SUBSTANCE 2ND BIRTHDAY – SAT 25 OCTOBER 2008
ALTERN 8 – Full On Mask Hysteria from the Original Rave Legends
SUBHEAD LIVE PA! (Tresor, Subhead, Sativae, Fix UK, Mercurochrome, Death to Vinyl, Don’t)
LORY D LIVE PA! (Rephlex, Sounds Never Seen, Wireblock)
NEIL LANDSTRUMM LIVE PA! (Scandinavia, Tresor, Sativae, Planet Mu, Mosquito)
+ resident GAVIN RICHARDSON (Substance)
Visuals from the excellent Pointless Creations www.pointlesscreations.co.uk
The Caves, 8-12 Niddry St South, Edinburgh http://www.thecavesedinburgh.com/
Advance tickets £13 + BF available from Ripping Records (South Bridge,
Edinburgh), Tickets Scotland (Edinburgh – 127 Rose Street + Glasgow –
239 Argyle Street) and from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/37278
ALTERN 8 – Full on mask hysteria from the original rave legends
In the early 1990s, Mark Archer and Chris Peat created one of the greatest legends in the history of dance music: Altern8.
A fundamental component of the hardcore rave scene, they mixed
breakbeats, acid frequencies and powerful rhythms with now classic
samples … think ‘Top One, Nice One, Get Sorted’, which simultaneously
captured the mood of the happy rave scene and, in slipping by sensors,
properly stuck two fingers up at the over-zealous authorities.
Alongside the unmistakable image based around RAF chemical warfare
suits and gas masks, and, riding the mass social movement that was
Rave, they stormed the UK charts in 1991 with top-10 tracks such as
‘Infiltrate 202’, ‘Activ-8’ (a No.3 smash), ‘Frequency’ and
‘Evapor-8’…unquestionably, these were among the biggest tunes around,
and remain some of the most iconic and enduring of the era.
This huge success came hand in hand with their omnipresent Live PA
performances at all the major events/clubs/raves of the day – hugely
eye catching performances with MC MkOne and a troupe of resident
dancers (and on one occasion, an actual shamen), which defined and
reflected the collective, chaotic spirit of the time.
Indeed, Altern8 were inseparable from the many myths and publicity
stunts, which ranged from Vicks’ Vapo-Rub and spiked
audience-distributed pastries to alleged Master Tape burning, General
Election candidacies and infamous impromptu car park raves/video
shootings.
Always ‘ave-in it, their music has taken on revitalised meaning in
the context of rave’s re-introduction into the UK underground.
Favourites of the London club/festival sensation Bangface, and causing
a fair stir at Sonar 2007, Altern-8 (Archer & MkOne)’s appearance
will be nothing short of epic!
SUBHEAD LIVE! (Jason Leach) (Tresor, Subhead, Sativae, Fix UK, Death to Vinyl, Neue Heimat, Mercurochrome, Don’t, Input-Output)
As a solo artist, Jason Leach has released on his own Death to
Vinyl, Fix UK and Subhead imprints, alongside his work for
Mercurochrome, Input Output Inc. and Don’t. In total, Leach stands on a
discography of well over 100 records, having also been involved in
several notable collaborations. Indeed, he founded the revered techno
group Subhead with Phil Wells (aka DJ Sueme), who sadly passed away in
December 2007.
"Shrugging off self-promotion and magazine coverage adds to their
(Subhead’s) anonymity while intense live-performances have built
devoted followings worldwide for anyone seeking Art on the right angle:
Punk rock while pure Techno." (Tresor Berlin) “Originally meeting in
Shoreditch East London as dispatch riders, their melding of minds
cranked up the Subhead warehouse party circuit in 1995 while giving
birth to the Subhead label (appropriately aboard a Russian nuclear
submarine). That year also brought in third-Subhead Jamie Lidell
(Super_Collider) where notorious studio sessions quickly hammered out a
raccous catalog of the first Subhead releases (“Punchy but weird...like
us” - Phil Wells).
Subhead‘s embrace and strangulation of hard-edged technology falls
into no category or school, dropping only hints at Hip-Hop, Breakbeat,
Freestyle and Electro backgrounds besides the obvious Techno functions.
For spotters of Vogel, Landstrumm, Si Begg and Captain Beefheart,
Subhead deeply delivers scalding but quirky and pumping raw
funk-powered Hip-Hop hi-hat battles for the speaker phreaks. The music
is as abstract as the people behind it with do-it-yourself
indie-know-how letting the tracks speak for themselves (as tough and
loud as they want it). Gigging and putting out the latest Subhead
sessions themselves have kept hardcore followers intrigued with Jason
and Phil‘s uncomprimising art of invisibility.
