Birmingham based Backwards is a supergroup of sorts, featuring members of Napalm Death, Beestung Lips and Una Corda. Their set up comprises two bass guitars, drums, voice and electronics.

There’s not a whole lot of information online, but they’re kind enough to offer us a guarentee... of disappointment. A listen to small part of their music reveals a lo-fi, vitriolic dirge of distorted sludge infused with punk-like energy as they presistently blast through extended opuses of sheer bitterness. Throughout the music evokes feelings of dystopia and uneasiness.

Needless to say, their ugly, bleak and brutal stylings will more than likely be shattering a few eardrums at Supersonic.

Wolf Eyes

Michigan-based group Wolf Eyes are of course highly revered, with a reputation as the kings of US noise.Since the founding line-up, Aaron Dilloway moved on to spend some time in Nepal and has, of course, enjoyed a glittering solo career, but Wolf Eyes have still gone from strength to strength.

Last year they released their latest effort No Answers:Lower Floors, their first effort to feature new guitarist ‘Crazy Jim.’ The result is more of a simmering, ominous sound that seeks less to go straight for the jugular and this imbues a lot more variety into their music.

This is not to say that their live shows are no longer raucous. If not for the legendary status of the band, I’d advise any Supersonic attendees to pop in for a nauseatingly loud display of noise awash with the ironic (?) display of almost metal-esque showmanship from the band.

Ex-Easter Island Head

This is my personal predicted highlight. Ex-Easter Island Head first grabbed my attention with Mallet Guitars Three, which, as far as I’m concerned is a wonderfully shameless Steve Reich homage.

This year they’ve furthered the direction of the Mallet Guitars series, releasing Large Electric Ensemble. As I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, the Supersonic performance will be in a large electric ensemble. The album balances minimalism with the minimialism inspired sounds of math rock and comes up somewhere in between in my opinion. The ensemble consists largely of prepared guitars – every noise rock fan’s favourite instrument.

Their work boasts classical complexity as well as hard hitting rock catchiness, surrounding the listener in a succession of pulsing rhythms, and creating a maximalist sound - minimalism inspired but still hugely full in texture.

Extra-curricular Activities....

Supersonic always delivers some extras that are commensurate to the quality of the festival. Not least among these (although not relevant to most of our readership) are the kids’ gigs, which introduce the next generation to the wonders of experimental music, this year featuring Sarah Kenchington.

Kenchington is also performing at If Wet Salon, an event set up by intstrument makers Morton Underwood aka tuba band Ore (see Supersonic ‘12), along with the computer-mimetic stylings of Ryan Jordan among others. The salon showcases a variety of self-made instruments and new artists with a more interactive aspect.

If that’s not enough, to name but one of many other attractions, there’s also a Quietus curated film programme featuring a film of Cosey Fanni Tutti discussing the vissicitudes of self-sufficient vegetable gardening.