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Hello everyone!
August is nearly upon us, and with it
heralds an astounding five Upset The Rhythm concerts! Next week we
welcome the post-punk juggernaut that is Prolapse back to London for a concert at The 100 Club with Jetstream Pony (Fri 7th Aug).
This is quickly followed by the gnarly psychedelics and cosmic jams of Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders at Cafe OTO (Sat 8th Aug). Christina Carter will perform at this show; one solo set and as a member of the Heavy Lidders!
Then later in the month on August 20th we're delighted to have Linda Smith play for us for the first time with her live band. Trash Kit and Stuart Moxham will play too, so you know it will be beyond special.
August 21st sees us pitch up at St Pancras Old Church for an incredible evening with Sir Richard Bishop and Arianne Churchman & Benedict Drew.
Saving perhaps the best to last... on August 25th we head to The Lexington hosting recent Wire magazine cover stars EarthBall, alongside Charles Hayward & Nathan Greywater.
Something for everyone! Read on for all the details, plus newly added events for Protomartyr, She The Throne, The Yummy Fur, Bruno Bof and a timely new slideshow / lecture / film from Mississippi Records on the compelling story of how powerful interests try to control music and how people fight back called a People's History of Music.
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Upset The Rhythm presents…
PROLAPSE
JETSTREAM PONY
Friday 7 August
100 Club, 100 Oxford St, London, W1D 1LL
7.30pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/u09e48cb795cPROLAPSE
formed in Leicester in the early 90s and are now spread across the UK
and Scandinavia. Still pursuing their own path of repetition and twisted
melodies, they merge influences from post punk to krautrock and even
folk. Their previous releases have included numerous singles and four
albums on various labels, including Cherry Red and Radar. They feature
vocalists Mick Derrick and Linda Steelyard, whose intense duelling
vocals combine with ferocious triple guitar assault and pummelling
rhythms. The fifth Prolapse album “I Wonder When They’re Going to
Destroy Your Face” will be released on Tapete Records and marks the
bands first new recordings since their last album, “Ghosts of Dead
Aeroplanes”, released 26 years ago, but in some ways it feels like there
hasn’t a break at all. From the opening incessant riff of ”The Fall of
Cashline”, Prolapse set their stall out, hammering the message that
they’re back, over and over (and over and over) again. https://prolapse2.bandcamp.com/
JETSTREAM PONY come to us
(mainly) from Brighton, channelling a love of post‑punk and indie‑pop.
Led by vocalist Beth Arzy (Aberdeen/Trembling Blue Stars) &
guitarist/vocalist Shaun Charman (The Wedding Present/The Fireworks),
the band fuse chiming melodies with driving bass and propulsive rhythms;
a sound they’ve taken from "schrammelig” (German for rough or raw) to
slightly less "schrammelig" from the early singles in 2017, to their
newest album, “Bowerbirds and Blue Things.” Most recently releasing a
BBC6 Riley & Coe session on Precious Recordings of London. https://jetstreampony.bandcamp.com/
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Upset The Rhythm presents…
JEFFREY ALEXANDER & THE HEAVY LIDDERS
CHRISTINA CARTER
Saturday 8 August
Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL
7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/yfbbe41cc761JEFFREY ALEXANDER
has been frittering around the edges of the psychedelic underground for
decades, evolving his own musical space that overlays dusty folk,
cosmic jazz, deep psych, free improv, and even (gasp!) indie rock. He’s
been called a “psych rock lifer” (UNCUT), crafting “digressive jams that
meander through free-form jazz, bluesy kosmische” (PROG) and “extremely
highgrade psych” (MOJO). Convened in 2019 on Alexander’s relocation
back to his native east coast, Philadelphia’s Heavy Lidders are the
latest hard-touring expression for the guitarist’s music, joining a vast
and tangled discography (and tape list) that includes the beloved
long-running west coast Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band
