The Zen Hussies – Kecker-Rocker by Strummerville

ELECTRO SWING DJ MIX

“(S)winging it” Electro Swing Mix by Sacha Dieu

What is Electro Swing ?

Electro Swing is taking the nation by storm and putting the fun back into dance music “Electro Swing” is the incredible new sound that’s taking over the dancefloor. Cardiff Arts Institute and is the only place in the City to discover the craze that’s on everyone’s lips and hips. Taking original swing samples and remixing them with hip-hop, dubstep, jungle and electro.  Electro Swing events are decadent and glamourous affairs full of flapper girls dippy dapper dons and some truly electric dance moves.

Who are the Big Swing Soundsystem?

The Big Swing Soundsystem (Matt the Hat/Kaptin/Moneyshot) creating totally re-invented swing hits that are fully cooked up for the modern dancefloor. Expect more than just the music from their stage show “The Big Swing Soundsystem” bring you the full re-mixed vintage experience:

SATURDAY 5TH MARCH – THE KINGDOM OF NIGHT-TIME PLEASURES

Saturday the 5th of March will go off with more decor, lights, visuals, dancers, performers and bands…

The Zen Hussies
The Big Swing Soundsystem (Matt the Hat// Kaptin//Moneyshot)
The All New ‘In Full Swing’ Dance Crew

The Secret Speakeasy Photo-Booth
1920’s Cinema Boudoir & Visuals
Mothers Ruin
Marvelous Parlour Games
The Vintage Dressing Up Box

G&T – DRINKS £2:00

Dress Code:

Nu-Rave Flapper Girls

Brogues and Hi-Tops
Dandies and Moustaches
Vintage- Vintage – Vintage

1920′s – PJ PARTY SPECIAL

10pm-4am

Having wanted to play the most eclectic night in Wales for a number of years, Jeremy Ellis, aka Ayro, the electronic soul music maestro & MPC master finally lands in Cardiff to perform his unique take on the live one man show!! Born into a musical family generations deep in Detroit – the city extremely rich in musical heritage – a young Jeremy Ellis began learning piano at the age of 5. Continuing to study and master classical and then jazz piano through his youth, the boy that was Jeremy grew into the man known as Ayro (Irish Afro!). Becoming known in the Motor City jazz and electronic music circles through playing with renown jazz/fusion group Jazzhead and live electronic group Time:Space, the level of skill developed soon led him to become a called upon musician locally, working and collaborating with fellow luminaries such as Carl Craig, John Arnold, Alton Miller, Recloose and further afield, providing vocals and remixes for the likes of Roy Davis Junior, Jazzanova & Fertile Ground. All of this has given Jeremy a vast arsenal of live posibilities and even with all of the praise provided for Jeremy’s’ production, it is his electrifying live show that has solidified his dedicated fanbase. He dubs his sets “FREESTYLE,” as they are IMPROVISED using only a combination of live gear, most notably keyboards and an MPC, with the man providing LIVE VOCALS also! And make no mistake, the man can go anywhere in spades!! with recent performances taking in HIP HOP, ELECTRO, HOUSE, BROKEN BEAT & LATIN!!! This one man show (and also with John Arnold) has seen him around the globe entertaining thousands, “freestyling” in Puerto Rico, bringing the future funk to Japan and setting dancefloors alight in Europe AND NOW CARDIFF!!! GET READY FOLKS BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT SEE A LIVE SHOW LIKE THIS ANYWHERE ELSE!!!

Also spinning FREESTYLE sets on the night will be two of Cardiff’s hottest properties both making waves in their respective musical arenas!!!

SEAN MCCABE (Chicaboom/King Street) & RUFFSTYLZ (Associated Minds)

With Residents: Harmonics Dave Norton

£4 before 10.30pm £5 after.

Live performance around MIDNIGHT. Drinks offers.

Chewlips

Volcanos, Volcanos. Now the dust has settled, we can continue with the arrangements.

