Stefan Kushima | Lasers From Atlantis | Joey Chainsaw - The Grosvenor, London, 23.07.10

The Grosvenor is dead. There is no one here. Even by the standards of minority music this is a poor turnout.

The pub's managers isn't happy. He's losing money on the night and there's someone outside drinking from a bottle of wine in their bag. Later I see him give the promoter some grief.

Joey Chainsaw eventually open the evening. They hold out for late arrivals, but none come so an audience of 10 get a truncated set. Joey plays a violin with his teeth whilst the dying screams of a keyboard howl an endless loop of agony. It is not a slick affair. Halfway through the set the sound cuts out. Joey is left bemused as to the technical fault. Someone in the audience eventually steps onto the stage and waggles a lead. The sound is restored.

Lasers From Atlantis play kosmiche oscillations. A bit like Popol Vuh devotionals covered in static drizzle. They evolve their sound throughtout their set. Keyboards and guitar are used to generate their sound. Some drumming and whooped vocals are added. It's not bad.

Closing the night is Stefan Kushima. Apparently it's his first ever performance in London. Given the size of the crowd it's hard to imagine that he'll be back anytime soon. Which is sad as his Ash Ra Temple keyboard hymnals and fluttery drones have most of tha audience lying on the floor gazing into cosmic infinity. Or maybe just at the airtex ceiling tiles.

Master Musicians of Bukkake | Shit & Shine | Bill Hortiz - Corsica Studios, London, 26 April 2010

I’m body searched before being allowed in. Not sure what they’re looking for. Experimental rock crowds don’t tend to cause trouble.

Bill Horitz plays guitar, but only in the sense that’s the basis for the noises he creates. He never plays it conventionally. Maybe he doesn’t know how. He makes it sound like an oud. He samples himself then plays over the top of it creating raga-ish drones.

He puts some weird device on the frets, I’ve no idea what, allowing him to strike low end notes. For a brief moment there is some conventional playing then it’s into the slow tones of Sunn O))) doom. An electric toothbrush appears and it’s vibrating casing is pushed against the strings creating a high-pitched whine.

Horitz set continually evolves as he seeks different ways to coax new sounds from the guitar. Drum sticks and a cymbal are shoved under the strings. What look like surgical clamps are fastened to the frets. Shrill chirrups, shimmering tones and bass reverb turn into the sort of malfunctioning guitar solo the Dead C specialise in.

Shit & Shine have set up in a small side room. Wherever you stand you’re next to an amplifier. They start quietly. A bit of electronic gadget noise wash. Then the pulverising begins. Five drummers lock-in on a simple rhythm. Two bassists grind away. More electronic noise washes over the as the drummers beat slowly mutates.

The singer, dressed like a Licensed to Ill era Beastie Boy, continually chugs beer. He clutches a toy rabbit to his chest. Sometimes he screams at it. Behind him two other band members are wearing rabbit eared balaclavas. It’s like a twisted, sinister, take on Donnie Darko. The volume and repetition is exhilarating.

Back to the main room for Master Musicians of Bukkake. You can barely see for fog of dry ice. A bell tolls. The Master Musicians dressed as satanic beekeepers - long black robes and veiled faces - are summoned to the stage. They are all dressed alike except the singer whose face is obscured by a Peruvian death mask.

Their sound is like a darker more primal Popol Vuh. Droney, murky, this is rock as incantation. Music as sacred rite. Ancient rituals, processions of druids, temples reaching towards skies, crowds thronging awaiting the rituals of sacrifice.

Hey Colossus | The Art of Burning Water | Diet Pills | At A Crawl - The Grosvenor, London, 16 April 2010

I arrive as At A Crawl are finishing their set. I don't hear enough to really pass comment.

Next up are Diet Pills. They seem to take an eternity to start. Various members of the band busy themselves doing nothing. Old school hardcore, grind. Bass, drums and vocals. The singer stalks about, swinging his arms around wildly, screaming into the microphone. Most of the audience look on disinterestedly.

I admire the commitment to his performance. I wonder how much is genuine and how much is affectation. I think about whether I should be considering this. How much of this matters.

Before they started Reign In Blood played over the PA. Not everyone can be Dave Lombardo, but this band's sound doesn't take off. The drummer needs to have more fireworks.

I saw The Art of Burning Water about 4/5 years ago supporting Knut. I can't really remember much about them. They've a meaty guitar and bass sound which slaloms from sludge crawl to screamo noise. They have a female bassist. I start to think about Jo Bench.

I'm underwhelmed by the bands so far. I wonder if I made a mistake in coming. If maybe I'm getting a little worn out by noise rock. Then Hey Colossus begin their set. The drummer has real attack, the rhythms are a brutal, pulverising, jack hammer, machine press. The guitar cuts through the industrial pounding with the piercing shrill of a circular saw through sheet metal. My faith is confirmed. I am a believer again.

