These are the things that have been in our ears this week, please explore and if it sounds interesting then just hit the links and make your own minds up, our reviews and thoughts are mere signposts designed to guide you to the things you might like to feast on yourselves... don’t you just love the instant hit of the www. 

Moose Factory Presents! is a new semi-regular series of music nights in London. It started off as a reviews and listings website for the leftfield music community and is now branching out into music promotion and releasing mini-albums. Moose Factory has made an effort to include artists of all genres, as long as there is an attempt to push beyond the normal boundaries of any chosen style. This, the first Moose Factory night, is the first time that these three improvisers have shared the same stage. Grew and Clark often perform as a duo and they will do so tonight for one set. Prevost will play a solo set, and the evening will finish with a trio set. Not to be missed!”

Rare Performance Treat: Moose Factory Presents! Stephen Grew, Graham Clark and Eddie Prevost at The Cross Kings, London, October 1.

All giants on the British improv scene, Stephen Grew, Graham Clark and Eddie Prevost will be performing together at the very first Moose Factory Presents! in the Jester Bar at Cross Kings, 126 York Way, Kings Cross, N1 0AX on October 1, 2008. Doors at 7.00, Performances at 8.00, £6 (£4 concessions). Stream of consciousness Grew has notably performed with many  great improvisers such as Mick Beck, Evan Parker, Keith Tippett and Paul Hession. He has performed at festivals around the world from London and Manchester to Latvia and Austria, and most recently at AIM in Toronto. Violinist Clark has a hugely varied CV including everything from Gong, No Neck Blues Band, David Gray, Graham Massey (of 808 State), Lamb, Elbow, and Mark Feldman. Prevost is the revered and legendary co-founding percussionist of AMM. Prevost helped put English free improv on the map. Over the years he has been known to play with countless  top improvisers and contemporary composers, from Cornelius Cardew and Christian Wolf to Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford and Derek Bailey.

And then....
Moose Factory Presents! October 9, 2008 @ The Good Ship in Kilburn, London with SonVer, Rocket Number Nine, Metamorphic, and Juice

Moose Factory Presents! Marvin Ayres, Dollyman, Off Ground Touch and Normal Gimbel October 30, 2008 @ The Slaughtered Lamb, Clerkenwell, London.

www.myspace.com/moosefactoryuk
 

John on the phone...

ORGAN ON YOUR RADIO - WEEKLY on SUNDAYS AT 9.00pm via RESONANCE 104.4FM in London and worldwide via www.resonancefm.com Who got played this week?  1/intro: TRANSISTOR SIX – Back Yard Rocketship (Blackbean & Placenta) 2: CONSTANTINES – Hard Feeling (Arts & Crafts) 3: RUDE MECHANICALS – Strange Times (Rim) 4: YOUNG WIDOWS – Mr. No Harm (Temporary Residence) 5: PERHAPS CONTRAPTION – Your Mum, Your Dad (demo) 6: B FOR BANG – Helter Skelter (KML) 7: TORQUE – Pirana (Hyperhead) 8: SHEARWATER – On The Death Of The Waters (Matador) 9: ELEPHANT 9  - Skink (Rune Grammofon) 10: JOY OF SEX - December, Month Of Plenty (demo) 11: MAX TUNDRA – Nord Lead Three (Domino) 12: KIMYA DAWSON – Alphabutt (K) 13: THE ATROPHY EXHIBIT – Weakender (demo) 14: AMANDA PALMER – Runs In The Family (Roadrunner) 15: STE McCABE – Hoxton Scum (Cherryade) 16: FLYING LUTTENBACHERS – Trauma 4 (ugExpode) 17: THE FRENCH QUARTER – Blue Light (Self Release) 18: LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS – Poor Old George (download) 19: SECRET CHIEFS 3 – Exterminating Angel (Mimicry) 20: THE FRENCH QUARTER – It’s The.... (Self release) How do you find our more? Here come the details and links... more details here x

DEMO OF THE WEEK COUNTRYSIDE – Summer Is Here – Now we loved their last demo lots and lots, played it on the radio several times, a beautifully hand crafted experimental lo-fi thing that you should try and grab before they decide it doesn’t represent what they’re about anymore (as bands reasonably enough tend to do with early recordings and demos).  This new three tracker took a little more time to hit home, it certainly has now though. This time around Bristol’s Countryside are trying to marry their previous sound to that of a more conventional band feel and the only thing that really lets them down is the relatively poor drum sound (not the drumming, no no, the playing is fine enough), that drum sound makes for a sketch book work in progress feel rather than a finished piece of work and thus it does need a couple of listens before ears warm to it - we are talking about a demo here though and with a little more of a decent drum sound this would make for a rather wonderful single. Countryside are potentially one of the best new English bands out there with their delicate warmth and experimental undercurrent that runs underneath their beautifully sublime songs. This CD has kept us happy for most of the morning now, sweetly weaving around our semi subconscious with that slightly glitchy synth textures, the intimate glowing voices, the hopeful uplifting passages of goodness and most importantly the delicate songs that are worth investing so much time in – oh look, these are the days of instant links, go explore for yourselves, Countryside are special, give them time and a little more than just one play though  - www.myspace.com/countrysideland

ALSO CHECK OUT

THE MAY FIRE – The List – Six tracks from a feisty San Francisco band with a bit of a Pixies/Kim Deal drive and a try me, chase me, catch me challenge. Alt.pop with a West Coast garage girl-fronted indie-pop vibe and an energetic immediate attitude and a simmering hint of something or other worth watching out for. Pumped sassy indie pop to stain the thoughts in your mind. Red Unicorn is a stand out track... www.themayfire.com or www.myspace.com/themayfire