Topman Ctrl are back in town with two installments of ChewLips goodness. One in the shape of an exclusive instore DJ set at the Queen Street, Cardiff at 4pm Wednesday 9th June..and

Our hotly anticipated rescheduled show at 7.30pm

This time we have a ‘new’ lineup and with two cherrypicked support slots filled by:

Jo Rose : http://www.myspace.com/thisisjorose

Malpas: http://www.myspace.com/malpasmusic

Dj Steve French plays out.

All tickets remain valid from original date

tickets are ‘very limited’ and can be found at -  http://www.wegottickets.com/event/77476

Guaranteed you’ll never catch them again in this intimate context! dont miss out.

WEDNESDAY 9th JUNE 2010 – CARDIFF ARTS INSTITUTE

LET THE GLAM BEGIN!

An INCLUSIVE night of ANYTHING goes. Expect all things electro-pop to dirty beats via all manner of friendly FILTH with an electric undercurrent. Dance Code: Y.E.S.

With More Fantastic Performances By: From 10PM – members from award-winning Slunglow theatre company branch out with new theatre experiments / 10.30PM Splott’s finest Stand – up Kyle Lima / Sexy Singer / DJs

£3 entry / FREE RWCMD current students
£2.50 per can of Red Stripe
Free Pink Fizz if you find the painted duck

Expect catsuits. Expect boys getting their make-up done. Expect one-at-a-time secret performance. Expect limbo bears. Expect lollipops. Expect smiles. Expect rock warm-up. Expect to jump on-stage. Expect to jump off-stage. Expect ducks. Expect filth-face dancing. Expect dark d’n'b sometimes. Expect to laugh til your ribs hurt. Expect hidden treasure. Expect metallics. Expect free pink fizz. Expect glitter girls. Expect dirty sounds. Expect to dance freestyle all night and walk home in a good mood.

Expect the sounds of Fake Blood / Tepr / Drop The Lime / Kitaro / Ladytron / Little Boots / Hostage / Damian Lazarus / The Toxic Avenger / Boys Noize / Jack Beats / LCD Soundsystem / Felix Cartal / Dieselboy / Crookers / Daft Punk / Overnoise / Mr Miyagi / Dizzee Rascal / Action Man / Dusty Kid

Dress Code: GLAM ROCK to the max!

Party central

MOTHER MAE I? THE friday night party in Cardiff.
With Hilarious Acts: 10PM -

Simple the BEST Magic Act / 10.30PM

Splott’s finest Stand – up Kyle Lima / Singer / DJs

£2 a pint / £3 entry

An INCLUSIVE night of ANYTHING goes. Expect all things electro-pop to dirty beats via all manner of friendly FILTH with an electric undercurrent. Dance Code: Y.E.S.

Expect glitter bombs. Expect the return of the limbo bears. Expect lollipops. Expect smiles. Expect 80′s warm-up. Expect to jump on-stage. Expect 100′s of rubber ducks. Expect filth-face dancing. Expect techy d’n'b sometimes. Expect to laugh til your ribs hurt. Expect metallics. Expect free pink fizz. Expect girls. Expect wonk. Expect to forget your best friend’s name for an hour or so.

Expect the sounds of Lady GaGa / Laidback Luke / Meat Katie / Hostage / Malente / Hot Chip / Mixhell / Congorock / Boys Noize / SebastiAn / Tepr / Felix Cartal / Crookers / Daft Punk / Crystal Castles / Discodeine / Machines Don’t Care / Dizzee Rascal / Action Man / DJ Zinc

Underpass: Disorienteering album launch

Wonky Disco is kicking off the new year in style by hooking up with local electronica wizard Underpass for a party to mark the release of his first full-length album, Disorienteering. If you’ve heard his stuff before, you’ll know that Underpass (AKA Lee Marshall) embraces everything from ambient soundscapes to lip-curling breaks n bleeps. And if you haven’t heard him before – well now’s your chance to see a live set from Underpass, plus DJ C++ and Wonky Disco residents playing records until 1am. Doors are at 9pm, but don’t be fooled – these are FREE doors, that open without you having to insert any coins! Hoorah!

