It's a return to normality. The People's Republic opens its doors this month for two celebratory nights in recognition of one of the unheralded wonders of local experimental music...
ALTERED STATES TAPES
The Tenth Anniversary
over two nights
Saturday November 28th at 7.30 p.m. [doors at 7]
Sunday November 29th at 7.30 p.m. [doors at 7]
Altered States Tapes
Altered States Tapes is a cassette and occasional vinyl label that mostly deals in left-of-centre techno and experimental aberrations.
Based in Newcastle, Australia, AST’s eye has been on the more marginalised of domestic practitioners, but has also welcomed artists from Japan, Finland, Hungary, Poland, the UK, the US, Israel, and Taiwan (amongst others) into its family.
2020 is AST’s tenth year.
Unfortunately all plans for celebratory live events were obviously kiboshed by a global pandemic. So these two small-capacity People’s Republic events are particularly special...
Saturday, 28th November
Th Blisks (Newcastle / Sydney, first show)
Debut performance for recently anointed trio, Th Blisks (short for The Obelisks) from Sydney and Newcastle. Over their few convenings thus far, Th Blisks have settled on a hazy, dubbed-pop sound, which wouldn’t be out of place in early 90’s Bristol (if you really need a map). At the same time, they show a reverence for 80’s Australian post-punk and experimentalism in an M Squared vein. Intention has not been addressed, the sound guiding the band’s performances. Their set will blur the lines between (vaguely rehearsed) song forms and improvisatory elements.
Yuta Matsumura is a Sydney-based visual artist and one of the more prolific heads at the Australian underground table, counting hardcore group Oily Boys, punk band Low Life, (now-defunct) new-wave group Orion and experimental collective MOB among a few of his dabblings. Amelia Besseny holds a PhD in music / philosophy and currently teaches at Newcastle Conservatorium and University. Her solo experimental-pop project, Impatiens, just had its debut release Scene At The River via AST. Additionally, she is one-half of ambient / experimental duo Troth. Cooper Bowman runs Altered States Tapes and has held court in various corners of the Australian underground for a decade or so, including word-writing, gig-organising and knob twiddlin’ in a bevy of obtusely-named projects.
Loose-y Crunché
Lucy Phelan has been a force in the Australian underground for an age.
Originally half of no-wave duo (and later full-goth rocking unit) Naked On The Vague, later in experimental musique concreters Half High, and currently under various solo and collaborative guises, Lucy has left a distinct mark across Australia’s clubs, bowlos and Opera House(s). Loose-y Crunché is the more experimental side of her coin - oft mischievously noise’d, the Crunchè has also traversed serene environs constructed from field recordings and improvised, processed electronics.
Sunday, 29th November
Muura (Hawkesbury Region)
Muura is the oft-cited tho’ rarely-seen solo guise of Hawkesbury-area musician and artist Matt Earle.
Earle has run the esteemed no frills experimental label Breakdance The Dawn for an age, and last year Liquid Architecture ran a comprehensive retrospective of the iconic xeroxed art that adorns BDTD’s cassettes and cd-r’s paired with performances of his various projects.
Earle is more often seen rearing his head out of the bog in his many other collaborations such as xNo BBQx, Club Sound Witches, X-Wave, Sun Of The Seventh Sister, Sprot… So take this rare opportunity to catch him in a solo deconstruction.
The last time I saw a Muura performance was in 2011 (link below) and I count it among the best sets, experimental or otherwise, I’ve ever witnessed.
A cassette split featuring my bootleg recording of this performance, along with a recording of Newcastle duo The Sunset Flips, will be available at the show.
Breakdance the Dawn at Liquid Architecture
Tsap (Newcastle / Sydney)
A Newcastle / Sydney duo comprising Cooper Bowman and Chris Colla. Tsap’s first LP, a mix of experimental electronics and attempts at Pagan House, has just been released on Altered States Tapes. They have also just completed a purely ‘punk’ release, which will be available some time in ‘the future’.
In the spirit of contrarianism, this set will have no clear relationship to either of these approaches and instead will be a longform, improvised series of vignettes based around repurposed film samples and processed acoustic percussion centring on the theme of ‘gleaning’ (somewhat inspired by Agnus Varda’s 2000 documentary The Gleaners & I).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The Mermaids (Newcastle)
The Mermaids, a Newcastle experimental duo without compare, are perhaps the oddest balls from a ‘scene’ where a regular, spherical object is near-impossible to find.
They have been spotted playing cartoonishly absurd noise dressed as beekeepers, or playing pyjama-clad and gleefully deranged early-morning circuit-bent electronics in the kitchen of a former pharmacy. In more recent times, they have matured and channelled more serene ‘scapes in line with their siren title.
Michael Liestins runs the excellent, deeply subterranean Newcastle label Grog Pappy. Nicholas French, as well as being the other half of The Mermaids, is one of Australia’s finest unsung illustrators (he will deny it stony-faced if you ask him about it).
On average, they perform once a year,
so catch them at what is sure to be 2020’s only Mermaids show!
ALL PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC EVENTS ARE FREE WITH GENEROUS DONATIONS INVITED AND ENCOURAGED
PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS A CASH-ONLY EVENT
SO PLEASE BRING ALONG PLENTY
OF THOSE QUAINT COLOURED RECTANGLES
PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS A.S.A.P. (nshimmin AT dodo DOT com DOT au) FOR FULL DETAILS AND TO CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE
WITH VERY LIMITED CAPACITY, THESE WILL FILL UP QUICKLY. PLEASE ENSURE IF YOU CONFIRM AND ARE SUBSEQUENTLY UNABLE TO COME, YOU LET US KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO WE CAN OFFER THE PLACE TO SOMEONE ON OUR WAITLIST
OUR EVENTS ARE B.Y.O.
please bring along any beverages you wish
but no food is allowed