ORPHANED WEIRDO GIG ROUND-UP
We're sinking down deep in the mud, and the fucks are at it again!
So yes, alas; Willcox House—the wheezing mammoth / run-down office complex that myself and some 70-odd South Wales-based creatives have spent just shy of half a year repurposing as a nexus for left field sound, art and performance in South Wales—is finished. Turns out that at some point earlier this year, the site was sold in such bastard secrecy that a hapless estate agent actually showed up in the final days to show perspective clients around, unaware that the deal was done, even after we’d been told. We were given a grand total of six days to rehouse three stories and five months of work, furniture, equipment, community, even livelihoods
I’m told the lack of a reasonable timeframe to vacate is a common tactic in these arrangements, which ensures artists don’t pack up prior to the completion of a sale and leave landlords liable for any rates until it becomes someone else’s problem. It’s almost certainly a breach of contract, but as Axis—the charity who facilitate these arrangements and who have been amazing in terms of support—point out, any attempt to reckon with the fuckers would be a complete disaster should it not pan out in our favour, since it would probably bankrupt them and leave spaces up and down the country in trouble
On behalf of everyone at Carnedd, a huge xièxiè to everyone who lent a hand with the long march back to the Capitol Centre, where the project’s constituent entities—SHIFT, TactileBOSCH, Umbrella and more—are regrouping and planning things you can’t possibly imagine. Some brief personal thoughts;
-      The clock was always ticking on Willcox House, and what anger I’ve felt has principally concerned the landlord’s lunatic demands. Further fury at the pale, monstrous indifference of faceless capital has felt mollified by an inevitability that myself and others involved have experienced when getting booted out of previous spaces. But is the idea that outsider practice has to exist between the cracks, and thus has no real right to something less precarious, just something I tell myself to placate an effective fightback against a more or less unbeatable adversary?
-      The experience has been a consolidating one which has strengthened resolve across networks which, prior to Carnedd, I feel were operating in relative isolation. I’m pretty upbeat about Cardiff atm, and I think the fact that most shows so far have been re-homed proves the point
-      Back on my bullshit here but diolch yn fawr to the Music City junta for their quick and unconditional offers of help and support; not so much as a ‘u ok hun?’, although again there’s a question I have trouble answering around whether we’d want that type of support. I’d also like to thank The Guardian and their correspondent for this quite honestly majestic puff piece, released a full week after we’d gone public. 2017 was actually one of the best years for DIY in Cardiff I can remember, with Lesson No 1, Hotel de Marl, JonesyBoi and more firing on all cylinders at Gwdihw, Undertone, Transport Club, CCC and all sorts. Where were you?
Anyway, I hope they’re all having a nice time at Swn; remember when Swans played? Lmao. An actual expression of thanks to NoFit State Circus for rehousing the knifedoutofexistence show. The great news is, they’re not the only ones
RE-HOUSED GIGS
FRI OCT 25: JENA JANG & SI PATON, HAN, KEVIN JANSEN & JON RUDDICK @ The Turner House, Penarth, 19:00
I think about Penarth a lot; did you know the cliffs there contain the largest known outcrop of Pink Alabaster in the world? Anyway, the Jena Jang gig is happening at Turner House now. As per last month: Jang is an improvising musician from Korea who deploys high-drama vocals and home-soldered synths to call down dense and unsettling atmospheres. She’ll be joined by composer, improviser, reputed wrestling fan and ‘Prepared Bassist’ Si Paton, who plies a solid trade in the field of virtuosic, doesn’t-quite-fit-anywhere free-formisms. Never have I been more serious when I say ‘expect the unexpected’
They’re joined by Han, an experimental musician, fellow healthcare worker and ‘Scotland’s finest cash-in-hand DJ’ whose latest release on Trilogy Tapes—Leaving A Spoon In A Tub -10—covers everything from readying yourself for well-being week by ordering fish fingers on Uber Eats to heading over to Decathlon which, last I checked, remained extremely reasonably priced. Unfortunately ‘I’m Dead’—the self-described ‘Gay Melvins’—have disappeared from the bill, but replacing them is Hague noise-terror Kevin Jansen, otherwise known as Svartvit, joined by SHIFT boss Jon Ruddick, who did time together at Kevin’s residency in the basement last year