and, before them, the Iditarod and Black Forest/Black Sea, as well as a
bushel of solo play-all-the-instruments projects, a stint with Jackie-O
Motherfucker, sessions with Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus and others. The
newest studio LP, “Liquid Donnon” (released 12 June 2026 on Riot
Season), catches Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders at their
heaviest, “heavy” in the Lidderverse being far from a monolithic musical
idea. There’s heavy like the album-opening “From Loch Raven to Fells
Point,” one of several tracks with elegant and gnarled conversational
jams featuring the core Lidders lineup of Alexander alongside guitarist
Drew Gardner and bassist Jesse Sheppard (both of Elkhorn) and drummer
Scott Verrastro (Kohoutek, Bardo Pond). But there’s heavy, too, with
tracks where Gardner shifts to dream-space vibraphone, and those with
Christina Carter of Texas noise-psych legends Charalambides on
veil-crossing wordless vocals, her first collaboration with Alexander in
some 20 years. She will indeed be fronting the band on this brief UK
tour. For fans of Meat Puppets, Trad Gras och Stenar, Ornette inspired
Krautrock, Sonny + Linda Sharrock, Jerry - Jorma interplay, SPACE. https://jeffreyalexander.bandcamp.com/CHRISTINA CARTER
was born in the bayou city of Houston, Texas in November of 1968, and
co-founded the group Charalambides there in December of 1991. Ever since
she has deeply mined her own vein of sound-as-music with voice, guitar,
harmonica, and piano. For the past several years, Christina has
utilized extended improvisational guitar passages within and without
song structures and investigated 'the song' as a thing unto itself,
specifically concentrating on 'the word'- both in her own lyric writing
and her interpretations of the work of other lyricists. In addition to
performing extensively in the US, UK and Europe as a solo artist,
Christina has played and recorded in various groups and duos with
Jeffrey Alexander, Maria Chavez, Loren Connors, Spencer Dobbs, Sandy
Ewen, Julia Hungerford, Alistair Lingren, and Joe McPhee, amongst
others. Concurrent with her work as a musician, Christina has
expanded her involvement in writing and visual art. Her poetry has been
published by Digitalis Industries, The Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal,
Glass Eye, Slow Toe, and Shelter Press. In 2007, her art piece Forever
21 appeared at Salon Mijangos in San Antonio, Texas as part of a
concert/exhibit featuring Tom Carter, Warmer Milks, and Tetuzi Akiyama.
Forever 21 was a labor of love and destruction: six of her handwritten
diaries cut up painstakingly with scissors into miniscule pieces, which
then filled a large yellow plastic shopping bag. In 2024, Unifactor
published For Want Of Walls, Christina’s book of personal yet abstracted
writing and watercolor paintings. Christina currently resides in
Austin, Texas. Her latest release is the solo voice, guitar and
accordion album Like A Bayou To Its Gulf (Bud Tapes 2025). https://christinacarter.bandcamp.com/ |
Upset The Rhythm presents… LINDA SMITH & BAND
TRASH KIT
STUART MOXHAMThursday 20 August The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £14 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/X7d766a04577LINDA SMITH
is a pioneer of home recording who self released her music originally
on cassette starting in 1987. In the early 90’s, indie labels
Slumberland and Harriet Records expanded her reach with the release of
two seven inch eps. Recently, Brooklyn label Captured Tracks has
reissued two complete albums on vinyl and she has begun to tour in the
US and internationally for the first time. Upset The Rhythm released a
recent split single between Smith and The Smashing Times last year too.
Paste magazine called Linda Smith “a hidden treasure of America's pop
underground”, while Jangle Pop Hub has written that “essentially this is
the best bedroom pop you are ever likely to hear, directly from an age
that did not really know what to do with it”. For this rare UK show
Linda will be joined by her live band. https://lindasmith2.bandcamp.com/
TRASH KIT are Ray Aggs (guitar,
vocals), Rachel Horwood (drums, vocals) and Clémentine March (bass).
