With no less than three UK Glitch Hop Awards under their belts - for Best EP, Best Producers and Best Live act - Koan Sound are undisputed the kings of the UK scene this year. They've just got back from touring the US and Canada over the winter to play two epic night under their own banner Koan Sound presents... alongside the international king of glitch funk Opiuo. You don't get a better double headliner.
The first sold out night in Bristol on Wednesday 27 March sees them hook up with former Inspected Records label mates Asa and Sorrow for the ultimate homecoming show at Thekla. This is going to be up close and intimate - eny the lucky souls with tickets! https://www.facebook.com/events/101072526746028/
Then the London line-up promoted by London Warehouse Events on 28 March sees them joined by d'n'b innovator Rockwell and synth funk-meister ARP101. There are still some tickets left if you're quick. This one's going down in history - you'll never near the end of it if you miss out! https://www.facebook.com/events/524988897540890/
If you're not able to make it to London, check out Koan's forcthcoming shows in Brighton, Leeds, Reading and Manchester, or just make sure that you get yourself to Boomtown!
Terrorbyte and Automaton host an uber special interview with AMB ahead of his London show at Distant Tremors on 29 March, plus clips from forthcoming Beta Test releases and a cacophony of free downloads and fresh glitches!
We can't gush enough about how excited we are to see AMB back in London! Someone who could be seen alongside Tipper as one of the pioneers of what we now call glitch hop, Ambrus was living in London and making glitchy breaks way back in the day, founding Chi Recordings in 2000. He's since found himself at the head of a rapidly growing Hungarian glitch hop scene, while his live sets and production skills are in demand worldwide. (NB. His influence is probably bigger that we're even aware of - just check out the list of people he masters for here!)
As for Distant Tremors, it's brilliant to see the emergence of another glitch hop infused club night start up in London. Known for their club and squat parties in the London Psytrance scene, the guys behind Distant Tremor are trying something a little different for 2013 and have created a line up with a distinctly psychedelic mid-tempo flavour.
Quanta, another production whizz from South West Wales represents the trippy dub vibes of New Zealand's Enig'matik Records, while we're delighted to see Eurythmy getting a main room slot after first being introduced to his gorgeously melodic music by Mouldy Soul on Glitch.fm. Speaking of whom, if Mouldy Soul's set at ::Illumination:: on Saturday is anything to go by, he's going to blow the roof off at Union! We're also really looking forward to -ISO- (first played on Glitch.fm by the Morbidly Obese Midget), plus residents Atman Construct and Forever Blind who have been feeding quality glitch mixes into our Soundcloud group for the last year. Oh, and there's some short fat fellow playing too.
If you like your mid-tempo to be mind-tweaking, this is not to be missed!
[ - AMB - Adapted Records/Simplify Recordings (Hungary) - ]
WHOMP celebrates being voted Best UK Glitch Hop night with a FREE PARTY at a new venue, Relay in Shoreditch, on Saturday 23 March. It's Dephicit's first London gig alongside Spenghead, residents Vent, Tryptich, our very own Mikes Wallis B2B Lumo and Morbidly Obese Midget plus Oik. You actually can't go wrong!
Well excited about this show, we've got two killer guest mixes plus more quality tunes than the fat man can eat, plus we'll have the lastest gig news and the usual world-class international chat room banter!
Winners of the UK Glitch Hop Award for Best Remix, Standard&Push treat us to an EXCLUSIVE mini-mix to celebrate. We've also got Huddersfield's Duburban Poison reprazenting the North East with a classic-packed guest mix featuring highlights from their Wicked Glitch Podcast series.
If that wasn't enough, the Morbidly Obese Midget has the latest releases and exclusives from the likes of Koan Sound, Reso, Opiuo, AMB, Shamanic Technology, REGMA, Spenghead, Circuit Bent, Andreilien, B.visible, Mat tha HAT, An-ten-nae and more...
Winner of 5 UK Glitch Hop Awards, our favourite funk-meister Opiuo is back in Europe this month for an extensive tour! To celebrate the occasion, plus the release of Butternup Slap Remixed on Addictech, we've finished editing Automaton's interview with Oscar at Whomp back in November.