TUE OCT 29: JOHN BUTCHER / DOMINIC LASH / EMIL KARLSEN, CHITTY / PARFITT / RUDDICK, XAVIER BOUCHERAT @ Theatr Soar, Merthyr Tydfil, 19:30
Absolutely gassed to be heading Merthyr Way and to the stunning Theatr Soar, where reformed saxophonist & UK improv capo John Butcher will be joined by bassist / long-time collaborator Dominic Lash (cousin of Voldemort, it says here) and drummer Emil Karlsen. Punchy, explorative improv for the curious and the disturbed. Joined by a trio of South Wales Improvisers including synth-lord Martin Chitty, and myself attempting some experiments in ‘machine-based’ ‘extended’ ‘saxophone’, whatever that means
THUR OCT 31: JASON KAHN / MATTHEW GRIGG, KEI MEMORY LABORATORIES @ Still Hands, Cardiff, 19:00
The tall weirdo from Muriel gives up the keys to his tattoo gaff for one night only in aid of the Jason Kahn and Matthew Grigg duo. Kahn’s electronics are a bed of chaos which frequently involve him incorporating his own body into the circuit flow, producing systems which are prone to collapse and burnout. Matthew Grigg is a guitarist, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from listening to him. Joining them is Kei Memory Laboratories, a completely unauthorised effort from Martin Chitty (see above) and Cardiff’s own rent-a-drummer Luke Robinson
SAT NOV 16: SEMAY WU, FRISE LUMIÈRE, CHRIS CUNDY, CHRIST PARFITT @ The Turner House, Penarth, 19:00
Turner House come through again with some really cool shit; Semay Wu is a cellist and sound-artist based in Central Scotland; check out this gear on Glasgow’s wonderful Akashic Records, which underlines well her preoccupation with simply messing about; sometimes I don’t think there’s any music on earth that can really match the clatter of everyday shit for richness and texture. Frise Lumière is the project of Ludovic Gerst who, in a worrying development, is the second ‘Prepared Bassist’ to feature in this edition of the newsletter. Just how prepared, only time will tell. Further support from bass clarinettist Chris Cundy (‘like a birdsong interrupting an argument’) and Cardiff saxophonist Chris ‘Have You Heard The Good News?’ Parfitt
SOME OTHER GIGS
To Swansea now, where they treat people right, and where the sound of Bill Withers - Lean On Me rings out on every corner
THU OCT 24: NIA DAVIES ‘VOTIVE MESS’ LAUNCH PARTY WITH TRULY KAPUT & THE MIDNIGHT TREMBLERS @ Elysium, Swansea, 19:30
Nia Davies presents her second collection of works, ‘Votive Mess’, described here as ‘a book of small rebellions against systems of exhaustion and alienation [the same described earlier in this newsletter maybe?], embracing lingual brambles and shabby theatre to assemble fragments gleaned from the rubble of babel... a tangle of sex, leaf, stumbles on stage, damage, blackberries and dyslexia’. I’ll not be topping that! I’ve only been lucky enough to see Davies perform once, supporting Orphy Robinson / Pat Thomas’s Black Top at Tangled Parrot, and that I found an engrossing, weirdly confrontational / actually hilarious encounter which I’ll not forget soon. Support from scuzzy trans-panic agit-poppers Truly Kaput & The Midnight Tremblers
SAT NOV 2: GWYL NAWR FESTIVAL W/ CODI DAN-DDAEAR, Y DYDD OLAF, FFRANCON, GWENIFER RAYMOND, GWILLY EDMONDEZ & ASH COOKE, MANAGED DECLINE, RADIO FREE PONTY, RHYS TRIMBLE, SWI, STEVE DAVIS, TEDDY HUNTER, TESS WOOD / CAMILLA NELSON / NIA DAVIES, WEMA AND YEAH YOU @ Ty Tawe, Swansea, all day from 11:00
The NAWR all-dayer returns! Very cool, some picks but this all looks great to me;
-      Yeah You: Bridgend-born terrors return to Wales to administer a further beating; ‘wild pop’ improv via knackered synth and sampler, kept ever-buoyant by Elvin Brandhi’s fight-or-flight vox
-      Tess Wood, Camilla Nelson and Nia Davies: that’s the Wood from yy wood with Nia and poet Camilla Nelson. No idea what they’ve got planned but reckon it’ll be mint
-      Managed Decline: A mysterious Barry-based act whose live recordings are great; dark and dense ambience that sounds like it’s been recovered from the burnt-out remains of a once-central, long-forgotten nexus for long, dreamy music
-      Rhys Trimble: Keen to see ‘avant-bard’ Rhys after one J Milo Taylor gave me this wonderful tape at Supernormal, a bleak work of deep-sea glitch, depth-charge rumble and malevolent signal-jamming that sees the pair engaged in ‘code-making, code-breaking and code-shaking’, big tip!
That’s all for now. Thanks to everyone who came along to the yy wood launch, props in particular to Mugwort Maiden for the medieval belters, Tess for her balloon solo and to the PG Security for letting people eat their takeaways in peace. We endure! Only a few tapes left so snap that shit up if you want it
keep us informed!