You can check out Underpass here:

http://www.myspace.com/lee_underpass

…or on his bi-weekly radio show here:

http://www.nsbradio.co.uk

And to celebrate such an auspicious start to 2010, here’s some words from Underpass himself:

Wonky Disco: “Electronic music has always been about contrasts – would you say your music embraces that?”

Underpass: “I think initially, there was no plan for what it was going to sound like at all.  When I first started making electronic music I was just experimenting with four track tape recorders and computer programs on the Amiga and cheap drum machines, just trying to find a way to make music without having to have a band with me.

The first stuff I released as Underpass was more of a specific kind of electro breakbeat style, and I think I thought that was the way I was going to continue.  There was a point where I had a  bunch of mellow downtempo electronica stuff I was making as well, and looked at it and thought, well, ok, I enjoy making this kind of music just as much, what do I do with it?

 I just decided that I’d keep it all under the same name.  I think it’s kind of patronizing to your audience to say, well they like one thing, but they’re not going to like this other thing.  People are welcome to pick and choose from it.”

 WD: “This is your first full length album right?”

 Underpass: “I actually recorded an album back in 2002, but due to various problems it never came out.  I’m actually quite glad about that now, hehehe. It’s very different working on electronic music than it is going into a studio and recording an album, effectively I live in my studio, and can always work on it, so each track is always an ongoing process.  

It’s not like I show up at Abbey Road on a Monday morning, like, ”crap, ok I have to write something now”!

I sat down in April of this year and just started going through everything on my hard drive. Once I’d figured out which bits I wanted to keep I pretty much spent a week on each track, pulling out all the bits I thought worked, and then writing new beats, recording new sections or re-recording parts, then brushing the whole thing up, and trying to get the production as good as I could.

Some of the tracks like ‘Zombies’, or ‘Hold Your Dreams In’ with Rhodri (from Right Hand, Left Hand), I knew absolutely had to be on there, because they’ve been knocking around for years, and have never seen a proper release for one reason or another.  And it was great working with Hannah Biscombe who has been a good friend for a long time, and we had always talked about her doing a sleeve for me, because I love her stuff”

WD: “It seems like videos and visuals are a big part of Underpass. Is that something you do yourself or do you work with other people?”

Underpass: “My music has always been very visually orientated.  Quite often a track comes from me trying to evoke the feeling of a certain situation that I remember, trying to kind of soundtrack events in my head. I watch movies and short films almost as much as I listen to music, so it was something that I always wanted to do.

 If you look at the music videos of people like Chris Cunningham, they are just so stunning and perfectly suited to the music, to the extent that you almost think the music was made to compliment the video and not the other way around, and I knew we could never do anything that special, but in terms of making something that went with the music, I felt that I really wanted to be involved filming and making the video, even if it meant that it wasn’t going to look anywhere near as polished as getting someone in to do it for me, just because I wanted it to be something that was personal, not just some shiny promo clip to shift units that ultimately had nothing to do with where my head was at, so I hooked up with the talented Steven Hamer, who I was working with at the time, and we just took cameras out and started filming, built up a huge selection of stuff, and then just started editing it over a bunch of evenings together into something that we felt showed the kind of world that we live in and the things that surround us.”

WD: “What can we expect at the album launch?”

Well, I’m going to do a bunch of stuff off the record which is only the second time any of the mellow stuff will get a live showing. I always think that live people are more interested in the danceable stuff, so this is going to be a different kind of show for me, showcasing the other side of what I do for a change. Of course, I’m planning on building the set up so we get to some dirty electro by the end of it, it just wouldn’t be an Underpass gig without some filthy bassline wrongness to end the night!

