Bad Uncle & Hear Here @ United Reform Church
After 5 years of promoting shows in Manchester, Bad Uncle are throwing the noose around the neck of their current operations and stepping out into the new. And although tinged with sadness, we are honoured they have chosen their third outing at SFTOC as the point to mark their timely passing
This year again they are teaming up with Hear Here, Manchester based promotors with a penchant for all things musically exciting and forward thinking. Previous shows have seen Matthew Dear, Portico Quartet and Otto Van Shirach take to their stage.
After the tremendous success of last years stage they will once again showcasing ‘Soundtracks from the Other City‘, with bands creating original scores to films especially for the festival. The stage been privy to some amazing, one-off performances over the years including Gnod, A Middle Sex, Denis Jones and Liz Green.
+ I S L E T ( E x c l u s i v e S o u n d t r a c k S e t )
Islet’s vision appears to be that of limitless possibilities, not in the sense of the po-faced horder, but in the simple joy of exploration. Their debut album ‘Illuminated People’ showcases a mix of exotic rhythms-leaning rhythms and Kraut-reaching instrumental breakdowns. Something that’s illustrated perfectly in the hugely ambitious nine minute opener ‘Libra Man’. There’s the still a clear sense of free abandon, of group members swapping instruments and songs forming from the nucleus of jams, half-ideas and fleeting thoughts re-visited and built on to take on entirely new meaning and structure.
Live they already have a burgeoning reputation. Spending the summer of 2011 playing festivals including Primavera, Leeds & Reading and Bestival, they beguiled onlookers with ritualistic chants, sometimes delivered away from the song being played on stage; at other times they were seen meandering off into the crowd. In person as in music, they seek to break down walls.
For Sounds… they will be creating and performing a wholly original and exclusive soundtracking set the likes of which may never be seen or heard ever again…
+ T E E T H O F T H E S E A
Since their initial formation in 2006, the London-based Teeth Of The Sea have metamorphosized into the most adventurous and intrepid psychedelic rock outfit in the UK. Taking on board influences like Ennio Morricone, Eno, Delia Derbyshire, Goblin, Butthole Surfers and Harmonia, their two albums for Rocket Recordings, ‘Orphaned By The Ocean‘ and ‘Your Mercury’ showcase an incendiary sound that effortlessly marries the aural enlightenment of a far-reaching avant-garde sensibility with the reckless fury of a junkyard rock & roll imperative.
Teeth Of The Sea exist on a strange and beguiling astral plane, whereby the boundaries between the synth odysseys of the 70s, the guitar-noise-fuelled infernos of the 80s, horrorscore schlock, Reich-ian repetition, and a whole plethora of other cathode-ray and speaker-stack birthed epiphanies are blurred into one futuristic and fearsomely coherent whole.
Following an enormously rewarding 2011 that saw them take their scintaillating sonics on the road with British Sea Power, Esben And The Witch and Parts And Labor, play the Supersonic, Standon Calling, Raw Power and Supernormal festivals, and perform ‘Reaper’, their brand new and specially commisioned audio-visual re-imagining of Neil Marshall’s Doomsday at the Branchage Film Festival in Jersey, Teeth Of The Sea are currently writing and recording their third album for Rocket, for release later in 2012, and it looks sure to see them visiting new orbits and fresh abandon alike.
http://www.myspace.com/thewrongjaws
+ P E E P H O L E S
PEEPHOLES are Katia Barrett (drums, vocals) and Nick Carlisle (keyboards). The Brighton / London duo formed in 2006 after bonding over a Chinese violin and the quietest of music. Pretty soon they turned the volume up and hit on their winning strategy of soaring, stammering synth lines, tribalised drumming and low-slung vocals. Walking a tightrope between underground punk and dance music, Peepholes write cloaked anthems as likely to open celestial gates with keys of repetition as to soundtrack a slow motion fairground accident. Their sound is otherworldly, aching with wild beats, echoing with cavernous atmospheres.
http://wearepeepholes.co.uk
http://soundcloud.com/peepholes
+ W O D E
Wode started as a two-piece in 2010 and cut their teeth at last year’s SFTOC festival. Now 4 members strong, Wode have a sold-out demo behind them and their steed-like equine black metal has attracted abyssic hails at gigs alongside Saviours, Bacchus, Æthenor, Dolentia and Drunk in Hell.
“A shot to the jugular, the roughness of this demo merely added a razor-sharp edge to what were already a viscerally thrilling collection of tracks.” - Drowned in Sound.
http://wodecult.tumblr.com
http://soundcloud.com/wode
+ N A S D A Q
NASDAQ are an instrumental trio from Manchester, they also perform under the guise of FTSE100 and on very special occasions Daq Sabbath. Their sound shifts seamlessly from blissful ambience to the guttural depths and back again via angular, precise passages of complex notes and huge mountain-toppling riffs. Add to this a sprinkling of deep, psychedelic synth and vocal passages and you have some insight into the strange world that lies within.
http://soundcloud.com/nasdaq-band
http://nasdaq.bandcamp.com
+ W E L L W I S H E R
We are Well Wisher. We are from Manchester (mainly). We are 2 and a half. We work well as individuals and as part of a team. We are friendly, punctual and well mannered. We wash our hands after using the toilet and clean behind our ears. We are predominantly inspired by Girls’ Generation, Slipknot and Some Kind of Monster. We will be soundtracking the 2012 remake of Jurassic Park directed by Well Wisher.
http://wellwisher10.tumblr.com
http://wellwisher.bandcamp.com
+ V E I
Veí is the alias of multi-instrumentalist, producer and former ‘Kin’ keyboardist Jonn Dean.
Until late 2011 Veí’s sound only really existed within his live improvised shows – comprising of drum machines, samplers, loopers and glitchy/circuit-bent fx – with only a few tracks being committed to record. Wanting to explore more congruent song structures and experiment with new toys and techniques, Veí wrote and released a self-titled EP with new local label Baptists and Bootleggers in February 2012, showcasing a mixture of Folk, Hip Hop, IDM and Glitch influences.