Three deeply creative individuals who play in a multitude of other
groups including Bas Jan and Sacred Paws, not to mention their solo
outings. Their songs once succinct, patchwork post-punk numbers of an
honest diary-like nature now tussle more with long-form songwriting,
expeditious polyphony and cascades of sung-spoke vocals. Although Trash
Kit have their forebears in bands like Sleater Kinney, The Ex and The
Raincoats, their sound is still very much their own take on facing
forwards and relies as much on the naturalism of an internalised folk
music as on their sincerity of vision. Since forming in 2009, Trash Kit
have released three albums for Upset The Rhythm and a selection of
singles. Trash Kit's approach to life as with music is one of openness,
inclusion and potential and most recent album ‘Horizon’ has this in
dutiful abundance. https://upsettherhythm.bandcamp.com/album/horizon
STUART MOXHAM requires little
introduction. Few artists arrive as compellingly yet elusively as did
Stuart Moxham upon the startling debut of Young Marble Giant’s sole
studio album, Colossal Youth (Rough Trade, 1980). Initial excitement was
thrust upon the young Alison Statton, who sang songs written by Stuart
with a couple of exceptions. The unaffected tone of her voice was in
steep contrast to the typical goings-on in that still quite punk time,
but it was what she sang that fully sold it. Moxham’s lyrics were both
intensely personal and woefully oblique. There seemed to be a sort of
story in there. After those YMG days, Moxham worked on a project called
The G!st and released an album and several singles also on Rough Trade.
Since the mid-80s Moxham has focused mainly on solo acoustic work,
releasing 17 albums to date, including one by songwriting duo Moxham
& Halliday. Stuart Moxham is a composer of the upper echelon of
innate talent who combines avant-garde ideas with deceptively forthright
personal lyrics, solid hooks, ambience and vaguely off-centre
instrumentation which defies the casual marketplace as confoundingly as
it ever did to the underground. Last year Tiny Global Productions
released Moxham’s most recent album ‘Winter Sun’, featuring Linda Smith
on backing vocals.
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Upset The Rhythm presents… SIR RICHARD BISHOP
ARIANNE CHURCHMAN & BENEDICT DREWFriday 21 August St Pancras Old Church, Pancras Road, King's Cross, NW1 1UL 7.30pm | £14 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/hea0794d9d24SIR RICHARD BISHOP
is renowned for his mercurial guitar-playing for 26 years with Seattle
ethno-delic legends Sun City Girls, but he has wrought a distinguished
solo canon as well. He combines soulfulness and advanced technique with a
panache that’s nearly unrivalled among today’s guitarists. Bishop
strums spiritual with incantatory ragas, free-folk excursions,
crystalline flamenco flourishes, ruddy Appalachian folk, Middle
Eastern-tinged fantasias and gypsy arabesques. This is eclecticism done
with respect and third-eye-dilating filigree; his compositions attain a
sepia-toned wistfulness and a psychedelic complexity. Bishop’s
first solo record, ‘Salvador Kali’, was released by John Fahey’s
esteemed Revenant Records label in 1998. Locust Music issued his second
record, ‘Improvika’ (2004), which consisted of nine extemporaneous
pieces for solo acoustic guitar. More recently ‘Tangier Sessions’, was
released by Drag City in 2015. It consists of a series of improvisations
recorded in Tangier, Morocco in 2014 using a 19th century parlour
guitar of mysterious origin. Bishop's latest album, ‘Hillbilly Ragas
‘was released last September to widespread acclaim, whilst Drag City are
currently prepping new title ‘Hillbilly Erotica’ as a speculative,
avant-garde sequel to his stripped-back acoustic explorations. https://sirrichardbishop.com/ ARIANNE CHURCHMAN & BENEDICT DREW
are visual artists and musicians. Based in London and Kent their work
together draws from English traditional music, minimalism, music
concrete and electronic music. Using analogue synthesisers, acoustic
instruments and layered vocals their work starts with traditional song
with its lyrics corrupted and reimagined, it is then woven into sonic
collages and landscapes, each layer spiraling out a little further from
the last building into ecstatic melodies, rhythms and dreamscapes. Since
2020 they have recorded a selection of traditional May songs to
coincide with May Day, releasing them digitally through Drew’s Thanet
Tape Centre label. In 2024 these were compiled into a 2xLP release MAY
and was released by Loves Devotee. Their latest record The Tree of the
Left Hand was released by Folklore Tapes in 2025.