Last week's demo of the week - MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN

Previous demo's of the week - GRASSCUT / COP ON THE EDGE / WILD DOGS IN WINTER / THE LAZY DARLINGS / DEBUTANT / ARCS OF RED / LE GALAXIE / PERHAPS CONTRAPTION / BLACKLANDS / THE SANS PAREIL / THE HUNGRY I / DEAD LEAF ECHO / I-DEF-I / DANGER INVITES RESCUE

DEMO REVIEW ARCHIVES

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
UNIVERS ZERO - Univers Zero (Cuneiform) - Lovingly reissued by a deeply respectful Cuneiform Records, this is Belgium band Univers Zero's legendary first album.  Released in 1977, it was astonishing then: today, it sounds like the hidden source for every one of today's avant-garde rock bands.  Chillingly beautiful, driven by the bassoon and cello more than the guitar and synth, each instrumental is both pastoral and burgeoning with terrible life.  Originally released by the band themselves in a limited edition of 500 copies, it has been re-released many times, often under the title '1313', but this edition has been carefully re-mastered from the original 1977 tapes.  The result sounds glorious, full of clarity and warmth, preserving all the subtleties of the largely acoustic classical instrumentation. There's also a remarkable bonus track... more on that later.
          It's one thing when some medeja pillock describes a pair of shoes or some MOR indie outfit or a shop in Ladbroke Grove as 'edgy' - but its perfectly acceptable when applied to this album. This is edgy beyond belief. It drips tension. Opening track 'Ronde' begins both forceful and restrained, full of the creeping pulse of the soundtracks of Bernard Herrmann and the drive of the Rite Of Spring; walking down the street or doing the dishes becomes a sinister act, full of imminent disaster. Yet it never resolves - it ebbs and flows while it keeps the delicious feel of impending action going, along a loping, hunting 11-beat rhythm.  There can be few other bands who get their drive and energy from a bassoon (played by Michel Berkmans).
         UK inhabitants of a certain age might receive a little extra frisson from the instrumentation - that oboe and bassoon reminds us of all those Oliver Postgate animated children's TV series: more the spacey, strangeness of Clangers than Noggin The Nog, their gorgeous soundtracks our innocent ears' only exposure to the sounds of twentieth-century classical composition.  Those of us who like Cardiacs - well, take the glorious end build of The Breakfast Line and feed it until it grows into a whole suite of variations and you'll have this album.  And the same with those bursts of noisy tension in Van Der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts...
        When Univers Zero shut themselves away in their cellar to record this, after years of rehearsal, they had refined their music into a perfect, relentless intensity.  Each piece magnificently refuses to deviate from its mood, its tense, thrilling, growling, restrained focus.  Pretty much all of it revolves around whole-tone and diminished scales, the alien, otherworldly scales, the forbidden scales - and though it writhes and twists into different riffs and feels and texture, the teeth of that Devil's Interval will not let it go.  Odd-time grooves pile on the danger with percussion that is more Wicker Man than fancy prog rock - simple, medieval drums and bursts of sharp, sparse kit. Sometimes driving, often leaving space.  The whole is like the rare, delicious bits of great film soundtrack that create menace and energy out of nowhere.
The bonus track - recorded live in 1979 - is extraordinary.  The first couple of listens were fine.  Around the third time (full moon, middle of night) the skin of my back started to crawl so bad I kept looking over my shoulder.  It is genuinely frightening music, more abstract than the rest, full of hellish speaking in tounges and tectonic groans; it's of a kind with the 'orgy in hell' track on the seminal White Noise album, except... more menacing, like Magma gone bad. Twenty minutes best not listened to alone; quite brilliant. A different line up and the impetus of occasional member Guy Segers make it quite different - the menace here is dirty, crushing, nightmarish; the rest of the album suggests the imagined fears of dark woods and scary natural forces.
        Univers Zero are a revelation; after delving into rich layers of this debut it's a joy to discover that there's more to digest - a whole back catalogue, leading up to the current day, and critical acclaim and a gigging band.  This perfectly presented and restored edition of their debut is the place to dive in. www.cuneiformrecords.com or www.univers-zero.com

Yes I know, Univers Zero is a re-issue and should be further down the page, album of the week by miles though, even if it is 31 years old so its up here and the rules are broken and they’re our rules and rule number one is our rules are for breaking 

go here and see a Univers Zero YouTube 
 

ALSO CHECK OUT HAUSCHKA – Ferndorf (Fat Cat) – Experimental piano music, not too experimental though and all rather soothing and fortifying. Hauschka is the alto-ego of Dusseldorf-based pianist/composer Volker Bertelmann and Fendorf is a very relaxing pleasing set of experiences that exist mostly as delightful piano pieces. Pieces that are taking us to somewhere just a little different with their delicate electronic details and the playful exploration of strings and hums and their glowing otherness. Now there are two ways to deal with this album, the first would be to chin stroke and talk of adventurous intervention into the preconceived and get all John Cage or Pascal Comelade about the unconventional art or it all, or the second way.... The second way is to just tell you of the airy delight and the colourful (clever) simplicity and inviting space and the beautiful isolation and just tell you that Ferndolf is a wonderfully satisfying soothing uplifting and extremely beautiful album, that Ferndoft is a fine rewarding cleansing artistically satisfying enriching album. Ferndolf is a colourful classical restrained glowing set of musical treats and it comes highly recommended - and sometimes saying less about something is to say so so much more – www.hauschka-net.de or www.fat-cat.co.uk x

