Monday 27 October 2014, 8pm
KAREN GWYER
Karen Gwyer is a US-born Londoner with a small bunch of divine releases to her name on both Opal Tapes and No Pain In Pop. Gwyer casually summons the feeling of a warmer, more futuristic Popol Vuh, other comparisons including Motion Sickness Of Time Travel, Cabaret Voltaire, Cluster or even an instrumental, more rhythmic Fever Ray.
If you've not heard her yet, then check out the link below for her Boiler Room set and also listen to Kiki The Wormhole - serenely cosmic music. Her recent New Roof EP on No Pain In Pop sold out almost immediately and she’s in growing demand all over Europe, sharing stages with Julia Holter, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost and more. Look out for more releases from Karen in 2014.
“Rather than making straight club music, Gwyer assimilates house and techno tropes into oozy, hypnotic slow burners, as in album opener ʻSugar Totsʼ. African beats herald the action, joined by molasses-thick synths and glassy bells that chime finely somewhere in the distance. Similarly, on ʻPikki Kokkuʼ, steamy, diaphanous whispers and minimal drum patterns overlay molten synths and subtle low end. Thereʼs little resolution here; instead we have an internal lambency thatʼs warm and satisfying….The result is an intimate and beautiful record” - Factmag
karengwyer.com/"Opal Tapes remains one of 2013's most intriguing young DIY ventures. Recent attempts to define the label's remit as outsider House deceive slightly - demographically speaking, these are IDM producers in a time-honoured mould, not intrepid savants - but regardless, there's a plain appeal to Opal's acts of techno disassembly and reassembly taking place right on the edge of the dance floor". - The WIRE
www.factmag.com/2014/01/08/10-house-and-techno-producers-to-watch-in-2014/4/"[Wanda Group's] tracks are complex, intimate structures: webs of samples stripped of their original setting, closely examined, then messily smeared and reapplied into radically new shapes. The overall approach and final appearance is closer to papier-mache than any traditional style of production. Jar Moff seems a kindred spirit of sorts - and indeed they share a connection through Matthewdavid's LA-based Leaving Records, with Johnstone having previously released a more hip-hop orientated spate of work on the label as Dem Hunger. Both have worked visually, primarily through collage, and both share musical techniques that extend those approaches into a musical medium." - The Quietus
www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=11981“His surprisingly adept polymelodies feel almost accidental at first, but his shifting plates of sound bleed through all their porous layers. Every song has a stately melody at its heart, alternately battered and caged by the pitter-patter percussion. Think Eno doing a LIES record.” - Futureproofing
This tour will be amongst his very first live HOLOVR performances, anticipation no doubt escalated by his forthcoming vinyl release of Holo Earth on sister label Black Opal.“Juxtaposing arresting material that doesn’t seem like it could be made to work, Bishop bends and edits parts together with care that belies their aggression. The results feel very much alive; primal, but with the beginnings of emotional understanding. It’s a brilliant experience.” Others draw comparisons from Basic Channel to Vatican Shadow and Fennesz, and you could argue his sonic aesthetics are what really set Basic House apart, his precise attention to sound design taking his compositions through to another level. As Brainwashed put it, his records work “so wonderfully precisely because of Bishop's unwavering commitment to his broken, crackling aesthetic of cryptic dispatches. Stephen certainly recorded some great individual pieces, but Basic House's brilliance lies far more in how it sounds than in the actual beats and notes being played.” - Factmag
www.factmag.com/2013/10/16/basic-house-oats
