ALWAYS EVERYTHING

BRISTOL // THE WEEK IN MUSIC

Given our Bristol location, we’re occasionally driven to ramble about how many excellent things are going on in our fair city. Almost every evening this week is taken up by something worth spending time at, from Murcof’s electro-acoustic experimentation (following on from his excellent secret gig at the Arnolfini in the spring) all the way to Qu Junktions’ massive Mountain Of Nine event on Saturday night. So these are the places you’re likely to spot us milling around over the next five or six days… 

Tuesday 26^th October // Beak> + Murcof & Francesco Tristano – The Old Vic 

This is a worthwhile trip even to catch Murcof in the surroundings of the Old Vic theatre; while AE managed to accidentally miss out on his Oceano tour a couple of years ago, Fernando Corona’s experimental electronica has taken a turn for the celestial since the release of his career-best Cosmos on The Leaf Label - one of our very favourite albums of any genre - and his performances typically combine improvisation and live performance with beautiful/terrifying visuals. In this case pianist Francesco Tristano - whose allegiance to the shapeshifting Infine label has aligned him with the likes of Moritz Von Oswald - will be playing in collaboration. Geoff Barrow and Team Brick’s stripped-back Beak> will also be playing. It’s a pretty appropriate set of sounds for this week’s freezing temperature.

Wednesday 27^th October // Flying Lotus – Trinity Centre

Part of the beauty of Steven Ellison’s sprawling Cosmogramma album is its ambiguity, the ongoing push and pull between electronic and acoustic, analogue and digital. Over the last few years his music has taken great evolutionary leaps and bounds as his family’s jazz legacy has –consciously or subconsciously? – crept further into its very DNA, and the Bristol debut for his full live ‘Infinity’ show is something we’ve had a beady eye on for a while now. Judging from reports of the London show earlier this year, and featuring Ravi Coltrane on sax and Thundercat on bass, it’s likely to further dissolve the barriers between the different sides of his sound, and as such is thoroughly recommended. And if that’s not enough, this video of the band performing their take on DJ Roc’s footwork anthem ‘One Blood’ should at least provide some food for thought and action.

It’s nigh on sold out though, so it’s probably about hurrying to Rooted if you don’t already have a ticket.

Thursday 28^th October // Terry Riley – St. George’s

This one somehow managed to skirt under our radar until this week – minimalist pioneer Terry Riley, alongside George Brooks and Talvin Singh, is performing a series of ragas by Pandit Pran Nath, arranged for sax, voice and percussion. Needless to say, given Riley’s impressive legacy, and the ways in which Pran Nath’s music has influenced the current musical landscape (just last month former student Catherine Christer Hennix’s mindbending The Electric Harpsichord was finally rereleased), it should be at the very least fascinating, and at best a totally hypnotic way to spend a couple of hours.

Friday 29^th October // Subloaded 6^th Birthday – Motion

Pinch’s Subloaded and Dubloaded nights have essentially formed the axis for the Bristol dubstep scene since the sound first found its way here. After April’s Dubkasm remixes launch, which was one of the best (and loudest) nights out AE had this year, the sixth birthday event at Motion is looking even bigger. For a start they’ve poached scene pioneers Digital Mystikz along for a three hour set – with the arsenal of unreleased dubs that implies – alongside Pinch, Peverelist, RSD and Doc Scott, plus housier bits from Altered Natives and Atki2 & Dub Boy. Earplugs, as ever, may prove necessary. Venture this way for a warm up session mixed by Pinch; it’s pretty deadly.

Saturday 30^th October // Mountain Of 9 – Arnolfini

Now this is something that’s tapped pretty much directly into what we’re about. Qu Junktions‘ Mountain Of 9 event is immediately reminiscent of their sorely missed Venn Festival: an insanely diverse set of musicians crammed into the Arnolfini for one evening, again joining the dots between different strains of underground sound. Heading up the roster are Xiu Xiu (about whom Simon is probably far more qualified than I to rant) and Mount Kimbie, who have steadily honed their live show over the last few months into something both delicate and physically overpowering; alongside them are friends of AE and general keyboard abusers Munch Munch, whose debut album is finally due out next month. Their ‘Wedding’ single, released way back when in 2008, remains a firm favourite, channelling Deerhoof and The Blood Brothers into a slab of shimmering doom-pop. Oh, and on top of that they’ve snagged Lichens, Paul Metzger, Jamie Stewart collaborators Former Ghosts, Position Normal, bfax, Hesomagari and Field Agent Slow Learner. All in all, one of those things it’d be genuinely painful to miss.

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Rory