MANIQUI LAZER – I Learn Everything On TV (Soundsister) – Now it isn’t that clear as to when this cane out or indeed who they are or where they’re from or indeed how this tasty slice of noise landed here. They’re from somewhere on the edge of Mexico and it seems their TV has taught them all kinds of things – yes indeed, the box has taught them (in some kind of hyperactive way) about fat girls killing models, about the possibilities or lazer guns and sleeping with robots... Some kind of wired up electro fizz and shouty sinister synth explosions and Iggy attitude via Erase Errata and The Locust and giant 50ft monsters out in the desert with the cactus juice and never ending two lane blacktop. Screaming about lo-fi master plans and demands that the mannequin (or the maniqui) be killed. Sixteen maniac squats and slices and yelps and electronic stabs and casiocore violence and dance pills and electric fingers, each slice a short sharp shot from a place where passing the minute mark is to enter the land of the epic. Hang on, track fifteen is two and a half minutes long! Self-indulgent proghead Yes fan mutherfuggers! TV? Nah, I learn everything I know from the lies and half truths on the internet and Edgar Valenzuela films  - www.myspace.com/maniquilazer or www.maniquilazer.com or www.soundsister.com and it might be worth you seeking then out on You Tube toooo, especially Horses Eating Horses, oh look, here it is...  x

MAB – Decay (Casket) - Wicked dreams and musical screams and that’s what Mab are made of, dramatic operatic punky metal and screaming bites of Babes In Toyland go atmospheric goth-grunge galloping with Lena Lovich and neurotic colour. Four London based Italian creatures in torn dresses and head-messing riffs and how impressively good is this. Mab have taken their time to get to this point, they’ve delivered a colourful debut album laced with angelic mischief, heavy drama and deep suffocating delight and fairytales and perfectly messed up lipstick and eyeliner. An impressive colourful album. www.mabofficial.com x

MILK ROAR – Hanging Basket Of Babylon (self release) – Whole album of scratchy space-punk rock and tales of homemade sputniks in garden sheds and cricket paranoia brought on by the Duckworth Lewis method, that and ancient burial chambers and toxic nausea and sinister Crazy Frog ringtones and incase of sonic attack please follow these rules. Inner city units of homemade punk rock fizz and swizz and scratch and get yourself the London look and beam us up to the Here And Now and some Floating Anarchy. Oh that London look, call Max Clifford, get Milk Roar in London Lite with Pete and Kate and a trilby hat and  Amy Beehave and a rat in drainpipes and we/they want out of here. Rant and rave and where did he lose those boots and a Southern John Cooper Clark and you wouldn’t like me when I’m happy and what did all these people do anyway? Would the only thing you’d miss be a nice cup of tea? Would you miss Killing Joke or The Who or Pink Fairies, yeah, they’d miss Pink Fairies more than good cups of tea. Wonder what they’re like when they’re on a bad day? This is good, if you like it garage-like and DIY and you like any of those bands we named dropped, that and backyard rocket ships and here you go, My Space once more, you go look there while I go make a cup of tea and check the latest cricket scores on the Class War page – www.myspace.com/milkroar

HYDRA – Worship Your Diseases (Kairotic) – Proper industrial anarcho bone-grinding that could only really come from the deepest pits of London town. A blend of the oldschools; front-line London shouty anarcho punk and banging industrial rhythmic intensity. A blend that fuses and without ever losing that vibe of days gone by, moves the whole thing forward a more than healthy disease or two forward – a future groove 28 days on. A new global noise attack – sample-laced soundbites, spoken filmoid slices and splices, pounding rhythms and cross-kissing sins – tribal thrusts from the very best test departments pushing the slogans and the brickbats and the holy wars.... Risen like leech women and pitchshifting in the finest of ways, Hydra are doing a little more than just being another industrial punk band here, Worship has depth, it has craft, bits of Throbbing Gristle bouncing of bits of Crass and A Guy Called Gerald and driving the sound of conforming free speech and contradiction and warnings foretold and you will conform...Your diseases are to be worshiped. Hydra have crafted a more than healthy industrial punk rock album, don’t let it pass you by – www.slainofthehydra.com

KIMYA DAWSON – Alphabutt (K) – She of Moldy Peaches and so much more and this time with twenty seven minutes of small little tiny children’s songs that you can’t help but smile along to. Tigers in underwear draws biting holes in socks, alphabets where V is for flying V and all written by Kimya, her musical friends and their children. Charming tales and smiles and innocence and fun and all very alternatively American and alternating between twee silliness and goodness and sunny and happy and maybe just a little bit too much pee and poo and we don’t poo and pee so much in England do we...?  www.krecs.com or www.kimyadawson.com

MAGICIAN – Tales Of The Magician (Dockyard1) – Totally over the top bombastic guitar driven epic Euro metal from Brazil (yes you can have Euro metal from Brazil, don’t get all smartyarse on us now). This is cram as much as you can in epic metal, heavy progressive riffs and giant slabs of gothic power metal epicness and classical stabs of gigantic everything larger than everything else magic under eternal skies. And if all that sounds like your thing then they have spot on, a million miles better than the Dream Theatre thing we rejected a couple of hours ago – spot on sound, spot on vocals, and if you’re going to o this then do it properly. Magician do! Completely preposterous, love it! A mix of Queen, Maiden and early Marillion with bits of Accept, Angra and lots of other bands that start with A thrown in - www.myspace.com/magicianband

