TRIBES /STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR / NOWHERE BOY
THURSDAY 7th JULY
DOORS 8pm /+16
£5adv : direct link for tickets:
www.wegottickets.com/event/116113
‘With their mumbling vocals and growly guitars, facial fuzz and general air of dishevelment, Tribes appear to worship at the altar of Cobain and Co. Their track Whenever couldn’t be more Nevermind-ish if it tried, which presumably it won’t do because exertion would be antithetical to the slacker ethos. Their songs have choruses that sound like the bit in Smells Like Teen Spirit where Kurt went, “Hello, hello, hello”, in that sardonic droney manner that suggested sardonicism was his way of dealing with anguish and pain. He would have droned for America had he heard Tribes. ‘ -New Band of the day – Guardian
Support from Strange News from Another Star & Nowhere Boy.
Links: www.myspace.com/tribesband

                                                                 

Chicago experimental duo reminiscent of Stars of the Lid, Fennesz and
Brian Eno, Mountains come to Cardiff to play material from their new
album Air Museum.  Labelmates with Tortoise, OOIOO and The Boredoms,
Mountains live up to the experimental ethos of the Thrill Jockey.

For their new live set, Mountains has created a patch that will enable their electronics to sync up at various times, so while the musicians react to one another musically, given the right parameters, the machines can react to one another as well.
“Holtkamp and Anderegg deliver a kind of 21st century folk music – one
that’s immersed in the aesthetics of modern technology yet retains a
very natural, very approachable sound. Absolutely gorgeous music”

Support comes from Simon Scott (ex Slowdive) & K Matthew Jones

The Wire Magazine say: “Scott is particularly adept at layering coolly shimmering guitars and dark churning currents of noise into something vast. A haunting aspect of ‘Navigare’ is how it seems to contain traces of tunes that stand out like half-forgotten relics of the past”.K. Matthew Jones is a guitarist from Cardiff who will be playing a brief live set in which he attempts to emulate his spiritual heroes, the Leeds nu-rave quartet Hadouken!

 http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mountains-p1106296.

 THURSDAY 26th MAY 2011

Lineup: Mountains (Support from Simon Scott & K Matthew Jones)

Times: Doors – 7.30pm
Cost; £5 adv/ £7 door :

TICKETS HERE:  http://www.wegottickets.com/event/115830

Cardiff Arts Institute present Llanelli Alt-rock 5 piece ‘Cut Ribbons’ on one of many shows to come in 2011, Joining them are Carmarthen duo Trwbador, who will be bringing a melodic, drum machine infused acoustic aspect to the evening. Both bands with appearances at Swn Festival 2010, and numerous radio sessions including Adam Walton. They will be joined by Cardiff alternative 3 piece ‘Paper Factory’ , and bearded bipolar acoustic act ‘My Name Is Ian’.  
Entry –  £3.

Be open-minded to a range of musical tastes and genres

Music Geek Monthly
 
Have you ever wondered why there are no music groups that are like reading groups? Me too!

As a result, every month Music Geek Monthly will be exactly that. Each month, new album releases will be reviewed in a hit, miss or maybe style. There will also be a chance to preview any upcoming gigs. Then, between each group meeting, members will listen to 2 albums, 1 band new and 1 classic, to be discussed at the next meeting. Just like a book group. Each month a different person will choose the albums. You might just find some musical gems that you didn’t know existed. If this sounds like your kind of thing, come along and get involved!

THE MUSIC GEEK MONTHLY MANIFESTO

1. Bring yourself and a favourite cd.
2. Be prepared to describe your musical likes and dislikes
3. Be open minded to a range of musical tastes and genres.
4. Embrace the hit, miss and maybe style.
5. Discuss new releases, upcoming gigs and monthly chosen album.
6. Have a good ol’ time

MUSIC GEEK MONTHLY

THURSDAY 24th MARCH 2011

8pm – FREE ENTRY – COMMMON ROOM

Cardiff Arts Institute + Urban Outfitters bring you an extra special soul this Sunday.

JAMIE WOON
A seasoned performer from a musical family (his mum has sung backing vocals for artists from Blur to Bjork, Michael Jackson to Kylie Minogue, appearing on more than 20 number one hits), Jamie Woon is a Brit School graduate that after 10 Years in the game has finally worked his way up the ranks and onto nearly everybody’s ‘one to watch’ list for the year, including the BBC’s ‘Sound of 2011’ selection. After navigating his way around London’s Acoustic scene, Jamie was finally given the opportunity to record a single, a version of ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ which received play from the likes of Gilles Peterson and Mary Anne Hobbs, thanks in part to a remix from Burial. He went on to tour as support for Amy Winehouse and record his blue tinted soulful vocals for top underground beat experimentalists such as Debruit and Subeena and released a stunning cover of Olive’s ‘You’re Not Alone’ for a Tru Thoughts, before Polydor offered him a deal with complete creative control. The first single ‘Night Air’ became an underground hit, with Jamie maintaining his link to the cream of credible producers, working with ‘post Dubstep’ dons such as Ramadanman and Deadboy. His new album is due out in the Spring and he will be performing here at Cardiff Arts Institute on Sunday March 6th.