EUROPEAN TOUR DATES 2013
6 March 2013 Opiuo @ Ayers Rock Boat: Lyon, France
8 March 2013 Opiuo @ Cellar Door: Exeter, UK
9 March 2013 Opiuo @ Boomtown Party: Swansea, UK
15 March 2013 Opiuo @ Tri Postal: Lille, France
16 March 2013 Opiuo @ Glazart: Paris, France
20 March 2013 Opiuo @ The Haunt: Brighton, UK
23 March 2013 Opiuo @ Kultuur Kaffee: Brussels, Belgium
27 March 2013 KOAN Sound Presents: Opiuo Thekla Bristol United Kingdom
28 March 2013 KOAN Sound Presents: Opiuo @ Sidings Warehouse: London
29 March 2013 Donk! @ The Winchester: Bournemouth, UK +Shamanic Technology & Kursa
Hailing from Oakland, CA, Beats Antique was one of the first acts associated with glitch hop to really think about their live show. In fact, they started with it. Fronted by gorgeous bellydancer Zoe Jakes, the group with David Satori and Sidecar Tommy was originally formed to create music that matched her dancing - a blend of tribal, popping and jazz. Since the release of 2009 album Collide, their eastern influenced clockwork glitch hop and steampunk aesthetic have seen them established as favourites of the Burning Man community and an essential soundtrack for just about every bellydancer and fire performer on the planet...and now they're finally coming to the UK to play a one off show with Bird of Prey at The Coronet in London on Saturday 16 May!
Other live glitch hop acts have graced these shores before - namely The Glitch Mob and to a certain extent Opiuo - but what makes this significant is that it's hosted by a psychedelic party promoter. There have always been strong links between the European psychedelic party scene and that of America's West Coast, with Elixir of Life, the promoters behind ::: Illumination :::, doing more than anyone recently to bring the visionary art of Android Jones and co to our shores (check out the gallery line-up below). With a few exceptions though, such as Bluetech, The Human Experience and Nagual Sound Experiment, the music has remained a little out of sync. While the Americans and Aussies have been exploring the psychedelic potential of dubstep, bass and glitch, since the wax and wane of psydub our conscious parties have mostly been clinging onto the relentless march of psytrance to keep the main room dancefloor moving. A shame considering the diverse roots of psychedelic music in this country.
The main room line up here, however, is going to be a little bit different, with Gaudi launching a new album alongside live favourites The Egg. Even better news is that there's a whole room dedicated younger home grown glitch hop, neuro hop and mid tempo acts, headlined by Slackbaba but with Mouldy Soul, Kursa and Nimbus all on the bill too. Slackbaba remixed and produced Nimbus' debut EP, which came out in January, while fellow veteran producer Gaudi regularly plays tracks by Mouldy Soul.
The potential of this night as a shift in focus for the UK psychedelic party scene is significant. It looks like the best event of its kind since Hallucinogen in Dub and Younger Brother played Brixton Academy in 2007. Oh, and there's a whole gallery of mind-blowing visionary art. Not to be missed!
:: Main Stage ::
Beats Antique LIVE (UK Debut) featuring Sidecar Tommy & David Satori
GAUDI featuring Danny Ladwa - album launch "In Between Times"
The Egg
Bird of Prey
Atmos
Emok
Aliji
:: Room 2 - Psy Trance ::
Prometheus
Sonic Species
BeatNik
Liquid Ross
Shane Gobi
Mebjar
Amethyst
:: Room 3 - Glitch, Psy Breaks and Electronica ::
Slackbaba
Monk3ylogic
Mouldy Soul
Kursa
Nimbus
Rowan Elf
:: Room 4 - Techno hosted by Noisily Festival ::
N'to
Fuzzy Logic
Flash
Jasper
Audley
:: Room 5 & 6 - Visionary Arts Gallery and Live Painting ::
Live painting from Emma Watkinson and Stuart Grigg