VOLBEAT – Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood (Mascot) - Volbeat have a sound of their own, a kind of a wholesome melodic blend of blue collar Americana, old school hard rock flavoured melodic thrash that isn’t a million miles away from the more recent things Metallica do, that uplifting US punk-pop thing that Bad Religion have taken forward, a touch of Danzig darkness in the vocal delivery, a hint of Social Distortion, maybe even a bit of Elvis or Johnny Cash and a touch of Megadeth all in there with the fins and the Cadillac blood and the slicked back hair and tattoos and.... They’re actually from Copenhagen and this is probably their finest album yet, they’re not doing anything that revolutionary or that different, their blend is good though, they do their thing with a certain amount of melodic style and class, a quality album from a more than decent mellodic slightly alternative hard rock band – www.myspace.com/volbeat

STRIBORG – Foreboding Silence (Displeased) – New album from the somewhat reclusive Striborg - hissy eerie atmospheric bleak black metal from a dark Australian forest (or something like that). Buzz soaring reverb drenched white-noise metal, the lo-fi nature of the production adds rather than subtracts, not sure how in control of the sound he is (for Striborg is a he called Sin Nanna), I suspect this rather avant Sunn 0))) sound is a little accidental, then again maybe not – accident or not, this is rather good in a forest dwelling misanthropic atmospheric lo-fi noise-drenched sometimes sparse extreme metal kind of way. www.displeasedrecords.com or www.myspace.com/striborg

PRO-PAIN – No End in Sight (Rawhead inc) - In which the US hardcore metalcore bruisers muscle their way through another set of tough streetwise hate-fuelled slices of brutal aggression without ever deviating that much from their now long established blueprint. Maybe a little concession to melody and a harmonic punch or two as they reach in to middle age? Still mostly that chugging thrash-edged metal flavoured gravel-throated hardcore from the band of pioneers. Titles like The Fight Goes On and Let The Blood  Run Through The Streets will keep the die-hard followers happy. www.pro-pain.com

TRIP LAVA – Oddball In The Corner Pocket (Self Release) – Improvised instrumental jazzy space rock, circles of guitar over electronic drone and garage no-wave scratchiness and edgy slightly uncomfortable home-made psychedelia. Layers of loops, primitive sounds, highly effected guitars and flanged textures and if that sounds interesting then go investigate, I kind of like it, nothing that revolutionary, well worth an ear though – www.myspace.com/triplava

A POETIC YESTERDAY – A Little South Of Zero (Rising) – One of those choppy yappy bratty screamo metal bands, this time from the Midlands of England. One for fans of that Enter Shithingy band and hey I’m not and you know, live and let live, there’s the link, Andrew Motion wouldn’t like it, you might, they do it well enough, we don’t like it – www.apoeticyesterday.co.uk

LORD BELIEL – The Black Curse (Regain) – couldn’t read the logo, had to go to the label website to work it out what they were actually called while they thrashed and yelled and screamed away in the corner like a thousand black death baked bean metal bands you already heard. A band once told me heavy metal was like baked beans, you have to make your beans orange and like all the others, no one wants blue baked beans do they? Argued said band who that night were opening for a then new and relatively unknown blue baked bean kind of band called Faith No More, said orange baked bean band probably still tell tales of the time they opened for Faith No More down the Wardour Street Marquee, never heard from orange bean band again.... Lord thingy are going all keyboard melodic on us now and here comes the mean scary demonic 666 number of the bus I am here to do the devil’s work bit and now they’re screaming and thrashing and doing the epic moody keyboard bit and goth-metalling away and screaming about being possessed and in to darkness and the trumpets of doom and inexorable retribution and the fire breathing frogs of the underworld and all kinds of devilish enlightenment, that and the day he fell off his push bike and hurt his knee - oh, it isn't bad as far as orange baked bean type deathly black metal goes, we do get 37 albums like this every damn week though and we do care a lot - www.regainrecords.com
 

Last week's album of the week - CONSTANTINES Previous album's of the week - YOUNG WIDOWS / AMANDA PALMER / LUSTMORD / SLIPKNOT / HEY COLOSSUS / ROSE KEMP / VESSELS / ELEPHANT 9 / DOSH / KAYO DOT / SAY BOK GWAI / THE KINGSIZE FIVE / SCORCH TRIO / THE REAL McKENZIES / VILE IMBECILES / THE LAST PEOPLE ON EARTH x

