Opal Tapes has rapidly gained a formidable reputation in the landscape of underground machine music, skating the dark terrain between disorienting noise collage and joyous rhythmic electronics and quickly making its international mark on the adventurous record buyer's consciousness. As Juno Plus recently described:

"Opal Tapes can be counted as a shining example of the rewards to be reaped from an acute combination of curatorial dexterity and aesthetic pride. Surfacing midway through last year, Stephen Bishop’s labour of love has already acquired a respectable stature for a relatively new label, and is already fourteen instalments deep that run the gamut from decaying techno to dissociative noise."

The London showcase features the talents of Karen Gwyer, Basic House and Gnod off-shoot Dwellings/Druss.

KAREN GWYER

On releases for No Pain in Pop and Opal Tapes Karen creates digital psychedelia, toying with kosmische repetition, manipulated vocals, drone and expansive electro pop. She's been compared to OPN and Julianna Barwick, and her latest work brings to mind Prurient's recent dabbling in dark techno.

“Gwyer parents a frosty ambience that chills the ear whilst skeletal percussion – influenced by her love of Malian music – ripples like pebble-struck water." DIY (on 'Needs Contimuum')

karengwyer.com/

BASIC HOUSE

Basic House is the solo electronics project of Stephen Bishop, a mainstay of the DIY scene in the UK's North East and the brain behind the label Opal Tapes.

"There’s a sense from Stephen Bishop (also known as Basic House) that his new found label Opal Tapes is founded to give something back. It seems built to draw in and concentrate a diverse range of styles he’s drawn to into a connected present sound, a love for any and all experimentalism coupled with dance music all emulsified into new and strange compelling mixtures. His music as Basic House indicates his love of the sound; crusty amalgamations that constantly interplay the abstract with hints of the dance. There’s a kind of medial point honed in upon between several influences." - Sonic Router

DWELLINGS & DRUSS

"After last darkening the Trensmat towels mere months ago with their fuzz'n'dub 7" '5th Sun', Gnod have decided to head for the heavens via a strikingly different path, the ludicrously cosmic Dwellings & Druss LP. Though this time round ditching geetars for keytars, they retain their trademark murk and keep the edges blurred.

Opener and scene-setter 'Revelation 9' shows the band are capable of admirable restraint and subtlety when their more traditional musical weapons are confiscated. Sounding like an eerily authentic early 70s German experiment, it bubbles slightly threateningly without ever actually revealing the nature of the revelation in question." - Trensmat