https://folkloretapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-tree-of-the-left-hand |
Upset The Rhythm presents… EARTHBALL
CLASSIC FORM MORF (Charles Hayward & Nathan Greywater)Tuesday 25 August The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £13 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Y653a0c64eb6EARTHBALL
are an avant/noise/rock wrecking ball of a band from Nanaimo, Canada.
Rooted in total improvisation, free expression, and a deeply psychedelic
sensibility, EarthBall operate on pure instinct. They hurtle onwards in
a combustion of spontaneous composition, shooting from the hip, as they
fall out of the sky ablaze. The group encompass Isabel Ford (vocals,
bass), John Brennan (drums, percussion), Jeremy Van Wyke (vocals,
guitar, trumpet), Kellan Maclaughlin (guitar, talkbox), and Liam Murphy
(saxophone). Each member brings a rich and varied musical history, with
past and present projects including Shearing Pinx, Plan Your Future,
Kamikaze Nurse, Eschatons, and Psychedelic Dirt. Collectively and
individually, they have collaborated with artists such as Deerhoof,
Raven Chacon, Chris Corsano, and William Hooker, deepening the band’s
exploratory reach and collective language. Since forming in 2019,
EarthBall have released six cassettes and three fervently received LPs
on Upset The Rhythm, including November’s widely acclaimed Outside Over
There. Their latest release, Actual Earth Music - Volume 3 & 4 (out
now), follows the first instalment in the series and captures two
mind-quaking highlights from last winter’s European tour. This is
EarthBall plunging to full fathom five, transforming into something rich
and strange - channeling the fleeting moment as it fractures, erupts,
and dissolves into the unknown. Actual Earth Music - Volume 3 & 4
marks another ascent in EarthBall’s ever-expanding, totemic discography,
an ecstatic storm of raw immediacy and unfiltered expression. EarthBall
came, conjured and opened the portal! Blink and it’s gone. What was
that? Actual Earth Music! https://upsettherhythm.bandcamp.com/album/outside-over-thereCLASSIC FORM MORF
is an experimental duo featuring avant-garde drumming legend Charles
Hayward, electric bassist/sound artist Nathan Greywater and two radios.
The project specialises in wild, improvised live sets where the duo
plays alongside and against live broadcasts from classical music and
talk radio stations. Charles Hayward is a founding member of the
experimental rock groups This Heat and Camberwell Now. Since the late
80's he has concentrated on solo projects and collaborations including
Massacre (with Bill Laswell and Fred Frith), Monkey Puzzle Trio, Albert
Newton (with Pat Thomas and John Edwards) and This Is Not This Heat
which toured the UK, Europe, USA and Japan between 2016-2019 performing
expanded versions of This Heat’s oeuvre to unfaltering critical acclaim.
Hayward’s latest group, Abstract Concrete, formed from London players
from a diversity of European underground scenes, released its
self-titled debut album in November 2023. Nathan Greywater has been on
the London experimental and improv scene for over a decade now,
initially as an electronic musician with Harmergeddon, and more recently
focussing on electric bass. He currently runs the free-improv open mic
night, Skronk as well as playing in Joe Plastic and engineering for acts
such as Abstract Concrete,Jaw Harp and Meat Strap. https://linktr.ee/charleshayward |
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