ALBUM REVIEW ARCHIVES

        Hang on, I recognise that sound coming from that colourful tent hidden over there in the corner. Band in white face paint and lots of colourful clothes, extremely distinctive soft/gruff Scottish singling voice - a man called Jimmy in a sailor’s hat with a ukulele, next to him a sweet-voiced very English girl called Tallulah (Gosh!) or maybe Eleanor (or Truly Scrumptious or...). One side of the two of them, a tall boy with stand up bass, other side a not quite so tall (but still rather tall) boy with either a recorder or who knows what kind of wind thing or accordion or one of those plastic toy looking melodica things (it seem to magically be a different instrument with every glance back in his direction). Hey, The Bobby McGees are hiding in this tent in the corner and she sings such sweet songs about hunting him down and killing him in his bed and he sings so quietly and politely about slashing throats and wishes used up for kisses and butterflies and love and other four letter words. They’re so colourful and George Fornby and Ivor Cutler for riot grrls and  Smiths fans and the awkwardness of The Fall and personalities like no one else and people are dancing and smiling and clapping and he’s blowing bubbles and hair is being pulled but no one is crying and this sentence needs to end now... This is The Bobby McGees in full flow, twee as flip ferocity and sweetness littered with a naughty word or two. We usually encounter their left-field anti-folk flavoured goodness in little indie clubs, they’re always good but here on this big stage in front of lots of people who clearly had no idea who there were (and quite a few down the front who clearly did), they blossomed and glowed and they’re so full of energy... and they nearly made us late for our radio show, well them and the dragon parade blocking the way and the Bulgarian dance troupe and Perhaps Contraption and their sand sculpture and.... 

www.myspace.com/thebobbymcgees
 
 

ROSE KEMP, Guildford Boiler Rooms, Sept 16th 2008 The Boiler Rooms in Guildford is a typical alternative music venue- compact, small-but adequate stage, merchandise booth, noodles, bar. But dear-oh-dear, it has a strict curfew. And when I say strict, well, actually I mean early, 10.30pm apparently. Heck. Now, I've no idea why this is. It could be miserable neighbours (who should go and live somewhere else if you ask me, or join in the fun), or it could be a fussy council. Perhaps it could even be a cautious venue, but whatever the reason, sort it out folks. Everyone knows that rock musicians can never get their stuff on and off a stage within their allotted time (and that's assuming they make it to the venue on time in the first place), so gigs always run behind schedule. With support bands often insisting on playing their full set, the upshot is that when a curfew is set so early, the reason why many of us are there in the first place, i.e. the headliners, are cut off in their prime. Some promoters show remarkable understanding, like Chris at the Boardwalk in Sheffield who, having witnessed Jesus Underground Band's legendary timekeeping one Sunday, instead of getting all agitated and insisting everyone was out bang on the dot, he told me to take as much time as necessary to ready the stage, then made sure that as curfew time came and went, all outside lights were switched off, doors were locked, and a promise was made to all those that missed their bus that he'd hire taxis to get them home. That's the spirit! I'm not sure if by playing until 10.50 at the Boiler Rooms last night Rose Kemp was getting away with it or if it was the standard "20-minutes-past-last-orders" thing, but my heart sank when after only two numbers, she was asking if we were already into curfew time. We were, and my heart went through my boots. Why? Because having just discovered Rose and been transfixed by the album, I was eagerly anticipating the full-on live experience, and now a venue curfew was about to put a big dent in all that. You see, that album, Unholy Majesty, is so damned heavy I had to take it out of the CD player to make sure it wasn't six inches thick. What's more, I had to open all the windows to rid my room of the smell of burning carcasses. The offspring of Maddy Prior and Rick Kemp, you'd expect a gentle folk album on wafer-thin vinyl. What you get is doom-laden prog with pagan overtones and folk undertones - majestic indeed, unholy only to the holier-than-thou. There's even a blinking Mellotron on it. Add to all that a voice that can shatter glass and induce orgasm simultaneously, and there was no way I was missing this gig. It wasn't going to be easy though. There's me working in Ashford, which to some people is in Surrey but to others Middlesex (no, I don't get it either- who do they support in the cricket?), and the gig taking place in Guildford (definitely Surrey). To add to the horror, I didn't finish work until 8pm, although I was reliably informed that Rose would be onstage at 10 o'clock. There was a train to Weybridge at 8.10pm, and with help from Gemma's speedy little sporty job, I was whisked from Tesco to station all in good time. Three trains later (yes, three; Ashford-Weybridge, Weybridge-Woking, Woking-Guildford), I was there within an hour. There then followed the obligatory Belch-finding-venue time; the taxi driver insisted he wouldn't have to take me there- "You can't miss it," he said. Oh, Mr Cabbie, don't you realise I could miss an elephant in a hi-vis jacket? At least the half-hour I spent stumbling around was enlivened by refreshing the scores on my mobile- Sheffield United may only have been drawing at home to Coventry, but the snort-beasts had thus far shipped six at Reading (Reading, why did you give up after an hour? You could have had ten!). After visiting every subway in Guildford, I found the little blighter of a venue and had a good-natured rant to the poor girl on the sales desk who is presumably used to idiots like me who have no sense of direction. So, I heaved back the doors expecting to be greeted by hundreds upon hundreds of gig-goers. But, erm, no. There were a handful watching the support band (who were actually pretty good, but I'm sorry guys, I missed your name as I was too busy trying to work out if the final whistle had blown at Bramall Lane), but that was it. I hoped they'd all come in for the main attraction, but it seemed not as gear was moved on and off stage. I was still seeking the final score from up north when a female voice said, "Belch- you made it," and looked up to see Rose greeting me with an uplifted hand (the joys of having a recognisable ski-slope nose on my MySpace profile picture). I wasn't sure whether to go for a high-five or a table-free arm-wrestle, so instead settled for a raised handshake (more akin to the arm-wrestling option). Rose voiced her concerns about the curfew, so I suggested she play everything at Cardiacs speed. A good idea, but not really feasible for such doomy majesty... So, how did Rose Kemp live match up to Rose Kemp on record? In the face of such adversity, very well. With a curfew looming, and an empty room, she still scared the living daylights out of all those brave enough to remain in there, her off-mic invocations at the start of "Dirty Glow" proving that amplification can be overrated. That voice was so powerful, and her guitar so crunchingly heavy that it was a wonder the whole building didn't come crashing down (me leaning on that post may have put us all in danger too). Each song was belted out with demonic intensity, but then just as I was expecting a spell to be cast on us all in between tunes, Rose broke into such a broad beam I thought the top of her head was going to come away. She then proceeded to extract the michael from the venue and its ridiculously early bedtime before launching into a new song, so brand-spankingly new it ain't even on the album. I divided my viewing time between all three band-members- Rose's power, the drummer's energetic control, and the bass-player's strange technique of plonking his left-hand on the strings from above, a technique I'm sure Rose's old man will have an opinion on. I know I shouldn't be after all these years of gig-going, but I'm always surprised that three people can make so much noise... We'd barely had time to take in the awesome power of "Nanny's World" and "Saturday Night" (and "Bitter Sweet"?), when the venue called time, so instead of "McCroaky Croak" (a jest, I presume), Rose finished with the only song she could finish with, "The Unholy", the sort of song that if it gets issued as a 12" single (it'll never fit on seven inches) would get pressed on slabs only. If you don't know what I mean, trek along to her My Space page and turn the volume up full. When it's done, you'll feel like you've been run over by a bus, but it'll be a bus that you'll be asking to come back and do it again, only in half-an-hour when you've recovered. I get the feeling that with the right conditions, in a live situation, that bus would be more like a juggernaut, loaded up with gleaming iron bars. As it was, we just got the bus effect, but goodness me, has it left me wanting more, so much so that I'll be off up the M1 on Saturday for the gig in that place in Yorkshire called Leeds... (Adrian Bell) oh look, go here and see a YouTube for yourselves www.myspace.com/rosekemp

