Friday 23 August 2019, 7.30pm
Kevin Richard Martin makes his OTO debut, playing through our new D&B PA systems.
Kevin Richard Martin is the man behind The Bug, King Midas Sound, Techno Animal, Zonal and a host of other uncompromisingly heavy projects he has instigated since the 90s.
Sirens (released on Lawrence English's Room40 imprint in June 2019), is his first record under his own name. Written as a therapeutic response to critical operations his newborn son endured in the first month of life, it is his most intensely personal work to date.
The album traces out a sound world that is both tender and caustic. Within each piece, microcosms of sensation unfold, seconds become hours, and hours become seconds as Martin creates a sense of time that is without anchor and is foggy in a way that is profoundly unique. This is a life journey transposed into sound that is truly personal, but effortlessly universal and unfolds with cinematic dynamics.
'Sirens, Kevin Richard Martin’s first release under his own name, combines body-crushing bass, phantom tone assemblages and high, lonesome feedback in a way that makes mincemeat of terms like drone, minimalism, sound art and electro-concrète: this is a deeply personal re-imaging of trauma, tenderness, and the tectonic energies of birth and fatherhood that blurs the lines between the biologic and the electronic.' – David Keenan
'In 2015, Kevin and I book-ended a series of concerts at Berghain for CTM festival. For his performance, Kevin debuted a new work I’d heard very little about called Sirens. I remember two things distinctly about the performance. The first thing is he opened the set with a blazing passage of bass and dub sirens that instantly transported me back to those initial moments of encountering his work. The second was the feeling of absolute, crushing bass. Not before, or since, have I felt a sense of sound pressure like this. Unlike his other work with The Bug for example, the consistent bass carrying in the space was literally breathtaking and there were moments when it seemed difficult to see clearly as my eye sockets were vibrating in a way I’d never experienced.' – Lawrence English
Coby Sey is an artist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Lewisham, London. Coby has developed a truly singular voice as both a producer and performer, weaving together threads from jazz fusion, hip-hop, post-punk and dub music to create something wholly new.
Though his output almost seems collaborative by nature - frequently seen working alongside acclaimed artists in music Tirzah, Mica Levi, Kwes - visual artist Hannah Perry and movement artist Maëva Berthelot, Coby’s debut solo album "Conduit" on AD 93 provides a perfect example of his distinct vision.
Across his solo discography, he employs a unique blend of live instrumentation and electronic-based material to hypnotic and sometimes unnerving effect. On stage, these dreamlike compositions are fleshed out by live instrumentation and staging and courtesy of regular cohorts Leisha Thomas (Alpha Maid), Ben Vince, Charlie Hope and Momoko Gill (MettaShiba).
Coby’s open-door approach to sharing and making music stretches to his work with London Contemporary Orchestra — with London collective CURL founded with Mica Levi and Brother May — with Tuscany collective TQS — and a regular slot on NTS Radio, which offers a portal into his appealingly murky musical world.
