New eclectic noise/electro label Small But Hard recordings present in cooperation with The Quietus an evening absolutely unsuitable for a Sunday night, but who cares? We want to kick start a busy year ahead with some of the best live bands around the Uk and Europe.

We will start with a solo electric wall of noise from Kohhei Matsuda of psych rock upstarts Bo Ningen, then move on to the second course, London based Gum Takes Tooth, recently nominated Best Electro Live Act of 2013 by ArtRocker, they will be bringing a second drummer to double the intensity. Finally to top it all off, we will close the night with DEVILMAN, featuring the full line up including DJ Scotch Egg, Gorgonn of Dokkebi Q and the distinctive vocal stylings of Bo Ningen's Taigen Kawab, Devilman set the bar by boldly playing first on the opening night of Supersonic Festivals 10th anniversary last October for Small But Hards curated stage.

KOHHEI MATSUDA of Bo Ningen

Brought arrived when Taigen and Kohhei’s post-rock bands played on the same bill in early 2007. It was bad news for their previous band-mates but each had found a kindred spirit, someone else who wanted to leave ‘rock’ and the dead-end cipher ‘post’ behind and commit to something much weirder.

Mon Chan and Yuki joined in a similar fashion, hearing the beyond-fucked-up noises of this new two-piece at the LCC Sound Art Faculty where Taigen studied and asking where to sign up. With a drummer and a second guitarist, the fundamentals were laid and the four expatriate cosmonauts were set to channel the “pure music” they had in mind.

The band booked themselves into a studio on Hackney Road and disappeared. In summer 2007, after continual 12 hour jams had blurred the distinction between their limbs and their instruments, they played the first “true” Bo Ningen show at the Wilmington Arms. The story of the next two years followed a fairytale pattern of adversity, headaches and eventual catharsis on the London gig circuit. Battered but resolute, they set up Far East Electric Psychedelic, a what-it-says-on-the-tin kind of monthly at Cross Kings.

Though they come from Gunmma, Tajimi, Nishinomiya, and Tokyo, they coalesced in London. Musically, they channel their country’s legacy of obscure, brain-warping heavy-psych: Les Ralizes Denudés, High Rise, Sweet and Honey and Flower Travellin’ Band all traceable beneath their esoteric sound. It’s evident from the place they had all found themselves in their twenties however that they were in the mood for discovery: they regurgitated their tastes in Acid Folk and Noise and hurled them into the electric cataclysm too. Though challenging to process, any cautious, sensible listeners were saved by a weighty dose of Sabbath and Nirvana.

Kohhei Matsuda / Bo Ningen Soundcloud

GUM TAKES TOOTH

Gum Takes Tooth, a thunderous rampage of noise tempered with an aptitude for precise rhythms and splintered melody, is a single-headed beast with two bodies: a duo of Thomas Fuglesang on live acoustic drums, physically wired into home grown electronic instruments and bare circuit boards, tweaked, molded and mangled in real-time by Jussi Brightmore.

The group decisively bring together their wildly varied influences of out-there noise, metal, primeval rhythms, spacious psyche, pan-ethnic oddities, primal punk, acid house and vintage electronics on their debut album, 'Silent Cenotaph'. Their incredible live set has found them in high demand, with storming festival sets including Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Supersonic and British Wildlife Festival in 2010-11, plus supports with luminaries such as Napalm Death, Melt-Banana, Acid Mothers Temple and Otto Von Schirach.

Both musicians have enjoyed disparate and involved travails through the musical underground, first playing together in the white noise pop outfit Infants. Brightmore featured in the pioneering I'm Being Good, the improvisational Milche Grand and Blood Stereo with releases on John Olson of Wolf Eyes' American Tapes, Mike Connelly of Wolf Eyes' Gods of Tundra and alongside releases by Thurston Moore on Dylan Nyoukis' Chocolate Monk. Brightmore also co-germinated Chrome Hoof from its conception as a trio to multi-limbed prog juggernaut. Meanwhile Fuglesang, previously of Agoskodo Teliverek, now moonlights with Wart Biter and amongst numerous other projects. The track 'Hermaphrodite and Nourishment' features former member Valentina Magaletti (Bat For Lashes/$hit & $hine) providing double drum kit action.



DEVILMAN

The visceral and compelling Devilman are harvested by a secret underground organisation fronted by the mysterious Mr D, all distilled through the psyche-noise freak vocal of Bo Ningen's Taigen Kawabe.

Their self-titled release is nine shards of corrosive beats, bass and razor sharp, noise-inflected live-dub destruction. Devilman have created a sound that is hard to ignore: abrasive yet accessible; infectious and expansive, shaping a new terrain for noise and bass music and living up to their namesake, the legendary Japanese comic/animation. Devilman is ultimately the soundtrack of a world being turned inside out.

Shigeru Ishihara is prolific in his output, and has collaborated with E-Da (ex Boredoms) in epic psychedelic outfit DRUM EYES; works with Bo Ningenʼs Taigen Kawabe, and Dokkebi Qʼs Gorgonn in dub distortion unit DEVILMAN, and also plays bass in newly reformed electronic pioneers, SEEFEEL.