LIVE REVIEW ARCHIVES

BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUS are coming over! This is very good news indeed, you can catch the US band and their challenging extreme prog metal goodness in November at the following venues as guests on the GENGHIS TRON tour: 17th Nov - Coalition, Brighton, 18th - Whelans, Dublin, 19th Limelight, Belfast, 20th – Asylum, Birmingham, 21st Snooker Club, Trowbridge, 22nd - London Underworld, London, 23rd - Corporation, Sheffield, 24th – Croft, Bristol, go find out why we’re excited by this news over at www.myspace.com/beholdthearctopus

ALSO CHECK OUT

BOWERBIRDS – In Our Talons (Dead Oceans) – From an AirStream trailer in North Carolina with a fine alternative folky accordion, violin, acoustic guitar and gentle understated percussion kind of single off their rather fine Hymns For A Dark Horse album. And you’re not alone in their talons and they’re never letting go even if you are in their headlights frozen, a fine place to be, it takes a lot of nerve  - www.bowerbirds.org

FROM PLAN TO PROGRESS – Global Reaction (Lime) – Blowing through from the South Coast and the Brighton line (via a healthy time munching on the influence of all those Fat Wreck style US hardcore punk rock bands). Yes indeed, we got some good quality front line fast energetic committed melodic punk-pop here. Nothing in terms of musical revolution but hey, they have their catchy sound nailed down and they do it extremely well. A good taste of things to come with the new album Evolution in The Wrong Direction, the album is out in early October – www.myspace.com/fromplantoprogress or www.limerecords.com

Last week's single of the week - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART / DARK CAPTAIN LIGHT CAPTAIN

Previously - PRINTS / PETALS ON A WET BLACK BOUGH / LITTLE JACKIE / MARY EPWORTH AND THE JUBILEE BAND / ART IN EXILE / MOGWAI / Z's / ONE DAY AS A LION / SON VER & ELEPHANT LEAF / FIGHT LIKE APES / THE BRUTE CHORUS / PORT O’BRIEN / VESSELS / VILE IMBECILES / GIANT PAW / DARK CAPTAIN LIGHT CAPTAIN

SINGLE REVIEW ARCHIVES

PREVIOUSLY - EX-GIRL / DELIA DERBYSHIRE /  F**KED UP / THE REVELLIONS / LIZ PHAIR / OASIS / THE CLOUD ROOM / HERZOGA / THE MELVINS / SHEARWATER / THE REAL McKENZIES / VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR / SIGOR ROS / VASECTOMY EGGS NAILER / FAT WRECK, ME FIRST... / THE DANDY WARHOLS  / SKIN GRAFT RECORDS / WIRE / BUTTHOLE SURFERS  / CARDIACS / STUMP, KEV HOPPER / PUSSYCAT TRASH

BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES – A Touch Of Someone Else’s Class (Alive) - Now this time around they got it nailed from the start, filthy dirty analogue organ and spot on drummer. Just the two of them and some filthy dirty organ driven old school blues. They’re from the Southern United States and they say something about being influenced by “piece of shit cars, the criminal justice system, crazyass women and southern religious hypocrisy”. They got the classic blues/soul of John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, R.L Burnside, Seasick Steve, and yeah a bit of White Stripes/Shellac suss on their side along with that righteous organ sound. The whole thing is wholesome and they’re setting down there right there with man from the crossroads on the porch sipping cheap beer and doing it just right. Yep, this is good old punk-ass organ driven analogue blues - smoking, filthy, drenched in soul, over-driven and like they say, they’ll have their way and catch you somewhere on the other side. They got soul, they got moody bits, they got stompin bits and they got gospel and they got it nailed from the start with a touch of someone else’s class in the shape of the filthiest dirtiest stompinest version of Nutbush City Limits you ever did hear. And as for that start of Loose Yourself! Are you sure they didn’t make this album in 1974? Bidin My Time has to be an old jazz soul classic from the 60’s, something off Stax or something, old lost early Otis Reading thing maybe? Can’t be a new song they just wrote? There is a Nina Simone song here and most of it is just nailed down filthy organ driven blues, the kind of thing that makes upstart bands like The Black Keys look like wet behind the ears indie kids in comparison. As cool as f! - www.myspace.com/blackdiamondheavies
- find it in the UK via www.cargorecords.co.uk