Underground and as tough and loud as Leach and Wells are known,
Subhead‘s art attack breaks the dancefloor standards with everything
between sampladelic freestyle and raucous bottomline Techno.
Unbelieveable while totally understandable.” Tresor Berlin
LORY D LIVE! (Rome / Rephlex, Sounds Never Seen, Wireblock)
Lory D is one of the true unsung heroes of Techno.
The Italian producer and label owner of Sounds Never Seen, Lory D
is a much bigger figure in his homeland than abroad. Indeed, Lory D is
a name you will find missing from the list of celebrated dark techno
producers, e.g. Jeff Mills, The Mover, Lenny Dee and the Aphex Twin,
although his music is just as essential. He's an ex Italian D.M.C
champion who was an active participant in Rome's clubbing scene since
the late '80s, playing to crowds of 10,000+ at the birth of the acid
house explosion in Italy and, in the process, achieving full legendary
status in his homeland.
His inspiration comes from Rome's nighttime metropolis, the
darkness and beauty of the city and the overwhelming feeling of the
underground raves he played/plays. Rephlex snapped up Lory D for 2003's
Sounds Never Seen, with the first in a barrage of releases intended as
a didactic return to the dancefloor. SNS collected the highlights from
the impossible-to-find early releases of Lory’s back catalog and made
them widely available. Indeed, the ‘Prince of Italian Acid’ has been
admired by everyone from Richard D James to the Skam possee for some
time, his dark blend of electroid tweaking and old skool percussion
providing some killer dancefloor moves in the darkest possible way.
From the opening "Deep From Colosseum" right through to the closing
"Fludoiscki," the music scalds both ears and soul through an
unrelenting barrage of thumping kick drums and squigglingly acidic lead
lines which launch heated attacks on dirty electro rhythms before
turning on themselves in an explosion of computer-generated chaos.
(Kingsley Marshall, All Music Guide)
Together with Rephlex label-mates, Leo Anibaldi, Bochum Welt and
the D'Arcangelo brothers, Lory D best represents the sound of Italy, or
even the 'sound of Rome', since 1991. Having just built his 6th studio,
Lory's 17 years of experience can be heard in the depth of his new
productions on Glasgow’s Wireblock label. Analogue synth squelches and
rattling drum boxes combine with razor sharp edits and twisted computer
madness - creating fearless music aimed at the dancefloor.
NEIL LANDSTRUMM LIVE (Scandinavia, Tresor, Planet Mu, Mosquito)
A stalwart of the UK electronic music scene since 1994, Neil
Landstrumm has released work on many of the most recognised labels in
the industry. Starting with Peacefrog, shifting gears to Berlins’
Tresor Records, he then upped the bass-game onto arguably the UKs’ most
important electronic label of the moment, Planet Mu.
Neil Landstrumm is an artist who always seems to be at the spearhead of
experimental, dancehall low frequency electronics. After a lengthy
sabbatical in New York, the native Scot is now settled back in
Edinburgh where he continues to make music and operate his label
project, Scandinavia.
Neil has toured relentlessly worldwide, supporting each year’s releases
with uncompromising live shows using a plethora of sound hardware.
Never an artist to rest on his laurels and churn out the same old, he
has built a career on being unpredictable and open to new perspectives
from which to hone his sound. A pioneer of new styles within techno,
often copied and imitated, Landstrumm has a strong pedigree within the
scene. Unaligned to any one genre, upfront and heavy, he makes music
for all-comers to the rave.
Landstrumm heads into 2008 with refreshing abandon after 2007's
critically acclaimed LP released on Planet Mu records called
“Restaurant of Assassins”. With the heaviest subs this side of
Chapeltown, Landstrumm seeks new lows with “Restaurant of Assasins”
bringing together classic UK techno vibes and modern dubstep with a
refreshed rave sensibility. Neil hijacks dubstep structure and its
“on-the-three’s” approach, but adapts it to his signature sound so
identifiable from the decades previous productions.
Undeniably proud of the UK’s heritage in electronic music and clearly
passionate about the influences in his musical ouput, Landstrumm has a
talent for bringing it all together in unusual and creative packages.
Chasing the Great Northern Raves from the Happy Mondays and Yorkshire
Bass N Bleep scene, to contemporary dubstep you can follow Landstrumms’
vision of the ravestep sound in 2007 with “Restaurant of Assassins”. An
unsettling cartel of badman and plain wrong-uns….. It's live hardware
electronics at it's very best.
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