Bo Ningen | Hi/Zo/U/Bu/Tu - Cafe Oto, London, 20 March 2010

Hi/Zo/U/Bu/Tu is dressed in a loose, black and white stripped pyjamas. His hair is a disheveled mess. He looks like a prisoner who’s been released from solitary confinement after 20 years. He starts his set by creating pops by whipping the floor with a violin bow – the noise picked up and amplified by the microphone. He runs a microphone along the strings of a double bass. It sounds like something that might have come out on Mille Plateau. A violin is plucked then viciously sawed. We get a bass interlude accompanied by moans and jittering dance moves as he flits between instruments plucking the strings of guitar, bass and violin. The guitar on the floor is then whipped with the end of the violin bow.

Next a couple of Bo Ningen members play a set. Echoed out dub drum beat. A metallic bowl is circled created a cold drone. Shakey bells, vocal moans, electronic barks and whoops over low end pulse. White noise swells before Mongolian nasal yodel drones are layered on top. I notice that someone in the audience is sketching. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone drawing at a gig before. A penny whistle plays and there’s some campfire guitar strum.

Next up is more a solo set by another Bo Ningen member. Keyboard playing over a white noise base layer which is slowly manipulated. Some vocals are screamed. It’s not a highlight.

For Bo Ningen rock clearly ended in 1973. They all look like they just crawled out of the TV in Ringu. MC5/Stooges guitar sturm and drang. Hi-energy drum pummel and riffage and yelping vocals which segue into extended guitar solo white-outs. It’s good, but for me they operate within rock’s traditional structures. For music that is supposed to be out there – it is actually deeply conservative in the way they so closely mirror their forefathers. I can’t get excited about the Second Coming. I want a new God.

Bong | Nought | Horacio Pollard | Alex Ward - Bardens Boudoir, London, 7 March 2010

A man takes the stage. Shirt tucked into dark jeans. Perhaps's he here to talk about library indexing systems. Instead Alex Ward plays guitar alongside drum machine beats. Math-metal fret dexterity. Like some Jap noise stuff that I can't remember.

A table is dragged out with Horacio Pollard's gear on. There's a low end rumble with high pitched bursts of static, like a modem making a connection. He plays a guitar which has been given some kind of vocoder effect. The set loses it's way. Nothing seems to change.

The guitarist in Nought looks familiar. Before they play he contorts his wrist and fingers into hideous torture positions. I guess he's just limbering up. They then deliver a set of prog rock excelsis. Superbly unnecessary comlex time changes.

The lights are turned off, shrouding the stage in darkness for Bong's set. Out of the ominous bass thrum emerges sitar murk. The guitarist holds the ceiling as if it's threatened with collapse. Bong's singer, a bearded giant of a man, intones Druid incantations into the microphone. The band crawl along at a funereal tempo. Bong are an emersive experience. They don't deliver catchy hooks, just slow motion pyrotechnics as they gaze into the psychedelic nebula of cosmic infinity. Sinewy sitar runs attempt transcendental lift-off whilst anchored to the bass drone - a single universal truth of culture, dimension and time. Revelation is bestowed on me. I am eternity.

Anyway, work tomorrow.

US Girls | Time | Heatsick - Cafe Oto, 1 March 2010

On a long low table lies a solitary record. This is the worst merch stand I have ever seen.

Heatsick is one half of Birds of Delay. There is a table with the usual array of wires, keyboards and nameless devices. Given how frequently I see them deployed I really should find out what they are called. He plays scraping sound-scapes. Soundscrapes maybe. There’s a snatch of strings. Some plinking guitar, sawing violin and boring rock moves. Utterly unexceptional.

Why would you call yourself Time? You’re inviting trouble by laying claim to a moniker which implies such conceptual significance. They play as a duo. One plays guitar whilst the other pointlessly flits between violin, bass, piano, maybe another instrument. Time, literally and figuratively, has made me forget. They seem to be trying for a half-formed sketch type vibe, but succeed only in being half-formed attempt at being half-formed. Dire.

I do wonder why I came tonight. I bought US Girls first record and I wasn’t that keen on it. I saw her play live a year ago and didn’t enjoy it. No-one could accuse me of living for pleasure. High-pitched vocals, chanted school playground style over crude electro-beats and pulse. It’s like listening to something down a drain pipe. There’s a strange moment where Sam Cooke’s ‘A change is going to come’ floats out of a static howl. Underwhelming.

Damo Suzuki - Cafe Oto, London, 18.01.2010

This was an awesome show. Damo was backed by a great band including members of Bo Ningen.