Previously: CLIFF / KILLING JOKE / THE SAVAGE RESURRECTION / BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB / DOOM / LIFE OF AGONY / DEAD HEAD / DAVID BOWIE / STUPIDS / AMEBIX / BLONDIE / THOR / STUMP / KOENJIHYAKKEI / SEBADOH / THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS  / SUN EATS HOURS / LEGION OF PARASITES / ALABAMA 3 / AHLEUCHATISTAS / WIZARDS OF TWIDDLY / DEEP PURPLE

Like one of Damien Hirst's vitrines, the Sotheby's saleroom last night proved perfectly insulated from the real world outside: on the worst day on Wall Street since 9/11 and a day after the collapse of another major investment bank, the first part of Hirst's megasale (firesale?) Beautiful Inside My Head Forever took in £70.5 million, just about matching the upper estimate for the evening, £62.4 million (taking into account the premium, which is conveniently not added to presale estimates). Continued over at www.artreview.com

PREVIOUSLY - JOE MEEK / IMPROV EVERYWHERE / AARON KRATEN / HURRA TORPEDO / BOOK: THE STOOGES – A JOURNEY / JUNK SALES:SLAVES OF NEW YORK / BITTER PIE / SF ZINE FAIR / GIANT PAW – ART CARD SERIES / L. GABRIELLE PENABAZ @ FIERCE / ZINE: LIGHTS GO OUT #1 / LESS THAN JAKE

Schhhhhneeeeews? What's that? - go see - www.schnews.org.uk
libcom.org is a resource for all people who wish to improve their lives, their communities and their working conditions.
Meanwhile to download (free) and watch a selection of SchMOVIES short films click
here - www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies
THE ORGAN MAILING LIST -  If you want to be on the ORGAN/ORG Records e.mail list then you need to get in touch E.MAIL HERE.
 

ORGAN 273 - CONSTANTINES, WOODBOX GANG, RA RA RIOT, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, PERHAPS CONTRAPTION, AMANDA PALMER, BYE BYE CANDY, OF THE I, RUDE MECHANICALS, ANARCHISTWOOD, GIRLSCHOOL, ICED EARTH, ICED EARTH, BLOOD CEREMONY, TONAL OAK, SOULS, FALLEN, PURE INC, BULLET, THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, DARK CAPTAIN LIGHT CAPTAIN, THE TAMBORINES, EX-GIRL, DESTINATION:OBLIVION, JOE MEEK....

ORGAN 272 - YOUNG WIDOWS, AMANDA PALMER, EHNAHRE, GRASSCUT, PRINTS, THE FRENCH QUARTER, POPE JOAN, THE VERVE, BUFFALO KILLERS, MISERATION, DRAGONFORCE, THE MONO EFFECT, BONKERSFEST ‘08, NOUGHT, GERTUDE, TO THE BONES, ROLLINS, BOBBY BARKER, ONE TRUE DOG, BLUEZZ INTOXICATED, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, F*CKED UP, IMPROV EVERYWHERE, CLIFF... 

ORGAN 271 - LUSTMORD, SLIPKNOT, LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS, AARON KRATEN, FIGHT LIKE APES, TOY GUN COWBOY, IMMERSION COMPOSITION SOCIETY, PICTURES PAINT WORDS, LITTLE JACKIE, RUBY THROAT, TO THE BONES, THE MIRIMAR DISASTER, AGRYPNIE, CITY 13, LORDS OF BASTARD, THE DONKEYS, GOLDBLADE, BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE PRESENTS: BRENDAN CANNING, BLAND BLADEN, EUREKA MACHINES, BRIAN WILSON, PETALS ON A WET BLACK BOUGH, NARRATION, KISSING KALINA, THE REVELLIONS, KILLING JOKE... 

ORGAN 270 - HEY COLOSSUS, ROSE KEMP, MOTORHEAD, COP ON THE EDGE, GNOMES OF ZURICH, LITTLE JACKIE, JOY OF SEX, GNAW THEIR TONGUES, GEOFF SOULE, UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, JAGUAR LOVE, HELLFIRE, CRUISER, THE CHAIR, GORGOROTH, SONNY, REGURGITATOR, LAGWAGON, MILLENNIA, UNBUNNY, TZUN TZU, SUPENIK, ZEBRAHEAD, MOURNING RISE, SINISTER, THE BIKINI BEACH BAND, ZAG AND THE COLOURED BEADS, WHIMWISE, SUSAN GEORGE BOOTH, SERGEANT BUZFUZ, POPE JOAN, FOUR DEAD IN OHIO, THE VIEW FROM BELOW, THE INCONSOLABLES, THE SAVAGE RESURRECTION, LIZ PHAIR, BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB... 