We’ll be showing the videos too, so hopefully it will be somewhere between a gig, a film showing and a visual installation if it all comes together. Fingers crossed.”

So – there you have it. Underpass at Wonky Disco on the 14^th Jan, 9-1. Delicious, dissolvable dance music.

Welsh love affair

Theres a love affair developing with Glass Diamond and Cardiff…
Sure they havent played at the CAI before, but Hsin Yi Chang (vocals), Vincent D (Synth / Bassist) and CDR (Drum) , have a openly declared a new romance for our wonderful city. Its only a few months in, November infact, since Swn Festival pathed the way for Glass Diamond in Wales and brought the 8-bit punky electro outfit into our warm loving clutches.
Unafraid to experiment with avant-garde soundscapes, happy throwing raw aggression against childlike melodies and proactively getting an entire room dancing..this is why we love Glass Diamond.
Tonight they will be accompanied by Cardiff based, Little Eris.
Little Eris plays experimental electronic lo fi post punk music and is accompanied at live shows by a random group of performers known as The Molecules. We already know that every show Little Eris present is different; a different line up, set list and usually a few tracks that have ever been played before. Little Eris music is both cosmic and earthy and has flavours of Brian Eno, Bjork and The Breeders…
Flux=Rad
tuesday 8th Dec
Doors 9pm
Free

Evils: rocking Wonky Disco on December 3rd

It feels like Evils has been a looming presence on the Cardiff electronic music scene since…well, since computers n that. Otherwise know as James Hale, Evils has released music on Cardiff’s most forward thinking and influential labels (Boobytrap, Slow Graffiti, Kruger Singles Club and now Shape Records), and his live shows are infamous dens of electronic intensity. If you’ve never heard the Evils sound, then make a beeline for his myspace: 

http://www.myspace.com/evilsmusic 

Now fully equipped with a live band, Wonky Disco is proud to welcome Evils’ laser-guided blend of electronic glitches, synaptic bass lines and machine melodies to the Cardiff Arts Institute on Thursday 3^rd December. Not only is the gig FREE, but we caught up with Evils main-man James Hale for a pre-show chat:

Wonky Disco: We’re really looking forward to hearing some of your new material at Wonky Disco. What’s the response to the latest album been like? Were you pleased with it?

Evils: Yes definitely pleased with it, and the vinyl is proper lush! It was good working with Frank Naughton again who is, in my opinion, a bit of a musical genius. I probably spent too much time getting it out but I’m going to rectify that with some new stuff out soon.

WD: What are you doing now music-wise, working on new material or focussing more on developing the live sound?

Evils: I’m working on new projects, separate to Evils but still electronic. Should see the results of that in 2010. I’m also thinking of starting a label with a friend and we’ve got this interesting music/art project to get off the ground called the Golden Section. It’s basically a massive musical collaboration but I can explain more early next year. They’ll be more info on www.meritone.co.uk soon…

WD: What are you listening to at the moment – got any favourites of 2009?

Evils: The last Plaid album – the one they did for some film last year. House de Racket is a favourite of 2009, specifically their song Synthesiser – that’s a track I like to play really loud on my headphones and dance around in the back garden when I’m drunk on my own at night. It’s a sad state of affairs admittedly, but there you go. Quite liked Joy Orbison and I’ve been listening to Sebasitan Tellier, Chilly Gonzales and The Bug quite a bit too. Also liked the Major Lazer album and Vitalic’s Flash Mob.

WD: And what are your Evils plans for 2010?

Evils: Ha ha Evils plans for 2010 are to release an EP and hopefully work with a vocalist…the tracks are already written…

So – now you know the score, get down to the Institute for an Evils spectacular at Wonky Disco. Pre and post Evils music will be provided by Kruger deejays Adam and Phoenix. Wonky Disco: Delicious, dissolvable dance music.