Jamie Woon – “Night Air” from lorenzo fonda on Vimeo.

For this we also see the return to Cardiff Arts Institute for Ghostpoet, make sure you can singalong to his tunes by listening to his whole album streamed at The Guardian.

Stream: Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam

7.30pm /£6adv

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/106309 .

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

Ears of 2010, rejoice: it’s been a vintage year for forward thinking electronic music. The past twelve months have furnished us with the swirling melodies of Caribou’s Swim, the joyous clicks n bleeps of Four Tet’s There is Love in You, and a barrage of boundary-pushing bass music from labels like Hyperdub, Hemlock and Night Slugs. Sitting somewhere near the top of this mouth-watering list of are Mount Kimbie – the duo responsible for Crooks & Lovers, one of the most critically-acclaimed albums of the year. The Mount Kimbie sound is a patchwork of influences – crackling electronica, swooning neo-soul echoes and warm, snaking bass lines. Crooks & Lovers is what Massive Attack might have sounded like if instead of immersing themselves in the gloominess of trip hop, they had embraced the restless rhythms of two-step. When I caught up with one half of Mount Kimbie, Dom Maker, the band had just returned from a two week blitz of European dates. “We’ve been playing a few dates with the XX, a big festival called Lowlands in Holland, and a gig that was basically at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. It really surprises me that people know our songs in these places, but it seems to go down really well” said Dom. It’s a feeling that the band are going to have to quickly get used to: they have received fawning praise from the unlikeliest of places. “Our label and press team have done a great job of getting our name out and getting us interviews. But when we got reviewed in The Sun that was just insane” laughs Dom, “I think the fact that the indie crowd have picked up on us as well as the DJs helps too”. There’s no doubt that dubstep started the revolution in electronic bass music that is currently taking place, but having splintered established dance floor genres into a thousand pieces, now only the trace elements of dubstep can be found in the wreckage left behind – a process that Mount Kimbie represent better than anyone else. “Dubstep was the reason we started making music”, said Dom. “We met at university in Brighton and started going to dubstep nights instead of the Fresher’s Week stuff that was on. But our label, Hot Flush, are one of the labels that have just become more and more creative over the years, and that’s given us a great opportunity to develop our own sound.”

Although some of the tracks on Crooks & Lovers have been destroying discerning dance floors across the country, the bulk of the album is made up of meandering loops, fused to soft, twinkling melodies. It’s an unashamedly experimental album, but the reward for repeated listening is body of work that captures everything that is good about electronic music in 2010. Mount Kimbie’s label Hot Flush, helmed by the pioneering DJ and producer Scuba, was there at the very beginning of the dubstep revolution. Via a detour through Berlin techno, Hot Flush has kept things moving in the best possible way, providing a platform for the innovative sounds of Mount Kimbie to flourish. “In a way Hot Flush is more of a techno label now – moving to Berlin changed the emphasis of the label’s music, and you can hear it in Scuba’s albums. Sometimes its like he pushes the boat out so far that at first no-one knows what to make of it, then its like ‘this is the freshest thing ever’, and I’ve got massive respect for that.” Of course, Mount Kimbie know a thing or two about fresh sounds. Alongside other trailblazing producers like Joy Orbison and James Blake, the band are ensuring that British electronic music is in rude health. “James Blake was part of the Mount Kimbie band at first, he played live with us. We met before he had really released anything, but we heard a recording he’d made of a horn section doing (jump-up dubstep anthem) Cockney Thug. We realised we had to get in touch with him! Now he’s blowing up big time on his own, and we’ve both got loads on, so it seemed natural to go our separate ways for now. But we’re definitely planning to work again in the future.” The prospect of future Mount Kimbie/James Blake hookups is a mouth watering one. But for now, Cardiff has the excitement of a Mount Kimbie’s first live show in Wales to look forward to when the band grace the Cardiff Arts Institute on Wednesday 27th October. Get your tickets early – this is a white-hot gig not to be missed.

Mount Kimbie play live @ CARDIFF ARTS INSTITUTE

Wednesday 27th OCT 2010

Doors 8pm

Tickets : http://www.wegottickets.com/event/91494

No Sweat usually features local acoustic acts, but this week we have a wonderful treat from afar. Well London. Via South Africa.

Adam Donen is a poet, singer and songwriter. He’s busy promoting new album, Immortality…

“Highly accomplished, poetically charged, mini-chamber orchestral brooding about love – it’s mostly a breakup album underneath all the lyrical allusive qualities – and against modern nature.” – Sweeping the Nation

http://www.adamdonen.com/

Support comes from:

No Sweat favourite Huwie Price
http://www.myspace.com/huwiegprice
Check out his debut EP, The Sea Air. It’s well lush.