ORGAN 269 - VESSELS, DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, ELEPHANT 9, ART IN EXILE, WILD DOGS IN WINTER, DISSENTIENT REVOLT, TONAL OAK, THE STRIPPER PROJECT, GUTZ, 31KNOTS, INDIAN JEWELRY, KASAI ALLSTARS, NEW MECANICA, LONELY GHOSTS, AGNOSTIC MOUNTAIN GOSPEL CHOIR, RYE, RYE, LAST HARBOUR, THOSE WHO BRING THE TORTURE, RE-RENAISSANCE OF THE CELTIC HARP, BEN MARWOOD, VALKYR, EGEBAMYASI, THE CLOUD ROOM, HURRA TORPEDO, FIGHT LIKE APES...

ORGAN 268 - DOSH, VILE IMBECILES, QUEEN ADREENA, Z's, MOGWAI, DDD, ISOR, PURE REASON REVOLUTION, BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, HEAVY HEAVY LOW LOW, SOUTH, SILVERY, THE LAZY DARLINGS, THRACIA, LATE OF THE PIER, FANTASY BAR, BLACK FLAME, THE VERVE, HERZOGA, THE STOOGES, FIGHT LIKE APES...

ORGAN 267 - KAYO DOT, SHEARWATER, OXBOW, HARVEY MILK, ONE DAY AS A LION, KONG, DEBUTANT, IDIOT SAVANT, THE JET BOYS, NADJA, THOMAS FUNCTION, SEBASTIAN BACH, ORGHIA, SANCTORUM, GROUND MOWER, DISARM, RON FRANKLIN, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, SABATRON, KAROSHI BROS, THE VIVIANS, THE HAIR, UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, THE EMERGENCY, DOOM. BIFFY CLYRO... 

ORGAN 266 - FIGHT LIKE APES, WE ARE SCIENTISTS, SAY BOK GWAI, THE KINGSIZE FIVE, THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, SON VER & ELEPHANT LEAF, DAVID CRONENBERG’S WIFE, TRIPWIRES, DRAGONFORCE, LIFE OF AGONY, SCUL HAZZARDS, SOULFLY, RON ATHEY, ARCS OF RED. EPIPHANY, SHADE EMPIRE, YETI RAIN, SCHIZO FUN ADDICT, FAITH, SOFIA, LAVONDYSS, ROSE HILL DRIVE...

ORGAN 265 - LE GALAXIE, FIGHT LIKE APES, SCORCH TRIO, SUSAN GEORGE BOOTH, THE REAL McKENZIES, THE MARCHES, 28 DEGREES TAURUS, GHOSTED, PHANTOM FLOAT, ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMIES, Marie Vesco, Bonkersfest.. 

ORGAN 264 - VILE IMBECILES, THE LAST PEOPLE ON EARTH, BODIES OF WATER, ALGHAZANTH, TEASING LULU, THIS IS RADIO FREEDOM, BLAZE BAYLEY, EMPYROS, PLASTIC HEROES, THE BRUTE CHORUS, PORT O’BRIEN, VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, DEAD HEAD, junk stalls, bath bombs... 

ORGAN 263 - FIGHT LIKE APES, LE GALAXIE, CAPILLARY ACTION, PEDRO, THE PSYKE PROJECT, SERPENTONE, MOTORPSYCHO, SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB, ALLA, HARVEY MILK, ZENITHAL, L.A. GUNS, VESSELS, LESS THAN JAKE, DAVID BOWIE, STUPIDS, NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS, THE 1990'S, HONKEYFINGER, SOUNDSHOK, TV SMITH, RICHARD LLOYD, THE DODOS, JAPANCAKES, SOULFLY, GLORIA CYCLES, VASECTOMY EGGS NAILER, SIGOR ROS...

ORGAN 262 - LAYMAR, WIRE. THE ROTTED, COLDPLAY, VERJNUARMU, THE COKE DARES, STONE GODS, URN, VILE IMBECILES, ROYAL TREATMENT PLANT, JESSE MALIN, AMEBIX, BLONDIE, PERHAPS CONTRAPTION, DOUBLE HANDSOME DRAGONS, KANEDA, WAVES UNDER WATER, SOSUMI, IRVINE WELSH PRESENTS THE BOOK SLAM, BITTER PIE and the SF ZINE FAIR

ORGAN 261 - MARIE VESCO, RESONANCE FM IS TEN, BLACKLANDS, STRAY DOG CAFE, HIGHTOWN CROWS, WE THE FACELESS, HEAR O ISRAEL – A PRAYER CEREMONY IN JAZZ, GRAND MAGUS, Q WITHOUT U, FREE KITTEN, MAMBO MANTIS, RUSSIAN CIRCLES, GUNSLINGER, BLACK LIGHT BURNS, CALABRESE, SIX REASONS TO KILL, GIANT PAW, DARK CAPTAIN LIGHT CAPTAIN, THOR, CROCUS, HADDONFIELD, ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES, FAT WRECK.....

ORGAN 260 - RUDE MECHANICALS, OPETH, BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES, THE SANS PAREIL, RABBIT SEASON, LITHURGY, TASHA FIGHTS TIGERS, RING, MOSS, ZERO HOUR, TREES, MOCKINGBIRD, AKPHAEZYA, THE MORE I SEE, HISTORY OF GUNS, AMBERIAN DAWN, NUESTROS DERECHOS, ZAG AND THE COLOURED BEADS,  WIZARDS OF TWIDDLY, STUMP, THE DANDY WARHOLS, THE HYENAS, AIRBOURNE, NO 2 PAY 2 PLAY....