John Stevens

Controlled Conditions Presents....Why?

WHY? PRESS RELEASE

Controlled Conditions presents WHY? (Live, Anticon) + ASTEROTH (Live, Float) + SJ ESAU (Live) + DJs Mingpirate, Pippin & Solumian

(Friday 10th October, Cube Cinema, Dove St South, Bristol / 7.30pm / £7/8)

Controlled Conditions is an attempted response to the irritating inflexibility rife in modern music presentation, specifically the live music/nightclub experience…must everything be so very rigid? Avoiding the usual scrum to package the unpackageable – whilst hypocritically boxing that very fact up for 'the masses' to scoff upon like the naive pups the marketers & media purport them to be – Controlled Conditions aims to showcase music we like and love without thinking too much about the order of everything…as debut headline act Why? has asked: 'Where are those lines drawn'?

An aptly idiosyncratic opening gambit, American producer/vocalist Jonathan Wolf aka Why? is perhaps best known to UK ears for contributing his mesmeric stream-of-consciousness drawl to the ingeniously wonky vision of 'hip hop' that is cLOUDDEAD (licensed to Ninja Tune offshoot Big Dada) with fellow Anticon collective members Dose One and Odd Nosdam. His first solo long player Oaklandazulasylum is one of the most brilliantly unclassifiable releases of 2003; disobediently tinkering with tempo and texture, Why? creates a kind of fractal multi-layered electronic folk fulminating with imagination, wit and an unprecedented melodic clarity. Live representation of which – with full band in tow – promises to be a very special thing indeed.

And what better to complement Why? than something entirely different? Local boy Asteroth's forthcoming EP for his own Float Records label finds him coaxing subtle passages of unfeasible warmth and delicacy from sample manipulations involving choir song, guitars, glockenspiels and more, in a manner akin to – often worthy of – Jim O' Rourke, Fennesz et al. Helping him to recreate this live tonight will be fellow Bristol electronic-acoustic wunderkind The Knowledge of Bugs.

On a separate tip once more, spinning the cerebral-stoopid in the bar all night we have messrs Mingpirate, Pippin and south coast-based miserablist Solumian. Leave the pigeonholes to the pigeons.

STOP PRESS!

Providing a short set of beautifully skewed feline-friendly psych-pop early doors we have another Bristol-based nipper: SJ Esau has been tickling the listening fancy of 'nuff respected record labels of late…ensure prompt arrival tonight to see why (but not Why?…he's later).

Info: mingpirate@yahoo.com or (07958) 395815

http://www.anticon.com http://www.floatrecords.co.uk

Controlled Conditions Presents...Amon Tobin

Controlled Conditions Presents…

AMON TOBIN (Ninja Tune) FINAL SCRATCH DJ SET

BRONNT INDUSTRIES KAPITAL (Silent Age) LIVE

DYSLOGIC ( Float) LIVE

CONTROLLED CONDITIONS, CLEAN CUT & FLOAT DJS

Thursday 16th October, Thekla, The Grove, Bristol
9-2am

£6 in adv (+ B.F) from Imperial Records & Replay Records, Park St.

£8 on door

The second helping in a six day-spanning double whammy of Controlled Conditions events in Bristol sees Ninja Tune dark destroyer AMON TOBIN return to conquer once more with his unique, dancefloor devastating box of Final Scratch-abetted DJ tricks. Following 2002's frankly dangerous 'Out from Out Where' long player, this year has seen Tobin join forces with a choice selection of lofty leftfield players, including Prefuse 73, Boom Bip & Bonobo, for a series of remixes and collaborations released as a double 12" set to widespread acclaim in the summer. Suffice to say he has the sounds to suit a space as conducive to bass as Bristol's legendary Thekla boat-cum-club…and a great deal more besides, including specially prepared visual accompaniment. Instructions: Mind your ears, move your feet.

Raising the pressure in support we have two live treats from the ever-burgeoning Bristol electronic/experimental community: BRONNT INDUSTRIES KAPITAL (Silent Age Records) are a ruthless, efficient two-man operation – Max Webertron & Klaus Wickermann – who combine intense, industrial strength electronic beat textures with epic melodic melancholia, like aural postcards evoking storm-swept autumn nights in the Black Forest of Freiburg, Deutschland…Heavy. DYSLOGIC (Float Records), meanwhile, works the extreme-left wing of hip hop, submerging fractious beats and queasy melody in a lo-fi brew of feedback and sonic fission. Assisting him on record deck duties this evening will be Sentinel.

DJs downstairs are Controlled Conditions mainstays Mingpirate & claimant of the infamous black ribbon at the 2003 'Hampshire Pageant of the Forlorn', Solemian. Upstairs sounds are covered by a pack of Float & Clean Cut DJs, including Asteroth, Punksi, Knowledge of Bugs & DJ How?… trust these men with your ears.

Info: (07958) 395815 or mingpirate@yahoo.com

http://www.amontobin.com http://www.ninjatune.net

http://www.silentagerecords.co.uk http://www.floatrecords.co.uk

http://www.cleancutrecords.co.uk

Everyone Alive Wants Answers

And so, Leaf comes good with the ambient magic once more. Following on from Susumu Yokota's sublime trilogy of meditative instrumental passages, 26-year-old Parisienne Colleen (real name Cecile Scott: why not just Cecile?) makes her label bow with this delicate, atmospheric thirteen-track long player.

The press release encourages late-night listening, but 'Everyone Alive...' has enough light and shade to work effectively in all manner of scenarios, most pertinently perhaps on a summer's day, lying on your back in a field, staring up at a wispily cloudy blue sky. The title track - also the opener - paves the way for the gently evocative coaxing of mood and feeling that follows, with a plaintively plucked main melodic line echoing around washes of treated harp.

A simple guitar or music box loop often underpins everything, as evidenced on the short, eerie 'Carry-Cot' - featuring a small northern boy talking about slippers (?) - and the yearning grace of 'Your Heart on Your Sleeve'. However, there is always something to take lift this music beyond the conventional weave, with what resembles a pump organ (choice of instrument is rarely clear, nor strictly relevant) on 'A Swimming Pool Down The Railway Track' veering between striking melancholy and unsettling dischordancy.

A multitude of concealed wonders to be discovered, then, on a record which, whilst never quite matching Yokota's 'Sakura' for sheer otherwordly beauty, upholds the Leaf label's deserved reputation for picking up on the most talented, intelligent crafters of the electronic lullaby, and disseminating their work for all to savour.

Everyone alive wants answers, and, while Colleen may not have them, her music makes the search a wonder in itself.