And local harpist Bethan Nia
http://www.myspace.com/bethanniaharp
Bethan’s music creates a colourful patchwork of sound woven through the strings of her Celtic harp that effortlessly blend the ancient and modern.

Free entry
Music from 9pm
No Sweat x

Swn Festival: Friday – CAI/plugged in’s blogger Alex Turner checks out what’s on offer at the premier UK new music festival

After a Swn opening night good enough to merit an afternoon nap, Friday promises a different experience, lighter on spiky guitar acts and with an emphasis on all flavours of electronic and dance music.

It’s difficult not to be enthused by a flash of Teeth to get things underway.  Early doors revellers at Buffalo are swept up in their dayglo electropop, singer Veronica So making merry with a red balloon which is eventually popped under an audience member’s feet.

In Cardiff Arts Institute, a more cerebral strain of machine music is being rolled out.  A quick preview of Glasgow’s Dam Mantle via Myspace suggests a rather subdued gig, but after easing in gently he’s soon underpinning his looped, plaintive vocals with crisp beats and trouser-shaking bass.  The surprisingly youthful-looking Quinoline Yellow follows with an abstract, crunching selection: one for the heads.

Back at Buffalo, the downstairs bar is packed with drinkers but few have made the trip upstairs to catch Cocknbullkid.  This is a shame: musically there’s nothing that fresh going on, but Anita Blay’s shiny pop fits hand-in-glove with 10pm on a Friday night.

It’s then time for the first in a brief series of defeats.  A bid to get into Clwb Ifor Bach for the second half of The Ex meets with a firm “no” from the doormen.  It seems the gig is still ongoing, but as Clwb’s late-night event is a separate affair, one crowd is being cleared out before a new one is allowed in.  The doorway of Y Fuwch Goch, packed to capacity with punters enjoying The Keys, provides shelter from the rain.

Into Clwb at last, and after a confusing half-hour soundtracked by a compilation CD, P Money is on stage.  Once into his flow it’s a pretty riveting performance, with Rinse FM’s JJ laying down a slick backing of grime spliced with dubstep.

A mad dash to catch Raffertie ends in disappointment: Buffalo is a lockout, wristband or no wristband.  A frustrated tweet gains a sympathetic response from the venue feed, but there’s no getting round the one in-one out queue.

So it’s a return to Clwb to finish the night in the company of Ras Kwame.  Undeterred by a slimline dancefloor, the Radio 1 man whips up a set packed with bangers from the likes of Lil Silva, Major Lazer and Tempa T, ending the night on a positive note.

www.twitter.com/alex_captain

Swn: Thursday night Review

 CAI/plugged in competition winner Alex Turner on Swn’s opening night

The opening night of any festival begs one question: to cane or not to cane.  This year Swn dangle the dilemma pretty hard, loading up a Thursday evening programme that increases the temptation to stay out late the further it is studied.

Two very different punkish blasts get proceedings off to a crunchy start.  Brown Brogues dish out a brutal three-drums-plus-one-guitar Headcoats stomp in Undertone, while local boys Kutosis (pictured) gain a strong response to their more bassy, processed sound over at Dempsey’s.  Crouching low over their amps to wring out maximum feedback, they briefly appear to have been floored by their own intensity.

Over at Cardiff Arts Institute, it seems for a moment that the festival has evaporated: all quiet and hardly anyone there.  None of this fazes the impossibly fresh-faced Crash Disco, who grins and jacks furiously as he reels off a fizzing 20-minute laptop set of Italo-flavoured electronics.  The musical equivalent of mainlining Sunny D.

His enthusiasm must be infectious: people filter into the venue from here on in and a healthy crowd catch Nedry’s sophisticated, bass-heavy pop.  They may owe a debt or two to Bjork and the Knife, but an endearing stage presence, strong songs and some dubsteppy touches are enough to get waists winding.

Audience member comment on White Ring: “they’re like a Nathan Barley joke band”.  Understandable perhaps, but appearance-wise, it’s more like Crystal Castles on heroin: one waif, one deeply unhappy-looking bearded man, not much movement.  For anyone who’s only heard of them via this month’s micro-genre “witch house” they probably conform utterly to expectations, and there’s so much dry ice in the Undertone basement that even the toilets are thick with it.  Yet the tension between their temazepam synths, statuesque stage presence, booty-ready beats and straight-up tunes keeps people hanging as the midnight hour drew nigh.

Just in case anyone has forgotten about True Indie Graft, Bellini demonstrate how things are done in the Model Inn.  Grizzled survivors of Girls Against Boys, Don Caballero and Uzeda, they may well be shoo-ins for Swn’s least photogenic band award.  Having them play in front of a large mirror seems downright unfair.  The years of dues-paying are pretty telling though – their complex mathy styles are tight as the proverbial gnat’s chuff, and hold up well in light of their members’ previous bands.  A fitting way to close off a strong first evening.

 SWN FRIDAY REVIEW BECKONS……

www.twitter.com/alex_captain